Tech News

Minnesota Just Became the First State to Ban Anti-Bacterial Soap

If you’ve ever washed your hands with anti-bacterial soap, there’s a good chance you were rubbing yourself down with a chemical called triclosan—a chemical that’s been proven to be harmful in humans in recent years. Now, Minnesota has become the first state to officially ban it. And yours could be next. The Minnesota ban, which…

The Little Mermaid Isn’t The Only Fish That Wants To Live On Land

Ok, maybe mermaids aren’t fish, but that’s beside the point. What matters is this shark has needs and that need is to eat everything. Other fish aren’t enough. Swimmers aren’t enough. He needs to eat things like fire, and police cars. If only there was an octopus witch who could grant him his wish (and…

Microsoft Finally Surrendered To the iPad. Good!

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 is many things. It’s thinner, it’s faster; it’s all of the superlatives that come when you out a New and Improved version of anything tech. It, along with the absence of a Surface Mini, is also a white flag. Microsoft has finally accepted that Surface can’t take on the iPad. But…

This bridge over the San Gabriel River outside of L.A. was built in 1936 but devastating floods washed out the canyon and the road to it was never completed. The popular “Bridge to Nowhere” hike is nine miles round-trip and on weekends, hikers are greeted by the screams of bungee-jumpers. [@ZachBehrens, KCET]

Playing Pranks With Robots: A Real-Time Update From the Future

This is a look at what’s happening right now at the Home of the Future: our very own Jesus Diaz has taken control of the telepresence robot and is (unsurprisingly) screwing with people. Come visit, and you, too, can play robot tag with your Gizmodo pals. https://gizmodo.com/exploring-the-great-outdoors-from-a-remote-control-ipad-1577985867 Dates: 05/17/2014–05/21/2014 Location: 268 Mulberry Street, near Houston…

An Adjustable Wrench Keychain Puts a Toolbox In Your Pocket

It can provide everything from weather forecasts to stock quotes, but can that smartphone in your pocket help you unscrew a nut and bolt? Certainly not as well as this $25 HandSpan keychain that manages to squeeze an adjustable wrench into your other pocket. Small enough to hang off your keys without being cumbersome, the…

All the Robotic Space Explorers since 1958

The astonishing chart of all uncrewed space exploration just got an update with more recent missions. Wandering around the chart is an asking to get lost in memories of past exploration, and dreams of future visits to distant worlds. We’ve had a lot of robotic explorers investigating space! Once again, the chart is commissioned by…

A Noob’s Tale: Fiddling with My First Modular Synth Rack

I’m just getting started fiddling with modular synthesis. Everything I know up to this point is pure book-learning. I’m like the Prioress in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. She has no firsthand experience of the culture (“And Frenssh she spak ful faire and fetisly, / After the scole of Stratford-atte-Bowe, / For Frenssh of Parys was…

Surface Pro 3 Hands On: A Laptop Replacement That Just Might Work

The Surface Pro has never been a bad idea. One device that’s both your laptop and your tablet! Sounds great! The problem was that it was just never quite either; it was awkward on both counts. The new, bigger Surface Pro 3 though, might have actually found a way to walk the line. https://gizmodo.com/the-surface-pro-3-has-a-big-beautiful-12-inch-screen-1578974248 The…

In the Kitchen, Sometimes the Future is Timeless

Over the course of Gizmodo’s Home of the Future, I’ve occasionally overheard someone say that a certain item doesn’t seem like a product of tomorrow. But that’s the beauty of the future—it has a place for classic items, too. Especially in the kitchen. https://gizmodo.com/heres-every-product-we-have-in-the-home-of-the-future-1573480551 Our kitchen is fully stocked with a wide range of Le…

How the Colorado River Finally Reached the Sea Again

This week, for the first time in decades, the Colorado River flowed to its natural end in the Gulf of California. But it was the opposite of a natural event. The artificially engineered “pulse flow” that pushed the waters all the way to the Gulf required an unprecedented collaboration between the U.S. and Mexico, wading…

Is the New McDonald’s Mascot Really Just a Despicable Me Minion?

Yes. Yes he is. Happy is the mascot for McDonald’s happy meals in France and Latin America, and he’s coming to the United States now. And much like Despicable Me’s Minions, he has bulging eyes, big ol’ teeth, and some rubbery arms. On top of that, watching Happy in action is like watching any of…

Shutterstock, the subscription-based stock photo company behind a lot of the generic (or weird) stock photography you see online, is now offering stock music for video producers and the like. [Shutterstock via Mashable]

Shape-Shifting Robots Designed To Build Furniture When You Need It

Before the nightmare of having to build it all yourself begins, wandering through Ikea and deciding what furniture to buy is actually kind of fun. But researchers at EPFL are working on a better approach. Instead of deciding on a specific piece of furniture, they’re working on tiny modular robots that simply assemble into whatever…

Spitzer’s Newest Nebula is a Rorschach Inkblot Test in the Stars

The Spitzer Space Telescope team released a 360 infrared map of the Milky Way and invited us to hunt through it at home. Now nebulas previously known only by catalogue numbers are earning all sorts of creative names. https://gizmodo.com/an-interactive-map-that-lets-you-spin-around-the-milky-1548368234 https://gizmodo.com/at-home-astrophotography-1557232014 The image is taken by Spitzer’s InfraRed Array Camera as part of the Galactic Legacy…

What’s the Single Weirdest YouTube Video You’ve Ever Seen?

Beneath the internet’s cat and listicle-embedded candy coating is an abundance of dark, seedy underbellies just bursting with some of the weirdest, most bizarre creations mankind hath ever wrought. And what better repository for the madness than YouTube? If you make your way past the laughing babies and Roomba-riding pets, you’ll likely happen upon quite…

This cool concept will let you escape a fire like a SWAT commando

Jonathan Lowe—a product design student from Staffordshire University in the UK—came up with Xitus, a clever gadget that helps you escape from a building on fire when the only way out is trough the window. Place it on the edge of the window, climb over and a controlled descent device will take you to the…

Watch five skydivers in wingsuits soar over NYC in this rare flight

This is a rare view: Five skydivers in wingsuits soar over New York City, beginning their journey at 8,200 feet above the southern tip of Manhattan. They reached speeds of 120mph as they flew past the financial district before deploying parachutes and landing on a barge in the Hudson River. A point of view head…

How to Choose the Right Bike For You

What kind of bike do you need? The short answer is: Any kind. It doesn’t matter, so long as you can ride it. The longer answer is: You need a bike that fits you, that can be kept in good repair, that is suited to your life and the terrain you’ll be bicycling over, and…

The Surface Pro 3 Has a Big, Beautiful 12-Inch Screen

The rumors for today’s big Surface event mostly hinted at something Mini, but instead Microsoft decided to size up. The Surface Pro is also getting stretched into a larger 12-inch version for its third iteration. It actually looks pretty great. The new stretch to 12 inches diagonal also brings the Surface Pro 3 up to…