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When subway, train stations, and airports get crammed full of people, it’s impossible to hear loudspeaker announcements over all the noise. So researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute developed a new system that listens for when a venue gets loud, and automatically adjusts announcements so they’re always audible. The new ADAPT DRC software, created by the…
When you’re traveling, a stable wi-fi connection can be the difference between life and death. It’s so important, many of us would likely choose a coffee shop based on the quality of its internet connection rather than the quality of the drinks. But finding public wifi spots on your travels can be tricky. That’s where…
Londa and Bret Edwards were clearing debris from Idaho’s Highway 14 when things took a serious turn. Within the span of a few minutes, all hell breaks loose, with huge boulders and trees tumbling down onto the only road in or out of Elk City, Idaho, leaving the town’s residents stranded and without power. The…
As relaxing as a lava lamp is to watch from the outside, from the inside it’s a whole other level of mesmerizing. You’d assume that dropping a GoPro in a working lava lamp would be like diving into an active volcano, but the footage is more akin to peering inside a beating human heart as…
I love high capacity things. So when Samsung announced it’s producing 256 GB flash storage that can be used in mobile devices, I swooned. The memory is two times faster than the previous generation of Universal Flash Storage (UFS) memory, meaning that phones will not only have greater storage capacities, but also breeze reading and…
Winter can be a dangerous time to be outside. This video was filmed by a cameraman outside the WJET-TV tower in northwest Pennsylvania. Although we hear the huge ice spears crashing into the roof above him, he seems pretty casual about the whole thing. He ends his injury-free ordeal with a particularly polite, “aw jeez…
Mattel has its own line of Masters of the Universe figures available over on MattyCollector.com, but do they come packaged on cards featuring the brilliant artwork of Jason Edmiston? They do not, but these retro MOTU figures from Super7 sure do. Revealed about a week ago, the line features four of the more popular Masters…
A rumor has been circulating for a while that researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) provided information to the FBI, which led to the feds identifying Tor users linked to crimes. Details of any arrangements have been unclear, but evidence from a criminal case has confirmed a few facts. It’s now abundantly clear that researchers…
Foxconn is best known as the sometimes-controversial Taiwanese manufacturer used by Apple to assemble iPhones. Sharp is an ailing Japanese company that used to make plasma TVs, and now makes iPhone displays. The Nikkei Asian Review reports that Sharp’s board has accepted a $6.2 billion buyout from Foxconn. Normally, component manufacturers changing hands isn’t a…
The 1970 bug is a slightly annoying and mostly entertaining software glitch that bricks any iPhone by setting the date back before May 1970. Unsurprisingly, Apple’s correcting that glitch in the next version of iOS. The most recent beta of iOS 9.3 fixes the bug by limiting the system time—you now can’t set it back…
The head of Google’s self-driving car division made headlines recently for asking federal regulators to allow a vehicle without human-facing features like a steering wheel. Now he’s made a very good case for why no autonomous vehicle on the road should have these things at all. In an interview with NPR that aired today, Google’s…
Apple CEO Tim Cook told ABC World News Tonight’s David Muir that he remains opposed to giving the FBI a skeleton key that would allow it to break into one of the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhones. Tonight in an exclusive with ABC, Cook said it’s “a very uncomfortable position to oppose your government at something,”…
In case you didn’t already feel like Google was a creepy stalker, its artificial intelligence tools are rapidly crossing over into uncanny. The latest one is PlaNet, a new deep-learning machine that specializes in figuring out where a photo was taken—using nothing but the image’s pixels. Today, MIT Tech Review reports on a new effort…
Google’s Chromecast is the miracle dongle that makes streaming video, photos, websites, and anything else from a laptop or smartphone simple as hell. Now, it’s going to be even more simple to stream straight from your phone to your TV. Google is reportedly working with Vizio—the second largest TV vendor in the world—to bake Chromecast…
There’s a new bookstore in London that’s touting itself as a haven for those who want to get away from information overload. Libreria has no wi-fi, and all tablets and phones are banned. But, without realizing it, this bookstore is demonstrating how the term “information overload” is all relative. From The Guardian: But what will…
In his first major interview since taking a stand against the FBI, Tim Cook will be on ABC News this evening, making the case for encryption and the importance of protecting Apple users’ privacy. Cook was interviewed by ABC’s David Muir in what looks like his office at Apple’s HQ. In the short clip posted…
Most of us remember the glory days of Windows 98. Now you can relive them on a less-shitty computer, thanks to several thousand lines of brilliant Javascript. Copy.sh is an emulator that runs inside your browser and effectively is the Windows 98 OS, unlike some other webapps that merely look and feel like old-school windows.…
In the post-apocalypse, you want Aaron Day on your team. Using incredibly limited resources, he manages to recreate Settlers of Catan, one of the most beloved board games, using an inspired and economical approach to woodworking. He makes all of the game pieces out of a single 2×4. What might be the most interesting/painstaking part…
Did you see that video of a knife-wielding crab that went viral recently? Sadly, it’s a hoax. The Washington Post spoke with an expert, and the whole thing was definitely staged. The crab didn’t pick up the knife itself. In reality, the blade was almost certainly jammed into the crab’s claw, and the crab can’t…
Just like a supermarket avocado, the squishiness of fertilized human eggs could hint at how healthy and viable their embryos are—which would be a huge benefit for the millions of in-vitro fertilization babies now being born worldwide. Today, scientists at Stanford University announced that the squishiness of an hour-old fertilized egg could help predict whether…
