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Firefighters are awesome, but it doesn’t change the fact that the job puts their lives on the line. This Wi-Fi ball, courtesy of Intel, has sensors built-in that, if thrown into a burning building, could keep our bravest out of harm’s way. https://gizmodo.com/this-firefighter-climbs-buildings-faster-than-spider-ma-5837696 Intel showed their fireball off at their IDF Day Zero presentations. It’s…
How do you move a 16,000 pound M198 Howitzer, with its crew and ammo, 50 miles over impossible terrain in one night? You get yourself a Super Stallion, the biggest and strongest air pony in the US military. The Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion is the largest and heaviest helicopter in the western world (i.e., non-Soviet).…
Hey, look, it’s Samsung’s rumored Windows 8 tablet, appearing in a box before it’s announced. The word on the cyber street is that this thing packs quad-cores, but we’ll find out soon. Shocker: it looks kinda like an iPad! https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-teases-and-previews-a-quad-core-windows-slate-5834477 The spy shot surfaced on Chinese Twitter clone Weibo, and looks legitimate enough, with the…
Computer hardware manufacturers have been guided by Moore’s law—that chips double in power every 18 months—for decades. A newly discovered trend, however, seems to be outpacing old Moore, making computers and mobile devices more power efficient in the same timeframe. The trend, now called “Koomey’s Law,” was discovered by Stanford University’s consulting professor of civil…
Remember spending all day curating a perfectly-balanced playlist in a productivity-sucking Turntable.fm room? Great. Now you can develop, embrace, and shake (?) the addiction all over with the new Turntable.fm iPhone app. https://lifehacker.com/how-and-why-to-use-turntable-fm-your-new-favorite-musi-5818493 News about the impending app hit last week, and now it’s available for free on iTunes. The service will obviously get a…
Point and shoots are generally seen as the wimpy hacks of the camera world, when compared to modern DSLRs and fancy new micro four thirds cameras. But their specs—like the 18x optical zoom on the Pentax Optio RZ18—are getting pretty impressive. It’s like when Carrot Top grew mega-muscles and could all-of-a-sudden kick your ass. The…
It may not technically be the world’s fastest processor, but AMD squeezed an overclocked Guinness World Record number out of its impending 8-core FX CPU: 8.429 GHz, beating the previous global high of 8.308 GHz. Intel fanboys, begin your outrage! It’s a massively impressive number from the unlocked chip, but one you’re not going to…
Your phone company is screwing you on text messaging. SMS messages cost them next to nothing, yet they charge you up the yin-yang. So how’s about sticking it to the phone company with some viable alternatives to SMS messaging? https://gizmodo.com/at-ts-new-text-plan-overcharges-you-by-10-000-000-perce-5832245 Decent Alternatives Kik Platforms Supported: iOS, Android, Windows Phone Cost: Free What’s Good: It’s totally…
It’s not the most detailed look, but Tom’s Hardware noticed a cameo of the newest Start Menu in a Windows 8 video demo. It looks… pretty bare. Stark white-on-black text, very few buttons, and, importantly, where are the programs? Whereas Windows 7’s Start Menu offers a multitude of ways to get at your software—favorites, search,…
Sure, there’s an enormous area around the Fukushima plant that’s still horrendously irradiated. But for the rest of country ravaged by the March 11th earthquake, cleanups are restoring order to what looked like the apocalypse this spring. The photo above from the exact same point in Kesennuma shows just how much progress the government’s made.…
Faced with a knife-wielding goon while working at a gas station in Massachusetts, an attendent pulled a Zoolander and doused the robber with gasoline, successfully fighting him off. According to CBS Boston, the gas-soaked goofball ran away and fled off into a minivan. Surveillance video captured the suspect walking up to the pump and then…
Volvo revealed its newest concept luxury car at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show and finally answers the question of how many touch screens you can cram into a car’s interior. Hint: It’s four. Dubbed the Concept You, this prototypical luxury sedan is packed to the gills with technology. The control center consists of a digital…
Crazy and freaky to us, but wonderful for cats is how you would describe this line of pet beds from Laps of Luxury. Instead of a square, foam-filled pillow, the pet company has crafted a pillow that resembles a lap, complete with a waist and crossed legs. Designed by photographer Xan of Doghouse Studios, these…
iPatch, a UK-based iPhone repair company, has developed a hardware mod that’ll add a backlight to your iPhone’s logo. Similar to Apple’s line of computers, the logo will glow when the phone’s display turns on. According to iPatch, the mod does not add any thickness to the phone and uses the standard glass back. And…
The Powerbag is a backpack, a sling, a tablet bag and a portable charging station for your mobile devices. The convertible bag is also roomy enough to carry your books, clothes and other personal items. Inside the Powerbag is a 3000 mAh or a 6000 mAh battery that can charge four devices at once using…
Diapers and other absorbent hygiene products are a problem. In the UK alone, millions of tons are thrown away or incinerated each year. But Canadian company Knowaste has a solution that’ll take this waste and convert it to building materials. Knowaste’s recycling process will take portions of this absorbent waste and recycle it into plastic…
Good news! Another study suggests chocolate may be good for you. And the more you eat, the better off you are. A team of researchers at the University of Cambridge surveyed seven studies that examined the effect of chocolate consumption on the health of 114,000 participants. The results suggest there’s a beneficial relationship between chocolate…
One look at the Levitatr and you would think the sleek accessory was an add-on display or a large touchpad for your tablet. But hidden within the glossy, black design is a full-sized, retractable keyboard with backlit keys. Besides its elevating keys, the bluetooth accessory has an anodized aluminum chassis and includes a kickstand for…
You could have a fancy DSLR, an expensive lens, a sturdy tripod, an extra battery pack, heck even a gnarly camera bag but if you don’t know how to take pictures, you don’t know how to take pictures. Photo Academy is an app that teaches you how to take better snappies. It’s like a tutorial…
Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other US website. And cumulatively, it’s not a small amount of time, it’s a lot of time. Nielsen estimates that Americans spent 53 billion minutes on Facebook during the month of May. These 53 billion minutes are equal to 100,000 years or 36.8 million days. Before your…
