Tech News

The Phantom 3 Standard Is DJI’s New Camera Drone For Beginners

DJI has been a leader in camera drones for years, but its best models might be a little pricey and overwhelming for the fledgling pilot. For those who are just getting started with shooting from the sky, the company is launching the cheaper, simpler Phantom 3 Standard. “Phantom 3 Standard” is a confusing name, admittedly.…

This 1,000 FPS Projector Perfectly Matches the Movements of Any Surface

Researchers at Ishikawa Watanabe Laboratory, the University of Tokyo, and Tokyo Electron Device have developed a high-speed projector system that can track and flawlessly match the complex movements of whatever surface it’s projecting on. Running at 1,000 frames per second, the projector is matched with a camera running at the same frame rate so that…

Why Won’t Julian Assange Condemn Ecuador’s Spying Software? 

Wikileaks’ most recent document dump reveals emails leaked from an Italian company called Hacking Team that sells intrusive spyware to governments, exposing myriad government agencies from Bangladesh to the US for purchasing this surveillance software. It also exposes an oily hypocrisy. According to the leaked emails hosted on Wikileaks, Ecuador’s National Intelligence Secretariat (SENAIN) is…

Whoever Found hitchBOT Brought Him to Meet Kevin Smith Last Night

The hitchBOT story just keeps getting weirder. After getting beheaded in Philly this past weekend some people thought he’d be lost forever. But that little hitchhiking robot has popped up again. This time hitchBOT made an appearance in Brooklyn with director Kevin Smith. Apparently whoever found hitchBOT contacted the Canadian researchers that made him and…

9 Free Web Apps to Replace Your Desktop Software

A few years ago, trying to move to an online-only existence wasn’t a practical option, but now long-serving web apps have grown more powerful and you can now do almost everything in a browser that you can do on the desktop (albeit in more limited form). Here’s our current picks for the best online apps…

India Backpedals On Its Massive Porn Ban

After blocking more than 800 pornographic websites this past week, the Indian government has decided to knock its overly restrictive ban down from a borderline human rights violation to a much more conservative measure. Now, only child pornography sites will be banned, and local ISP’s will be held accountable for their content. This news comes…

Garmin’s New GPS Watch Looks Like a Classic Digital Casio

If there’s one product the miniaturization of electronics has benefitted, it’s watches. Garmin’s new Forerunner 25 manages to squeeze GPS, fitness tracking, and even basic notifications into a wearable device that reminds us of Casio’s classic digital watches that could only tell time. But don’t expect the Forerunner 25 to help you navigate through the…

Lego Dimensions’ Ghostbusters Packs Will Include Stay Puft and Slimer

If you don’t have a recent generation console that can play the upcoming Lego Dimensions game, today you finally have a good reason to upgrade now that these Ghostbusters expansion packs have been revealed. Because no Lego collection is complete without a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man Minifig. The Ghostbusters expansion packs include two Fun Packs…

70 Years After the Bomb, an Original Hiroshima Trolley Is Up and Running

The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima 70 years ago today, Japan time. The city was nearly obliterated, but some structures survived. One is this streetcar, which is back up and running this summer, restored and painted fresh as a symbol of resilience. Hiroshima is famous for its streetcars. The few that survived the August…

You Could Accidentally Swallow the World’s Smallest Circular Saw

Helping to dispel the notion that 3D printers are only really useful for making plastic trinkets, New Zealand’s Lance Abernethy is back with another impossibly tiny 3D-printed power tool that’s powered by an equally small hearing aid battery. Using an Ultimaker 2, Abernethy 3D-printed his latest creation in four separate pieces that required just an…

NASA Wants This Gas-Jet Drone to Find Resources on the Moon and Mars

This might look like a slightly ramshackle home-brew drone, but in fact its a new kind of robotic vehicle developed bu NASA that “can gather samples on other worlds in places inaccessible to rovers.” The new drone has been developed by Swamp Works engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and it’s being built…

Apple to Fix Privilege Bug Endangering Your Mac ‘As Soon As Possible’

Yesterday it came to light that a new OS X bug is being exploited, allowing attackers to install malware on a Mac without needing any system passwords. Now, Apple has announced that it will fix the bug ‘as soon as possible.’ The Guardian reports that Apple will include a patch for the privilege escalation bug…

This U.S. Airman Clearly Loves Nirvana

This image looks almost comically serene—and that might in fact be the whole point. This is a security forces Airman shortly after being plunged into a pool as part of his Pre-Ranger Training Assessment Course. This is just one of the parts of a test that Airmen form the Front Range area undergo to determine…

You can now use Samsung Pay to purchase apps, books, movies, and whatever else on Samsung’s smart TVs.

The Future of Rail Travel—and Why It Doesn’t Look Like Hyperloop

As the world’s population becomes increasingly urbanised, it is estimated that the number of journeys measured in passenger-kilometres will triple by 2050. Roads simply can’t absorb this increase. Railways, with their greater capacity for carrying more people, quickly and with greater energy efficiency, are the best bet to become our mobility backbone. Of course, engineers’…

Parrot Isn’t Actually Going to Sell Its Fantastic Dual-Mode Dash System

Parrot’s RNB6 promised an in-dash system that would work with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. It promised a Utopia of car tech that would make any smartphone compatible with basically any car. And it still promises all those things, but only if you buy a new vehicle. The RBN6 debuted at CES this year, with…

Lizard Man Is Back in South Carolina, and Looking Good 

Look at those abs! And those shining red eyes! The legendary swamp monster known as Lizard Man is back in his home town of Bishopville, South Carolina, and ABC News is on the case. Over at Doubtful News, Sharon Hill points out the ABC story, which ran the photo above and reports breathlessly: Sarah, a…

Study Suggests Uber Reduces DUI Deaths

You can have your own argument about Uber’s value as an industry-changing technology (just please don’t torch anyone’s car in the process). But one recent study looked at a particular effect of Uber: namely, when it started in California, did it reduce drinking and driving deaths? The research was conducted by professors from Philidelphia’s Temple…

I Wrote A Bot That Won Twitter Contests

This is the story of how I wrote a Twitter bot to automatically enter contests and ended up winning an average of four contests per day, every day, for about nine months straight. If you’ve ever used Twitter, you’ve probably seen a tweet that looks something like this: Maybe you’ve actually retweeted it, maybe not,…

How Do You Pronounce URL?

A minor tussle broke out in Gizmodo comments today when one of our writers dared to write the phrase “an URL.” The issue at stake? None other than the correct pronunciation of this crucial acronym. If it’s pronounced “earl,” then one should indeed write “an URL.” If it’s pronounced “yoo arr ell,” then it’s “a…