Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Kickstarter is obsessed with trying to make things smart: just add Bluetooth, and you get smart locks, stoves, ovens, kettles, and now, water bottles. Because apparently, you are literally incapable of drinking unless you have a buzzing thing telling you to hydrate, every second of every day. Normally, I try and avoid bad crowdfunding projects…
Here’s a solid PSA: if you’re camping out a species of animal that is famously good at stealing stuff, don’t leave a shiny object just lying on the ground invitingly. Like, for example, a phone. This adorable (but vertical, ugh) video shows one intrepid YouTuber’s attempts to stake out a desert fox’s den. Things go…
Correction: We’ve learned that Android users will indeed get to try Apple Music for free, both as a free three-month trial and in a free tier very similar to the one iOS users can enjoy. The only difference is that Apple Music radio stations (aside from the flagship Beats 1 station) won’t be included on…
It’s an unprecedented move in higher education, but a welcome one. The U.S. Secretary of Education has pledged to forgive the loans of as many as 350 thousand students who were defrauded into taking on huge student loan debts by online schools owned by Corinthian Colleges. More students may also be eligible. In the New…
These enormous devices you can see in this fisheye photo are the main parts of remote manipulator arms at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s radiochemistry hot cell facility, where highly radioactive materials are used to produce isotopes for medical purposes. Just look at the worker below, you can see how massive those arms really are.…
Americans are simply not driving as much as they used to; most experts agree we hit “peak car.” But that’s not the story according to the Department of Transportation’s forecasts, which year after year show skyrocketing demand for more roads—and year after year are proven wrong. Still, states use this data to fund lots of…
Apple’s new campus is in the process of being built right now and it truly does look like a space ship is being constructed in sleepy Cupertino. Here’s the state of things so far, from August 2014 to May 2015, a pile of Mars-colored dirt is being transformed into a closed circle from the future.…
There are so many moving parts in a saxophone (like hundreds of ‘em!) and so many holes and so much going on in the instrument that it always needs tinkering and adjustment so it’s no wonder that Steve Goodson, legendary saxophone designer and restorer, is basically considered a magician for what he does. Anthony Bourdain…
Dinosaurs fossils, we’ve all been taught, consist of bone—their flesh, skin, and organs having decayed long ago. But a new discovery might upend that assumption: Scientists have found evidence of blood cells with the protein intact in eight fossils which were not even particularly well-preserved. Soft-tissues have been discovered in dinosaurs before, but the results…
You know you have one. I’m going to be examining a range of the weird, cool, strange, funny, terrible stuff the internet produces for Gizmodo. Sometimes these creations can skew controversial; but memes as most conceive of them — defined as “a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight…
We keep hearing how technology will eventually solve the problem of vehicular traffic for good. Self-driving cars will only get us halfway to that future—they’re still cars, clogging up our roads, speeding down our freeways. The personal mobility future that I’m waiting for includes autonomous drone taxis that can sail high over the city, delivering…
Pretty cool idea right! [A Better Kind of Selfie Stick]
Instagram is almost aggressively mobile-focused — browsing Instagram.com often feels like being punished for not using the app. Today, Instagram announced a redesigned Instagram website that feels a little less like a half-abandoned hellscape afterthought. Beginning today—and rolling out over the course of the week, as an Instagram rep told me today—your feed and your…
We got our first hands-on with Mattel’s new BOOMco Halo-themed blasters back at Toy Fair, but it looks like the first official opportunity for everyone to get their hands on the new additions to the line will be at the San Diego Comic-Con next month. The UNSC M6 Blaster and Covenant Plasma Overcharge Blaster will…
The men’s style section of the New York Times just ran an article about city slickers carrying pocketknives. It’s a trend, apparently. Which knives do they feature and how do they perform? Let’s analyze it. Yes, that’s me up top. They sent a photographer over who asked me do some stuff with a knife and…
An Israeli company called Flash Network is fighting dirty against people who called it out for sneaky javascript injections. It’s a prime example how companies use copyright laws to threaten and intimidate anyone who criticizes them. When an Indian blogger named Thejesh GN noticed some suspicious javascript injected into the browsing sessions of popular telecom…
It’s impossible to count how many artists, designers, and Nintendo fans have been inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto’s work, but you can add the folks at Mr. Jones Watches to that list. Their latest timepiece is this Super Mario Bros.-inspired creation featuring the side-scrolling landscape from the original NES game. Appropriately called the Sun and Moon…
This week’s episode of Meanwhile in the Future gets very scary, very quickly. And we’re not going all that far into the future, either. We’re already starting to see the beginnings of an age without antibiotics. So what does a world without these drugs look like? Listen to find out. Over the past 85 years,…
Got a 2015 Samsung Smart TV? Enjoy PlayStation games? Sony’s PS Now service—which streams PS3 games over the internet—is now available on most of Samsung’s 4K sets and a few cheaper screens. There’s a free trial, then $20 monthly. It’s also coming to last year’s TVs. [Sony]
The Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver is one of the hidden gems of PC gaming—it lets you play loads of Windows PC games from the couch with controllers you already own. This fall, a $25 dongle will let you do the same with your Xbox One gamepads, too! Sure, you could already use Xbox One…
