Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
The September 1, 1896 San Francisco Call (San Francisco, CA) ran this image of inventor Dr. C. A. Smith’s flying machine. Apparently Smith had a model of his airship propped up on two stools in a shop on Market Street in San Francisco. The functional version of the machine was to be 105 feet in…
All Jason Chen wanted to do is play We Rule on his iPad, but instead of castles, villagers, and whatever else is in that game, he got this message. Sorry, Jason. Restart and try again?
Vampires don’t have reflections, so how would they get a sexy clean shave? This guy has the answer—if you assume that bloodsuckers actually show up on video. [There I Fixed It]
This is how the plane flown by 18-year-old Patrick Humphries looked after he crash-landed it in the middle of a busy highway. Humphries was uninjured and simply stepped out to halt traffic after his plane stopped spinning out of control. Apparently the single-engine plane’s engine stalled as Humphries, a trainee pilot with the Australian Airforce,…
Typing on a tablet is serviceable but not without strange moments. It’s pretty clear that typing is a secondary function for the iPad. We knew this would get a little bit weird. Apparently, there’s no better way, than to hook up an external keyboard. More on that later. First, the on screen stuff. The iPad’s…
Dr. Dre and the Boston Red Sox have combined forces to produce a branded Red Sox version of those notoriously expensive Beats headphones, just in time for Opening Day. The result of this union, predictably, is also expensive. With an asking price of $400, the cans are about $100 more than a “normal” set of…
This week is tool tech: YouTuber [Mhkabir] opened up an HDD, removed the read head, and added some sand paper. The result is predictably predictable. Also, loud and marginally effective. [Hackaday]
Apple patents are often quirky, April Fool’s-esque, and rarely see the light of day, so be sure to consider that as you view their latest. It’s one that marries proven MacBook Pro technology with unproven, kitschy pico projectors. Hilarity ensues. As you can see in the diagram, the projector is positioned as such so that…
Some fanboys may have assumed that yesterday marked the rebirth of their savior, but many more believers celebrate that notion today. Fortunately, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. When I showed my mother-in-law the iPad, the first thing she asked was if she could recite her Easter bible reading with it. She’s a church officer at…
Here’s some more iPad news, fresh off the presses: Strangely, most consumers are not idiots, and will not pay exorbitant amounts of money to read newspaper iPad apps when they can find news cheaply and easily elsewhere. Shocking! Tonight’s forecast: Darkness! PaidContent reports: One big trend that’s apparent: big media and entertainment companies are doing…
So you shelled out for an iPad, and you’re staring at an empty homescreen. You need games. But which ones? These are the first 10 games you should try for your iPad. They’re the prettiest and the most novel, the best suited and most refined, but most of all, they’re the most entertaining games you…
After one day on the market, the Apple iPad has been jailbroken. That certainly didn’t take long, did it? It was only a matter of time, sure, but this was speedy even by most jailbreaking standards. The break was completed by well-known iPhone Dev-Team member MuscleNerd, who revealed today that he was able to jailbreak…
Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro is at it again. He’s improved upon his hellish personal twin android with a new model, the uber realistic Geminoid F. It’s totally just like Lt. Cmdr. Data, except you get night terrors. As you can see in the video, the facial expressions really are uncanny. There’s a frown in there,…
You’re welcome, internet. And hit here for ten other incredibly useful tips and tricks.
Costing about $1,000 and weighing 33 pounds, the Robo-Skateboard out of the Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo will shred pipes of the dream-based variety when it arrives in 2013. The board operates much like the Segway: Learn forward, go forward; lean back, go backward. Four load sensors in the corners assist with maneuvering, which…
Our test notes on the iPad’s speed have been updated with some benchmarks comparing the iPad and the iPhone. The numbers confirm what we saw in our field tests: on average, the iPad runs about twice as fast as the 3GS. For the full numbers, check out our test notes.
PC World’s “iPad Stress Test” starts out kind of lame (shampoo, my man, discover it!), but by the end I had actually learned a thing or two about what not to do with my pending 3G version purchase. Also, donuts. The Ultimate Lesson: Do not drop your iPad. Ever. It seems obvious, yes, especially to…
We’re still plowing through apps over at the App Marathon, so head on over and request the apps you want reviewed.
Do I have the time, you ask? No! But I do know that my friend Barry just “checked in” at Denny’s thanks to my Twitter update-pulling Tokyoflash concept watch. Let’s go rob his house! Now, this concept watch does tell time, but it does so in a very concept watch kind of way. Those pixelated…
The iPad has—or rather, is—a 9.7-inch, 768×1024-pixel LED-backlit display. So how does it measure up against the iPhone? Popular netbooks? A new MacBook? First impressions of the iPad’s screen range from nonplussed to very impressed, but the consensus is that the screen is at the very least not deficient. Honestly though, it’s impossible to meangingfully…