Tech News

The Story of George

George is a male Lambeosaurus, except for his head, which is female, and one of his toes, which is fake. George hails from the prehistoric swamps of Alberta, but relocated to Vancouver where his bones are squished in plaster on a cramped museum wall. George is my first dinosaur. George, embedded in a wall of…

Godspeed, Bill Dana, legendary test pilot and aerospace pioneer

The guy in the white flight suit is Bill Dana—a true American hero. Bill Dana was a legendary test pilot, a historic pioneer, a man whose fearless work made the airplanes and spaceships we fly today possible—one of those very few guys made of the right stuff from an era that is now completely gone.…

Design Legend Massimo Vignelli Is Very Sick—Send Him a Letter

The man who gave us everything from the NYC subway’s signage and map to the American Airlines logo, Massimo Vignelli, is currently spending his last days at home—and his son has an unusual request: Would you send him a note? Luca Vignelli put out the call to the internet today on The Creative Review, asking…

How Airplane Evacuation Slides Deploy In Under 6 Seconds

It’s probably quite a bit different when you see one from inside a plane, but from down here on the ground, watching airplane evacuation slides deploy is pretty damn mesmerizing. Thankfully, Core77 just uncovered some great footage of the slides being both made and tested. The production process is understandably arduous; fitting something meant to…

If you use link-shortening service Bitly, you’ll want to change your password—the company announced that account credentials (including passwords, API keys and OAuth tokens) have been compromised. In response, Bitly has disconnected Facebook and Twitter accounts, which you’ll have to reconnect manually.

Pondering a Mothers’ Day gift? Walmart is knocking $30 off the iPad Mini (both regular and Retina models) through Sunday, bringing prices as low as $270. Or buy one for yourself, we won’t tell.

Gizmodo’s Home of the Future Will Have Its Own Beer, Brewed by Sixpoint

Gizmodo and Brooklyn’s own Sixpoint have teamed up to bring you the IPA of tomorrow, brewed with experimental hops and available exclusively at the Home of the Future next week. Check out our first post in a short, behind-the-scenes series exploring the process—and stay tuned for more.

See Your City Like a Hazy Point Cloud from Another Dimension

We saw last month that data sets hidden in Google Street View can be extracted to create immersive 3D point clouds that make every city look like a holograph. Inspired by that work—by designer Gonzalez Vivo—Callum Prentice has mocked up an interactive version, a Google Street View search that shows you any available address as…

The Future Is a Real-Life Tron Bike

Gizmodo’s Home of the Future is full of items that will help you get around today that seem like they’re from tomorrow. Motorized longboards? Check. Murdered-out bikes with USB ports? Check. An actual street legal Tron bike? Check, check, mother loving check. Maybe you know Mott Street Customs bikes. Maybe you know Revolights. But you…

29 Wonderful Bike Ads From the Golden Age Of Cycling

For a few brief decades of human history, just before combustion engines and motorcycles and cars burst onto the scene, the bicycle was the most advanced personal land vehicle around. They were wonders of technology and personal style—as these beautiful ads show. As Gizmodo continues its Bike Month coverage, take a second to imagine what…

Netflix Is Now $1 More Expensive For New Members

Remember that Netflix said in April that its service was going to get more expensive? Well it has: from now on, new members will have to pay $9 a month instead of the current $8. In an email sent out this norming, Netflix announced the increase, which has already hit Europe: In order to continue…

Beats Sale Seemingly Confirmed by Dr. Dre in Facebook Video

Yesterday’s news of Apple’s plan to buy Beats for $3.2 billion seems to have been confirmed by Dr. Dre himself, if this video, posted to Facebook by actor Tyrese Gibson, is anything to go by. The video was posted to Facebook overnight, and shows Dre celebrating in his studio. At one point, Dr. Dre describes…

Did you know you can actually play a violin strung with human hair?

Artist Tadas Maskimovas used his own hair to string a violin in this surprising video. The hair is meticulously worked to form the right sized strings and then is glued together so it becomes more resistant. The experiment was designed to prove that you can make music with almost anything you want. SPLOID is a…

What Could Google’s Mystery “Flounder” Device Be?

A listing in a tracker database has pulled out a Google-made device operating under the codename “Flounder.” Google likes to give new things in the Nexus line fishy names, so this may be the anticipated Nexus 8. Or the mythical Nexus 10 update. Or… something else altogether. Not many additional clues are offered by the…

This Self-Healing Plastic Oozes Goo That Clots Like Blood

Good news for klutzes: this new plastic heals itself by oozing liquid, which can solidify to automatically fill holes and cracks—just like blood clots to repair wounds. There have been bio-mimicking materials that could heal microscopic crack in the past, including ones made by Scott White at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign—who’s also responsible…

This Is the Science of How Sinkholes Form

First it was a sinkhole opening under a Corvette museum with a taste for rare cars. Now, it’s a sinkhole opening under an active road in Russia, gaping open to gobble commuters. What gives with the car-hungry holes? It’s a combination of limestone, water, and bad luck. Attempts to retrieve sports cars from a Winter…

One Day You Might Park Up in a Beautiful Solar Charging Carport

It’s a hard life running an expensive electric car, one that calls for plenty of inward introspection about how much you love the planet. So, better add a sleek and stylish solar-powered charging carport to the shopping list! Still very much a concept by BMW DesignworksUSA, this elegant and simple charging solution is designed to…

Explosion destroys tree that fell on a high voltage line

This tree fell on a high voltage line and was then blown up with detonation cord, shattering it into fragments in a highly satisfying explosion. The action was over in seconds and the deadwood blasted into conveniently transportable sections. Thanks reader MagnusX for translating and clearing this up! SPLOID is a new blog about awesome…

How Lasers Really Work

On May 16, 1960, Theodore Maiman shined a high-powered light at a ruby partially coated with silver and the result was the world’s first laser. This groundbreaking device, however, was not created by a single genius in isolation. Rather, it was the result of many brilliant minds sharing ideas . . . at least until…

The US Federal Election Commission has approved Bitcoin for political contributions. Just in case you want to sling money at politicians.