Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
At Google’s panel today at SXSW in Austin, a Gmail team member named Jonathan Perlow asked the crowd to raise their hands if they think Gmail is too slow. We love Gmail, but certainly we can sympathize with the fair percentage of those audience members who raised their hands—the problem is pretty much limited to…
This picture shows entrants in this year’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Breakaway match. Teams of ambitious high school kids build robots to compete in what’s basically the American Gladiator version of soccer. It’s pretty amazing. The kids get six weeks to build a robot that can compete in this crazy…
The Spiderpodium is pretty self-explanatory: It’s a gadget-stand/tripod (well, an octo-pod, technically) shaped like an arthropod. Lacking much to explain, I’m going to tell you the origins of my arachnophobia. Everyone take a seat. It’s about to get real. First, to get the business part of this out of the way, the Spiderpodium is sort…
Listen up, rich people: If you ordered an iPad, cancel it. This is the one you need, covered with 11.43 carats of diamonds, graded G/H in color, VS2/SI1 in clarity, and 100/100 in stupidity. I can imagine Steve Jobs reaction: Indeed. The price tag: $19,999, available June 1. [Mervis]
Way to go, AT&T! It was nerve-wracking after last year’s troubles, but reports are coming in that the oft-maligned network is holding up to the stress of SXSW better than expected. https://gizmodo.com/time-warners-plan-to-make-at-t-suck-less-in-ny-anyway-5488261 AT&T pretty much blew it last year. A massive gathering of hip music types and nerdy developer types means one thing: iPhones everywhere.…
Rhapsody just released a little teaser video for the next version of its iPhone app (to be followed closely by its new Android app) that marks a major change for the service: You can now download songs instead of streaming. https://gizmodo.com/rhapsody-approved-for-iphone-and-ipod-touch-now-stream-5356199 It’s great news for users of Rhapsody’s $15-per-month all-you-can-eat service, who can now simply…
The WSJ has a discussion today of the phenomenon of the iPhone-using Microsoft employee. Apparently that time Ballmer fake-stomped an iPhone is emblematic of some (barely) real anti-iPhone sentiment in Redmond. https://gizmodo.com/ballmer-busts-microsoft-staffer-taking-his-photo-with-a-5357235 Interestingly, it turns out that 10,000 iPhone users accessed Microsoft’s employee email system last year—about 10% of the total company’s workforce. But like…
This iPhone typist/possible woodpecker earns today’s Holy Shit YouTube Moment of the Day Award. I’m positive I couldn’t beat him on my Droid—hell, he’d put up a good fight against me on my laptop. The app he’s using, iTextSpeed, tests WPM (words per minute) typing speed, and given his insane speed, this guy’s got to…
Today’s March 14th, which everyone knows is the day high school math club members further cement their alienation by celebrating their love of math, or circles, or whatever. But today’s Sunday, so let’s everyone celebrate nerddom in the comments! [Wiki]
So, the iPad is finally available for pre-order, and it turns out the half of the Giz staff that bought one aren’t alone: CNN estimates Apple received about 120,000 iPad pre-orders on that first day alone. https://gizmodo.com/are-you-getting-an-ipad-on-the-first-day-5491827 That 120,000 number is mostly a guess, but is also probably right: Using sampling, they subtracted Apple’s typical…
Tonight at 2am, remember to set your clock an hour forward. Look forward to both more sunlight at the end of the day and unfortunately, an earlier rise to work. Wikipedia explains why: Adding daylight to afternoons benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but causes problems for farming, evening…
Social media researcher and general internet guru Danah Boyd gave the keynote address at SXSWi earlier today, focusing on matters of privacy. On paper, Google Buzz was a perfect social network. So why did it freak everyone out so much? Google Buzz was technically sound at launch, Boyd said, offering users the chance to opt-out…
Last month, I risked life and limb to tell you about Celsius X-VI-II, a shadowy French company who was building a $300,000 mechanical cellphone. The first pictures of the phone have surfaced, though they don’t exactly answer our questions. https://gizmodo.com/celsius-x-vi-ii-and-the-mysterious-mechanical-cellphone-5481533 The phone’s official unveiling is still to come next week at Baselworld Watch Show, but…
The New York Times has a long, juicy look at what’s been going on behind the scenes with the ever-escalating conflict between Google and Apple. The cause for all the enmity, according to insiders? Ego. https://gizmodo.com/how-apple-and-googles-romance-turned-to-hate-5483662 When Apple filed suit against HTC earlier this month, it was clear that Google and Apple’s romance had turned…
The Battery Replacement Service FAQ on Apple’s site outlines their policy for handling iPads with diminished battery capacity, and its surprisingly generous: for a $99 service fee, they’ll send you a replacement iPad. The first two items on the FAQ lay it out plain and simple: If your iPad requires service due to the battery’s…
When you use a site like Gmail, you have to decide: Do I want to use the service’s website, or do I want to use it through an app, like Outlook? Here’s how to get the best of both worlds. What I’m talking about is something called site-specific browsers, which are essentially dedicated apps derived…
Yesterday, Netflix announced that they’re pulling the plug on the sequel to their supercool Netflix Prize in which teams competed to improve the company’s recommendation algorithm for a million dollar reward. Privacy: can’t live with it, can’t live without it. https://gizmodo.com/netflix-prize-competition-comes-to-a-thrilling-conclusi-5323261 In December, a woman filed a lawsuit against Netflix in which she claimed that…
We’re no strangers to the work of Lego master Nathan Sawaya, but his latest creation achieved the impossible: making a Blackberry exciting. It incorporates a working flat screen TV for comfortably displaying video. Clearly he took some artistic liberties. Hey! Just kidding. I’m a proud—well, not proud, but not like totally ashamed either—Blackberry Bold owner…
In addition to the orientation-lock button, yesterday’s pre-order commencement delivered another surprise nugget: the iPad will read all EPUB books out loud. If you remember the shitstorm that surrounded Kindle’s text-to-voice feature, you’ll know that this is a bold move. https://gizmodo.com/the-ipads-surprise-button-screen-orientation-lock-5491899 Wired noticed that on its updated iBooks page, under a heading “Change your reading…
Though the last we heard, Google was nearing a compromise that would allow them to stop censoring their Google.cn results, the Financial Times is reporting that they are almost certainly going to close their Chinese search engine. Since their initial ultimatum in January, Google and China have traded vague statements about reaching a compromise, but,…
