Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Santa brought lots of good boys and girls across the world new iPhones yesterday. Hurray, Christmas! Unfortunately, with new iPhones come the perils of iPhone ownership, which is to say, that many of these beautiful new handsets are already broken. Here are some poor saps who already busted their new toys.
As much as I like my Christmas Tree, I hate that it’s dead and it has to be thrown away. I wish I knew about alternatives like the invisible tree above. Next year there will be no dead trees in this house for sure. Or this delicious tree. You can set one up every couple…
Google extends free domestic Gmail voice calls in the US and Canada through 2013. [Google]
In November of 2011, American commercial airlines consumed 48.3 million gallons of fuel—every day—and paid a total of $49.8 billion that month to do so. And with increasingly tight operating budgets, fuel efficiency has quickly become a primary concern for the airlines. Boeing thinks one possible solution is its new plug-in hybrid jet concept that…
If you’re making an investment in an Apple product, whether it’s a new machine or a permanently on-sale refurb, you want to protect it. At the same time, spending a few hundred more on AppleCare hurts when you’re already dropping a couple grand on a computer. You get a year of AppleCare as part of…
After opening 51 retail stores in 2012, Microsoft already plans to open six more in 2013. [Microsoft]
Last week we reported that Steve Jobs’ yacht, Venus, had been repossessed in the Netherlands at the behest of designer Philippe Starck, who claimed that the Jobs family owed him three million Euros. Classy move, Starck. Well, the yacht is free to sail again. https://gizmodo.com/steve-jobs-yacht-repossessed-by-you-guessed-it-philippe-5970485 Le Monde reports that the Jobs and Starck camps have…
Randi Zuckerberg shared the above photo of her family—including Facebook Czar-in-Chief Mark Zuckerberg—on Facebook. Then it got out into the world, and Randi got all upset about her privacy. Oh, boo hoo, Randi! The story goes like this: Randi Zukcerberg posted the photo of her family fooling around with Facebook’s new Snapchat clone, Poke. When…
2012 is almost over. It’s time to get ready for 2013 with these 40 life tricks that will make the next 12 months—and every month of your existence—a lot easier. Some hacks may be familiar, others will make you go “OMFG!” So bookmark this page and pass it along to your loved ones, because the…
Remember when Apple used to be a little more fun and irreverent, a lot less stiff and politically correct, and not such dicks? Yeah, those were the good times. Life is definitely better when you are the underdog.
Toshiba’s new TCM5115CL 20-megapixel image sensor is the highest-resolution ever built for the tiniest point-and-shoot cameras. Uh oh, are the megapixel wars back? For a while there, the wars over who could cram more pixels onto tiny image sensors seemed to have died off. Indeed, for years, megapixel counts were a showy and misleading spec…
Conventional video projectors have remained largely a niche market for dedicated home theater enthusiasts on account of their difficult installation. However, a new breed of “home projector” has developed over the past few years into an increasingly viable alternative to flat panel televisions. And if LG’s new 100-inch class LG “HECTO” Laser TV is any…
James Brown Demolishes Olympia Washington with a Wall of Sound This 1971 film is one of the rare times James Brown’s original supporting lineup was ever caught on tape. [Open Culture] John Lennon and Bob Dylan Share a Taxi, Groovy Pandemonium Ensues The pair of legendary musical artists got into an London taxi, both high…
Robots are so commonplace now that we use them to entertain kids at amusement parks. But even though modern technology has given us artificial lifeforms that can walk, talk, and even fly, there’s still something utterly fascinating about pre-electronic mechanical automatons like this Vers de Soie caterpillar dating back to 1820. https://gizmodo.com/how-can-this-1890-automaton-produce-such-surprisingly-r-5966510 It’s almost 200…
Watching a movie for exactly the second time ever, when you haven’t seen it since you were a young kid, is a pretty amazing experience. I streamed Scrooged the other night. I hadn’t seen it since shortly after its 1988 release, when I was about six or seven. Total flashback. The terrifying ghouls under the…
You just ate an entire spiral ham and now you’re so full you’ve got to pop those jeans off immediately and curl up by the fire and relax. Here are some really nice sweatpants from American Giant so you don’t look like a total slob in the company of your distant relatives. Even if you’re…
Let’s get one thing straight right away: “White Christmas” is the best Christmas song. It has tradition, nostalgia, and romance. No church. There are more versions of it that you could ever care to hear—Bing Crosby’s original 1941 performance is a classic, Frank Sinatra’s 1944 version is good enough, and the Drifters’ 1954 recording is…
Changes in a speaker’s audio quality might not be quite as noticeable as a big jump in a screen’s pixel density, but the sound of a movie can have a much bigger effect on how you experience it. In short, good audio ain’t just for audiophiles. Here’s the sound technology that changed the aural universe…
Merry Christmas! Today your day is all about friends and family and you’re probably taking a lot of pics. We’ve got a little something for you to give those snaps a little extra holiday cheer. What does it do? Adds Santa hats, holly leaves, snowflakes, holiday frames, and other fun stuff to your pictures. Why…
So you’ve found your way to Gizmodo on Jesus’ birthday. Welcome, we understand that the holiday spirit fades fast when every possible destination is closed and the television channels are filled with crap. CHRISTMAS WHY ARE YOU SO BORING? Don’t worry, there is consumer spending joy yet to be had—even on this, the most sacred…
