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Between phones, tablets, laptops, media centers, smart home devices and whatever other technology is scattered around your home, there are likely multiple operating systems in your life. But how many, exactly? Yesterday’s XKCD took an amusing look at the past, present and future of Randall Munroe’s OS habits. How do they compare to your current…
If you weren’t a fan of Matthew McConaughey’s brooding lead in Interstellar, then the obvious highlight of the movie wasTARS, the 70 percent funny army-surplus robot that accompanies him through space and time. This replica, made for Seattle Comic Con, honestly looks better than the real thing. Iain Heath, the creator, pieced together an enthralling…
When the YouTube Kids app was announced six weeks ago, it seemed like a nice, safe way to ensconce your child in a fuzzy walled garden of Sesame Street and a certain friendly Tank Engine. But according to a complaint filed with the FTC today, it’s exposing kids to a “hyper-commercialized” environment with basically no…
As the ongoing Meerkatification of humanity proves, the internet (in one form or another) is becoming more and more about video. At peak times, Netflix and YouTube alone account for half of all web traffic. That’s an understandably huge burden for ISPs to carry. But as well as making the pipes bigger, we can also…
I still remember feeling like THX’s iconic Deep Note sound vibrated inside my chest whenever I watched a movie in a theater. So I guess it’s appropriate that the new, updated sequence gives me that same trembling sensation while also making it feel like I’m inside the body of some monster’s eyeball. It sounds perfectly…
There’s nothing new about streaming video from your phone, or posting live news updates from important events. But now companies are trying to make the experience of streaming your life more real than ever before — and they’re doing it by telling us very dangerous white lies. Image by Alexander Supertramp via Shutterstock Livestreaming started…
It turns out that memes are something that white people like. At least, that’s one possible way to understanda recent study of 50 popular memes, which found that there are an awful lot of white people in these widely-shared internet joke cycles. Over at the Washington Post, Caitlin Dewey explains this aspect of the study:…
Yes, Google wants to be a wireless carrier. Not to take the whole world by storm (yet), but to push the limits of what wireless carriers do. The latest possible perk? Service outside the US at no additional cost. According toreports from The Telegraph, Google’s in talks with the UK carrier Three so that its…
Blink and you’ll miss him. That’s because mountain bike rider Eric Barone is going faster than anyone has ever gone on a mountain bike on snow. He reached 138.752 MPH on a bike with the help of a terrifyingly steep, snowy hill and the wonder of aerodynamic gear. He goes FAST. One wrong move or…
Want to do the stuff you read about us doing? There’s a practical approach to learning any new sport, one which breaks down the barriers, reduces risk and speeds the learning curve. It’s what we do, and it should work for you too. This year I’ve decided to pick up shotgun shooting, I need to…
Although their repeated use has blunted their impact a little, Doctor Who’s Weeping Angels are still capable of giving young kids (and the kids at heart) a good jump-scare now and then. What better way to remind your little loved ones of such moments of terror than ensuring they never sleep again? The tiny little…
Today is opening day for most of major league baseball, a sport that’s imbued with tradition. But this game outfitted with old-timey pinstripes and vintage Cracker Jack packaging is enjoyed in mostly contemporary spaces: 23 out of 30 teams play in stadiums that were built after 1990. Put another way: Two-thirds of major league ballparks…
If there’s one contraption in your kitchen that never gets lost in a drawer, it’s your paper towel holder. It’s as essential to baking and cooking as your stove is—so integrating a one-handed kitchen timer on top of one is not just clever. It’s downright brilliant. With clear markings allowing it to be easily set…
One of NASA’s premier wind tunnels at the Langley Research Center is broken. The motor, which drives the tunnel’s wooden blades, experienced an electrical short. So how do you repair a massive aging subsonic wind tunnel? For those of us who love observing huge structures and machines being dismantled and put back together again, NASA…
Who knew that Game of Thrones could be summed up with a simple game of musical chairs? Sesame Street did that’s who. Following up their on point parody of House of Cards, the muppets are back to teach kids about Game of Thrones. Well, minus the violence and sex and evil human plotting. In any…
The early 1980s were a watershed moment for digital technology. Aside from the imminent personal computing revolution, it was clear that video recording could change the way we did everything from watch movies to shop for new clothes. And Sears was on it. As the VHS-Betamax wars raged, Sears made a bold move into the…
The first time I held a piece of aerogel was one of those reality-bending experiences that reorganizes the molecules of your brain a little. It was a block about the size of a Rubix Cube, it looked like a faint wisp of cloud, and it weighed nothing. Not literally nothing—but so little that my body…
The Transportation Security Administration uses full-body scanners and other equipment to gauge whether travelers are a threat or not. And as much as it sucks to go through the TSA’s invasive X-ray and scanning checkpoints, it turns out the TSA’s tactics are pretty messed upeven when they’re low-tech. One of the TSA’s lowest-tech methods of…
The weapons race in the world of complicated mechanical watches inches towards a horological doomsday as DeWitt reveals its new Academia Mathematical that replaces a pair of hands with a visible hodge-podge of numbered dials—which somehow manage to continually align themselves to perfectly display the time throughout the day. To be clear, the watch isn’t…
Man at Arms is at its best when it makes real life versions of the weapons we see in our favorite movies, TV shows, comic books and video games. Turning something that lived in our dreams into something in real life is always fun. This video has the guys artfully making Arya’s Needle sword and…
