Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
It’s almost impossible to think of a time when you had to wrangle a long cord while working with power tools. But as convenient as cordless tools are, they’re useless if their batteries are dead. So this fall, Bosch will be introducing batteries with inductive charging that simply need to be placed on a base…
The big news from Nest today is that Protect is back on the shelves. But lost in the shuffle is a more interesting tidbit from the company: Its first report on data culled from the alarms of hundreds of thousands of users. It’s a glimpse at how Nest (and Google) can use their army of…
They’re already among the hardest materials on the planet, but modern industrial applications are quickly pushing both natural and man-made diamonds to their structural limits. However a new method of diamond making has resulted in a stone that’s harder than any other ever seen. Constructed by researchers Yongjun Tian and Quan Huang at China’s Yanshan…
The internet loves fun facts. But those images and facts we see floating around are often more fun than fact. Sometimes, these incorrect facts are distributed by people who simply haven’t done their homework. Other times, they’re the product of people who just want to throw a wrench in the machinery of social media. UK-based…
[via]
Facebook just unveiled its latest standalone app: Slingshot. It’s a lot like Snapchat, except worse. I hate to say it, but even Poke was more fun than this. Don’t get me wrong. Slingshot is a pretty app, with an original twist. Like Snapchat, it lets you send your friend a photo or video (plus whatever…
A slacking of prevailing winds and the resulting slosh of warm water across the Pacific Basin has continued to raise ocean surface temperatures. Now just about every climate model is predicting an El Niño this year, but what exactly does that mean? We’ve covered a global view before, and during the Q&A with climate scientist…
Tomorrow, Amazon unveils its entry into the smartphone arena , a long-rumored device that supposedly uses eye-tracking tech to create the first 3D smartphone display . BloombergBusinessweek spoke to some of Amazon’s mad scientists for the inside story on Lab126, the skunkworks tasked with making the 3D phone a reality. As Brad Stone (author of…
Fútbol fever is going around. And for every Wold Cup superstar on a global stage, there are tons of amateurs out there playing around with their own, non-regulation balls. The sad reality is a lot of those get tossed out before their time, and the sadder reality is that many of them end up clogging…
If you’ve refused to acknowledge a reality without magic and wizards after the Harry Potter books and films ended, Universal Studios’ Wizarding World of Harry Potter will now let you further live out your fantasies with new interactive wands that bring many parts of the attraction to life. The wands will be available for purchase…
The Office of Naval Research has just announced another breakthrough in its efforts to bring laser-based weapons to future battlefields. What once could only be accommodated by a tractor trailer now fits neatly in the back seat of a Humvee. It’s only a matter of time until our armed forces march off to war with…
Perfecting your artistic technique using a stylus is about to get a whole lot more refined. With the introduction of iOS 8, your screen will be sensitive to the relative width of whatever’s running across its surface. That’s great news for folks who prefer Paper and other drawing apps to, well, paper. Over on Co.Design,…
When it comes to truly humongous amounts of data, it can be faster to just drop a hard drive in the mail—unless you have access to the Energy Sciences Network, a blazing shadow network that is 100 times faster than even the much-ballyhooed Google Fiber. Of course, you need to be doing something more important…
Ignore the grumblings of some sourpuss Gizmodo staffers: OK Go’s new video for “The Writing’s On the Wall” is just straight-up fun for your ears and your eyes, thanks to a plethora of optical illusions rendered in the real world, rather than on a computer. The crazy one-take mindbender genre is familiar territory for OK…
After a false start late last week, Facebook’s Snapchat clone is finally available, on purpose, and will stay so for the foreseeable future, or the end of recorded history, whichever comes first. http://www.sling.me/ https://gizmodo.com/you-can-download-slingshot-facebooks-snapchat-competit-1588228152
Modern architecture is usually grandly depicted in pristine photographs against seductive backdrops. But buildings, like all things, are subject to the decay of time. The photographs of Chris Mottalini depict modernist homes, built by Paul Rudolph in the mid-twentieth century, in a deteriorated state, shortly before their planned demolition. They sit unoccupied, bereft of the…
Despite rumors that Nike will be killing Fuelband, the company has finally released an Android app. It’s long overdue, but better late than never, sure. Besides, even if the fitness band is on the outs, it still makes sense to support existing devices. [Google Play via Engadget]
Researchers from King’s College London just announced a new approach to fixing cavities that requires no injections, no drills, and no pain. It’s just a little blast of electric current that encourages the tooth to self-repair. And they say it’ll be on the market in three years. The new technique sounds confusingly simple. Cavities form…
After a brief recall, the Nest Protect carbon monoxide and smoke detector is once again available for sale, this time at a $30 discount. It’s still more than your garden variety smoke detector, but boy is it awesome . [Nest Protect, $99] http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=sr_1_1_acs_h_1i_3036671011&?tag=gizmodo08c-20 Apple’s AirPort Express and AirPort Extreme aren’t the most customizable routers out…
The summer isn’t even here yet, but if you’re leaving home and heading off to college in September, it’s never too early to start planning and stockpiling what you’ll need. And since you’ll probably be crammed into a tiny dorm room, Ikea’s new glowing LED stool does double duty as a lamp and place to…
