Tech News

In Communist China, Even the Cargo Jets Are Knock-offs

In 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake decimated China’s Sichuan province, killing nearly 70,000. The disaster which was compounded by the country’s lack of large cargo aircraft, which are essential vehicles for humanitarian missions, brought on by the military’s unyielding focus on fighter jets. In response to this logistical shortfall (and the disgrace of having to…

Porn Stars Acting Out Internet Memes: The Most Confusing-Sexy Thing You’ll See Today

“Memes I’d Like to F**k” is a pretty self-explanatory idea, really. It’s internet memes, acted out by porn stars—with their clothes on, mostly. They’re by porno house Wood Rocket, and actually, they’re probably a smart way to get wider exposure for the sex-actors. As it were. The actress doing Surprised Kitty is Veruca James, and…

Nine People Who Actually Need a 128GB iPad

The monster 128GB iPad is here, but you almost definitely don’t need it. For a solid grand, you might as well buy a MacBook Air or three years’ worth of toilet paper. Unless, of course, you are one of the following. https://gizmodo.com/the-128gb-ipad-is-real-its-here-and-its-almost-defini-5979812 Doctors. You have tons of charts and reference materials that you’ll need at…

A Beautiful Look at the Galaxy that Will Collide With Us In 4 Billion Years

In four billion years, Andromeda will collide with the Milky Way. That will be an amazing view—but until then we have to look at it from a distance. This new photo by the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory shows a beautiful view. From NASA: https://gizmodo.com/earth-s-sky-will-look-mindblowingly-crazy-3-75-billion-5914702 The glow seen here comes from the longer-wavelength, or…

Report: YouTube May Start Making You Pay For Content

AdAge is reporting than in an effort to lure more content producers (along with the subsequent viewers and advertisers that follow) away from traditional television, YouTube is supposedly getting ready to launch paid subscription on specific channels. The subscriptions won’t be too pricey—at least for right now. Based on applications YouTube has reportedly asked a…

XBMC 12 “Frodo” is ready for download. Notable new features: Support for Android, Raspberry Pi and Live TV/PVR support.

I Can’t Think of a Better Wedding Ring Than This Cool Titanium Utility Ring

The Titanium Utility Ring is not a wedding ring per se. But since I don’t like man rings and the only rings I’ve ever worn are three wedding rings, it is a wedding ring to me. I mean, if I had to marry a fourth time, I’d definitely get this thing. It’s made of titanium…

Elon Musk thinks the lithium batteries used by SpaceX‘s rockets could help solve Boeing’s tiny Dreamliner battery issue. https://gizmodo.com/this-is-the-battery-that-melted-in-the-boeing-787-dream-5977257

The New Microsoft Office Is Here—And You Rent It

Office—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, the old frenemies—are out of beta and ready to buy. Sort of: you buy the newest version of Office like you buy Netflix or Spotify, with a subscription. And it makes a hell of a lot of sense. Microsoft Office is usually a big purchase, or no purchase at all—sometimes it comes…

The 128GB iPad Is Real, It’s Here, and It’s Almost Definitely Not For You

As expected, Apple let a 128GB iPad out of the bag today. And there’s almost zero chance you should buy it. https://gizmodo.com/does-apple-have-a-fancier-ipad-4-up-its-sleeve-update-5979453 The new iPad has the same retina display as its brothers, and the same design, and the same guts, with one notable exception: a metric crap-ton of storage. More storage than any decent…

Natural Tilt-Shift Effect Turns the Biggest Warship in the World Into a Tiny Model

I love this photo of the USS John C. Stennis nuclear supercarrier. It looks like a tiny model thanks to the F-18’s exhaust fumes, which distort the air above part of the deck and turns the image into a bit of a tilt-shift photo. Tilt-shift photography works by applying selective focus to an image, either…

THX Tune-Up App: Tweak Any TV From Your Phone

While it may look great in the store, your new flat screen is going to need to be calibrated once you get it home to deliver the best viewing experience. While hardcore videophiles will want to invest in a professional service, this new calibration app from THX covers the basic adjustments that the rest of…

Philips has sold of its home entertainment division for $201 million—to concentrate on making things like toasters.

The 128GB Microsoft Surface Pro Only Offers 83GB of Usable Space

The standard Windows 8 Surface tablets came in for some stick, thanks to the Windows files eating up 13GB of hard drive space. That’s nothing compared to Windows 8 Pro, which requires an astonishing 45GB of the Surface Pro’s disk space for its files. The numbers, obtained from Microsoft by Softpedia, would make an absolute…

This Google Maps Birdhouse Shows Birds Where to Stay

Birdhouses are usually designed to blend into their local environments—but not this one. Taking inspiration from Google Maps, artist Shuchun Hsiao decided to give birds a taste of the search giant’s navigational aids, too. Based on Google’s now-infamous map pins, Hsiao’s lofty ambition is to transfer the iconic symbolism of the place marker to the…

North Korea Just Got a Lot of New Roads According to Google Maps

Google has given its maps of North Korea a massive overhaul, using the open source Map Maker project to pull together all of the data. Suddenly, the country looks like it’s not a barren wilderness. The map’s still not perfect—there are blocks that remain empty where it’s obvious they shouldn’t be—but Google aims to rectify…

Nikon’s New Coolpix Cameras: Crazy Zooms and Wi-Fi on a Budget

Nikon has just announced a slew of new Coolpix models—some good, others so-so—but one things is clear: Nikon is trying to pack in the specs at keen prices. Take, for instance, the new Coolpix P520: it offers an 18-megapixel sensor, 3.2-inch tilting LCD, GPS, Wi-Fi and a frankly insane 42x zoom. Retailing at $450, it…

WhatsApp Violates International Phone Number Privacy Laws

WhatsApp, the Instant Message client beloved of people too cheap to text, appears to contravene international privacy laws because of the way it forces users to grant it access to their entire address book. Reuters reports that both the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Dutch Data Protection Authority have released reports…

Ubuntu phones will come with a terminal, so you can fiddle with settings from the command line. How… user friendly?

If Google Translate Could Translate Star Wars to English

One of the wonderful things about Star Wars was that even though you couldn’t understand some characters, you still understood them. But what if you could plug in Chewbacca’s growls and R2D2’s beepity boops into Google Translate to find out what they’re saying? Nate Smith of Awkward Elevator did just that and it’s exactly what…