Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
You wants Beats Music? You gots Beat Music. The audio company’s new streaming service went live in the US this morning, and you can go download the app for iOS right now. At least, you can if you’re willing to stump up $10 a month from the off, or $15 for a five-user family plan…
The forgetful mindless mob that is the internet is making viral these images of animals in the womb from the 2011 National Geographic program of the same name. I don’t blame her, because they are so impressive they should go viral on a monthly basis. The images were created for Animals in the Womb using…
Google Glass sure has its fair share of dumb applications, but some projects mercifully seem to balance them out. Like the apps put together by Patrick Jackson of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, a firefighter who’s writing code to help rescue teams save time—and lives. https://gizmodo.com/20-questions-about-the-new-google-glass-app-sex-with-g-1505217011 So far, he’s built apps that route incoming emergency calls…
Some people gobble up algebra and calculus like their life depended on it; others would rather poke pins into their eyes than solve a simultaneous equation. But why is that? In this video, Edward Frenkel—perhaps my favorite mathematician—explains why the thinks the problem is multi-dimensional (no pun intended). [YouTube] https://gizmodo.com/the-math-behind-the-nsas-email-hacks-1488445051
I am going to do this track-by-track countdown to the release, on February 13, 2014, the day prior to Valentine’s Day, of my book in the estimable 33 1/3 series. It is a love letter to Aphex Twin’s album Selected Ambient Works Volume II, which will mark its 20th anniversary this year, less than a…
“Well hello there, nightmare fuel, so nice to see you again. Sleep? No, no, I won’t be doing that that tonight, thanks.”—you, while watching this
Make sure you keep Lisa’s ears close to her eyes and nose but also make sure the nose line is perfect and overlapping the eye. Also, don’t forget to keep a streamlined curve to the face and keep the eyes round. This is important! Lisa Simpson, an iconic cartoon character as there is, is instantly…
If you’re just strolling down the street or driving in your car, you’d never notice anything weird with this house in Raleigh, North Carolina. It looks like a house is supposed to look. You can imagine the family that lives there and the weekday dinners they throw for the neighborhood. You can imagine the kids…
Strap yourself in your chair. Put down the coffee mug. And make sure you have an empty stomach because you’re about to take a ride in a flying roller coaster. Or well, the closest thing there is to a flying roller coaster. The video below gives you the backseat cockpit view of an ultra low…
Damon Albarn’s been making music now for decades (!), but today the Blur, Gorillaz, and The Good, The Bad, and The Queen frontman released the lead single from Everyday Robots, his very first solo LP. The video for the song was directed by artist and designer Aitor Throup, and offers a digitized glimpse at what’s…
When you’re working near your toolbox, keeping an assortment of snips within easy reach for various tasks is a great way to stay productive. But when you’re working someplace your toolbox can’t go, like at the top of a ladder, Crescent’s new Switchblade snips are a better option letting you carry a single handle with…
Bixi—the Montreal nonprofit company that developed the technology that powers New York City’s eight-month-old CitiBike program—filed for bankruptcy protection today, after it emerged that cities including New York and Chicago were withholding payments to the company. Could the news affect CitiBike? Maybe—but not just yet. According to a report in the Montreal Gazette, Bixi owes…
Adorable. We’ve seen dogs ride skateboards before and though it’s extremely cute when they’re pawing the ground to lunge forward and crashing into walls, they’re not really busting tricks with the board. This cat though? It does its feline version of ollies and skateboard grinds. You can see the cat, named Didga, jump over dogs…
It’s usually over in an instant, but when you capture macro footage of a match head igniting at 4,000 frames per second, suddenly that almost instantaneous event becomes a fascinating look into the science of fire and ignition. And believe it or not, YouTuber UltraSlo had to throw an additional 2,000 watts of light on…
On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed a crowd of nearly 250,000 gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the Great March on Washington, and delivered a speech that would become one of the most well-known in American history. Freedom’s Ring is an animated, annotated site that offers a more in-depth look at…
Devices such as as pacemakers and cochlear implants have become so common as seamless extensions of human beings that it’s easy to imagine a world without clear distinctions between man and machine. And now, one of the major roadblocks to that bionic future may have just been knocked aside. Grandpa—say goodbye to batteries. As great…
Believe it or not, there’s a reason a watering can is a better way to tend to your plants than the pitcher you borrowed from the kitchen. The long spout—which points up on Eva Solo’s Aquastar for easier storage—produces a calm, even flow that can be directed exactly where the water’s needed. And they hold…
It’s a question that pops up again and again during the perennial cycle of annual architecture awards: Why do we only honor new buildings for great design, when the test of time is yet to come? It’s an inequality that the American Institute of Architects has being trying to address for decades. https://gizmodo.com/the-11-best-american-designed-buildings-of-the-year-1501453676 The AIA’s…
Martin Luther King’s 1956 tips for riding integrated buses, examining how design has helped an Alabama county, building instant cities in Accra and instant skyscrapers in Mumbai, and how two New York architects are tearing down the work of their former friends. It’s all this week in our favorite Urban Reads. “Do not deliberately sit…
Wouldn’t it be cool if birds left visible trails behind them, like jets tracing the sky with smoke? That’s exactly the effect of Rhode Island School of Design professor Dennis Hlynsky achieves in his mesmerizing videos posted today at This Is Colossal. The concept is simple: set up a stationary camera and shoot some birds…
