Halfway between Brooklyn and Montauk, a steel cupola propped up on wooden legs once looked out over the Long Island Sound and beyond the horizon. Built in the first years of the 20th century, Wardenclyffe Tower served as the centerpiece of a real-life mad scientist’s laboratory. Lever pulling, lightning bolts,…
It’s been a very good year for fans of Neil Gaiman. American Gods was excellent, there’s Good Omens on the way, and now another of his works is being brought to life on radio: his 2005 fantasy novel Anansi Boys.
Visual ads like signs, posters, and billboards are easy to ignore—you just need to look away. But what if a poster for a concert started broadcasting music or notifications to your smartphone? Researchers at the University of Washington have found a way to turn print ads into low-power radio stations, making a future…
On Wednesday, Norway will become the first country in the world to start shutting down its national FM radio network in favor of digital radio. Norwegians have had years to prepare, but the move is still catching many off guard.
In the 1930s, audio tech nerds were tinkering with everything. The most futuristic model homes of the day were wired for sound in every room, home audio recording was being introduced, and the LP was invented to use as audiobooks for the blind. And even things we’d consider mundane today got the radio treatment in…
Today we take it for granted that we can bring music with us wherever we go. But that obviously wasn’t always the case. As just one example of how cumbersome portable music could sometimes be, take a look at this portable radio receiver from 1938. It was all the rage in France.
It seems like a BBC radio adaptation of Neil Gaiman is quickly becoming a winter tradition. This year, his fantastical romance adventure Stardust is the one getting the full-cast audio drama treatment.
Sure, there’s a movie sequel out now called Independence Day: Resurgence. Of course, it’s missing a lot of weird over-the-top charm that made the first movie fun. Thankfully, there’s a better option out there.
I came across this fantastically modern ad in the April 1945 issue of Radio-Craft magazine and just had to share it with you as we all slowly slide into the Fourth of July weekend.
New technology is scary. Just ask the people who think that their illnesses are caused by wifi. But blaming unfortunate things on newfangled technology has been happening for decades, if not centuries. Like when farmers of the 1920s used to blame too much rain, earthquakes, and droughts on the new technology of radio.
These days, the closest companies will come to fighting with each other is a snarky graph in a keynote presentation, or perhaps a strongly-worded Tweet. Back in 1903, the solution was much simpler: hijack your rival’s presentation in order to publicly shame them.
The ultimate way to stay in contact with your friends while in the wilderness? This Garmin Rino 650T allows you to track each other’s positions and communicate by voice or text, outside cell service.
This quote comes from the “Reclaiming the Nerdiverse” episode of Late Night Woman’s Hour, which is still available on BBC’s iPlayer. It’s a fun, wide-ranging discussion on many different parts of fandom, and it’s well worth a listen.
Last week, amateur radio enthusiast Adrian Lane sent a call signal to the International Space Station. To his shock and delight, he got a reply. He chatted with an astronaut for about 45 seconds before the station went out of range.
If you went looking for Apple Music yesterday on your Windows machine, you probably got a bit confused. Where was the download? Why couldn’t you find it in your iTunes? The answer is that you needed iTunes 12.2, which wasn’t available right away. Now, it is—for OS X, and for Windows PC.
Your friends that use iOS and OS X have been babbling about Apple Music and Beats 1, but you use an Android phone and are feeling left out. Well, now there’s a “very unofficial” way to listen along.
When I installed iOS 8.4 on my phone today to try Apple Music, I couldn’t find the iTunes icon. Anywhere. What had happened? Was it a glitch? Then I realized I had hidden the iTunes app in a drawer of Apple apps I never use, alongside Tips and Mail.
This morning saw the launch of iOS 8.4, and with it Apple Music. And even if you’re not a Taylor Swift fan, there’s still some joy to be had in the world: the Beats 1 radio station, DJed by Zane Lowe and free for everyone with an Apple ID, started its broadcast at 12PM Eastern.
I don’t use Spotify. Or Rdio. Or even Pandora very often. Sometimes I want to hear a particular song; mostly I just want a good tune that’s relevant to my interests without thinking about it. Basically, I’m the perfect customer for Apple Music, which promises to be the one music app to rule them all. Is it? I can’t…
Everybody knows that Obi-Wan Kenobi is a lying, deceitful bastard. But you probably didn’t fully contemplate just what an untrustworthy git he really is. This fake Star Wars “deleted scene,” from the Canadian comedy series The Irrelevant Show, clears a lot of things up.