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During World War II, many Americans had high hopes for what life would be like in the future. Sometimes this was fueled by advertisers who promised that great things were just around the corner. Sacrifice for your country now they said, and all of your wildest high-tech dreams would come true after the war. As…
It’s easier to put a phone in someone’s hand than it is to build a proper sanitation system. According to a UN report, 6 of 7 billion people in the world have cell phones, while just 4.5 billion have access to a toilet or latrine. While that might seem like an apples to oranges comparison,…
Pepsi has redesigned the shape of its 16-ounce and 20-ounce plastic bottles for the first time in 16 years. Move the arrows on the slider above back and forth to see the a before and after comparison. The slider isn’t meant to be a 1:1 comparison of the actual bottle sizes, but it gives you…
All delays considered, HTC is now promising the One will pop up in the U.S. “before the end of April.”
We’ve seen how impressive Nvidia’s new Titan GPU can be, but this is kind of nuts. Face rendering that is pretty darn close to bridging the uncanny valley. It’s remarkable. And also? This is obviously going to be used for porn. https://gizmodo.com/nvidia-geforce-gtx-titan-a-massive-gpu-that-might-be-u-5985291 Everything is used for porn. And this, especially, should be put right to…
The B-2 Spirit aka Stealth Bomber has a very distintictive shape, and when you place it up against a hawk/falcon(?), you can suddenly see why. Nature has bombers of its own, and that form factor just happens to work out well for us too. But for all their similarities, I think we’d all prefer to…
Your smartphone’s LED flash is better than nothing if you find yourself needing to take a photo in the dark. But the results are usually harsh and uneven. So if you find yourself in need of better lowlight shots but refuse to buy a real camera, the Pocket Spotlight is a reasonable compromise. It’s basically…
In an online survey sent to Annual Pass holders and other park enthusiasts, Disney has apparently started to gauge interest in expanding the Star Wars presence at its resorts, starting with Disneyland. In a screenshot tweeted by The Awl’s Ken Layne, one of the questions in the survey asks: “How interested would you be in…
This makes sense in a way that makes absolutely no sense. David Ley, a University of Alberta drama professor and vocal coach, figured out that one especially effective and not at all lecherous way to sooth a lost voice is… a vibrator. Ley says that the vibrator is so effective—more so than a typical larynx…
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has resigned his post at the top of the agency. He’ll formally leave within a few weeks. That leaves two of the top five spots open at the agency that regulates telecoms, carriers and cable operators. As with lots of top political figures, Genachowski’s tenure was marked by both victories and…
Well, the day maybe probably at least a few people have been waiting for is finally here. And excitement levels are, unfortunately for BlackBerry, relatively low if not nonexistent, so the chances of you and yours actively choosing to offer real American currency in exchange for one of these bad boys are equally bleak. https://gizmodo.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-blackberries-5980183…
You know what trumps boring loft building after boring loft building after boring loft building? An apartment complex that looks like a giant iceberg, like this one in Aarhus, Denmark. Designed by JDS Architects, Cebra, SeARCH and Louis Paillard, the residences are a collection of angular, white structures with pointy roofs and geometric windows. It…
From what we’ve seen of the Xperia Tablet Z, it is a skinny little wonder, if not exactly the best Android tablet out there. Where it is the best though, is size, and its guts are packed nice and tight into that svelte frame. Now, we are getting to see that construction thanks to a…
Playing a violin requires far more finesse than just dragging a bow across its strings. There are subtle nuances in motion, pressure, and speed required that take years to master. Or, you can wait for Dylan Menzies to perfect his easy-to-play optical O-Bow and just skip all the practice and rehearsals. Instead of strings, the…
Like those electroluminescent tees that respond to sound, Strapya World will soon be releasing an iPhone 5 shell case featuring a light-up graphic EQ on the back that responds to music, conversations, even your ringtone. At $32 it’s relatively cheap given what it does; just don’t expect it to go unnoticed when used with your…
Sure you have friends. Sure people Like your pictures on Facebook and Instagram. Sure people favorite your tweets. But what would these people really do for you? None of ’em would take a bullet for you! Some would make a hashtag. All will talk about how much they miss you on their profiles. Sometimes, that’s…
If you want to improve your chance of getting a date on any online dating site, you should wear a red shirt. Slate took a look at various studies comparing the same person wearing different colored clothes and each time, red was the most successful color. Do it. Change your online profile now. It’s like…
What do you get when you overlay 19 classic video game tracks and television theme songs atop one another and play them on hacked NES controllers? This. Game Theory was produced by Ithaca Audio and is available for free from the company’s Facebook page.
Do you ever feel like the rest of the world is so dumb? And it’s not that you’re especially smart, it’s just that people are just so dumb. Do they enjoy being dumb? Have they ever thought about being smart? Of course not! Because being dumb is fun. Being dumb means you don’t have to…
When Daisy Morris was four years old, she found fossilized bones of a previously undiscovered species of the flying reptile beast pterosaur. Now, at nine years young, scientists have decided to name the reptile, which lived during the same time period as dinosaurs, after Daisy. It’s called Vectidraco daisymorrisae. How cute. Daisy, who according to…
