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Think having a smart TV equipped with the Intel® Atom™ processor—meaning, if you are somehow not aware, that you’ll be able to watch TV and browse the web at the same time—will make your life easier? Tell us exactly how a smart TV would change your life and we might just make it happen. Gizmodo…
There’s so much animosity between Angry Birds and egg-thieving pigs, you’d be forgiven for thinking the rift was insurmountable. But what would happen if we just brought both sides to the negotiating table? Oh, this! From Israeli comedy show Eretz Nehederet (A Wonderful Country), this slightly NSFW (language) sketch probably has an important political allegory…
Why did gold—and not osmium, lithium, ruthenium or any other element—become the one we humans use as money? Sanat Kumar, a chemical engineer at Columbia University, goes through the periodic table and explains why the rest wouldn’t work. Click to view Right off the bat, Kumar explains to NPR, the rightmost column of the table…
Viacom, following every major network, has added its online content to the Google TV blacklist, blocking users from viewing Comedy Central, MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon shows online (although it appears short clips are still allowed). [GTV Hub via SlashGear] https://gizmodo.com/no-streaming-for-you-every-major-network-site-blocks-g-5686886
iPad owners cradle their iPads while watching TV anyway, so it makes perfect sense for TiVo to make a remote control app for them. Plus, it seems like you can go beyond just remote control functionality to a sort of split-screening. Here’s the quick feature list: • Gesture based control – Take complete control of…
Comcast is buying a majority stake in NBC. Obviously, that raises some sticky questions for regulators, mixing up a cable/internet providers with a producer of content, particularly in this age of internet video. So the FCC is considering a bevy of conditions to approve the deal—like “program access” rules to keep Comcast from withholding NBC…
This foot-powered food processor has numerous things going for it. As you will have noticed, it’s incredibly stylish—and small. It’s also eco-friendly, thigh-friendly and perfect for small kitchens. It’s just a shame it’s a concept. Designed by German Christoph Thetard, it has various attachments that can be powered by pushing the pedal with a foot—including…
Money to burn? Live in an area where Verizon Communications‘ FIOS is available? In the next month, you’ll be able to get 150Mbps internet for $195 a month (after you sign up for a one-year contract). [Gigaom]
I wish I had some of the foresight of this patent-filer from back in ’73. I wonder if she’s cursing the day her dog-shaped vacuum failed to take off, now Dyson’s launched their dog-grooming vacuum tool? https://gizmodo.com/why-bother-vacuuming-the-floors-when-you-can-just-vacuu-5681284 Ann Margaret Zelski filed the patent in 1973 for this dog-shaped vacuum, which was intended to be used…
While this vase is probably more attractive to your granny than you, would she understand just how much technology was used in its creation? Custom 3D-printer guys Shapeways made it from glass, which is no small feat for 3D printing. Writing on their blog, they described one of the challenges they faced with the design:…
Would you buy a 10.1-inch tablet, running Windows 7 with mediocre specs? LG’s hoping Koreans will, because the tablet’s launching there first. Citizens are probably better off waiting for LG’s Android tablet, due out in January. [LG via Akihabara News] https://gizmodo.com/lgs-android-tablet-coming-in-january-and-will-be-large-5654771
Flu vaccines in a matter of hours. Bioengineering facilities the size of San Francisco. Cells and DNA, upgraded like living software. This is the future microbiologist Dr. Craig Venter sees as inevitable, and it’s only a few years away. Dr. Venter spoke with 60 Minutes and Steve Kroft this evening, and he contends that the…
In 1980, Texaco drilled down to look for oil beneath Lake Peigneur. A little too far down. The mistake drained the entire lake like a bathtub, creating an enormous whirlpool that consumed barges, drills, and 65 acres of land. Oops. The error lay in the fact that the Diamond Crystal Salt Company was simultaneously operating…
Someone should make T-shirts with this image and sell them at airports. With a TSA logo on the back. Update: The author of the graphic tells me that he’s indeed making t-shirts with this image. [David Vincent Wolf]
Remember Star Wars Kid? He needs to come out of retirement and get acquainted with Yankeyan’s lightsaber Kinect hack. Yankeyan created the hack using OpenKinect drivers and OpenCV, which provided image processing, tracking and rendering capabilities. The wooden stick was something I assume he had lying around the garage. Pretty simple, but also pretty cool!…
Ben Lzicar, bro, took one of those ugly old beer kegs and turned it into an admittedly flashy piece of PC gaming kit. And, surprising no one, he made sure it had a bottle opener attached to the side. It’s an impressive casemod, to be sure, but surely I’m not the only one thinking version…
“There’s a lot of smoke, and I tell you there must be a fire somewhere,” Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg told the Wall Street Journal the other day. He was talking about a phone! But not just any phone… A “games-oriented” phone, to be precise, and that sounds a heck of a lot like something…
Pay special attention to how YouTube user GELTONZ drives his car in this fascinating footage captured during an intense couple of laps in Kinect Joy Ride. Skills! Kinect: You aren’t the controller because it doesn’t need you. [Youtube via Reddit]
MIT’s Ramesh Raskar, creator of amazing things, is on the cusp of creating a fantastical camera that can take pictures of objects that are hidden around corners. As long as light can reach the object, this camera can capture it. https://gizmodo.com/mit-team-developing-eye-catching-super-realistic-6-d-i-5035198 The camera works much like a flashlight that has been pointed at a mirror.…
The Telegraph reports today that Apple has scrapped plans for its own brand of SIM card after carriers threatened to stop subsidizing the iPhone. Theoretically, the integrated SIM could have removed carriers from the purchasing process. Sorry consumers! https://gizmodo.com/will-apple-go-around-carriers-with-a-built-in-iphone-si-5675012 The carriers were unsurprisingly pleased with themselves following the news: A senior source at a mobile…
