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Vudu, despite being a swanky video service with delicious 1080p streaming, never made any money. So why did Walmart just drop $100 million on a failing service? Peter Kafka reports it’s because Vudu convinced Walmart its video compression was nigh-wizardry. https://gizmodo.com/vudu-hdx-1080p-movie-downloads-reviewed-insanely-shar-5058011 The standard assumption was that Walmart wanted Vudu’s baked-in deals with Hollywood studios, so…
Dear Apple, we get that you’re taking away our almost naughty iPhone apps, but why are you denying us the iTouch My Friends app? There’s no violence, no sexual content, and nothing sexy other than silly avatars getting dressed up. https://gizmodo.com/apple-removes-an-innocent-boob-jiggling-app-from-the-ap-5475270 You can see a demo of what the iTouch My Friends app does with…
The slapdown of boobs, sexual or otherwise titillating apps on the iPhone App Store has claimed 5,000 apps, says Chillifresh, maker of Wobble. Or wait, mabye it was 10,000 casualties. [CNET] https://gizmodo.com/forbidden-apple-on-the-death-of-iphone-sex-apps-5476484
Nanotech wonder Buckypaper is 10 times lighter and 500 times stronger than steel. And while academic research labs have successfully synthesized the stuff for years, the first architectural firm has just made Buckypaper on their own. NY’s Decker Yeardon just revealed their first thin sheet of the stuff—a “paper” made up of carbon nanotubes that,…
In today’s Remainders: video! And in many cases, things caught on video for the first time, like Samsung’s E6 and E101 ebook readers, Apple’s $1 billion data center, Big Bloom’s “miraculous” fuel cell, and a modern day Superman. Stylish Stylus We got a look at Samsung’s ebook readers—the E6 and the E101—back at CES, but…
Wintek, who supplies touchscreen components to Apple for the iPhone and iPod touch, just got “exposed” for “hazardous work conditions.” One of the most severe conditions? N-hexane poisoning, which the company illegally used instead of alcohol to clean screens. In August of 2009, 49 people were treated for N-hexane poisoning, with one dead. The BoingBoing…
99.99% of our photography falls within a certain acceptable range of exposure—one filled with color and detail. Last week’s Shooting Challenge was dedicated to the rare .01% that’s blinded by the light. The resulting shots are incredible. https://gizmodo.com/shooting-challenge-blow-out-5473967 Second Runner Up I shot most of the photo with the exposure I wanted, but used photoshop…
That’s what Alan Kay said when Steve Jobs asked him about his thoughts on the iPhone. Knowing who Alan Kay is, you better listen up. Updated Alan Kay is one the greatest minds in the history of computing. He worked in the 70s at the legendary Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where he said that…
In honor of 2/22 get two of everything in today’s dealz. Great laptops, Blizzard Battle Chests of Warcraft III and Diablo II are available at 20 bucks, and for the iPhone snag two Magnetic Joe’s for the price of none. Top Deals: • 14.1″ HP Pavilion DV4-2160US Laptop for $649.99 plus free shipping (normally $730).…
To watch this transparent cube build a ceramic bowl must be like watching magic. The nozzle shoots clay out, designing sculptures layer by layer, until the finished object is ready to be fired in a kiln. Below you can see some of the creations made from the powder clay mixing with water in the printer’s…
A 43-year-old mother of three is currently wanted by the police in Oklahoma City for seducing a 14-year-old kid on PlayStation Home. Her avatar must’ve been really something. Apparently, Annamay Alexander of Deltona, FL met this kid via Home and started sending him messages and a picture of her in her underwear. She then traveled…
What happens when Marcus Tremonto, the lighting artist behind this thing updates Kidrobot’s famed MUNNY dolls? Pew pew crosses with puke…and I mean that in the best possible way. https://gizmodo.com/carbon-fiber-ribbon-of-light-5402189 Starting this Friday, Kidrobot NY will have Tremonto’s “Lightbot” MUNNY remixes on display (and apparently available for purchase, too). Each is signed, numbered and sold…
Taken randomly on a spring afternoon. Canon PowerShot A630 F-Stop- F/5 Exposure TIme- 1/1250 sec Focal Length- 7mm Max Aperture- 2.96875 Metering Mode- Pattern Flash Mode- No Flash, Auto -Adric Henkel This photo was taken on a snowy day on a back road in rural North Carolina. It was taken with a Canon PowerShot A70…
Ultra-trendy fashion designer Henry Holland held his London Fashion Week show on Saturday, where the BlackBerry-using front row sitters could buy the clothes straight from the catwalk using the House of Holland app. It’s the first time a fashion designer’s allowed their clothes to be purchased from an app during a show—in the UK that…
Google Earth is available on Android! (Isn’t is weird that this didn’t happen earlier? It’s been on the iPhone for a year! Anyway.) The catch? For now, it only works on the Nexus One, which basically nobody owns. Don’t worry, Droiders: Soon. https://gizmodo.com/nexus-one-sales-continue-to-lag-just-80-000-in-first-m-5465326 For now, Google Earth will only work on handsets with Android 2.1,…
U.S. authorities have tracked down the man who wrote the code used in the hacker attack on Google. He’s a “freelance security consultant” in China, and his participation makes it even harder for the Chinese government to deny involvement. https://gizmodo.com/google-hacked-the-chinese-hackers-right-back-5449037 The man’s role was an oblique one: while he wrote the code that took advantage…
That’s the moral of this NYT story about the bubbling war in mobile chips. They’re expensive to make. And, no one’s better at making them than Intel, whose manufacturing tech is years ahead of anybody else. Until recently, foundries which manufactured chips on contract stuck to simpler chip designs because that’s what their tech was…
Undo relationship wrongs with this ctrl+z apology card, finely printed with hand-mixed ink on 100% cotton extra soft paper. $3.75. (Note: If things don’t work out, the purchase of the card cannot be ctrl+z’d.) [Etsy via 9gag via thenextweb]
In 2009, Samsung’s shipments of flat panel TVs (plasmas and LCDs) rose 22.6%, making them the number one US supplier, moving 6.6 million televisions in all. But you know who grew way, way, way more? Vizio. Between 2008 and 2009, Vizio nearly doubled their US sales, which grew 92.1% as the company sold 5.9 million…
If Nexus One reviewers could agree on one thing, it was that the phone has a stunning screen. But for those inky blacks and vivid colors, you’re apparently paying a hefty price: I mean, look at that. https://gizmodo.com/nexus-one-review-5443835 DisplayMate ran a battery of comparative tests on the Nexus One’s AMOLED screen, and came away with…
