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It’s not often that you can indulge yourself with a shiny new toy and help someone in need at the same time. But with LSTN, an up-and-coming company that specializes in making headphones out of reclaimed wood, that’s the whole point. LSTN is the brainchild of Bridget Hilton, a music industry veteran who was on…
Good news, Microsoft fans! For a limited time buying Microsoft products will get you more Microsoft products for free. To be more specific, you’ll get a yearlong subscription to Xbox Live Gold when you purchase the new(ish) Microsoft Office 365 which also happens to be a subscription based software suite. Advertised as a back-to-school deal,…
A self-defense course will teach you how to use your keys as a weapon, but in practice, when you’re under attack and panicking, protecting yourself with a keyring isn’t as easy as it sounds. So the Hit, from Unikia, combines a loud audible panic alarm with a pop-up holder that turns a key into a…
Good news! VLC is back on iOS tomorrow. It had been pulled by Apple back in 2011, but VideoLAN thinks it’s got everything worked out with copyright holders this time. Hopefully it’s here for good this time around. [TNW]
Add 5.1 surround to your living room for $104 courtesy of woot! today. This Pyle 5.1 Home Theatre system with Active Subwoofer will have your neighbors complaining without aggravating your wallet, and you can blow all your non-techy friends’ minds by explaining what the .1 in 5.1 is. [woot!] Top Deals • Pyle 5.1 Home…
There’s a ton of info on the web. You’re never going to read it all, but you want to, so your browser has fistfuls of open tabs waiting for that rainy day when you’ll want to read a two-month-old article that’s no longer relevant to anything. But have you ever wondered what all those tabs…
This is it. My favorite annual Shooting Challenge of the year. You go out into the grass and muck and photograph bugs. The Challenge Photograph an insect, bug, arachnid, whatever! The Method Many of you will dust off the old macro lens this week, which is fantastic. Others might repurpose a telephoto lens for ground-level…
The rascals over at Anonymous are still pretty upset over the recent revelations about the NSA spying on seemingly everyone so they’re acting out in the only way they know how: hacking. Specifically, releasing the supposed email accounts—and passwords—of seemingly everybody on Capitol Hill. On Monday night, the affiliate account @AnonLastResort tweeted a link to…
One of the longest standing experiments has finally yielded a result. Started in 1944, it only took 69 years but the tar-like pitch at Trinity College Dublin has finally dropped. Pitch, for the uninitiated, is a highly viscous material that looks solid but is actually just a slow moving liquid. The point of the experiment…
Here’s a brilliant idea that could prevent countless drunk driving-related deaths from occurring. Working with a marketing agency called DDB, Zouk, a popular nightclub in Singapore, installed a series of urinals that are able to monitor a patron’s blood alcohol level and warn them if they’re too drunk to drive. It starts when a club…
For three decades, most of us have interacted with computers in exactly the same way: We point with a mouse (or a finger!), click, and watch the screen. In one way, it’s the most outdated element of human computer interaction around. But in another, it’s the thing that’s shaped every operating system and device designed…
How did iconic furniture like the Eames side chair become iconic? What about the Noguchi table, or countless other classic pieces of the modern era? The answer is through the legendary design firm Herman Miller, whose history you can see illustrated in 108 seconds in this short video. These classic designs would have never come…
So remember how traffic was pretty bad in Florida yesterday? You know, because of an unmanned drone unexpectedly spiraling down from the heavens and blowing up next to US 98 Highway by Tyndall Air Base? Well, there’s video now—or at least of the aftermath. And they were not kidding about that smoke cloud. A QF-4…
An international team of investigators has concluded that the battery inside the emergency locator transmitter is the likely cause of the fire aboard a Boeing 787 Dreamliner parked on the tarmac at London Heathrow last week. The plot thickens. So let’s be clear here: This is a cause for concern, but not in the way…
Even as the US begins to withdraw from Afghanistan, IEDs remain a constant threat to our forces. But the Army’s top brass is turning this threat into an opportunity using a new, integrated sensor suite. Now, with every IED attack, the Army learn how to better treat and prevent the destruction and mayhem they cause.…
The advanced imaging used to peer into the darkest corners of space has been adapted to help fight blindness. Using this tech, scientists have developed a prototype device that inspects the human retina for early signs of age-related sight loss. From deep space, to deeply within ourselves, man. The technology behind the “Retinal Densitometer” was…
Do you like drones? No? Do you want to shoot them out of the sky sometimes? Yes? Do you feel like you need the government’s permission to do so? Maybe? Well, head on over to Deer Trail, Colorado where drone-hunting dreams come true. The head of Deer Trail’s town board, Phillip Steel, recently proposed an…
The cat may already be out of the bag, but for many months we didn’t know what the PS4 looked like. Now, we know what the retail version will look, but what about the developer box Sony hid during the big reveal and on Jimmy Fallon? Well, here’s an exclusive image we’ve acquired of some…
Researchers at Boston Dynamics have designed one of the most advanced humanoids ever to compete in DARPA’s upcoming Robotics Challenge. But NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is taking a decidedly different, and more primitive, approach. Like with the country’s first space explorers, NASA is once again turning to primates with its surprisingly capable RoboSimian. Designed to…
Verizon finally jumped on board the upgrade-sooner boat on Thursday with the announcement of Verizon Edge. The new program spreads the cost of the phone over 24 months but lets you upgrade after six so long as you’ve paid off half your existing phone.
