Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Designers Joshua Noble, Martin Fuchs and Philip Whitfield breathed new, modern-day life into this archaic receipt printer by combing it with a PlayStation controller, light sensors and some Spy Hunter-esque gameplay mechanics. The receipt Racer was created for the “Let’s feed the future workshop,” which took place during the OFFF Festival in Barcelona on June…
Four years of work. Exactly 1,100 toy cars. Eighteen lanes of one-way traffic. One mega-mini-city. Meet Metropolis II, the Hot Wheels/Matchbox car utopia created by California artist Chris Burden, lead engineer Zak Cook and ten assistants. [MAKE]
CNET’s Brian Tong, he of the accurate iMac May refresh rumor, is at it again on Twiter today. This time the rumor involves Mac Pros and Minis, and the due date is either late July or early August, sources said. The news broke, as it does in this modern age of ours, on Twitter. [Brian…
San Diego-based artist Rich Morrison has taken the old adage “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” and applied it to this recycled beer can surfboard. The Beer Can Surfboard is completely functional thanks to its epoxy resin body and 72-can core, which is comprised of Budweiser, Modelo, PBR (duh) and Rolling Rock cans. There’s…
Google’s not saying much about it, but one can’t help but think the company’s late-week acquisition of open-source home theater and DVR software developer SageTV is related to its struggling Google TV offering. The announcement arrived Saturday, via a letter to users on Sage TV’s web site, and read as follows: Since 2002, we’ve worked…
Colton Harris-Moore, the 20-year-old “Barefoot Bandit” who managed to steal airplanes and elude capture for two years in the great American Northwest (and eventually the Bahamas), has plead guilty to seven federal charges. https://gizmodo.com/barefoot-bandits-discarded-apple-gear-could-betray-th-5607465 Beyond the federal charges, which could result in more than 5-years of jail time, Harris-Moore also agreed to forfeit any profit…
“You shall not pass!” booms Gandalf the Grey as mobile Safari visitors arrive at the New York Post web site this weekend. Sorry, correction: That’s how it played out in my head. Reality is more mundane and mostly annoying. Instead of a web site, mobile Safari visitors are greeted with a landing page that displays…
Just when you thought RIM’s fortunes couldn’t get any worse, along comes Dolby Laboratories to knock the beleaguered company a little bit lower. https://gizmodo.com/ten-reasons-why-blackberry-is-screwed-5812832 What is Dolby’s deal? Patent infringement. It’s seemingly the soup de jour of lawsuits these days, if lawsuits were soup and the legal system some kind of uber-litigious diner. Anyway, quoth…
Discovered in the rainforests of Borneo, this fungus happens to be unique in that it behaves much like a sponge. So unique, in fact, that the researchers who found thought, “Let’s name this little guy after a cartoon! For science!” The fungus’ actual name is Spongiforma squarepantsii. Literally. And this “vaguely fruity, strongly musty” scented…
The scene was apparently bedlam at airports in cities across the country last night as United Airlines’ computer system totally failed, leaving thousands of flyers stranded for hours. So what the hell happened? The airline called the problem a “network connectivity issue,” already in the midst of trying to resolve the issue. If that sounds…
Apparently, smartphone case maker ESI Cases is coming out with a line of Jelly Belly-branded scented cases for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, and Blackberry (I see what you did there). Is there an actual demand for this? I mean, who wants to smell their phone? I imagine the same number of people who…
Mateusz Zdziebko and Patryk Kizny got together to create this ode to steel. You can find it everywhere, but it’s something you likely take for granted. That might not be so if it had the right soundtrack. Although I feel like dancing hardware might be a little awkward. [Vimeo]
There honestly aren’t enough submarines in everyday life. Don’t give me that their cramped or uncomfortable. They’re awesome. So, with a child’s eyes, wouldn’t you want to live in one? Work in one? Or maybe buy cool shit in one? John McCambridge and his art partner Jay Nelson came up with the idea for “Mollusk…
The merry team at ChevronWP7 Labs just announced that, in collaboration with Microsoft, they’ll be unlocking Windows phones for a small fee. This creates a wholly legitimate route for developers to access WP7 users. Apple could learn something here. [ChevronWP7 via Engadget]
The US Open is upon us! No, not that one, the golf one. And whether you’re a golf fan in your own right or joining pop by his armchair on Father’s Day, here’s your ultimate US Open survival kit for a parfect weekend. GelaSkins Golfer iPhone Skin: What separates the fan from the superfan? The…
Every racing series claims that manufacturers use it to prove technology for road cars. That’s true. Let’s look at how Audi used car crashes at last weekend’s Le Mans race to develop better cars that you’ll buy. [Jalopnik] https://jalopnik.com/how-audi-uses-race-crashes-to-make-cars-safer-5813098
According to Steve Anderson, a retired brigadier general who served as Gen. Petraeus’ chief logistician in Iraq, the Department of Defense spends $20 billion air conditioning tents and temporary structures for the military. That’s more than NASA’s entire $19 billion annual budget. That cost comes out of the fuel needed to heat and cool tents…
LulzSec Leak Check | See if your info is among the 62,000 logins recently captured by the hacker group https://gizmodo.com/find-out-if-your-passwords-were-leaked-by-lulzsec-right-5812545 A US Open Gear Guide for Any Handicap The US Open is upon us! No, not that one, the golf one. And whether you’re a golf fan in your own right or joining pop by…
I’m not saying this chair—complete with its 11 fully functioning music boxes—isn’t cool (because it definitely is). But it’s tough to argue this thing isn’t the definition of random (because it definitely is). With the crank removed, you can barely tell there’s anything special about the chair. But stuff that crank into any of the…
China has more internet and gaming addicts than any other country. They also conduct more research on the issue than anyone. And according to a study, Chinese researchers think that excessive gaming can permanently alter brain function. The study, originally published in the Public Library of Science’s One journal, used two groups of college-age subjects:…
