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Roadside bombs are a a source of fear for both soldiers as well as their worried families at home. Thankfully the Pentagon is working on projects such as Yellow Jacket, unmanned helicopters which detect electromagnetic emissions from potential IEDs. As many IEDs, improvised explosive devices, are set off using a wireless signal, these drones will…
I know the week’s barely started, but I’ve already got the freakishly scary weekend project I want to take on. Some folks have put together instructions to build a completely automatic, autonomous sentry gun. All the instructions, from how to build the firing mechanism to the open source control software, are available on the site…
China Ontrade calls this the iPhone 4 Generation Midboard. Not very exciting, but the last time they announced a next-generation iPhone part, they were right. A month later, the iPhone 3GS appeared with exactly those parts. What could this mean? https://gizmodo.com/next-generation-iphone-3g-parts-revealed-by-chinese-who-5271696 The iPhone 3GS display Let’s review what we know: When we first covered China…
As tiresome as the Droid vs iPhone arguments are lately, I’m happy to have finally found something to sum up my feelings on the issue. Doesn’t hurt that it has a Star Wars reference either. But yes, I’m so shallow that I don’t want a Droid because I find it unattractive looking. [Joy of Tech]
The Roca Active & Relax has floor-to-ceiling “mirror-screen LCD plates” that act as either windows, monitors, or mirrors, a floor that moves at the command of your voice to convert the bath into a fitness facility, and hidden features galore. Designed by Michal Mitek, this concept bathroom design is intended to make the most of…
With a 1GHz Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm, 4-inch capacitive touch display, an 8.1 megapixel camera, and the lovely Rachael Android UI, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 will be a great 2010 entry into the Android market for Sony Ericsson. https://gizmodo.com/sony-ericssons-rachael-android-ui-5394420 Engadget’s first impressions of the device are that the overall interface is currently more than…
Spring Design’s Alex reader seemed very similar to Barnes & Noble’s Nook. I thought that Spring Design was the copycat, but based on the lawsuit they filed for violation of intellectual property, it may be the other way around. https://gizmodo.com/spring-designs-alex-ereader-runs-android-has-dual-disp-5384709 Based on the press release, the claim is that Barnes & Noble used information, including…
Case-Mate Designs Kindle Case, Proves They Don’t Understand Kindle…Famous Watchmaker Teams With Famous Carmaker To Launch Least Famous Phone Ever…Designer Discovers Way To Make Bike Seats More Uncomfortable…Wind Turbines Go Stealth to Quit Screwing Up Radar Case-Mate, the people who used to make zipper booklets for CDs, built the $80 Enlighten case that lights up…
It’s tough to find a partner who’s always ready and willing to play, so James Bridle attempted to build one. 304 matchboxes and several bags of beans later he had MENACE, a Tic-Tac-Toe playing “machine” designed to learn and improve. James’ MENACE (Matchbox Educable Noughts And Crosses Engine) is based on a manual machine learning…
This realistic-looking can of Coke Zero isn’t filled with a refreshing, low calorie soda—it’s actually a 4GB spy cam DVR that can capture footage in VGA (640×480) resolution. The can also has a wireless remote, rechargeable battery and a false bottom that hides a USB port and the on/off switch. It looks pretty convincing, but…
Forget the Darpa’s urban challenge. This fully automated Audi TTS—equipped with GPS, sensors, and guidance systems—is set to race on the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, a crazy 19.99-kilometer rally race circuit with 156 turns. https://gizmodo.com/darpa-urban-challenge-cars-invading-pentagon-parking-lo-378672 The team that created it wants to see if they can really push performance in such a challenging environment.…
Many of us have jailbroken our iPhones, but did everyone remember to change the default root password? Those guilty of that oversight are vulnerable to the simple intrusion method this guy used to hold iPhones hostage in the Netherlands. Apparently all that it took to terrify many Dutch iPhone users was a “trivial” port scanning…
My guess is that when the rockets under his seat fired and he suddenly found himself over 300 feet away from the PC-7 Mk II he was riding in, he probably realized the error of his ways. That’s right, a passenger joyriding over South Africa with an experienced Silver Falcons air display team pilot steadied…
The music may be horrible, but if you rub a tape head over these ties you can actually hear jumbled sound collages recorded from the NYC metro system. This is possible because the ties are 50% audio cassette tape. If you have $90 to spend on one of the ties, and you are willing to…
Yesterday I spent the evening at Tuthilltown Spirits, New York’s first distillery after the Prohibition, and makers of some of the most delicious whiskey I’ve ever had. I would never use their bottles to make a PC. It’d be sacrilege. A bottle of bad whiskey, on the other side, would be perfect for it. After…
So you can’t draw. No problem—ScribbleBot can help. I mean, you still won’t have any talent, but you can at least feel like you do for a short period of time. As you will see in the video, the ScribbleBot is a wireless printing device that follows a pre-set drawing path downloaded from the internet.…
The 684-foot, $1.2-billion warship USS New York is actually made of New York. At least, 7.5 tonnes of salvaged steel from the Twin Towers. Watch it come back home, under the eyes of the Lady of the Harbor: The USS New York is a San Antonio-class amphibious assault vessel, which can carry 800 marines with…
I know someone who apparently can’t resist the attraction of Mario. I can’t blame her. I don’t know if it is the mustache or the mushrooms, but I share the feeling. That’s why I like this sound-enabled Mario costume. The costume uses an Arduino system connected to an Adafruit WaveShield. Sensors trigger the sound with…
It looks like the cavernous belly of a massive cruise ship, or a “level” in the real-life horror video game that is CERN. In reality, there’s a good chance you use these tubes—which belong to Microsoft—every single day. https://gizmodo.com/worlds-largest-cruise-ship-sets-sail-5394361 What you’re seeing is a tiny section of the 7.5 miles of cooling pipes inside Microsoft’s…
In the most recent World Solar Challenge, a Japanese team upset the former 4-time Dutch champs to win the 1,864-mile solar car race across Australia with the vehicle you see here. The Tokai Challenger completed the journey in 29 hours and 49 minutes despite a flat tire—that’s an average speed of about 63mph. That’s actually…
