Tech News

Got a Galaxy Nexus? No KitKat 4.4 for you. Sorry. That seems dumb and weird since KitKat is supposed to be tricked out for low-spec phones, but it seems to be the case.

Where Monsters Come From, or Bad Paleontology

Ancient myths of dragons, titans, and giants—inhuman creatures battling it out on an alien earth before mankind—are easy enough to find. Seemingly every culture has them. What’s perhaps more surprising is that many of these tales of deformed and monstrous beings, whether terrifying dragons or beneficent heroes armed for battle, often resulted from a misunderstanding…

It’s Easy To Clean Under This Levitating Bed

Scientists claim there are no black holes close enough to harm our solar system. But they’re clearly not acknowledging the black holes that exist under every bed, sucking in and trapping dropped items, random clothing, and seemingly every last speck of dust in a room. There’s a solution, though, in the form of Letti Bolzan’s…

5 Creepy, Scary, Awesome Things You Never Knew About Blood

The internet has been beating us over the head with the fact it’s Halloween today, and that means lots of fake blood. But the real stuff coursing through your veins can be scary all on its own. Here are some of the weirdest and wildest things going on in the world of blood. New Synthetic…

This running man was drawn in the air using a magical light wand. It’s not a graphic overlaid in a computer. I missed this amazing application of PixelStick yesterday. So neat.

China Says Goodbye To Its Mysterious, Illegal High-Rise Fortress

The luxurious “mountain villa” built atop a Beijing high-rise is being torn down. The $4 million penthouse was built by a Chinese health care entrepreneur named Zhang Lin on the roof of an existing apartment building earlier this year, much to the chagrin of its party-pooper occupants. To build his totally unregulated shangri-la, Lin’s construction…

Has Anyone Ever Actually Poisoned or Put Razors in Halloween Candy?

Remember your mom sorting through your Halloween candy as a kid, looking for signs of ‘tainted’ candy laced with poison, needles or razor blades? It turns out, unless she was just using it as an excuse to steal the good candy before you got it, she was wasting her time. You are more likely to…

Not Everybody Was Excited About America’s Flying Machine Future

In 1953, columnist Henry McLemore made it clear that he hoped to be dead and gone before “the future” arrives. What was McLemore so concerned about? All those damn flying machines — 20 million, in theory — that would be buzzing around by the year 2000. McLemore was upset by the predictions of one Major…

How the Nexus 5 Compares to Its Toughest Smartphone Competition

Finally, the long-awaited Nexus 5 has arrived in the form of 5 inches of pure, unfiltered Android just the way Google always intended. That all sounds nice, but as Google’s flagship response to other big dogs like the iPhone 5S and Lumia 1020, does the refreshed Nexus have the specs to keep up with the…

First official The Lego Movie trailer is here

The teaser was great, but the official trailer is better. The movie is directed by the excellent Phil Lord and Chris Miller—who made Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs—and stars Will Arnett as Batman plus Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman. https://gizmodo.com/the-lego-movie-trailer-is-here-and-it-sure-is-quippy-514180125

8 Unfortunate Vintage Candy Wrappers

According to a recent article on Smithsonian.com, the notion that poison candy is routinely distributed to unsuspecting children on Halloween is a myth perpetrated by advice columnists Dear Abby and Ann Landers in the 1980s and ’90s. But historically, candy meant for young consumers has sported poisonous-sounding, WTF wrappers and packages that most self-respecting 2013…

What Do You Think Is on the Google Barge?

For almost a week now, the internet’s been trawling the depths of its imagination trying to figure out what the heck Google is doing building barges. Obscure patent documents suggest they’re floating data centers. Local reporters think they’re clandestine Google Glass stores. But nobody really has a clue. On Wednesday, the Coast Guard boarded one…

You don’t need a spaceship to visit this alien world

If you want to feel like you are in another planet, just get a plane to Reykjavík and ask someone to get you to Hverir, the volcanic landscape pictured in this photo by Stéphane Vetter. Don’t miss the rest of his beautiful photo series in Nuits sacrées.

Why We’re Afraid of the Dark (and Why It’s Good That We Are)

Most kids go through a stage in which they’re afraid of the dark. Any creaking floorboard, rustling shutter, or random bump in the night fill them with terror. Good! Here’s why, and why we should maybe never grow out of it. It’s maybe an obvious point, but it’s not the dark itself that children find…

Want to get your hands on the Nexus 5 ASAP? Sprint will have it for $150 starting November 8th, while T-Mobile only has an email update you can sign up for at the moment. [Sprint, T-Mobile]

The Only Population Map You Need to Understand the World

Which countries are emerging superpowers? Which countries are in decline? This excellent infographic of population change, country by country, explains pretty much everything you need to know about what’s going to happen geopolitically in the next few decades. The data comes from the United Nation Population Fund, which has just released its State of World…

Nexus 5: A Pure Google Dream Phone That’s a Crazy Good Deal

We found out just about everything about the Nexus 5 over the past several weeks thanks to leak after endless leak. Today Google finally revealed its horribly kept secret, and there are very few surprises. Here’s what you need to know. https://gizmodo.com/this-leaked-service-manual-lists-literally-everything-a-1441627612 Design The Nexus 5 has grown a little bit since its Nexus 4…

Android 4.4 KitKat: An Upgrade For Everyone (Eventually)

The new version of Android is finally here, and its biggest feature is a new stage for an old favorite. Google Now is getting more limelight than ever, and that’s fantastic. But even better, even folks with older handsets will (theoretically) be able to get in on the fun. With the update to 4.4, the…

Do We Have a Legal Right to Light?

With supertall towers popping up along Central Park’s southern edge like wildly expensive luxury mushrooms, Manhattan’s largest park is about to be cast into shadow—some as long as half a mile. The real estate boom is stirring up a debate: Do we have a “right to light”? Not in America. But there are plenty of…

A supernova will be visible from Earth in the next 50 years

Ohio State University astronomers have concluded that there’s a probability of almost 100 percent that a star will go supernova in the Milky Way during the next 50 years. The explosion, they said, will be visible from Earth. This study suggests that they have a solid chance of doing something that’s never been done before:…