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Good, desktop-compatible VR headsets are just about ready to ship to average consumers. In addition to all the demos of skydiving and porn, people are also going to want to use their Rifts as glorified web-searching machines, which will look a little something like this. There’s already a few VR desktop solutions, but BigScreen is…
Thanks to the number of computers in my childhood (and an unnaturally short attention span), my handwriting has always hovered between awful and indecipherable. So clearly, what I need is a machine to do my writing for me. Axidraw is a “personal writing and drawing machine” created by Evil Mad Scientist. It can hold anything…
There’s been dozens of probes that have gone out exploring the solar system since 1959’s Luna 2 probe. PopChartLab has gone and noted down each one since in this beautiful poster of the Solar System. From the Luna 2 in 1959 to the DSCOVR in 2015, this color-coded chart traces the trajectories of every orbiter,…
Yesterday Donald Trump tweeted a now-debunked video showing that the protester who jumped a barrier at a recent rally was an ISIS supporter. This morning Chuck Todd asked Trump on Meet the Press about the fake video, to which Trump replied, “I don’t know, all I know is what’s on the internet.” Trump had stated…
It turns out that Google’s AlphaGo isn’t unstoppable. Yesterday, the AI had won three out of the five matches in its series against Lee Sedol, but today, the computer’s human opponent triumphed. Lee Sedol was upset after his loss to the system yesterday, apologizing for his failure to beat the machine. Today, he was far…
As Apple has been embroiled in a contentious fight with the United States Justice Department, another fight has been brewing over the nature of secure communications. According to the New York Times, the department is setting its sights on Whatsapp and its encrypted communications. The newspaper has reported that the Justice Department is weighing how…
What time is the end of the daylight? The sun is expected to die in roughly 5 billion years. But humans—provided we survive any number of ecological, nuclear, or alien-based disasters—are only expected to last about another 1 billion years on Earth. So technically the “daylight” will be over for humanity in 1 billion years,…
Matthew Garrett is a Security Developer for CoreOS, and noticed something interesting about the hotel he was staying in. They had installed tablets in the rooms to control the lights, temperature and shades. He also found that they weren’t protected. Hotels are increasingly turning to gadgets for the convenience of their guests: you can check…
I’m a hoverboard skeptic. I don’t think that we’re going to see a “true” hoverboard that can work on any surface anytime soon. With that being said, the new and improved Hendo Hoverboard, made by Arx Pax, looks pretty damn fun. This 2.0 version of the Hendo still only works on a special copper surface,…
The US government is offering seven cities a remarkable challenge: reinvent urban transportation for the 21st century, with a particular focus on autonomous vehicles. To pull it off, those cities will work with some of the world’s most powerful tech companies, and are eligible to get $40 million from the US Department of Transportation. At…
For the third time, Google’s AlphaGo has beaten Lee Sedol, the human world champion of Go. The win is an incredible demonstration of the artificial intelligence’s capabilities, and it’s a historical moment along the same lines of Deep Blue’s victory over Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1996. The computer won its first game after 186…
Daylight saving time starts tomorrow, thank God. After four months of dark and dismal evenings, many Americans will relish commuting home next week in full daylight. Which begs an obvious question: Why do we turn the clocks back at all? Others have argued that daylight saving time is pointless and should be abolished, but I’d…
Movie CG gets better every year, and that’s bad news for the blockbusters of yesteryear which have a tendency to age really, really poorly. WhatCulture rounded up some of the most embarrassing CG in Hollywood, from I Am Legend to The Mummy Returns. Remember when Will Smith fighting zombie-like creatures was as good as visuals…
We’ve been loving the pictures that the Cassini Spacecraft has been beaming back of Saturn and its various moons: this latest one is a gorgeous portrait of Rhea and Tethys. The picture was taken back in October with the spacecraft’s narrow-angle camera: The two moons appear close together here, but Tethys was about 220,000 miles…
There’s a growing demand for greener, safer renewable energy sources. Sun, wind, water, biomass, waves and tides, and the heat of the soil, all provide alternatives to non-renewable energy. The following collection showcases some of the most amazing renewable energy projects and prototypes from the past few decades, including quite a few you’ve probably never…
This is absolutely gorgeous. For the music video for Ralf Hildenbeutel’s Disco, director Boris Seewald had animators and dancers come up with 1,250 paintings on paper that moved like one continuos dance but also had them draw it in a style that was different each time so it feels like you’re watching something completely mind…
Need a weapon? Grab some magnets and some nails and you got yourself a hell of an arrow launcher. The magnets push out the nail darts so fast that it’s basically a mini crossbow mixed with a nailgun, no batteries necessary. Magnetic Games said that in order to get this powerful shot, the arrow and…
“We don’t like our car bumping into things,” said Chris Urmson, head of Google’s self-driving project, addressing the February 14 incident where Google’s car struck a bus. “This was a tough day for us.” During a talk at SXSW, Urmson shared images from the Valentine’s Day bump—“bumping” is probably the best possible way to describe…
Richard Garfield, best known as the creator of Magic: The Gathering, is working with Hasbro to release a new version of his 1995 pet project Robo Rally. The original game involved interchangeable boards, cards, and robot tokens that took damage. Although a cult hit for some, Robo Rally was slow and somewhat confusing in its…
President Obama celebrated attending SXSW this year by doing the most SXSW thing ever: an interminable and substance-lite keynote discussion. Obama talked with Texas Tribune editor-in-chief Evan Smith about the current encryption debate—but admitted his stance boils down to “I’m not a technical expert, but let’s not be absolutists about this whole ‘backdoor key’ thing.”…
