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I’d say that I’m no conspiracy theorist, but I’ll be honest, I spotted this 1697 sketch while looking through a UFO conspiracy site. And as far as I’m concerned, it’s clearly an ink rendition of two Xbox 360 logos floating in the sky. This supposedly historical shot was pulled from the 1997 documentary Area 51:…
Apparently we weren’t the only ones a little baffled by the pricing of VZW’s Omnia—after being available for only six days, the price has dropped down to $200 (with the same $70 rebate and two-year contract), bringing it even with the Blackberry Storm. We’re still only seeing the Omnia being a must-have for Windows Mobile…
Japanese firm Hario just came up with this rather beautiful new speaker system, dubbed Harion. So far, so groovy. It’s made of heat-resistant glass (the first to be like it, according to Hario) and the woofer, two tweeters and two mid-range speakers proved so complex to create that it took a small army of companies—23…
While the deals might not be as OMG awesome as Black Friday, there’s a lot to be said for its nerdier brother Cyber Monday, when online retailers unleash their best bargains of the season. Mainly, it’s not as utterly horrible: You can do everything from your cozy house, completely naked if you want, totally skipping…
Look, I’m for the right to bear arms as much as the next guy—I just don’t like ducks. While we were born a few generations too late for Wild West gun-slinging and a few generations too early for deadly, preteen laser pistol duels, the Duck Huntin’ t-shirt celebrates our place in the here and now,…
The new rocket-propelled grenade RPG-30 anti-armor weapon recently unveiled in Russia has a sneaky trick to help it get past active defenses—it fires a tiny decoy rocket flying ahead of the main warhead. This is to confuse defensive systems into attacking the decoy, meaning they’re too busy to successfully defeat the real weapon inbound just…
You probably remember the ol’ lemon/copper battery via electrolysis experiment from when Mr. Wizard blew your mind with it in 1958. But this “Citrus Clock” by French design troupe Anna Gram updates the concept with a touch of Ikea sensibilities, to the point where we might be cool with this sitting on the kitchen counter…
Wired published an interesting look at the recent trend of Japanese videogame banks—essentially, a means for the thrifty gamer to save the quarters that could otherwise be lost forever to an arcade machine. The article, by Brian Ashcraft of Kotaku fame, gives us a walkthrough of three differently themed game banks, with styles that range…
Adding to the already impressive pile of Vista-deflating features we’re expecting to see in Windows 7 is WARP, a tech which will allow your PC’s CPU to act as a graphics accelerator, possibly doing away with the need for integrated graphics hardware to render user interfaces and low-end games. Not-so-seductively described as a ‘fully conformant…
Netflix streaming has been making waves with its wide, fast integration into just about anything that’ll have it, and the reception has been generally positive. As has been the pattern for the last decade, Blockbuster is slightly but embarrassingly behind: according to company Chairman Jim Keyes, we’ll be seeing Blockbuster’s download-to-rent service in a Blu-ray…
We’ve only just been getting excited about MSI’s U120 3G-packing netbook, but now it looks like MSI has even more interesting machines just around the corner. Apparently due sometime in January, the U110 and U115 will run Atom Z530 chips, drawing less power than the “typical” N270 netbook processor. And they’ll pack a hybrid drive…
The screen-based controls and rich visuals that make a device like the iPhone an attractive option for deaf users aren’t of much use to the visually impaired. By employing a combination of an embossed “Moon Type” alphabet casing, a custom home screen and a screenreading app, the InVision solution could (awkardly) provide most of the…
Modding your laptop to add a touchscreen is certainly possible, though you’ll need to be pretty competent with tools: with the Duo gizmo all you need to be able to do is clip it to your screen. The two-piece device has a sensor you pop on top of your monitor or laptop screen and a…
Portable speakers for MP3 players are two a penny, but not many are not far off a penny in size: Landport’s Cubes are though. They’re just an inch cube, but fit in stereo speakers, 3.5-mm jack plug, rechargeable batteries and a mini-USB port. They’ll run for 4-5 hours on a charge, too. Just don’t go…
Though The Simpsons has a history of satirizing tech culture, and even Apple specifically, last night’s episode felt like it was making up for a bit of lost time. It’s not just iPods and iMacs getting reprefixed and animated: it’s Apple Stores, the G4 Cube, past and present fanboys, vintage advertising and even Steve Jobs…
The rumors pointed pretty firmly to it, and then some leaked specs detailed what it’d be like, but now Nikon’s new pro-level D3X DSLR has arrived officially. Touting it as a 24-megapixel “Digital Masterpiece,” with exceptionally low noise sensor, 5fps full-frame shooting speed and with file sizes of 138MB, Nikon’s saying the camera’s available now…
By allowing its snooty customers to manipulate the snooty Microsoft Surface interface with their snooty fingers, BMW has officially become the first car maker to offer the touchscreen tech to a worldwide car-buying audience. Impressed? Me neither, but that’s just because I’m a low-paid writer who’s insanely jealous of anyone driving a car that’s hotter…
Is this tire really the “Holy Grail of Eco-Transportation,” as Treehugger believes? Maybe. Time will tell if the electric engine inside the Active Wheel from Michelin will catch on and further drive down the cost of electric vehicles. For now, let’s delve deep into this tire-motor combo, and you can decide for yourself if it…
The global recession has sparked riots at the Nerf factory in Dongguan, South China, but there are as-of-yet no reports of any Vulcan GF-25 cannon discharges. In fact, no foam weaponry of any kind was brandished during the tussle, which came to a head following layoffs and unpaid wages. https://gizmodo.com/nerf-vulcan-fully-automatic-dart-gun-now-available-5027867 And unlike the riots that…
We figure this RC Black Widow Spider is good for maybe one, possibly two, good scares before a skittish family member offs it with a well-placed slipper to the head. But until then, you’ll have seconds or minutes of fun making this hairy little abomination scurry around the family room on its eight little legs.…
