Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
YouTube and Universal have teamed up to create VEVO, a site which will host music videos with the blessings of various recording companies. The site is launching tonight and so far the details sound pretty great. Mashable is reporting on the launch event and this is what they’ve learned so far: On stage, Google CEO…
It may have taken me ages to hear about this story, but it took The New York Times 49 years to issue a correction to an editorial dismissing space travel. I guess they’d finally opened up their high school textbooks. Somehow I suddenly feel better about the frequent typos or errors I make. [Kottke via…
Oh yeah, month after month of squeezable balloons. No need to change models, the bubble wrap calendar is just as irresistible as last year. [Perpetual Kid] https://gizmodo.com/bubblewrap-calendar-lets-you-pop-your-life-away-one-da-5022830
Diligent Android-tamperers have done it again—the Droid has been rooted. There aren’t many practical benefits quite yet, but it’s a first step to all kinds of custom Droid goodness that’s hopefully coming soon. [AllDroid] https://gizmodo.com/android-hacking-for-the-masses-5341915
I have a box of cables in my closet. I don’t know what the hell half of them are for. What I do know is that I certainly didn’t pay several hundred—much less over a thousand—dollars for them. Click to view Here are some of the most overpriced cables we’ve encountered over time. Feel free…
Jeff Bezos, you trickster. Here I was, resisting the urge to buy one of your Kindles, and then you throw at me Annie Little and her cute “Fly Me Away.” I want my life to move in stop motion.
Auto-tuned science was fun, but an auto-tuned retelling of the year’s more ridiculous news events such as the Balloon Boy hoax is fantastic-yet-oh-so-terrible. So fantastic-yet-oh-so-horrible, in fact, that I’m crying because I can’t get the beat out of my head. https://gizmodo.com/carl-sagan-auto-tuned-part-ii-featuring-feynman-tyson-5385354
Unfortunately for Lin Ring, her $14,600 surgical fingerprint switching procedure was able to fool the scanners, but could not prevent immigration officials from noticing the scars on her fingers. Ring was deported from Japan twice: once in 2007 and again some time later after she slipped back into the country with her fake prints. Apparently,…
Apparently New York City has over 90,000 vintage photos on 35-millimeter film which they would love to sell. And Google might just help them with that. Under a proposed deal, Google would digitize those pictures of “Manhattan buildings that were originally shot for tax purposes,” and show them off in Google Maps. Seems neat, but…
I love the first Aqua Forest (iTunes link) “game”, which wasn’t so much a game as it was a physics simulator with different liquids and solids. But Aqua Forest 2? It’s more like a fancy marble game with water droplets. You get two game modes, but one is basically just an endless version of the…
Magnesium alloy. Aluminum. Zinc. That’s what Dell’s Vostro V13 is built with. It’s as thin as Dell’s primo Adamo at 0.65 inches, but it weighs less, 3.5 pounds. Yet somehow, it’s $450. https://gizmodo.com/vostro-v13-dells-new-450-0-65-inch-ultraportable-5421211 Well, part of the somehow is that the default $450 configuration uses a Celeron processor and comes with Ubuntu. You don’t play…
In the comments, show us a picture of the nerdiest holiday decoration you have ever seen. Bonus points if it’s a photo you took of something you actually own. For those of you who are dragging your feet about decorating this year, this list might provide you with some “good” last minute ideas. And look,…
Rock Gear‘s HexoLight LED-lighting system is supposed to be used with Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and other video games to give your living room a super cool night club vibe. Unfortunately the video demo of it only screams super tacky. Ok ok, I’m being a bit harsh. The lights are actually pretty nifty if you’ve…
Why do we drink more around the holidays? Is it the cold? The relatives? Just looking for an excuse? Whatever the reason, here are some drinking gadgets for your friends with a lush for life. (Also: it’s the relatives). BTW, if you hate the gallery format as much as the Grinch hated Christmas, click here.…
Oh, Google Street View, you endless source of stupidness you. Who knew you could also be a source of art. The art of the quotidian ramblings of humans and other beasts. Or as the artist Jon Rafman puts it: The world captured by Google appears to be more truthful and more transparent because of the…
This illustration, from the September 10, 1910 New York Tribune, imagines the rooftop burglars of the future. BURGLARS LEARN TO HANDLE THE AEROPLANE WITH PRECISION AND SILENCE: Our artist takes a look into the future and foresees the time when roofs must be secured as carefully as any other part of the home. Previously on…
I love TV technology, but wince when I see an $11K Japan-only Toshiba stuffed with a 3TB DVR. And adding internet widgets, like Samsung’s, is even worse. I hate this trend—TVs just need great picture and lower cost. TV makers may think we want these things, and I think they’re right we want content on…
A handful of updates from now available Apple, all fixes: Nearest and dearest to us is EFI firmware update 1.8, which promises to mute the optical drive’s munchy sounds on startup in MacBook Pros and should alleviate some of the wonkiness from update 1.7. [Apple]
After an acrimonious decision earlier this year to let authors determine text-to-speech availability in their e-books, Amazon has vowed to roll out new Kindle features for blind and vision-impaired readers in 2010. According to a post on their site, the updates include audible menus and a new super size font for easier navigation. [Amazon] https://gizmodo.com/photos-and-video-from-the-national-federation-of-the-bl-5202554
I’ve always loved getting handmade Christmas cards. It’s just so heartwarming to open one and listen to a holiday song on the built-in iPhone. I really doubt that many of us will send or receive Christmas cards like this one, but if you really feel like a DIY project then don’t forget to get an…