Tech News

Crooks Don’t Stand a Chance Against the SWAT Bot

With so much crazy going around these days, its a hairy time to be in law enforcement. But with this door-breaching, bullet-stopping, car-towing robo-tank in front of them, SWAT units will be unstoppable. Built by Howe and Howe Technologies—the team behind Discovery Channel’s “Howe and Howe Tech: Black Ops Brothers,” the Ripsaw tank from GI…

Crew Team Finds an Unexplained Giant Head in the Hudson River

Honestly, there’s probably a lot of random crap floating around in the Hudson River, but earlier this week the Marist College crew team made a very weird find: an unexplained seven-foot-tall head. The team was on a sunrise row when they spotted the disembodied noggin floating around. It’s made of fiberglass and styrofoam, and it…

Laser Forest Will Make You Hallucinate Without Drugs

Imagine wandering through a thicket of trees on a breezy night. Can you hear the canopy rustling above your head? Now look up and all you see are trees blasting green lasers into the sky like the Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular. “Forest” is an interactive lighting and music installation by UK design group Marshmallow Laser…

The Systems That Power the Year’s Most Sustainable Buildings

Only a decade ago, sustainable building techniques were fairly rare, a fringe culture on the periphery of mainstream architecture. But with Stephen Colbert interviewing radically green architects like Mitchell Joachim and Passive House buildings popping up in New York City, that’s all changing very quickly. https://gizmodo.com/new-yorks-first-passive-house-would-have-no-problem-hid-5995234/ For concrete evidence of the shift, look no further…

Listen To Alexander Graham Bell Introduce Himself From 100 Years Ago

It’s not often you get to hear with the 19th century sounded like, but thanks to 3D scanning and old wax cylinders, it’s possible. And now, for the very first time, we know what Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the all-important telephone, might have sounded like when he made that historic call. https://gizmodo.com/this-is-the-oldest-record-in-history-scanned-and-recrea-5922410 Recordings of…

An Introduction To Complications: The Perpetual Calendar

Editor’s note: This is part four in a series of introductory pieces on watches from our friends at Hodinkee. You can read part one here, part two here and part three here. https://gizmodo.com/an-introduction-to-the-mechanical-watch-5994787 The perpetual calendar is one of the most useful and romantic complications in all of horology. You may have noticed that many…

This Compact But Powerful Battery Promises a Whole Extra Day Of Laptop Use

Serious travellers who need to stay connected when on the road know that a backup battery of some sort is a must-have travel companion. And it’s no surprise that a battery pack named after one of the strongest animals on earth, a silverback gorilla, boasts that it can keep a laptop running for an amazing…

Hublot’s LaFerrari Watch Complements the Car You Can’t Afford

Is there any greater social faux pas than showing up to a social event in a $1.3 million hybrid super car without a matching timepiece on your wrist? Thankfully those who took a leap of faith and pre-ordered the new LaFerrari supercar can now breath a sigh of relief as Hublot has revealed the complementing…

The Real Instruction Manual For Your Shared Office Printer

Working in an office with other people is fraught with all kinds of tensions and politics*, but there is nothing more divisive than the humble shared printer. Here’s the instruction manual they forgot to include in the box that behemoth of a color laser arrived in. [PHD Comics] * Or so I’m told. I work…

Win the Best Keyboard Cover for Getting Real Work Done

It’s getting to the point where you can start doing some actual work on your tablet. If you’re on the train heading to the office or just ducked out for a latte, it’s nice to sit for a minute, play Temple Run, and write up some ideas for that book you’ve been trying to self-publish…

Everyday Objects With Broken Image Icons Are Endlessly Frustrating

Is there anything more frustrating than a web page with a broken image icon? It’s so tantalizing: what was I supposed to see, and am I missing out? Well, with this series of artworks by graphic designer Beom Young that frustration transfers to the real world. He explains: Through this installation, I tried to crack…

LG Reportedly Wants to Sell You a Flexible OLED Phone This Year

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, LG is planning to launch a flexible OLED smartphone before the end of 2013. The Journal reports that the company’s vice president of mobile, Yoon Bu-hyun, has stated that the company’s first flexible OLED phone will roll out some time in quarter four of this year.…

The Pirate Bay Finds Safe Harbour in Iceland

After making a run for it from Sweden to Greenland, and then finding that Greenland really didn’t want a bunch of pirates plundering its waters, Iceland seems happy to have the Pirate Bay. So, time to update your bookmarks: ThePirateBay.is is TPB’s new home. Turns out Iceland’s domain registry won’t act without a court order.…

The Sleek WebOS Smartphone That Never Was

You’re not looking at a new phone headed to stores any time soon—in fact, you’re looking at the surprisingly sleek, all-touch webOS smartphone developed by HP which (sadly?) never was. Unearthed by webOS Nation, this phone—codenamed WindsorNot—had similar innards to the Pre 3, but focussed on an all-touch, 4-inch, 800 x 480 touchscreen, and ran…

These Super-Sleek Headphones Are Inspired By High-End HiFi

KEF is one of those companies that quietly gets one with making amazing—and expensive—HiFi equipment. Now, however, it’s decided to apply its knowledge of HiFi and branch out into headphones—and these things promise to be amazing. https://gizmodo.com/high-design-speakers-music-to-your-ears-and-murder-to-5803731 There’s a very clean and clear aesthetic to both pairs of headphones—both the on-ear M500s and the in-ear…

Should the Fifth Amendment Stop Child Porn Suspects From Decrypting Their Hard Drive?

Forcing defendants to decrypt hard disks against their will has long been a thorny issue that may—or may not—violate the Fifth Amendment. The latest case has seen a federal judge refuse to insist that a Wisconsin child porn suspect decrypt the contents of his hard drive—but what do you think? In a court filing, Judge…

Watch a Woman from the 1990s Explain What a Computer Is

One of the things that will never fail to make me happy: seeing people stuck in time explain what modern day technology is. Kim Komando hosted an educational series about computer and explains the basics of its hardware, DOS, Microsoft Windows, Writeand more. A few of my favorite quotes: “What happens when you press the…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: The Super Rope Solution

It’s a good business model, sure. I mean you’ve got a captive audience, which any infomercial host would kill for. But what’s with actually killing them? Pretty sure murdering your marketing base is going to hurt sales and next quarter’s growth.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey thinks Vine is so amazing that it’s changed art. Every picture should be a looped movie!

The 12 Types of People Who Use Social Networks

At this point, you’re almost weirder if you don’t use any social networks than if you were a social media obsessive who tweets, Facebooks, Instagram and hashtags the hell out of your vocabulary. It’s how weird the world is now. Social networks are real life. But who are the people who make up these worlds?…