Tech News

Think Men Don’t Want to Date Smart Women? Not So Fast!

Maybe you heard about that study that showed men don’t want to date smart women. It certainly plays into our stereotypes of how men behave, and it got a lot of press as a result. But if you actually dig into the paper, you’ll find there are some serious problems with those results. Let’s take…

14 wildly delicious ways to cook a potato

French fries. Mashed potatoes. Baked potatoes. Hash browns. Potato wedges. Potatoes are basically always delicious whichever way you cook them. Even if you’ve never had a particular potato dish, if it’s potato-based, you know it’s starchy goodness for you. Here are 14 different ways to cook a potato from Food, People, Places. I didn’t even…

Twitter Is Replacing the Fav Star With a Stupid Fucking Heart

Whyyyyyy, Twitter? Why are you messing with a good thing? Today, Twitter replaced the age-old favorite star with a heart. A heart! Clicking the new heart feels disgusting. It’s not even representative of how people use the fav: In addition to the concept of liking things, a fav can be a form acknowledgement, a way…

Google’s Neural Network Can Now Reply to Gmail Messages For You

If you’ve ever wanted a robot to respond to your emails, you’re in luck. Today, Google is announcing a new featureto its ambitious Inbox app that will enlist the company’s artificial neural network to craft automatic replies to incoming Gmail messages. You’ll never need to type again! Just kidding, you will. The so-called Smart Reply…

Theranos CEO Admits Her Blood Test Company Has a Communication Problem

Speaking at the Fortune Global Forum yesterday, embattled Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes defended her company’s blood test technology, while promising to become more transparent in the future. Theranos came under fire several weeks ago when a Wall Street Journal investigation questioned the company’s alleged use of outside diagnostic equipment to perform its innovative, needle-free blood…

MakerBot Is Stumbling, But Hopes Faster Printing Will Help

MakerBot has seen better days. It’s now cut 20 percent of its staff twice as it struggles to fulfill founder and former CEO Bre Pettis’ vision of a 3D printer in every home. Now, with a software update, MakerBot machines can print 30 percent faster. Hopefully, it will help sway the impatient toward additive manufacturing.…

NASA is Sending a Robot Geophysicist to Investigate the Interior of Mars

What lurks beneath the dusty red surface of Mars? NASA’s InSight Lander is launching next spring to go delving deeper than ever before as the first Martian geophysicist. Propulsion and leak testing 0n October 31, 2014. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin Where the Curiosity Rover was NASA’s first true robotic geologist, the InSight Lander is branching…

A Tiny Hot Wheels Drift Track on Your Desk Is a Deadline Destroyer

Using a combination of ramps and a low-friction surface, tyotoys’ Phil Foss figured out how to get Hot Wheels cars to drift earlier this year. Ever since that revelation he’s been selling his Diecast Driftpads on his site, including a new ultra-compact version that can fit on the smallest of desks. At just 18-inches across…

David Cameron Embroiled in Remembrance Scandal Over Photoshopped Image

British Prime Minister David Cameron is struggling to catch a break at the moment. Though he (probably) wasn’t actually at fault, his representatives certainly were: they uploaded a very-obviously-doctored picture of the PM to the official 10 Downing Street Facebook page, and caused more than a bit of a stir. Unfortunately for Cameron, rather than…

The New Home of the Most Exotic Bomber Ever Built Is Aerospace Heaven

The National Museum of the United States Air Force is the world’s largest military aviation museum—and it’s also home to the world’s only remaining North American XB-70 Valkyrie, which was moved to a new hangar a few days ago. Thankfully the spectacle that was the October 27th relocation of the aircraft was thoroughly photographed, so…

Scientists Built This Molecular Playground in Minecraft to Teach Kids Chemistry

Minecraft welcomes millions of young players every day and is home to all kinds of nerdery. Now, a team of chemists hope to bring the two together by helping children take their first blocky steps into the world of biochemistry inside the virtual building environment. Researchers from the University of Hull in the UK have…

You’ll Only Be Able to Buy a Windows 7 or 8.1 PC For One More Year

Microsoft has announced that from October 31st 2016, PC manufacturers won’t be able to sell new computers sporting the ageing Windows 7 or 8.1 operating systems. Instead, they’ll have to come pre-installed with Windows 10. Microsoft usually puts such restrictions in place, but, as ZDNet points out, it typically leaves two years of breathing room…

Edward Snowden’s favored encrypted chat app, Signal, is now available for Android. Take that, NSA.

Sennheiser’s Built Probably the World’s Best Headphones—But They Cost $55,000

In the ‘90s, Sennheiser asked it engineers to make the best headphones ever and the result was 300 sets of the legendary Orpheus, each pair of which sold for $16,000. Now, Sennheiser has created an ever better-sounding successor to those luxurious cans—but they’ll set you back $55,000. The reboot of the 25-year-old audiophile’s wet dream…

Microsoft Scraps Unlimited OneDrive Storage and Cuts Its Free Offering

Microsoft has announced that it’s scrapping its unlimited OneDrive cloud storage plan which it launched last year, as well as introducing a lower cap on its free offering, too. Complaining that subscribers were using too much of the unlimited storage, there will now be a 1TB limit placed on the subscription service. Microsoft explains the…

A New Lithium-Air Battery Could Make Lighter, More Efficient Power Cells

In the quest for smaller, longer-lasting, more powerful batteries, scientists have tried many alternative approaches to battery chemistry. One may have just produced the breakthrough we’re waiting for. The urban legend is that there was a small leak in a battery cell that chemist K M Abraham was testing in his laboratory in 1995, which…

Since 2013, rumors have circulated about Google opening a retail store in New York City. Now, Crain’s New York Business reports that the space leased—and spent $6 million renovating—is back on the market.

FCC Fines Hilton and MC Dean $750,000 Over Blocking Guests’ Wi-Fi

The FCC has been taking a much-needed standagainst companies that block personal Wi-Fi hotspots in an effort to get people to buy overpriced access to (normally crap) Wi-Fi networks. The latest pair of cartoon corporate villains: Hilton Hotels, and M.C. Dean, provider to Wi-Fi to the Baltimore Convention Center. In the first of two separate…

This Apple Watch Pipboy Is All the Smartwatch I Ever Need

Fallout 4 is launching soon, and with it comes a smartphone-holding Pipboy you can actually use. But if you don’t feel like strapping a giant hunk of plastic to your wrist, here’s a very simple hack that will improve your Apple Watch tenfold. This ‘hack’ is pretty damn simple: WatchOS 2 lets you make custom…

Amazon’s First Real Store Is Opening Tomorrow

Amazon, a company that made its name undercutting brick-and-mortar retailers usingcheap laborand UPS, is opening the doors to its first real book store in Seattle at 9.30AM tomorrow morning. The store, located in University Village, seems mostly to be a vanity project for Amazon in its hometown. There’s going to be about 5,000 books in…