Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Not even a week into 2012 and we already got our eyes on the dumbest SkyMall contraption of the year: the StarScreen Social Backdrop, a piece of printed plastic that attaches to your chair to show a background when you videochat. Check out the description: Our delightful StarScreen Social Backdrops make video chatting and conferencing…
Pythons have made some terrifying surprise appearances in Florida. On Christmas day, for example, a Miami family found a 13-footer in their swimming pool. But something that saved the state from full-on python panic is the idea that the snakes don’t tolerate salt water well. So while they might be a big problem in the…
It’s hard to eat healthy when restaurants are shoving delicious fried foods in front of you. Who can resist the awesome power of chili fries? No one I want to know. Well if you are trying to eat healthy, restaurant menus are a minefield of sodium, calories, and sugar. Luckily, all you need is today’s…
Remember Google TV? At least one entity does: Google, who just let us in on its plans for 2012. The software is hitting TVs from Samsung, Vizio, and LG. This is a big break for Google TV, which was previously confined to the Logitech Revue, an enormous dud, a Sony Blu-ray player, and one Sony…
This is innteressting. An advertisement for the Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE for Sprint, the latest Android 4.0 hotness, has appeared on CNET. There is no Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE on Sprint yet. This accidental leak pretty much means there will be. Sprint is ditching its old WiMax network for speedy 4G LTE, so it would…
Any stroll through a grade school science fair proves that potatoes are a simple source of electricity. But did you know that enough apples, about 300, can power an LED lamp? Time to get planting! This remarkable image was taken by photographer Caleb Charland, who found that it only took about 10 apples, wired in…
Her name is Lana Sator and she snuck into one of NPO Energomash factories outside of Moscow. Her photos are amazing, like sets straight out of Star Wars or Alien. Now the Russian government is harassing her. It was easy to get in. She just went there, jumped over the fence and got right into…
It’s been out for almost a year on the iPhone, and longer than that as a web app. Now Google Translate has been enlarged for the iPad. The app can translate between 63 languages via text. Will talk to you in 24, and can understand 17 languages if spoken too. If you’re traveling in a…
Return to yumPower article.
Marketers. Exes. Bosses who somehow got ahold of your personal email address. Sure, you could make a filter or click ‘report spam’ (as if that actually does anything…), but wouldn’t it be better if they just stopped emailing you altogether? Oh, they will now. Check this trick out: You ever email someone and get that…
It took longer than I thought it would (because physical music sales still makes the monies) but digital music sales has finally topped physical music sales. According to Nielsen and Billboard, digital music sales accounted for 50.3% of total music sales, more than half the pie. What took so long? Well, even though physical music…
It’s not surprising that a wireless Bluetooth speaker from a company called iLuv would want to make more than just a wireless connection to your devices. The Mo’Beats wants to cradle them too, letting them know it’s there for support. It’s another addition to the long list of Bluetooth speakers designed to improve the sound…
So this happened. Though he wishes to remain anonymous, this unnamed editor-in-chief of Gizmodo just received his latest purchase in the mail. It’s terrifying, and $80, and from Hot Topic. His story goes that he got good’n drunk on New Year’s while reading Andrew Liszewski’s post about this abominable Wookiee-wear (big fan of Andrew’s!) and…
Everyone’s stuck in an 8-bit nostalgia loop. We got 8-bit games, icons, and avatars, all over the place. Enough, I get it. Pixels are awesome. How about we take a break from characters made up of 16 dots and play something beautiful like Machinarium. Once you’ve feasted your eyes, you can jump to success and…
AKG’s new K 495 NC noise-canceling headphones don’t need batteries at all—you charge them up via USB. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that they look (and, given the source, most likely sound) terrific, too. The fancy-looking, $400 K 495 NCs come in a durable brushed-steel finish, and sport detachable cables with two different lengths, as…
I don’t get the hate for Android tablets. Okay, I kind of do. They’re typically not as fast, mostly not as sleek and usually not as good as that other tablet but there’s fun in that. Like, it’s totally scrappy. You feel like the underdog. Like the only sane man in an insane planet. You…
Harman Kardon—you know, the folks who put the sound system in your boss’ luxury car—have a batch of new home theater gear including a the pricey 5.1 channel BDS 770 system. Will it sound good enough for the price tag? The BDS x70 series of home theater systems includes both the BDS 770 system and…
We all know Apple is putting its support behind Thunderbolt/Light Peak as the next dominant data transfer standard. Their latest patent applications show a use for the technology beyond MacBooks and iMacs: iOS devices. The patents mostly revolve around the design of wires and connectors, but Patently Apple was able to dig up a telling…
There aren’t enough letters in the alphabet to classify this monstrous battery China’s built. D x 1,000? Not even close. With arrays larger than a football field it can store a whopping 36 megawatt hours of power. Apparently China is gung-ho on embracing renewable energy sources, and to really take advantage of solar arrays and…
Oh my god! Is that a zit on my forehead? Where did that third chin come from? Why am I sweating so much? Was I that drunk? What is my boss going to think? What is my mom going to think? What do I think? I need to get rid of this photo on Facebook.…
