Tech News

The 13 Apps You Need on a Wild Night of Drinking

A lot can go wrong on a night out drinking with friends—incarceration, questionable taste, the realization that you lost half the group two bars ago—but all of these things can be avoided with the right tools loaded in a smartphone. With these 13 apps, you will have full cups, manageable chaos, and a reasonable chance…

Murphy’s Law and the Rocket Sleds That Love It

Exactly what part of “rocket sled” sounds like a good idea to you? I’ll give you a hint: none of it. Separately sure, rockets and sleds can be slightly hazardous. But slap them together and you’ve got yourself a fuel-injected suicide machine. Just look at the carnage wrought this collection assembled by our friends at…

A Plate Made of Sand Sounds Like an Awful Dining Experience

Given that sand finds its way into every nook and cranny of your person when you go for a swim, the prospect of dining on the beach is even less appealing. So what possessed artist Victor Castanera to create a series of plaster-based dinnerware cast from the natural contours of a sandy beach? It’s unfortunately…

Let’s Talk About Anything You Want for the Next Hour

Hey there. It’s the end of the week and I’m sure you’re dying to get out of the office, so we’re gonna try and help make the rest of your day bearable. For the next hour, the entire Giz staff will be hovering around this thread, willing to shoot the shit about whatever your little…

Meet the Machine That Is as Alive as You Are

Some machines make light bulbs, and some machines make clothing. Some machines make our lives easier, and some make them more complicated. Some machines silently putter along, and some machines roar. As you’ll see in the video above, the Jaguar XF is one of those roaring machines. Jaguar’s full model line-up is the result of…

How NYC’s Underground Park Will Stay Well-Lit and Alive

Winter makes you crazy because you spend so much time cooped up without fresh air or sunlight. With that in mind, some people in New York City have plans in the works for an underground park—the Lowline—to be built in an abandoned trolley station and lit through a remote skylight system. Scientific American explains how…

These iPhone 5 Cases Are Your Investment-Protecting Deal of the Day

iPhone pre-order day has come and gone, and if you didn’t order yours in the wee hours of the morning, you’re looking at a two-week wait for shipping. But you’re a gadget guy’s gadget guy, and you knew that was coming. You got your upgrade in line, counted your dollars, and preordered a spanking new…

New Versions of Google Chrome Will Finally Let You Say You Don’t Want Advertisers Spying On You

If you’re paranoid about ad networks tracking your behavior and compiling a file on your tastes somewhere, there’s good news. Google Chrome’s developer build finally got built-in Do Not Track functionality, meaning Chrome will finally join the club with Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. Google reluctantly agreed to add the feature back in February, but…

Reviewer Has Sex With His iPhone 5 (NSFW)

The iPhone 5 is longer, it has a smaller port, and some people think it’s boring. But you can’t really form an opinion on a prestige piece of hardware like this until you’ve had sex with it. In the (very funny, sort of explicit, NSFW) iPhone review parody from Jest below, one reviewer gets right…

Dr. Pepper Facebook Ad Sparks the Most Surreal Creationist Debate You’ve Ever Seen

So this is a new one. Dr. Pepper made an aggressively silly ad about the “Evolution of Flavor.” It shows an early-evolution man finding a can of Dr. Pepper, and BOOM, full-fledged homo sapiens. Funny! And again, willfully goofy. And then it started a culture war. Here are some highlights from the flame fest: Frank…

Could the Rumored 6D Become Canon’s Cheapest Full Frame DSLR?

DigicamInfo says this is the Canon 6D. And if the specs the site obtained are correct, it will be a full frame beast of a camera, but with a price tag that makes it a bit more attainable for mere mortals. The rumored DSLR is believed to have a 20.2-megapixel sensor, DIGIC 5+ CPU, auto…

Don’t Be a Jerk With Your Cool New iPhone 5

You just pre-ordered the newest iPhone. Or you’re going to be the first in line to snatch one up next week. You’re beaming. You’re going to have the phone that everyone’s talking about—the best iPhone ever. Now please don’t be an awful person who pisses everyone off. Here’s what you can and can’t do in…

How Common Are Plane Stowaways?

Imagine walking down a quiet street and suddenly, a body just falls out of the sky. It’s a crazy, horrifying thought. But it’s nearly what happened in a suburb of London last weekend, when a stowaway hiding in the undercarriage of a plane en route to Heathrow plunged to his death. Sounds like a freak…

The Best Mars Landing Video, Period

I’ve seen interpolated videos of the historic Mars Curiosity’s landing before, but this one truly left me in awe. It was painstakingly made during a period of four weeks. It’s truly feels like being aboard the ship. According to producer Bard Canning, it was “a labor of love.” Canning worked on this frame by frame,…

26 Awesome Photos of War Dogs Showing How Badass and Cute They Can Be

We love dogs, but we love war dogs even more because apart from being loyal and cute, they can be absolutely badass. We are so obsessed with these awesome canines that we made a collection of the 30 best photos we could find all over the web. Enjoy. BADASS: War dogs are not new. They…

Twitter Has Lost the Fight to Keep Your Private Tweets Private

Welp, looks like your tweets really aren’t protected by law. After months of haggling with the courts, Twitter has finally turned over the protected tweets of Occupy Wall Street protestor Malcolm Harris after his arrest in October. Had Twitter persisted in its resistance to the court order demanding the tweets, it would have been held…

Mac Battery Life Looks Like It’s About to Get a Massive Upgrade

Battery life in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion kind of sucks. A lot. It’s very very bad, and was only made a little better with the 10.8.1 update a few weeks ago. But it looks like help is on the way. The Mac Observer took a peek at how each update to OS X since…

Tech In Teaching: Is YouTube Changing How Students Learn?

Welcome back to Tech in Teaching, a recurring series inspired by the HP ENVY 6 Sleekbook. Over the past few months I’ve been interviewing public school teachers about how technological developments have affected the education process over the years. Last week I interviewed (via email) Adrian Spatzer, a 29-year old Brooklynite who teaches at M.S.…

Twitter just hired legendary Apple hacker Charlie Miller to beef up security, and to go through Tim Cook’s emails. [Ars]

Beautiful Maple or Walnut Bluetooth Keyboards: The Wood Makes It Good

If gleaming white plastic and brushed aluminum don’t suit your fancy when it comes to keyboards, a French design shop called Orée will hand craft you a beautiful alternative made from your choice of either maple or walnut wood. But if you thought keeping your current keyboard clean was a pain, imagine having to sand…