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Privacy policies are generally considered to be good and important, when it comes to social media platforms, with which all manner of personal details can be stored. Protecting ones identity is important and ought to be taken seriously. …Except when said identity is concealed, and said individual makes public threats of mass murder. Then you…
You know what happens when Google announces a new product. People freak out. People claim Google is changing the world. People praise its openness and don’t be evil mantra and that the company is just SO good. And then you know what happens when that actual Google product comes out? No one cares. It doesn’t…
When Gizmodo alumnus and wonderful human Mat Honan got hacked, the point of entry for the hackers was through Amazon and Apple’s lax security policies. Amazon immediately admitted its fault in the situation and updated its security policy accordingly. Apple? Well, Apple still doesn’t know what do yet. https://gizmodo.com/apple-and-amazon-know-about-a-massive-hack-exploit-and-5932176 You see, Apple isn’t pointing the…
The new Obama for America app for iOS, released by The Democratic Party last week, is troublingly loose with certain personal information of registered voters, reports Lois Beckett for Propublica. Of particular interest and/or concern is the canvassing tool, which uses GPS location data to bring up information—age, first name and first letter of surname,…
Seems like everyone carries the same blah monotone laptop case. But you? You like to stand out, which you can totally do with this awesome, whimsical 13-inch MacBook Pro sleeve. The $80 case is part of a collaboration between Incase and Clare Rojas, an interdisciplinary artist. Adorned with the same Native American-inspired prints that are…
The New Yorker has been on the iPad since 2010, and now the same publication you know and love is available on the iPhone. What does it do? Conveniently delivers your read your favorite print mag in an iPhone-sized package. Why do we like it? On your iPhone, you get all the New Yorker content…
The PlayStation Vita has not exactly been the runaway success that Sony had hoped it would be. It’s partly due to a lack of compelling games, and partly due to competition from smartphones. And the GameKlip could very well be the last nail in the Vita’s coffin. The most common critique of smartphone gaming is…
We’ve been reeling a bit ever since Mat Honan was the victim of that ruthless social hack that wiped all his devices. Sure, that was an extreme case. But it’s also one that could happen to anyone, at any time. So we put together a list of the best ways to make sure your internet…
In 2009, Usain Bolt “shattered” Tyson Gay’s world record in the 100-meter dash by a whopping .11 seconds. How do we know that? Because an ultra-precise, automated timekeeping machine told us so. It didn’t used to be that way. Olympic officials wisely relinquished control over the clock long ago, but once upon a time a…
Apple has landed some more intellectual property for Passbook, its mobile wallet solution for iOS 6. This time it’s a patent directly related to shopping. The latest is an NFC-powered shopping app that lets you make a list by scanning product codes or taking pictures. It will also pull up information you’d want to know…
Recent events have got me quaking in my boots over losing all my data. If multibillion dollar corporations can’t even keep our data safe, how can we hope to stand a chance against crippling hacks? Well you could start by locally backing up all your files onto this Seagate 1TB FreeAgent GoFlex external hard drive.…
130 US cities just got live traffic information in Google Maps. So much for mystery. [TechCrunch]
We all hate spam. But we figure it must be worth it to someone since there’s so damn much of it. But… apparently not. A new paper from the Journal of Economic Perspectives estimates it brings in a total of $200 million in revenue worldwide per year. And then the rest of us spend $20…
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter just snapped the scene of the crime: all the pieces of the EDL (Entry Descent Landing) system that worked flawlessly together to safely put Curiosity on the surface of Mars. The image was taken by MRO’s High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, 24 hours after the landing. You can see it…
First they came for our Buckyballs. Now, or pretty-much-exact-same Zen Magnets are in Uncle Sam’s crosshairs, with a lawsuit from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to boot them off store shelves. The War on Toy Magnets has begun. https://gizmodo.com/buckyballs-magnets-have-been-banned-by-the-feds-update-5929064 Citing “ongoing harm to children from ingested magnets,” the USCPSC just voted to sue Zen…
I’m going to interview Adam Steltzner in 30 minutes. You probably know his unmistakable rocker face from the past few days: he’s the lead engineer of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover entry, descent and landing phase. https://gizmodo.com/the-mars-curiosity-rover-has-landed-live-coverage-fr-5932039 He also helped to design, build and test the mad “sky crane” system that has worked out…
Over the course of history, territories have been redrawn, new places have been discovered, and countries have been named and renamed. But what does Indonesia, for instance, look like now compared to what it was in 1801? The David Rumsey historical map collection gives you that perspective, by layering old maps over the current view…
Ty Rogers of Amazon PR has reportedly confirmed that the hole in Amazon’s authentication process that allowed Mat Honan to be hacked has been closed, “effective yesterday.” https://gizmodo.com/apple-and-amazon-know-about-a-massive-hack-exploit-and-5932176 The Amazon exploit had ben somewhat undersold, even in the Wired piece that explained the process. Most of the focus had been that the last four digits…
Sports photography is usually home to the highest-of-high tech camera technologies, because its subjects move so swiftly, and in such limited bursts. It’s not the place you’d expect to find, say, a gigantic old 4×5 large format view camera. And yet! The photog in question (so many questions) is David Burnett. He’s actually been going…
We have published mockups of Apple’s next iPhone—before. But these are the definitive ones, showing what the iPhone 5 or whatever it is called would look like in your hand. https://gizmodo.com/apples-next-iphone-home-page-will-probably-look-like-th-5920479 And, as it turns out, it looks pretty damn good. My favorite is now the black one. I can’t really decide. In black, the…
