Tech News

Watch This Cannonball Tear Through a Modern Car Like It Was Parchment

The Civil War ended almost 150 years ago, and by today’s standards the weapons used are old-fashioned and outdated. But don’t for a second think that means they weren’t incredibly lethal. Because it turns out a modern car is still no match for a Civil War-era cannon. The folks at RatedRR were kind enough to…

Is This the Spaceship That Will Take Us to Mars?

Somewhere deep in the Marshall Space Center, in an unmarked beige hangar, NASA is building a spaceship. A spaceship built with spare parts, scrap hardware from the International Space Stations, a left-over aluminum-lithium cylinder and even museum mockups. One day, it may become the vessel that takes humans to Mars. NASA engineers lead by Paul…

A Woman at a Famous Art Museum, Taking a Museum’s Worth of iPad Photos

Yesterday I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and witnessed something that transcended the quality of the legendary masterpieces hanging in its galleries: a woman systematically and without remorse taking pictures of every single masterpiece in those hallowed halls. Using her iPad. We’ve been over this a million times—you look like a big idiot when…

HAL: The Do-Gooder Exo-Suit With the Really Evil Name

While it’s a shame that the Fukushima disaster could well have been prevented, you can only dwell on the past for so long. If Japan is to move on from this disaster, the Fukushima facility must come down. But how does one disassemble such a highly radioactive structure? One research team hopes the solution involves…

5 Things That Could Sink Windows 8

The Windows 8 launch is finally upon us, and I guarantee you there are a lot of nervous people in Redmond right now. How could they not be? You’re about to launch a new version of your operating system that is such a radical departure from what PC users have come to expect that it…

Report: Samsung Won’t Sell LCD Panels to Apple Anymore

The Korea Times reports that Samsung will stop providing Apple with LCD panels next year. According to an unnamed “senior Samsung source,” the company is unwilling to sell displays to Apple at the steep discounts of some of its competitors like LG. At the beginning of this year, Samsung was the single largest supplier of…

Magic Thimble Turns the Entire World Into a Touch Surface

I want this: a thimble that turns everything it touches into a touch-sensitive screen, so you can use quick gestures to make things happen. Imagine going around the world, moving your finger like a magic wand, making things happen. You know, like Minority Report wave-in-the-air thimbles, but touch-based. That’s probably why the researchers—from Autodesk, the…

No One Cares If a Tightrope-Walking Robot Falls To Its Death

It might sound terribly morbid, but part of the fascination of watching a human perform a dangerous tightrope walk is the risk that they could potentially fall. So when you’ve got a robot risking its life, the stunt is considerably less exciting. But that’s not to say that a robot slowly inching its way over…

This Sliding Lens Cap iPhone Case Banishes Smudges

Not only do lens caps protect your camera’s glass from scratches that can permanently render them unusable, they also help keep fingerprints and grease smudges at bay, which can ruin a photo. And it’s no different with your iPhone, which is why this case with a sliding door that protects and cleans its tiny lens…

Wi-Fi Lightbulbs Are Real, And They’re Awesome—First Impressions (UPDATED)

The Island of Dr. Moreau-style splicing of technologies is generally one trend the world could do without. “Haven’t you always wanted a lava lamp with a built-in hatchet?” No, Mr. Pitchman, and please take your abominations elsewhere. But every once and in a while we get a combination that actually makes a lot of sense.…

Best Buy’s Got Free iTunes Money All Day

Today’s Best Buy daily deal is amazingly good: it’s offering up $50 iTunes gift cards for just $40, including free shipping. The card doesn’t have any strings attached: it can be redeemed against music, movies, TV shows, games, apps, whatever, just like the full-price vouchers. Only, it’s 20 percent cheaper. The deal’s running today only,…

Genealogy site Ancestry.com is being sold for $1.6 billion. Clearly money does grow on (digital, family) trees. [WSJ]

An Armchair Inspired by Smartphone Icons

The app icon is a defining feature of technology these days, and now designers are even turning to it for inspiration. This new furniture line, called Apps, takes inspiration from the icons that feature on all our smartphones—and it looks pretty damn sweet. Designed by Richard Hutten—no stranger to taking inspiration from the tech world—for…

Researchers Reveal Massive Encryption Faults in Android Apps Used by Millions

A team of computer science researchers have revealed that Android apps used by as many as 185 million people can expose online banking and social network credentials, as well as emails and IM content. The researchers, from Germany’s Leibniz University of Hannover and Philipps University of Marburg, have identified 41 apps available on the Play…

The Future of Data Storage Is… Cassette Tape?

While the future of storage on your laptop is undoubtedly solid state, it’s more difficult to predict how the huge tranches of data in server farms will be housed in the future. Recent suggestions, though, predict the rebirth of an old technology: the humble casette tape. New Scientists reports that “a new wave of ultra-dense…

Brazilian newspapers are boycotting Google News, because it’s preventing them from growing their digital audience. [BBC]

This Is What It Looks Like When Your GoPro Falls In the Ocean

GoPros are well-known for being robust. I mean, we’ve seen one fall out of a plane and land intact. This GoPro was keen on going on its own adventure as well, except in the water instead of the air. https://gizmodo.com/heres-what-happens-when-you-accidentally-drop-a-gopro-f-5943506 According to the video’s poster, the GoPro fell off during the surf (as you get…

The Ultimate Photobomb

I love this image. Two kids playing basketball while NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour peeks from a corner on the background. It’s like, “Sup boys? No interest in f*cking science or what?” According to the photographer Wally Skalij, the kids are Traymond Harris, left, and Ryan Hudge, right. They were playing as Endeavour played its own…

Here’s Proof that Mixing Science and Religion Is Stupid

Check out this image and pay attention to the second question, the one that, according to the teacher, the kid got “wrong.” According to the father, this was from her daughter’s geography test. “She added her own answer,” he says. Disgusting. This is exactly what’s wrong with science education in democracies where God and state…

This Floating Globe Tent Is a Cocoon for People

Want to sleep outside without having to lower yourself to sleeping on the ground? Lucky for you, there’s an extravagantly complex and probably super expensive solution; The Cocoon Tree. While the Cocoon Tree is essentially a sophisticated tent, it’s a permanent fixture, so you only use it for “camping” so much as you are sleeping…