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In an effort to get its business back on track, Dropbox will be shuttering two promising, yet unfulfilled ventures beyond its core cloud-storage service. Email app Mailbox will shut down in February, and photo app Carousel will follow suit in March. The company explained the rationale in a blog post this morning: Building new products…
It appears we have a troll in our midst. Three days ago, Taylor Swift’s hit song “I Knew You Were Trouble” re-appeared on Spotify. But it wasn’t under infamous Spotify-hater’s name. The artist listed was Lostprophets, a Welsh band whose lead singer is a convicted pedophile. Spotify pulled the song down on Monday morning, though…
The chrome://flags page is a strange and wonderful trove of hidden settings for Google’s browser. It lets you peek under the hood of the application and tinker around with some experimental options not yet ready for prime time. Here are 16 of the most useful flag settings you might want to tweak. It’s worth re-emphasizing…
A Spanish galleon sunk in the Caribbean 300 years ago with an exceptionally valuable cargo has been discovered near the port city of Cartagena, Colombia. Called the San Jose, the ship is rumored to contain gold, silver, and jewellery worth an estimated $4 to $17 billion. President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia made the announcement…
In 1971 two people in North Hollywood started eating DDT pills every day. That’s right, they willingly swallowed 10mg of poison every single day for three months. In front of witnesses. From the Associated Press: Robert Loibl and his wife, Louise, hold 10-milligram capsules of DDT which they took in front of witnesses for 93…
Really excellent image editing tool Adobe Lightroom Mobileis now free on Android, meaning you won’t need a $10 per month Creative Cloud subscription to get it to work properly. The app went free on iOS earlier this fall.
There’s probably a good reason—involving lawsuits and lawyers—why toymakers don’t include working superlasers on their Death Star playsets. But since Patrick Priebe doesn’t plan on selling his Death Star replica to the public, he had no qualms about including a terrifying 84-watt laser. Priebe’s Death Star replica started life as a beachball covered with layers…
A few months ago, Nike made every Back to the Future fan’s dream come true by finally releasing sneakers with fully-functional power laces. And now, just weeks before 2015 draws to a close, it looks like Marty’s self-drying jacket from BTTF2 could also become a reality. Unlike the BTTF2 shoes Nike has en route, the…
Twenty-three states as well asthe District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana in some form, which is just fantastic news for stoners. But if actually going to see a doctor to get a prescription is too much trouble for you, a new app has people in California covered. This new app comes to you from…
I really enjoyed this quick video from Le Cube. It’s called ESPM after a school in Brazil and shows off different processes for making art with completely different techniques. It’s like a mash up of senses, you see stop-motion animation along with brushstrokes along with moving art. Neat. On our crazy boat, sometimes called Le…
If you’re an aspiring quarterback who’s determined to perfect their skills, finding someone to practice with for hours on end can be a challenge. But with the PassBack training football, which features a flattened end on one side, all you need is a wall to play catch with yourself. When you throw a regulation football…
Beijing issued its first-ever red alert on Monday. The radical measure means that half the cars in the capital must stay off the streets, outdoor construction must stop, and schools must close. The pollution is simply too dangerous. While it should surprise no onethat China’s still struggling with its smog problems, the red alert in…
Hot Toys line of exquisite figures based on The Force Awakens has so far been all about the villains of the film. But now it’s time for the heroes to get immortalised in plastic—and we’re beginning with Daisy Ridley’s lovely new heroine, Rey! Sadly though, it seems like Daisy Ridley’s features are a constant struggle…
Last week, Hawaii’s Supreme Court voided a construction permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), a $1.4 billion observatory that would peer into distant corners of our universe and back in time, exploring new cosmic landscapes with a resolution twelve times sharper than that of Hubble. The TMT is intended to be the flagship observatory…
Last week’s historic summit on human gene-editing has come to a close, and its organizing committee has given the go-ahead for scientists in the US to experiment on human genes — only if it doesn’t result in a pregnancy. It’s a surprisingly progressive stance. But make no mistake, human trait selection is coming. Here’s why…
It’s a promo spot for Star Wars being available on Sky Movies in the UK but it’s so well done and so damn cool that we can ignore that. This quick, 30-second animation brings the viewer through key plot points from all six episodes of Star Wars all in one go around. We see all…
For centuries people with maladies of any kind could look forward to a good dose of mercury, as the medical establishment had pretty much concluded that shiny things were good for people. This shipwreck made them think again. In 1810, a Spanish ship got caught in a storm near Cadiz. Fortunately for the sailors onboard,…
The Guardian has published a 24-page Islamic State manual online which describes how the terrorist group is attempting to become an independent state in Iraq and Syria—from propaganda operations to plans for creating a self-sufficient economy. The manual, which you can see below, is said to have been written last year, some time between July…
If for some strange reason you need a new Windows phone but don’t have a big budget, the Lumia 550 is likely the thing for you. At $140, it’s the cheapest Windows 10 handset you can buy so far. Don’t expect much in the way of specs from the plastic-cased smartphone. While it’s got a…
Each year, Twitter rounds up the biggest events that its users have discussed over the past twelve months. So what were the main stories to trend on Twitter in 2015? In a blog post, the folks at Twitter highlight some of the “most influential and memorable moments” of the year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they include the…
