Tech News

Lady dances on a tightrope 300 feet above NY without any safety—in 1931!

Hey MustangWanted, you got nothing on this insane 1930s NY lady, man. Way, way before you crazy Ukranian and Russian daredevils started acting like lunatics, this woman danced on a tightrope 300-foot above New York City without any safety whatsoever. Or maaaaaaaybe it could be the camera angle and she could just be standing above…

This Water-Powered Jetboard Is Almost The Hoverboard You’re Dreaming Of

No, Back to the Future hoverboards won’t be real anytime soon but there’s a damn good substitute. All you need is a board, a speedboat, and a firehose. From Franky Zapata, the mind behind the water-powered Iron Man-esque “Flyboard”—comes the Hoverboard, which seems to pretty faithfully emulate its namesake. It’s essentially just a firehose strapped…

Molecular cooking doesn’t seem complicated in these two-minute recipes

Mugaritz—located in Gipuzcoa, Spain—is one of the best restaurants in the world. In these videos they teach you how how to transform food into beautiful and delicious pieces of art. For those who think vegetarian food is boring try these recipes out and you’ll change your mind for sure. Sweet Roe Gomashio Light biscuits This…

Researchers Finally Make Automatic Doors As Smart As Star Trek’s

Off-screen stage hands ensured the automatic doors on shows like Star Trek and The Next Generation always opened with impeccable timing and speed. And now Japanese robotics researchers have developed an intelligent sensor that could make the automatic doors at your local grocery store far less stupid. To be more specific, the sensors used on…

Priceline is buying restaurant reservation platform OpenTable for $2.6 billion. That’s some delicious added value for the travel-booking site.

Sony Is Working On a Camera Sensor That’s Curved Like the Human Eye

Curved devices are hot right now, from TVs to wearables. But a curved image sensor is more than just a fashion gimmick. It actually could drastically improve the way cameras gather light from a lens, improving image quality whether on an iPhone or DSLR. At this week’s Symposium on VLSI Technology in Hawaii, Sony revealed…

9 Crazy 3D Typefaces Made From Everyday Objects

Whether we realize it or not, the fonts we interact with on a daily basis can be wildly impactful in some pretty surprising ways. These everyday fonts blend in so seamlessly with the world around us, though, that we hardly even notice them. So instead, what would happen if we tried blending our world into…

Samsung’s Smart TVs Just Got a Pretty Sweet App (Finally)

For all the promises that “Smart TVs” make, they aren’t really all that smart. Generally, they’re just TVs with glorified streaming boxes built into them, plus a few unwieldy bells and whistles nobody wants or uses. So when a smart TV app comes along that actually looks cool, it’s pretty shocking. That’s the case with…

Guy waves his hand to stop the attack of a charging elephant

Elephants are really dangerous animals. It is good advice to stay as far as possible from them because of their seemingly random charges. Unless you are this guy and you can calm the animal down thanks to your magic hand waving (and balls of steel.) I can imagine him saying “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” SPLOID…

Watch The Daily Show Hilariously Troll Six Glassholes Right Here

Last night, The Daily Show aired a piece of biting social commentary on technology. In other words, it mocked a bunch of Google Glass wearers—and you watch it all right here. Speaking to six Explorers—”Excuse me, did you just call yourself an explorer?”—The Daily Show’s John Stewart tried to get to grips with the souls…

Peer Into the Cockpit of a 1,000 MPH Car

When you’re behind the wheel of a the car designed to hit 1,000 mph, you want the dash to be well appointed. Fortunately, looking at the newly finished cockpit of Bloodhound SSC reveals that it’s fully loaded with tech. As well as the rather essential speedometer, the car’s future driver Andy Green says one of…

What Your Email Signature Really Means

You can tell a lot about a person from what comes at the end of their email. This cartoon, from the Truth Facts comic by New Creations, does a wonderful job of translating the awful nonsense some people choose to include at the end of their correspondence. Ouch. [Truth Facts via Flowing Data]

Nine-year time-lapse video shows how to make a nuclear fusion reactor

This time-lapse video shows the assembly of the most modern nuclear rector of its kind by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany. Work on the Wendelstein 7-X fusion device has taken nearly ten years so far—here it is condensed down to just three minutes. The final module seen being lifted into place…

The Lego Movie creators make hilarious action movie trailer

The animators of The Lego Movie created this spoof grindhouse trailer featuring Abraham Lincoln and painter Michelangelo as crime fighters in a supposed flick called History Cops. The Lego Movie hits Blu-ray next week but one of the special features is online now and it’s a lot of fun to watch. SPLOID is a new…

Apple has announced that it’s replacing European iPhone adapters sold between October 2009 and September 2012 because they can overheat. It’s model A1300 and it came with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S. You can replace it here.

The FBI Is Auctioning Off Its Seized Silk Road Bitcoins

Late last year, the FBI seized Silk Road and the assets of its founder. Now, it’s planning to auction off the hoard of Bitcoin, worth around $18 million, that it took control of. The stash will be put up for public auction between 6am and 6pm on June 27th. The total of 30,000 BTC will…

How Two Women Made Your Watch Glow in the Dark

On December 21, 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive element radium (in the form of radium chloride), extracting it from uraninite. They first removed the uranium from the uraninite sample and then found that the remaining matter was still radioactive, so investigated further. Along with the barium in the remaining substance, they also…

The Netflix site has been given a design overhaul. Gone is the old logo in favour its flatter, more simplistic new one, and the background is lighter and brighter. It looks a whole bunch better, doesn’t it?

A New Xbox Ad Is Turning on Consoles By Accident

The Xbox One has a new advert starring Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul. Standard. But what is strange is that as he shouts “Xbox On” near its start, consoles around the world are firing up. It seems that—perhaps unsurprisingly—the voice command triggers the machine’s Kinect voice/motion sensor, activating the console. People have been taking to Twitter…

Facebook Messenger now has a tap-and-hold video sharing function. Yes, just like Snapchat. What a coincidence!