Tech News

How the Hell Are These Crazy Continuous Lifts Still A Thing?

I religiously maintain a list of ‘dangerous machinery that wants to eat my limbs’, and having watched this video, Paternoster lifts — that is, lifts with continuously moving carriages that you jump in and out of — just went straight to the top. YouTuber Tom Scott took a trip to the University of Sheffield, an…

VR Music Visualizers Are Like Tripping Without Drugs

Look at that picture above. Seriously, have an intense little stare. You’re probably already a little spaced out. Now imagine what would happen if you strapped that picture to your face, and coupled it with equally immersive music. That’s the future being promised by Harmonix Music VR, aka the Windows XP music equalizer, brought into…

1989 Won’t Be On Apple Music, And That’s Bad News For Apple

Joke about TaySway and her army of loyal Tumblr tweens all you want (go on, I dare you), but Swift is an undeniable powerhouse in pop music. Eight months after the launch of 1989, it’s still the fourth-best selling album in the country. And that makes it doubly bad for Apple that she’s just stuck…

Witches Are Pissed That Etsy Won’t Let Them Earn a Friggin’ Living 

Witches gotta eat, witches gotta work — we learned that from watching Kiki’s Delivery Service as kids. But guess what? Etsy doesn’t give a crap about helping Kiki. The online sales platform for homemade goods is NOT scared of hexes, and it won’t let witches sell spells anymore. Etsy’s new guidelines ban “any metaphysical service…

3D-Printed Flutes Can Produce Notes that Regular Flutes Can’t

3D Printing has been around long enough for playable 3D-printed instruments to exist, but most musicians will still opt for one made using traditional methods. That could soon change, however, as researchers have found a way to design and 3D print musical instruments capable of producing unique notes that traditional instruments can’t. Researchers from the…

The FCC Continues Kicking Ass By Subsidizing Broadband Internet

A little over a year ago, the Federal Communications Commission seemed like an evil cabal of cronies, threatening to ruin the US as we know it. Today, the agency is making decisions to help securing the future of the internet, giving broadband to poor people, and banning robocalls. Isn’t this a pleasant surprise. Net Neutrality…

This Exoskeleton Rig Makes Factory Workers 10 Times Stronger

Folks in manufacturing jobs are subject to labor that can literally be back-breaking. But this exoskeleton prototype—one of the first designed specifically for industrial work—could make objects with exhausting heaviness feel up to 10 times lighter. Engineering and research institute Fraunhofer IAO held the first live demo of its Robo-Mate exoskeleton prototype last week. The…

This Hologram Darth Vader Toy Is Actually To Scale With The Movies

Star Wars fans: Did you know that the hologram of Darth Vader that appears in General Veer’s AT-AT in The Empire Strikes Back was 20 inches tall? If you did, then wow, that is some spectacularly detailed trivia you have in your noggin. Your reward? This accurately scaled, bright blue Darth Vader figure. The latest…

A Grim Discovery Inside This Suitcase Uncovered More Than One Murder

June 18, 1934 was a typical day at Brighton Railway Station — except for a fetid odor emanating from an unclaimed trunk in the cloakroom. An attendant alerted the police; when they broke it open, they found a woman’s torso, wrapped like a macabre parcel. She was five months pregnant. Her legs were found days…

The Next Apple Watch May Be Way Less Reliant On An iPhone

Rumors are an endless ouroboros of speculation. As soon as one device is announced/launched/shipped fresh gadget hearsay about The Next Generation begins. With some Apple Watch buyers still awaiting their precious wrist-strapped cargo, we’re already hearing more and more about the next one, and to be honest, it sounds way better. The famous purveyor of…

Stunning full color HD video from the ISS shows life on Earth in motion

This video is taken from space. And yet we can see so much detail on Earth that it’s almost unbelievable. Cars are driving on roads and buildings are moving throughout the day and boats are crawling through rivers, remember this isn’t your run of the mill drone footage, this is all taken from an ultra-HD…

Samsung’s nasty keyboard vulnerability, potentially leaving millions of Samsung devices vulnerable to attack, will be getting an OTA update that will resolve the issue. Be sure that you have Automatic Updates activated in your security settings, and you’ll be all patched in a few days. It’s better late than never, I guess.

Hilarious 1996 News Clip Warns About the Dangers of Virtual Reality

Are you excited for our virtual reality future? Well, don’t get too excited just yet. Because there are hidden dangers! Or at least that was the message from this hilariously alarmist NBC News segment from 1996. Brian Williams (look at that baby face!) introduces the report: In focus this evening, those so-called virtual reality games.…

These futuristic Nike shoes are inspired by the Back To The Future shoes

Because 2015 in real life hasn’t caught up to 2015 in Back to the Future, we don’t quite have dreamy auto-lacing Nike shoes. But! What we do have are these slick new Nike Hyperdunk 2015 that totally look ripped from the future and were actually inspired by the Nike MAG from BTTF 2. The silhouette…

These Impossibly Twisted 3D-Printed Faucets Somehow Actually Work

Besides being able to produce prototypes quickly and efficiently, 3D printers are also able to create complex shaped pieces that are impossible to make using traditional manufacturing techniques. That’s why American Standard has embraced 3D-printing for its new line of twisted faucets that seem physically impossible. 3D-printed from actual metal so they’ll last just as…

Herbert Armstrong: England’s Persistent Poisoner

Persistence is a trait often associated with officers of the law. But 19th century lawyer Herbert Armstrong found a far deadlier use for his doggedness by poisoning his wife and a rival solicitor. There’s just one catch: the man was no criminal mastermind. Herbert Armstrong and his wife, Kitty, had two girls and one boy.…

How Beats Tricks You Into Thinking It Makes a Premium Product [Updated]

The sneaky designers at Beats by Dre employ a clever trick to make you think that the company’s plastic headphones are durable products worth the premium price. Beats by Dre headphones are garbage. Besides their crappy sound, they’re basically designed to break. And yet they sell millions of pairs of headphones. It’s practically a perfect…

The five stages of watching a Pixar movie

We all like to think that we’re unique little human snowflakes but the truth is, most of us act and react to thinks very, very similarly. Like getting homicidal when hungry. Or grouchy when sleepy. Or getting excited when Starbucks sells pumpkin spice lattes and McDonald’s brings back the McRib even if you don’t drink…

First Full-Color HD Videos Of Earth Taken From Space Are Amazing

Satellite imagery has become a part of our daily digital lives; we use stills of our planet to navigate to the mall, for goodness sake. But when those images are moving, the result is so stunning that it’s almost magical. UrtheCast has released the first full-color HD video of Earth shot from the International Space…

So This Is What a $150 Xbox Controller Feels Like

“$150 for a gamepad? Hell nah.” When Microsoft announced the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller, those were my first thoughts. Then, like a fool, I decided to try it. You can probably see where this is going. Two Novembers ago, when the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One first hit the market, I’d decided that the DualShock…