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There was little doubt that combining superheroes and anthropomorphic toy trains would be a big hit with kids. But following up on the success of the initial reveal at Comic-Con last year, Mattel is going to introduce 35 new DC Super Friends/Thomas & Friends Minis mashups including Emily in a Poison Ivy getup, a Solomon…
Four-year-olds get to play with Power Wheels, teenagers get to drive real cars, but how do all those kids in-between quench their need for speed? With the new Arrow Smart-Kart from Actev Motors that sounds as feature-packed as a Tesla Model S, without the $70,000 price tag. There are actually a few different features that…
GPS is an utterly pervasive and wonderful technology, but it’s increasingly not accurate enough for modern demands. Now a team of researchers can make it accurate right down to an inch. Regular GPS registers your location and velocity by measuring the time it takes to receive signals from four or more satellites, that were sent…
A team of researchers has achieved the fastest ever transmission rate for digital information between a single transmitter and receiver, sending data optically at a frankly ridiculous 1.125 terabits per second. The result, achieved by scientists at University College London, uses a series of signal processing techniques to achieve the speed. But first, the lead…
Waiting for a bus is no fun. But residents of Kansas City will soon be able to hail one rather than standing in line—for a price, at least—thanks to a collaboration between Bridj and Ford. Residents of Boston can already use the Bridj service to order an on-demand bus to pick them up near their…
LG hasn’t launched its new flagship G5 smartphone yet. It won’t for at least another week. But in a rather daring piece of marketing, it has just launched a case that you’ll put it in. We already know quite a lot about how LG’s new G5 might turn out when it’s announced at MWC on…
Satellite internet is a viable solution for anyone living out in the sticks, provided you don’t mind slow speeds and awful ping. ViaSat’s latest class of satellites hopes to solve the speed problem, thanks to satellites with more capacity than all the existing solutions combined. ViaSat-3, the third part in the exciting ViaSat-1 and -2…
Alcatel has been synonymous with cheap and somewhat cheerful Android phones for years now, but its latest play could be surprisingly interesting: not only does the handset sound good, but even the box it comes in could be useful. According to a press photo obtained by serial leaker Evan Blass, the Alcatel Idol 4S will…
There are all kinds of exoskeletons out there. Some save you energy. Some help you do heavy work. Some lightly kick you in the knee. The question is, why does that last one exist? A Swiss research team thinks it can help them build better prosthetics. Walking is simple, until something goes wrong. As you…
We were promised torrential rain, “conveyor belts” of storms, violent-alcoholic-on-malt-liquor wrath. Now much of California is broiling in 90-degree temperatures with no precipitation in sight. What gives? Don’t worry—El Niño didn’t bail. It might be even stronger than we thought. For the past year or so, climatologists have been warning us about what to expect…
In 2010, the people near Birch Creek, Michigan heard a boom and felt the earth rock. They woke up the next morning and found a huge crack in the ground. What caused it? A team of researchers finally believe they know. What happened on the night of October 4th, 2010 that caused a huge crack…
Recently it has become fashionable (lol, or as “fashionable” as something can be as a thesis in tech news) to declare that Twitter is dying. These pre-emptive autopsies of a diseased social network are too much. The New Yorker has noted “The End of Twitter.” My extremely wrong colleague just published the headline “Twitter Is…
Missy B was bummed when she lost her Nokia 3410 in a pasture while working cattle. Then she used the opportunity to upgrade to a super sweet Motorola Razr V3… because it was 2005 or 2004. She’s not sure. Cut to this year when one of her employees found the phone while working cattle in…
Despite losing money last quarter, Tesla shares are still up after their earnings report. Why? Because the company is beating estimates on how many cars it will be able to produce this year. Tesla expects to ship 80,000 to 90,00 Model S and Model X cars in 2016, beating forecasts that the company would only…
Last quarter, Twitter had 320 million monthly active users, virtually flat from the quarter before. That’s bad news, and if you look closer, it’s actually worse. Last year Twitter started including what are called SMS Fast Followers, who are people who use the service exclusively by SMS, in its tally of monthly active users (or…
Scientists are typically tight-lipped when it comes to their research, but desperate times call for desperate measures. In an effort to battle the ongoing Zika epidemic, a number of global health bodies—including academic journals, charities, and institutes—have committed to sharing data on the virus. The statement, signed by over 30 organizations, is meant to ensure…
Against my better judgment, I surrendered my credit card information to YouTube today so that I could watch the first episode of the first YouTube Red original series: Scare Pewdiepie. It stars Pewdiepie, a Swedish man who’s become very rich and famous by playing video games on YouTube. Until today, I’d never watched one his…
Researchers at the University of Queensland have made a cool new discovery in the quest for better condoms. It turns out a component of spinifex, a coastal grass, could make condoms much, much thinner. Thinner is better. Spinifex is common in Australia and the Middle East. Its hardy bushes keep sand dunes in place, stabilizing…
It’s over so fast, you don’t even know what happens. Here’s what it’s like to be inside the hot rod of 2013 NHRA Top Fuel champion Shawn Langdon. He guns his car from zero to 316mph in a ridiculous 3.77 seconds and all you really get to see and feel is a total blur in…
A movie needs its soundtrack. Especially when that movie is 8 Mile and the whole lead up to the movie is a rap battle and the entire payoff is Eminem doing Eminem things. And yet this musicless version of an 8 Mile scene almost plays better than the entire movie because of how utterly awkward…
