Tech News

The often reliable @evleaks just tweeted these purported images of the upcoming LG G3 in white and gold. Apparently, gold is the new black (or gray, or white, or whatever) for smartphones. [Evleaks]

How to Build a Moat to Keep Out the Mongol Horde (and Your Neighbors)

Goddamn Mongolians keep knocking down your city walls? The fix is easy: build a moat. Just follow the instructions from William Gurstelle’s new DIY home security manual, Defending Your Castle and you’ll have your very own perimeter defense/neighborhood water hazard filling up in no time. Defensive Earthworks From Neolithic times onward, home defenders have shaped…

Found: Rocket Pressurization System, Slightly Used

The Sherif’s Office in Moffat County, Colorado was in for a shock on March 22, 2011 when their Lost and Found office acquired a mysterious new find. It was a metal sphere, 30 inches in diameter, with Cyrillic markings. The Zenit-3 pressurization system ended up in Moffat County, Colorado. Image credit: NASA Russia tested a…

Report: AT&T Will Announce DirecTV Purchase Tomorrow

Rumors have been floating around all week that AT&T will purchase DirecTV for a reported $50 billion. Now, BuzzFeed quotes unnamed insiders who say the deal will be officially announced tomorrow, ahead of trading on Monday. The deal would give AT&T access to DirecTV’s 20 million subscribers, the largest satellite customer base in the U.S.,…

These Bones Might Be the Biggest Creature That Ever Walked the Earth

Paleontologists have just unearthed the fossilized bones of a gigantic dinosaur that’s never been seen before. They believe it’s an entirely new species—and based on the size of its bones, it’s way bigger than what we thought was the biggest dinosaur ever. Meet the new number one among earthly creatures. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27441156 Based on the size…

The Military’s Power-Generating Boot Isn’t Quite Battlefield Ready

This week, Marines at the Experimental Forward Operating Base at Camp Pendleton, California, got to try out some prototypes of energy-generating equipment to keep combat electronics charged and ready. The verdict: back to the drawing board. http://kitup.military.com/2014/05/marines-design-energy-producing.html As Kit Up explains, the kinetic boot shown above was designed to turn each step into a tiny…

Join Us For a Week of Events at the Gizmodo Home of the Future

It’s almost time for the Gizmodo Home of the Future, highlighting our favorite forward-looking products from design, technology, and beyond. From May 17 to 21 you’ll be able to stop by the New York City space to browse the home or pull up a seat in our co-working lounge, and we’re also hosting events every…

How You’ll Know When It’s Time to Grow Up (NSFW)

A shiftless bear wiles away his days with porn, video games, and more porn. But could the promise of IRL love be enough to drag him away from his 2D obsessions? Find out in this naughty animated allegory from Bruno Tondeur. The NSFW video is after the jump:

10-year time-lapse of the World Trade Center Memorial

If you ever find yourself in New York, make sure you make some time to stop by the World Trade Center Memorial. It’s a powerful and touching tribute to one of the worst tragedies in American history. This time lapse video, just released by EarthCam, shows the 10-year process it took to build out the…

The X-Men try to save Don Draper in this funny ad

It’s probably my own anticipation for the upcoming X-Men movie and my enjoyment of Mad Men coloring the lens a little bit but this ad that combines the two worlds and characters together is actually pretty funny. Completely ridiculous but in an enjoyable way. It doesn’t hurt that the actor playing Don Draper nails it…

Watch a drone fly over the Burj Khalifa and Dubai

The view sure is nice from up there, isn’t it? Team Blacksheep flew a drone all across—or more accurately, all over—Dubai to show you downtown Dubai, the Palm Island, the Burj Al Arab and of course, the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. It’s the closest we’ll ever get to flying like Superman. SPLOID is…

L.A.’s Wilshire Boulevard From the Air, Then & Now

Next to Sunset, Wilshire Boulevard may be one of Los Angeles’ most iconic streets: a 15.8-mile ribbon stretching from its historic core to the Pacific, the address of some of its most celebrated Art Deco architecture, the axis of the its so-called linear downtown. But in 1922, much of Wilshire was little more than a…

Reframe Roundup: This Week’s Best Photography Posts

Did you guys know there is a Gizmodo subdomain where you can go for all things photographic? Yep! It’s called Reframe, and it’s where you’ll find additional coverage of gear, techniques, news, and all kinds of great stuff related to the crafts of photography and videography. Blending movie scenes with real life Francois Dourlen is…

Apple and Google Agree to Stop Suing Each Other into Oblivion

According to breaking reports from the Wall Street Journal, consumer electronics titans Google and Apple have just agreed to drop pending lawsuits against one another and work together to reform patent law. Wonder Twin powers activate! http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304908304579566583336822024 Earlier this afternoon, Apple and Google informed a federal appeals court that they had agreed to settle all…

This guy’s Transformers costume actually transforms into a mini car

I’m pretty sure any kid under the age of 8 will believe that this street performer in a Transformers costume is a real life Transformer. Heck, I’m many wrinkles and awful decisions beyond being a kid and I still have a part of me that’s hoping this is a real Transformers who just wants to…

Kishi Bashi: The Ballad of Mr. Steak

A magical dancing steak must make a fateful choice between duty and passion in the newest music video for singer-songwriter-one-man-symphony Kishi Bashi. Mr. Steak is the first single off of Bashi’s sophomore album, Lighght. You may remember his earlier work Philosophize in It! Chemicalize with It! from March, however the new album reportedly pushes well…

An Instant Slide Makes Stairs Even Better Than a Firehouse Pole

Any kid lucky enough to live in a two-story house will quickly figure out how to turn it into an indoor all-weather slide. Whether that’s using a piece of cardboard as a sled, or simply by putting on a few extra pairs of undies for padding and bouncing down on their keester. But soon, thanks…

This Piggy Bank Uses Gravity To Let You Know When You’ve Saved a Buck

If you use a piggy bank as an interest-free savings account, you’re probably happy to wait and be surprised at how much money you amass. But if you instead use a piggy bank as just a place to store pocket change, this simple weigh-scale bank will let you know when you’ve got enough money to…

NASA wants to send these flying saucers to Mars

This is NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator, “a rocket-powered, saucer-shaped test vehicle” designed to land huge payloads on Mars. So there—suck on that Martians, because after all these decades of sci-fi invasions, we are going to be the ones seizing your planet with our very own flying saucers. The new LDSD—designed and built by engineers at…

Crown or Dunce Cap? Starchitects Wear Their Famous Buildings As Hats

Yes; these are quite silly. Brooklyn-based illustrator Paul Tuller imagined a series of six starchitects—the “kings and queens” of the profession—wearing their iconic constructions as jaunty pillbox-style hats (or royal crowns, depending on your perspective). The result is as delightful as it is goofball; a playful new identity for both the monumental buildings as well…