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The Life-Tracking Jawbone Up Is Back! (And Hopefully It’ll Work This Time)

Jawbone has given its life-tracking Up bracelet a second chance. The original was promising, but had a sky-high failure rate. The new band, Jawbone hopes, will fix the massive problems of the original, and deliver on its equally massive potential. https://gizmodo.com/jawbone-up-review-a-potentially-wonderful-thing-that-y-5863822 The new Up bracelet, like its predecessor, keeps tabs on how much you’re moving…

The Craziest Star Wars: Episode VII Rumor Yet!

Is Disney going to destroy the integrity of Star Wars after all? That’s what a ludicrous new rumor claims. Also, a surprising Avenger could be showing up in Guardians of the Galaxy. Zack Snyder has some hints about the tone of Man of Steel. Guillermo del Toro’s vampire TV show could start filming pretty soon.…

Doctors Talk to Vegetative Patient Through Brain Scans

Doctors have managed to communicate with a patient who’s been in a vegetative state for more than a decade by using brain scans—and he even told them he wasn’t in pain. The Canadian patient, Scott Routley, was asked questions while his brain was scanned using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The doctors we able…

These Incredibly Lifelike Robotic Fish Will Never Go Belly Up

Great news if your aquarium goes through fish faster than a fish n’ chips restaurant. Takara Tomy has created these robotic alternatives that will swim around your tank in an incredibly lifelike fashion. But they never need to be fed, and more importantly, will never dirty the tank. The robot fish run on a set…

If you use a rooted Samsung S-Memo, it is not securely storing your Google credentials. Might wanna fix that. [XDA Devs]

A Cellphone Base Station in the Palm of Your Hand

How will the billion people who still use older 2G cellphones use them to pay for goods, just like people with smartphones equipped with near-field communications (NFC) wireless links? One answer is to place a tiny 2G base station at the point of sale so that those older non-NFC phones can also make a short-range…

This Is Not an Alien Planet

This might look like a satellite image of an alien planet, or the cover of a questionable sci-fi novel. But in fact it’s neither: incredibly, it’s a photograph of a humble soap bubble. It was captured by photographer Jason Tozer for his project titled “Bubbles”. He creates bubbles using household detergent—with a little bit of…

This Hilarious Video Pokes Fun at Clueless DSLR Users

Everyone has a friend who packs all the gear, but has no idea. When it comes to photography, that means mates who run around with their shiny new DSLR, mouthing off about their love of photography, with next to no idea of how to use any of their kit. This video boils that right down.…

HTC requires phones to have at least 512MB of RAM for a Jelly Bean update. Bad luck if your phone packs less. [HTC]

America’s Titan Supercomputer Is the Fastest in the World

Cray‘s Titan supercomputer has snatched the title of world’s fastest from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Sequoia—and it’s cray fast, as you might expect. Powered by a mixture of CPUs and GPUs, Titan is home to 18,688 nodes, each of which contains an AMD 16-core Opteron and a NVIDIA Tesla K20X GPU accelerator. All told,…

France: Amazon Owes $250 Million in Tax

Amazon has always been skilled when it comes to avoiding the tax man, but now tides are turning. Reuters reports that France is demanding $250 million in tax payments for a start. https://gizmodo.com/amazon-staves-off-the-tax-man-for-another-year-5838350 France is claiming that the online retailer owes $252 million in back taxes, interest and penalties in relation to, says Reuters, “the…

Mozilla’s launched a free web app, Popcorn Maker, which lets you hack and remix online video. Give it a go! [Mozilla]

What Twitter Really Is Made Of

Sarah L broke down what Twitter is really about. And no, it’s not always the best and fastest way to get good information. Sometimes, er, most of the times it’s just self promoters and wannabe comedians abusing the medium. [SarahL via BuzzFeed]

The Stoner Channel: Pyromaniacal Bears, Cannabis’ Brand New Bag, and Uncanny Dutch Flowers

Smashing Movie Moments Never mind thrown stones in glass houses, you’d better watch out for thrown stoners. James Chapman has compiled this awesome supercut of cinematic heroes launching themselves through windows. [Laughing Squid] Moxie – Stephen Irwin Let this be a lesson to you all—this is why we don’t teach suicidal Ursids with abandonment issues…

How to Open a Beer Bottle Without a Bottle Opener

Life’s biggest tease: endless amounts of beer without a bottle opener in sight. What do you do? Household Hackers has 6 different ways to open the beer without an opener and they all work really well. The options they use: Counter Top A Key Another bottle A Dollar Bill A Drawer A Lighter In my…

All The Most Befuddling Quotes From Last Night’s Once Upon A Time

Last night on Once Upon A Time, we learned the backstory to Ruby, aka Red Riding Hood. It was filler of the highest form — and pretty all over the place. In one episode, Ruby met her Mom, learned how to control her wolf changing side, solidified her relationship with Snow White, and killed her…

Are These the Most Popular Keys on a Keyboard?

In a cute, little art project, this keyboard supposedly shows the most used keys on a keyboard. Think of it as an infographic IRL. Do you agree that these buttons are the most popular key? I swear I use C more than that! [I Love Charts]

John McAfee Says He’s Innocent and Thinks the Murder Was Actually Meant for Him

John McAfee, the anti-virus software kingpin, is wanted for murder in Belize. He says he didn’t do it. And that the murder of his neighbor, Gregory Faull, might have actually been meant for him. The weirdness that surrounds McAfee is getting even crazier. https://gizmodo.com/exclusive-john-mcafee-wanted-for-murder-updated-5959812 In an interview with Wired, McAfee (who’s on the run from…

The President of Windows Steven Sinofsky Is Leaving Microsoft

In another big shake up of powerful tech executives, Steven Sinofsky, the President of the Windows Division at Microsoft, is out. AllThingsD is reporting that Sinofsky is leaving amidst “growing tension between Sinofsky and other top executives”. He was once seen as the heir apparent at Microsoft, someone who could possibly become CEO. https://gizmodo.com/apple-ios-chief-leaves-jon-ive-takes-control-5955985 This…

Solving the ancient mystery of what destroyed the bats of the Caribbean

About 25,000 years ago, the Earth was a very different planet. It was deep in the midst of a geological period referred to as the “last glacial maximum,” meaning the last time when the planet was so cold that glaciers reached down from the North Pole into North America, Europe, and Asia. With so much…