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Apple is seriously talking to payments-industry companies about debuting a mobile wallet, according to a report from The Information. Executives are at least considering a fall release date, and are discussing hardware security features. The Information spoke to sources that cite Visa as a potential partner. This isn’t a new rumor, but the specificity of…
A man has his boots cleaned by an automatic penny-in-the-slot boot polishing machine in November of 1907. [Getty Images] Factually is Gizmodo’s new blog of fun facts, interesting photos, and weird trivia. Join us on Twitter and Facebook.
Tracking the lightning quick development of modern cities is easy with Google Street View, but a big new project aims to provide context for the past 1,000 years of urban evolution in Venice, Italy. The Venice Time Machine will digitize and catalog a staggering amount of historical documents—a combined 50 miles worth of shelves!—then turn…
There are lots of different kinds of love out there, but perhaps none more pure than between people and their favorite books. You could keep a copy of your one and only out at all times, prominently placed on a shelf at home, or you could spring for one of these posters, t-shirts, or totes…
Here’s the thing about drones—and really any machine that flies: If something goes wrong, it will fall to the ground. And if you are in the way, it will hurt you. That’s why DJI is rolling out a new feature called DropSafe to ensure that a falling drone doesn’t fall too hard. The principle is…
“The second time I rode into London in an effort to gain some fitness, rather than take the train, ended like this,” says YouTube user cyclejack. “This” being an idiot in a car deciding to ignore him, ramming and sending him and his bicycle into the air. Miraculously, he wasn’t injured, just bruised. I was…
There is perhaps no unfinished skyscraper more infamous than Torre de David, a 45-story shell of a building that has informally housed about 5,000 Venezuelans since 2007. Now the property that has become known as the world’s tallest slum is being acquired by Chinese investors, and this week, the government began evicting residents. As reported…
Radio telescopes, which you may remember Jodie Foster intently listening to for signs of alien life in Contact, pluck out radio waves from far away space. Ordinary communications satellite dishes also pick up radio waves, but of manmade origin. So hmm, how easily can you convert one into another? It’s totally possible, according to New…
The designers at Studio Kuadra have deconstructed the iconic cuckoo clock for this amusing new timepiece that introduces a pair of bird watchers, obsessively hoping to catch a glimpse of the cuckoo in a nearby tree at the top of the hour. For those who love plants in their home but are notorious for absent-mindedly…
When Hiroo Onoda got dropped off on in the Philippines during World War II, the Japanese soldier was told two things: 1) You are absolutely forbidden to die by your own hand. And 2) It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens, we’ll come back for you. They didn’t come back,…
German astronaut Alexander Gerst reports live with this photo of Gaza from the International Space Station. This is his description. “My saddest photo yet. From #ISS we can actually see explosions and rockets flying over #Gaza & #Israel” A sad view indeed—although I have to confess that I can’t distinguish which light flares are normal…
When Valve first announced its controller for the Steambox, it was a weird little dude with strange, small buttons and a touchscreen. And for as weird as it was, it was kind of great. Then it lost the touchscreen for standard buttons and a D-pad. And now it’s getting a thumbstick. https://gizmodo.com/steam-is-getting-its-very-own-controller-1411630652 The new design…
This huge chocolate mill—created by Studio Wieki Somers and chocolatier Rafael Mutter for a retrospective on the Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld—reveals intricate geometrical designs as you rotate the sharp metal arm that shaves it one millimeter at time. It cements my conviction that all art should be edible and delicious. I would be content with…
Back in college I took an undergrad law course that devoted a day to looking at silly old laws that were still on the books. One of the laws stated that it was illegal to serve margarine in any Wisconsin restaurant without also offering customers butter. The whole class thought it was hilarious. And then,…
Glitch art. It’s visual rock ‘n roll, about creating a message from distortion. And for this week’s Shooting Challenge, send us your best photographic glitch. (Don’t worry, breaking the system is easier than you think.) The Challenge Take a photo and glitchify it. You can either create the distortions inside your camera, or you can…
According to the Rated RR guys, this is the most difficult trick in the world: Fire a bullet against a machete and split it in two hitting two targets. They didn’t only do it once—but twice in a row. And then once more, shooting backwards using an iPad as a mirror to aim. SPLOID is…
Despite the well-documented foibles of autocorrect, it actually is pretty good at turning my gibberish touch typing into comprehensible if profanity-free prose. For that, we have a man by the name of Bill Vaginal to thank. Erh, I mean Vignola. Over at Wired, Gideon Lewis-Kraus has written a facinating history of autocorrect. (Lewis-Kraus wrote the…
Here is the most fun way to make bread: Prepare a massive pile of dough, brightly colored with natural dyes; cut off a small section and flatten it out; place that pizza-like sheet on top of an industrial-strength blower and watch it inflate into a toasty, instantly edible balloon. Blow Dough was the brainchild of…
Sitting is undeniably one of the comfiest ways to arrange your body. Almost as good as lounging, really, and just short of “dangling worry-free from hammock.” But it has acquired a very bad rap over the past few years. A bad rap it doesn’t quite deserve. Studies say sitting will kill us in all sorts…
Spearfishing combines the thrill of the hunt with swimming in the ocean and eating healthy, tasty fish. We figured that sounded like fun so, last weekend, paddled kayaks to a remote beach and caught some fish. This was our very first time spearfishing. Chris (the Neptune lookalike above) and I have both wanted to try…
