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What a year, roller coaster from beginning to end, and tons of amazing stories. In case you missed any, here they are: The most popular stories for 2008, plus the monthly top 10s. Click to viewTop 10 Most Popular Stories of 2008 1. New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It’s Spooky 832,353…
Bricks! Minifigs! Spaceships! Star Wars! Airplanes! Robots! Sex! Secret Vaults! Our exclusive trip to the Lego mothership! More than six million read the best Lego stories of 2008. Check the Top 10 and my favorites. Most Popular Lego Stories of 2008 1. The Lego Secret Vault 459,413 views, my favorite Lego story of the year…
A Georgia law going into effect tomorrow will require that all sex offenders not simply turn over their email addresses and screen names to authorities—which goes back to 2006—but all their passwords as well. Georgia is one of 15 states requiring sex offenders to give their email addresses, screen names and “other internet handles” to…
TUAW has the most complete description yet of the new Mac mini widely rumored/expected to launch at Macworld. It’ll be topped with iMac-esque black plastic instead of white, and have a lip like Time Capsule. https://gizmodo.com/new-mac-mini-will-use-nvidia-chipset-helloooo-full-hd-5114277 The lip conceals the Mac mini’s optical drive slot, which is useful now since TUAW says that the new…
9 to 5’s latest Apple rumor is that the iWork suite, Apple’s Office competitor, is going to the cloud. Which is good news because I hardly use Office and find myself in Google Docs when I need to use a word processor or spreadsheet. If true, there’s no doubt in my mind it’ll require use…
Casio’s 25 years of G-Shock celebration continues with a new set of characters designed by Shiro Nakano. Normally we don’t pander to marketing gimmicks, but these toys might be cooler than the watches themselves. https://gizmodo.com/four-more-casio-g-shocks-round-out-25th-anniversary-col-391268 Apparently, the Japanese think so too because they have caused quite a stir amongst local connoisseurs of rugged watches. Unfortunately,…
Microsoft’s responded to the Zune 30GB failure, blaming a leap-year handling bug. And they’ve provided a fix. Which is to wait til New Years, when the bug will go away by itself. Huh. Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices…
Riding the new Peak2Peak Gondola that connects Whistler’s Blackcomb and Whistler Mountain summits, over 2.7 miles, must be exhilarating. But jumping off it is just insane. Shortly after opening, these Two Red Bull sponsored lunatics rode a car to the mid point of the ride and jumped. That makes for a good preview of the…
Our friends at Consumerist have a new owner, and it seems like a great match: they’ve become the first addition to a new non-profit division of the company that publishes Consumer Reports. Consumerist will remain the same great source of no-bullshit survival tips for navigating our capitalist universe, and will remain totally independent from its…
The new book The Race For a New Game Machine, by two IBM engineers, details how ridiculous the design process was when IBM was making Sony’s PS3 cell chip. Microsoft basically got a free ride. The WSJ pulls out facts like IBM employees trying to hide their work from people from companies in cubicles next…
Today we learned that Viacom is threatening to pull their channels (Comedy Central, MTV) off TWC on January 1st if they do not agree to pay up. Would you leave TWC if this happened? https://gizmodo.com/viacom-might-pull-all-channels-comedy-central-mtv-of-5121458 Would You Leave Time Warner Cable if They Lost Viacom Channels? ( surveys)
This is hot. Safari+ seamlessly adds a whole bunch of useful desktop-like features—text searching, translation, speed-scrolling and more—to Mobile Safari through the magic of Javascript bookmarkets. [Safari+ via Lifehacker] https://lifehacker.com/safari-adds-useful-functions-to-the-iphones-browser-5121228
The cockamamie plan to devote a chunk of AWS-3 spectrum to free w-fi can eliminate one enemy from its massive cadre of detractors: people who would use the bandwidth for streaming MegaPorn videos at 10kbps. In an interview with Ars Technica, FCC chair Kevin Martin confirmed that the latest iteration of the proposal has eliminated…
Viacom wants Time Warner Cable to pay more for its channels, like MTV and Comedy Central. TWC doesn’t want to pay. So on Jan. 1, they could all go away for TWC subscribers. Viacom’s argument is that their channels “provide 20 percent of their audience” yet they only “receive about 2.5 percent of the fees…
Even though HD DVD died long ago, Blockbuster is just getting around to ditching the leftovers (over 300 titles) at $8 a pop. I can’t believe they would even charge that much. [Blockbuster]
Reader Neil has just told us a DIY solution to revive Zune 30s killed by the Zunepocalypse until Microsoft gets back with an official fix. Update: The easy official fix here. https://gizmodo.com/30gb-zunes-failing-everywhere-all-at-once-5121311 Follow Rapid Repair’s guide to taking your Zune apart to step 4, so you have access to the hard drive and the battery.…
Is this Swedish town that’s routing heat from its crematorium to local homes morbid or brilliant? Let’s just call them brilliantly morbid. The town of Halmstad came up with the idea when trying to curb the amount of smoke emitted from the crematorium. It was when we were discussing all these environmental issues that we…
Last year, we published the 100 year timeline of the Times Square New Year’s Ball. Now we’ve updated it with Philips’ and New York’s newest, most dazzling time ball ever. (Click image for big version.) https://gizmodo.com/100-years-of-tech-in-the-times-square-new-years-ball-339241 The 2009 New Year’s Ball is 12 feet in diameter and weighs in at 11,875 pounds. It will blind…
Hey guys, just a reminder that applications to be our New Year NYC intern are due tonight by 11:59PM EST. Here’s what you need to know and what we want out of you: What You Need • Gadget love and knowledge • An alarm clock, ’cause you’ll be up early every morning • Basic experience…
Men’s Wii pajamas: the business suit of the parents’ basement set. In a perfect world, they’d only be available in XXXL. [Product Page via Nerd Approved]
