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A university professor has invented a computer program with crystal ball powers, only its channel is tuned purely to predicting the probability of murders—specifically, if inmates at a Pennsylvanian prison will ever kill again. Richard Berk, the University of Pennsylvania professor, has successfully placed it in the probation departments of Philadelphia and Baltimore police departments,…
Apple just bought the rights to all the patents from a company called Liquidmetal Technologies. Looking at their video demonstration, I don’t know what the hell they are going to do with it, but it must be something wickedly mindblowing: Basically, this is a better metal with the best qualities of plastic. It’s also kind…
Imagine a machine that creates your ideal pillow. I’m not just talking plumpness, I mean everything right down to the embroidery message your cheeks would prefer nestling on. The Dream Machine was exhibited in the city that never sleeps—Las Vegas, at a furniture expo. Users of the machine just have to punch in their favorite…
The newest artwork in Denmark’s ARoS museum wouldn’t make much sense anywhere but the roof: Your Rainbow Panorama stretches 170 feet across, offering visitors a 360 degree view of the surrounding city in dazzling technicolor. Your Rainbow Panorama, a work by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, is slated for completion this Fall, treating museum visitors to…
In order to help control the parking situation in San Francisco, the city is set to install smart parking meters that will lower or raise their prices depending on demand. It’s a two-year experiment called SFpark, and the prices are going to range from the reasonable 25-cents to the I-should-have-just-taken-a-cab $6. Fortunately, you won’t come…
Civilization Revolution, a cartoony but thorough iPhone port of the empire-building classic, is currently free in the App Store. Play as one of 16 civilizations as you discover the wheel, the written word, nuclear weapons, and pinch-to-zoom. [iTunes]
Skype wants to raise $100 million in an IPO. That’s all well and good, but the fun part is what Skype had to reveal about itself in order to ask for all that money. Fun Skype facts ahoy! So, what have we learned from the filing? Well, Skype’s 560 million registered users have spent 95…
Woo boy. BGR’s supposedly got hold of Verizon’s 2010/2011 roadmap, outlining all sorts of exciting stuff coming down the VZW pipeline: a 1.3GHz, 4″ Motorola Droid Pro, LTE Mi-Fi units, and a Motorola tablet with Android 3.0. The roadmap covers the rest of 2010 through early 2012, with the earlier products presumably being more concrete…
Somewhere in Finland, Tom’s office colleagues decided to welcome him with the most delicious office prank this side of stuffing your monitor in a giant doughnut: A mouse and keyboard keys stuffed in jelly. The note says “Welcome back, Tom!” After seeing it, I wish they sold Jell-O in bucket sizes, so I can stick…
Anyone who had that Sony countdown clock signaling the Xperia X10, you’re today’s big winner! That’s right—Sony Ericsson’s finally taking their formerly half-baked Android phone out of the oven. https://gizmodo.com/sony-style-countdown-site-is-probably-xperia-x10-androi-5607614 The Xperia X10 will launch on AT&T August 15th US for $130 on-contract at Sony Style. According to the press release, AT&T’s charging a $150…
BP says they were successful in placing a cement plug on the leaking Gulf oil well, the final step of their static kill procedure. Their next effort will be the construction of a relief well. https://gizmodo.com/watch-bps-latest-attempt-to-plug-the-oil-spill-5603667 The cement plug has held up to two days of pressure testing. The next step will be creating a…
Donkey Kong plays Donkey Kong while Donkey Kong Jr. watches. OK, maybe he’s not playing DK, but it’s just as good. The story involves a kid, a couple of real gorillas at the San Francisco Zoo and a happy ending. On August 6, amateur photographer Chris Spicuzza was spending her day at the San Francisco…
If there’s a name I trust when it comes to writing implements, it’s Sharpie. Their newest creation is the Liquid Pencil, a smooth-writer that gives you a few days to erase your work before it becomes set in stone. Think of it as the yin to the erasable pen’s yang. Sharpie claims that their new…
Using little more than a webcam and a laser, a young engineer has built a cheap 3D scanner that dovetails perfectly with the Makerbot and other desktop fabricators. It could be used as part of a copying system that would allow hobbyists to duplicate solid objects at home. “The technology exists to do this kind…
From Facebook to Twitter to Digg to Tumblr to Myspace… this is the map of the fantabolous planet of the social networks, down to the last republic, kingdom and empire. The geographic area indicates the estimated number of users. Now someone needs to make a role playing game map, and track the hordes of trolls.…
Hot on the heels of the leaked HTC Desire HD video comes this pristine look at the HTC Schubert, an aluminum unibody handset that’s purportedly one of the flagship Windows Phone 7 devices. That’s a good-looking phone, right there. https://gizmodo.com/leaked-htc-desire-hd-video-shows-larger-screen-and-dual-5607979 The HTC Shubert is the second substantive Windows Phone 7 leak in the past few…
RIM has updated its Curve range of BlackBerrys today, with the Curve 9300 3G rammed with OS 6.0 goodness and 3G connectivity. It was hardly a secret, and in light of last week’s Torch it doesn’t look quite so appealing. https://gizmodo.com/leaked-photos-of-blackberry-curve-9300-surface-5554248 Nonetheless, the Curve range has always been about affordability, and there’s certainly no touchscreen…
Production of the BlackPad has been handed over to Quanta Computer (makers of Apple, Dell, Sony and Panasonic hardware) in Taiwan according to a Chinese report, with the purported price said to be $499 when orders ship in September. It could all be hogwash, but the Apple Daily report is also claiming two million units…
Remember how the iPad camera connection kit was really hard to get hold of? How they were going for close to $200 on eBay? Chinese iPad users are using this handy $26 2-in-1 USB/SD card dongle. Lucky guys. https://gizmodo.com/apple-ipads-myriad-optional-dongles-usb-sd-ac-bbq-5458376 Apparently it changes between USB or SD card functionality with just a press of a button,…
An unusually well-shot and clear video has appeared online, showing off the as yet-unannounced HTD Desire HD. Looking more like an EVO 4G than the original Desire, it has a 4.3″ display and half-matte, half-glossy back. https://gizmodo.com/htc-evo-4g-review-a-war-machine-5554198 Do clamp your eyes on the HD YouTube video fondle of the Desire HD below, and tell us…
