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For the past few years, if you’ve asked what the best way to speed up an old laptop, you’ve probably been told to install an SSD. Sure, lots of new laptops come with SSDs or aren’t user repairable, but if you’re trying to squeeze the last few years of life out of an old lappy,…
Surprise! The new Daft Punk Album, Random Access Memories, has leaked online one week before the official release. And if you’d rather get your music by legal means, you can stream the entire thing right here on iTunes. Snippets of the album have leaked over the past month or so, but this is apparently the…
In a special called Ten Buildings that Changed America that aired on PBS this week, critics and historians schooled us on ten of the most significant structures in the country. Did they miss anything? Writer and producer Dan Protess’ picks ranged from inspired (Louis Sullivan’s Wainright Building, the first skyscraper in the world), to surprising…
We’re already pretty into Nokia’s just-announced Lumia 928, but here’s what’s coming next. Evleaks, who has a pretty great track record with these things, just showed the world Nokia’s new phone, which seems to be the codename “Catwalk” phone we’ve been hearing about. https://gizmodo.com/nokia-lumia-928-heres-the-new-best-windows-phone-499826054 Details are scarse, but it’s apparently very similar to the 920,…
Sure, in-car GPS navigation systems make it easier to know where you’re headed. But it’s all for naught if you’re so distracted checking the map that you end up rear-ending someone. So to help ensure you’re at least keeping one eye on the road, JVC Kenwood’s new MDV-737HUD nav system includes a see-through heads-up display…
It used to be that you’d have 10 GB of storage for your Gmail account, and 5 GB to share between your Google Drive and your Google+ pictures. Not anymore: Google just unified all three into a shared pool of 15 GB. This is great because now you’ll be able to make better use of…
The first thing you notice about Rain Room, the sure blockbuster installation that opened at MoMA on Friday, is the tropical humidity. The second thing is the sound from hundreds of gallons of water pouring from an artificial ceiling. Finally, after your eyes adjust to the darkness, you actually see it: Rain Room, a 1,000-square-foot…
It’s one thing if your friends, family, and neighbors find out that you’ve been doing some torrenting. It’s a bit worse if they find out what kind of porn you like. Unluckily for horn-dog pirates everywhere, a new “pay-up-now” letter that’s going around pretty explicitly threatens to go around telling people exactly that. This tactic…
Seahorses are amazing little creatures—the males give birth, they swim upright and they’re incredibly adorable. But did you know that the seahorse is one of the toughest little creatures on our tiny little world? In recent tests, researchers have found that the tail of the underwater equine can be compressed to about half its size.…
How do you plan to spend your retirement? Traveling the world? Endless gardening? After two decades serving as a Baltimore police officer, Mark Haygood retired and now spends his free time turning old appliances like radios, DVD players, fans, and power tools into impressive humanoid robots. Mark’s first creation, HEX, is a four-foot tall self-standing…
Last Friday at Interop, Paypal’s chief information security officer, Michael Barrett, let it be known that passwords were dead. “Passwords, when used ubiquitously everywhere at Internetscale are starting to fail us.” Given recent events surrounding Twitter account hacks and security breaches all over the web, Barrett isn’t completely wrong in his sentiment that passwords are…
Pulling DNA from the cell that surrounds it may be a vital process to modern genomics, but it’s also a cumbersome and time-consuming pain in the ass, “like collecting human hairs using a construction crane,” as Jae-Hyun Chung, UW associate professor of mechanical engineering, puts it. Not anymore, though. His handheld device will suck DNA…
If the term intervalometer leaves you scratching your head, but you have the perfect idea for the next viral timelapse video, Brinno’s here to help. The company’s new TLC200 Pro makes creating timelapses as easy as using a point-and-shoot camera. And thanks to a relatively large, extra-sensitive 1/3-inch sensor, it will capture beautiful results even…
Bitcoin mining machines are insane powerhouses, and they’re only getting crazier. How much power is getting sunk into the digital cryptocurrency? More than the world’s top 500 supercomputers combined. What a waste. https://gizmodo.com/digital-drills-the-monster-machines-that-mine-bitcoin-5994446 According to Bitcoin Watch, the whole Bitcoin network hit a record-breaking high of 1 exaFLOPS this weekend. When you’re talking about FLOPS,…
The Church of Scientology held an event for the opening of a new facility in Portland over the weekend. The crowd was around 450-750 people. But the church claims it was more like 2,500, and it Photoshopped in the proof. Except the proof is about as convincing as your thetan’s origin story. In reality, there…
Is it possible? Yes it is. Using special salt mixes, builders in countries from Bolivia to Poland have been building with sodium chloride for centuries. Humans have a long, conflicted relationship with salt. Homer called it “the divine substance.” It drove many of the earliest trading economies, from the Phoenicians to the Venetians, and towns…
DSLR video is great, having ushered in a new ecosystem of tools, workflows, and filmmakers. In the last couple of years, though, the image quality has stagnated while other, video-centric cameras like the Canon C300 or the Blackmagic Cinema Camera have proven superior. However, it turns out that hidden inside the Canon 5D Mark III,…
It’s a good morning for Kindle Fire owners. To accompany the launch of their new virtual currency, Amazon has dropped 500 Amazon Coins (at a value of $5) into the accounts of Fire owners everywhere. https://gizmodo.com/amazon-just-made-its-own-currency-amazon-coins-5981745 Just unveiled this morning, the new system functions exactly like cash, allowing users to buy apps, games, and in-app…
There are endless situations where a Wookiee co-pilot can come in handy, from repairing intergalactic spacecraft, to tearing people’s arms off. But when it comes to assembling this miniature laser-cut Millennium Falcon puzzle, you won’t need a big walking carpet, just a pair of scissors, pliers, and plenty of patience. Available from Strapya World for…
Maybe someday we’ll all have contractless phones. And hopefully, we can all ditch preset plans for fluid ones that fit like a glove every month. We’re not there yet, but a new service provider by the name of Zact is taking a big step in that direction. It’s a beautiful glance into the smartphone future…
