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Rhampholeon spinosus, a lumpy-nosed chameleon that can fit on the tip of your thumb, doesn’t exactly inspire awe at first sight. But don’t let its size fool you: in one respect, this little lizard is among the most powerful machines on Earth. It’s got a tongue that moves like a supercar. Indeed, when R. spinosus…
In September, Segway filed a lawsuit against Inventix for the not-Hoverboard, claiming a violation of their patents. On December 23, Segway filed two more suits, adding Razor and Swagway to the list. As before, Segway, its parent company Ninebot, and DEKA (which licenses its technology to the other two), are the plaintiffs. Only now, they’re…
Deadpool is a lot of things, but the one thing he’s absolutely known for is his almost-ceaseless silliness as he slices his way through his foes and the fourth wall in equal measure. So it makes sense that when Hot Toys turn the character into a figure for his new movie, it has some pretty…
Detroit is more than a little worried about the tech-centric future of automobiles, namely the ones that drive themselves. So it’s no surprise that GM is investing $500 million in Lyft to build a network of autonomous cars. Why not just buy the whole company?! Well, that’s not a crazy idea. GM’s massive new investment…
Free Windows utility TrayStatus does exactly what its name suggests it might, cramming a whole host of useful extra status icons into the familiar system tray (known officially as the notification area). It gives you at-a-glance readings for Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock and the main modifier keys (Alt, Ctrl, Shift and the Windows…
Ceramics are amazing materials—strong, light and with amazing thermal properties. Now, researchers have developed a new way to 3D print the materials more effectively than in the past, and the results can withstand temperatures of 2,500°F. Most ceramic 3D printing uses complex techniques to deposit layers of the material on top of each other, and…
When you’re far from civilization, it can be impossible to carry important medication with you. But a new kind of miniature bioreactor could be used to create a variety of drugs, no matter where you are. Developed by a team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the device consists of two tiny parallel channels etched into…
It’s very easy indeed to end up with a sofa arm littered with button-clad boxes. But while after-market multi-device controllers exist, Samsung plans to solve the problem straight out of the box with its new smart TV remotes. Its 2016 smart TVs will arrive with a new Smart Control remote, which will serve “as a…
By now, we all know that megapixels alone don’t make a good camera. But that doesn’t make the new Phase One XF 100MP any less impressive, with an image sensor that captures 100 of the things while also promising to provide more analog-like images. The medium-format camera’s CMOS sensor was co-developed with Sony to capture…
The only thing worse than running out of clean clothes is realizing you’re also out of detergent when it comes time to clean them. So Whirlpool is introducing a new washing machine and dryer with Amazon Dash’s replacement service built right in ensuring you’ll always have enough soap or fabric softener on hand. The Whirlpool…
Full-fat Windows tablets are taking their sweet time catching on with the general public, but if you’re not pulling the trigger because they aren’t quite versatile enough, Lenovo’s master-of-all-trades Thinkpad X1 could be the ticket. At heart, the $900 Thinkpad X1 Tablet is a 12-inch Windows 10 tablet, powered by a Intel Core M processor,…
Soundbars aren’t normally the go-to option for crazy immersive surround sound, but a Samsung-Dolby partnership is hoping to change that. Using a pair of rear speakers, a soundbar and the ceiling of your den, Samsung’s trying to recreate the 3-D feeling of a Dolby Atmos cinema. http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/05/dolby-atmos-the-incredible-prototype-cinema-behind-the-future-of-movie-sound/ Atmos is meant to be the final evolution…
Mark Zuckerberg just revealed his 2016 resolution: build a simple AI to help him run his home. Here’s his Facebook post: Every year, I take on a personal challenge to learn new things and grow outside my work at Facebook. My challenges in recent years have been to read two books every month, learn Mandarin…
Welcome to this week’s Reading List, where you’ll find the best popular technology and science stories on the internet assembled in one delightful package. This week: flawed forensics, robotic probes and the US Postal Service. Forensics are often used in criminal trials, but now, with more scrutiny, it looks like much of what’s been used…
The first thing an architect or graphic designer will do at the start of a project is to produce some preliminary sketches — just to rough out their ideas on paper, perhaps augmented with computer-aided design software. But sound designers don’t have similar tools. A consortium of European researchers is seeking to change that by…
After he discovered the planet Neptune using mathematics, French astronomer Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier set his sights on a new discovery: the planet Vulcan. There’s a reason why we included this book on our list of books that we absolutely loved in 2015: it’s a stunning history of the discovery of the solar system, one that…
2016 is upon us, and we’ve got 12 months of interesting technology and science news and happenings to obsess over. What’s coming up in 2016 that you’re most excited to see happen? For me? I can’t wait to see more of Ceres. It’s my favorite dwarf planet, and the fact that we have a dedicated…
Rosetta is still orbiting Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and it’s beamed back an impressive image showing off the comet’s surface. It’s rugged and beautiful. The image was taken with the probe’s Narrow Angle Camera at a height of 79.653 km, 1.6 AU from the Earth. [OSIRIS Image of the Day] Image Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
This is a cool experiment: Jordan Hanzon has gone and taken Pixar’s Inside Out and edited out all of the scenes from Riley and her parent’s heads: the result is a poignant story of a girl adjusting to a new place. I personally haven’t seen Inside Out, so watching it without that additional context of…
NASA has released a new image from the DAWN Spacecraft orbiting Ceres, depicting the southern hemisphere of the dwarf planet. It’s a gorgeous image, and it really shows off how pitted and scarred the object is. This part of Ceres, near the south pole, has such long shadows because, from the perspective of this location,…
