Tech News

Brutally honest trailer of Star Wars shows how we ignore its obvious flaws

Star Wars is impeccable. It is so embedded in pop culture and ingrained in nostalgia and just so much damn fun that there is no way to not like that movie, even if there are totally obvious flaws like Luke being just as annoying as Anakin, Stormtroopers being clumsy idiots, the use of cheesy props…

What Happened to the Guy Who Created the World’s First Viral Video?

In 2003, a rudimentary Flash animation called “The End of the World” appeared on eBaum’s World. It spread like a virus in the pre-smartphone, pre-YouTube era. Ever wonder what happened to the teen who made it? He’s currently a bearded dad in Portland. Mic managed to track down and interview Jason Windsor, the animator and…

A Giant Christmas Light TIE Fighter Is the Perfect Holiday Decor

If every November you find yourself in competition with your neighbors to come up with the best Christmas lighting, be thankful you don’t live near imgur user guitarfarts’ friend. There’s a giant glowing TIE Fighter on his front lawn that would be utterly impossible to beat. Unless you think you’ve got the room for a…

The Simple But Brilliant Engineering Behind a Nerf Blaster

Watching YouTube celebrity ‘engineerguy’—aka Bill Hammack—explain the engineering behind a gadget is far more entertaining than college ever was. And this time even moreso because he breaks down the simple but clever design that allows a Nerf blaster to fire one dart at a time. You probably don’t give much thought to how the Nerf…

SpaceX Is About to Win Its First-Ever U.S. Military Mission

It looks like SpaceX is set to land its first US military contract. Elon Musk’s company sued for the right to be considered, and now they’re the last ones standing after United Launch Alliance’s Russian-made engines have become an issue. The contract at hand is a next-gen GPS satellite for the U.S. Air Force. United…

The World’s First Look Inside an Intact Brittle Star

Brittle stars have a bit more in common with starfish that giant, luminous balls of gas. These organisms look like starfish but with tentacles, and they’re dubbed “brittle” because they’re so delicate—when they’re dissected, scientists can document what they find, but they can’t preserve the sample. It’s a one-time event. Well, until now. Micro X-ray…

Hasbro Now Has a Toy Line For Seniors Starting With a Lifelike Robotic Cat

After already conquering demographics including kids, teenagers, and those technically considred adults, Hasbro is reaching out to that last frontier of consumers: seniors, with a new toy line featuring lifelike robotic companion pets that only need affection, not feeding or bathroom breaks. The company’s new Joy For All line might sound a little depressing, almost…

China Is Starting to Spank the U.S. With Supercomputing Resources

When it comes to supercomputers, the U.S. used to rule the roost. But these days its status is slipping—while China is surging ahead. How bad is the problem? This bad, according to the new Top500 list, which rounds up supercomputer performance around the world every six months: China nearly tripled the number of systems on…

You Can Now Use Two-Step Authentication on Amazon—Here’s How

Two-step authentication is one the easiest ways to make your online accounts more secure. Finally, Amazon has decided to provide the option of using the system—and here’s how you can enable it. While most of the Internet’s big players—Apple, Google, Facebook and the like—have long offered the option of using two-step authentication, Amazon has steadfastly…

The UK Is Shutting Down All Its Coal Power Stations

The British Government has announced that it plans to shut down all of its coal-powered fire stations by 2025, with restrictions put on their use as early as 2023. The UK’s 15 remaining coal power stations currently account for 28 percent of the nation’s energy production. The country’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd,…

Privacy Not Included: Federal Law Lags Behind New Tech

The federal privacy law known as HIPAA doesn’t cover home paternity tests, fitness trackers or health apps. When a Florida woman complained after seeing the paternity test results of thousands of people online, federal regulators told her they didn’t have jurisdiction. Jacqueline Stokes spotted the home paternity test at her local drugstore in Florida and…

A British ‘Elite Cyber Offensive Force’ Will Join the Digital War on ISIS

Yesterday, Anonymous declared digital war on ISIS. Now, Britain seems to be joining the fight, with an elite cyber offensive force that plans to strike Islamic State fighters. Reuters reports that the UK Chancellor George Osborne wants the country to “strike at Islamic State fighters, hackers and hostile powers” with plans to “bolster spending on…

Watch This Amazing Animation That Imagines Famous Scientists as Superheroes

Imagine if you could assemble the brains of famous scientists like Einstein, Darwin and Tesla into a band of time-traveling superheroes led by Winston Churchill. Well, now you don’t have to imagine, because the animated series Super Science Friends depicts exactly that. The first in a series of the Kickstarter-funded science adventure series has just…

Sadly, Facebook has activated its Safety Check featurefor the second time in five days—this time for the tragic bombing in the Nigerian city of Yola.

Cab Owners Sue NYC Because Uber is Ruining Their Business

There’s so many bullshit arguments thrown around surrounding Uber, it’s refreshing to hear the real reason that cabbies hate the company: it’s killing their revenue, and the value of medallions. A suit filed today against New York City and its Taxi and Limousine Commission claims has a few bones to pick: regulators have allowed Uber…

Biologists Found a Crazy Solution to That Deadly Amphibian Fungus

In an first-of-its-kind victory, a team of biologists has figured out how to clear ponds of the lethal chytrid fungus that’s decimating amphibian populations worldwide. (Spoiler: It’s pretty damn intense). As reported this week in Biology Letters, biologists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and elsewhere have eliminated the deadly fungus from four out…

Abunch of Apple servicesare down, it’s not just your imagination! The App Store, iTunes Store, and a bunch of other Stores you didn’t even know about aren’t working. Use your time free from capitalist digital tyranny carefully. [Apple System Status]

DJI Will Also Help Drone Owners Not Screw Up

Earlier today, popular maker of consumer drones 3DR announced that its Solo quadrotor would be updated with a system that tells owners where they’re not allowed to fly. Now DJI, makers of the ubiquitous Phantom line, is following suite. Currently, DJI drones have a list of US airports inputted, and physically won’t let you fly…

Badass Historical Chemists: The Woman Behind Antoine Lavoisier

Antoine Lavoisier is deservedly considered one of the great chemists in history. We might not know of his experiments if it weren’t for his wife. She became a remarkable, if unconventional, chemist herself and had one of the weirder lives in history. When Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze was only 13 years old, she found herself in…

Is There Any TV Show That Treats Tech Realistically?

I’m getting tired of computer systems that are hacked in seconds, cars hotwired like it’s no big deal, databases that instantly find criminals, and other crimes against tech. What is there to watch for some realism? I know that entertainment requires a suspension of disbelief and that a lot of the limitations (and actual speed)…