Tech News

The Surface Mini Exists! (As a Mistake in a User Guide)

Last month’s announcement of the Surface Pro 3 left a lot of people asking “Hey so where’s that tiny Surface I was hearing about?” Rumor had it that it was cancelled at the last second, and now it seems like that was definitely the case; the Surface Pro 3 User Guide is littered with references…

Google just added a handy feature for Android users: now, when you Google musicians or bands, you can hear their music in your favorite player app with just one click. [Google Blog]

Hackers Reverse-Engineer NSA Spying Tools Using Snowden Leaks

Besides exposing all of the not-so-good things the NSA and other clandestine agencies around the world were up to, the documents leaked by Edward Snowden have allowed hackers to reverse-engineer some of the tools the NSA has used to spy on us. Along with the nefarious details of our constant surveillance, the NSA’s Advanced Network…

The MTA Clearly Doesn’t Watch Futurama

This morning, passengers headed to NYC on the Metro-North rail line hit serious delays. The culprit? A suspicious package found near the Farfield, CT station. Or rather, a suspiciously Bender-shaped package. Bite my shiny metal ass, commuters. To be fair, it’s always better safe than sorry when it comes to unknown parcels in public places.…

Inside Shapeways, the 3D-Printing Factory of the Future

When you walk into the Shapeways headquarters in a sprawling New York City warehouse building, it doesn’t feel like a factory. It’s something different, somehow unforgettable, inevitably new. As it should be. This is one of the world’s first full service 3D-printing factories, and it’s not like any factory I’ve ever seen. Founded in the…

27 high tension photos of NATO jets intercepting Russian warplanes

This week interception of Russian warplanes by NATO Typhoon fighters reminds me of the time in which the world was on the brink of total nuclear annihilation, when Soviet forces taunted the Americans to test their defenses. This image collection shows that part of a Cold War that seems reactivated right now. January 1963: F-4…

Colbert Eviscerates Yo For Being Useless and Dumb

In just a few short days, Yo has climbed to the top of the app charts, accumulating some 50,000 foolish users who send the same dumb salutation back and forth to each other. Stephen Colbert asks the right question in this hilarious clip: “Y?” I’ll admit that Yo has its charm. It’s kinda funny! But…

This Soda Can Mutes World Cup Mania By Secretly Shutting Off TVs

It’s a well-known trick that’s liable to get you killed during the World Cup, but that’s why the folks behind Orangina are cleverly hiding tiny remotes beneath their cans, allowing those who’ve already tired of soccer to turn off every TV in their vicinity. After all, for every soccer fan on earth obsessed with the…

Yo’s Now a Security Threat as Well as Being Stupid

Yo is having some problems, and not just because it’s so silly. Turns out that it only required three college students to find out that the app contains more security holes than a colander. https://gizmodo.com/yo-review-yo-1593276009 TechCrunch reports that the app—which has amazingly entered the US App Store’s Top 10 list—has already been hacked. The students…

New Zealand Just Mistook Google’s Project Loon for a Crashing Airplane

Filling the skies with whimsical, internet-providing balloons is bound to have the occasional hitch—and down in New Zealand, one of Google’s Project Loon balloons was just mistaken for an airplane crashing, causing emergency services to flock. https://gizmodo.com/google-wants-to-use-balloons-to-cover-the-world-in-wi-f-513537918 The Wall Street Journal reports that New Zealand’s emergency services were dispatched today—including a rescue helicopter—after onlookers believed…

Why People Look More Attractive When You’re Drinking

Anyone who has been in a crowded bar around closing time would agree that the higher your alcohol consumption, the more attractive you seem to find whoever you happen to be flirting with at last call. Their smile is radiant; their eyes are sparkling- everything about them is sexy, alluring and irresistible. However, if you…

Why Humans Can’t Re-Grow Limbs (Yet)

Starfish can re-grow arms; lizards can sprout fresh legs; and hell, flatworms can essentially rematerialize from barely nothing. So why can’t humans do the same? Well, we can regenerate a little—wounds heal, after all—but we lack a fundamental ability to do anything more than repair small quantities of damage. In this video, SciShow explains what…

House Has Passed an Amendment to Cut NSA Search Funding

The US House of Representatives passed an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill designed to cut funding for NSA backdoors. The amendment passed overwhelmingly with strong bipartisan support: 293 ayes, 123 nays, and 1 present. Currently, the NSA collects emails, browsing and chat history under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, and searches this…

Google is investing investing $50 million in projects designed to help get more females involved in the field of computer science, by encouraging girls to code. Good work, Google.

WSJ: Apple’s Smartwatch Will Come in Different Sizes, Pack 10 Sensors

Hot on the heels of a Reuters report yesterday, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is planning to launch a smart watch that will be available in multiple screen sizes. https://gizmodo.com/report-apple-smartwatch-production-starts-in-july-1593352240 The new report is at odds with yesterday’s from Reuters, which claimed that the new wearable would be available only with a…

How can anyone take this awesomeness for granted?

Think about it. Really. Think about what you are looking at right now. That’s Oleg Artemyev and Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Skvortsov—photographed today by Reid Wiseman—just doing their job, floating between Earth and the nothingness at 4.8 miles per second. If that’s not awesome, I don’t know what is. Can you see them? SPLOID is a new…

Genius guy transforms plastic bottles into super strength plastic rope

Look, I have no idea what I’m going to do with super strength plastic rope either but oh my genius, this recycler’s idea of turning plastic bottles into plastic rope is just brilliant. The video is perfect, he shows you the plastic rope, shows you what to do with it and then shows you how…

I totally feel like I’m on drugs when I look at these awesome GIFs

Instead of popping pills or eating shrooms, just look at these wonderful GIFs made by Micaël Reynaud. He’s a maestro when it comes to using camera tricks to create dizzying effects and a genius at taking the typical GIF to the next level with slit-scanning, timelapse and perfect masking to stitch together digital lysergic acid…

A Timelapse of the Earth’s Magnetic Field

While we’ve previously looked at models of the Earth’s magnetic field, now a trio of new satellites are monitoring the field. Here’s a six-month timelapse of our turbulent field flickering in the interplanetary wind. https://gizmodo.com/an-interplanetary-magnetic-dance-1574133730 https://gizmodo.com/a-timelapse-of-our-planets-surprisingly-turbulent-magne-1593233853

Why the future of a solar powered life isn’t here yet

You’d think that with all the solar farms we’ve been building up and all those solar panels on people’s roofs we would figure out how to use solar power to replace those old smoking power plants of ours. But we can’t yet. Because of stupid clouds. The future isn’t quite here. Ted-Ed explains why in…