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The bright ball that hovers over Times Square on New Year’s Eve is a little bit reborn this year. Sure, it’s iconic and colorful and mesmerizing as it always is. This year, however, the ball captivates the world with 288 more newly designed Waterford crystals. And, boy, are they pretty. The History The ball drop…
Oculus Touch, the innovative controllers designed for use with the Oculus Rift VR headset, has been delayed until the second half of 2016. The final consumer version of the Rift is still expected to ship in the first quarter of 2016. In a blog post Oculus explained that the Touch just wasn’t ready for prime…
If your vacation has you visiting one of the world’s great metropolitan cities, your credit card is probably the most valuable tool in your pocket. But if the great outdoors is your preferred way to relax, this Wilderness Survival Card is far more useful in the event of an emergency. The lightweight metal card breaks…
Notice anything weird about your News Feed today? Scores of users are confused by typically smarmy “Friends on Facebook” messages that are celebrating 46 years of friendship. It appears to be a Unix glitch of colossal proportions. Don’t freak out. The world is not going to end because Facebook’s servers are confused about the New…
The best thing about the world of Star Wars (other than it being the world of Star Wars) is how incredibly detailed it is. Everything you see on screen has a backstory, everything basically has an explanation, anything can be nerded out on. So here are the backstories and explanations for the vehicles and spaceships…
Because let’s be honest—this is a damn groovy figure indeed. Sideshow Collectibles have revealed their latest 1:6 scale figure, and this time it’s the delightful Ash of Evil Dead, or more specifically, Ash as he appears in 1987’s Evil Dead II. Aside from a surprisingly great likeness of Bruce Campbell (right down to the slightly…
The Axis Aerius is considered to be the smallest RC quadcopter you can buy, even smaller than the company’s new Vidius drone. But that’s because Axis has managed to fit a live-streaming wi-fi video camera inside the new Vidius, giving pilots a first-person view of their flights. At just 1.7-inches in size, the Vidius quadcopter…
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Politiwoops, a watchdog tool that tracks politicians’ deleted tweets, was unceremoniously killed by Twitter earlier this year. Today, Twitter reversed its ban. Last July, Twitter revoked Politiwoops’ API access, which made it impossible for the Sunlight Foundation-funded site’s ability to monitor the foibles and fuck-ups of politicians on social media. It was an odd decision,…
I highly recommend doing this once in your life if you can somehow figure out a way to not get hurt. Actually, igniting 10,000 sparklers in a barrel at one time is so visually spectacular that it might be worth getting hurt over. The sparklers combine to make a flame that shoots up to a…
Microsoft knew that Chinese spies hacked Hotmail users—and didn’t tell any of the people who were hacked, even though it knew for years. Today, Reuters confirmed that Microsoft had agreed to change its hush-up policy about state-sponsored hacks: Microsoft Corp experts concluded several years ago that Chinese authorities had hacked into more than a thousand…
Well, to the point that they don’t get an angry letter from the Lego Group asking them what the hell they think they’re doing, that is. But this new line of miniature toys based on Akira Toriyama’s designs of some of anime’s most recognizable heroes do walk a pretty damn fine line. The line of…
You would never want to look out of your window on a flight and see the airplane wing bend like this but it’s nice to know that Airbus stress tests the hell out of their flying tubes to make sure that even if the wing is at such an obscene angle, it won’t snap in…
Today in “amazing ideas the internet had” we bring you an experiment that is without a doubt the best way to celebrate the end of 2015 tonight, and an even better way to usher in 2016. One sparkler is fun, but 10,000 igniting at the same time? That’s a science experiment you have to see.…
As you make your way around the world or simply across the country, you may want your calendar appointments to shift to match your current time zone, or you might need them to stay fixed no matter where you are—fortunately Google Calendar lets you switch between both options if you delve into the settings for…
You can now add smartwatches to the list of potential ways your private data could be leaked. Tony Beltramelli, a Master’s students at the IT University of Copenhagen, has shown that even your wearable could be used to compromise your privacy by tracking your every keystroke. That’s not to say that out of the box…
For some publications, the two-week period that encompasses Christmas and New Year’s is a dead zone. There’s no news. Everyone is on vacation. The content spigot sputters and spurts until it freezes over entirely. There is no more content. Not so here at Gizmodo. While writers and editors at other websites were commemorating the birth…
After successfully growing (and eating) lettuce, astronauts on the International Space Station have graduated to zinnias. The new plants sprouted vigorously, and researchers are hoping the colorful flowers will bud soon. The ISS is continuing to grow edible plants in their Veggie facility as part of the VEG-01 investigation. Once they work out the kinks…
Here’s a crazy way to celebrate Christmas: go to Brazil and climb up the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro and check out the crazy view of the city and its beaches on the shoulder of Jesus Christ. Don’t mind the fact that the statue’s shoulder slopes down and that there’s nothing to…
It was a day for quake, rattle, and roll on the west coast when small earthquakes hit both Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday. While the pair shared common characteristics, the stories behind why they happened reveal dramatically different Worst Case Scenarios for future earthquakes. The Earthquakes At 5:48pm local time on Tuesday,…
