Tech News

Watch a Chinese Hacker Launch an Invasion in Real Time

Are the Chinese after us? According to a new report, yes. Security firm Mandiant has detailed the exploits of a Chinese cyber espionage group it calls APT1. Mandiant claims to have evidence that APT1 has stolen “hundreds of terabytes of data” from 141 American organizations. Evidence that includes this video of an elite Chinese hacker…

Oh, look at that—Jeep tweeted a timely how-not-to-get-hacked article… 15 minutes before they got hacked. https://jalopnik.com/jeeps-social-media-team-posted-how-not-to-get-hacked-276021566

The Happiest and Saddest Places in the Country as Told by Your Tweets

Louisiana residents probably won’t be too pleased to hear the following news, which, for them, won’t really be a change of pace at all. According to a team at the very not-real-sounding Vermont Complex Systems Center and based on what is surely a totally objective and not at all arbitrary analysis of tweets, Louisiana is…

Wearable Tech Is Nearing Nanosuit Proportions

If you’ve ever found yourself ambling through, say, a TED talk on cyberbiology or just happened on the work of noted-futurist-slash-crazy-brilliant-person Ray Kurzweil at any point, you might’ve wondered, “Hey, aren’t we cyborgs yet? Come on, I wanna shoot lasers at things.” We understand your impatience. And the truth is, we’re not all that far…

The Best Dad Ever Has Been Illustrating His Kids’ Lunch Bags Every School Day Since 2008

David Laferriere is a graphic designer and illustrator. He’s also an awesome dad who has been drawing stuff on his kids’ sandwich bags since May 2008, using Sharpie markers. In his own words: Each drawing is done just after I make the sandwich. I take a picture and post to flickr. My kids don’t see…

Looks like the evasi0n jailbreak still works on iOS 6.1.2. But you’ll have to wait for the new crack to go live.

The World’s Fastest Electric Boat Skims Over the Sea at 86 Knots

What happens when you transfuse the 2,200 HP electric drive train from the world’s fastest and most powerful production electric car, the Mercedes SLS AMG Coupé Electric Drive, into a 38-foot racing hull? You get the world’s fastest and most powerful production electric speed boat. Duh. Dubbed the Cigarette AMG Electric Drive, this luxury racer…

Automating Hard or Hardly Automating? George Jetson and the Manual Labor of Tomorrow

This is the 19th in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. “Yesterday, I worked two full hours!” George Jetson complains. “Well, what does Spacely think he’s running? A sweatshop!?!?” Jane replies. The 19th episode of “The Jetsons” first aired on February 3, 1963, and…

This Tiny Toy Camera Is Your Deal of the Day

Although there are thousands of ways to add a film look to photos taken with rapidly improving smartphone cameras, they’ll never capture the accidental magic of a photograph taken with film in a toy camera. You might see light leaks or overexposure as errors, but a dedicated toy camera user sees those flukes as character.…

Exclusive: The Burger King and Jeep Hacker Is Probably This DJ From New England

It was just going to be another boring President’s Day on the Internet, when along came a spastic, hilarious hacker with a taste for McDonald’s, Gucci Mane, and caps lock. Is a criminal mastermind behind the @BurgerKing (and likely @Jeep) takeover? Nope—just a guy who plays shows in Rhode Island who left an unfortunate Internet…

Beck’s Latest Project Is the Closest Thing to Being On Stage In a Concert

Beck and Chris Milk’s version of Bowie’s Sound and Vision with 167 musicians was amazing on its own right, as a linear video. But the 360-degree immersive version with binaural sound and facial tracking truly redefines how we can experience live music remotely. Whether you like Beck or not, you really have to watch it…

Food Shooting Challenge

In my photograph, a zombie child is feasting on what is portrayed as handfuls of intestines and body organs but is actually a full dinner-plate-amount of boiled spaghetti noodles, uncooked ravioli, and a few drops of red food dye to create a bloody appearance. The photo shoot occurred on a warm day in my backyard.…

20 Amazing Photos of Food As Art

We all watch a bit too much food porn. But food is art, so we should really be treating our food photography as art. And for this week’s Shooting Challenge, that’s just what you did. WINNER: How They Built the Pyramids A desert made out of rice. Rice is the basic aliment in most cultures.…

Jeep’s Twitter Account Has Been Hacked

Jeep’s Twitter account has been hacked, a day after the Burger King account fell. Must be a slow week. https://gizmodo.com/burger-king-twitter-hacked-into-mcdonalds-update-acco-5985058 The tweets the hackers are posting could either be from copycat or from the same culprits. Whoever it is said Jeep has been sold to Cadillac. Yesterday, they said McDonalds had bought Burger King. Less…

The Incredible Creation (and Destruction) of an Entire City in The Avengers

Almost a third of The Avengers may have been set in New York, but as this video from Industrial Light & Magic’s YouTube channel shows us, hardly any of the filming took place in the Big Apple itself. Since actually filming in New York would have been difficult—what with the many road-blocking restrictions and the…

Apple Hacked (Updated)

Reuters says Apple was targeted by the same crew that recently hit Facebook, and managed to infect a “small number” of the company’s computers. https://gizmodo.com/facebook-got-hacked-last-month-and-is-just-telling-you-5984666 At the moment, Apple says “there was no evidence that any data left” its facilities, but that could change as the firm works with law enforcement. There are few details…

Apple just pushed out iOS 6.1.2 to fix an Exchange calendar bug but no word on whether this fixes the lock screen snafu. https://gizmodo.com/ios-6-1-security-risk-anyone-can-bypass-your-iphones-l-5984190

An update to TweetDeck’s Chrome and Web apps lets you set up columns to include or exclude specific words and phrases.

What Is an UltraPixel?

Did you hear about the HTC One’s fancy new “UltraPixel Camera”? HTC touts the camera as an end to the “megapixel wars.” UltraPixels! Revolution! And, yes, the technology sounds very promising, but, uh, wait a second, what is an UltraPixel anyway? https://gizmodo.com/htc-one-the-great-white-hype-is-here-5985305 UltraPixel is a made up marketing word… HTC’s new phone only has a…

Debunking Scott Brown: Why There’s No Way That Drunk Tweet Was a Butt Tweet

Was Scott Brown drunk last month when he tweeted “bqhatevwr”? Whatever, the former Massachusetts senator says. It was just a classic case of a butt tweet. Really Scott Brown? We beg to differ. http://gawker.com/5979218/scott-browns-message-to-the-haters-bqhatevwr For those unfamiliar with the tweet in question, it’s long since been deleted. Fortunately, though, our friends at Gawker were able…