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Gunning your way through hordes of alien invaders in a video game’s got nothing on the challenge of navigating a marble around an old-school Labyrinth. But now that the Lego Ideas Marble Maze is finally available, you can swap in pieces to make it easier, or even more frustrating. First revealed way back in May…
Google announced in a blog post today that it would start testing out its new payment service, Hands Free, in the South Bay region outside San Francisco. The author, senior director of product management Pali Bhat, sounds predictably thrilled about the news, imagining a future in which “you could rush through a drive-thru without reaching…
What’s the use of voicemail? It’s a hotly contested topic. Some love it. Some loathe it. For those of you in the latter group, there’s No More Voicemail. The app is simple. When your phone would usually intercede and record a voicemail, No More Voicemail takes over, redirecting the call to another number that just…
In this version of driving in the future, cars use magnetic levitation and roll around on big spheres. Please put me in cryostasis until this actually exists. The Goodyear Eagle-360 concept includes a few unusual features, like a spongey substance in the tire grooves that would soften and provide greater traction during rain. Does such…
When New Horizons zipped past Pluto on July 14th, 2015, it collected a lot of data. Couple that with the spacecraft’s agonizing, 1-2 Kbps transfer speed, and you arrive at a rather amazing fact: More than half of the data from the historic Pluto flyby is still on the spacecraft. Sailing a probe into the…
The iBOT mobility system was a stair-climbing wheelchair that could also turn into a Segway. And sadly, it no longer exists. As of 2009 the iBOT was no longer available for sale, and support for existing units was dropped about three years ago, mainly because these things cost $25,000 each and Medicare only chipped in…
Formula One racing mixes man with machine so much that both are essentially responsible for victory. That’s why F1 gives out awards to both drivers (F1 World Drivers’ Champions) and the constructors of the cars (F1 World Constructors’ Champions). The constructor is basically the automobile maker of the vehicle (think Ferrari and Mercedes and so…
In 2006, the EPA issued mandatory evacuations to residents of the town of Picher, Oklahoma. This winter, photographer Seph Lawless traveled to Picher to access a previously restricted area. And he brought back what look like apocalyptic visions of the future. For decades, Picher was one of the most productive mining fields in the state,…
Everything is better with butter on it, but to make sure you’re not overdoing it and putting yourself on the road to a heart attack, the Biēm Butter Sprayer lets you lightly dole out a stick of that golden deliciousness by almost instantly turning it into a spray. Sprayable versions of margarine have existed for…
Five years ago, a 9.0 undersea earthquake shook Japan. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the country, and it was followed by devastating tsunami waves, killing 15,894 people. The tsunami caused level 7 meltdowns at three reactors in the Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex, resulting in the…
Those aren’t the pedals of a particularly exotic flower, they’re the papillae inside a Loggerhead turtle’s throat. The inward-pointing papillae are covered in a thick mucus that helps filter out pieces of inedible material a Loggerhead might encounter—whether its invertebrate shells or actual trash—sort of like a miniature Sarlacc. Besides how genuinely weird their insides…
The Coleco Chameleon is a video game console promising to take a stand against downloadable content (DLC) by shipping non-upgradeable cartridge games just like systems from the 1980s and 1990s. Unfortunately, the Chameleon may never see the light of day. Following its public debut at the New York Toy Fair, the Chameleon was set to…
In this rare aerial footage, the coolest aircraft ever created looks even cooler. Aerospace company Northrop Grumman posted a video of its B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber, and it’s nuts. Only twenty of these things are around, so this kind of aerial footage of one in action is pretty rare. With a wingspan of 172 feet,…
Hackers stole sensitive records fromover 700,000 people by breaching the Internal Revenue Service in 2015. You’d think that kind of horrific security breach would prompt some soul-searching, but [insert joke about soulless taxman here] nope. The IRS continues to use an impressively bad PIN authentication process to protect people from fraud. People who were hacked…
The personal computer revolutionized the American home in the 1980s and 90s. And by the mid-90s mainstream America was getting online. But with Donald Trump now the presumptive nominee of the Republican party, there’s an interesting question that must be asked: Has Trump ever used a computer? We already know that Donald Trump doesn’t tweet.…
Centuries ago, man’s biggest struggle was survival. Today, it’s finding a way to keep our smartphones charged until bedtime. But instead of having to hunt for an available power outlet, Nathalie Teugels has designed a comfy chair that converts your fidgets and nervous energy into usable electricity. The MOOV chair is still a prototype at…
Movies heavy in visual effects don’t usually age well because they’re often trapped in their own time capsule. Special effects that were supposed to be impressive become cheesy and intimidating effects that were supposed to add to the plot become laughable. Nothing kills the suspension of disbelief faster than bad visuals. But some movies like…
In the land of browsers, Internet Explorer is king—but not for long. The most-used browser in the world is swiftly losing its prestigious ground to up-and-coming web browser, Google Chrome. Computerworld released a report that predicts if Internet Explorer continues its user base free fall, Chrome could become the new browser champ as early as…
What is the sound of a bass without strings? No, that’s not a Zen mystery invented to challenge your preconceived notions of existence. It was a suggestion given to bassist YouTuber Davie504 by one of his subscribers. As luck would have it, the electronics in a bass can be made to function in a variety…
There you are, just doing your thing, cruising on Pornhub, looking for something both enlightening and entertaining, when…. what’s this? The Life of Pablo, Kanye West’s much-ballyhooed recent album? Streaming for all to hear? Indeed it is, as Consequence of Sound points out. Some clever sleuths on Reddit discovered that although it’s supposedly only available…
