Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
People don’t die of the Black Plague in the 21st century — except when they do. And the disease won’t be going away any time soon. Earlier this month, a high school student in Colorado died of the disease. On average, seven people in the U.S. catch the plague every year; some years, it’s only…
Everything about waves crashing—it is water smacking itself—is violent. But that’s because we see it from the surface. Underneath, seeing waves crest and fall is a hypnotizing, almost peaceful phenomenon. The way the sunlight hits the giant water prisim and the way the waves roll on top of you and gently ripples the surface, it’s…
We used to think that technology was about devices. We were wrong. Those feeble plastic and glass exoskeletons are nowhere near as important as the batteries that power them. Which is why the race to a better battery is fueled by insane hype—threaded with genuine innovation. Image: University of Illinois. The market for a better…
When I was a kid, I used to think that fly fishing involved waving the fly around in the air until the fish jumped out of the water to eat it. I was wrong. A couple weekends ago, I finally got to try it for real. And look, I caught a monster! My wife Valerie…
Most American streets are far too wide, which uses up valuable urban space, is dangerous for pedestrians, and actually makes traffic worse. That’s why many cities are trying to hand over more street space to transit, biking and walking. But what if we took the lanes devoted to cars and turned it into housing? It…
Microsoft Office for Android came out for tablets in January, but the app suite is available for Android smartphones starting today. The app is similar to Microsoft Office for iOS, and while it doesn’t have the full functionality of the Android tablet version, it’s still an upgrade for anyone who uses Office tools on Android…
Two years ago I wrote one of the harshest reviews that has ever appeared on Gizmodo. It was for the LG G2, which was supposed to be the company’s flagship Android phone for the year, but it was just bad. I wasn’t shy about saying so. I was so unshy, in fact, that LG tried…
The only thing more depressing than playing Solitaire by yourself is not playing it on a computer. Unless the deck of cards you’re using features levels from four classic Super Mario games. This $9 deck is officially licensed by Nintendo and each suit features level artwork from a different game in the Mario series. Spades…
There’s a lot of work—and so many different materials used—in making a little toy dinosaur. But once you get the casting right, you can make the dinos forever. Here’s how it goes: the figurine is first hand drawn, then digitally drawn, then re-created in wax. After that, the figure is doused in silicone, buried in…
It’s generally assumed that the faster the blades in a blender spin, the better it will work, right? Wrong. Over-blending fruits like strawberries can lead to crushed seeds that make a smoothie taste bitter. So Electrolux’s new tilted blender uses a less powerful motor, combined with an improved design, to actually help your food taste…
In a remarkable feat of miniaturized engineering, Takara Tomy has created a tiny R2-D2 toy that stands just over an inch tall but can still be steered around your desk using an equally small lightsaber remote control. Using the lightsaber controller as its charging base, R2-D2 needs just 10 seconds of recharging for around 40…
Following last weekend’s Apple Music/Taylor Swift tango, the most influential independent labels have signed on to Apple Music. Also, a Pharrell track will be the first Apple Music exclusive. That makes me happy. The original dustup, in case you haven’t been following the minutiae, involved payment to labels during the three month trial period Apple…
Periscope is finally allowing web-based replays of video that was streamed live, fixing a major pitfall of live-streaming. The service said in a Tweet that it will allow web users to watch replays in their browser for up to 24 hours after the broadcast. Previously, Periscope only allowed replays on Android and iOS apps.
This video shows different types of food that people in the UK eat and let’s give all glory to the food gods or something because it is unbelievably gorgeous. And here I thought food in the UK was supposed to suck! The close up shots, the quick cuts, the progression of how the food is…
Turning a cube into a rotating multi-colored puzzle isn’t terribly difficult. Ernő Rubik did it back in 1974 without the need for a computer. For other shapes, though, like a complicated 3D bunny, you need to figure out the perfect way to slice it up so that every sub-section can rotate freely. But thankfully there’s…
We’re a month away from Windows 10, but while you wait for Microsoft’s newest OS to come down the pipe there are still plenty of tricks to learn for Windows 8.1 (and they’ll stand you in good stead once the next version does appear). Here’s how to take more control over system notifications. As is…
When he wasn’t busy adding a hojillion extra arms to Batman, esteemed Final Fantasy director and character designer Tetsuya Nomura lent his own particular brand of insanity to Play Arts Kai’s variant Catwoman. Now we’ve got an even better look at the figure, and it’s still ridiculous in all the right ways. WHIP TAIL! https://gizmodo.com/final-fantasy-designer-returns-to-give-us-this-bizarre-1644714528…
Back in 2011, a team of volunteers crammed Geiger counters into bento-shaped boxes to map the radiation following the Fukushima meltdown. It turned into the biggest collection of radiation data in history. Next up: tackling air pollution. The nonprofit, formed one week after the March 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake to map Fukushima radiation, is called…
Back in January we got our first hands-on with the Roost at CES, but anyone who’s ever used a 9-volt battery is already familiar with the product. The only difference is that this 9-volt includes built-in wifi to give your standard smoke detector the ability to send alerts to your smartphone. Once paired with a…
It’s not often that you could use a word like serene to describe a B-52H Stratofortress. But in this image, accompanied by Saab JAS 39 Gripen jets from the Swedish Armed Forces, that’s exactly how it looks. This image was captured over the Baltic Sea during training maneuvers on June 11th. [U.S. Air Force]
