Tech News

Adorn Your Walls With the Weapons of Summer Fun

The actual summer months might be drawing to a close, but thanks to LA-based DKNG Studios, you can preserve some of that warm weather fun with these awesome prints featuring comprehensive illustrations of the Nerf and Super Soaker product lines. At one time or another we’ve all owned at least one of these weapons of…

Pack Every Inch of Your Balcony with Garden

Look, you’re already stuffing your entire life into a 100 sq ft box, you might as well maximize your balcony’s utility as well. With some minor augmentations, you can turn even the tiniest outdoor space into a personal Babylonian Garden. Plant What in the Where Now? Before you get started slapping plants up all over…

The Hovercraft That Stormed a Russian Beach Is the World’s Largest

That hovercraft caught invading a popular Russian beach last week wasn’t just any old air-cushioned aquatic landing platform, it’s the single biggest such vehicle in the entire Russian arsenal—or in any other military’s, for that matter. Simply put, the Zubr-class air-cushioned landing craft is the largest hovercraft on Earth. Originally designed during the waning days…

Forge Your Own Path With This Collapsible Trail-Clearing Multi-Tool

If you’d rather take the path less followed when you hit the great outdoors, it might need a little TLC along the route. And that’s where the lightweight collapsible Trail Boss will serve as your perfect hiking partner. It lets you carry four long-handled tools in a compact pack, so you can make short work…

Designers Turn an Abandoned Victoria’s Secret Into a Temporary Workshop

This spring, when City Council voted to demolish the mall at South Street Seaport, they announced that current tenants would be allowed to stay until the summer’s end. But many anchor stores chose to move out earlier—and two designers from Brooklyn were determined to take advantage of the abandoned store space. Demolition on the mall…

Why Do Vitamins Make Urine Bright Yellow?

If you’ve ever taken a daily multivitamin you too might have noticed your urine turning a bright yellow-ish color. Take your vitamins and eat some asparagus and you might just think you’re dying the next time you pee! What’s happening is that urine will turn a bright, sometimes neon, yellow in response to excess riboflavin.…

The Mini+ Is HTC’s Solution to Carrying a Big Phone

Phones are getting bigger; some are even too big for pockets. So what’s the answer to your too-big-to-use-as-a-phone issues? A mini Bluetooth phone that connects to your real phone, of course. Or at least that’s what HTC thinks. Meet the HTC Mini+. Yeah, that just happened. How on Earth we’ve got to the point where…

Listen to Music Made from Concert-Goers’ Dance Moves

In our electronic music age, it’s sometimes easy to forget how music is basically just a bunch of well-organized noise. It seems like over-produced pop albums have more in common with computer software than performance, so when musicians break the mold, things get interesting. Musician Daniel Freitag recently teamed up with Ma-Ma, a Hamburg-based creative…

Verizon just shook off the part owners of Verizon Wireless, the UK-based Vodafone, by stumping up a cool $130 billion. That is one serious move—though it’s unclear what the newfound freedom means for the network.

This Equation Can Tell You How Successful a Reddit Post Will Be

Scientists love developing equations that can accurately predict real-life events—so when researchers from Stanford looked at Reddit, they naturally wondered if they could predict how successful posts would be. This equation is theresult of their work. By analyzing the success of over 16,700 pictures posted on Reddit, the team worked out how content, title, timing…

A Sleeping Bag That Ditches Zippers So You Don’t Feel Like a Mummy

If the thought of drifting off in a sleeping bag, only to wake up in the middle of the night all twisted and constricted, leaves you feeling anxious and claustrophobic, Sierra Designs wants to help. With its new Backcountry Bed 800 sleeping bag it’s banished constricting zippers, instead opting for a double layered design that…

These Interactive Maps Compare 19th Century American Cities to Today

As mind-blowing as science is these days, it’s probably safe to say that we’re not going to invent a time machine within the next century. Through the magic of code, though, there is an entertaining alternative in the world of interactive maps. Obviously, The Smithsonian is on it. The magazine recently dipped into David Rumsey‘s…

Nexus 7 Touch Problems Persist Despite Google’s Fix

Complaints from early adopters of the new Nexus 7 claimed the device’s touchscreen was rather out of whack, with owners baffled by phantom extra presses registering while typing and making the tablet a bit of a nightmare to use. Google Issued a fix but… it doesn’t seem to have fixed anything. Users who’ve installed the…

8 Horrible Data Visualizations That Make No Sense

Data visualization can be a great way to drive numbers home and give them a visual weight mere statistics don’t have. At least, that’s what happens when they make sense. Sometimes visualizations are downright dumb and just make things worse. Like these, for instance. WTF Visualizations has been curating a lovely collection of infographic excerpts…

The PS4 Will Feature Kinect-Like Voice Control

According to Sony, the PlayStation 4 will feature a voice command system which will allow users to control the console by speaking to it—much like the Xbox One’s Kinect-powered system. The feature will be routed through PlayStation Camera’s built-in microphone, and Sony plans to dribble out details of how it might be used soon. The…

A Lamp That Looks Like It’s Made From Meccano

The Construction Lamp by Joost van Bleiswijk is a tribute to industrial structures—and as a result it looks rather like its made from the Meccano you played with as a child. Designed by van Bleiswijk for Moooi, the four-sided structures tapers with height, making it look rather like a telegraph pylon. Each joint of the…

Microsoft’s Albert Penello, head of product planning for Xbox, had admitted that the company’s super-cool IllumiRoom conceptwould prove far, far too expensive to bother releasing it commercially. Shame.

This Is the First Phone With a 4K Video Camera

This is Acer’s new giganta-smartphone, the Liquid S2, and it’s sitting on a fairly impressive secret: it’s the world’s first phone to pack a 4K-capable video camera. Shout “overkill” or “progress”, whichever you prefer, but either way it’s an impressive feat squeezing such a sensor into the body of a phone. Not that this is…

You Could Get $3 Back For Each Price-Fixed E-Book You Bought

Following the e-book price fixing scandal that saw Apple found guilty, all five of the publishing houses involved in the spat have finally agreed to a federal court settlement—which could see you receiving a payout. The settlement—published in full below—outlines how consumers may retrospectively benefit from the deal. According to the document, if you bought…

Cannonball Adderley: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

“Mercy Mercy Mercy” is a great tune, but it was a surprise mainstream hit. It was written and originally recorded in 1966 and had reached #11 on the Billboard charts by 1967. Later it was covered by The Buckinghams and the Mauds, and was on the charts again. Written by the influential keyboardist and composer…