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They keynote at Google’s big developer conference is over, and in its three hours(!) we found out about AndroidTV, Android Auto, and the next big release of Android for you phone. But there was also a ton of rumored stuff that Google didn’t announce. Here’s what was missing, and our best guesses at why. A…
Between 1928 and 1932, two Art Deco skyscrapers were built in Lower Manhattan to house the telecommunications infrastructure for Western Union and AT&T. Almost 100 years later, the towers are still fulfilling their original intentions as data centers for Telx, an internet services company. The new film Urban Giants goes inside these towers, located at…
Next time you’re flying over Moab, Utah—okay, maybe the next time you’re checking out Google Maps—look over to see this lake of unnatural shape and color. You can’t miss it; it’s the electric blue smudge in an ocean of brown rock. These are a series of evaporation ponds for potash, or salts that contain potassium…
Sappy couple alert! Say you’re sitting in your apartment—feeling a little emo (it’s okay!)—watching the sky get stormy beyond your window. Your baby’s not near but you want to share the moment—and that’s where Patch of Sky comes in. The fixtures wirelessly link up to your location and remotely mirror the weather wherever you’re at—the…
God knows we should all be driving slower, but we’re only human. Even the threat of a fine can’t stop us. So to counteract this self-destructive streak of ours, Hyundai is working on car that automatically slows itself down in the face of speed cameras. A Hyundai spokesman offered some insight into this awesome little…
Cupcakes could quite possibly be one of the world’s most perfect foods—a tiny cake, just for you!—were it not for those annoying wrappers you have to peel away. But thanks to Dr. Oetker, those are now edible too. There’s no proof that the genius behind these edible cupcake wrappers is even an actual accredited doctor,…
Before we all got distracted by Yo, Snapchat was the app du jour. It’s used by millions, imitated by many, and has something indefinably special at the heart of it. While many people assume Snapchatting involves teenagers passing revealing pictures between themselves—is this true? We really wouldn’t know—there’s actually much more to the app than…
Well, this is a fascinating story. In May, Gizmodo posted a large collection of air traffic control towers—and you, the readers, added many of your own contributions in the comments. Now, the collection has helped inspire a set of beautiful posters devoted to the towers. According to Heidi Muller, the founder of 08 Left, the…
While it might surprise some that the iPod touch is still trundling along, the entire lineup has gotten a significant price cut today—and the lowest-end version picked up a fancy new camera and a color spectrum. The 16GB iPod touch now costs $200, down from $230, and comes in pink, yellow, blue, and grey in…
The Swedish Tekniska museet has just released this charming vintage photograph of “the World’s first mechanical elephant”, giving no further information about the huge robotic creature in the black and white shot. But, according to Cybernetic Zoo, this is Bensina, one of several mechanical elephants designed by British engineer Frank Stuart in the Fifties: He…
A mathematician from Morgan Freeman’s show Through The Wormhole shows how fast an hypothetical zombie virus could spread around the world. The epidemic would be inevitable and cities would be overran in weeks. If you don’t feel that’s worrying wait until you hear it from Freeman’s epic voice. I’m not a fan of zombies and…
Storage can be so boring sometimes—but not if you’re friends with Stockholm designers Erik Olovsson and Kyuhyung Cho, because they’ve decided to create a shelving system that resembles the shape-sorter toys we all used to play with as kids. The Room system is a modular design, which includes 25 stackable blocks and a low table.…
Photographer and retouch artist Erik Johansson produces some remarkable illusions. If you are curious about how his latest image—entitled Landfall—was put together then this video has a lot of the answers as Erik takes us through the process from concept to completion. Also, have a look at Erik’s other talented recent art below. Erik Johansson…
Go to any large-scale outdoor event, like a music festival, and you’ll be confronted by an array of public toilets—but some may not really be fit to use by the time you get to them. Here’s how to ensure you get the best spot to relieve yourself, using math. In this video, Dr Ria Symonds…
Roku’s remote control app is now available for Windows Phones and tablets.
Yesterday, Google announced its new Fit platform, designed to keep track of your activity and wellbeing. Now, a series of leaks suggest that Adidas is readying a new smartband—which may just tie in directly with the plans at Mountain View. https://gizmodo.com/google-wants-to-keep-track-of-your-vitals-with-google-f-1595977315 Evidence from the FCC, LegalForce and retailer Keller Sports suggests that Adidas is soon…
Sometimes, just sometimes, it’s fair to wonder if technological advancement is really an advance at all. [Truth Facts]
This may be a lampshade, but light isn’t what it does best—because this new interpretation of the classic industrial lamp is carved from a solid piece of granite. The brainchild of AStudio, the Mika 350 is a pendant lamp inspired by ancient Celtic forts of the 6th century BC. Carved from a solid piece of…
Good news, klutz: this bag, designed by Royal College of Art graduate Peng You, is capable of inflating in order to keep your gadget safe, however clumsy you might be. The Fugu bag is made from a heavy-duty carbon-fiber fabric which is coated on both sides with polyurethane. Its panels are then welded together to…
Earlier this week, Luis Suarez—Uruguay’s talented but controversial soccer player—appeared to bite Giorgio Chiellini in a World Cup match. Now, though, Uruguay’s Football Association claims that he’s on the receiving end of a cruel Photoshop hoax. https://deadspin.com/the-gross-things-caused-by-human-bite-wounds-and-luis-1595921937 Speaking with the Guardian, Suárez’s lawyer, Alejandro Balbi, claimed that he was going “to use all the arguments…
