Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
When Apple changed the venerable 30-pin iOS connector to the reversible Lightning connector, it threw a lot of accessory makers into fits. One of those makers is Elevation Lab, which first garnered attention in 2011 with a wildly successful Kickstarter selling a CNC-machined iPhone dock made from a solid piece of aluminum. As most observers…
Elysium, Neill Blomkamp’s long-delayed futuristic Matt Damon vehicle, tells the story of a class war between the unwashed masses, who live on Earth, and the super wealthy, who live in an absurdly opulent community in the sky. And as it turns out, the super-luxe buildings of Elsyium’s tomorrow actually exist right here in the present…
According to Tami Reller—Microsoft’s Windows marketing boss—PC users think Windows 8 is too hard to learn. So hard that they are “fixing” it big time. Some people are calling this update the biggest consumer product failure since Coca-Cola’s New Coke, which was discontinued three months after its introduction. Except New Coke was a matter of…
In a new study published today in the Journal of Neurosurgery, a group of scientists proved, seemingly, that modern football helmets are better than old leather ones. Thanks, guys. What is more notable, however, is that this batshit crazy device is how the data was gathered. The tests run here, by a group of scientists…
BitTorrent’s always got something cooking, from a streaming video protocol that never overloads, to a neat little private cloud storage system. Now the company’s invented a new kind of torrent that lets content creators pack their own little store right inside. When you download a Bittorrent Bundle, you’ll be treated to a chunk of free…
Are your eyes bored today? Look at this right now. It’s a computer animation by computer artist Daniel Sierra, and it will mesmerize you, if only for a few minutes. Sierra just got his MFA from New York’s School of Visual Arts, and Oscillate was his thesis project. He was inspired by the motion of…
Perfect symmetry. It’s how we define beauty, but photography tends to shy away from it. Here are 19 pieces of proof that symmetry really is beautiful. Winner: The Beer Can Building When this challenge was announced, I knew exactly what I wanted to shoot. I’ve taken a lot pictures of this building, and even submitted…
Hot on the heels of Adobe’s announcement yesterday that Creative Suite is going to get a lot more cloud, they’ve made Adobe Ideas, a vector-based drawing app for iOS, absolutely free. The app also received a hefty update, adding several of the Creative Cloud features announced yesterday and a slew of new brushes. Of course,…
If you grew up playing checkers, transitioning to chess and keeping track of which piece is which and what moves where can be tricky. So to smooth out the learning curve, OneSavesSolutions created this 3D printed Typographical Chess Set with the name of each piece integrated into its design. It unfortunately doesn’t provide hints on…
It’s 2am. You’re leading your goofball friends through the streets, trying to find an open pizza place. Yelp is inconclusive. Google Maps is worse. Soon, thanks to the new slice-finding app Pizza Compass, such uncomfortable scenarios may be obsolete. Pizza Compass (“No Frills, Just Pizza”) gives you access to an excellent map of nearby pizza…
After making due with an “app” that was little more than a hyperlink to YouTube’s mobile web version, Windows Phone users finally get a fully supported (though still Microsoft-designed) YouTube app to call their very own. You’ll be getting everything we’ve come to expect from a Youtube app: sharing videos on any number of social…
Joe Francis, founder of the bankrupt Girls Gone Wild home-video franchise, faces up to five years in prison for falsely imprisoning three young women he lured to his Los Angeles home in 2011. Francis was found guilty on Monday of holding the women against their will and assaulting one of them.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was still writing The Great Gatsby when he saw artist Francis Cugat’s original cover treatment. He apparently loved it so much he told his publisher not to show it to anyone else because he wrote it into the book. You know the one? The obscured face on a cobalt background overlooking a…
Most attempts at “online dating” fail not because of some outwardly obvious personal defect on your part, but because it is an inherent failure on the part of online dating as an institution not to dress you in regrettable cotton t-shirts that say, with just a logo and a few carefully chosen words, that you…
It’s not the motion of the ocean that matters to Lockheed’s Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) power plant, only the temperature of the water. Lockheed Martin announced yesterday that it is partnering with Beijing-based Reignwood Group to construct a 10MW green power plant that leverages the difference bewteen sun-warmed surface water and icy water from…
We might have been divided on the useful merits of the original HoodiePillow, but this updated travel version strikes a perfect balance between portability, comfort, and its ability to block out all distractions. Like the original, the Travel HoodiePillow is basically just the hood from a hoodie attached to a soft cushion. But in this…
No matter where in our great nation you live, there’s a good chance you’re getting raw deal from your cable operator. Or maybe you’ve just convinced yourself of as much. Today, we’re gonna find out the truth—or we’re going to try, anyway. Mission: Find out how much everybody actually pays their cable company. How: On…
Bees: they’ve had a tough couple of years. Between the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder and pesticide poisoning, the Department of Agriculture recently estimated that around ten million hives have been lost over the past seven years. What’s to be done? Short of giving bees the keys to your winter home or, more realistically, banning pesticides…
So you think the airscrew is strictly for planes? Guess again. Look at these mighty prop-driven machines created by some of the most talented engineers and designers the world ’round. Sure, they can’t fly, but their twisted blades help them wade through water, ice, snow, mud, glide on rails, and rule the road. Joseph Fawkes…
If you’re curious who’s watching what, where, and when on YouTube, look no further than this trend-spotting map. Surprise! Southerners like themselves some George Jones.
