Tech News

John McAfee Disguises Himself as Murderer

The manic bath-salted odyssey of antivirus magnate John McAfee has taken another sad, strange bend: he’s adopted what sounds like the worst disguise in criminal history. Wired reports that McAfee, wanted for questioning with regards to a jungle murder, “claims to have dyed his hair, eyebrows, beard, and mustache jet black.” How can we turn…

The Onion Tackles Its Most Important Topic Ever: The History of the Internet

From the first microbial ooze to your most recent Facebook poke, the internet’s history is as vast and varied as any major civilization’s. Since a subject of this importance deserves only the most stringent satirical savaging, The Onion has—thankfully, blessedly—turned its gaze towards the bits and bytes that have been our ruin and salvation. The…

Google Just Beat Siri to TV Voice Search

Google TV is getting voice search. And that’s pretty awesome because some of us get violently angry at scrolling through pages and pages of a guide. You can search by specific show name, or if you’re not sure what you want to watch, you can say a genre or a topic like “reality television.” No…

Why Can’t All Map Apps Be This Clever?

Augmented Reality has mostly found its niche as a way to bring virtual characters to life through a mobile device. But a Japanese developer has found a more clever use. Crossfader’s AR-MAPS app syncs Apple or Google Maps to a live video feed from your iPhone’s camera, so you can visualize how you’re oriented, and…

Samsung: We’re Not Backing Down from Apple Litigation

If your heart grew two sizes when Apple and HTC decided to settle their patent disputes with money instead of lawyers (or guns?), prepare for shrinkage. When asked if Samsung would follow suit—or lack thereof—its mobile head, J.K. Shin, gave an emphatic no. To the jousting field! It’s not like anyone expected Samsung to forgo…

Scientists Make Shake-to-Charge Cellphones a Real Possibility

Need to make a call but run out of juice? Just give your cellphone a shake for an extra burst of power – that’s the idea behind a new cellphone charger that turns movement into energy. Shashank Priya and his colleagues at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg are designing an emergency onboard charger that draws energy…

Google: Government Surveillance Is on the Rise

Google’s released its twice-yearly transparency report, and there’s one message within it that rings loud and clear: the US government is spying on us harder than ever. Seems the search giant is increasingly being asked to hand over user data and remove content by governments and courts from around the world. As Google explains: [G]overnment…

How Photography Used To Be

In a world of megapixels, point-n-shoots and expensive DSLRs, it’s easy to forget about the roots of modern photography. This beautiful video profiles Harry Taylor, a photographer who’s celebrating the 19th century methods that kick-started the craze. Taylor took up tintype—a near-extinct form of wet plate photography—after the death of a loved one. He became…

These Are the Windows 95 Tips We All Really Wanted

The tips in Windows 95 were close to useless. Everyone turned them off. If they’d been like this, though, we’d have lapped them up like sweet golden nectar. Windows 95 Tips is the best Tumblr of recent time. (Apart from out emergency site, obviously. That was kick ass.) It’s a selection of fictional Windows tips…

Your Skype Account Can Be Hacked Using Just Your Email Address (Updated)

The Next Web is reporting that a security hole in Skype’s password recovery tool means that your account can be hacked using just your email address and username. A team of Russian hackers discovered the flaw and posted details online. Since, The Next Web has confirmed that the technique works. The five-step hack—not linked to…

The first Windows Surface software update is out: expect faster app loads and some security fixes. [Windows]

Papa John’s Faces $250 Million Lawsuit Over SMS Spam

Papa John’s has clearly been a little over-eager with its digital promotion. Now, it’s facing a $250 million class-action lawsuit over all the spammy text messages it’s been sending you and everybody else around the US. It’s alleged that Papa John’s sent 500,000 unwanted messages in early 2010, CNN Money reports. It gets worse: at…

WSJ: Samsung Is Betting Big on Flexible Phones

We’ve known for a while that Samsung is readying phones with flexible screens. Now, though, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that it’s pushing forward with the concept more quickly than ever, in order to avoid being beaten to the finish line by other firms. https://gizmodo.com/samsung-will-sell-bendy-screen-phones-next-year-why-5854199 The new phones simply swap plastic for glass in…

Verizon will offer a free Windows Phone 8 handset on contract by the end of 2012—but it won’t say which one. [Verge]

These Abstract Art Pieces Are Made By Having Sex

Now here’s art we can all get behind. Love Is Art is a project by artist Jeremy Brown where you (and a bed partner) create art by stripping naked, dousing yourself in body paint and having sex all over the canvas. Yes, seriously. The paint that ends up on the canvas is the result of…

The New BBM Lets You Make Free Voice Calls Over Wi-Fi

The last vestige of BlackBerry in the modern world, BBM, has a slick new feature that could stave off the overpopulation of BlackBerry’s in recycling bins and possibly please the few suit wearing keyboard lovers left: the new BBM 7.0 has something called BBM Voice, a feature that basically offers free voice calling over Wi-Fi.…

The Stoner Channel: Heroic Muffins, Athletic Kluges, and Tina Turner Does Brazil

Paddy Pan – Andrew Bowler This charming student film from Andrew Bowler finally gives us a reason to cheer for muffin tops. [Cartoon Brew] This Extreme Athlete Powered Rube Goldberg Machine Is Just Incredible What, you got a better method for breaking a can of Red Bull out of a block of ice? Yes, I…

Google Fiber Has Real World Speeds of 700 Mbps

Google Fiber is being installed all over Kansas City right now and people are so happy about the blazing fast speed that they’ve posted pictures of their speed tests. It’s ridiculous. People with Google Fiber can expect 700 Mbps down on ethernet and about 200 Mbps down on Wi-Fi. That’s ISP heaven on Earth. Mike…

The Goopy Explosion of Eggs Being Destroyed in Slow Motion Is Actually Pretty Epic

Not only are eggs delicious any which way you cook ’em, they’re gooey fun when you break ’em too. And when you break eggs in slow motion, the fun turns spectacularly epic. Slicing eggs with swords, smashing eggs with tennis rackets and drilling holes into eggs—it’s a hot sticky mess that’s kinda hard to stop…

Wearing Knockoff Google Glasses Is Even More Embarrassing Than Wearing Real Google Glasses

Vuzix, which specializes in technofancy optics, is so eager to ride the coattails of Google Glasses that they’re releasing their own version: the Vuzix Smart Glasses M100. The M100 smart glasses run Android Ice Cream Sandwich and has a 720p camera along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and head-tracking sensors. Which means, it’s kinda like Google Glasses…