Tech News

Even the most ferocious storm can look beautiful in a time-lapse video

It’s not what its author intended but, after seeing Huelux, filmed in South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah, I want to see some spectacular time-lapse videos on huge storm systems. From the author: The weather in 2013 made it difficult for me to get some of the shots I wanted. There were many times I planned…

The Science Behind Why Fat Tastes So Good

It’s the end of January, and that means New Year’s resolutions swearing off chocolate and fries and all the other delicious fatty foods are just starting to bend. Who can blame you, really? Here’s a rundown on the science of fat, and why it’s so hard to resist. It Feels and (Sounds!) Good in Your…

The World’s Largest Toy Car Collection Has Over 30,000 Tiny Vehicles

The fact that Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys are so cheap means that countless kids have giant collections of tiny cars. But the world’s largest? With over 30,000 scale vehicles in his collection, Beirut’s Billy Karam has a legitimate claim to that title, and Cool Hunting had a chance to tour his showroom. An actual…

Shooting Challenge: Cocktails

A lot of you participate in Gizmodo’s weekly Happy Hour, but most of you (intelligently!) aren’t taking photos of it. But for this week’s Shooting Challenge, let’s celebrate the beauty of booze. Photograph a cocktail (and get us the recipe!). The Challenge Take a photo of a cocktail and tell us how to make it.…

3D Printed Custom Insoles Made From a Ten Second Video Of Your Foot

Everyone’s feet are different, but when you buy a pair of shoes, they come with insoles that are designed to (mostly) fit everyone. Don’t your feet deserve better given the impacts they absorb for you all day long? A company called Sols has created a better way with a process where they can design and…

Sneaky “Honey Encryption” Stops Hackers By Drowning Them in Phony Data

It seems like no matter how much companies may try to up their defenses, there will always be some industrious young hacker who manages to evade every roadblock in his way. One team of researchers, though, think they may have finally found a way to turn their defense into an attack on the hackers themselves—by…

Gorgeous Aerial Photos Capture the Ironic Beauty of Fracking

Cities popping up in the middle of nowhere. Blackened landscapes of industrial runoff, including lakes of liquid hydrocarbons, like something from the moons of Saturn. Vast transportation systems snaking over previously empty hills and ranches, pulling not human passengers but tankers. This is the new geography of fracking. Think, for example, of the brand new…

How A California City’s Sidewalks Were Redesigned for Wheelchairs

The story of how Berkeley, California, first got wheelchair-accessible sidewalks in the 1970s is an unlikely mix of public protest, anti-war sentiment, and the grassroots potential of urban planning for the people, by the people. Writing for Boom, Bess Williamson explains how the city began to redesign itself for everyone to navigate. A story of…

Twitter’s adding new search features for web users: filter results by videos, photos, news, or people. You can also filter only results from those you follow. [Twitter via The Verge]

Apple’s Touch-Friendly, Solar-Powered Laptop Would Be Insane

Hey you, Apple user. Have you been waiting—and waiting and waiting—for Apple to make some face-melting upgrades to the MacBook instead of just bumping the specs every few months? Well, this is it. Maybe. With a capital “M.” Those crazy Cupertino kids were just granted a patent for a touch-friendly, solar-powered laptop from the future.…

Report: Samsung Will Stop Screwing Up Android

Samsung’s super Android phones, and its Android devices in general, have long been hindered by the terribleness of the proprietary UI and apps the company insists on bundling with its hardware. Re/Code reports that Samsung’s gonna cut it out. Let’s hope so. According to the report, Google is fed up with Samsung’s meddling, and has…

Intel Coined the Term iPad Back in 1994

Apple is notoriously protective of their intellectual property. Even going so far as suing Samsung in a high-profile fight over the iPhone and iPad designs. But what if Apple didn’t coin the name for one of their most celebrated products? Namely, the iPad. Predictions for iPad-like gadgets predate Apple’s device by decades. Stanley Kubrick’s 1968…

Belkin Everything, Tablets, Razer Edge, Dyson, Chromecast [Deals]

We’re unabashed fans of Belkin’s iconic swiveling travel surge protector, and Amazon has the 2.1 Amp model (which is the one you want if you own a tablet) today for an all-time low price. Belkin SurgePlus 3-Outlet Mini Travel Swivel Surge Protector | $19 Staples has brought back their popular $30 tablet discount, allowing you…

How Bioelectronics Promise A Future Cure For Cancer

When you think of cyborgs becoming a reality, you probably picture Arnold Schwarzenegger’s glowing red eye from Terminator or the steely, tight-lipped stare of Robocop. But the future where man and machine converge won’t just be built with nuts and bolts. It will be built with biology. Self-avowed cyborg expert Tim Maly said as much…

This Machine Perfectly Filets and De-Bones Fish with X-Rays and Water

Machines that can accurately and efficiently filet a fish have been used for years now to speed up processing plants—though only with farmed fish that are all the same size and weight. Fish caught in the wild usually have to be processed by hand given they vary in size, but a new machine that employs…

Skype Exorcists are Scam Artists, Say Traditional Exorcists

The internet is no stranger to long-distance religious rites, and Skype in particular has been a haven to those looking for a blessing from out-of-state (or across the globe, at that). Still, online spirituality does have its limits, which is unfortunate for Evangelical Christian Reverend Bob Larson. Because according to the religious powers that be,…

Why the South Fell Apart in the Snow

I get it. Two inches of snow shuts down major metropolitan areas (not just Atlanta). It’s funny! It’s funny because when it snows two inches where you live, it’s nothing, you might as well be in West Palm Beach. Southerners lose their shit, though! Hilarious. It’s fine if that’s how you want to process what…

This space fly proves that humans aren’t cut for interplanetary travel

If this fly looks weird to you it’s because it’s dead—covered in the fungus that killed it. It’s a very special type of Drosophila—one born and raised in space—and it proves that interplanetary travel could be really bad for the human immune system. So bad that we may end up dead, killed by some stupid…

How I Lost My $50,000 Twitter Username

I had a rare Twitter username, @N. Yep, just one letter. I’ve been offered as much as $50,000 for it. People have tried to steal it. Password reset instructions are a regular sight in my email inbox. As of today, I no longer control @N. I was extorted into giving it up. While eating lunch…

You Can Cradle This 3-Cylinder Engine Like an 88-Pound, 400 HP Baby

An engine this small should, by conventional logic, not be this powerful. But, somehow, it is. And at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, Nissan plans to see just how well its under-sized, over-powered hybrid engine prototype handles auto racings’s most grueling challenge. The minuscule engine is known as the DIG-T R. It’s an…