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Why’d George Mallory climb Everest? “Because it’s there.” And so follows Canon, fearing neither God nor Science in its path to dominate forces of the cosmos under man’s will. The X Mark I Mouse. It’s also a calculator and numberpad. Say you’re “on the internet,” and need to stop to add some numbers together. Better…
The Atlantic has the story on X Prize competition to reach the Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in the world at 35,797 feet. Three teams are racing to get the $10 million award. Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard first reached Challenger Deep more than 50 years ago. This time the three new Captain Nemos are…
Here’s a horribly depressing scenario for you: you’re at a McDonalds, laptop in tow, and are struggling to configure your complimentary cheeseburger wireless. Why do you need WiFi? Are you Googling what happened to your life? Nugget liveblog? The fact that Windows setup requires twelve different steps with seven different diagrams, as opposed to OS…
Surprise surprise, Intel’s sub-$1,000 Ultrabooks promise was too good to be true: Acer, one of the first manufacturers to sign up to the Ivy Bridge/Thunderbolt platform , will launch late this year, at over a grand. That’s after Intel’s subsidy, too. [Notebook Italia via SlashGear] https://gizmodo.com/intels-wooing-companies-into-creating-ultra-thin-ultrab-5817911
Providing all your mates have a smartphone with Google Maps, this little FlareGun app could shave valuable minutes off directions-related pain when out on the town. It sends a user’s exact location on Google Maps via SMS, in the form of a link. The receiver can then click the link, and see the drinking hole…
B&O’s products have such an air of wealth to them, I’m surprised more owners aren’t killed each year. Their latest home-music system comes in at $3,350, and streams music from PCs, network servers, hard drives, other wireless devices and from over 13,000 internet radio stations. As the BeoSound Encore set-up is modular, you can add…
Choice is a wonderful thing, but successful restaurants have smaller menus for a reason. If you’ve been grappling with making a decision on phone platforms as is, Mozilla’s about to chuck their hat into the ring with their Boot to Gecko mobile platform. B2G, as it’s being called, aims to clean up mobile fragmentation with…
Qualcomm did some amazing things with the Snapdragon family of chips. Before their launch, I doubt anyone cared a hoot what processor was running in their phone. Ensuring the shine doesn’t tarnish, Qualcomm’s snapped up gesture recognition tech from GestureTek. https://gizmodo.com/gesturetek-brings-wiimote-esque-functionality-to-cellph-314674 They plan on building the gesture-recognition support into Snapdragon chips, both current and future,…
Taking a page from Flickr, Google has added EXIF data to photos appearing on Google Images, so you’ll never again be wondering about the exposure on that goatse shot you’ve been admiring. [Google Operating System via PetaPixel]
What’s the best way to skirt over yesterday’s announced redundancies? Announce via Twitter and Facebook that your first OS 7 phones are being announced the next day, and then ensure Verizon accidentally leaks a video of the 9930. https://gizmodo.com/rim-is-letting-go-11-percent-of-its-employees-5824354 RIM showed the 9930 off in May, but Verizon’s video (hidden in the “explore features” tab…
People’s #1 fear when shaking the hand of a robot: having it mash their digits like Popsicle sticks. Two Stanford grad’s solution: coat the robo-hand in the same material used in touch-screen phones to give it a precision grip. Stanford University grad students, John Ulmen and Dan Aukes, have designed and built just such a…
For as much time as people spend on the toilet, you’d think someone would have rectified the glaring design issues with them by now. What? The Toilet 2.0 by David Hakkens did? The Toilet 2.0 has been redesigned from the bathroom floor up. It’s constructed of Corian, a composite material created by DuPont, that’s lighter,…
Paper airplanes have been a staple of the student arsenal since they phased out slateboards and papyrus scrolls. The new PowerUp electric paper airplane engine turns docile handmade gliders into propeller-driven ATT (air-to-teacher) missiles. The $20 PowerUp by Tailor Toys, consists of a tiny propeller on a tiny motor attached to an equally tiny battery…
We’ve featured some really ultra-thin houses in the past—and then some more—but nothing like the Keret House, an impossibly slim structure that will be built in a crack between two buildings in the Wola district, Warsaw, Poland. https://gizmodo.com/is-this-the-thinnest-house-in-the-world-5109494 At its wider point, the house will be just four feet. At its thinnest, it will only…
A YouTube user set up a time-lapse video in downtown Los Angeles in hopes of capturing something cool. Instead, he found this guy who weirdly walks at a snail’s pace. The video is actually five minutes of real time. Slow rollin’ [The Daily What via Geekosystem]
No one sets out to be an international slot machine kingpin: it just sort of happens. Our friends over at Wired took a look at Rodolfo Rodriguez Cabrera, who went from a Cuban engineering student to the head of a multi-million dollar bootlegging scheme. It starts with a girl, of course. He fell in love…
British artist Chris Drury created this mesmerizing spiral art installation using trees, coal and dirt at the University of Wyoming. Looks cool! But apparently its pissing people off so much that they’re sending veiled threats to cut University funding. Why the fuss? Well, Drury named the installation ‘Carbon Sink’, which is not only clever name…
Should you find yourself preparing a massive spray paint project, you’re probably going to need a massive amount of spray paint! Sure, you could juggle them, or throw them in a bag. Or carry this ginormous spray paint monster backpack. The Black Ops Version 3, by Sprayground, has room for a staggering 22 cans of…
The Australian government has big plans for wind power— like increasing its use ten-fold by 2020. However, the planned expansion may be at risk if authorities verify claims that the wind towers are making a nearby farming community sick. Residents of the small Victorian farming community of Waubra have asserted that they’ve experienced maladies ranging…
The whiskey business in Scotland is a £800 million/year industry. With that much money flowing, knockoff brands are pervasive. But a newly developed test can rapidly and accurately tell real scotch from fake, on-site. Tests to tell if the whiskey in the bottle is the same as the whiskey on the label have existed for…
