Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Noted Vegas performers, pop skeptics and magician-angerers Penn and Teller have turned their sights to the App Store, demoing their first attempt iPhonery at the TechCrunch50 today. Surprise! It’s a cool, iPhone-catered magic trick—but probably unapprovable. Here’s the trick: You ask a friend for a card, any card, which Penn and Teller will guess via…
New research is suggesting that Stone Age Britons were arranging hilltop monuments in an elaborate grid of isosceles triangles—allowing travelers to navigate the country without maps. Apparently, these markers included famous sites like Stonehenge and The Mount. Basically, these stone markers were a like a primitive GPS—and the accuracy was quite astounding. Researcher Tom Brooks…
We thought about passing on a post about this new JVC camcorder since its specs don’t indicate much of an upgrade from previous cams, but the 1080p, slowmo capable machine has better stabilization, manual controls and full bitrate AVCHD recording. https://gizmodo.com/jvc-everio-x-an-hd-and-slow-mo-camcorder-that-shoots-9-5163658 Those are mild upgrades, I’ll give you that. At first glance, the camera sounds…
Click to viewIs this the most tasteful Star Wars parody ever made? Far from it. But I’ll admit that it made me laugh. I mean, Stormtrooper truthers? Amazing. [CollegeHumor]
Last year, Esquire shot Megan Fox in 3K resolution using the Red One. This year, they’re going to 5K (yes, 5K, meaning you can see her pores) for the Sexiest Woman Alive, using Red’s Epic. Here’s a (low res) taste: https://gizmodo.com/megan-fox-esquire-cover-shot-in-video-not-stills-5229743 Click to view We’ll have to wait another month for another teaser as they…
Looks like MossPuppet got his hands all over the I am T-Pain iPhone app. Then he got T-Pogue to sing an ode to Steve Jobs. It sounds as bad as Jason himself. Warning: long.
And on the seventh day, God rested, but not without creating the Snuggie first. And God saw it was good. So he created the two person snuggie. You know, to comfortably do naughty things with Mrs. God while watching TV. https://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-office-assistants-in-tiny-shorts-fight-free-5339222 This is the $350 Twosomeblanket, by designer Vik Prjonsdottir. Made with 100% Icelandic wool—in…
When Jason played with the Palm Pixi, Palm implied it wasn’t quite as gutsy as the Pre—it’s gonna be cheaper, after all—but didn’t get into details. Well, Palm InfoCenter’s got the full breakdown for its Qualcomm MSM7627 brains: https://gizmodo.com/palm-pixi-hands-on-the-smaller-pre-with-a-better-keybo-5355112 Two ARM cores, one running at 600MHz (for apps) and another at 400MHz, with a 200MHz…
Clicker, a website that’s like a TV guide for internet video, launched at TechCrunch50 today. Sounds useful and so I’m glad someone’s doing this on an ongoing basis. It’s in beta, so you can sign up for a trial but you can’t yet try it. [Clicker TC] https://gizmodo.com/internet-tv-remote-quick-links-to-free-streaming-shows-5061851
Hiroshi Sugimoto applies electrical charges to film using a 400,000-volt Van De Graaff generator, and the results are downright stunning. Sugimoto has a new exhibition of photographs called “Lightning Fields” on view at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco from 9/10 to 10/31. Go check it out if you’re in the area! And for somewhat similar…
You’re never gonna buy an iTunes LP, but you wanna know what’s inside those flashy 600MB attempts to revive albums, right? Spoiler, from Jay Robinson: A bunch of HTML and PNG files in a custom archive format. But no DRM. You can actually dive right in yourself by changing the .ITLP extension to .ZIP, giving…
The Coolpix S70 has an OLED capacitive touchscreen display, Dell’s new IPS panel claims greater color range and there’s a new JVC camcorder: all hitting the streets today. • The Coolpix S70 Nikon announced last month is now available. The main draw here in the 3.5″ capacitive OLED touchscreen that of course comes with obligatory…
Spawn Labs, a startup launching today at TechCrunch50, wants to do for console gaming what the Slingbox did for TV. With their Spawn HD-720 box, users can remotely connect to a console via their laptop. In other words, if you want to play a game on your console remotely, you can connect to your system…
In Japan, they take custom cars seriously. Just look at some of these! A Buddhist priest spent $110,000 creating a car with gullwings, scissor doors and a splithood. Oh, and then there’s the $280,000 Batman van. Yes, these people are insane. Here’s the rundown of my favorites: – A Toyota Celsior UCF20 with gullwings, scissor…
Oh, what a romantic vision Microsoft has here, with Visual Search: Imagine a search engine that served up results in images instead of text, and had easily-recognizable pictures, organized by topics and other parameters, which you could narrow down until you found what you were looking for. That dude, with the hair, in that movie?…
Intel’s Senior VP in charge of its enterprise group, Pat Gelsinger, has left the company to go work at EMC. Furthermore, Intel has created an organization called the Intel Architectural Group, one that’ll “cover all of its major product divisions.” Leading the business operations of the group will be Sean Maloney, head of sales and…
People try so hard to extend laptop battery life—going blind staring at dimmed screens, developing repetitive stress injuries by ditching mice—that they can miss the obvious. Like browser choice, which apparently have a huge impact on battery life. Seeing as most of the time spent on a laptop is spent online, AnandTech ran exhuastive tests…
Some sites are saying that Jobs lied to Pogue on his reasons for the camera-less iPod touch. I would be the first one to point out Steve’s lies, but this time it seems they are getting it wrong. https://gizmodo.com/steve-jobs-gives-his-reasons-for-lack-of-camera-in-ipod-5355959 Those sites are claiming that there’s enough space to fit an iPod nano camera in the…
I really liked the iPhone as designed by Leonardo t-shirt, but I absolutely love this one, showing the original—and still my favorite—1984 Macintosh in the same style. Pretty: https://gizmodo.com/the-iphone-as-designed-by-leonardo-da-vinci-5141137 Nice to have as a $20 alternative to the classic exploded Mac 128K. [Exploded Store] https://gizmodo.com/exploded-original-mac-128k-is-a-must-buy-for-any-gadget-5249399
A Toys R US ad for Sept. 27 follows a Walmart list that makes it seem pretty damn likely the Wii’s gonna drop to $199 in the next couple of weeks. With Wii Sports intact, even. About time. [Kotaku] https://kotaku.com/wii-price-drop-looks-to-hit-first-week-of-october-5357766
