Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
While almost everyone in the universe is convinced tablets are dead, destined to be replaced by some hybrid laptop, Apple remains committed to the product category. If rumors are true, Apple is doubling down on its insistence that we all need new tablets. The company is rumored to be working on a brand new, ultra-slim…
Using her enviable baking skills, Yolanda of How To Cake It turned batter, fondant, and icing into a mouth-watering sushi dinner, complete with pickled ginger and wasabi paste. At the heart of the futomaki are chunks of a jelly roll, while the nigiri are plain old vanilla cake filled with a ginger buttercream. Making cakes…
Chinese scientists have created “cyborgized” rats that perform better on maze tests than normal rats and a computer algorithm. It’s an exciting proof-of-concept that heralds the potential for “cyborg intelligence.” The details have just been published in PLOS One. Digital computers and biological brains are capable of remarkable feats, but their competencies don’t always overlap.…
Last month, Gizmodo and other outlets reported on artists who had secretly 3D scanned Nefertiti’s Bust, making it available for anyone to 3D print. Well, we were fooled—it appears it was a hoax, and the scan is not new. Multimedia artist and 3D printing consultant Cosmo Wenman investigated the claims made by Nora Al-Badri and…
San Francisco’s Kit Tea is the city’s first cat cafe, where patrons can hang out with (and adopt) the 10 to 15 felines milling around inside. A regular hour-long visit usually runs about $20, but now you can spend twice that time inside for free, thanks to this 360-degree video made by Everything is Film.…
I wrote a post about Disney’s efforts to market Zootopia to furries last week, and I really pissed off some furries by describing the community as “people who like to roleplay as animals for sex reasons.” The following is an email I received from a furry named Brooke, published with her permission: Recently I stumbled…
If Ford has its way, we’ll all be comfortably watching porn (or a nice movie) while hurtling along the highway at 70 miles-per-hour. A new patent issued to the auto giant on March 1 includes plans for a driverless car with a weirdly complex built-in entertainment system. The patent describes an autonomous car with screens…
A white hat hacker in India says he found a way to hack into any Facebook user’s profile. Don’t freak out though! Like a good white hat, the hacker alerted Facebook to the disastrous loophole. Facebook paid him a $15,000 bug bounty. Seems small. Anand Prakash is the aforementioned security engineer from India. In a…
A hundred million years ago, ichthyosaurs—massive marine reptiles that look like a dolphin mated with a fish—ruled Earth’s oceans. But nearly 30 million years before the extinction of the dinosaurs, these badass predators vanished. It wasn’t an asteroid that killed the ichthyosaurs, so what did? A new study argues that it was climate change. The…
Now, more than $1 trillion into its development, the F-35 aircraft is experiencing glitches with its radar systems. US Air Force major general Jeffrey Harrigian explained the problem in an IHS Jane report: “What would happen is they’d get a signal that says either a radar degrade or a radar fail—something that would force us…
When buying luggage you shouldn’t choose based on what looks nicest, you should choose bags that are going to stand out on that airport baggage carousel. And when was the last time you saw a miniature Batmobile circling the carousel after a flight? It’s just too bad this suitcase is only designed for kids. Based…
If you have a Mac, you have Preview, but you might not know this helpful little utility can store digital signatures for you—signatures that can then be appended to PDFs, Pages documents and Mail messages. Here’s how to set up your signatures and add them to to your digital files. First, create your signature(s): in…
As optical computing becomes a more realistic prospect, lasers will be required to connect components inside our devices. Now, a new silicon-based laser could make it far easier for researchers to replace wires with beams of light. Researchers have been trying to build a working laser using silicon for years now. That’s because so many…
Amazon’s first-ever live TV show will air tonight. Called Style Code Live, it will features three exuberant presenters attempting to sell Amazon’s clothing stock. Yes, it’s a shopping channel. No, you probably won’t be able to endure it. The first show will air at 9pm EST this evening and you’ll be able to watch it…
Most of us take the the subtle difference between rough and smooth beneath our fingertips for granted. But a new device could allow amputees to rediscover the same sensation. Developed by researchers from Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, the device uses a series of sensors to detect undulations in the surface beneath them, converting the…
The internet is an essential part of daily life for most US citizens—but poor households struggle to afford it at home. Now, the Federal Communications Commission is said to be close to finalizing plans for a subsidy that will help the poor pay for an internet connection. The New York Times reports that the FCC…
Steve Wozniak appeared on Conan last night and predictably gave his take on the ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI. Perhaps unsurprisingly as a founding figure of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, he sides with Apple. [Conan]
Most of us can do little more than grumble about Donald Trump. But according to Huffington Post, the world’s tech elite have joined billionaires and senior Republicans at a secretive meeting to “stop [the] Republican front-runner.” The website claims that Tim Cook, Larry Page, Sean Parker, and Elon Musk all descended on a private island…
The Justice Department has announced that it wants to overturn a ruling that currently protects an iPhone in New York from being unlocked. Just last week, Judge James Orenstein rejected the government’s requests to unlock an iPhone that was involved in a New York drug case. The government had argued the phone should unlocked under…
The verdict is still out on whether smartwatches are a legitimately useful thing to strap to your wrist. But setting Apple Watch dweebiness aside, a very limited, completely dedicated wristputer for winter sports could make real sense. Smartphones and cold do not mix: either, you keep your phone buried under 18 layers and it’s warm…
