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It was probably too much to ask that we make it to the end of the year without firing up the new [new (new)] iPad rumor mill, especially given that it’s barely been two months since the iPad 4 appeared. And yet! https://gizmodo.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-fourth-generation-i-5954217 There is, says Macotakara—a site that’s usually pretty good at this sort…
No matter the occassion, fireworks are always festive. Usually you’ll launch them from a boat, or the ground, or maybe for your back porch, but for the Taunggyi Fire Balloon Festival, they’re launched from a hot-air balloon. What could possibly go wrong, right? This. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we’re best off sticking…
This is Christmas music! To be fair, this tune has to be attributed to two different parties. First you have the fictional performers “The Professor Brothers,” who have also rocked such classics like this one about JFK. Second, you have Brad Neely, the real-life man behind the magic and the guy who’s responsible for that…
Between Felix Baumgartner’s insane space jump, and Spanish paraglider Horacio Llorens’ 568-looper of a dive, we’ve had some pretty awesome world records broken this year. Of course it’s hard if not impossible to catch all of them, so Guinness World Records whipped up a year-end summary, and it’s well worth the watch. Not all of…
Keypads are quickly becoming a legacy techonology thanks to a collaboration between LG and Google TV. The company announced today that it is expanding Google TV functionality to seven of its 2013 models. According to LG, its GA7900 (47- and 55-inch) and GA6400 (42-, 47-, 50-, 55- and 60-inch) series of televisions will now feature…
You remember The Most Useless machine, right? The one that encapsulates our entire interaction with technology by boiling it down to a zero-sum back and forth that ends in a meltdown? Well here’s its big brother. https://gizmodo.com/most-useless-machine-duels-mankind-and-is-metaphor-fo-5800873 This is certainly a more impressive iteration on the same idea—and one that seems to have infinite stamina…
A lot of us put ear buds in our ears, but that’s about as intrusive as mainstream headphone-wearing gets for us humans. This pair of bird headphones is a bit different. Epoxied to this little guy’s skull, this set of special headphones is blasting some off-key tunes so scientist can learn how bird auto-tune works.…
Social media is ostensibly all rainbows and butterflies. It’s for “making connections” and “friending” people, blah blah blah. But do you ever follow people you really don’t like? Do you ever follow people because you don’t like them, and instead you like reading their updates while sighing loudly to yourself and those around you asking…
While Gangnam style was out racking up a billion views, channels owned by Sony and Universal have moved twice as far in the other direction. YouTube has stripped them of these views alleging a violation of the YouTube terms of service which prohibit the artificial inflating of view-counts. According to SocialBlade statistics dug up by…
If you thought the Galaxy Note II was pushing the envelope on size, you’ve got another thing coming. A executive from Huawei has been caught on camera showing off the company’s upcoming 6.1-inch 1080p Ascend Mate, a truly mammoth phablet. Expected to be officially unveiled at this year’s CES, the Ascend Mate is rumored to…
When you think of cloning, you’ll probably either think of dolly, or maybe some sort of sci-fi clone army. German scientists, on the other hand, their minds hop to Christmas trees, and the hope that cloning can bring us all perfect ones forever. Biologist Kurt Zoglauer of Berlin’s Humboldt University isn’t happy with the current…
Sure, firewalls are an important part of secure computing, but they aren’t nearly as cool as their name suggests. You know, like an actual wall made out of fire. This firewall isn’t exactly that either, but it’s a step closer, and bears at least a passing resemblance to fire despite being a bit safer to…
Face it, Santa is pretty antiquated. I mean, what kind of crazy elf-powered factory must he have up there in the North pole in order to be churning out iPhones and laptops and Wii Us? Ridiculous as it is, you don’t want him to get hip, because he’d turn into this. He’d keep his list…
Well all know the standard Christmas songs. We know them and we know them all too well. That’s why it’s important to infuse some fresh stuff in there amid all those “classics” you hear on loop over tinny department store speakers. Sufjan Steven’s “Get Behind Me, Santa” is one of those great alternatives. Off Songs…
Sometimes it seems like no one’s keeping your data safe; this is one of those times. A hacker just leaked 300,000 Verizon customer records, and that’s only a sample of the 3 million he claims to have gotten in his little raid. The hacker, who goes by TibitXimer, told ZDNet about his exploits this evening,…
Still gotta go out and do some shopping? I’ll bet plenty of us do, but now that its pretty much too late to do that wonderful online thing, it’s time to hoof it to stores. You just have to make sure they’ll be open first. Here’s a handy little guide to help with that. Best…
YouTube comments can be an unmoderated wilderness full of ill-will and lame obscenities the likes of which, well, the likes of which you’ve seen in YouTube comments. Maybe you’re used to it, maybe you don’t dare drift that far down the page for fear of losing yourself in the inanity. YuleTube can help change that…
We live in a cyberland future where malls exist inside your computer and the presents you buy are magically delivered to you by, well, delivery men. With each Christmas that passes, online shopping becomes more and more the norm until eventually brick and mortar stores will be nothing but vacant museums of an age gone…
Gift cards—especially in their digital form—are the ultimate, last-minute cop-out gift, and if you’re willing to trek out to your nearest Best Buy, they’ll reward to effort with a little bit of free iTunes money. All their physical iTunes gift cards are 20 percent off. Now the deal is only on their physical gift cards,…
It’s almost the end of the year and almost the end of the world. Then again, depending on who you ask it’s always almost the end of the world. In the meantime we’ve got tales of evil Apple geniuses, the best photos and most important gadgets of the year, Amazon security loopholes, real James Bond…
