Tech News

This Printer Spits Out 10 Meters of Solar Panel Every Minute

Australia is on the cusp of a solar energy revolution. First, a recent study suggests that the country could power its entire national domestic infrastructure using only solar (while slashing the price of home electricity by 70 percent). Now, the University of Melbourne has introduced a new organic PV cell printer that rolls out a…

Our Effect on Earth’s Water Cycle Is Both Fascinating and Terrifying

Initially, access to water defined where humanity could grow and develop. But now the opposite is true, and we’re the ones directing the future of our global water system. Watching that transition unfold is as sobering as it is stunning. This three minute video, created by Felix Pharand for the opening of the Bonn meeting…

Yahoo Internet Life Magazine Is an Awesome Relic of the Dot Com Era

Yahoo yesterday announced that it’s bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion to communicate to millennials cool, hip, relevant, and that it understands what GIFs are. But back in the early ages of the dot com-era, the company was saying that through a monthly publication called Yahoo Internet Life Magazine. https://gizmodo.com/its-official-yahoo-is-buying-tumblr-508846808 From 1995-2002, Yahoo’s glossy was published…

Kinect Is Going To Watch How You Browse, Not Just What You Buy

There are endless metrics a store has access to when it comes to when, what, and who is buying merchandise. But surprisingly, there’s not a heck of a lot of data on why a customer decides not to buy something. So Fujitsu is hoping its new Kinect-based research tool provides more insight into how customers…

It’s Time To Kill Google Voice

Even if it’s not quite as amazing as it could be, Google Voice does some wonderful things. That’s what makes it hard to admit the truth: It’s time for Google Voice to die. A Problem Child When Google Voice launched in 2009, it was straight-up awesome. The concept of re-inventing the basic systems of telephonery…

IBM’s Watson Has a Boring New Job Answering Phones

After you’ve used your crazy robot intellect to crush puny meatbags definitively in a game of Jeopardy, it would seem like the world is your oyster. But Watson’s not taking trying to take over the world or anything, no. After a trying out medicine and inventing a pastry, he’s settling for a boring job in…

Spotify’s getting a little more granular with its data; starting today, you’ll be able to see the top 50 most-played and top 50 most viral songs on the streaming service right here. You’ll be able to see total playcounts (rolling out over the next few weeks), filter by country, and embed a delightful widget on…

Giant Boner Space Hotel? No Thanks, Says Barcelona

Pop quiz: what does a country on the brink of economic collapse, with dozens of unfinished buildings dotting its countryside, really need? A monstrous, phallic space hotel, of course! Meet the 984-foot tall hotel proposed US-based firm Mobilona for an artificial island off the coast of Dubai Barcelona. Reachable by a walkway from the mainland,…

Nothing Beats Cookies Fresh From the (Cardboard) Oven

Thelma’s, an Iowa-based cookie delivery service named after the founder’s great-grandmother, contracted Saturday MFG. to create this utterly brilliant packaging that not only keeps the treats warm, but also gives the impression that they’re fresh from the oven. It’s almost impossible to look at that box and not crave a batch of Thelma’s snickerdoodle cookies.…

A Dead Satellite Could Ruin Weather–And Tornado–Prediction For Years

While extreme weather events seem to come and go more often than ever, our ability to forecast them does at least help us minimize risk to human life. But an impending weather satellite outage could make events like yesterday’s devestating tornado even harder to predict—for up to three years. http://gawker.com/the-biggest-most-destructive-tornado-in-history-just-508956719 The US relies on two…

10 of the Year’s Most Beautiful Science Images

Who knew an artificial neural network could be so pretty? The winners of Princeton’s annual science photography contest, Art of Science, were announced a few days ago. And boy, are some of these images beautiful. Every year, a jury of Princeton professors gets together to hum and haw over the thousands of images its students…

Disney Teaches Its Animatronics Not to Be Classless Brutes

In an effort to make how robots move and interact with humans feel less awkward and uncomfortable, Disney Research, working with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, are developing a more natural approach to the problem by thoroughly studying how humans interact. In fact, using motion capture suits, the study was taken one step…

The Next Xbox: Everything We Think We Know

We’re finding out about the new Xbox in just a few hours. But that doesn’t mean we have no idea what’s coming. Here’s a rundown of everything we know, or think we know, about the next Xbox. The Specs We are pretty sure we know what the guts of the new Xbox look like. It’ll…

NASA’s Next 3D Printing Frontier Is… Pizza?

Forget guns, here’s a 3D printing development that can’t be overhyped and pretty much anyone with the munchies can get behind. NASA’s sinking a chunk of change into 3D printing food—starting with the humble pizza—in a new project aimed at evolving the future of food for both space and back here on Earth. It’s not…

Opera for Android is out of beta and waiting to be downloaded for free in the Play store. It offers some features to speed up mobile browsing—but it’s probably too late to steal Chrome’s lead.

Judge Rules That Airbnb Is Illegal in New York (Updated)

Bad news for those seeking or offering cheap accommodation over the internet: a New York judge has determined that Airbnb is illegal in the city. Despite Airbnb’s attempts to persuade officials otherwise, the service has been found to violate the illegal hotel law—a statute which stops property owners from renting out their own homes on…

Yes, an Old Mac G5 Does Make a Great BBQ

An old Mac G5 case, some scrap aluminum—and you have the perfect geek’s grill. OK, so there may strictly be more efficient ways to cook outdoors, but this scores maximum nerd points. [Imgur via Macgasm via Ubergizmo] https://gizmodo.com/everything-you-need-to-grill-everything-but-steak-484753430

US military has shut down Wi-Fi access at the Guantanamo Bay following threats from Anonymous that it would “disrupt activities” as part of its #OpGITMO campaign.

Are These The Most Intimate Self Portraits Ever?

Photography often produces incredibly intimate results, but these self portraits by Erno-Erik Raitanen offer a different take—showing off his bacteria in fine detail. The pictures weren’t created using a camera, but his own bacteria, cultivated on the gelatin surface of film negatives. He explains: “I have gathered the bacteria samples from my own body. The…

Spotify Takes on Billboard With Free-to-Play Most-Streamed Charts

Spotify has decided to take on the likes of Billboard with its own charts, making available a list of the top-50 most-streamed and most-shared songs to the public. Wall Street Journal reports that, in a push to broaden its user base, the music streaming service is sharing the data—and the music to match. The top-50…