Tech News

Vintage Packaging of Famous Products Makes Me Want to Live in Yesterday

We just went to CES and saw a lot of the gadgets we’ll be playing with in the future. But it didn’t make me as excited as seeing all of these old products with vintage packaging. I wish every product could go back to its vintage packaging. The Listerine bottle is probably my favorite. It…

This Isn’t the White House Response to the Death Star Petition You’re Looking For

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons: The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it. The Administration does not support…

Watch a Giant Sinkhole Swallow a Car

Sinkholes are mother shaking scary because it’s the ground disappearing on you. And they just seem to come out of no where! Like on this Brazilian road, a sinkhole pops up and just begins to inhale an entire car. Seriously, watch the video from the 1:30 mark—it’s like the car is driving straight into the…

Avoid Electrocution By Using This Toaster’s Clever Plastic Handles

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a multi-slice toaster lacking an automatic pop-up feature these days. But if you’re toasting non-standard sized baked goods, they can occasionally get trapped requiring you to either risk your life by jamming a knife in there to retrieve them, or upgrading to Ariete’s Toaster Brunch. At $40 it can certainly…

Styx: Mr. Roboto

Most of the Gizmodo team just got back from the week-long technological pummeling that is CES. Vegas is already a labyrinth designed to trap you in its debaucherous, hedonistic core. But now throw in giant walls of 4K tvs and the constant threat of being trampled by stampeding tech writers; you’re bound to start feeling…

Buzzing a Moose With a Quadcopter Is the Safest Way To Enjoy Nature

Camera-equipped quadcopters are turning out to be a great way to explore places that humans can’t be, like Stanford’s new concert hall, or shouldn’t be, like mere feet from a female moose on her home turf. https://gizmodo.com/tour-stanfords-stunning-new-concert-hall-through-the-ey-5975114 This extraordinary footage was captured in Oslo, Norway by Eirik Solheim using a GoPro camera strapped to the…

These Naked Women Were Selling Phones or Something at CES

Some Chinese company decided that having regular booth babes at their CES shack wasn’t enough. Instead, they used naked women in some sort of artsy-fartsy installation that was supposed to illustrate the advantages of whatever products they were selling. While the women were painted and wore flesh-colored underpants, many people are now outraged. I’m not.…

Dropbox for Android finally lets you share your pictures with a shared album or through e-mail, Facebook or Twitter.

WWF Together, Fridge Words, and More

This time around, the best iPad apps of the week are all about exercising the old brain muscle. From a word game, to a calculator app, you’ll be boosting your mental faculties. MyScript Calculator: You might be horrible at math, but that’s quite alright. This is the buttonless calculator you never knew you wanted but…

Rise, Directr, and More

Just because we were in Vegas for CES this week, doesn’t mean we were sleeping on this round of the best iPhone apps of the week. In this edition, you’ll find a better alarm clock, a video making tool, and much more. Rise: Waking up in the morning doesn’t have to be the worst thing…

The Great Fushion, Fitocracy, and More

Want to just spend the weekend melting your brain, playing games on your Android device? Great, so do we. We’ll help you play to your heart’s content with a classic futuristic game, one where Lego people fight fires, and much more. Fitocracy: It’s January, meaning you and everyone you know has resolved to get in…

Behind the Scenes of Building the New World Trade Center

An escalator suspended 101 stories above Southern Manhattan. It’s one of the most famous pictures of the new World Trade Center, and the new WTC isn’t even finished yet. But the photo, which originally surfaced on Reddit, has a whole backstory to it, too, with some cool behind-the-scenes details from Scott Lahmers, the “elevator man”…

Tim Tebow’s Press Conference Sucked, or Why the Celebrity Headphone Trend Is Idiotic

At the end of December, a PR agency representing Tim Tebow’s new signature line of Soul brand headphones—model number SL300, $299.95 retail—emailed us to invite us to a CES event at which Tebow himself would be showcasing his headphones and “speaking with the media.” The event was total bullshit. Just like celebrity headphones. The email…

Do You Really Get Drunker at High Altitude?

There’s a phrase people like to repeat in Denver: “Be careful when you drink here.” The claim is that the altitude (elevation 5,280 feet) makes one drink between 1.5 to 3 times as potent. If you visit the area to ski this winter, the city officials will even warn you about it when you get…

John McAfee Is Hunkered Down in Portland Now

Of course it’s Portland. The weirdest story in tech in 2012 has resurfaced in the Northwest. McAfee’s going to be spending the next 18 months in the city, and we’re trying to figure out what, exactly his next move is. McAfee’s been back in the US since December, when he arrived in Miami on a…

Will a No-Money, Wireless-Payment System Make Disney World More Magical?

Some time soon, you’ll be able to go to Disney theme parks and pay for stuff using nothing but wireless bracelets. It’s magic! Or uh, is it laid-bare commercialism desensitizing visiting families from the wads of cash they’re spending? Obviously, there’s something in it for Disney. Its theme parks produce massive revenue, and with parents…

I Watched LG’s Incredible 3D Video Wall Too Long, and Now I Can’t Enjoy Real LIfe

Over the last few days, I’ve spent hours churning out posts in front of the “world’s largest 3D video wall” at the back of LG’s CES booth. Every neuron in my body is exhausted. I may never feel emotion again. At CES, writers who don’t have access to fancy trailers need to find a cozy…

Just Trolling Here, Just Trolling

Nothing like bringing your iMac to the Microsoft Store to troll everyone. First, Microsoft employees, trying to troubleshot whatever the hell is wrong with it. Then Apple fanboys, offended by the idea of their beloved OS X replaced by Windows 8. [Jai Definichon]

Stream TV Glasses-Free 3D 4K Hands-On: OMG This Works! But…

CES 2013: The year Ultra HD turned into the pipe dream of the future to the present reality you can’t afford. Now that UHD TVs are about to hit the market, manufacturers are, of course, showing off 4K concepts like this glasses-free 3D 4K panel from Stream TV Networks, which you will be able to…

This Polymer Film Flexes Like an Artificial Muscle

This polymer film is expanding and contracting like a muscle, and looks pretty alive doing it, but the energy is coming from water vapor, not black magic. Go figure. Researchers at MIT hope to use the material’s continuous motion to generate electricity for nanoelectronic devices, like tiny sensors, or as muscles in robots. The material…