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For many X-Wings in the Star Wars universe, the end came as a spectacular explosion on the field of battle. Not so much for this RCX-4 helicopter. For it, the end will no doubt arrive as a boring ol’ lawsuit. First spied at CES, hovering in the air and openly thumbing its nose at George…
By way of Kotaku, we hear about Canadian blogger Rinry, who subjected eight NES cartridges to all manner of video game torture and hell. When the dust settled, seven of the cartridges still worked. [Kotaku] https://kotaku.com/just-how-much-punishment-can-a-nes-cart-take-5444508
DailyTech reports that a number of companies with tiny budgets who resorted to the survival tactic of showing their new gear at hotel suites around Vegas during CES were kicked out of hotel rooms they paid for by CES’s organizers. One company was reportedly ordered to pay a $10,000 exhibition fee to the CEA, the…
We’ve seen batteries charged by outlets and by cranks, but this concept from designers Song Teaho and Hyejin Lee is the first that charges with a twirl. However, like all things tagged concept, this battery doesn’t *technically* exist yet. Still, Teaho and Lee both hypothesize that this battery, should it become the real deal, would…
The New York Times takes an interactive look at what Netflix users are watching in a dozen U.S. cities, including my backyard, Boston. My neighbors are watching what now? Oh, just Mad Men, it seems, with a sizable pocket in Cambridge. We’re so liberal. And why the heck was Eagle Eye so popular on the…
The few times I go bowling each year are more about pitchers of cheap beer than they are satiating some desire for the perfect game, but nevertheless I’m intrigued by this “smart ball” from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Developed by sports scientist Franz Fuss, the smart bowling ball contains aluminum tubes in the…
The Westminster Chiming Grandfather clock is an obelisk of discarded toys. At 2.2 meters tall, it’s also a monstrous, functioning timepiece that now resides in, where else, Dubai. But how was it created? Well, just a little Buzz Lightyear here, Hulk action figure there, and then a coat of high gloss polyurethane white paint to…
The Microvision pico-projector video game gun controller we profiled last month might actually see the light of day—and soon. Who’s ready for some murky, awkward angle FPS fun? https://gizmodo.com/pico-projector-gun-controller-beams-first-person-shoote-5424279 I mean, I kid Microvision about the fact that you’d need a cylindrical room with nothing on the walls and no light to use this controller…
Much like the multi-million dollar jet systems that inspired it, the Saitek Pro Flight X65F joystick/throttle system for PCs doesn’t move at all. That’s right, not an inch, and yet the controls were compared to mind control. [ars technica] The X65F uses “force sensing” tech, just like military planes today. In layman’s terms, that means…
Anyone feeling extra geeky today? Well you should. Today’s date, when written in a six digit format (MMDDYY), is a binary style number. Updated. Writes reader Eric, who tipped us off about the date earlier this morning: It just occurred to me that today’s six digit date format (MMDDYY or YYMMDD) is in binary style.…
OLED displays are already something beautiful, but this unnamed Japanese company, spied at CES, has taken the technology and turned it into some truly awe-inspiring artwork. The individual panels seen in the video actually line up to form a flowing scene. The effect is kind of cool, popping into place only when the cameraman views…
Here’s a satellite picture showing why I spent 48 hours stranded in London Heathrow’s Terminal 5 last Thursday. I witnessed about 3000 passengers fighting for luggage, another 3000 waiting for hotel coupons. I left before the food riots. This is Britain covered under the snow, from top to bottom. I was lucky. I got the…
This is Sofia. Like the Italian actress, it will turn heads everywhere it flies. Not because of its cleavage, but because this Boeing 747 has a 15 by 14-foot door on it, which opens to reveal a 2.5-meter telescope. https://gizmodo.com/inside-nasas-747-flying-telescope-5099740 The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy—which went through $500-million in modifications after two decades of…
Behold the smallest world map, created by the Photonics Research Group of Ghent University-IMEC. Its scale is one trillionth. That’s a 40,000-kilometer equator reduced to 40 micrometer, half the width of a human hair. The map was embedded in a silicon photonics test chip, using a 30-step etching process. The chip has optical circuits, submicrometer…
China keeps growing like a giant red octopus fed by nuclear power and monosodium glutamate, a country that keeps spending money in pharaonic projects. Some useful, like the fastest train in the world. And some eerie and worthless, like Ordos. https://gizmodo.com/the-fastest-train-in-the-world-5434582 The city of Ordos was founded on February 26, 2001. Ordos means “palaces” in…
Adventurous Droid owners looking for something new can now load their phones up with the yet-to-be-released HTC Espresso’s Sense UI update. If you have a rooted Droid, check out this guide for full instructions. [AllDroid via Redmond Pie] https://gizmodo.com/today-in-android-rumors-version-2-1-to-t-mobile-espre-5434986
CES week meant one thing: Absolute gadget overload. Here’s the best of Gizmodo’s dispatches from gadget hell, all in one place. Monday—The Pre-Pre-Pre-Show This is the day that the press starts to show up, and when the conference begins to assume its horrible shape. It’s not really CES, but it’s starting to feel that way.…
Google calls Nexus One a superphone, thinking that we’re all a bunch of imbeciles who would think it’s better that the rest of the smartphones. After all, “Superphone” beats “Smartphone”, right? Tell that to Batman. [JoyofTech—Thanks Robert Grossman]
MOTO Development Labs devised a simple method of analyzing capacitive touch screens using drawing programs. They put the iPhone, the Nexus One, the Droid, and the Droid Eris through the paces and proved not all touch screens are created equal. Using only your fingers and a drawing app, MOTO shows how you can test out…
Death Calls the Tune, a project by German designers lab binaer, looks like a regular turntable, until you turn the lights off. Instead of playing “California Dreamin’,” this record displays text messages in phosphorus. By covering the record platter with four bands of light-sensitive phosphorescent paint and replacing the turntable’s cartridge with a LED light,…
