Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Dirtbag IPO tax dodger/tragic startup victim Eduardo Saverin is about to get double teamed by the United States: Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey want to him permanently exiled from the country for renouncing his citizenship to save a buck. https://gizmodo.com/mark-zuckerberg-betrayed-facebooks-cofounder-in-this-em-5910458 The proposed legislation, called the Ex-PATRIOT Act (geeeeeeeet it?) specifically targets Saverin’s $100 million…
One hundred homes in Killeen, near Fort Hood, Texas, were evacuated last Tuesday’s night after a missile accidentally fell from an AH-64 Apache helicopter. The residents were able to return one hour later, after the US Army found the projectile on the ground. The helicopter was doing a routine flight. People on the ground reported…
DARPA may be the Big Dog of robotic cargo transport for now, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only game in town. A new design from the Italian Institute of Technology may look like the Army’s pack-bot but it runs like a Ferarri—or, at least, a skittering, mechanical Ibex. Led by Professor Darwin Caldwell, a…
The Chicago Police Department has reportedly been hacked in advance of the NATO Summit in the city this weekend. Thousands of protesters are expected to show up, and the police are bracing themselves for riots. Why travel to Chicago when you can protest from the comfort of your home? Chicago’s foremost police blog, Second City…
It’s presented as archival footage of Tony Stark conceptualizing and sketching the first Iron Man suit in ‘StarkPaint’ on his ‘Starkintosh’. But this lovely speed painting clip is actually Apple fanatic Matt Pearce working in MacPaint on a 1984 Macintosh. The results are no less impressive, though. Pearce creates a pixelated work of art on…
This is weird: these rocks combusted spontaneously inside a woman’s pocket, seriously scorching her right leg and hands with third degree burns. They were collected in a beach and look fairly normal. Nobody knows yet why they started to burn with such strong flames. The woman was a mother who spent last Saturday with her…
It might be a little passive aggressive but here’s a hilarious way to stop your neighbors from having cat-howling, bunny-bumping, orgasmic tongue screaming sex: record their moans and post the audio file to Soundcloud for all the Internet to hear. Hey, I’m not against people having consensual sex. And I’m totally for dirty talk and…
The Quadrofoil looks like a vehicle from a James Bond action sequence. But while the world’s favorite spy seemingly has no regard for the environment while he’s blowing things up, this personal hydrofoil is powered by an eco-friendly electric motor. Created by three Slovenian engineers in just six months, the $19,000+ Quadrofoil has a top…
Apple really doesn’t want you to jailbreak your iPhone. So much so, that it has reportedly started filtering the term “jailbreak” in the US iTunes store. The search results still turn up, but most of them show up as “j*******k.” Oh f**k. Not every single result for “Jailbreak” has been censored as a bad word…
A spectre is haunting startups—the spectre of the brogrammer. Several prominent, quivering articles would lead you to believe the frat houses have emptied into tech, spreading misogyny, keg stands, and chest bumps throughout. This is bullshit. I met one. The underlying terror is that the same assholes who were assholes in college are now assholes…
I’m a huge Netflix fan and I’m happy with how its user interface has evolved lately. The main web screen is good and now they have changed the video player to make it prettier and more useful. Here are all the changes: The new video player sports a streamlined playback back. It’s much prettier and…
It seems like England’s Olympic athletes aren’t the only ones interested in setting world records this summer. Photographer Clare Newton has just been awarded a Guinness World Record for the world’s longest photo that measures over a kilometer (over 0.62 miles) in length. Since no camera on Earth has that kind of insane aspect ratio,…
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that it expects the next iPhone to pack a screen measuring at least four inches. Now, Reuters is joining the party, reporting that its own sources are confident that the phone’s screen will measure four inches diagonal exactly. https://gizmodo.com/wsj-the-next-iphone-will-have-at-least-a-4-inch-screen-5910702 Reuters also confirms the Journal’s speculation that three manufacturers—LG Display…
The police don’t even need to touch your phone anymore to know how you’ve been using it. A new off-the-shelf forensics tool lets cops retrieve all the data they want from your iPhone by accessing its contents through iCloud. The software, developed by ElcomSoft, lets investigators retrieve user data associated with iPhones from Apple’s iCloud…
If buying new kit is currently a little outside your budget, why not just learn how to fold a miniature camera using a dollar bill? It might not satisfy your photographic urges in the same way, but at least it will take your mind off being broke. Won Park has complied a set of instructions…
A study forthcoming in IEEE Technology and Society Magazine offers new insight on how certain behavioral patterns can be indicative of depression, with particular attention given to the ways we use the internet. The study looked at 216 random college students, screening them for signs of depression before collecting data on their internet use. Of…
Last year’s Sony NEX-C3 is the best camera you can buy for $600. It delivers professional image quality and the flexibility of interchangeable lenses in a compact package. Here comes its successor, the Sony NEX-F3. Is it worthy of its lineage? https://gizmodo.com/the-best-affordable-pro-compact-camera-5870931 Like the NEX-C3, the new NEX-F3 is a mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera with…
57 Percent of NY Survey Wants Legal Weed While New York legislators continue to deliberate on the rapidly transmografying attitudes towards marijuana, the residents of the Empire State appear ready to make a change. A 766-respondent phone survey released Wednesday reports that 57 percent of New York voters favor legalizing marijuana for medicinal use, while…
This isn’t a Kickstarter post, because we’re done with that. This is a post about Tentacle Bento, the card game that allows players to “assume the role of tentacle monsters disguised as buxom students at an all-girl’s school in Japan.” https://gizmodo.com/were-done-with-kickstarter-5897449 The object of the game: to befriend as many popular teen girls as possible,…
This is the Kororodesku, a diorama-like workspace designed by Tokyo-based Torafu Architects, that is one part desk, one part office cubicle, and entirely charming. Its plywood frame can be purchased with an interior polyester veneer in any one of over 1,000 different colors, making the Kororo desk an irresistible addition to just about any home…
