Tech News

Crossword Puzzle: What Did We Learn About the NSA This Year?

We’ve certainly learned a lot this year about the surveillance state. Thanks to the cache of intelligence documents leaked by Edward Snowden, as well as the hoards of legal records we liberated through our Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, we’ve had immense amounts of new information to consume and process. But how many of the…

Team SCHAFT Sticks It to Competition, Wins DARPA Robotics Challenge

After two days of competition, Tokyo’s team SCHAFT has won the DARPA Robotics Challenge in Miami. With 27 out of a possible 32 points in eight challenges, SCHAFT pulled out a decisive victory. IHMC Robotics (20 points), Tartan Rescue (18 points), MIT (16 points) and Robosimian (14 points) round out the top five. We can’t…

Overstock.com Will Accept Bitcoin, Immediately Exchange for Dollars

Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne made waves in the imaginary money world when he announced the retailer will start accepting payment in bitcoin sometime next year. In interviews, Byrne made his confidence in the cryptocurrency seem rock-solid. But if you look a little closer, it seems he’s not really buying in at all. No, while you…

Bot Cameras, Lidar Eyes, and the Driverless Racetrack of the Future

Gizmodo’s coverage of the DARPA Robotics Challenge continues with day two at the Homestead Speedway south of Miami. The weekend has arrived and the crowds are here with their kids, cheering on the bots. Some of our readers have complained that watching this thing over the live feed is kind of like watching paint dry.…

Snapchat’s Update Lets You Replay One Snap Per Day

Snapchat just rolled out a big update with a bunch of new features, the most important being Replay. Now, every day brings a one-time chance to review the most recent message in your stream. If that makes you think twice about what you’ve been Snapchatting, maybe it’s time to reevaluate your life. The Replay option…

Half-Cow, Half-Machine Artificial Heart Implanted in First Human

This week, French surgeons implanted a Carmat artificial heart in a human patient for the very first time. The device, which combines mechanical components and heart tissue derived from cows, is the first artificial heart designed for long-term use up to five years. Standard artificial hearts and heart-assist devices are only meant to be used…

Tunnel Trouble, Chuck Norris, Every Android Phone Ranked, and More

This week was all about big stuff, whether it was big, unidentified objects blocking Seattle’s tunnel, or big air in the form of extreme stunts. Also, there’s a really yucky picture of a hand surgically attached to an ankle at the very end of this article. You’ve been warned. Something Called “The Object” Stops World’s…

Watch the DARPA Challenge and the Future Of Robotics Live Right Here

We’ve seen countless videos of ATLAS and other advanced robots strutting their stuff, but now it’s officially time for all of them to put their money where their mouths are (wait, do robots have mouths?) as the DARPA Robotics Challenge officially gets underway. And you can watch a live stream of the events as they…

How to Take Holiday Photos That Don’t Suck

Holiday family gatherings are the ripest events of year for photo-documentation. Rather than leaving the task to Aunt Edna, take those reins yourself. You can capture the finest damn pictures this family has ever seen! Here are seven tips that will help you on your quest. Keep your shutter speed above 1/80 The biggest culprit…

In the run-up to the holidays, smart folks all around the internet were talking robot ethics, fake job references, bitcoin, comics, and how streaming music supported and squashed cover bands. It’s all in this week’s Tech Reads: The New Yorker has a great infographic on the data that social media networks get from you, and…

Disquiet: 15, 10 & 5 Years Ago This Week (2013.51)

5 Years Ago (2008): This week I was in Tokyo, where I came upon a book titled Art Space Tokyo: An Intimate Guide to the Tokyo Art World. I was headed to a concert at the club Super Deluxe, so I didn’t but a copy, which was unfortunate because it quickly went out of print…

Chris Hadfield Answers Your Spacewalk Questions on Twitter Right Now

Astronaut and space-tweeter Chris Hadfield has been chatting with followers about today’s ISS spacewalk all morning. Head on over to his profile while you watch NASA’s video live feed of the spacewalk below. https://gizmodo.com/watch-todays-iss-spacewalk-live-right-here-right-now-1487708860

The Fascinating Century of the Crossword, the Original Mobile Game

Look around at the people on a train, at a bus stop, or in an airport. Chances are, lots of them are playing some kind of game on their smartphones. But in any crowd, you’ll likely see someone poring over a different pocket diversion — the crossword puzzle, still going strong today on its 100th…

This Spacecraft Fairytale Will Make Anyone Excited About Outer Space

Rosetta is traveling to unknown lands. Her voyage has gone on nearly a decade. With her lander Philae, she’s mankind’s most intrepid explorer, headed for a mysterious destination called Churyumov–Gerasimenko. It’s not a fictitious fairytale. It’s science. https://gizmodo.com/the-rosetta-spacecraft-is-humanitys-first-asteroid-land-1443930270 The European Space Agency’s Rosetta orbiter, launched in 2004, will be the first man-made object to land…

Watch Today’s ISS Spacewalk Live, Right Here, Right Now

It’s no lazy Saturday on the International Space Station: astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins have just begun the first of three spacewalks to fix a faulty cooling loop on the outside of the ISS. And you can watch it live. Head on over to NASA TV for live video, including radio communication from the…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Beat It Tonight (NSFW)

No see, the three supa-hawt party girls getting naked and drunk represents the itch of his addiction—that itch, that unyielding, nagging itch—the Molotov cocktail, his determination to conquer it.

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Most Beautiful Items: December 13 – 20, 2013

It’s nearly Christmas so everything is beautiful, from the lights decking every inch of your neighborhood to the fact that you’re about to get a little vacation. But we also had plenty of things to show you this week, from our favorite Instagram accounts to a tunnel to the sky in a Manhattan train station,…

Super fun holiday Rube Goldberg machine is a Christmas miracle

Happy holidays everyone. Enjoy the time with your family and friends and the days off you might get. Here’s a holiday Rube Goldberg machine from Quirkology, it starts a little slow but then grows bigger and basically becomes a wonderful Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) miracle. Have fun! Stay safe! SPLOID is a new…

Movies are pretty corny when you only hear their punchline

You might not want to admit it but your favorite action movie is pretty corny. But it’s okay! Because they’re fun and they’re ridiculous and there are explosions and they’re quite wonderful at wasting two hours. But when you only see little bits of the movie? Especially just the punchline? It gets quite embarrassing. Just…