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“I Got Hacked Mid-Air While Writing an Apple-FBI Story” is the title of a USA Today post in which columnist Steven Petrow recounts how his brush with a hacker made him realize that privacy is important, dammit. It is a column that has touched my soul with its deep silliness. A more accurate title would…
Facebook now has reactions. (“Yay” is not one of them.) And I have feelings about these new Like button alternatives. (“Yay” is not one of them.) 1. Like Oh, okay, that’s cool. More ways to react. If I just hover over the old Like button, I’ve got a range of options. But if I don’t…
Google’s ongoing quest to supply gigabit internet to American cities will finally reach San Francisco. The company announced today that it will use the tech capital’s existing fiber infrastructure to supply mega-fast internet to “some apartments, condos, and affordable housing properties.” San Francisco is the twenty-second metropolitan area Google has roped into its fiber web.…
Smart guns got a publicity boost in January, when President Obama advocated their potential as part of his emotional speech in the wake of the San Bernardino mass shooting, and the San Francisco Smart Gun Symposium aimed to capitalize on that. The symposium, held on Tuesday, assembled some big names: San Francisco Police Chief Greg…
As much as we’d love for slingshot-designer Joerg Sprave to visit the US on a publicity tour, it’s creations like this—a Nerf blaster made lethal using razor-sharp scalpel blades—that will probably result in him being barred entry to the country. In addition to his countless original creations, Joerg has a long track record of turning…
Everyone needs cables, whether you’re looking for a new Lightning cable for your iPhone or iPad, or an extra Micro-USB cable for your Android phone, Bluetooth speaker, or portable hard drive. You could get lost slogging through hundreds of seemingly identical products, but Wirecutter’s staff tested over 80 Micro-USB and Lightning cables to find the…
When most escalators break down they just temporarily become stairs (as the Mitch Hedberg joke goes). But this one decided to glitch in a way that actively ruined the days of the people riding it. The escalator, located in Ningbo in China’s Zhejiang Province, suddenly reversed, creating a “fuck this shit” deluge of falling human…
Everybody loves speedy internet, so it’s no surprise that every major telecom in the world is working to make it even faster. Smartphones, watches, homes, and cars are increasingly requiring stable internet connections. In order to pipe in enough bandwidth for that precious wireless feed, we’re going to need an entirely new form of wireless…
Etsy shop JokerandtheThief has turned the characters from the medieval soap opera Game of Thrones into a perfect hand-drawn deck of cards featuring characters from the second book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, Clash of Kings—while they’re all still alive. Designed in the style of a classic Bicycle deck, the cards are…
Last year saw the introduction of the first Hillary Clinton action figure, and as the 2016 presidential election heats up, it’s only fair that Bernie Sanders be miniaturized as well. So starting today you can pre-order the first Bernie figure, and help his campaign at the same time. Designed by FCTRY (the same people behind…
You’ve probably seen the instantly classic photo of Mark Zuckerberg cheerfully strutting past a crowd blinded by VR headsets at Mobile World Congress during Samsung’s press conference. Well, if you can believe it, that was just one of the many totally absurd moments from this year’s conference. Photographers snapped hundreds of other photos from the…
Through a series of button inputs, a player has found previously undiscovered menus that lay dormant in the arcade versions of Mortal Kombat 1, 2 and 3. How did they last so long without being discovered? The newly discovered menus were personally programmed by MK creator Ed J Boon, and display as “EJB Menu” after…
Siri was the first voice assistant to hit mobile phones, and since then, the sometimes quirky feature has marched across all of Apple devices, including Apple Watch and the new Apple TV. Now, according to 9to5Mac, Siri’s conquest will be complete as it finally makes its way to your Mac this year. According to the…
Sure, you can probably do a good R2-D2 impression without building yourself a fancy helmet, with just a few whistles and clicks. But what if you could have a helmet that “translated” your own voice into Droidspeak, and what if the helmet also “translated” Droidspeak back into English? In the world of Star Wars, the…
Siri is a big part of the next-generation Apple TV. You can use the personal assistant app to choose content, identify movie actors, skip songs and more. If you own one of the latest puck-shaped boxes, then here are just about all the things you can say to Siri—just press and hold the microphone button…
Sometimes stealth is a better approach than brute force and raw firepower, so the tiniest addition to Nerf’s 2016 lineup, the new N-Strike Elite Pocketstrike blaster, can be easily hidden away until you’ve managed to sneak up on an unsuspecting target. For just eight bucks, available this fall, the N-Strike Elite Pocketstrike is designed to…
Rivers have long been a center of human activity, but as the global population booms, our impact on these systems is becoming too much to bear. In fact, two-thirds of the 33 largest river deltas on Earth are sinking—some of them at a staggering rate. “These deltas are starved of the sediments they need for…
At CES back in January, Sphero gave us an early look at its upcoming wearable that allows Jedi-in-training to control its BB-8, or any of the company’s rolling toys, using Force-like arm gestures and motions. At that point the company was just showing off a prototype, but it’s now released an image of a more…
The global rollout for Facebook’s long-awaited reaction buttons on the social network starts on Wednesday. So now, instead of just liking a friend’s post, you can now react with “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad,” or “angry” emoji. The new reaction array comes after a year of testing in Ireland and Spain. It’s also available for both…
If you’ve ever fancied having Nefertiti’s likeness on your shelf at home, it’s now eminently achievable. A pair of artists have covertly 3D-scanned the famous bust in its museum setting, making the data publicly available—and they even plan to exhibit a printed version back in Egypt. While archaeologists still search for Nefertiti’s tomb, her bust—discovered…
