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For almost a decade, Dropbox has been one of the most reliable and popular file storage services on the planet. When you compare it to other options like Google Drive and iCloud, Dropbox manages to strike the right balance between being super intuitive and easy to use. It can also do a lot more than…
The smart city is on the horizon, and if Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs has anything to do with it, it’ll have subsidized ride-sharing, “Airbnb for cars,” and AI that helps parking cops fine the most people. We’ve long known that Sidewalk, owned by Google parent company Alphabet, is working on the “city of the future.” It…
Your job has the potential to be a lot cooler once everyone has a pair of VR goggles strapped to their face—unless Microsoft has something to say about it. The company is working towards bringing hand motions and gestures into virtual worlds, with the goal of having you press buttons and pull levers just like…
Yes, Amazon is still trying to make the Dash Button happen. The company plans to add dozens of new push-to-buy Dash options this week, ignoring the fact that they never really caught on. Market-research company Slice Intelligence told The Wall Street Journal that fewer than half of people who bought a Dash button since its…
Finally, the rumor we’ve been waiting for: Google is working on its own line of smartphones that could be available by the end of the year. Google’s Android operating system already runs on several phones, and it’s partnered with companies like Huawei to license the Nexus phone. But sources tell The Telegraph that the company…
The Slo Mo Guys create some of the most YouTube-y videos out there. Their shtick involves shooting and smashing things and filming them in slow motion, which is what online videos are all about really (besides cats). But now they’re doing something a bit different. In a recent video, members Gavin Free and Daniel Gruchy…
Pompeii is already an archaeological gold mine, but a rare discovery this week in the ancient city has added to that collection. French and Italian archaeologists announced that four skeletons and three gold coins were found in the ruins of an ancient shop on the outskirts of the city, which is near Naples in the…
Two fundamental rules in most science labs are 1) always have protective eyewear on and 2) don’t stick your face next to stuff that’s on fire. For these reasons, Sufficiently Advanced’s flamethrower welding helmet presents a conundrum. Modeled after Cyclops from the X-Men, this deeply unsafe contraption shoots two lines of fire out of your…
This bee looks so shocked to be in this predicament. “How could I not see this pole?” it asks. “This was a huge mistake.” Despite its surprise, bumblebees actually bump into things pretty frequently—around once per second. It’s not that they’re bad at flying, but that the air around them tends to move unpredictably. The…
Beware this new Los Angeles attraction if you’re afraid of heights. I know I am because nope. The Skyslide, a glass slide fixed along the tallest building west of the Mississippi River, is open for business this weekend. Thrill-seekers can pay $25 to slide down 45 feet of bulletproof glass nearly 1,000 feet in the…
Here is your daily reminder that humans are just one animal among many that have existed on Earth, and that our species’ history is minute compared to the history of the rest of our planet. In a video posted to the Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell YouTube channel called “What Happened Before History? Human Origins,”…
Hey termites, we’re not so different, you and I. Termites are usually one of the banes of human existence as they feed on dead matter—such as the wood that we use to build our homes—but they supersede humans in one interesting way: they’ve been farming for millions of years longer than humans. According to a…
You’ve probably seen mention of the Raspberry Pi in your travels across the internet, but what exactly is this compact piece of circuitry? What can you do with it and why would you want to? If you’re new to the life of Pi then we’re here to explain everything you need to know and then…
Since the earliest days of cellular technology, secret codes have been embedded into the software of our mobile devices, and they’re still in place today. Included in these hidden codes for the iPhone is a special diagnostics mode you can use to troubleshoot problems, get a more accurate signal reception measurement, and more. This diagnostics…
We know about our North and South poles, but what about an East, West, or slightly-to-the-left pole? According to new research published in Geophysical Research Letters, around 1 billion years ago, that might have been a possibility. Peter Driscoll, a staff scientist at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said…
Since the Centers for Disease Control confirmed that the Zika virus could cause microcephaly in newborns, the list of the effects of the virus only continues to grow. According to Scientific American, research to be presented at a teratology conference in San Antonio, Texas, next week states that babies born seemingly healthy after exposure to…
The technology that was designed to remove videos from the Internet with copyrighted content could be used for good, according to a report from Reuters. That use? To fight extremism. Two sources close to the proceedings at some of the largest technology companies, including YouTube and Facebook, said automation was quietly being used to remove…
For three years I’ve been writing at least once a week about self-driving cars and I’ve recently noticed a shift in popular opinion. The wide-eyed optimism of seeing Google’s cute-as-a-button robot bopping unassisted around a parking lot has been replaced by some ambiguous, malicious, unknowable entity, a shapeshifting Smoke Monster that ruins our lives and…
If you’re a foreigner traveling into or out of the United States, US Customs and Border Protection wants to see your social media accounts. If my Twitter account is any indication, they are in for a dumb, boring time. The Hill reports that the agency has put forth a new proposal that would target travelers…
The natural gas leak at Aliso Canyon earlier this year was already one of the worst environmental disasters in US history. Several months later, however, it has now gained the additional distinction of being the first industrial methane point-source visible from outer space. That is according to a study published this week in Geophysical Research…
