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Radio is the latest addition to Spotify’s iOS apps, which allows users to take the streaming music service’s Pandora-like functionality on the go. But this isn’t just for the people with premium accounts. Anyone can listen to Spotify radio on their iOS device for free. Nearly every subscription music service offers some sort of free…
When people discuss data privacy, they think about Google’s grasp on their email, Apple’s lack of iPhone address book security, or some other scenario which immediately affects them. But the New York Times reports that there is one organization few of us ever consider: “It knows who you are. It knows where you live. It…
Google Maps has made speculative road trips easier than ever before. But when you actually make up your mind and decide to head out on one, wouldn’t it be great if you could choose the route which had the best weather? Fortunately, Stamen Design, which is responsible for some pretty cool alternative map skins, has…
Apple’s first attempt at rolling out support for its new Thunderbolt devices ended in tears, when it stopped many Macs being able to boot properly. Fortunately, the problem’s now fixed. The new update, which provides support for Apple’s new Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter, doesn’t seem to mess up OS X beyond belief. Which is…
Regardless of which app you’re using on your phone, you probably never give a thought to who wrote the code behind it. If pushed, you’d probably guess that it was written by a recent graduate or established programmer—and not one of a new wave of childhood developers. The Wall Street Journal has a wonderful piece…
Recent research out of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center sheds new light on the correlation between gastric bypass surgery and the increased risk of developing an alcohol addiction. Previously, it had been suggested that increased alcohol consumption was compensatory for the inability to consume food as one had previously, at levels seeming of addiction.…
In what is becoming an increasingly polluted world, Chlorella, a portable, pod-shaped, air-purifying pavilion prototype (yes, all those p-words were in fact necessary), offers an oasis of fresh air in a zen-like and environmentally-friendly setting. These algae-powered pods, designed by Adam Miklosi , utilize photosynthesis and oxygen therapy to filter the pollution out of urban…
Typing the beginning of a fairly innocuous question or phrase into the Google search bar, just to see what auto-complete suggests can be pretty amusing. For example, the first suggestion when you type “Do all men ” is “Do all men cheat,” followed rather troublingly by “Do all men carry HPV.” (Ugh.) Enter Glorious Leader…
Fantastic Fungi: The Forbidden Fruit While the Paul Stamets talk from Friday was filmed in 1999 using, apparently, a bagel (how else do you explain that video quality?), when he spoke at TedMed 2011, his presentation was augmented with this. Wow, what a difference two decades make. Sailor and the Seagull (1949) Why yes, I…
Microsoft’s event today was long on promise and short on specs. RAM? We dunno. Processor speed? We dunno. Price? We dunno. Release date? We dunno. But even a very brief hands-on made something abundantly clear: It’s a super solid device and if Microsoft can deliver what it demoed, the iPad finally has a real competitor…
In the wake of Craigslist removing the “adult classifieds” section from its 700+ sites worldwide, the Village Voice Media-owned online classified ad service backpage.com has emerged as what some would call the #1 source for online sex in the United States. In a recent study, the Advanced Interactive Media Group (AIMG) estimates that about 70…
Microsoft threw one hell of a party tonight; its pair of Microsoft Surface devices could be one of the biggest jumps forward in product design in recent memory. Could, because there’s still so much we don’t know. And Microsoft’s not sharing. Is Surface a revolutionary tablet/laptop/wunderkind? We won’t know for sure until we get answers…
Manufactured in 1889, the Victor was the first typewriter to use a daisy wheel, a feature that would later become common in the design of 1980s typewriters. The daisy wheel is made of thin brass and cut with skinny radial fingers, each of which is capped with an embossed rubber character, like a rubber stamp.…
Microsoft doesn’t want to take any chances with Windows 8—if it’s going to be the best tablet OS ever, it’s going to need some serious hardware. So Microsoft is getting serious and building its own tablet. Meet Surface. The Microsoft Surface is a tablet and a PC at the same time… Microsoft’s home cooked tablet…
Written and directed by Andy Abrahams Wilson, the 2008 Academy Award-nominated documentary Under Our Skin explores and exposes one of our nation’s most threatening and least regarded epidemic illnesses: Lyme disease. Through expert interviews with doctors and specialists, and personal accounts from men and woman diagnoses and suffering with Lyme to varying degrees, Under Our…
The Microsoft Surface may be billed as a tablet, but hiding in its 3mm cover is a pressure-sensitive keyboard called Type Cover which will allow the tablet to transform resemble more of a computer on the go without the burden of a bulky keyboard case. Type Cover latches onto the Surface tablet with magnets (much…
Usually origami calls to mind paper swans, but these meticulous sculptures by father-son duo Martin and Erik Demaine will make you completely rethink folded paper art. This is self-folding, pre-creased origami. Yes, it’s wonderfully nerdy. Here’s the principle of curved origami sculpture: Paper will fold itself into all kinds of crazy shapes based on how…
We’re at Microsoft’s mystery “event” in Los Angeles today, where if the rumors are true it will announce its own tablet in short order. But will it be the next Xbox, or the next Zune? We’ll soon see. Stay tuned. So far, it’s still a lot of tech press milling around and looking for seats.…
Governments of the world: arm all nuclear launch codes, disband your legislatures, and send your drones to the sky: Taco Bell is preparing not one but two new flavors of its diabolical Doritos Locos Tacos. This time, prepare. After depleting its 85 million strategic reserve of cheese shells and selling a staggering 100 million weaponized…
Crape or crepe (Anglicized versions of the Fr. crêpe ) is a silk, wool, or polyester fabric of a gauzy texture, having a peculiar crisp or crimpy appearance. (The word crape is also used as an Anglicized spelling of crêpe (pancake).) Silk crape is woven of hard spun silk yarn in the gum or natural…
