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It’s easy to see how self-driving cars would benefit society. Traffic jams gone. Accidents reduced. Leisure time increased! These are all good things. But there are a number of bad things that are keeping self-driving cars from taking over. What’s the hold up? https://gizmodo.com/why-you-shouldnt-be-too-quick-to-cheer-self-driving-car-5974608 Before diving into the details of the challenges facing self-driving cars,…
So BBM for Android and iOS finally made it out after some delays. And how is it? “Really great user friendly and smooth” apparently. At least, according the legion of bots that’s leaving positive reviews on Google Play. https://gizmodo.com/bbm-for-ios-and-android-hands-on-the-best-blackberry-t-1352052992 Max Baxter-Reynolds spotted the abnormality, and so far as fake reviews go, these are baaaaad. If…
You have to crawl before you can walk—be you a baby or an asteroid-blasting space cannon. Now, after a successful test-fire here on Earth, Japan’s specially made cannon for its Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is ready to take its first, real steps in outer space. https://gizmodo.com/hayabusa-probe-has-successfully-brought-back-first-aste-5691545 Built by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the space…
Sometimes companies do stupid things to market their products. A silly commercial here. A ridiculous junket there. That’s all fine and good, but sometimes companies overdo it, companies like Samsung who just got slapped with a $340,000 fine in Taiwan for illegally paying people to trash talk HTC in forums. https://gizmodo.com/kohler-spent-1-500-for-me-to-take-a-bath-in-wisconsin-5904836 The fine comes after…
Using high speed cameras and lots of complex physics, scientists have uncovered one of the greatest mysteries of modern civilization: why the hell beer turns to foam and overflows from a bottle when you hit it hard at the top? Unsolved mystery: why people who do this “prank” are such jerks? https://gizmodo.com/the-fascinating-science-behind-why-a-tapped-beer-foams-1451022759
This might shock you, but for over a century scientists have been pondering why kettles whistle—and completely failed to find an answer. That’s all changed now, though, thanks to two scientists from the University of Cambridge who have worked out how it happens. The whistle in a kettle is created when steam passes through two…
Remember how boring and unbearable driver’s ed was in high school? It turns out that learning to drive in other countries isn’t so bad. In Sierra Leone, on Africa’s west coast, wannabe motorists have to commit to playing a custom board game for several months that makes learning the rules of the road far less…
Ask the average four-year-old a question, and you’ll probably get a wild, winding explanation in return. Case in point: Last month, little visitors to the V&A Museum of Childhood were invited to share their visions of what the future holds. The predictably weird and wonderful results—Invisible owners of the world! Butterfly people! Three-eyed, Cheerio-loving aliens!—were…
Scientists have figured out how flying insects fly. They’ve created real-life lightsabers. But they’re at their best when they’re tackling the mysteries of beer. Now, thanks to a research team studying fluid mechanics, we finally know why bottled beer foams over after a tap on the mouth — with slow-mo footage and everything. https://gizmodo.com/the-secret-science-in-a-pint-of-beer-5968567 A…
TiVo has announced that its Roamio Pro and Roamio Plus DVRs will now offer out-of-home streaming, allowing subscribers to watch live and recorded TV remotely over Wi-Fi. It’ll first roll out in the next weeks via an iOS app update, then an Android app and 4G streaming are planned for early next year.
As well as giving away OS X 10.9 Mavericks for free, Apple has also promised to update iWork and iLife gratis, too, for anyone that bought a Mac after October 1st. But there’s a glitch in the system that means people with illegal or trial copies of the software are being given free updates too.…
The Globe and Mailreports that ex-Apple CEO John Sculley is looking into taking control of BlackBerry in order to turn it round. Good luck with that, John.
Amazon has somehow gained initial approval to build a huge series of greenhouses slap-bang in the middle of Seattle so it’s employees need never leave work. https://gizmodo.com/amazon-is-planning-a-massive-biodome-hq-so-no-one-ever-509289653 The 65,000 square-foot, 95-feet tall, five-floor biodome structure—set to contain offices, dining areas, and retail stores—will be nestled within the company’s giant new campus, which will also include…
Microsoft has slashed another $100 off the price of its original Surface Pro, so now you can get one for $700 compared to $900 for the new Surface Pro 2.
Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, spoke to Barack Obama on Wednesday evening to demand explanations over reports suggesting that the NSA has been monitoring her mobile phone. According to the Guardian, sources claim that Merkel, the head of the German government, was “livid” over the reports. What’s more, leaning on German intelligence and investigations…
And you thought pink slime was horrifying? Just wait until you see this young steer’s harrowing escape from certain death at the clamps of a chainsaw-wielding robot named Earl. https://gizmodo.com/pink-slime-makers-are-feeding-diane-sawyer-a-big-fat-l-5988477 Also, why do robots need bathrooms?
This song is supposed to be a hardcore rock song. And though it has the punching anger throat sounds of any respectable hardcore rock song, it so obviously doesn’t have anything else that quite resemble the music of core hards. Instead, the song is mixed with an EDM dance track. That’s because the band didn’t…
According to Billboard, YouTube is aiming to make its own Spotify-like subscription music service. There’ll be a free streaming service (which, uh, should differentiate from free YouTube) and a premium tier that’ll be like Google Music’s All Access streaming service. Basically, every company wants their own music streaming service! The streaming service is supposed to…
A sponge is a sponge because its porous material is able to absorb liquid of any kind. But what about liquid metal? Can a sponge actually absorb the heavy quicksilver material known as mercury? Not at all. At best, a little bit of mercury goop gets caught on top of the sponge and slides away…
“Through the Force, things you will see. The future, the past, old friends long gone.” Someone has just found a disc full of behind the scenes, never before seen footage from Return of the Jedi. Two clips were uploaded to a Facebook page yesterday: a silent 59 seconds of R2-D2 repairing Luke’s X-Wing on Dagobah,…
