Tech News

Konami Developing a Metal Gear Solid-Inspired Prosthetic Arm for an Amputee Gamer

Twenty-five-year-old James Young, a passionate gamer, tragically lost his arm in an accident. Now one of the biggest video game companies around is working with roboticists and engineers to make James an amazing new limb inspired by one of his favorite series, and one of the greatest game franchises of all time. Konami, developer and…

Hazy Orange Planets May Be Good Places to Live

“Pale orange haze” conjures up some unpleasant imagery, from chemical warfare to Sriracha plants to 19th century England. But hazy orange days didn’t always go hand-in-hand with hazmat suits. Two and a half billion years ago, a tangerine tinge in the air might have kept you alive. Earth didn’t always have an ozone layer, and…

How Facebook is stealing billions of video views

One of the best video explainers on the Internet, Kurz Gesagt’s In a Nutshell series, goes on the offensive this time and explains why Facebook is so terrible: they’re turning a blind eye toward people who steal videos so they can goose their video view count to hit billions. And actually, they prefer that stolen…

Night Shooting With the A7s Mark II: Damn, Technology Is Cool

No photographer likes shooting where there isn’t enough light. Dim scenes make us aware of how feeble photography is compared to the sensitivity of our own eyeballs. Technology is amazing, though. Shooting photos at night with Sony’s A7s Mark II made me pause and think about just how far digital photography has taken us. If…

Seattle’s Famous Gum Wall Is Being Scrubbed Away to Bare Brick

Seattle’s sticky, rainbow-colored Gum Wall has attracted tourists for 20 years and has dominated #Seattle Instagram posts, but now the Pike Place staple is being removed by industrial steamers. Far, far from hygienic but beloved all the same, the Gum Wall is located in Post Alley underneath Pike Place market. But the Seattle Times reports…

The cool trick beetles use to breathe underwater like scuba divers

You see that bubble attached to the beetle? That’s basically an air tank that the beetle uses so that it can breathe underwater. Because they’re so small, they can use water’s surface tension to trap air in bubbles on their body so they can swim under water without having to constantly come up for air.…

You Can Redecorate This Lego-Friendly Wreath As Often As You Like

Having a hard time deciding which theme you’re going with for your holiday decor this year? With ThinkGeek’s Lego-compatible Build On Brick Holiday Wreath you don’t have to decide. You can just redecorate it with your own Lego pieces every hour if you’re so inspired. The 10-inch wide plastic green wreath comes completely naked save…

How to go to space, explained in the simplest and funniest way possible

Do you want to know how to go to space? But is the technical explanation way too complicated for you and all those terms and laws of physics and complicated math just too damn confusing? Don’t worry! This truly hilarious video from MinutePhysics and XKCD will explain how to get to space using only the…

Use “Hey Siri” Any Time From Any iPhone

If you don’t feel like pressing the Home button, you can call up Apple’s digital assistant app with a “hey Siri” voice command in iOS 9—as long as your iPhone is charging or you’re using an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus. Those limitations are designed to prevent battery drain, but you can actually access…

Glacial Research Captured a Moment of Pure Tranquility in this National Park

Research cameras pointed at glaciers are inevitably bearers of depressing news, tracking the crumble of ice rotting over the years. Yet soft moonlight and misty mountains framing blue ice transform this datapoint into a moment of pure beauty. About 51% of Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska is covered in ice, and the rest bares…

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 Chips Will Provide Better Signal and Battery Life

Qulacomm has announced its next generation or chip in the form of the Snapdrgaon 820—and it hopes to usher in better signal and longer battery life to the next slew of high-end phones. The new system-on-a-chip is based on a 64-bit quad-core Kyro processor, which clocks in at 2.2GHz. Qualcomm claims that it’s twice as…

New London Tube Map Shows How Long It Takes to Walk, Not Ride a Train

Transport for London has released another alternative version of the Tube map—and it’s actually really useful. The London transport manager has created a ‘Walk the Tube’ map, which shows how long it takes to totter between stations. The full-sized version is here. It shows that people who catch the Tube from Covent Garden to Leicester…

Microsoft Will Guess Your Emotion in a Photo

Earlier this year, Microsoft unveiled a tool that could guess your age from a single photograph. Now, it wants to guess how you’re feeling too. It might not get the answer right—but it is kinda fun. Announced at Microsoft’sFuture Decoded conference in the UK, the software will take any photograph you hand it, identify the…

This Is What a Candy Crush Movie Might Look Like

What if Candy Crush was turned into a movie? One that starred Liam Neeson, too? Well, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert imagined just that. Be afraid. Be very afraid. [The Late Show with Stephen Colbert]

Three Men Charged With Widespread Hacking, Including Huge JP Morgan Hit

Last year it came to light that roughly half of the households in America had their JPMorgan Chase accounts compromised. Now, over a year later, three mean have been charged with widespread hacks that include the sustained financial attack. Yesterday, federal prosecutors announced that they were charging three men in relation to a series of…

This Is How Congressional Representatives Electronically Register Their Vote

Voting in the House has not changed much since an electronic voting system was first used on January 23, 1973, with the goal of making voting periods shorter. The latest version of the EVS system was installed in 2004. There are 47 voting stations around the House chamber, according to a 2012 document on House…

A Politician Would Like New York Trees to Have Their Own Email Addresses

It’s virtually impossible to get by in today’s modern world without digital communication. Perhaps that’s why a New York City politician has a plan to give 200 trees around the city their own email addresses. The idea belongs to Mark Levine, an Upper West Side Councilmember. In an interview with Gothamist, he explained that“NYC is…

Japan’s First Ever Passenger Jet Just Took Its Maiden Flight

Japan doesn’t have a track record for manufacturing airplanes—but now its first ever domestic passenger jet has finally taken its maiden test flight. The new Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) took off from Nagoya airport earlier today. A decade in the planning, design and manufacture, the two-engine aircraft has been developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The…

If you have a thing against online shopping, but you’ve always hankered after Amazon’sEcho speaker/virtual assistant, good news: it’s now available in a bunch of big-box stores like Staples, RadioShack, and uh, Home Depot. [Amazon]

Apple Pulls Sketchy Password-Stealing Instagram App From App Store

The App Store is a pretty well-fenced garden, which means it’s big news when someone manages to pull off a heist. But that’s what InstaAgent, a third-party app that would let you see who was viewing your Instagram profile while skimming your password, seems to have done. As noted by developer David L-R on Twitter,…