Tech News

The Overgrown, Disused Railway That Still Runs Around Paris

Paris has a lot of history embedded in its sprawling urban grid, which has seen thousands of years of structural change. But even though space is at a premium, there are still spots that have evaded development and slowly drifted into obscurity. When photographer Pierre Folk was new to the city, he happened upon Chemin…

Apple TV is adding the Showtime Anytime app to its offerings today. Slowly, but surely, you’re getting more options on the Apple streaming platform.

DJ Matthew Dear Sampled Thousands of GE Machines to Make This Banger

DJ Matthew Dear teamed up with General Electric acoustics engineer Andrew Gorton to sample the tones created by the churn of “thousands” of different GE machines, from turbines to medical equipment. The sounds were then chopped up and reassembled into “Drop Science,” a frantic, meticulous music experiment. Matthew Dear’s career in weirdo music has taken…

Jennifer Lawrence and Scarlett Johansson morphed into one person

Maybe one day—when we get an X-Men vs Avengers movie crossover—we will see Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) morphing into the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). Until then we will have this fan morph, which looks surprisingly beautiful. Usually, these kind of morphs end being pretty terrible. Do you have any other favorite of actors or actresses? Post…

Good God, Someone’s Selling a 99-Pack of Beer

Because everything is bigger in Texas, an Austin brewery has made a 99 pack of beers for 99 bucks. Ninety-nine beers, in one case. God bless America. In each massive case—you’ll need two, possibly three people to carry the whole thing—you will find 99 cans of Austin Beerworks’ Anytime Ale. But getting one of these…

7 Glimpses into Android’s Beautiful Future

The newest version of Android (Lemon Meringue Pie?) is on its way, bringing with it a whole new look for Google at large. For now it’s just a beta, but designers are already playing with Google’s new guidelines. So far, so good. The following collection of GIFs aren’t official apps; they’re guesses, by some talented…

The mesmerizing traffic of the Panama Canal in a fascinating time lapse

I can watch this time-lapse video of the Panama Canal’s ship traffic forever. Up, down, up, down—so mesmerizing. Here is a first person angle: SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

Evernote’s New Desk Organizers Keep Your Physical Stuff Tidy Too

Evernote has been helping you organize your digital world for a while, and now it has a little more to offer as far as your desk is concerned; it’s just added a whole new line of desk organizers to its offerings. The Pheiffer Collection was designed by furniture maker Eric Pfeiffer in collaboration with Evernote’s…

A Google Image Search Bug Is Flooding Results With a Russian Car Crash

Some lucky Google image searchers this morning have been met with a few rows of normal results, followed by many many more rows of the same image of a car crash in Russia. Jalopnik has the full rundown below. https://jalopnik.com/has-google-images-been-hacked-to-show-a-russian-car-cra-1626862262

Build Your Own Adorably Tiny Arcade Cabinet With This DIY Kit

If arcades were part of your childhood, you’ve probably yearned for a cabinet of your own for playing classics like Pac-Man or Galaga. The only downside is they’re not exactly portable, here’s a better solution. This arcade cabinet stands just eight inches tall, so you can carry it anywhere, and it uses a Raspberry Pi…

Candles That Light Themselves Mean No Match-Hunting on Birthdays

Birthdays are as much about celebrating someone as they are a desperate attempt to find a book of matches or a working lighter to secretly get the candles on a birthday cake lit. But that mad hunt for fire could be a thing of the past if these self-lighting Match Candles ever become a reality.…

9 Failed Designs That Would Have Changed Times Square Forever

Times Square is one big, incredible machine that has the sweet caress of capitalism to thank for its success as much as it does careful city planning. However, when the area was famously filthy in 1984, New York City contemplated a major intervention that would’ve changed the landscape of Midtown profoundly. The intervention itself never…

Xerox’s Robot Printer Brings Your Documents Right To You

The one advantage to the paperless office being nowhere in sight is that every time you print something you get to leave your desk and waste time while wandering over to the copy room. At least until Fuji Xerox’s robot printer concept that delivers printed documents right to your desk becomes commonplace. Thanks to an…

New Oculus Rift game allows you to train like a real Jedi

Without a doubt, the Oculus Rift will be the be-all and end-all of our most cherished nerd fantasies (until the holodeck comes.) Example: This game to train like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars—a remote floats around you firing stun blasts that you have to deflect with your lightsaber. The video is a demo of a…

​Blue Mo-Fi Review: Great-Sounding Headphones That Aren’t Quite Great

Blue Microphones is best known for, uh, microphones. And not just any mics; they specialize in the expensive studio kind, well-regarded for sound and design, not the beaters you used in your high school garage band. But while Blue’s headphones pop, they’re not much for getting around. Blue has been teasing its $350 Mo-Fi headphones…

This Beautiful Knife Is Handmade by Bicycle Builders

Horse is better known for its bicycles than anything else because, well, it’s a bicycle company. But proving that actually it’s just a master with all things steel is this beautiful camping knife. https://gizmodo.com/a-handmade-horse-bike-will-be-your-gorgeous-lifelong-st-1581991241 Designed and handmade by Horse’s Thomas Callahan of Horse Cycles, this knife is inspired by traditional, utilitarian outdoor knives of Scandinavia.…

The Man Who Grew Eyes From Scratch

Growing nerve tissue and organs is a sci-fi dream. Moheb Costandi met the pioneering researcher who grew eyes and brain cells. The train line from mainland Kobe is a marvel of urban transportation. Opened in 1981, Japan’s first driverless, fully automated train pulls out of Sannomiya station, guided smoothly along elevated tracks that stand precariously…

Slow motion video captures people’s faces as they get hit with tasers

Photographer Patrick Hall took a series of portraits of people getting hit with a 300,000-volt taser. What’s even better: He also made a super-slow-motion video of the process for our enjoyment. According to Hall, the taser was strong enough to get the facial expressions he wanted but it couldn’t hurt them in any way. Check…

These New Glasses Could Make Augmented Reality Practical

Augmented reality is awesome, but seriously, you don’t want to wear bulky glasses that use lenses, beam splitters and reflectors that make the magic happen. A Ph.D student at UNC-Chapel Hill has developed a sleek pair of augmented reality glasses that are actually light and compact. Andrew Maimone has been working with three other researchers…

Pilot takes off from car road in the Alps to do some crazy acrobatics

I can help but to feel a mix of awe, envy, and fear as I watch Red Bull Air Force pilot Hannes Arch taking off from a road in the Austrian Alps and then perform some what-the-hell-are-you-noooooo-oh-my-god-you-got-to-be-kidding acrobatics way too close to all those amazing ridges. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join…