Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
People want their smartwatches to be fashion statements. And some have gone to extreme measures—including one enterprising, sandpaper-equipped individual—to make them uniquely their own. Now, Motorola is making it way easier to build your own Moto 360 smartwatch—no sandpaper required. Moto Maker, the online customization tool previously reserved only for the Moto X smartphone, will…
A water balloon fight is no fun when kids have to keep running back to their parents to tie the balloons for them. Using tiny elastics the Bunch O Balloons came up with a slightly better way to automatically tie 37 water balloons at once, but these Zorbz appear to have the best solution yet,…
Astronauts Terry Virts and Butch Wilmore clambered outside the space station in the second spacewalk to reconfigure the station for the commercial crew transport program. The mission was totally successful, until they returned indoors and learned that for the second time, spacesuit #3005 started filing with water. Virts hard at work, unaware his spacesuit is…
A little over a year ago, Facebook finally did away with its highly restrictive gender options. (It was male, female, or nothing.) But instead of being open-ended, the social network would still only let you choose from among a list of 56 options. Now, after catching some flak, Facebook is finally offering infinite options. You…
You can zoom in this 48-megapixel image of the USAF boneyard in Tucson, Arizona—stitched from Bing Maps satellite images—and try to identify all those airplanes. Or you can watch this USAF documentary on how the US stockpiles thousands of planes in deserts around the country to keep the active fleet flying.* Or you can do…
We’ve all shaken a fitness tracker or two in our lives to beat the system. But now, Pornhub is making a wearable meant for just that—shaking. And beating. It’s called the Wankband, and it lets you charge your gadgets by jacking off. It was only a matter of time. According to Pornhub’s (decidedly SFW) video,…
It’s a historic day for the internet. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) just passed the strongest net neutrality rules in this country’s history. This is great news! But let me repeat: The battle for net neutrality is still not over. In a sense, the real battle begins now. Now that the vote is in, a…
The open internet finally got the protection it deserves from profit-hungry cable companies. The FCC just approved the strongest set of net neutrality rules in this country’s history, punctuating a years-long battle for this future of the internet. However, the war’s not yet over. https://gizmodo.com/net-neutrality-wins-what-now-1688183094 The new rules largely resemble the open internet rules that…
Funko unveiled a line of Doctor Who toys for their ever-growing, ever-consuming Pop! Vinyl license at New York Toy Fair, but now we can get a full look at the whole line in this slew of promo pictures. Multiple Doctors, and a TARDIS to put them all in! Cybermen! Cute little Daleks! Oh my. Unlike…
Facebook doesn’t exactly have the greatest track record when it comes to sensitivity, but its newest tool (built in collaboration with National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) is thankfully bucking that trend. Now, if you see a worrisome post from a friend and report it, Facebook will prompt them to get help on their next login—after a…
You left a few awesome habits behind when you grew up: Wearing dinosaur costumes, attending sleepovers, and maybe most importantly, blowing bubbles. So for this week’s Shooting Challenge, photograph bubbles. The Challenge Take a photo of a bubble. It can be a floating bubble you’ve blown, or you can always go with a soap bubble…
Yes, we know a whoooole lot about the Apple Watch by this point, but not when exactly it’s coming. But now, Apple’s sent out invites for a “Spring forward” event on March 9th. When Apple announced its watch without actually releasing it, it gave up some of the magic its had in the past. And…
I have had black sesame ice-cream and it’s absolutely delicious. It didn’t look like this soft black sesame ice cream cone, however. The one I had was absolutely black. This one looks weird, as if someone got a time machine to order a cone in 1038, when all ice cream was in black and white.…
Good news: Local internet service providers could get a fair shot at competing with big telecom. In a 3-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission just voted to overrule laws limiting municipal broadband growth in two states. Similar laws blocking cities from building out their own broadband networks exist in 19 other states, and the FCC…
NASA’s Earth Observatory has spent over fifteen years using satellites to collect hordes of real-time data across our planet’s surface. They reveal everything from temperature and energy use, to how much radiation we beam into space. Here’s how to understand satellite data maps to understand our planet’s vital signs. Above: Carbon dioxide absorption by Earth’s…
One of several startups endeavoring to build Elon Musk’s Hyperloop vision thinks it can start building a test track to demonstrate and develop the idea next year. That’s a lovely sounding idea, but let’s file this plan under “insanely hypothetical.” Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. is a crowdsourced team of hundreds of brains that are trying…
Last month WhatsApp rolled out a web client, and yesterday it announced support for Firefox and Opera as well as Chrome, so it seems like an opportune time to show you how to switch between your browser and your mobile. There’s still no love for iOS users or for Safari right now, but the rest…
When a decades old toy breaks down and stops working with no hope of repair, you usually just toss it or find some way to recycle the parts. But what if you’re as attached to that toy as you were a pet? In Japan, people are giving Sony’s robot AIBO dog actual funerals to say…
Over at the FCC, the regulatory agency is voting on Net Neutrality — and they are streaming the vote live from 10:30 AM EST onward. Go watch it! The result of this vote will determine whether the internet remains a democratically-controlled common carrier, or becomes more like television, whose broadcasts are largely controlled by a…
You wait so long for an Ellen Ripley figure that actually has Sigourney Weaver’s likeness, and two come along at once! NECA have unveiled their next wave of Alien toys, and that recently revealed Power Loader is going to get a Ripley to go with it. https://gizmodo.com/necas-aliens-power-loader-is-the-perfect-accompanient-t-1686503839 Although only shown as a prototype sculpt, there…
