Tech News

10 of History’s Most Beautiful Typewriters

Typewriters are intricate machines—complex little boxes that require an abundance of ingenuity to produce. They are often beautiful, and they occasionally find wildly imaginative ways to conduct the delicate dance between the hammers and the keys. So much of the way we interact with machines today—QWERTY keyboard, hello!—directly links to the innovations pushed forth by…

Synthetic Food, Smart Pills and… Kangaroo Butlers?

According to Athelstan Spilhaus, writing the comic strip “Our New Age” was his way of slipping a little subliminal education into the Sunday funnies. Each week the strip took a different topic—such as ocean currents or heredity or the moons of Mars—and explained in a very straightforward way just what made that area of scientific…

14 Things That Happened While You Were Blinking

A blink lasts just 1/10 of a second. So what happens when we set our camera shutters to the same length? We see the world that may have been when our eyes were closed. https://gizmodo.com/shooting-challenge-blink-5930874 WINNER: Uh Oh Canon EOS 1000D, 50mm, f1.8, 1/10, ISO 400. Set the camera on a tripod with a locking…

Where Is This Beautiful Table Hiding an AirPlay Speaker?

If you hate the thought of having a set of speakers mucking up the minimal aesthetics of your home—but still love to entertain—this simple glass-topped wooden table doubles as an AirPlay compatible speaker. It’s just too bad the cost of keeping your electronics out of sight is a whopping $5,800. You’re probably wondering where the…

Guy Orders TV from Amazon, Gets Giant Assault Rifle Instead

Talk about a dealzmodo! DC resident Seth Horvitz bought a new HDTV on Amazon, but when he opened the peculiarly not-TV-shaped box, he found a $2,000 Sig Sauer SIG716 semi-automatic rifle instead, DCist reports. A mistake has been made. Assault rifles are completely illegal in Washington, but that didn’t stop the accidental delivery. Transporting a…

This Avengers Hulk Smash Fist Combo Is Your You-Wouldn’t-Like-Me-When-I’m-An-Overused-Catchphrase Deal of the Day

“Hulk… smash!” Best part of the Avengers movie. Maybe when Hulk goes to town tearing apart Loki. That was pretty awesome, too. I mean, it’s The Incredible Hulk. One of the most powerful superheroes ever. Even Sentry’s power of a million suns couldn’t contain Bruce Banner’s power in World War Hulk. If you’re an angry…

Google Search Results Can Pull From Your Gmail Now

Google’s going to start showing you relevant information from your Gmail when you perform a regular old Google search soon. But you can try it out now before it’s official. Your email is basically a huge repository for information that you need. That’s where you store travel itineraries, party details, package tracking numbers, phone numbers,…

Annoying Political Ads Are Invading Pandora

A North Carolina woman named Crystal Harris was minding her own business, listening to Garth Brooks on the Pandora iPhone app, when she was hit with a prompt asking her to share her email with the Mitt Romney campaign. If this is the future of political advertising, we all might as well throw our phones…

Intel Is Taking a Trip Around the World and You’re Invited

Dear Gizmodo readers: We love you, and all of your submissions to our Shooting Challenges. In fact, we are so inspired, that we’ve joined forces with Intel to amp up the coming Shooting Challenges. Over the next three months, we’ll follow six famous photographers as they take their Shooting Challenge photos in six amazing locations.…

Stackable Battery Packs Provide as Much Power as You Can Carry

A portable battery pack is only as useful as long as you’re able to keep it charged. So Exogear has created a new compact power system that uses stackable modular battery packs to prolong its life almost indefinitely—as long as you’re willing to carry enough of them as backups. The $90 Exovolt Plus base unit…

Talk to the Outlook Engineering Team Right Here, Right Now

Have you switched to the fantastic new Outlook? Have some questions before you check it out? Having some problems after signing up? Microsoft’s dropping by Gizmodo at 1:30 pm ET for you to ask them whatever you want. https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-did-the-impossible-the-new-hotmail-is-fantas-5930358 Drop your questions, comments, complaints, or whatever below—they’ll be here for an entire hour to make…

Curiosity Opens Her Eyes for the First Time (Updated With Panorama Images)

Great news keep coming from the red planet. Curiosity has opened her eyes for the first time. She took a good look around her and decided that life is good in Mars—albeit a bit lonely. Updated: New images coming in, including panoramas and high definition images from the descent. The Navigation Cameras—the eyes that will…

Protect Your Last Piece Of Sushi With Nunchaku Chopsticks

Restaurants can be a dangerous place if you’re dining with a ravenous group of friends who are ready to steal a piece of food off your plate the second you’re distracted. But now you can fight back, with these clever Nunchop Chopsticks which double as a miniature set of Nunchaku. For just over $9 you…

This Lovely Lighting Perfectly Complements a Spiral Staircase

A spiral staircase is a gorgeous feature of this Beirut home. And .PSLAB has made the gem even better, by adding a modern circular chandelier above it. The curving white fixture seems to move in tandem with the steps, lighting your ascent like a lantern from the sky. Though it was added after the steps…

Watch the Insane Special Forces Raid Against Kim Dotcom

The usual police response to copyright infringement is a stern notice and a fine. But if you’re Kim Dotcom, with the ire of the FBI against you, you get a raid bigger than the one that killed Bin Laden. It was all caught on camera. While he and his family were still sleeping, multiple helicopters,…

The X-47B Doesn’t Need A Pilot to Land on an Aircraft Carrier

As the role UAVs in the US military expands, the demands placed on these unmanned platforms grow as well. One of the most important new abilities these autonomous fliers must have is the ability to land atop a thin strip of tarmac rolling on the high seas. And that’s just what the new Northrop Grumman…

Hydroponic Garden Blends Into Your Kitchen For Year Round Herbs

If you’re not an avid gardener it’s hard to stay on top of keeping indoor plants like herbs and spices watered and cared for. So consider this Urban Cultivator like a personal gardener. It’s designed blend in with your other kitchen appliances, but it keeps a small herb garden alive and well all year long.…

DIY biohackers are turning themselves into cyborgs IRL. It’s even crazier than it sounds. Hello, future. [The Verge]

Bank of America has finally added check deposit to its iOS app. It’s about time! [PCMag]

The Army’s Gigantic 300-Foot Drone Blimp Is Alive Over New Jersey

The LEMV is a robot blimp the size of a football field, designed to spy across an entire battlefield for weeks at a time. It’s also looked like military vaporware—until now, soaring over the Jersey Shore. You won’t believe how huge it is. You might think a blimp—a concept militarized during WWI—is a strange choice…