Tech News

Libyan rebels turn Power Wheels toy into tiny killer robot tank

You know the little Power Wheels-style ATV your kid uses to drive across the lawn? it turns out that it makes a great machine gun drone in the hands of Libyan rebel, and structural engineer, Mohammad Bin Saud. Bin Saud is one of a growing legion of rebel Libyans turning anything and everything — including…

These Aerial Super Tankers Drown Forest Fires With 20,000-Gallon Waterfalls from the Sky (UPDATED)

389,000 acres. That’s how much of Arizona the Wallow fire has consumed since May 29th. With the blaze 0% contained, authorities have called in some of the largest air tankers in the world to help. Aerial firefighting employs airplanes and helicopters to combat wildfires from above. Originally developed from WWII bombers, air tankers are built…

Next Week Could Bring Final Cut Pro X and New Thunderbolt Accessories

The latest Apple rumor to pop up suggests that Final Cut Pro X will finally hit the Mac App Store next week along with peripherals that support the Thunderbolt/Lightpeak data transfer interface (hard drives, etc…). [MacRumors]

A House Made from Bookshelves Is So Much Better Than a House Made from E-Books

Say what you will about the death of print and the space hogging nature of physical books, cause I know this much: I’d rather live in this bookshelf house and thumb through pages than a house with Kindle-lined walls. The homeowner wanted his house, located in Osaka, Japan, to be able to store and showcase…

Artist Paints Tiny Pictures on Chewing Gum Spit Out on the Sidewalk

Ben Wilson, a British artist, paints tiny little paintings on the chewing gum that mar the sidewalk of London. He transforms those black and grey blobs into delightful, colorful and meaningful works of art. Wilson, who’s been doing this for six years, has a specific technique in painting the hardened gum. The NY Times details…

Get a New Perspective with the 18-270MM Di II VC PZD Lens from Tamron

Are you finally ready to brush off the last of your accumulated winter crust, stop reading about coveted gear, and actually start using it in the big, wide world? Well, weighing in at just 15.9 oz, Tamron’s 18-270MM Di II VC PZD is the world’s most compact, lightweight 15X ratio lens. The award-winning model comes…

The 8 Most Bizarre, Intriguing, and Otherwise Cool Documents the NSA Just Declassified

It was spring cleaning time at the NSA, who dropped a staggering 50,000 pages of declassified documents into the hands of the National Archives. A lot’s on the mundane side—so here are the best looking eight: The documents haven’t been digitized yet, so we had to do some guesswork. • 1607 17-May-1948 SLIDE TUBE This…

Japan Says It’s Not Kicking the Nuclear Habit Anytime Soon

Despite recent rallies against Japan’s nuclear energy dependency, the country’s Industry Minister says its reactors will remain online indefinitely. Furthermore, the country will do its “utmost” to keep them that way. I mean, what could go wrong? [Kyodo News]

Best Case for Your PC Build: 8 New Chassis Tested & Rated

When you’re outfitting a new computer, it can be tempting to just buy the cheapest no-name case you can find, slap your new parts into it, and call it a day. While that might have been a valid choice in ye olde beige days-heck, early Dream Machine builds didn’t even list the case-it’s not one…

Comcast Bringing Facebook to TVs

A day after they announced their Skype partnership, Comcast says that they plan on bringing Facebook and more to their customers living rooms. Their new service will be called MyTV. Comcast is also be working with Intel and other companies to turn the service into a personal experience. That means search, weather, and traffic apps…

How Cellphone Jammers Are Helping Us Win the Iraq War

Danger Room has an awesomely comprehensive look at all the cell phone jammers the US military used during the Iraq War. Those jammers proved incredibly important in stripping insurgents of their most powerful weapon—the IED. The US government has spent $17 billion buying 50,000 jammer units with fantastic names like Warlock Green, Warlock Red, Warlock…

NYT and OpinionLabs Slap Apple Patent Troll Lodsys with Lawsuits

When Lodsys started targeting iOS developers, it probably wasn’t looking for the kinds of fights it’s been running into. A few days after Apple came to the aid of its devs, word comes that the New York Times and OpinionLabs are counter-troll-suing as well. https://gizmodo.com/apple-comes-to-the-aid-of-developers-in-legal-fight-aga-5810732 The NY Times had been targeted by Lodsys over its…

The Best Deal of the Day

Summer is coming. Your days of hiding underneath sweatshirts and jackets are over. Crocs and pit-stained undershirts are not acceptable summer attire unless you’re a giant neckbeard (in which case, by all means, proceed). Perhaps you should consider updating your wardrobe? Clothing purveyors Nau have slashed prices of their current threads by 30% across the…

New Google Desktop Features

Google Wants To Get Inside Your Head

Google just thumped out a host of new features today designed to make search easier, faster, more ubiquitous. But the end goal? It’s to very literally get inside your head and change the way you think. Google researchers have found that people are always searching. Always. When desktop searches drop (over holidays and on weekends…

The Virtual Boy Arcade Cabinet that Never Existed

The Nintendo Virtual Boy was over before it ever really got a chance to show what it couldn’t do. But that doesn’t mean that someone, somewhere isn’t building an arcade cabinet temple for the aborted console. https://gizmodo.com/nintendos-virtual-boy-gets-torn-apart-5629799 Creator Tighe Lory took his inspiration from the Atari Battlezone cabinet, opting for two joysticks instead of D-pads,…

An Early Peek at the Steve Jobs Comic Book

From the people that brought you the Mark Zuckerberg comic book comes the boringly named (yet still enticing!) Steve Jobs: The Co-Founder of Apple, a pulp biography in pictures. A few of which PC World has gotten an early look at. As you can see from this shot—just one of several in the preview—the pages…

The X-Prize Farce

The $10 million Automotive X-Prize was billed as a “Revolution Through Competition,” which backers said would promote real-world-capable “safe, affordable and desirable” 100 miles per gallon vehicles. The reality is it’s a complete farce. [Jalopnik] https://jalopnik.com/the-x-prize-farce-5809983

Is There a Garmin in Your Car’s Future?

Garmin confirmed its purchase of European GPS OEM, Navigon AG. Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and COO, said that the deal will help further Garmin’s expansion into the automotive OEM business. Misery loves company in a phone eat GPS world. [BusinessWire via TechCrunch]

30 Glimpses Into Infinity

Infinity. It’s an idea too large for our consciousness, and how can you see that which cannot be contemplated? These 30 photos from this week’s Shooting Challenge answer that question, giving us the faintest glimpse of the limitless. https://gizmodo.com/shooting-challenge-infinite-loop-5809926 Winner – Into the Ink This contest was a lot of fun, and it was hard…