Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about the Xbox One versus the PlayStation 4. The 360 versus the PS3. Pitting Xbox Live against PlayStation Plus. Comparing Microsoft and Sony. Even including Windows Phone with the PSP. Whatever. Any argument between Xbox fanboys and PlayStation fanboys eventually reaches the point where they’re both so thankful that…
We’re all alive right now to know what 2013 is like. Some of us can tell stories about life 30 years ago. But most of us have no clue what life was like 60 years ago. This fantastic video by the BBC compares that whole timespan. It shows the same exact train ride filmed in…
You’ve seen a pair of tennis shoes hanging on a telephone wire before—we all have. Just like we’ve all wondered why the hell they were up in there first place, not to mention why it seems to consistently happen in every major city you go to. The short, 14-minute documentary “The Mystery of the Flying…
The year was 1960, and phones were changing. It was the beginning of the end for rotary dialing, and buttons were the future. But engineers faced an important, looming question: what order do you put those buttons in? Turns out there were a lot of options. Note: A ton of these are super wrong. What…
The frequently reliable Ev_Leaks Twitter account just posted a pair of screenshots that give us a peek at the setup app for Samsung Galaxy Gear, which Samsung is set to announce on September 4th. If these Gear Manager shots are real, the smartwatch will likely rely heavily on your phone do anything. If we believe…
Ever get that feeling that the speakers in your living room are too, well, opaque? Wouldn’t it be cool if it looked like they were just floating there in mid-air blasting jams for all to hear? It’s a heck of a dream, and thanks to a team of Harvard scientists, it might just come true…
No trip to France is complete without seeing the grand gardens and spectacular palace at Versailles, the place that epitomizes the excess of 18th century France. Who better to lead the tour than everybody’s favorite 21st century French band, Phoenix. Plus also too, drones. Phoenix’s “Entertainment” is the latest Take Away Show produced by La…
We may have our eye turned towards exploring space, but apparently, there’s still very much here on Earth we have yet to see. After collecting data for years, scientists have just announced the discovery of a 460-mile-long canyon underneath Greenland’s ice sheet, making it even longer than our own Grand Canyon—and no human has ever…
Nothing helps fill the silent void at an awkward dinner party like a piece of furniture with an interesting back story. Whether it’s the couch you found inexplicably just abandoned next to a dumpster, a bookshelf that started life as a stolen stack of cinderblocks, or this truly unique mine cart coffee table that spent…
There is some fantastic art on YouTube. There are also some hideous comments on YouTube. Probably more of the latter than the former. But hey, at least there aren’t YouTube comments on all art. The folks over at Buzzfeed decided to gaze deep into that horrific alternate universe and whip up this amusing glance into…
Mysterious structures in the Chinese desert, abandoned subway stations that look like doorways to a steampunk future that never was, top secret nuclear submarine bases built by Stalin in the heart of mountains, hidden bunkers all over the world, forbidden headquarters for spy and military organizations… take a look at some of the places forbidden…
In 1964, sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov penned a piece for the New York Times with his predictions for the world of 2014. Looking at the World’s Fair of 50 years hence, Asimov imagined 3D TV, underground cities, and colonies on the moon. Many people online have hailed this as an incredible example of prescient thinking,…
The Digg app for iOS has been around for a while, but until now, Android users have been left out of the fun. No longer. Digg for Android is here. What does it do? It’s a combination between Digg’s top stories page and Digg’s minimalist RSS reader. Setup is a breeze because it pulls all…
You don’t have to wait for the next version of Google’s Android to make your phone better. This is how you can add future phone features yourself, right now. https://gizmodo.com/the-best-future-android-features-you-can-get-right-now-1183469083
Hey, look at this phone, I say to my girlfriend. That’s not a phone. That’s a tablet, she says. Exactly. What Is It? No, really, what is it? The Samsung Galaxy Mega bills itself as a smartphone, despite its 6.3-inch screen. That puts it closer in size—by a good margin—to a Nexus 7 tablet than…
50 years after the March on Washington, America is still brimming with disgraceful white people who have ruined Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream and the legacy of that movement, Tom Scocca explains on Gawker: Here is where white Americans failed themselves and their country. That image of the promissory note was too much for white…
Forget playing with toy cars; I just want to watch robots do it. In this GIF. For the rest of my life. What you see here—other than an impeccably looped GIF of infinite watchability—are two of DENSO Robotics VS-Series 6-axis articulated robot arms that use a proprietary system called b-CAP to watch their surroundings and…
iTunes is bad. Even if you’ve never consciously thought it, you’ve known it deep down inside of you, the same way you’ve always known that fire burns and that Josh Lucas will never make the A list. But if you’re looking for the specific reasons iTunes is bad, Lifehacker lays the case out out nicely…
Why wait until Black Friday to upgrade your aging television? 60 inches of smart plasma from a trusted brand for $800 is a killer deal, and that’s exactly what you get with this LG set. [eBay] Want to spend less or just need something smaller? Grab a 40″ Sharp LED for only $330. [Best Buy]…
Remember Sky City, the ambitious plan to build the world’s tallest building in 90 day (out of prefab parts)? Construction began in July as planned, but Chinese officials have halted the project indefinitely—and some are wondering whether Sky City may signal a looming bust for the country’s skyscraper boom. Workers had just finished laying down…