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Future optical computers that use light instead of electricity will need nano-scale pipes to transfer photons—analogues to the individual transistor’s in a traditional circuit. And for that, scientists for the first time have used human DNA to build the smallest fiber optics cables yet created. And as is typical with organic computers, said cables are…
As the holiday quickly approaches, all of the big Black Friday deals are leaking with ritualistic fanfare. Call us nostalgic, but while Best Buy and Radioshack both failed to excite us with unbelievable deals, it’s exciting just to see that Circuit City will be around to participate this year at all. Here’s their full list…
Click to viewWe all know that the PS3 is built like a Navy battleship while the 360 can crumble in one’s hand like a wilted flower. But how do the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 stand up to one another when two dudes (and we use “dudes” here not because we’re stuck with dated lexicon…
The PC upgrade cycle is a brutal, senselessly fast one. Problem is, every upgrade doesn’t mean disposal for your old PC — it means suffering a much more depressing fate in the back of a dark closet. It doesn’t have to be that way. Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses of dusty…
Microsoft is just now launching a real online store? Yep. It’s still definitely a 1.0 experience—not a bad start, just very basic. You can buy meatspace goods like hardware, software discs and Xbox 360 games, but the kicker is that you can directly download software now, even Windows and Office. It seems wrong that the…
This looks like the beginning of a George Romero’s film, but it’s real. It seems like one of the US Army’s X-Files technologies is coming to us sooner than most skeptics expected: DARPA is developing now a portable blood farming system that could infinitely produce universal donor red cells from umbilical cord blood, right there…
At first glance, these Activision-made Guitar Hero/Rock Band instrument compatibility charts appear very handy. That is, until you realize that they’re completely overrun by inaccuracies. It didn’t take long for the Kotaku commenters to rip apart the list, with one reader finding flaws with data on each platform. So we’re left with one question: If…
This must take the record for the trippiest data-center build anywhere, ever: It’s an old nuclear bunker 30 meters below central Stockholm, and its new conversion for one of Sweden’s biggest ISPs has made it truly 007-worthy. Check it: it has simulated daylight, greenhouses and waterfalls, there’re German submarine engines rigged as emergency backup generators,…
Apparently created for police detectives, construction workers, or anyone with zero sense of fashion and/or shame, the e-Volve Gadget Shoulder Holster is just that: A shoulder holster which, according to the manufacturer, “is designed to evolve and adapt to the reality of constant state of change in personal electronics by enabling you to wear your…
You may have fond childhood memories of sitting around a campfire, telling ghost stories while cramming your mouth full of charry, molten sugar with little abandon. And you’re be right to reminisce. Roasting marshmallows around a fire is one of the few unornamented pleasures of this world. But tell me, dear reader: Does it really…
We’ve covered how companies in China borrow inspiration from gadget makers and architects, as well as how they can be prissy about obeying copyright laws, so I guess making copycat cartoons is kind of par for the course. Here’s the newest trailer of a Chinese TV series called Hyperwiz, a 3D vaguely anime-styled cartoon with…
This Wallflower Walloffice desk from Jonas and Jonas design may hold the record for the smallest and simplest home-office solution: It’s got just two legs, and is made from a one-piece bent-laminate structure you lean up against the wall. Nevertheless, it looks useful, is “scratch and shock-resistant” and “allows for any kind of strain,” though…
Gadget-inspired songs are almost always terrible, but this, this is something else. A kind-of-spoof, kind-of-ad performed by legendary nobody Caitlen Moe, “Crackberry Love” is an unmitigated disaster. Things to watch for: a man in a BlackBerry suit, endless T-Mobile shout-outs that the company almost certainly didn’t ask for, and the line “my Crack and I,…
Here’s a bit of tech that’ll cast a wonderful air of doom and gloom over your morning breakfast cereal: The Cycle Life watch charts your progress through the boring average day’s drudgery. It begins cheerfully with “wake up!” but then the rest of your productive, vividly personal, exciting daily life is reduced to displays for…
It’s been a long time since I’ve heard anyone reference the old saying “You must chew every mouthful 15 times”…but those memories of childhood arguments with my parents have just come roaring back when I spotted the Kami Kami chew counter. No, seriously: this gizmo really is a counter that you strap to your kids…
Google has created an app for the iPhone that will give the handset advanced voice recognition, reports John Markoff from the NY Times. The app can answer location related questions (Finding the nearest Starbucks), give driving directions, respond to generic questions, and even search local data from the address book. It works by recording a…
If the possibility of controlling all your PC applications Minority Report-style wasn’t enough to get you excited about Mgestyk Technologies’ gesture control system, the company’s now showing off its ability to work with other input devices. The disembodied hands of Mgestyk employees go all Jedi on us this time around, using a Nintendo Wiimote as…
In case you were wondering what somewhat troubled chip maker AMD was going to do in the next few years, the company’s now revealed its completely updated roadmap that addresses everything from high end all-in-one desktops to netbooks and UMPCs. Especially interesting is it’s treatment of its “Atom-killer”… which it says “won’t be going to…
As you’ve probably heard by now, China’s been dealing with a massive tainted milk problem. Now that hundreds of tons of milk products have been recalled, precincts are scrambling to figure out what to do with the resulting trash. One city in Southern China has decided that one great way to get rid of all…
This zany lamp created by Marieke Staps outdoes most lamps in more ways than one: the electricity is powered through the organisms contained in the mud. The mud is enclosed in cells that contain copper and zinc, which conducts the electricity in the LED. Besides doing wonders for your energy bill, Staps claims that the…
