Tech News

Distract Yourself From Winter With the Most Amazing Pools on Earth

As winter tightens its cold, brittle fingers around our hearts one last time, Sploid has taken to meditating on incredible pools as a means of survival. Below, find some of the most luxurious, elegant, and downright outlandish designs around.

Looks like the FCC has officially given its blessing to AT&T’s Leap Wireless acquisition—which is mostly good news for users. As a result, AT&T is promising more value-conscious plans to appease ex-Cricket users and the addition of LTE on unused Leap spectrums.

The World’s Largest Solar Plant Is Blinding Pilots

We probably should have seen this coming. At the Ivanpah solar power plant near Las Vegas, a massive glittering field of 170,000 garage door-sized mirrors reflects sunlight. And all those mirrors are making flying near Ivanpah not so fun—or safe. The Clark County Department of Aviation sent a letter earlier this week urging the plant’s…

How to Design the Perfect Subway Map

Cameron Booth is a seasoned graphic designer. In his spare time he also edits transitmaps.tumblr.com, the web’s finest emporium for bus maps, subway diagrams, train network maps and more. We’re enormous fans of his site and wanted to pin him down on a subject that’s close to our own hearts: what makes a good transit…

I just can’t believe how insanely crazy this skier is

Watch Mickael Bimboes launching “off a massive cliff in his 3rd place run for the Swatch Freeride World Tour at Aiguille Pourrie, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France.” And remember, folks—this guy got the third place. Seriously, watch it all because you are not going to believe how nuts and/or suicidal this dude is. SPLOID is a new blog…

Get Your Whole Neighborhood Together with Block Party in a Box

Every city street is actually a block party waiting to happen, a coiled spring of neighborly hangouts and community come-together yearning for a release. Kevin Van Lierop decided to make that process a little less daunting with his “Block Party in a Box.” Now your neighborhood has no excuse not to get down. For $10,…

Watching a tortoise having sex is one of the most hilarious things ever

Sincere apologies in advance for this, but here is a video of two tortoises doing it and I cannot stop laughing. Also cringing. It’s not only the video, it’s the sound—you’re going to want to throw your headphones on, and you’re going to want to watch it until the very end—or “climax,” if you will.…

If you’re ever on a United flight and your Wi-Fi craps out, there’s something you should know: You’re entitled to a full refund. Apparently, United’s flight attendants are supposed to keep this little courtesy a secret, but you can head over here to fill out a request for a service refund. The more you know.

Do These Powerlaces Match My Hoverboard?

Hadley Freeman over at The Guardian has declared that Back to the Future is this season’s big fashion trend. Which makes complete sense, right? It’s almost the year 2015—the very year that Marty visits in the BTTF sequel—so bring on those Nike powerlaces and hoverboard-friendly sneakers! Or not. Unfortunately, Freeman’s not really talking about the…

These GIFs Will Make You Nostalgic For Your Favorite NES Games

Before the hi-def graphics of modern consoles, there was the Nintendo Entertainment System—a world steeped in glorious 8-bit imagery. These GIFs by New York-based Brother Brain (aka John McGregor) show how the in-game art compared with real world photos. And somehow, the 8-bit versions are still way more fun. Jaws (NES) LJN 1987 vs Jaws…

Learning the Lost Art of Ice Harvesting in Maine

In 1805, a twenty-three year-old Bostonian named Frederic Tudor launched a new industry: the international frozen-water trade. Over the next fifty years, he and the men he worked with developed specialized ice-harvesting tools, a global network of thermally engineered ice houses, and a business model that cleverly leveraged ballast-less ships, off-season farmers, and overheated Englishmen…

No, this is not a production still from Bio-Dome: Saudi Arabia, it’s a rendering for the King Abdullah International Gardens in Riyadh. Barton Willmore International designed the crescent-shaped complex which will recreate animal and plant habitats from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods—in the middle of the desert. [designboom]

Shooting Challenge: Tilt-shift

Tilt-shift photography originated with large, billowing lenses to capture the proportions of architecture. Today, its often used to blur parts of a frame and make the world appear in miniature. However you use it, for this week’s Shooting Challenge, you’ll photograph in tilt-shift. The Challenge Take a tilt-shift photograph. (Yes, you can use the miniaturization…

Feast your eyes on these rare aircraft cutaway drawings

After our first cutaway collections on spacecraft and weapons, here comes a new one: Aircraft! You can see here a few really rare and special illustrations, some of them never published on the Internet before. Breguet-905 “Fauvette” Image: Aviation Magazine, May 15, 1958. Jodel-S.A.N. D-140 “Mousquetaire” Image: Aviation Magazine, May 15, 1958. GAMD “Étendard” IV…

Constantly Spinning Dials Replace Hands on This Sleek Minimal Watch

Ressence is following up on its mesmerizing Type 3 watch—which replaced hands and other visible mechanisms with a series of perpetually spinning dials trapped under a curved water-filled sapphire dome—with the new Type 1 that somehow manages to be even more minimal than last year’s model. The watch’s unique approach to displaying the time is…

The Six Types of Apple Store Genius

This isn’t brick and mortar, it’s glass and steel. Pseudonymous Apple Store employee J. K. Appleseed walks you through a choose-your-own-adventure story with a twist. Yep, we’re going backstage at Apple Retail, the supercollider of human expectations and consumer technology. Genius #1 You bring your iPhone to the Apple Store for a repair, and your…

Architect Repays Fickle Utah Customers With Anonymous Concrete Bunker

Are you happy now, Park City? After a planned addition to the Kimball Art Center sparked public outrage over the design—an awesome, spiraling log cabin from space—the architects behind the proposal, Bjarke Ingels Group, have unveiled an austere new design. BIG’s original design for the addition was chosen by museum administrators all the way back…

The most amazing swimming pools on Earth

I’m so sick of this damn cold weather that I just spent the last two hours going through summer vacation porn and collected my favorite swimming pools on Earth from our own articles and some other sources. Watch, dream, and post your own favorite in the comments. Shawn house, Vancouver Ubud Hanging Gardens Resort, Bali…

Do You Miss Google’s Old School Look?

Yesterday, Google’s desktop search page got a redesign. Now it looks the same as Google’s mobile and tablet search pages—bigger titles and, notably, no more underline for linked text. Did you notice? And if you did, which do you prefer? I gotta admit, I felt like something looked unusual in my Google searches yesterday, but…

Bluetooth Driving Assistant, $50 off Most Tablets, Car Tires [Deals]

No matter how long you’ve been driving, it’s never too late to learn better habits. Automatic is a little Bluetooth dongle that plugs into your car’s OBD-II port (found on almost any car made since 1996) and communicates with your phone to track driving habits, mileage, and engine problems. Best of all, if you’re in…