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Believe it or not, nature is all around us. With today’s deals, we hope you’ll see some of it with a new Canon PowerShot and Free National Park Admission, or at least on your Sony Bravia HDTV. We don’t judge. Top Deals: • 40″ Sony BRAVIA KDL-40EX700 LED-Edgelit LCD HDTV (1080p, 120Hz,Netflix) for $749.99 plus…
How often has your enjoyment of a thirst-quenching melon en plein air been thwarted by inconvenience? Well, this watermelon cooler on wheels is just one of the ingenious, baffling, and handsome gadgets featured on Summermodo 2010. Summermodo is a constantly-updated feed of summer gear and news featured on Gizmodo. You’ll find things like edible party…
These are not what you would expect. Look closer and see: Clever use of Lego minifigs. [Flickr] https://gizmodo.com/exclusive-video-how-lego-builds-its-minifigs-5041136
FCC Chairman Michael Copps has released a brief statement doubting the merit of Google and Verizon’s “joint policy proposal,” and arguing that federal regulation is the only sincere means of ensuring net neutrality. https://gizmodo.com/google-and-verizons-worrisome-proposal-for-net-neutrali-5608422 “Some will claim this announcement moves the discussion forward,” the full statement reads. “That’s one of its many problems. It is…
My good friend Brian Ashcraft at Kotaku wrote another book! It’s called Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential, and this time, he explores and explains how Japanese schoolgirls have changed and shifted Japanese society. Among the most important things they’ve influenced? Cellphones. The mobile phone revolution came early to gadget-crazy Japan, and 80 percent of Japanese now own…
I had my wedding party last Saturday—months after we eloped to India. Great food, beautiful countryside. It was fun, partially because we said “Come in jeans, but no AK-47s, please” in the invitation. Unlike this poor Turkish couple. According to CNN, three family members at a wedding in the village of Akcagoze, southeast Turkey, were…
Control4, one of the lower-priced home automation solutions, already has apps for your iPhone, Android, iPad and laptops to control your house, so why do they need a touchscreen for the wall? Because it’s always on. Those cellphone and web-based solutions are fine, but you run into the issue of having to open up the…
Google’s co-founders ended up in a shouting match in front of subordinates during internal discussions over aggressive ad targeting, according to the Wall Street Journal. The pro-targeting side prevailed, and Google is now edging toward Facebook-level privacy standards. Ack. Google has overcome long-held reservations about tracking users to push into “uncharted privacy territory for the…
Honeymoon’s over, everyone: antiviral watchdog Kaspersky has spotted Android’s first, SMS-based trojan making the rounds in Russia. The devious little MS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer.a masks itself as a media player before invisibly shooting out expensive texts to premium numbers, earning cash for fraudsters. Isolated instances of Android spyware were reported last year, but this infection marks the first…
People couldn’t believe that this photograph of Darth Vader riding a chipmunk was not a Photoshop*. To end the controversy, designer and photographer Chris McVeigh has decided to reveal his most precious secret. How Lord Vader rode Billy the chipmunk? The answer: Almonds and puppetry. Life is good, my friends, life is good. [Flickr] Click…
The tale of Steven Slater—the JetBlue flight attendant who became a folk hero by storming off the job on an inflatable slide—keeps getting better. Gay sex, happy bragging, family tragedy, HIV status, and a confused ex-wife ahead. [Updated] https://gizmodo.com/flight-attendant-uses-inflatable-slide-for-dramatic-job-5608503 Yesterday we heard how the disgruntled flight attendant’s altercation with a passenger (which was related to…
If you explore Google’s corporate website, you’ll encounter the company’s ten core principles. It’s a philosophy, sure, but it’s also a report card. Good news! Google’s passing its own test. Bad news: Big G’s getting a C. We took those ten founding principles—which Google itself professes to revisit to “see if it still holds true”—and…
The three annoying train monsters poster from October 1982 pays homage to Transformers and shows Nesshii, the sleeping monster; Asshii, the leg-crossing monster; and Shinbunshii, the newspaper-reading monster. Don’t throw chewing gum on the platform poster from September 1976. You wouldn’t want this to happen to Superman, would you? Inspired by Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great…
As someone who never watched much football, I was never very interested nor very good at football video games. But the eminently touchable new iPad Madden makes it easy even for casual pigskin fans to jump into the action. For the tactically clueless like myself, wasting all that time picking plays I didn’t really understand…
There’s no question that USB 3.0 is the future; it’s just a question of when it’ll arrive en masse. iBuyPower’s decided to be in the vanguard, putting USB 3.0 in all of its desktops for no added charge. iBuyPower ships notoriously rugged rigs, so while there’s still not a lot of USB 3.0 compatible devices…
Samsung is releasing a new 3D-capable Plasma TV at the sweet price of $989—a full $400 less than its current entry-level 3D set. The 50″ PN50C490 sports an odd 1365 x 768p resolution, but hey—cheap(er) 3D. The PN50C490, available for pre-order now, also offers 3 HDMI 1.4 inputs, a USB port, and ConnectShare for easy…
Good news for drunk dialers: the next time you drop your phone in the toilet, it might be able to survive the plunge—in Japan, at least. New “dryer boxes” in Tokyo camera shops could save your wet device. The service is 1000 yen a pop—around $12—and will only cost you if the box successfully revives…
The much-loved Twitter client for desktops, iPhones and iPads is going to be available for Android phones from this week via a public beta testing release—letting Android users follow people but not actually read their tweets, via the crafty use of columns. [Tweetdeck via AndroidAndMe] https://gizmodo.com/tweetdeck-now-available-on-the-iphone-5292867
Not that it’s been a very well kept secret, but Motorola and Verizon have officially announced the Droid 2, the Froyo-outfitted, Flash 10.1-equipped successor to the original Droid. It goes on sale tomorrow for $199, after a $100 rebate. https://gizmodo.com/spotted-in-a-newspaper-advert-the-unannounced-motorola-5607887 The Droid 2 retains the slide-out QWERTY keyboard of the original (though it’s supposedly improved)…
According to Toshiba, the new wipe technology on their self-encrypting hard drives will destroy any data in them when you remove the device or power it off completely. Sounds a bit nuts, but it makes sense. Instead of over-writing the data—which takes hours—or using a physical method—that requires time and effort—the new drives will automatically…
