Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Back in 1922, a mechanical engineer began building his summer home in Rockport, Massachusetts, out of paper. Originally used just as insulation, Elis Stenman soon began to make furniture and decorations out of paper as well. What resulted was Rockport’s Paper House, which is remarkably still standing after 80 years. Stenman’s grandniece is now in…
Excited about the quintessential Bond collection coming out on Blu Ray in October? Amazon’s giving you an even greater reason to be excited-a 32-percent discount on several James Bond films, including a Sean Connery three-pack of Dr. No, From Russia with Love and Thunderball. The perhaps less venerable three-pack of Pierce Brosnan‘s Die Another Day…
A new “intelligent” lithium-ion battery is supposed to prevent explosions and fire accidents by sending constant updates on its own health. Developed by researchers at NTT DoCoMo, the battery uses a 8-bit microcomputer “brain” to monitor its condition and relay the information to the cellphone user. The pack then notifies you when it’s time to…
Yes, Yahoo! Music Store‘s shutting down their DRM servers, but Big Purple’s said that it’ll definitely still be taking care of its customers. According to a Yahoo spokesperson, anyone who bought DRM music from the store “will be compensated for whatever they paid.” No word on timetables or what form the compensation will take, but…
Tesla Motors has finally begun deliveries of its awesome 100-percent electric Tesla Roadster, but eco-conscious sports car fanatics willing to plunk down the $109,000 need to reserve one quick. The company said it only has 25 production slots left for the second quarter of 2009. Locking in a reservation will cost a refundable $5000. An…
These solid silver, rhodium-coated scissor cufflinks are cutting edge and all, and very shiny, but at $550 for the pair I think I’ll just rummage around the kitchen drawer and bend a pair of my own, thank you very much. Oh, what’s that? They open and close, just like real scissors? Sold! [A+R Store]
To find out if dogs are really homing snackycakes for bloodthirsty sharks, or if poking them in the eye with a pokey thing is actually a good idea, you could ask a dude in a lab coat, or like, watch Jaws. Unless you’re the Mythbusters-then you build a robot dog, surround it with doggy blood,…
Philippe Kahn and his ambitious Pacific Cup sailing trip from San Francisco to Hawai’i got me all inspired this week to go sailing, but there’s one problem: I suck at sailing. In fact, the last time I went sailing was in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, where I almost got smashed on the reef that protects…
Gateway will now no longer be selling its PCs through Gateway.com and has shut down all its direct PC sales to become a 100% retail channel PC company. The move is only somewhat surprising-its newish parent company Acer has always focused on offering its goods through resellers. But seeing how Gateway was one of the…
Does the act of cutting up a pizza vex you to no end? Do you find yourself with numerous nicks and cuts on your palms because you constantly use the wrong end of a pizza cutter to slice pies? Lucky for you, there’s pizza scissors. The manufacterer claims the $20 shears-and-spatula design won’t damage plates…
A bunch of new photos and specs for Nokia’s Tube, a.k.a. The 5800 XpressMusic, have been leaked to the internet. The alleged iPhone killer will apparently come with a 16:9 16 million color TFT LCD display with 640 X 360 pixel resolution, haptic feedback, a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Dual LED flash,…
MSI is jumping the gun with its 6-cell version of the Wind laptop. Originally slated for a September release, the MSI Wind is currently available at Mwave.com. Those battery shortages that threatened to keep the model off shelves until September never materialized. The $570 asking price is $70 more than what MSI had originally promised,…
The Tenori-On is the zany Yamaha touch-based musical sequencer that caught our eye earlier this year, but this cool PacklSound1 iPhone app could very well be the portable version that puts us over the edge. It’s a simpler version of the original $1,200 Tenori-On box, but that didn’t stop the designer from laying down a…
With gas prices approaching “damn, I’m going to have to start walking more” levels here in the States, everyone’s doing their part to increase efficiency and reduce energy consumption, and that includes the genius farm MIT. The institute already produces 80% of its own energy, courtesy of its on campus “cogeneration plant,” but a few…
The MEDUSA crowd control ray gun we reported on earlier this month sounded like some pretty amazing-and downright scary-technology. Using the microwave auditory effect, the beam, in theory, would have put sounds and voice-like noises in your head, thereby driving you away from the area. Crowd control via voices in your head. Sounds cool. However,…
Korean scientists are one step further in reaching sustainable fusion reactors. In an experiment for the National Fusion Research Institute, scientists were able to achieve a form of supercharged plasma for 249 milliseconds, almost two and a half times longer than they had anticipated. It’s a new form of plasma that can be used to…
The Pandora app for iPhone got an upgrade today and now streams music to your earbuds in stereo over Wi-Fi. A few other things are updated as well, including auto-complete and station resume if you pause. If you’re a user, you can download the 1.1 update now. [Pandora Blog, via iPhoneBuzz] https://gizmodo.com/iphone-apps-we-like-pandora-5026534
The Sirius-XM Merger was finally approved by the FCC today following a 3-2 vote by the commission. The final and deciding vote only came after both parties agreed to pay a $19.7 million fine for violating FCC regulations. After 16 months of MTV-esque “drama” and gnashing of teeth, the $3.6 billion merger means that subscribers…
First it was July, then mid-August, but now BlackBerryNews is pegging the AT&T BB Bold with a launch date around September 1, contingent on how quick they can train personnel on the phone. The Bold was also supposed to release first on Rogers today, but that has been pushed back to July 29. [BlackBerryNews] https://gizmodo.com/canadian-carrier-rogers-getting-blackberry-bold-june-25-5017398
Man, companies are always trying to screw ya. Take warranties, for example. They’ll void them for practically anything these days! Just ask Keith Walendowski of Milwaukee, WI (pictured). All he did was shoot his lawnmower with a sawed-off shotgun, and now the company who makes it says the warranty is voided. What a load of…