Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
The July 10, 1873 Decatur Republican (Decatur, IL) describes, in a rather condescending manner, a prediction of one Professor Plantamour. It seems Plantamour was fond of making predictions involving comets, predicting in 1872 that Plantamour’s Comet would collide with Earth on August 12, 1873. After it was fairly certain that such an event would not…
Stalk your friends, have brunch with them at a Zagat-rated spot nearby and stream the whole thing live from your Android phone. Saw VII? No, it’s just this month in Android apps. Zagat nru: You know that compass thing the iPhone 3GS does? Yeah, whatever. Imagine it repurposed to show you nearby restaurants or bars…
We have to hand it to that Twitter thing. From further boosting the egos of outspoken tech industry personalities to supporting Iranian revolutions, the service has demonstrated its strengths. Today, the service can let relatives know you are still alive. Developed by Japanese geek forum Koress Project, the Akiduki Pulse box does this by autonomously…
Lifehacker is at again with a killer list of five of the best system restore tools available today. It’s a Windows, Mac and Linux show, folks, and the best part is they were submitted by users like you! [Lifehacker] https://lifehacker.com/five-best-free-system-restore-tools-5303067
Don’t look now, but Acer—yes, that Acer—is on the verge of unseating Dell as the second-largest PC maker. Acer’s rise to the number two spot behind Hewlett-Packard was fueled in part by netbooks and other low-cost PC models, as well as what people in the biz call “vision” as it pertains to introducing new PC…
The August 6, 1961 Post-Standard Sunday magazine (Syracuse, NY) ran a short piece about an Experimental Engineering class at UCLA that was experimenting/playing with a “moon man’s suit.” Designed by Allyn B. Hazard, the suit also appeared on the cover of Life magazine’s April 27, 1962 issue. The entire two-page spread from the Post-Standard can…
If this keyboard were real, and not made up of hundreds of thousands of Photoshopped pixels, it would undoubtedly be a delicious PC experience right at your fingertips. Sadly, it is Photoshopped, as you can tell from a variety of tells and mistakes. Says resident PS guru Jesus Diaz, “the chocolate and marsmallow keys are…
The wonderfully retro Olympus E-P1, recently fondled by the hands of beautiful Chinese models, has been subsequently unboxed and fondled by the rough hands of some lucky guy in the U.K. https://gizmodo.com/olympus-e-p1-micro-four-thirds-camera-goes-legit-with-1-5292179 We get a good look at the interchangeable lenses, the rig itself, as well as a shot of the pretty pedestrian box. As…
The inventor of this head-pounding “alarm clock” is admittedly a bit quirky (“Hi Mom!” cliche, check!), but I’ll be damned if I don’t give him kudos for inventing the most violent, aggressive alarm clock I’ve ever seen. Sadly, the source site doesn’t allow embedding, so I’ve assembled a series of screen grabs to try and…
io9 was busy this weekend detailing detailing how the future might look as “augmented reality” takes off in the next decade or so. Personally, I can’t wait for the information overload. It’s just too bad spam will follow us into 2020. [io9] https://gizmodo.com/two-augmented-reality-technologies-that-are-about-to-ch-5303332
The quick lens of U.S. Navy sonar technician Ronald Dejarnett was able to capture this Air Force F-22 going supersonic over the Gulf of Alaska as the pilot did his best Top Gun flyby impression. [U.S. Navy]
A quiet addition to the relatively new Lenovo S12 grants users a bit of a speed boost if they’re willing to sacrifice some battery life to get it. https://gizmodo.com/lenovo-s12-is-the-first-netbook-with-nvidia-ion-costs-5268833 The option is a VIA Nano ULV 2250 processor with Chrome9 HC3 graphics. This setup replaces the usual Intel Atom and GMA 950 tandem that ships…
Surely this is some kind of innocent SEO-related keyword slip, right? I mean, Microsoft definitely doesn’t want one of the biggest online retailers in the world billing its new OS as Windows Vista 7 Home Premium, right? Right?! I mean, such labeling would play right into detractor’s hands. Regardless, Hodgman has been dispatched. New Apple…
The recently released Nokia N97 has been drowned, put on a diet and was unlucky enough to share its launch with the Palm Pre and iPhone 3GS. We still thought it was “quite good,” and now it’s getting new firmware. https://gizmodo.com/nokia-n97-waterproof-experiment-tests-hypothesis-that-n-5299397 However, that said there is as of yet no nanotechnology update process available to…
Did Jesus’s manhandling of the HTC Hero get you all hot and bothered? If so—and you live in the U.K.—you can pre-order the $710 phone today for a July 15 arrival (subject to change). [Amazon via Phandroid] https://gizmodo.com/htc-heros-teflon-coating-makes-the-iphone-feel-like-jun-5302637
Imagine Slate columnist Daniel Gross’s surprise when he arrived at the Nikkei offices in Japan and was greeted by businessmen, sans ties. To appear so casual in the workplace is almost sacrilege in Japan, and yet here it was, happening. But why? Simple: It’s the environment, stupid. And ironically, in a country obsessed with technology…
This painting by Leslie Carr, based on a drawing by R.A. Smith, appears in the 1951 book The Exploration of Space by Arthur C. Clarke. Eighteen years before Man would set foot on the moon, the image depicts a Martian colony of the future, similar to those which would show up later in the 1957…
Nikkei, one of the largest media conglomerates in Japan, is reporting that Sony has been working on a combination cellphone/game system for nearly a year. It’s a rumor we’ve been hearing for years, so what’s different this time? Well, not much, really. Nikkei is a very solid source, definitely not prone to tossing plausible ideas…
We’ve seen reimagined Genesises (Geneses?) before, but this might be the best one yet. It’s portable, it plays both original cartridges and ROMS off an SD card, it’s got TV-out and it only costs $50. Sign us up. https://gizmodo.com/the-sega-genesis-is-back-baby-5169314 The Retro-Gen (branded Sega, though we can’t imagine Sega actually had anything to do with it)…
You may have thought, after eons of punching each other in movies with nonexistent plots, that Autobots and Decepticons wouldn’t agree on anything. But as proven on Attack of the Show, they both agree that the Pre bests the iPhone. Click to view Video Game – E3 2009 – Attack of the Show Thanks to…
