Tech News

Meet the French Rugby Team’s Six-Legged Scrum Bot

Rugby football is no sport for old men. This free-flowing British sport has been practiced since the 15th century—kind of a cross of American football and football (aka soccer), except that everybody is the size of a linebacker and protective gear is verboten. In addition to torn ears and broken bones, players risk spinal damage…

Crazy Brain Implants Give Lab Rats a Sixth Sense and Let Them “Touch” Light

It’s not every day that science and crazy brain implants lead to the generation of what is essentially a new sense, but it is that day today. Scientists from Duke University have found a way to make rats “feel” invisible infrared light and someday that same tech could give sight to the blind, or give…

The WSJ’s “iOS Optimized” Mobile Site Is… Not Very Optimized

Last night, the Wall Street Journal took its new mobile site live, supposedly specially formatted to look good and work on iOS devices. Except, erm, this is what it looks like on an iPad Mini: Which is to say, optimized like a Canadian nickel is optimized as a spacecraft. [Twitter]

This Invention Will Make Your GPS Not to Suck In Cities

Right now your GPS sucks in cities but, soon, that will change. Scientists have developed a new system that increases its accuracy by up to 90%—it can tell where your vehicle is within an amazingly low margin of error of just three to six feet. Right now, the error margin in urban driving can be…

Tamagotchi: Your Old Digital Pet Is Back From the Dead

The Tamagotchi you had 16 years ago isn’t a zombie coming back to haunt you. The virtual pet’s riding that 90s nostalgia wave, and it’s been resurrected in the form of an Android app. What does it do? It eats! It poops! It walks! It’s begging for your love and care, just like a real…

Get Pregnant Today, Get a Free Ikea Crib in 9 Months

Cheap people of Australia: run! Don’t walk! To the nearest location where you can get pregnant. Ikea is doling out free cribs to babies born nine months from today. The baby must come into the world on November 14, 2013. If that’s your due date or if you get knocked up today or sometime in…

Here’s How OkCupid Uses Math to Find Your Match

Everyone you know has an online dating profile and if they say they don’t they are lying to you. We can poke fun at it all we want, but there’s actually a mathematical formula behind the digital match-making. In this video, one of OkCupid’s founders, Christian Rudder, explains how his site’s algorithm works. When two…

Creating the Amazing Futuristic Cityscapes in Looper

Looper was great—and in this video Atomic Fiction, the special effects studio behind the movie, shows off how it created the stunning cityscapes that feature in the film. Trust us, you’ll be amazed at what’s real and what was computer generated, the two fit together so well. [Vimeo via Verge]

Adobe’s CEO Completely Refuses to Answer Questions About Unfair Pricing

Adobe is currently receiving flack for selling software at inflated prices in Australia, where Creative Suite costs $1,400 more than in the US. In this interview, Adobe’s CEO, Shantanu Narayen, completely refuses to explain why, Politicians could learn something from this guy. He is more slippery than a fish coated in Crisco. [YouTube via Verge]

iOS 6.1 Security Risk: Anyone Can Bypass Your iPhone’s Lock Screen

So, iOS 6.1 hasn’t been Apple’s finest hour. So far it’s been plagued with connection issues, battery woes, and now it’s sadly insecure, too. You can bypass any lockcode on an iPhone using this straightforward sequence of button presses. The instructions are pretty simple. First you have to pretend to turn the phone off, then…

British Farmers Install Their Own 1Gbps Fiber Network in the Middle of Nowhere

Next time you whinge about your slow-ass internet, spare a thought for a bunch of British farmers who have had to build, test and install their own fiber network this year—from scratch. A small community in Arkholme—a tiny village in the UK—realized that they were always going to be overlooked when it came to fast…

Jane Jetson and the Origins of the “Women Are Bad Drivers” Joke

This is the 18th in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. “The problem with these skyways is that by the time they’re built they’re obsolete. This traffic is the worst I’ve seen yet,” George Jetson proclaims as he zips around in his flying car.…

When Facebook and Google staff are doing the Harlem Shake, you know it’s time for that meme to die.

The Life and Times of an Instagram Addict

Everybody has an Instagram addict in their life. Hey, maybe you even are one! This humorous video, by photographer Grant McGuire, explores the rise of, and drama surrounding, Instagram through the eyes of an addict. McGuire claims the project, called Filter My Life, came into being when he learned of National Geographic prohibiting the use…

Two Cheap Sensors Could Transform GPS Navigation

A team of Spanish researchers has developed a way to vastly improve in-car GPS navigation—and all it requires is some cheap, extra sensors. It’s one of those why-didn’t-they-think-of-that-earlier moments. By adding accelerometers and gyroscopes to a car’s navigation system, the researchers from Spain claim that they can pinpoint a car’s location to within 2 meters.…

Apple has lost the iPhone trademark in Brazil (but it’ll still be able to sell sell iPhone-branded handsets there).

This Was the First Banner Ad on the Internet

Here’s the grandaddy that spawned the thing you guys like least on the Internet: ads. This artsy, graffiti’d print on a black background telling you to click “right here” is supposedly the first banner ad to ever appear on the Internet. It popped up nearly 20 years ago in 1994 and was an ad for…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Nice Day for a Picnic

Well hello there, nightmare fuel. This unnerving cyclical animation from Monica Gallab mixes gnawing discomfort with sheer absurdity, building into a creepy mute crescendo. Then the ball drops.

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson Are in a Movie About Being Google Interns

Looking to recapture the magic of the first half of Wedding Crashers, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are teaming up to become Google interns in their upcoming movie The Internship. It’s a classic tale of Vince Vaughn trying to talk his way out of ridiculously unfortunate situations by overtalking and stringing words together because it…

Watch the Canadian Parliament Hilariously Debate the Zombie Apocalypse

That’s it, I’m moving to Canada. They know how to have fun. Even in politics! In Canada’s House of Commons today, there was an incredible ‘debate’ about creating an international zombie strategy “so that a zombie invasion does not turn into a zombie apocalypse.” Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird told everyone that there…