Tech News

Detroit’s Saddest Parking Lot Has a Hopeful Future

It’s almost too perfect a picture of urban decay: an opulent movie palace turned hollow and empty into a parking lot. In recent decades, Detroit’s Michigan Theater has become iconic for all the wrong reasons, but it’s just been bought by a developer with plans to revitalize the building and, with it, a small chunk…

Exclusive: 50 Cent’s SMS Audio Making Headphones That Keep Track of Your Run

50 Cent’s SMS Audio is about to announce a major deal that could help keep it from getting left behind by the newly forged Apple-Beats powerhouse. Sources close to the deal told us that the company will announce a new set of headphones based on Intel’s health monitoring technology this very evening. SMS is no…

Charge Three Gadgets at Once in the Car, Grab a PS4 for Cheap [Deals]

You can keep everyone charged up and happy on long road trips with this three-port, 32W USB car charger. It’s a newly-released item, but promo code FB9WX7J8 knocks the price down under $13. [Bolse 3-Port 32W USB Car Charger, $13 with promo code FB9WX7J8] If you just can’t abide wires, these highly-rated Bluetooth on-ears from…

The Simple Reason We Like Buying Food In Clear Packaging

Back in the olden days, most food packaging was thick and opaque—all the better to keep out elements like light and moisture which could potentially spoil our Funyuns. Now Americans are gravitating towards packaging that lets us actually see the food we’re buying. And it makes sense why this trend is gaining momentum now. According…

A Plush-Disguised Camera Lets Drivers Keep an Eye On Back-Seat Infants

There are plenty of distractions you should be ignoring while driving, like your smartphone. But others, like your infant in a car seat behind you, you simply can’t ignore. So instead of taking your eyes off the road to turn around and check on them, or futzing with your rear-view mirror, the Always in View…

Confused Sharks Keep Trying to Eat Google’s Undersea Data Cables

Laying fiber optic cables down on the ocean floor is a massive undertaking in its own right. But now, Google actually has to go back and reinforce some of its thousands of miles of undersea cable—because hungry sharks keep mistaking the world’s data lines for lunch. The reinforcement initiative, announced just last week at a…

What Is the LRAD Sound Cannon?

Protests in Ferguson, Missouri have reached a terrifying fever pitch, and the ludicrously armed Ferguson Police Department is bringing all its crowd-control weapons to bear, tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets, you name it. One of the more controversial of those is the LRAD Sound Cannon. So what’s the harm in a little noise? Well,…

What Tear Gas Does to Its Victims

Tear gas is banned for use in warfare by the Geneva Convention. It’s allowed, however, to be used by police as “domestic riot control,” as seen in protests in Turkey, Bahrain, and now Ferguson, Missouri. Here’s what you need to know about tear gas: What it is, and what it does to the human body.…

Here’s A Six-Minute Summary of the Curiosity Rover Mission

Did you miss out on the early days of the Curiosity rover mission? Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Felicia Day have you covered with this six-minute story on the Mars rover from conception through launch and landing to the discoveries made on the red planet. You’re huge into space — you watch every beautiful launch, get…

The First Supercomputer-Designed Wind Farm Is Coming To Mexico

Mexico is getting a brand new wind farm from a Spanish company called Iberdrola, and it’s no ordinary field of windmills. This one will be the very first to be designed by a supercomputer. Humans: who need ’em? The farm will be located on a mile and a half high spot in Puebla state, which…

Block Images and Plug-ins To Speed Up Sluggish Wi-Fi

Fortunately, high-speed Wi-Fi is now pretty ubiquitous, especially if you live in a major metropolis. However, there are still occasions when you’ll find yourself without a strong Internet connection, whether it’s on a long train trip, in a dodgy hotel, or when you’re tethering from your phone in a remote wilderness. A couple of quick…

From Bugs Bunny to Wile E. Coyote: The Animation Genius of Chuck Jones

It’s a good bet that you spent hundreds of childhood hours with Chuck Jones, even if you didn’t know who he was at the time. “What’s Up, Doc? The Animation Art of Chuck Jones” is a new exhibition which chronicles the work of the legendary animator who breathed life into household names like Bugs Bunny,…

Apple Patented a Mouse that Would Vibrate at Your Touch

Imagine if your mouse was more like a games controller, providing feedback as you navigated your desktop. Well, Apple’s certainly had that idea—and described it in this recently approved patent for a mouse that reacts to your use. The “Force Sensing Mouse” patent describes how sensors in a mouse could measure the level and location…

Ultraviolet camera shows why we should always wear sunscreen

Thomas Leveritt asked random people on the street to pose in front of his ultraviolet camera to show them how sun really affects their skin. It’s amazing how much we change. When we are kids our skin looks spotless, but as we grow older the exposure to sunlight ages it and invisible freckles start appearing…

If you think you have it bad with your family life, be grateful that at least you get some ready-made answers to security questions. [Doghouse Diaries]

Shazam has pulled a U-turn and restored its Spotify sharing tool to its service. It’s now also reported to be testing Beats Music integration on iOS, too.

A British Pilot’s Artificial Arm Came Off, Almost Caused Crash Landing

The pilot of a Flybe flight from Birmingham to Belfast City Airport managed to get himself in a bit of a mess last year—when his artificial arm somehow came off during a landing. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch report into the incident, just now issued, makes for bizarre reading. It explains that the man’s “…prosthetic…

One of the Best Cybersecurity Minds on Earth Uses a Pager Not a Phone

Dan Geer is world-renowned cyber security researcher. He’s Chief Information Security Officer at In-Q-Tel, a non-profit venture capital firm. Hid company invests in technology to support the CIA. He’s knows his shit. And he uses a pager instead of a smartphone. The Washington Post spoke to Geer after the keynote speech at last week’s Black…

This Is What a Heart Injected With Liquid Metal Looks Like

Two researchers from a Beijing University have found a way to create 3D X-Ray images of some of the smallest blood vessels in the heart — by filling it with liquid metal. Gallium is a metal which melts at 29 degrees centigrade, so it’s liquid at the normal temperature of a human body. It’s stable,…

A Forgotten Einstein Model of the Universe Describes the Big Crunch

Way back in 1931, Albert Einstein visited the U.S. for three months. Inspired by meetings with Edwin Hubble, he began thinking about the Universe differently, writing a paper in four days to get down his thoughts—and now, those first scribblings have been translated into English for the first time. “On the cosmological problem of the…