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Xiaomi has a reputation for making good phones at incredible prices. That’s never been more true than with the new Mi 5, a phone with specs to compete with the iPhone or Galaxy S7—but which costs, comparatively, peanuts. Too bad you probably won’t be able to buy one. Xiaomi’s clearly put some effort into making…
The wireless link between your mouse and dongle might not be as useful as you think. A new hack shows that the links are often unencrypted and can be used to gain control of your computer. Security researchers from Bastille Networks have found that non-Bluetooth wireless keyboards manufactured by Logitech, Dell, and Lenovo don’t encrypt…
If you’ve ever been to Thailand, you’ll know that a motorcycle is one of the best ways to get around its congested capital city. Now Uber is embracing the fact with its first ever two-wheeled offering. The new UberMOTO service will show up as an extra option when you try and hail a ride using…
The Associated Press is reporting that Apple will tell federal judges this week that it believes its fight with the FBI over unlocking an iPhone should be passed on to Congress. The news wire claims that it’s been privy to some of the arguments that Apple will make in court courtesy of Theodore J. Boutrous…
Apple is currently developing a legal response to the government’s request that it create software to help the DOJ unlock an iPhone connected to the San Bernardino shooting. It seems part of its argument will, apparently, include defending code as a form of free speech. Bloomberg reports that an unnamed Apple executive has told it…
A self-destructing bullet isn’t the most intuitive thing: normally, you use projectiles to destroy targets, not the other way around. But people make mistakes, bullets can travel for miles, and civilian casualties (or friendly fire!) are sad realities. In an effort to counter this, the Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) has patented…
Apple is waging a vicious war in the court of public opinion against the FBI and its court order mandating Apple to hack an iPhone. It’s a big deal, but despite the hand-wringing rhetoric, Apple has failed to make the general public actually care. The top photo comes from a demonstration this afternoon in Washington…
Boston Dynamics has a new video showing off the latest version of Atlas—the badass humanoid robot. And it’s pretty incredible. The most striking thing about this new version is the amazing balance Atlas achieves. I’ve never seen a humanoid robot with this kind of agility. This version of Atlas can not only walk over rough…
Candide Thovex is a professional French freestyle skier who’s known for his creative approach to the sport. Creative in this instance meaning incredibly dangerous and jaw-droppingly awesome. “One Of These Days 3″ is the most recent video in his freestyle series, following up January’s installment, which garnered close to 19 million views. In this most…
Aside from visiting Mars, space nerds would love to see a permanent habitat on the moon. Consider me skeptical. But what happens if you get to the moon and someone inevitably needs medical attention? Well, in 1992 this NASA-commissioned illustration from Pat Rawlings sought to illustrate how that might work. From NASA: Lunar pioneers will…
It’s a common argument when a city wants to take away space for cars: “This isn’t Amsterdam.” But guess what, Amsterdam—where half the traffic movement in the city center is by bike—wasn’t always Amsterdam, either. The image above serves as proof that better street design can improve daily life, not just for people on bikes,…
Many of you may remember this slow motion video from a little over a year ago. The American Chemical Society has now taken this footage—shot at an astounding 4,000 frames per second—to explain what’s actually happening at the molecular level when a match is struck. Incredibly, it took the ACS nearly a minute and a…
Back before windshields would become commonplace, the automobile required a fair amount of dress-up. Here we have a photo of a woman in 1910 who’s tightly wrapped up for her voyage. Her dog doesn’t look so lucky. [Library of Congress]
Wi-fi is already a very great thing. Problem is—especially for mobile devices—wi-fi is also an energy suck. But now, scientists have come up with a way of connecting to wi-fi that requires even less energy than a Bluetooth connection. It’s a system called “passive wi-fi,” which aims to consume at least 1,000 less power than…
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating over a dozen new cases of possible sexual transmission of the Zika virus, including several involving pregnant women. In two of the suspected cases, Zika was found in women who contracted the virus through sexual contact with male partners who recently returned from areas in…
Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return from space next week, having spent a total of 340 days up there. They left March 27, 2015 but it may as well have been a lifetime ago. Here’s everything that happened on Earth while they were away. March 2015 Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is the top…
Nobumichi Asai and Studio WOW recently teamed up with Intel’s #ExperienceAwesome campaign, and created this incredible face-mapped art performance. Asai is a VFX expert who’s worked on similar projection and face-mapping projects. The process began by scanning the model’s face and then creating motion graphics on top of a 3D model of her head. CG…
Evoking the famous imagery created for the Works Progress Administration, a lovely series of posters created by the US government depict the country’s ongoing renewable energy revolution. And it’s definitely a place I want to live. The set of posters from the US Department of Energy, specifically the Loan Programs Office, accompanies a report on…
Some animals are capable of magnetoreception—an added sense that helps them detect magnetic fields. European scientists have now learned that the molecule responsible for this trait is also found in the eyes of dogs and some primates, which suggests they too might be capable of seeing magnetic fields. Cryptochromes are a common group of light-sensitive…
Using three of Teenage Engineering’s tiny Pocket Operators all playing at the same time, YouTuber tubesockor masterfully performs a near perfect recreation of the sountrack to Delta, a legendary Commodore 64 game that dates back to 1987. But what’s more impressive than how authentic the rendition sounds, is how quickly tubesockor’s fingers have to fly…
