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The lifecycle of a new gadget is relatively predictable: When it’s brand new, only early adopters are interested. Once the technology matures, everybody buys one. But smartwatches still haven’t caught on with most people—and that’s because no one has made a smartwatch that’s worth its cost. The big players have already shown their hands. Google’s…
When Vimeo user Justgoscha became disillusioned with his life as a front-end developer, he decided to rekindle something that made him happy in his younger years—animation. So every day for 100 days, he resolved to draw what those in the game call a walk cycle—a short loop of a character simply moving—and the results are…
Galactic collisions are a relatively common occurrence in the universe, but every once in a while an entire cluster of galaxies will smash into another one in a massive celestial bang up. And as this new Hubble photo attests, the results can be quite dramatic. MACS J0416 looks like a single object, but it’s comprised…
Jailbreaking isn’t the hot topic it once was. All the new features in iOS, plus the iPhone’s availability on all the major US carriers means it’s no longer such a compelling proposition (especially given the drawbacks). But is the golden era of jailbreaking truly over? Here are 5 reasons why it’s still worth cracking open…
Your inbox is about to get much more interesting. At long last, Gizmodo now has a daily newsletter. It’s filled to the brim with the very best and boldest of what we publish—from honest, authoritative tech coverage to the very latest in scientific discovery to the indispensable entertainment offerings of io9. Signing up is easy.…
The barren wilderness that is Antarctica—where temperatures drop below -100 degrees Fahrenheit and winds whistle by at 200mph—is a raw but majestic spot for a picnic. But spare a thought for Floris van den Berg, the guy in this photo—because he won’t see sunlight for months. See, van den Berg is one of a small…
Think your fiber is fast? Think again: A team of engineers has smashed the world record for sending data down an optical fiber at room temperature when using a new breed of laser, achieving speeds of up to 57 Gbps. Researchers from University of Illinois have been using the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser to push the…
When Google’s AI beat a world champion at Go, scientists and technologists around the globe held it up as a watershed moment for AI. But why, exactly, is it so hard for a computer to play some games well? Without wanting to sound like a scene from the cutting room floor of Karate Kid, the…
Nik is the German company behind popular mobile app Snapseed, and a bunch of fantastic plugins for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. The company was bought in 2012 by Google, and all of its plugins have just been made free. There’s seven plugins up for grabs, including fantastic HDR and color filters that I’ve been using…
Verizon Enterprise Solutions is a wing of Verizon that offers IT services to big business and government, often including IT security and incident response. So it’s rather embarrassing that a hacker is offering to sell a database with the data of 1.5 million Verizon Enterprise clients. According to KrebsOnSecurity, a “prominent member of a closely…
Netflix has been a vocal supporter of net neutrality for years, but behind the scenes, it turns out the company hasn’t been treating all customers the same. Netflix confirmed to the WSJ that it has been restricting the bandwidth of video for customers on AT&T and Verizon for five years. Netflix says it’s been capping…
It’s been four years since Oculus Rift fired up its first Kickstarter, but the long wait is nearly over: Rift headsets will start landing in the hands of real-life customers on Monday. The Rift has been around so long that it’s difficult to think of it as a new piece of technology. But the development…
This 110-foot-wide hole, punched into one of Chicago’s best neighborhoods, represents nearly a decade of dashed architectural dreams. Recently, developers gave up trying to build on it, and have started building hills to hide it from the sight of angry neighbors. This hole, which looks like the aftermath of an attack by either Godzilla or…
Say goodbye to London, because it’s about to become Earth’s second moon. Using some clever video stitching and a 360 rig, RavenCourt Films was able to to turn locations in London into its own Mario Galaxy levels, ensconced by an endless skyline. The city’s features are warped but just barely recognizable as each scene spins…
Sometimes there are just no words. Sometimes there is just a tree and a setting Sun and a sky that turns from a bright yellow to a deep orange. The Film Artist made this video, Be Sunset Tree, and it’s just majestic. How the Sun crosses the tree, how the tree seemingly cradles the light,…
When used with proper precautions, power tools are perfectly safe. But if horror stories about lost digits in shop class make you nervous about working with wood, a German power tool maker called Mafell has created a self-propelled circular saw that keeps your hands and fingers well clear while it cuts. Spotted by Core77 at…
I now know that there are two acceptable things to do with a glass of wine. The first one, obviously, is to drink it so you can get another glass of wine. The second, even more obviously, is to chop smash the hell out of it with an axe. The shattering effect is spectacular in…
Let’s make one thing clear about portable vaporizers: They’ll never be as portable (or enjoyable) as a good old-fashioned marijuana cigarette. So when I was asked to review the Firefly 2, I immediately scoffed. How on earth could this dorky little gadget possibly match the sweet bliss of a tightly rolled joint? I learned the…
The Australian government announced on Tuesday that it will devote $2.5 million to researching the consequences of wind turbines on human health. This comes despite the fact that previous reports—including one by the Australian government itself—suggest there is no direct connection between ill health and wind turbines. Crikey!* The grants—applications for which are reportedly only…
Who do you think of as Superman? Christopher Reeves. Iron Man? Robert Downey Jr. Wolverine? Hugh Jackman. Some comic book superheroes will always be associated with one actor. But others? Like who’s your Batman or the Human Torch, and is Ben Affleck even a superhero even though he’s been one twice? Those questions will endure…
