Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
A lot of attention has been lavished on the Motorola Droid today—and rightfully so—but it’s merely the “cornerstone” of Verizon’s Droid family. HTC’s Droid Eris is gonna be the cheap stepbrother, at 99 bucks. https://gizmodo.com/motorola-droid-first-hands-on-its-a-terminator-5391825 Though it’s been speculated that the Droid Eris will run Android 1.6 and sport a hard-to-get-excited-about 528MHz Qualcomm CPU, it…
You can bust out "I Love Rock n’ Roll" on this power-chord-friendly guitar tee, but by the time you do, all the reasons you set out to learn guitar in the first place will be gone. [ThinkGeek via ChipChick]
While it’s probably not the first casualty of the Google GPS navigation bombshell, the fact remains—Microsoft is pulling the plug on their MSN Direct service on January 1st, 2012. https://gizmodo.com/google-and-the-deadly-power-of-data-5391966 Fortunately, that is plenty of time for subscribers to the GPS information service to jump ship. You don’t even have to wait for your subscription…
If you look closely, you will see circles overlaid on this idyllic postcard of Vercorin, Switzerland. It’s not a Photoshop: These holes are as real as the ones in Emmental cheese. It’s a startling optical illusion. 2500-pixel panorama ahead. Zoom in the image above to see the panorama in full detail As you can see…
The US Air Force is not only experimenting with lasers to kill missiles. They are now using them to transmit data from planes and drones, at 22 miles and enabling quantum encryption. They did it with adaptive optics: https://gizmodo.com/boeing-airborne-laser-weapon-fires-for-the-first-time-5100377 When you transmit information through turbulence—motion in the atmosphere caused by turbulent cells or “wind”—it’s distorted…
The first job I ever had was working in a grocery store, and you could often find me in the parking lot trying to see how many carts I could wrangle at once. That’s kind of how Link Mugs work. Back then, the danger was smashing into cars with a 50-cart runaway train. With Link…
The best thing about the Motorola Droid might just be Android 2.0. It got official yesterday, and Google showed off some highlights, but here’s a visual guide if you wanna get a little closer. (You should, it’s pretty great.) https://gizmodo.com/motorola-droid-first-hands-on-its-a-terminator-5391825
The new lock screen, which has a virtual spinning dial to unlock it. The dashboard interface, for when it’s mounted in your car. The new Market (really from 1.6), but with the Verizon channel. Layers are essentially data points layered on top of a map—a search for coffee places or gas stations or whatever. New…
This is the Happiness Hat. It detects whether or not you’re smiling. If you aren’t, it jabs you in the back of the head with a metal spike. Nothing makes people happier than sharp skull pain! The whole thing is a project by interactive artist and designer Lauren McCarthy, designed to train you towards “Improved…
Sony is recalling around 69,000 VGP-AC19V17 AC Adapters used in Vaio all-in-one desktop computers (VGC-LT series and VGC-JS2 series) and docking stations (VGP-PRBX1 and VGP-PRFE1). Apparently, four reports of adapters short circuiting has alerted Sony to a weakness in the insulation, which could pose a shock hazard. So far, no one has been injured, but…
Today you can treat yourself to a beautiful 16″ Dell Studio laptop, delight a small child with Monsters vs. Aliens for PlayStation 3, and impress a romantic interest with your knowledge of composer Philip Glass. Bases: covered. Top Deals: • 16″ Dell Studio XPS 16 Laptop for $1180 plus free shipping (normally $1573 – use…
Today, as soon as Google showed off its beta GPS navigator, the stocks of Garmin, TomTom and other companies in that industry fell into the toilet. It’s hard to compete with free Google apps, but that’s not why they’re screwed… https://gizmodo.com/google-maps-navigation-a-free-ass-kicking-turn-by-tu-5391408 TomTom owns Tele Atlas, who drives the roads of the world in order to…
This Hello Kitty solar charger strap provides the dual benefits of juicing up your phone and also making you look like a 13-year-old girl. It’s a win-win! [Rakuten via TokyoMango]
Apple loves rejecting apps for having swear words in them, but a database of scantily clad Asian ladies? Approved! Who needs a rhyme or reason when you can be random and inscrutable? [iTunes Link via TechCrunch] https://gizmodo.com/iphone-app-store-bans-book-app-for-naughty-language-5114825
The Mole webcam infiltrates your inner sanctum, records the goings on and automatically sends the footage to YouTube. It can also notify you via email or Twitter. In other words, this would be a great, inexpensive home surveillance cam. It’s supposed to be a snap to set up, and you can access the feed and…
Our quest for green energy has taken to the high seas with the Nimbus E-Power. Despite being fueled by electricity, it manages a respectable top speed of 27 knots and a range of 20 nautical miles on a 4-hour charge. Actually, that’s 4-hours on a 3-phase 400V/32 source. It takes 28 hours on a standard,…
Toppling 7000 dominoes to commemorate the launch of Windows 7 definitely riled up the employees at Microsoft’s Hyderabad center in India, but they probably didn’t think it through in terms of the jokes it might generate. [Ars Technica]
Oh, Sr. Presidente, you look so goooood in the middle of the largest photovoltaic farm in the country—-the 180-acre DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center near Tampa, Florida. Maybe that’s why you want to put solar panels everywhere. President Barack Obama announced today a $8-billion federal plant to modernize the United State’s power grid. $3.4…
Google’s free GPS feature on Android 2.0 is great news! Unless you’re the fine folks at Garmin and TomTom, in which case, oh shit. [Engadget] https://gizmodo.com/google-maps-navigation-a-free-ass-kicking-turn-by-tu-5391408
Duh, this old school Mac is way too ancient to surf the web for porn! Stupid dog. [Ads of the World via Copyranter]
