Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
The next time you Google something, if the search results seem a little too good, a little too personal, it’s because they are. While Google’s always delivered customized search results to people logged into their Google account—that is, search results tailored to you, based on your web history (yes, even outside of Google, like Gizmodo),…
In this week’s Steve-approved app roundup: Your music library, converted into baddies! Twitter, visualized in 3D! Byplanes, flown! Xbox Live accounts, accessed! Cars, salvaged! Overprotective parents, abetted! Live video calls, called! And more… https://gizmodo.com/steve-jobs-approves-knocking-live-video-app-personally-5416950 The Apps To view the gallery as a single page, click here https://gizmodo.com/the-weeks-best-iphone-apps-5419421 This Week’s iPhone News On Giz • An…
The New York Times is reporting that Apple’s agreed to buy the music streaming service LaLa, according to “a person with knowledge of the deal.” Apple’s now in the streaming music business. https://gizmodo.com/apple-in-advanced-acquisition-talks-with-lala-5419220 Interestingly, the Times says that LaLa went to Apple to be acquired, and what Apple’s after is LaLa’s engineers, with their cloud…
That’s the only thing I can think about when I see the Daewon Park Observatory. But where are my superpowers? I want the power of flight! I want the power to kill a yak 200 yards away, with mind bullets! I want the power… to move you.* But until I get those, I just want…
Song Summoner: Jason sez: https://gizmodo.com/song-summoner-comes-from-ipod-to-iphone-uses-your-own-5418160 Song Summoner was one of the few games released for the iPod-not the touch, but original clickwheel type. It was special, as a game, because it used your own music to procedurally generate enemies. Now, it’s on the iPhone. It’s $10, but it’s an RPG, which supposedly implies more gameplay…
I’d never felt sympathy for a fly until I just watched this latest, astounding clip from BBC Life in which a Venus Flytrap consumes murders its prey. https://gizmodo.com/life-think-of-it-as-planet-earth-part-ii-5383301 The time lapse growth footage was captured over a period of two to three weeks, which is the time it takes for the leaves to grow into…
Intel just told us that its first Larrabee graphics card isn’t ever coming out “as standalone discrete product,” because they’re behind where they’d hoped to be in development, meaning you won’t be shoving one inside of your PC anytime soon. And you have to figure that’s pretty far behind, since the Larrabee launch timeframe was…
Charles Lindbergh may have shown human fortitude by flying across the Atlantic in his “Spirit of St. Louis,” but now he has robotic company when it comes to transatlantic records. An underwater robotic glider built by Rutgers University students and scientists has achieved the first underwater robot crossing, after traveling beneath the waves for 221…
Dell’s reorganizing the entire company to create a bonafide mobile division that will make work on phones and other portable thingers, headed up by Ron Garriques, formerly of Motorola. Incidentally, Dell’s consumer PC division is getting rolled into the small-business unit—which kinda smells weird to us, especially considering how Dell’s shrinking. https://gizmodo.com/the-incredible-shrinking-dell-5418491 Maybe we’ll finally…
Alec Baldwin reveals how his GE-jingoist counterpart on 30 Rock, Jack Donaghy, will take the news about Comcast buying a majority stake of NBC. It’s sort of how I feel, but about life, and without an office. [Media Decoder] https://gizmodo.com/comcast-eats-ge-nbc-owned-by-cable-provider-5417897
I met my first serious girlfriend after my first divorce—yes, there are more of both—through a proto-Facebook created at Google. It was 2004, and it’s name was Orkut. But social networks go back to 1995. Click to zoom in It all started with Classmates.com, which apparently has 50,000,000 users now. On the top of the…
Snowman purists may object, because this smirking seasonal statue, which stands just 0.01mm wide—one fifth of a human hair—is actually built from tin and titanium, not fresh powder. But still! The more you learn about this snowman, the less whimsical he becomes. He doesn’t actually, glow blue; that’s a lab-created effect. It’s not actually snowing…
The existence of a new secret plane photographed this week has been confirmed by the United States Air Force. The secret aircraft now has an official denomination: The RQ-170 Sentinel, a flying wing developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works. https://gizmodo.com/us-secret-plane-uncovered-5416161 The RQ-170 is a stealthy unmanned aircraft designed to “provide reconnaissance and surveillance support to…
Obviously, it’s not much now but an empty lot you can find in Chattanooga, TN. But what was here once upon a time? Circuit City. That’s a pre-holiday consumer downer if I ever heard one, but hey, at least the whole strip mall didn’t go down alongside the electronics retailer. Oh wait, it did. [Thanks…
You can now put in your order for the first ASUS Eee PC running on an Nvidia Ion platform (and find out how good a bargain it really is) from Amazon for $500, shipping January 15th. [Amazon via Electronista] https://gizmodo.com/netbooks-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-next-6-months-5383463
The Windows 7 Family Pack was a great offer, bundling three full Home Premium upgrades for $150. It was also a limited time deal, but without a set terminus. Well, now we have an expiration date: gift-buying season. https://gizmodo.com/windows-7-family-pack-pricing-confirmed-at-149-5327531 Paul Thurrott traces the arc from start to finish: When Microsoft first briefed me about the…
Chrome OS, Android, Navigation, Voice and DNS…these are just some of the ways Google has increased their control over our digital lives in recent months. Are you comfortable with the increasing level of control Google has over your data? https://gizmodo.com/google-navigator-for-android-review-good-for-free-but-5393935 What do you think the future will hold (i.e.will Google end up creating sentient robots…
The latest tale of a flaming iPhone encounter comes to us courtesy of Bobby Hodges, who describes how such an incident almost ruined a fraternity house party. https://gizmodo.com/flaming-iphone-3g-melts-a-crater-in-this-car-seat-5327124 I was at a fraternity house hanging out one night. One of my friends had his iPhone plugged into the speakers so we could have music. We…
Tag clouds provide a quick visual summary of the most popular subjects on a particular website. Newegg’s “Shopping EggXperience” forum gives customers a place to talk about their problems with the site. They make an excellent couple. UPDATE Newegg’s response: Some of you may have noticed a few sites calling out the negative keywords in…
We’ve been focusing on gadget gift guides lately, so I thought I would mix up the lists a bit for TGIF and focus on architecture. Here are some of the best places to just kick back and relax. This stunning home is embedded in a hill in Vals, Switzerland, but it still has some amazing…
