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Two billion years ago, planet Earth had natural nuclear fission reactors, burning inside its crust. You are looking at the remains of one of them, located in Oklo, Gabon. These reactors are thought to have happened by natural causes, as a result of the abundance and density of Uranium-235—a natural fissile uranium isotope present in…
Traditional shoot’em Ups, shmups, are awkward on the iPhone, because your left thumb covers a quarter of the screen and your right thumb covers another quarter—bad when you need to see every single bullet heading for your ship. So instead of having to drive your ship with your hand, you drive it by tilting your…
Rising over Lucerne’s lakeshore, Switzerland, the O House has views to the titanic Mount Pilatus and the mountains of Rigi and Bürgenstock. It’s also full of holes, like some delicious Emmental, and has a 82-feet pool, half inside, half outside. I’ve been to Lake Lucerne a few times, which is why I sanely envy this…
It’s a revelation. It’s the way the iPad always should’ve been. With iOS 4.2 there’s multitasking, a unified inbox, folders and… Helvetica in Notes. https://gizmodo.com/future-apple-gadgets-getting-airplay-wireless-music-and-5627606 We are talking about a beta that’s two months from a final release, so not everything’s done. But iOS 4.2 on iPad already feels so good, even if it is…
Recently, a bank teller in California foiled a robber by convincing him that he actually needed to take out a loan, busying the criminal with paperwork until the police arrived. Do you consider the teller’s action a social hack? Here’s the story, as reported in the Santa Cruz Sentinel: A man was arrested Wednesday afternoon…
Boba Fett armor-matching sneakers might be an idea more awesome in my mind than on my feet, but props to Adidas for celebrating the galaxy’s most badass bounty hunter. Keep them in the toylike packaging for collector cred, of course. [Pursuitist]
This sculpture shows just what you can do with 5,000 aluminum tubes and a single light source: create a sense of futuristic brilliance. It’s called Sitooterie II, it’s in Essex, U.K., and up close it looks like Tron-inspired skyscrapers: Designed by Heatherwick Studio, Sitooterie II also includes a small sitting space in the center. Mostly,…
With today’s deals, you can watch a movie on a 37″ 1080p HDTV, listen to some music on your Sony 16GB Video Mp3 Player, all while eating some free Chicken From El Pollo Loco. What’s not to like? Top Deals: • 37″ Vizio E370VL 1080p LCD HDTV for $429.99 plus free shipping (normally $525) •…
I don’t care how delicious this cake is on the inside, I’d never cut into it. I’d be too worried about marring its AR marker frosting, and the wonderful augmented reality memes contained therein. Final guesses? If you said “Sad Keanu Riding a Unicorn In Front of Two Double Rainbows With Double Dolphins Attending,” congratulations!…
With David Packard’s birthday passing last week, and HP’s recent leadership woes, we at Gizmodo feel it’s time to remember early HP’s innovative founding culture. We bring you an inspiring excerpt from Packard’s book, with a foreword by his son. https://gizmodo.com/former-hp-ceo-mark-hurd-lands-co-president-job-at-oracl-5631492 During the corrosive debate over the Compaq merger, the HP leadership at the time…
I guess artificial intelligence is not as intelligent as I thought it was. Yes? [Thanks Karl!]
Look at this lead photo by Peter Funch. You figure, it MUST be staged. A fake. A Sony commercial or something. But it’s not. Every bit of the photo actually happened…just not necessarily at the same time. Rather, Funch combined a single, unifying element from many pictures he photographed in one spot. And the results…
That sound you just heard? Shrieks of joy. Multitasking is finally here for the iPad with the first beta of iOS 4.2, which is also out for the iPhone and iPod touch. If you’re a developer, that is. [Apple]
What, you think all those lolcat videos and emo webcasts just get to your computer by magic? Not so, my friends. Here’s how YouTube videos actually get from smartphone to small screen. Kudos to Time Warner Cable for putting this together, although I think they left out the part where Jeff bangs his head against…
Here’s a reconstruction of what allegedly happened when Steve Jobs was caught with shurikens at Kansai Airport. OK, it’s actually a reconstruction of how we all imagined it. But even while Apple denied it, Steve could still be a ninja. https://gizmodo.com/was-steve-jobs-busted-for-bringing-throwing-stars-into-5637551 Let’s think about this again: Apple denied that Steve was caught with ninja stars…
Apple will give the ailing newspaper biz welcome news with an iPad subscription option, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The deal will likely see Apple taking a slice of both subscription and advertising revenues, instead of a flat fee. Interestingly, Roger Fidler of University of Missouri’s Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute speculates Apple will…
Aurora Feint‘s mobile social gaming network for Android launches today with top iOS games like Fruit Ninja, MiniSuadron, Super Slyder, The Moron Test, and Tic Tac Toe. Announced earlier this summer, OpenFeint aims to be a cross-platform gaming ecosystem. https://gizmodo.com/social-gaming-network-openfeint-coming-to-android-5581997 OpenFeint features cross-platform leaderboards, achievements, and friending, allowing Android and iOS users to compete in…
It’s not often you can trace so much creative and artistic awesomeness back to a single piece of gear—particularly in the music industry. Meet the Yamaha NS-10: A speaker you’ve probably never heard of, but have definitely heard. Quick, pick an album you love from the 80s or 90s. Any album. Regardless of where you…
Internet Exploder, an excellent browser? With Internet Explorer 9, it’s possible! Microsoft’s made a very pretty browser that feels like it’s a part of Windows 7, loaded with HTML5 compatibility and unmatched graphics hardware acceleration for whizzy, whizzy web apps. It’s way more standards compliant than any previous version of IE, with a 95 score…
At yesterday’s Google Zeitgeist conference in Arizona, CEO Eric Schmidt confirmed that the company will roll out a new social service, internally dubbed Google Me, sometime this Fall. They basically want to give your web a social booster shot. Schmidt didn’t offer too many details on the service, according to the Wall Street Journal, but…
