Tech News

Lady Gaga Has an Entire Genus of Plants Named After Her

When scientists make a discovery, they often get first dibs on how it should be named or referred to. Usually they’ll—rather arrogantly—choose their own name, but not a team of researchers from Duke University: instead, they chose Lady Gaga’s. As a result, Lady Gaga now has 19 different species of a newly discovered fern genus…

New York Has Run Out of Brownstone

Brownstones are an iconic part of the New York landscape, as defining a feature as the yellow cabs on the street or the towering office blocks that inhabit Manhattan. But times are changing, and the city’s finally run out of its famed building material. The New York Times reports that the last remaining brownstone quarry,…

EU Antitrust Commission Charges Microsoft Over Browser Selection

An EU antitrust commission is charging Microsoft: it didn’t offer browser choices in Win7. Fines to be decided. [Europa]

These Ridiculous Cell Phone Insurance Claims Are Hilarious

Deciding on whether to take out cell phone insurance is a tricky issue: it costs a heap, but it could save a stack of cash when you drop your smartphone onto bare concrete. Chances are, though, if you do ever make a claim, it will never be as ridiculous as any of these. A UK-based…

Scientists Promise Ten Times More Bandwidth With No New Hardware

A team of researchers promises it can increase wireless bandwidth by an order or magnitude, without any new hardware whatsoever. All that’s required, it claims, is a little extra math. Technology Review reports that the scientists have been developing algebraic techniques to eliminate the task of resending dropped packets of data—something that really clogs up…

Hacking a Single Radio System to Work With Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth

Zap-happy channel-surfers could soon control a lot more than cable TV from their remotes. Michael Ossmann, co-founder of Great Scott Gadgets, is developing HackRF, a software-defined radio (SDR) that lets you switch between radio frequencies on the fly. Most wireless gadgets, like the 3G antenna in a phone, operate using a fixed radio frequency band.…

Boeing’s New Missile Remotely Disables Computers as It Flies By

This is CHAMP: Boeing’s new missile otherwise known as the Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project. It automatically disables PCs and other electronic devices as it soars through the skies, using a burst of powerful radio waves—and it was successfully tested last week. The CHAMP tests took place in the Western Utah Desert on October…

Amazon continues its push for world domination, rolling out the Kindle Store, Paperwhite and Fire in Japan. [Amazon]

13 People Who Think the iPad Mini Is Actually Really Cheap

Though we think the iPad Mini seems crazy expensive compared to the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD, some people out there actually think the iPad Mini is cheap! Related: I need more rich friends. https://gizmodo.com/the-ipad-mini-seems-crazy-expensive-5954269 The oddness of the $330 price tag aside, when the competition can undercut your price by over a hundred…

Nikon 1 V2: An Interchangeable-Lens Camera For Clueless Photographers (And No One Else)

The Nikon 1 V2 is a total overhaul of its predecessor. The hope is that the higher-resolution sensor, bigger body, and amateur-friendly features will turn a legion of aspiring beginners into lens-swapping, accessory-toting photographers. We think? Otherwise this camera makes no sense. When Nikon waded into the mirrorless, interchangeable-lens camera market last year with its…

The Stoner Channel: Arcane Dangers, Antique Synthesizers, and Albert Kings

Arcane – Bastien Belvaux This is going to blow your mind. Arcane was created by Bastien Belvaux as his Ecole des Métiers du Cinéma d’Animation graduation project and needs to be turned into a feature length, like, now. Herbie Hancock Blows School Kids’ Minds with the Awesome Power of Synthesized Music Legendary jazz keyboardist Herbie…

The 25 Most Popular Passwords of 2012

Though I had hoped that we, as people, would have improved our passwords by now, it turns out that we, as people, are still unimaginative and so very lazy. Just take a look at the most popular (read: the worst) passwords of 2012. They’re terribly predictable. The rankings were created by SplashData who gathered the…

Can This Girl Find Love on a Coding Website?

It’s not totally unlike online dating but Noriko Higashi, a programmer at a social gaming company, posted a request for a boyfriend on GitHub, the social coding platform, outlining what she wants in a partner. If you can code, you have a chance at love. Bonus points for running your own server. BetaBeat dug up…

You Can Buy an iPad 3 with Retina Display for Cheaper Than the iPad 2

Dealzmodo! If you’re looking for the cheapest full-sized iPad available, it’s not the iPad 2 which still costs $400 brand new. Instead, the best deal on an iPad is the third-generation iPad with Retina Display. You can get it for only $380. That’s as cheap as we’ve seen it (we previously saw Wal-Mart sell the…

The new version of iBooks with continuous scrolling and other new features is now in the App Store

Using Facebook Without Numbers Is Like Growing Up Without Peer Pressure

You might not think of it at first but Facebook actually has a ton of numbers to it. Notifications, likes, friends, mutual friends, comments and so on and so on. There’s always some number hovering over you, influencing you so what if you used Facebook… without numbers? Artist Benjamin Grosser has created Facebook Demetricator, a…

This Beautifully Engineered Bamboo Table Holds Itself Together With Ingenuity

Like a giant version of one of those wooden puzzles you have to figure out how to disassemble, J.P. Meulendijks’ bamboo Lock table is cleverly held together in a manner that will have your dinner guests scratching their heads. But the only secret here is the fine craftsmanship that takes advantage of bamboo’s ability to…

Girlfriend Body Pillow Update: Now $12, Still Terribly Sad

It’s been a while since we checked in on the Deluxe Comfort Girlfriend Body Pillow, but we can now confirm that it is still available from Sears. And despite receiving a 20% price bump from $10 to $12, it’s still the saddest, most inexplicable human being substitute you can buy. https://gizmodo.com/girlfriend-body-pillow-the-saddest-place-to-lay-your-h-5521307 This has been your…

ThrowMeApp: Yes, Toss Your Phone For Aerial Pics

Camera tosses are a well-loved tradition with photographers. You don’t need professional gear to stage spontaneous pics of your own—you just need ThrowMeApp, an Android Phone and a little bit of hand-eye coordination. What does it do? Takes pictures when you throw your phone in the air. It activates the camera’s shutter when your device…

Zuckerberg: People Spend More Time on Instagram Than Twitter

During today’s Facebook earnings call, head honcho Mark Zuckerberg told investors that, overall, people spend “more mobile time on Instagram than Twitter,” pointing to comScore numbers to back up the claim. Not a bad justification for that huge billion dollar investment. That factoid shouldn’t be as shocking as it sounds initially. Even though both Instagram…