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Should we be scared of Chinese telecoms? Definitely yes, according U.S. House Intelligence Committee Report, which has declared Huawei and ZTE national security risks. Yikes! https://gizmodo.com/should-the-world-be-scared-of-huawei-5932204 After investigating China’s two biggest mobile manufacturers for about a year, committee chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) concluded ZTE and Huawei “cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state…
I like both the black iPad Mini and the 2001 Space Odyssey prop white model. But the more I look at the color ones, like the neat red one above, the more I think they make sense. And the more I want them. https://gizmodo.com/the-ipad-mini-could-look-absolutely-stunning-5948913 It’s purely speculative at this point, but there are several reasons…
Lark, the folks who made the wristband alarm clock to track your sleep, now has a wristband to track your life. Called Larklife, the wristband tracks your steps taken, calories burned and distance traveled and your diet and sleep too. https://gizmodo.com/lark-un-alarm-clock-lightning-review-the-person-youre-5830507 Think of Larklife as a slightly more ambitious take on activity measurement wristbands like…
This thing looks like a cross between a gun, some weird cooking utensil, and an elaborate medical instrument. It is of course none of those things: but can your work out what it was used for? Struggling? Well, it is in fact an eprouvette: an old-time device that was used to test the strength of…
That overpriced, locked down, long-delayed 30-pin-to-lighting adapter is finally shipping. Sorry, still $30. [MacRumors]
HTC is continuing to suffer. Despite the launch of its well-received One X, the latest financial results show that the company’s profits have dropped 79 percent from last year. https://gizmodo.com/htc-one-x-review-the-best-android-phone-right-now-upd-5907529 Sadly, it’s the fourth consecutive quarter in which the corporation’s profits have been down, with net profit hitting a low of $133.2 million compared to…
The first real Kickstarter success story, Diaspora, was a new social network born out of frustration with Facebook’s privacy policies. It surpassed its modest funding goal of $10,000, eventually raking in over $200,000, and then… nothing. Mohterboard has taken a long, hard look at what happened to Diaspora. Things certainly started off well: Before a…
These days, virtually all of our personal communication is performed digitally or over the phone. We type emails, compose tweets, blurt out status updates, spit out instant messages, make phone calls… and not a single bit of it is handwritten. Of course, we might make notes or lists for ourselves—but increasingly, even they’re replaced by…
As excitement surrounding the launch of an iPad Mini grows, the Wall Street Journal reports that Apple isn’t taking any chances when it comes to supplies: component manufacturers have told the newspaper that it’s ordered a staggering 10 million units for delivery in the fourth quarter. To put that in perspective, the suppliers have pointed…
Motorola has quietly killed of its vaguely ridiculous Webtop concept, a line of software and hardware that allowed a handset to power a lightweight laptop. Sadly, nobody bought one. https://gizmodo.com/motorolas-atrix-android-phone-twin-cpu-cores-and-a-lap-5725505 The concept was first launched at CES in 2011 alongside the Atrix 4G, and claimed to offer a “full PC experience” on a slim device…
People shouted and screamed and stomped their feet over the fact that Microsoft bundled a browser with an OS. Clearly, we haven’t learnt a thing. XKCD hits the nail on the head today, and the mouse-over text is too good to not reproduce: “Facebook, Apple, and Google all got away with their monopolist power grabs…
If you’re champing at the bit to get hold of a Windows 8 computer, you can now buy an Acer or Gateway from HSN.com—just be warned that it’s loaded with crapware and likely a poor idea. ZDNet has done some digging to discover that HSN.com has started selling—and shipping—five Windows 8 devices ahead of the…
You may have heard about the Kickstarter-borne Indie Game: The Movie back around it’s release in May, but it’s worth bringing up again for two reasons: it recently came to Netflix, and man is it ever a fantastic watch. For the unfamiliar, the film follows three (but mostly just two) indie games during different points…
If you’re going to do any sort of serious cooking, you’re going to need some spices. And if you’re going to have some spices, you’re going to need a way store them in a way where you can see what you need and get at it quick. This clever spice rack ferris wheel takes care…
CGI is everywhere, but there’s something about practical effects that are just way cooler, especially when you dig into what it takes to make them happen. “Cloud Tanks” are tool that’s been used in plenty of great films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Poltergeist to make…
Time Warner Cable just added a snazzy little rental fee to all its customers’ bills, which hasn’t made anyone (outside of maybe the Time Warner offices) very happy. A lot of other cable companies do this too. You can get around it by buying your own modem or maybe get a better plan with more…
Warning for the chronically indecisive: AT&T cut its return window for phones from 30 days down to 14. [TalkAndroid]
Everybody wants a better Captcha. Trying to type in those distorted words can be a serious pain, and it’s becoming less and less of an impedance to ever-more-intelligent spam bots. The Civil Rights Captcha takes a different approach; you’ve got to have a little empathy. https://gizmodo.com/will-captcha-breaking-bots-soon-make-it-impossible-to-p-5938836 Instead of your run-of-the-mill alphanumeric gibberish, or random selection…
Bogus DMCA notices are unfortunately nothing new, but one recently issued to Google from Microsoft seems to go a bit further—and get a bit more absurd—than your average takedown request. This one hit sites like Wikipedia, the BBC, TechCrunch, and AMC Theaters, seemingly over the use of the number 45. The request deals with a…
It starts with a headache, nothing major. Then the neck stiffness sets in, the high fever. That’s all the warning you have before fungal meningitis inflames your brain and takes your life. And it’s happening, all of a sudden, to unprecedented numbers of people all across America. Fungal meningitis is a devastating illness, but also…
