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New Zealand is a country of dramatic landscapes, astounding skies, and not a lot of people to get in the way. Today’s stunning timelapse is a four-part series of break-sized awe for the beauty of the natural world, and an excellent excuse to talk about the science behind the breathtaking scenes. Martin Heck of Timestorm…
Two years ago, as Google first showed off Android Jelly Bean, we sat down with then-Director of Android User Experience Matias Duarte to discuss where the operating system was heading. Fast forward this week’s Google I/O, where Duarte—now Google’s Vice President of Design—introduced Material Design. We had the chance, once again, to ask him about…
Some classic cars end up in museums, other in private collections, but a handful of 1969 Camaro Z/28s are going to live out the rest of their lives as a gorgeous 1/32-scale slot car track complete with authentic decor, foliage, stands full of tiny fans, and even LED night lighting. Automotive enthusiasts will probably grimace…
You don’t need to know much more about the Fleshlight Launchpad other than it’s an iPad case that you have sex with (and that the Lightning connector is not, uhm, liquidproof), but here is a photo in case you really need the visual, in the way you need the visual on your iPad while you…
High Dynamic Range photography represents the incredible feats that can be accomplished with digital imaging. But! HDR abuse is also responsible for some of the most horrendous displays of photographic over-indulgence. This must stop. For the past few years it has not been unusual to see wild HDR photos pop up all over the internet.…
This clip from Singham—a Bollywood action (comedy?) movie—is from 2011, but its ridiculous climax had to be edited in glorious GIF form. So here it is. Enjoy! (Oh, and you can watch this jewel on Netflix, preferably if you are stoned. Thanks Batmanuel!—Ed.) SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
After a spinal cord injury, there are few sentences more depressing than “She’ll never walk again.” Soon it may be uttered far less often: the ReWalk bionic suit, an assistive exoskeleton designed to give people with spinal cord injuries the scaffolding to help them walk, was approved yesterday for sale by the U.S. Food and…
Earlier this week, Google showed off Android Auto, a dashboard navigation and entertainment system powered by an Android smartphone. It’s almost identical in concept to competing designs from Apple and Microsoft. For perhaps the first time, these companies have a unified vision for the future of in-car electronics. And that’s the best news car buyers…
Kaleidoscopes use light and mirrors to turn beads and jewels into an optical funhouse. But there’s an easier way. You can actually turn any digital photo into a kaleidoscope. The Challenge Take a photo and transform it into a kaleidoscope-esque image. Send us BOTH the original photo and the edited version. See what we mean…
This PSA starts with a couple of kids fighting with mom’s dildos in the front yard. Then mom feels really ashamed about it and at the end, after an unexpected twist, I felt the same way. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
Photographer Bernhard Lang took these amazing aerial photos while strapped underneath ultralight planes. Somehow his images manage to capture beauty in the most unlikely of places—whether he is taking pictures of container ports, car parks or even open pit coal mines. Bernhard’s images from one of Germany’s biggest ports (above) look like pixels lit up…
Sometimes corporate Twitter can be a soul-sucking place. All that shilling. All that engagement. #So #many #hashtags. So I went on the search for a few brands that didn’t make me want to unfollow life. To my surprise, I found a few. To make the cut here, these accounts have to actually have a personality,…
The Amazon Appstore already gives away one free app each day, but now it’s gone and decided to give away 30 apps, worth a combined total of $100, for free to anyone with an Android phone. Here are the pick of the bunch that you should download first. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nav_sap_mas_14_06_27_%24100_Bundle?tag=gizmodo08c-20 The “Epic Summer App Bundle” giveaway…
Following Brett Domino’s quick guide, you can compose one of those songs that sticks into people’s heads and turn you into an unbearable pop star. It’s so ridiculously easy it’s hilarious. You might know Brett already from his covers of famous tunes. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
Everyone’s recording video these days—from the phone in your hand to the GoPro strapped to your head—but that means there’s a lot of garbage being filmed, too. Now, a new piece of software from Carnegie Mellon University can automatically edit out the boring bits and allow you to watch just the interesting parts. The new…
This incredibly beautiful object is a dual-axis array of non-imaging solar concentrators—or, in other words, a solar panel. Things have certainly changed, haven’t they? It was developed for photovoltaic conversion by Sun Trac Corp. for the Argonne National Laboratory in the seventies. That was when studying solar power—and searching for the most efficient ways to…
This robotically woven carbon-fiber pavilion imitates the structure of a beetle shell using weaving robots. The 538 square foot (50 square meters), 1307 pounds (593 kilograms) double-domed structure has web-like walls and ceilings that make it look as it was made by xenomorphs. This is how they made it. Marshall Prado researcher and team member…
Tip-tap-tip-tap-tippety-tap. We all spend our days bashing keys at our computer—so how much energy could we create if we could recover just a little of it? First, it’s worth noting that not all energy recovery systems work: some, like regenerative braking, do; Solar Freaking Roadways, not so much. But Randall Munroe of XKCD has run…
Walmart is to sell the 16GB iPhone 5c for $30 and the 16GB iPhone 5s for $100, both with a two-year contract, from 9am today, local time.[Engadget]
YouTube is about to get smoother: Google has announced that its video site is getting support for videos running at 48-and-60 frames-per-second. Slick. To take advantage of those higher frame rates, video will need to be at 1080p resolution—and you’ll also have to watch videos at that definition to view 48 or 60 fps too.…
