Tech News

Gasp! Microsoft’s Former Windows Chief Uses an iPhone

Just a few short months after leaving Microsoft, the former head of Windows Steven Sinofsky has been busted for firing off some of his tweets from—HOLD THE HANDSET—an iPhone. Traitor! https://gizmodo.com/the-president-of-windows-steven-sinofsky-is-leaving-mic-5959997 Or maybe this isn’t such a big deal? As @stevesi quite reasonably responded to inquiring Twitter user Albert Jelica, it’s not odd for a…

How To Navigate an Insanely Massive Trade Show Like CES

The Consumer Electronics Show is one of the largest conventions on the planet. And as this infographic illustrates, CES veterans have figured out specific strategies to navigating the show’s 3,000+ booths and 1.87 million square feet of exhibits. Your first day is usually spent getting the lay of the land, and inevitably finding yourself completely…

Amazing Cliff Houses: Literally Living on the Edge

One of the ultimate desires of humankind: living on the solitary edge between urban luxury and the embrace of nature. Houses on cliffs and rocks reflect this desire well. You might find your dream house among the next 27 buildings; many of them are true examples of exceptional architectural design and outstanding engineering. The Cliff…

This Is What a Virus Infecting a Cell Looks Like

This isn’t a cartoon tree or some strange piece of modern art. In fact, it’s what researchers from the University of Texas at Austin saw when they managed to observe a virus in the act of penetrating a cell. In the image, you can see a T7 virus (red) burrowing its way into an E.…

How To Weaponize the World’s Most Useful Tool: Duct Tape

Taking a small break from expanding his insane rubber band-based arsenal, slingshot master Joerg Sprave turns his attention to re-engineering duct tape, and other random accessories, into a trio of improvised weapons. He still can’t completely shake his slingshot roots—using the tape and a small collection of pens to recreate his weapon of choice—but Wolverine…

Eliminate Touchscreen Lag From the Surface With This Tiny Hack

Now that hackers have sunk their teeth well and truly into the Microsoft Surface RT, loads of things are being probed, including lag. Apparently, with a tiny registry edit, you can speed up the Surface RT no end and eliminate touch lag. Here’s how. Simply put, for some reason Microsoft’s built in some lag or…

Clicking Your Mouse Solves Every Computer Freeze Known to Man

When your computer freezes, clicking the mouse button furiously is definitely what solves the problem. Amazing, really, that repeating a single, simple, mechanical operation can rectify complex software problems so easily. You must have healing hands. [Mr Lovenstein]

RIM ran a competition to get apps ported to BB10, and it worked: 15,000 new apps in just 38 hours. Promising. [Twitter]

This Scientific Coffee Machine Could Satisfy the Biggest Coffee Nerd

This system of burners, pipes, flasks and gauges looks like it came straight out of a laboratory. In fact, though, it’s a prototype coffee machine—and it could satisfy the technical desires of even the biggest coffee nerd. The Laboratory Espresso Machine was dreamt up by israeli designers David Budzik and Adi Schlesinger. Its design aesthetic…

The Price Tag on Samsung’s Awesome 85-Inch 4K TV Will Make You Weep

If you thought Sony’s 84-inch 4K TV was expensive at $25,000, then think again. Samsung has announced the pricing of its new flagship model—and you could buy a number of cars with the same cash. https://gizmodo.com/sonys-monster-4k-tv-costs-more-than-a-car-5940793 Samsung’s new 85-inch S9, which we described as “massive, and beautiful, and everything wonderful that can be wonderful about…

Oracle claims to have patched the Java vulnerability that Homeland Security was worried about. Browse freely! [Oracle]

WSJ: Apple Cuts Orders of iPhone Parts Following Low Demand

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has cut orders for iPhone 5 components due to “weaker-than-expected demand” for the device. Citing “people familiar with the situation”, the Journal claims that Apple has cut its orders of iPhone 5 screens for the January-March quarter, for instance, by half. If the rumors are true, they…

Anonymous Hacks MIT in Aaron Swartz’s Name

The Internet is dealing with the suicide of gifted programmer and activist Aaron Swartz in a variety of ways—but Anonymous is responding with what it does best. Two of MIT’s sites have been hacked into memorials. https://gizmodo.com/the-void-of-losing-someone-you-don-t-know-in-memory-of-5975463 Spelled out in typical red-on-black hacker script, the defacement requiem doesn’t include much of Anon’s typical bellicose Fuck…

Watch This Army of 21 Snow Plows Team Up to Clear a Canadian Highway

You’d imagine that it would take quite a few plows to clear a snow-covered highway, but not quite this many. Keep count as they go through and you’ll see a whole 21 plows in formation (and a couple of sand trucks) painstaking passing piles of grey road-sludge to the right and to the right again…

Faith No More: Epic

Say what you will about rap-metal, but the genre has a few stand-out classics. And while Faith No More can hardly be tied down to one genre, their 1989 classic “Epic” is a self-awarely ridiculous—and awesome—staple of the form. A precursor to the more mainstream explosion of rap-metal in the mid-to-late 90s, “Epic” was something…

Car Crashes Directly into Chicago Apple Store (Updated)

Insert a bad Apple Maps joke here: a car just slammed directly through the wall of an Apple store in Lincoln Park, and is now inside the Apple Store. This is going to be hard for the staff of the store to handle, given that Apple Geniuses aren’t allowed to say the word crash. https://gizmodo.com/how-to-be-a-genius-this-is-apples-secret-employee-trai-5938323…

Tiny Pill-Shaped Cameras Make Endoscopy Easy To Swallow

There’s nothing quite like getting heavily sedated and having a big ol’ camera crammed down your throat so that doctors can take a look at your esophagus and cut out a little peice to study in the lab. A fun Friday night. Fortunately, endoscopy doesn’t have to be like that too much longer thanks to…

MIT Is Launching an Internal Investigation To Determine Its Possible Role In Aaron Swartz’s Suicide

It’s no secret that a factor in Aaron Swartz’s recent suicide was likely the charges being pressed against him by in part by MIT over the whole JSTOR incident. While JSTOR backed off, MIT tacitly backed the U.S. attorneys who continued to push, hard. Now, after being criticized in a statement by Swartz’s friends and…

What Do You Think of People Without Facebook Accounts?

Social networking is great and all, but you can’t really fault anyone for not buying into it. Unless, of course, you’re talking about Facebook. Everybody has a Facebook, except for the people who don’t, and they tend to be few and far between. Whether it’s a hipster statement, like not owning a TV, or an…

Windows Phone 8 Has The Funniest Error Ever

A Windows Phone 8 error that asks you to put in your Windows installation disc and restart the computer. It sounds too funny to be true, right? Apparently it’s not. According to some digging by WMPoweruser, it’s rare, but real. Initially, the humorous error made two appearances on Twitter, by Mikko Hypponen and Johnny Ruokokoski.…