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1935: An entrepreneurial politician files a patent application for a device that will elicit curses and contempt from generations of motorists: the parking meter. If it weren’t for Pearl Harbor, FDR might have called May 13 a day that will live in infamy. It was 75 years ago that Carl C. Magee of Oklahoma City…
We’ve seen what those hoity-toities at Frog Design think McDonald’s will look like in 2020. Now it’s your turn to show us the grotesque, inevitable future of fast food. UPDATE: Frog Design is guest judging! https://gizmodo.com/mcdonalds-in-2020-5537253 So take the grossest (and most delicious) parts of fast food culture and fuse them with the most promising…
There’s a lot of new deals popping up in Dealzmodo today and if you can’t get excited about that, well then you have amazing self control. For the normal folks out there, pony up and buy. Dealzmodo doesn’t judge. Top Deals: • 15.6″ Lenovo IdeaPad Y560 Core i7 Laptop for $949 plus free shipping (normally…
In an attempt to stop—or at least slow—the horrifying oil geyser spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, BP dropped a 100-ton containment dome onto its mouth. The result? It’s basically a thumb on a garden hose. [BusinessInsider] https://gizmodo.com/underwater-video-of-the-main-gulf-oil-leak-5537703
Working from home, the post-man’s the only person I have to watch out for, so cubicle-dwellers will have greater need for a boss-watching periscope than I do. Using a few supplies you’ll be closing the Gizmodo tab well within time. You’ll need to attach a couple of binder clips to a mirror at the top…
Though the Plastic Logic Que, an expensive, amply-screened ebook reader, is still in delay purgatory, the company says that it is already working on a color display that should be completed by the end of next year. https://gizmodo.com/plastic-logics-que-reader-is-tall-and-slender-with-a-fa-5442730 The company—which itself is not up for sale, thank you very much—has built a functioning color display…
Hulu might not jump on the increasingly crowded HTML5 video bandwagon anytime soon, but I don’t really care because it’s adding a whole bunch of new features to make Hulu much more awesome. https://gizmodo.com/hulu-says-html5-isnt-ready-yet-5538264 My favorite, actually, is thumbnail previews along the progress bar, so you can see exactly what you’re skimming over when you’re…
Uh, what’s up with the water at Google right now? Android Senior Software Engineer Cedric Beust is following chief Android Erick Tseng out the door, also to a social networking site—though it’s the comparatively drab LinkedIn, in Cedric’s case. https://gizmodo.com/chief-android-erick-tseng-abandons-google-for-facebook-5537479 Coincidence, or is something more serious happening inside of Android? [Beust via TechCrunch]
Gizmodo’s very own Wilson Rothman was on NPR recently to talk about cloud computing. You can listen to him give the lowdown (in most dulcet tones) on NPR’s site.
I wish I lived in the alternate reality where Radio Shack’s ‘Electronic Book’ was a runaway success, Amazon copied their design and every eBook reader was actually a paper book that required a tower PC to operate. [VintageAds via boingboing]
What’s Google’s Native Client SDK? A way to develop web apps that use native code like C or C++. This, plus OpenGL-powered hardware graphics acceleration? Google’s world, where the browser is the OS, looks more and more possible everyday. [Chromium] https://gizmodo.com/google-wants-3d-graphics-acceleration-directly-in-chrom-5497499
We’ve all glommed on to the idea of HTML5 saving streaming video and everything else in the world. But Hulu VP Eugene Wei recently went on record citing why HTML5 can’t handle Hulu’s current needs. As part of a larger post on Hulu improvements, he posted this “aside” on HTML5: We continue to monitor developments…
Apple is evolving. First, they wanted us to wear 3D iPod glasses. Now, they don’t want us to wear any glasses, in a 3D holographic environment with a multitouch interface. https://gizmodo.com/apple-wants-us-to-wear-3d-ipod-glasses-5507243 The way it works, generally speaking, is that the screen deflects images into your left and right eyes, as the camera syncs with the…
Yesterday, North Korea’s official state media reported that the country had successfully carried out nuclear fusion, the holy grail of cheap, clean energy that has heretofore eluded every other scientist ever. North Korea described their success in creating a “unique thermo-nuclear reaction device,” going beyond the mere demonstration of the process, which several teams have…
Tranquil music is filtering in through the open door. You open your mouth and tilt your head back, imagining you’re drinking the blue drops from a waterfall. Sounds like heaven, right? It’s actually a snazzy shower fitting from Domolight, able to change LED colors as a form of “colortherapy.” It comes with a remote control…
So, the NEX-3 and NEX-5 are available to pre-order already, but what of the rumored NEX-7 which we heard about several months back when they all first leaked out? https://gizmodo.com/sony-nex-5-and-nex-3-interchangeable-lens-cameras-go-of-5535890 EOSHD.com has heard from the same sources which tipped them off to the NEX-3 (seen above) and NEX-5 specs, and published some enticing details on…
Facebook has 50 settings with more than 170 options…just for privacy. The absurdity is charted here thanks to what surely took a team of supercomputers and thousands of sacrificial interns at the NYT. [NYT]
My dad would be like “WTF?” when this screen appeared.
Been wondering about that BlackBerry tablet device you have been hearing about lately? We have some exclusive information to share with you. We have confirmed with multiple sources that the 8.9″ BlackBerry tablet will be strictly a “companion” device. If you are wondering what it is all about, take a good hard look at the…
In these financially uncertain times it’s not surprising people are turning to gold instead of cash, but I’d like to know how many 7-11s actually accept 24-carat gold bars these days? The Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi has just revealed the gold ATM, which spits out 10-gram bars of 24-carat gold. Each bar can…
