Tech News

Cone: A Speaker That Knows What You Want to Hear Before You Do

Music is personal. It’s tied to our identities, our emotions, even our friends. So the idea that a complex algorithm could make us smarter about music is counter-intuitive. The creators of Cone, a wireless speaker that learns what you like and builds on it, think they’ve cracked the code. Cone is the first product by…

How to pick a lock in one simple perfect GIF

Have you ever wanted to learn how to pick locks? Well, this stupid simple GIF is your ticket. Now you just need to practice. A lock, in its simplest form, is just a series of pins,each of which has two parts that are illustrated in red and blue to the left. To pick a lock,…

E-Ink Kindles, Including the Paperwhite, Are $20 Off Today

If you or someone you know still doesn’t own a Kindle, today’s a great day to fix that. Amazon has taken $20 off both of their E-ink models, dropping them firmly into impulse buy territory. The flagship Paperwhite will only set you back $99 today, representing a very rare discount, but if a backlight and…

Silicone Straps Serve as Beverage Seatbelts On This Serving Tray

If you spent any time working as a server in a restaurant or bar, you’re probably already a master at carrying trays full of food. The rest of us, however, need all the help we can get. And this clever serving tray from Finell helps eliminate spills using a series of stretchy silicone bands that…

Behold this incredible magical portal recorded in Japan

A mesmerizing scene featuring a beautiful sun light pillar against a peaceful snow landscape in Hokkaido, Japan—recorded on video by Shinji Kawamura. It feels magical, like a portal opening to a dream world in a Miyazaki movie. Kawamura has other beautiful nature videos of his homeland. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join…

History of the Universe in under six minutes

Clean animation + accurate cosmology + English accent = win, even if they did gloss over the whole, mistook the cosmic microwave background radiation as birdshit so stationed a student by the telescope with a shotgun, part of the story “by accident.” Kurzgesagt bills themselves as “nerdfighters who want to make science look beautiful. Because…

This Futuristic Truck Was Actually Designed By Walmart

With 7,000 tractor trailers currently in its fleet, it makes sense that Walmart would have a vested interest in designing more efficient delivery vehicles. The company’s new ultra-aerodynamic Walmart Advanced Vehicle Experience—or WAVE—concept is lighter and more fuel efficient than other trucks on the market, and can run on almost any fuel short of nuclear…

Good news, Android-loving Chromecast users: the newest beta of Chrome for Android adds casting ability for YouTube videos and thus, basically any standard HTML5 video. It’s a beta, so it might be a little clunky, but hey, now your casting abilities aren’t limited to your computer. [AndroidPolice]

Bitcoin Bank Flexcoin Shuts Down After $620,000 Heist

Flexcoin, famous for making bitcoin banking as easy as regular banking, is no more. The company shut its doors on Tuesday morning after hackers stole 896 bitcoins (nearly $620,000) from its vault on Sunday. And the most unsettling thing? That wasn’t even the only bitcoin heist last weekend. To Flexcoin’s credit, it wasn’t completely cleaned…

Intel Just Bought Itself One of the Best Fitness Trackers Out There

Intel just bought Basis—makers of one of the best fitness trackers out there—for somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million dollars so it doesn’t horribly miss the boat on wearables the way it did on phones. For now, that means a really great wearable is off the market, but Basic’s guts are bound to rise…

Spectacular stunt: Man runs up 98-foot ship mast and jumps into the sea

Alex Thomson is an experienced sailor with an 8-tonne racing sailboat as tall as a 10-story building. He’s also a bit of a madman and here’s the proof—watch him running over the 98-foot-long mast of his ship and then jump into the sea. Here’s the video recorded in Cádiz, Spain, Thomson first heeled his ship,…

Ukraine Is Now Being Hit by Cyberattacks

If there weren’t already enough problems in Ukraine, it’s now coming under heavy electronic attack, too. Reuters reports that Ukraine’s telecommunications system has come under attack in the past two days, with “equipment installed in Russian-controlled Crimea used to interfere with the mobile phones of members of parliament” The head of Ukraine’s Security Service—known as…

How the Elements Got Their Names

From Hydrogen to Ununoctium, all of the elements have names, some more crazy than other. But where did they come from? This video explains how every tile in the big ol’ periodic table contains a story—often times relating to a particularly interesting experiment or person, but sometimes because of colors, locations, or chemical properties. Regardless,…

The Science of Female Condoms: The Future of Sex?

Once derided as being like plastic bag with the erotic appeal of a jellyfish, the female condom’s being reinvented as the next big thing in safe sex. Emily Anthes investigates. 1. Excitement In 1987, an American pharmaceutical executive called Mary Ann Leeper flew to Copenhagen to get a firsthand look at what she thought might…

How the Microscope Transformed Science Forever

The microscope is a staple of the scientific community, allowing researchers to study what’s too small to be seen by the naked eye. But how exactly did it rise to such notoriety? This video by Sci Show takes a look at the rise and rise of the microscope, from its earliest form—little more than a…

Twitter Accidentally Reset Its Users’ Passwords

Don’t panic! Your Twitter account hasn’t been hacked, the password has just been accidentally reset. Overnight, Twitter “unintentionally sent some password reset notices… due to a system error.” Re/code reportsthat it has affected less than 1 percent of Twitter users, but that’s still a fairly significant number in absolute terms. If you’re currently locked out…

Rumor: Facebook to Get Its Own Drones to Fill the Skies With Internet

TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook is in discussions to purchase Titan Aerospace—in a bid to secure its own fleet of endurance drones to take internet to the air. The small aircraft made by Titan are in fact solar powered, and can stay in the air for up to five years at a time. According to…

This animation explains the Big Bang better than school did

I used to joke around about how I have learned so much more from YouTube than I ever did in school. I’m not joking anymore. Here’s a nice animation from Kurzgesagt that simplifies all you need to know about the Big Bang. It’s this type of education that plants a seed in my brain for…

I’ve seen the future and it’s this touchscreen Pizza Hut menu table

Behold the future, my friends. It isn’t hoverboards or laser swords or transportation hailing apps or drone deliveries, it is this: a gigantic touchscreen that lets you build your own pizza on the table that you will eat it on. Use the touchscreen to perfectly customize your order, play games while you wait and pay…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: My Nature Documentary

The quality of this CGI may not be on par with Avatar, but the writing’s better. Adapted from a story written by Jack Handey—and originally published in the New Yorker’s “Shouts & Murmurs” section in July, 2007—My Nature Documentary envisions an African safari as the screenwriter pours through his script.