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This 3 outlet, 2 USB port Belkin Surge Protector is your impulse purchase of the day. I own one and find it incredibly useful, both at home and for travel. The plug rotates, so you can orient it any way you like. Comes highly recommended by Lifehacker and many other publications. Only $10. [Amazon] Almost…
Samsung’s smartwatch is really real. And really awkward. We got some hands on time with the brand new ticker—called Galaxy Gear—and these are our first impressions. https://gizmodo.com/galaxy-gear-everything-you-need-to-know-about-samsung-1252036188 Design Galaxy Gear comes in six different colors that are reminiscent of playful Swatch wristwear. But Gear is a lot heftier than any old Swatch ticker. It has…
If you own Photoshop CS3 or higher—the time might be rip for an upgrade to the Creative Cloud version of the application. If you sign up for a Adobe Photoshop CC subscription by the end of the year, you’ll only pay $10 per month--forever. Usually a membership costs $20/$30 per month depending on whether you…
Just a couple of years ago, the idea of a device projecting information driving directions onto a car’s windshield seemed super futuristic. Now they’re becoming a reality, with the European release of Pioneer’s NavGate head-up display the latest. And believe it or not, this one’s actually pretty affordable. The new but long-awaited augmented reality NavGate…
Back to school, holiday travel, holiday gifts, year-end tax planning… September is a crucial month if you want to save a lot of money in the coming months till May, the other crucial financial month. Here’s a good list of things to do. https://lifehacker.com/the-financial-moves-you-should-make-in-september-1250711845
After the commoditization of phones and tablets, companies are desperate to find the next big thing. Some believe that people really want smart watches. The only problem is that smart watches are stupid. Smart watches are like the old 1980s Casio calculator watch but without the tiny buttons and sightly smarter. Take the Galaxy Gear…
It’s easy to tell when hardwood floors are clean, but it’s not so obvious when it comes to carpets. Who knows how much dust, dirt, and debris are hidden amongst those fibers? So instead of randomly running a vacuum over every inch of your living room, hoping it’s clean, Samsung’s new Motion Sync vac tells…
Happy smart watch day! Let’s have a hearty welcome for our newest party guest: Qualcomm. That’s right, the Snapdragon chipmaker will be peddling its own watch—the Toq—direct to consumers. And it’s a way different take than Samsung’s Galaxy Gear. On the spectrum of standalone to accessory, Qualcomm’s Toq skews enthusiastically toward the latter. Think “watch…
Tattoos are painful. They’re also beautiful—an aesthetic commitment that someone chooses to adopt forever. And in photography, they can make a wonderful bridge between the human form and the artistic touch. WINNER: Personal Compass Camera: Olympus E-500 ISO 400 f/3.5 1/400 sec I took my son to the beach later in the late afternoon on…
Samsung’s new Galaxy Gear smartwatch, Galaxy Note III, and Note 10.1 will be out on September 25. Update: The Note 3 and Gear will be out some time in October for the US and Japan—the Sept. 25 date was for the rest of the world. Gee, thanks, guys. [Liveblog]
Do you ever look at the ancient pyramids in Egypt and think, “Why isn’t there a gigantic carnival ride on top of those?” Well, you wouldn’t be alone. Because somebody asked that very question in 1931. In a series of illustrations under the bold headline, “Mammoth Flying Swing to Give Bird’s Eye Pyramid View,” we…
Surprise surprise, there’s a new Galaxy Note. Whodathunkit? But with the Mega on the scene, the new Note 3 isn’t the leader of the pack when it comes to screen-size anymore. It looks like it’s getting a little bump in screen size up to 5.7 inches from 5.5, and is actually a couple grams lighter…
The maker movement is nigh, bringing with it an interesting tension between hands-on craft techniques and tech-heavy production. RCA-graduate David Steiner decided to put aside the 3D printer and step out of the studio to see what he could make using gadgets found in his own home—from a hand-mixer to the microwave. It all began…
This afternoon, Samsung will kick off its Smartwatch Era with the introduction of the Galaxy Gear. It’s a watch but it’s smart in that it will know when someone is calling you and can take pictures with it and it will have apps. But can it love? Join our liveblog right here—and/or watch the stream…
Samsung just took the lid off its long-rumored Smartwatch. Here’s everything the Android-powered arm computer—officially known as Galaxy Gear—has to offer. Galaxy Gear is a lot like a pared down smartphone you wear on your wrist. On the home screen you’ll see the time, and shortcuts to access essential apps like the camera and your…
In 1915, nearly two decades after patenting the world’s first radio-controlled boat, famed Serbian-America inventor Nicola Tesla imagined fleets of unmanned aerial combat vehicles being sent to war instead of pilots. Little did he know, the US Navy was already hard at work on that very same vision. Between 1898, when Tesla first demonstrated remote…
Convertibles as a whole aren’t the most sensible thing in the world. At this point, most are still rife with compromises, gimmicks, and odd decisions. Sony’s new Vaio Flip is too, but its gimmick—a screen that flips back on itself—also happens to make a whole lot of sense. The Flip works by using two hinges:…
Twitter’s been around since 2006. If it was a kid, Twitter would be in 2nd grade, and totally grounded for having such a potty mouth. But trying to search through old tweets is a major frustration, because Twitter’s built-in search function favors messages it thinks are newest and most relevant. Topsy changes all that, with…
We’d been waiting on this one—the Zenbook is finally getting a refresh. And for whatever reason, Asus has decided to cover one of the prettier ultrabooks out there in a sheet of Gorilla Glass. Which, hey, sure. The Zenbook U301X and U302X have the upgrades you’d expect, mainly being the new fourth generation Haswell processors…
As much as we like to gripe about it stateside, our complaints about the drone program are nothing compared to those of Al Qaeda. The terrorists don’t like drones, because drones are designed to kill terrorists. According to documents leaked by Edward Snowden, however, Al Qaeda’s about to fight back. The Washington Post gained access…
