Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Apple just released the newest version of iTunes with some very welcome improvements. When you download version 11.0.3, your MiniPlayer will be getting a lovely new design in addition to a more compact way to view albums that come as multiple discs. The MiniPlayer itself is relatively new, first appearing in iTunes 11, but now…
While Glass is flying under the radar at I/O, Google has just announced that CNN, Elle, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Evernote are joining the “Glassware” fray. Previously, only Path and The New York Times were the only other apps available for Glass. Most of the functionality for each new app is surprisingly full(ish) featured. After…
We already knew Google’s got big plans to become your default money manager, killing the other contenders in the process. But now we’re starting to find out just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Over the next few months, Google will be rolling out a Gmail option to attach money just like you would with…
It’s not often that we get to talk about engineering and knitting in the same sentence. But Merel Karhof, a Dutch-by-way-of-London designer, is an expert in both. You might remember Karhof from her 2010 project, the Wind Knitting Factory, a knitting machine powered by a small windmill. Built entirely from scratch, Karhof’s the four-foot-wide mill…
Shortly after Ezra Caldwell began building bikes, he was diagnosed with rectal cancer, making it nearly impossible for him to ride his own creations. But in spite of that cruel irony, his craft became a part of his survival. Caldwell’s story is a part of the Made by Hand film series, a project that (as…
Turning an online music service into a powerful automated DJ isn’t easy. You can give an algorithm millions of songs and millions of data points, but it’s still not going to have any style. So of all your options—including Google’s new All Access—what’s the streaming radio most worth your time? We found out. A decade…
After kindly asking a group of Canadian miners for a sample of some water they’d struck, a team of scientists who had been investigating similar finds discovered that the fluid they were looking at may have been sealed up for 1.5 billion years. And that’s just the lower limit. The decaying radioactive atoms in the…
The ‘Zzz… Zzz…’ label is probably a dead giveaway, but if you lived life to the fullest last night and just can’t keep your eyes open at work, this camouflaged binder pillow will provide a few precious moments of shuteye at your desk. Created by the geniuses at Donkey Creative Lab, the pillow will set…
One year ago, a team of researchers traveled deep into the Honduran rainforest in search of Ciudad Blanca, the legendary lost city of treasures. Yesterday, they revealed images—uncovered by lasers—of structures that they believe to be the White City itself. The legend of the White City has captured explorers’ imaginations for centuries; Hernán Cortés detailed…
Converse’s Chuck Taylor All-Star sneakers may never go out of style, but just in case you can future-proof them with this fun hack from Adafruit that swaps out the standard star crest with a glowing logo. Presumably, just like Elroy Jetson used to wear. Unless you work in an electronics laboratory, the hack does require…
Normally, we see storms as clouds and rain, but there’s invisible power lurking inside. This amazing satellite shot shows that hidden chaos in the form of gravity waves, blasting out from a storm’s center like ripples in a pond. Tropical Cyclone Mahasen, which you can see off to the right there, is heading through the…
Are we on the verge of a third industrial revolution? The editors at The Economist certainly think so. But while rapid prototyping and the open source movement have been around for decades now, we had yet to see anyone take a truly comprehensive look at the transformation in manufacturing. That is, until the New Museum’s…
You’re looking at a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft being refueled by the 151st Air Refueling Wing over southern Idaho last week. But those are just details. What you’re really looking at is a shock of beautiful, caught at a moment of technological awesomeness. [Flickr]
If you’ve ever been on the set of a professional photography shoot, you’ll notice the photographer doesn’t just rely on a single camera-mounted flash. Instead, they use a series of strategically positioned flashes, all tethered together so they function as one, to precisely control where and how much light is hitting the subject. And that…
Google and NASA have just announced that they’re teaming up to create a laboratory focussed on developing the future of artificial intelligence—using quantum supercomputers. The Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, basesd at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, will be home to a quantum computer from D-Wave Systems. Researchers will work to, in Google’s words, “study…
As part of the ongoing Apple e-book price fixing investigation by the Department of Justice, a new email sent from Steve Jobs to James Murdoch has come to light. Murdoch, ultimately in control of what happens at Harper Collins, was approached by Steve Jobs to undermine Amazon’s $9.99 e-book pricing model, reports All Things D.…
One of the smaller—but nonetheless incredibly useful—new updates from Google is a series of actions buttons in Gmail which will help you handle tasks without having to send more messages or leave your inbox. The new system will allow you to RSVP to events, review submissions, one-click reply to registration emails and quickly jump out…
You can now upload your own ebooks—up to 1,000 EPUB or PDF files—for free to Google Play Books. Useful.
If you try and use Google’s new Hangouts app for Android on AT&T’s cellular network, don’t expect to video chat—because you can’t. Slashgear reports that the video chat capability in the new Hangouts app doesn’t work on AT&T’s cellular networks, throwing up a message that reads “you must be on a Wi-Fi network to join…
Wearing Google Glass might make you look weird but it’s certainly a lot better than any of the prototypes that Google first tried out. Google Project Glass Staff Hardware Engineer Jean Wang showed off a slide revealing the earliest prototypes of Glass and they’re a lot bulkier with open ribbons, chips, gigantic cameras and more.…
