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Amazon is currently carrying the Sony XBR 65″ 4K 120Hz 3D HDMI 2.0 Smart LED TV for $3289, plus 2% back in rewards and enhanced delivery. That was the lowest price we had seen so far, but BuyDig is now selling the same set for $2799 with free shipping (go all the way through checkout…
Intel has just unveiled a slew of new Celeron-powered Chromebooks at a press conference in San Francisco. The Chromebook market is about to get much more capable and much more competitive—here’s what’s in store. Intel has already established itself as a major player in the ChromeOS landscape and now aims to expand its reach to…
If you walk around Hong Kong and find this papier-mâché panda invasion don’t worry. It’s just a campaign to raise awareness about the dwindling panda population caused by human activity. Every single panda represents one of the individual left in the world. They may seem like a lot, but it’s actually next to nothing. The…
The Home of the Future—the house we’re building here in New York starting next week—must have a closet. And what is a closet without a sick pair of running shoes? Enter Adidas Pure Boost, the kicks that will have you up and running at your highest ability. Pure Boost—arguably Adidas’s version of the Nike Free—is…
Abrams sent me their new book Star Wars Storyboards: The Original Trilogy. I’ve to admit that going through Lucasfilm’s original vision in sketch form is a pleasure—even if you are not a Star Wars fan. It’s so good that I asked them to give copies to three fortunate Sploid readers. The book is interesting from…
El Goog is rolling out a bunch of improvements to its Maps apps for Android and iOS. Some of them are small improvements, and some of them are friggin’ awesome. Most significantly, when you’re using Maps for turn-by-turn navigation, it will tell you which lane you should stay in (or move to), so you won’t…
If you use Dropbox or Box, make sure you’re restricting access to shared links. Otherwise, third party advertisers could be raking in some seriously sensitive URLs. Dropbox your tax return, anyone?
The iPhone lockscreen has never been completely secure. Past exploits allowed random people to access your photos or to make callswith a few choreographed swipes. The latest, however, can grant access to your full contact list through Siri and let a stranger call, text, or email anyone they want from your number. Discovered by Egyptian…
Climate change is happening, but how ugly is it going to get? Very ugly, getting both wetter and drier at the same time in different places for an escalating mess of terrifying extremes. Here’s a look at observed and predicted changes in rainfall patterns in the United States. Predicted precipitation anomaly for optimistic and pessimistic…
Some people think they are names of death metal bands. Others think they are made up names stolen from some Tolkien book on elvish lineage. The fact is that all of IKEA’s products follow a logic and have a meaning. Ish. Here’s an overview: Bookcases are occupations in Swedish The famous Expedit means shop assistant.…
It’s been half a century since Belgium’s famed Sarolea motorcycle brand last put out a bike but they’re clearly making up for lost time with the incomprehensibly gorgeous, all-electric-and-carbon-fiber SP7. And to prove they’re back in the superbike game, Sarolea is entering this black beauty into next month’s electric-only, Isle of Man TT Zero race.…
Hulu just got a bunch of new shows from CBS—most of them throwbacks—including Cheers, 90210, Mork and Mindy, Taxi and more. So fire up Hulu if you’re feeling nostalgic.
Amidst the stinky, human chaos of NYC’s train system, we take the clarity of the MTA’s signage for granted. But every minute detail of those signs was carefully laid out in 1970 by two young designers who created a rulebook for how to guide billions of people through the subway for decades to come. It…
Eating alone in restaurants is awkward. Sure, you can take a book and pretend like the solitude is emboldening. But be honest with yourself—sitting across from an empty chair is sometimes sad and lonely. This whimsical restaurant in Japan has a solution: stuffed animals. The Moomin Cafe in Tokyo is themed around the eponymous series…
On the Bangladeshi coast of the Bay of Bengal, past-their-prime oil tankers and cargo vessels are beached on the muddy shore like industrial, open-air graveyards. There, these massive ships are taken apart by men—”ship-breakers”—who toil hand-to-metal for minimal wages on the toxic, exceptionally dangerous sites. A Maritime Graveyard: A satellite image shows a mile-long stretch…
You probably don’t realize it, but, at any given hour on any given day, a small yet incredibly sophisticated train armed with cameras, lasers, and ultrasound equipment is sliding around New York City’s subway system inspecting the tracks. It looks a little bit like Optimus Prime, and, like the good Transformers, it’s there to keep…
Tumblr’s new mobile app is getting font and color customization.
A series of email exchanges between Google executives and (now former) NSA director Keith Alexander show that tech companies behind the services you use aren’t being all the way forthcoming about how closely they’ve worked with the NSA over the years. The two 2012 exchanges, one between General Alexander and Google chairman Eric Schmidt, and…
This time-lapse video shows the intricate steps involved as the European Space Agency loads its latest Automated Transport Vehicle in preparation for a summer launch. The ATV-5 will be carried on an Ariane 5 rocket from the agency’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, and will deliver 2,600 kilograms of dry cargo to the International Space…
Google’s homepage is one of the most immediately recognizable websites on the internet—if not the most. And it’s for that very reason that it’s also one of the most overlooked. So why fix something if it’s not broken? Why the hell not. There’s always going to be room for improvement, which is whycollaborative, challenge-based design…
