Tech News

Touchscreen Friendly Fingernails Turn Every Digit Into a Stylus

If you’re a fan of long fingernails you’ve probably already developed special techniques for using touchscreen devices. But Sri Vellanki, the creator of a fingertip stylus called Tech Tips, feels women shouldn’t be limited to what technology they can use because of their fashion choices. So she’s developed a touchscreen-friendly fingernail that works like a…

The First Prison-Issued Polygraph Test on YouTube Could Prove a Man’s Innocence

Convicted killer Luke Miller has spent the last 10 years in a Scottish prison for the 2003 murder of his 14-year-old girlfriend Jodi Jones, a crime he insists he didn’t commit. So his supporters have been lobbying that a polygraph test indicating his innocence be made public to draw attention to his case, in hopes…

19 Pairs of Batshit-Crazy Sunglasses from the 1980s

What What do you think of when you think of the 80s? Beverly Hills Cop, synthed-out pop music, MTV actually being Music Television, and glaring neon colors, right? Right, with one addition: shades. Insanely over designed lunatic sunglasses! Here comes a highly relevant collection of the craziest ones. French singer and fashion model, Amanda Lear,…

Brilliant Roboticist Builds Giant Cyborg Legs, Yet Struggles With Smartphone Video

Hajime Sakamoto dreams of one day building himself a towering 13 feet tall Gundam-esque mobile robot suit. But since it’s such a daunting task, he’s approaching the problem one step at a time—literally—starting with a set of self-balancing legs that he’s able to pilot around his workshop. It’s an impressive accomplishment, it’s just too bad…

How the Most Important Code of WWII Was Cracked

The breaking of the Enigma Code is one of the most interesting stories in the history of computing—but it’s not necessarily easy to get your head around. Fortunately, this video provides an amazingly straightforward explanation of how the code was cracked. James Grime, a mathematician from Cambridge University, explains how Turing and his coworkers managed…

Woman Steals Train, Then Crashes It Into a Building

Last night in Saltsjöbanan, Sweden, a young woman decided to try her hand at driving a train. It didn’t end well: she careered off the end of line and straight into this house. Swedish newspaper GP reports that the woman, a twenty-something cleaner for the train operator Arriva, was injured in the accident but—amazingly—nobody else…

New MySpace Is Now Open to the Public

After six months of beta testing, the new MySpace is finally opening its doors to the public: now, anyone who wants an account can trot over to the site and sign up. Though, uh, you may not want to. Because, in our considered opinion: https://gizmodo.com/the-new-myspace-review-just-die-already-5965926 New MySpace offers nothing but a brief “Huh, this still…

Finally, Wall-Mounted Bike Storage That Looks Great

Wall-mounted bicycle storage is incredibly practical, but usually leaves you with an industrial-looking mess when the bike’s in use. Not if you get hold of a Trophy Bicycle Holder: a modern riff on the stuffed animal head that doubles as a bike hanger. Available in two designs—Trophy:Bull or Trophy:Deer—these powder-coated metal frames fasten to the…

Can You Find the Man Hiding Among These Mobile Phones?

We’re a massive fan of the invisible Chinese artist Liu Bolin, and he’s at it again. A new exhibition at Galerie Paris-Beijing is showcasing his latest work and our favorite—unsurprisingly!—is this one, where he’s hiding in front of a wall of mobile phones. Can you spot him? [Galerie Paris-Beijing via Design Boom] https://gizmodo.com/can-you-see-the-man-hidden-in-these-pandas-5899119

Even though Oracle’s patched its recent vulnerability, Home Security still thinks you’re better off without Java. Ouch.

How Apple Sets Its Prices

Apple pricing is unlike almost every other brand in consumer tech: consistent across each and every retailer, and rarely discounted. How do Cook and Co manage to pull that off? MacWorld has an interesting article about the techniques which Apple uses to keep its prices fixed. From the article: Most products move from manufacturers to…

Knowing the Real Life Location of These Tweets Makes You Feel Dirty

Twitter is modern day people watching. Anytime you check it, you see what a person is thinking or doing or saying. But it’s not all happening in a digital vacuum, they’re on break at work tweeting about their boss, they’re outside a hospital tweeting about their day, they’re somewhere tweeting about something. This photo project,…

Moog Tunes, Deep Ends, and Why Toking May or May Not Turn You into a Blithering Idiot

Stunt Poetry Rishi Kaneria transforms stuntman Dante Ha’s aerial acrobatics into art with the help of a Canon 60D. Long Term Toking Might Make You Dumber, It Also Might Not It’s incredible to see how the same data set can generate contradictory results, depending on who is doing the analysis. A study of 1037 individuals…

In the Wake of Aaron Swartz’s Death, Let’s Fix Draconian Computer Crime Law

Outpourings of grief and calls for change continue to flood the Internet after the suicide of Aaron Swartz, only 26 years old. Aaron was one of our community’s best and brightest, and he acheived great heights in his short life. He was a coder, a political activist, an entrepreneur, a contributor to major technological developments…

I’m Not Sure If This Robotic Spider Dress Is Creepy or Sexy

This robotic spider dress made by Dutch designer Anouk Wipprecht and Austrian software developer Daniel Schatzmayr is creeping me out but also turning me on at the same exact time. I don’t know what to think—if those crawling spindly robot legs are scary or if they’re just sexy. The mechanical legs start moving when it…

Pubic Lice Is Becoming an Endangered Species Because Everybody’s Getting Brazilian Waxes

According to doctors, public lice or crabs or whatever the hell that makes people scratch down there is disappearing because everybody is getting Brazilian waxes. We’re killing them off by destroying the forests they love to live in. Hooray for hairless humans! According to studies, 80 percent of college students in the US remove all…

If Your Phone’s Screen Shatters, This Is the Best Background You Can Possibly Use

The Onion joked about people getting phones with shattered screens but, if my screen breaks, I will set this background and keep using it until I bleed to death through my fingers. So cool. [Imgur via Reddit] https://gizmodo.com/the-onion-apples-new-college-girl-friendly-iphone-come-5969840 p.s. In case you just woke up from a 2,000-year hibernation, the background image is a reference…

How ILM Created the Hulk for The Avengers

ILM or Industrial Light & Magic or the wonderful CGI wizards who create visual effects that are better than real life just gave a look behind the curtain of its fantasy shop to show us how they created the Hulk in The Avengers. Just seeing how they turn Mark Ruffalo into the huggable Hulk proves…

Turns Out the Human Face Makes for a Pretty Good Musical Instrument

Though music usually comes from people’s voices or people thumping something on another thing or people wisping their fingers across strings, Japanese artist Daito Manabe found a new form for a musical instrument: the human face. Yep, facial songs. The way he set it up was by linking electric sensors to a person’s face (it…

Roland TB-303 Sushi Platter: If You Think Our Beats Are Fresh, Try the Maki

This image of a mouth-watering sushi platter pain-stakingly assembled to look like a Roland TB-303 synth popped up on the Ableton Live School’s Facebook page. There’s no word on why it was created, but what’s certain is that it’s easily as impressive a creation as anything the school’s students have ever composed. [Ableton Live School…