Tech News

You can now pre-order the Piston Steam Box for $900. That’s $100 off its (eventual) retail price.

Which Encryption Apps Are Strong Enough to Help You Take Down a Government?

It seems like these days I can’t eat breakfast without reading about some new encryption app that will (supposedly) revolutionize our communications — while making tyrannical regimes fall like cheap confetti. This is exciting stuff, and I want to believe. After all, I’ve spent a lot of my professional life working on crypto, and it’s…

Ain’t no Firefox coming back to iOS anytime soon. Sorry! [CNET]

Of Course Some Bar Is Already Banning Google Glass

There have been plenty of parodies exploring the creepier possibilities of Google Glass, so it should come as no surprise that it’s already been banned in a Seattle bar, even though it’s not even out yet. The 5 Point Cafe posted on its Facebook wall earlier this week saying that it’d have no tolerance for…

Go Get Your 7.39 GB of Free SXSW Music

There’s a lot of tech stuff going down at SXSW between the talking shoes and the projection-effect pool tables and whathaveyou, but at the end of the day, music is still a huge part. A 7.39 GB part. And you can go grab it all for free right now. https://gizmodo.com/googles-got-a-talking-shoe-because-wearable-computing-5989725 For the ninth year running,…

This Tiny Slithering Snake Robot Has Its Cyclopean Eye on You

Snake robots have a staggering ability to be both graceful and terrifying, but this one developed by CMU Biorobotics is just cute. And it could help save your life someday by slithering through debris and surveying the scene with its cyclopean eye. https://gizmodo.com/this-robotic-water-snake-is-both-graceful-and-utterly-t-5963121 Typically, snake robots aren’t that great for delivering video; all that slithering…

Can a Piano Still Be Classy When It’s Got Squishy Tube Keys?

The piano is a pretty old instrument. And sure we have electric variations, which added the option mess with the sound, but the key interface has remained pretty standard. Roli is trying to shake that up with the Seaboard Grand, a new, futuristic-style instrument that puts pitch tweaking at your fingertips. Sporting a pressure-sensitive touch…

Carve Out a Place For Your Nostalgia with Custom-Made Wooden Photos

Nowadays, we take most of our photos digitally and they stay digital. Photo paper and bulky albums are dead. So if you are compelled to print you photos for some reason, you might as well try to make it interesting, like printing them as tactile wood reliefs with the Photocarver. Designed by Michael Ahlers and…

For Just 2 Million Dollars You Can Have Your Own Underwater Plane

It’s one thing to have your own submarine. It’s another to have your own submarine that’s an awesome jet. And for just 2 million that dream can come true with Spymaster’s custom Orcasub. The 22ft-long, 4-ton monster is designed to descend to 1,000 feet, and on its way down, it flies through the water like…

Streetlight Manifesto: The Receiving End of It All

I’m going to make a confession: I don’t like Streetlight Manifesto nearly as much as I love Kalnoky-era Catch 22, but unless you’re a ska-nerd, that probably means nothing to you. What all you normal people need to know is that Streetlight Manifesto’s “Receiving End of It All” is horn-tastic (post-?)ska triumph with—in my opinion—one…

Google’s Got a Talking Shoe Because Wearable Computing, Or Something

Wearable computing! Yeah! Woo! Glasses! More (probably non-existent) glasses! Watches! Shoes? Shoes! https://gizmodo.com/would-apple-iglass-be-better-than-googles-glasses-5923321 Yeah, Google’s got a talking shoe, and it’s showing it off at the company’s SXSW Interactive headquarters. It’s not actually for anything, really. Instead, it’s part of Google’s new Art, Copy, Code project which is primarily—you guessed it—art. Or something like it.…

Microsoft’s Kinect Can See Inside Your Skull With Its Almost X-Ray Vision

Kinect’s potential for gaming might not have been thaaaat great, but its applications for other things, like cheating at pool and medicine, have been pretty impressive. The team at Microsoft Research Cambridge, for instance, have rigged one up to peek inside skulls and look at brains with kindasorta x-ray vision. https://gizmodo.com/anyone-can-be-a-pool-shark-when-this-projector-calls-th-5988092 Using the Kinect’s stereoscopic…

Do Facebook News Feed Revamps Even Faze You Anymore?

Back in the earlier days of Facebook, a UI update was a mind-blowing concept. An unprecendeted change. An Earth-shattering upheveal. If you’re not some sort of total newbie, you must remember the “how to keep the old Facebook!” groups and “Bring back X” petitions, the screams of heresy and the unshackled hope that maybe just…

Turn Your Pool Table Into a Psychedelic Aquarium with Kinect-Powered Projection Effects

Pool is a fun game, but with just some colored balls on a plain green field, the spectacle is a little lacking. We’ve already seen how some clever projection can turn anyone into a pool shark, but now OpenPool is taking it a step further by turning pool into a psychedelic rave of a game.…

Insanely Specific Kitchen Gadgets, North Korea’s Nuke, Facebook’s Shiny New Look, And More

Had a rough week? Either way, kick back and relax with some cream-of-the-crop Gizmodo posts. We’ve got some crazy kitchen gadgets, how every guy will use Google Glass, an unidentified drone over Brooklyn, some Iron Man 3 goodness, tiny houses, the new Facebook look, and more. Check it all out below. The Chipotle App Update…

Meet the Twitter Bot That Can Answer All Your Questions

Remember SmarterChild? That AIM bot that would answer all/most of your questions and get huffy and stop talking to you when you inevitably started swearing at it? Unfortunately SmarterChild is still dead and gone, but it’s got a Twitter descendant: @DearAssistant. DearAssistant is a simple Twitter bot designed by Amit Agarwal for a single function:…

How to Opt Out of Facebook’s Creepy New Targeted Ads

Facebook has announced that it’s teaming up with four of the world’s largest corporate data brokers to “enhance” the ad experience for users. Datalogix, Epsilon, Acxiom, and BlueKai obtain information gathered about users through online means (such as through cookies when users surf the web) as well as through offline means (such as through loyalty…

New Self-Healing Microchips Can Shrug Off Laser Blasts Like It’s Nothing

Technology can be fragile. Anyone who’s dropped his or her phone knows that all too well. And though you might not get it in your hands for a while, there are some seriously robust electronics coming down the pipe. New self-healing microchips developed by Caltech, for instance, can survive multiple laser blasts. The team responsible…

Always Wear a Helmet Cam When You’re Falling Down a Mountain

Mountain climbing can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. It can be dangerous if you do know what you’re doing. Mountaineer Mark Roberts knows this first hand after his terrifying tumble down Parsley Fern Lefthand Gully in Wales. If you thought mountain climbing was just slightly too scary to ever actually do,…

Mind the gap! This lego metro station has controlled sliding platform doors

Modeled after Copenhagen’s Islands Brygge Metro Station, this build comes complete with NXT controlled sliding platform doors (which even open at the same time!) and a working elevator. MOC builder Esben Kolind showcased this impressive engineering feat at Lego World 2013 in Copenhagen. There’s a 9V train running on an outer loop and the underground…