Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
A woman is potentially facing three years in jail for recording three minutes of New Moon, the sequel to Twilight. Three years. In Jail. Over Twilight. Samantha Tumpach claims that she should not face the harsh punishment intended for bootleggers, because all she was doing is recording family members singing “Happy Birthday” to her sister…
I know it won’t look like Batman once it’s all unboxed and under normal lighting, but for a fleeting moment, I want to possess nothing more than this $60 miniature Dark Knight multitool. [Amazon]
Everyone knows that stroking a beard helps you think. And there are few beards more majestic than James Lipton’s. So it makes sense that LG is using said beard to promote responsible texting in these actually-amusing ads. Come on, admit it. You can’t resist Lipton. [Beard Revue via NotCot]
It’s a minor update, but the Android 2.0.1 SDK just came out, mostly consisting of little bug fixes (Bluetooth, resource allocation, that kind of thing). Alongside that, there’ll be an OTA update for the Droid in “the coming weeks.” The Android 2.0.1 update should be out by the end of the year, but Droid owners…
Chicago’s 820-feet-tall Aqua Tower is one of those buildings that make me dizzy. It looks like a vertical version of the stunning Lençóis Maranhenses, the sterile desert in the north of Brazil, full of turquoise fresh water ponds: The architects, however, say that the Aqua Tower is inspired by the limestone outcroppings in the Great…
Verizon’s done BOGO (as we in the know call them) deals on BlackBerrys before, but now that they’ve got some seriously solid Android hardware, we’re a lot more excited for the (unconfirmed) Droid and Droid Eris deal this weekend. Boy Genius Report hears that the deal will last only three days, from December 4th (tomorrow!)…
Having a bunch of smart people working for your company is good! But having all the smart people working for your company? Well, then your only option is to make deals with dumbasses, and nobody wants that! Forgive me for taking this quote from Google VP BRadley Horowitz with a grain of salt, but it’s…
Not too long ago, Dell was one of the fastest growing companies in the world. Now, it’s the only major PC manufacturer actually getting smaller. iSuppli’s quarterly report on computer shipments is a little dry, but today’s report that Dell’s shipments declined 5.9% caught our eye. It’s easy enough to blame the economy, but not…
Just how long can you procrastinate in your online holiday shopping? Dealnews assembled a verified list including retailers like Amazon, Best Buy and Macy’s. Not everyone is here, but your “Lids” will most certainly arrive on time. [dealnews and image]
Mary Kirby is one lucky, spoiled Runway Girl: She gets to fly all around the world in the best seats of the best planes. However, she has never experienced anything as amazing as her trip in Emirates’ Airbus A380. Not only the first class is actually a super-first class with seats bigger than my apartment,…
Here’s some data to think about before sending that next picture of yourself neekeed (aka sexting): 17% of the recipients forward the image to someone else. But how many people have actually sexted? A third of young adults have sexted at least once in their lives. Almost half of those saw it as a normal…
Popular Science has a massive gallery of the year’s most fantastic scientific images, and they’re pretty incredible. Here’s our favorites. See if you can figure out what they are before you read the description. And of course, check out their full gallery here: [Popular Science]
Time Warner, perhaps hip to the fact that I haven’t bothered to check my meat space snail mail mailbox in the last three weeks, took matters into their own hands and inserted this warning directly into my browser. At this point, file sharing warnings via snail mail and e-mail are pretty commonplace. But this is…
Magicians seem to have fallen out of favor in recent years, but Marco Tempest, the "Virtual Magician" has something going that could change all of that: augmented reality. Tempest’s “Magic Projection” system utilizes a laptop, a small projector, a PS3 Eye Toy, LED tracking markers and, of course, his bad ass proprietary software. As you…
The first problem with the Wolfram Alpha iPhone app was that it cost $50. The second problem was that the site’s iPhone web interface was nearly as good as the app, and it was free. Guess which issue Wolfram “fixed!” https://gizmodo.com/wolframalpha-iphone-app-is-a-50-super-calculator-5384451 TUAW noticed a not-so-subtle change to the Wolfram Alpha’s mobile site, which now prompts…
Ah, weird relatives. The ones whose existence we ignore until there’s the realization that we’re obligated to get them some kind of gift. Here are a few safe ideas that are reasonable on cost and extra low on effort. BTW, if you hate the gallery format as much as the you hate your relatives, click…
Intel this week announced a beta SDK for Atom-powered netbooks, with an eye towards having an app store preinstalled on both Windows and Moblin systems in 2010. The business model will follow that of the iPhone app store, with developers getting 70% of the revenue and 30% going to operational and partner costs. Potential applications…
In this installment of Now Available: Dell’s snazzy Vostro 1015 laptop, WowWee’s sweet-as-cinnamon pico projector, the not-so-hot Samsung Omnia II, and the Nokia N900, a smartphone that’s so smart it’s not even a smartphone. Dell’s Vostro 1015, the rare business laptop that brings a halfway elegant design to the boardroom table, is now available. The…
What do The Bourne Identity, Mission Impossible 3, Mr & Mrs Smith, Children of Men, and Agent Cody Banks 2 have in common? Absurd, futuristic, and totally fake software interfaces, designed in part by one man: Mark Coleran. Designing a fake dashboard for an imagined supercomputer or a hovering control panel for a worldwide surveillance…
