-
Google Wi-Fi Spy Lawsuits Head to Silicon Valley
Whether Google is liable for damages for secretly intercepting data on open Wi-Fi routers across the United States is to be aired out in a Silicon Valley federal court. Eight proposed class actions from across the country that seek unspecified monetary damages from Google were consolidated this week and transferred to U.S. District Judge James Ware [...]
08.20.10 -
U.S. Customers Are Tablet-Hungry, and Not Just for the iPad
Surveys reveal that a substantial chunk of U.S. customers plan to buy a tablet in the next year, and it’s not necessarily going to be an iPad. Fourteen percent, or 27 million U.S. online consumers, intend to buy some kind of tablet in the next 12 months, says a Forrester research report (.pdf) published Thursday (chart [...]
08.20.10 -
Newly Discovered Chlorophyll Catches Infrared Light
A new kind of chlorophyll that catches sunlight from just beyond the red end of the visible light spectrum has been discovered. The new pigment extends the known range of light that is usable by most photosynthetic organisms. Harnessing this pigment’s power could lead to biofuel-generating algae that are super-efficient, using a greater spread of [...]
08.20.10 -
Video: Giant Robot Arm Powers Innovative Halo: Reach Light Sculpture
runMobileCompatibilityScript('myExperience590172003001', 'anId'); brightcove.createExperiences(); SAN FRANCISCO — A new website will let Halo fans remotely control a giant robot to build a shining light sculpture that pays tribute to a team of fallen Spartans. Microsoft will launch the Remember Reach website Monday morning as part of a viral campaign for the highly anticipated Xbox 360 shooter Halo: [...]
08.20.10 -
The Wince-Inducing Wonder of Mallakhamb, India’s Extreme Gymnastics
Even those only vaguely familiar with traditional gymnastics must appreciate the stamina and athleticism that goes into such grueling routines, whether it’s men on the rings or women on the uneven bars. But spend time in India and you’ll catch sight of a performance that has those other disciplines beat. Enter mallakhamb, which has been called [...]
08.20.10 -
Prototype Gives A Peek Into Dell’s Next Android Phone
Dell’ mobile division can’t seem to keep a secret so get ready for a peek into the company’s next Android phone codenamed ‘Thunder.’ ‘Engadget got its hands on two prototype Thunder phones, the yet to be released smartphone that Dell is working on. The phones have a 4.1-inch OLED touch display, a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon [...]
08.20.10 -
Eberhard: We’ll See 500-Mile Batteries By 2020
Martin Eberhard, who knows a thing or two about electric vehicles, says we’ll see batteries with 500 miles of range within 10 years. Whether anyone will need that kind of range is beside the point, because of course most people won’t. But Eberhard’s broader point in his brief interview with Britain’s Autocar is we won’t be [...]
08.20.10 -
Harmonix Officially Leaks Rock Band 3 Set List
With all these are-they-fake, are-they-real Rock Band 3 set lists floating around, who’s to say what songs are actually in the game? I certainly don’t know. And the people of Harmonix would never tell us before they’re darned good and ready. However, if you look very carefully at the background of this video, you might be [...]
08.20.10 -
Simplify CSS 3 With Online Code Generators
The latest advancements in cascading style sheets offer web designers a bevy of new tricks that once required JavaScript or were simply impossible to do. Effects like rounded corners, drop shadows, rotated elements or gradient fills are all part of CSS 3, and modern web browsers support them right out of the box. However, while CSS [...]
08.20.10 -
Laser Jet Preps for Saturday Missile Shootdown
Some time between midnight and 4 a.m. Saturday, a modified 747 flying off of the California coast will aim its laser weapon at a missile more than a hundred miles away. The order will be given for the plane to fire a beam of high-powered coherent light. The laser will start burning a hole in [...]
08.20.10
-
Finland Proposes World’s First ‘Green Highway’
One of the big questions about electric vehicles is where we’ll charge them out on the road. Finland hopes to solve that riddle by building a carbon-neutral “green highway” that would include charging stations and biofuel stations. The idea is to make it easy to embrace alt-fuel vehicles, and the project would focus on an 81-mile [...]
08.20.10 -
Pitchfork POV Series Demonstrates Power of Slow Growth
Pitchfork continues its expansion into video with the recent launch of its Pitchfork POV Concert Series — a six-camera operation that lets viewers toggle between views as they enjoy the high-fidelity sound so sadly lacking from most online footage of live music shows. An extension of Pitchfork TV, whose launch we covered exclusively two years ago, [...]
08.20.10 -
Metroid: Other M — Samus Speaks
Nintendo is really pulling out all the stops in preparation for the release of the Team Ninja-helmed Metroid: Other M late this month. Earlier this week, for example, I received a care package in the mail containing a Nintendo Points cards and instruction to download and re-experience 1994’s classic Super Metroid, as Other M will [...]
08.20.10 -
Rob Corddry Cuts Up Medical Dramas in Childrens Hospital
Comedian and actor Rob Corddry is one happy medical clown in his uproarious satire Childrens Hospital. In real life? Not so much. “This fake doctor has little patience for children in general,” Corddry told Wired.com in a short but sweetly smart-ass e-mail interview. But like his excellent co-stars — including fresh arrivals Henry “The Fonz!” [...]
08.20.10 -
MathGirl Number Garden is a Free Download, Today Only!
Today only for App Friday, MomsWithApps is featuring MathGirl Number Garden as a free download until 8pm Pacific Time. Each Friday, they feature a family-friendly app to download to your portable device for free. Check them out each week! This week’s app, MathGirl Number Garden, is a fun counting game that is more fun and more [...]
08.20.10 -
Robot Parade
Robot Parade from Jared Foster on Vimeo, via the TMBG Facebook page.
08.20.10 -
iOS Still Receives Majority Of Independent Mobile Ads
With AdMob no longer releasing analytics data while it waits for the fallout from Apple’s policies on collecting device data, and Quattro Wireless now under Apple’s wing, Millennial Media is left as one of the largest independent ad networks still providing data on its mobile ad business. The company’s latest Mobile Mix report [...]
08.20.10 -
Create Your Own Edible Clone Trooper Army
Like many GeekDad households, mine is all about Star Wars and computer games and video nights and treats. Well, for your next Star Wars screening, why not get down to the delicious business of creating your own Clone and Storm Trooper candies. Or they might just be the perfect thing for the next Star Wars [...]
08.20.10 -
Amazing Slow-Motion Video of Things Getting Smashed
No, this post isn’t about a gadget but it is Friday, and the video is the best thing you will have watched all week. What you are seeing is everyday stuff being shot, smashed and shattered, all in incredible slow-motion. The footage is filmed on a Photron SA1.1, a high-speed camera capable of shooting an [...]
08.20.10 -
‘Merchant of Death’ Will Face American Justice
For more than 15 years, Viktor Bout allegedly sold and run guns to just about every scumbag on the planet: the Taliban, Congolese rebels, Hezbollah extremists, Colombia’s FARC, Muammar Qaddafi, Mobutu Sese Seko. And for more than 15 years, it looked like this “Merchant of Death” would get away with it. He’d give interviews to [...]
08.20.10
-
Dork Tower Friday
Read all the Dork Towers that have run on GeekDad. Find the Dork Tower webcomic archives, DT printed collections, more cool comics, awesome games and a whole lot more at the Dork Tower Website.
08.20.10 -
Sony Replaces All Gadget Wiring with Single Copper Strand
Today Sony’s R&D nerds were let out of their basement prison and allowed a brief glimpse of sunlight. They also announced that they are getting medieval on cables, replacing all the inner wiring of a mobile device with a single copper wire. The problem with a slider-phone, a flip-out screen or any other gadget with moving [...]
08.20.10 -
Geeks of Note: Meg Cabot Embraces the “Geek” Label
Meg Cabot admits it. She’s a total geek. I had the pleasure of interviewing the bestselling author while attending the Romance Writers of America conference in Orlando in late July. In person, she’s is like a grown-up version of her writing voice: friendly, open, irreverent and very smart. Cabot is the author of the Princess Diaries series and [...]
08.20.10 -
Slim, Minimal iPad Bag is a Purse for Men
“Twylon” may sound like a made-up word, like “gazillion” or “whatchutalkinboutwillis“, but it is in fact a real material, and it joins Nappa leather to make up the Boa Push bag for the iPad. This iPad bag from Booq deserves a mention for being both small and minimal and at the same time carrying most of [...]
08.20.10 -
The Hard-Boiled Truth About the Egg Recall
If your kids are anything like mine, they are not only inquisitive sorts but they catch on to what’s going on in the world and start to ask questions. Sometimes you have the answers to those questions, sometimes you have to make up the answers (or Google them) and the other times you just shrug, [...]
08.20.10 -
New Isetta to Solve Our Transportation Woes
A Dutch designer says resurrecting the microcar is the key to reducing congestion and maximizing efficiency. Ralph Panhuysen, whose Space Efficient Vehicle (SEV) seats three in a sideways V formation and parks two abreast like shoes in a shoebox, dreams of a world in which small, lightweight cars sip fuel and travel two-abreast in a single [...]
08.20.10 -
Scott Pilgrim vs. Your Smartphone
You may have heard about this guy, Scott Pilgrim. It’s a series of comic books by Bryan Lee O’Malley that just concluded this summer, and it also happens to be a highly anticipated movie that opened last weekend … to disappointing box office figures. In case you don’t have any idea what all the fuss [...]
08.20.10 -
Canon G12: G-Series Regains High-Def Video at Last
Canon has a rich and proud history of leaking its own products, with premature camera listings popping up on its own sites anywhere from China to Germany. Today’s leak is the G12 pro-compact, but the site is CNET Asia – at least nobody on the Canon tech-team will be embarrassed this morning. The G12 brings back [...]
08.20.10 -
Review: Burton Fader Pack Rocks Back-to-School
The Burton Fader Pack is a neat new daypack from a company more commonly associated with snowboarding equipment. Confession time: I’m not into snowboarding and don’t know much about Burton as a brand. I do, however, know what I like in a backpack, and that is utilitarian, comfy, cool-looking and durable. Let’s start with the last [...]
08.20.10 -
This Summer’s Sexiest Images From Saturn
<< previous image | next image >> From a billion miles away, the Cassini spacecraft continues to send spectacular images of Saturn and its moons. Cassini has been flying since 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004 after flybys of Earth, Venus and Jupiter. Its mission was originally slated to end in 2008, but it got [...]
08.20.10
-
Aug. 20, 1960: Back From Space, With Tails Wagging
1960: Belka and Strelka, a couple of stray mutts impressed into the Soviet space program, become the first living creatures to return alive from an orbital flight. The Soviets had been using dogs for experimental high-altitude flights long before Belka (Russian for “squirrel”) and Strelka (“Little Arrow”) lifted off from Baikonur on what would be a [...]
08.20.10 -
Alt Text: Brilliant Plans to Rescue Dying Industries
The Recording Industry Association of America, that adorable cave man of a gigantic litigious organization, recently announced that it wants electronic devices like cellphones and music players to be legally required to incorporate FM radio receivers, both to protect broadcasters’ revenue streams and to ease the transition of anyone caught up in a time tunnel [...]
08.20.10 -
Quirky’s ‘Petal Drops’ Turns Soda-Bottle into Rain-Catcher
Quirky’s hive-mind has done it again. The design-by-community site will now sell you Petal Drops, a flower-shaped cap which screws onto any old plastic water-bottle, turning it instantly into a tiny water-barrel, ready to water the plants. The floral funnel collects the rain and at the same time makes the old bottle good-looking enough to leave [...]
08.20.10 -
‘World’s Only’ Solar-Powered Light-Bulb
When I was a kid, a solar-powered lightbulb was a standing joke. A light powered by light? That’s like perpetual motion. Impossible! (I was pretty nerdy even back then). But with the wonders of modern technology, the same technology that brought us food-pills and jetpacks, the solar-powered lightbulb is here. Made by Nokero, the lightbulb is [...]
08.20.10 -
Galactic Supervolcano Erupts From Black Hole
Volcanic eruptions can wreak as much havoc in space as on Earth, a new image of galaxy M87 reveals. The black hole at the galaxy’s center is spewing gas and energetic particles in what researchers call a “galactic supervolcano,” and suppressing the formation of hundreds of millions of new stars. The new photo shows clouds of [...]
08.20.10 -
Who Should Play Sergey and Larry in Google Movie?
Hollywood seemingly can’t get enough of Silicon Valley stories. The latest internet drama reportedly in the works is a movie telling the saga of billionaire Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Groundswell Productions and producer John Morris bought the movie rights to Ken Auletta’s 2009 book Googled: The End of the World As We Know [...]
08.19.10 -
Chrome Web Store Is Now Open for Developers
Google has launched a developer’s preview of its Chrome Web Store — the company’s directory where users can browse and install Chrome extensions, web apps and downloadable apps that run in the browser. There are no listings available yet in Thursday’s preview, but you can start creating apps and uploading them to the store so they’ll [...]
08.19.10 -
Addicted Gamer Sues Game-Maker, Says He is ‘Unable to Function’
A federal judge is allowing a negligence lawsuit to proceed against the publisher of the online virtual-world game Lineage II, amid allegations that a Hawaii man became so addicted he is “unable to function independently in usual daily activities such as getting up, getting dressed, bathing or communicating with family and friends.” Craig Smallwood, the plaintiff, [...]
08.19.10 -
Facebook Opens Up Places in its API
Less than a full day after launching its new location-sharing feature, Facebook has opened up Places to developers. Thursday afternoon, developers gained access to users’ check-in data via Facebook’s Graph API. Developers can also access check-in data from locations, like restaurants and businesses, to see who’s checked in there. As we mentioned in our coverage of Wednesday [...]
08.19.10 -
May the Third Season Premiere of Clone Wars Be With You
runMobileCompatibilityScript('myExperience589264737001', 'anId'); brightcove.createExperiences(); It’s been a long wait, but the third season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is nearly upon us. Judging by the trailer above, it’s going to be more than worth the wait when the one-hour premiere arrives Sept. 17. From the debut of Darth Maul’s fearsome heirs and dizzying battle sequences [...]
08.19.10
-
One Pair of 3-D Glasses to Bind Them All
If highways worked like 3-D TVs, you wouldn’t be able to drive Fords on GM roads and vice-versa. It sounds crazy, but that’s the state of affairs with 3-D active shutter glasses. The glasses that work with your Sony television, for instance, won’t work for watching Monday night football at a friend’s place on his [...]
08.19.10 -
Game Dev’s New Album Invites Remixing and Chaotic Fiction-Making
Web game developer and musician Gabriel Walsh released his album, The Earthly Frames, Volume 1, in a unique fashion, supplementing his musical content with audio samples for remixing and a series of unique “fragment” files on 50 USB drives for the album’s release. While the fragment files may be enjoyed in isolation, assembling the disparate [...]
08.19.10 -
Conspiracy for Good: A Recap of an ARG by the Creator of Heroes
Conspiracy for Good was an alternate reality game and social movement that played out both online and in London this summer. Since this article’s initial publication, the Conspiracy for Good’s pilot episode has come to a close, boasting over half a million game downloads and over 4,000 dedicated members. For a brief summary of the [...]
08.19.10 -
GardenBot Brings Geek Power to Green Thumbs
Gardening is about getting your hands dirty and back in touch with nature. But if you are a geek like Andrew Frueh, a graphic designer who lives in Philadelphia, the hobby can take on a high-tech twist. For less than $200, Frueh has created a garden automation system called GardenBot that uses open source hardware (such [...]
08.19.10 -
A Very Trekkie Happy Birthday!
Today, August 19, marks a very special anniversary for Star Trek fans everywhere. On this date in 1921, a man named Eugene Wesley Roddenberry was born in Texas. Following distinguished service in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II, he became a police officer while trying to start a career writing for [...]
08.19.10 -
Video: Chatroulette Users Encounter Surprise ‘Exorcism’
Either Lionsgate found some really good actors or the civilians engaged in these Chatroulette exchanges with a pretty girl are genuinely freaked out. The viral ad campaign hyping The Last Exorcism targets seemingly unsuspecting webcammers who think they’re about to experience a NSFW striptease. As excerpted in the split-frame clip embedded above (reaction on left/provocation on [...]
08.19.10 -
Lego Wiz Re-Creates Zero-Gravity Inception Scenes
Images courtesy Alex Eylar and Iain Heath. Follow us on Twitter: @hughhart and @theunderwire. See Also: Lego Skyscrapers Dot Futurama’s New New York Trekker Re-Creates Classic Star Trek Scenes With Legos Cerebral Sci-Fi Films That Wipe Our Minds
08.19.10 -
Why Are There So Many Porn Ads on Britney Spears’ Facebook Page?
Apologies for the link-bait, but it’s true: Britney Spears’ Facebook page is overrun with erotic pictures, many of them linking to pornographic websites. Either Spears’ “social media expert” is asleep at the switch or this is part of some sort of misguided marketing campaign to sex up the pop star’s apparently-still-too-staid image. Regardless, when her fans click [...]
08.19.10 -
Focusing on Dark Energy With Cosmic Lens
Our view of dark energy, the mysterious force that is shoving the universe apart, just got a little clearer. By observing the way large clumps of mass distort their local space-time into enormous cosmological lenses, astronomers have zoomed in on a quantity that describes how dark energy works. “We have established the potency of a brand [...]
08.19.10 -
Cyan Worlds Brings Myst to Steam, Teases iPhone Game
Cyan Worlds, creator of Myst, said on Wednesday that PC versions of many of its classic adventure games are now available on Steam. Among the varied offerings are The Manhole: Masterpiece Edition, Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel, Spelunx and the Caves of Mr. Seudo, realMyst, Riven: The Sequel to Myst and Uru: Complete [...]
08.19.10
-
Konami Will Release Kojima’s Next-Gen Castlevania in October
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will hit stores October 5, Konami said on Thursday. The Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 version of the classic series was created by Madrid, Spain developer Mercury Steam with creative input from Metal Gear Solid creator Kojima Productions. It’s something of a reboot — a fresh, slightly Western take on the story [...]
08.19.10 -
One Surf Scientist’s Quest for a Better Wave of Boards
Researchers at the University of California at San Diego have been donning their wet suits and hitting the waves this summer to see if an objective, data-centric standard can explain why some surfboards perform better than others. Benjamin Thompson, who hails from small-town New Hampshire, has been leading the effort through his Ph.D. focus at the [...]
08.19.10 -
Beautiful Websites: Stamen’s Pretty Maps
We’ve seen some colorful map mashups in the past, like Hypercities and HeatMap, but few are as abstract and beautiful to look at as Stamen Design’s Pretty Maps. The aptly-named app pulls sets of geodata from various freely available open mapping projects and plots them atop one another. Pretty Maps grabs street-level data from OpenStreetMap (the [...]
08.19.10 -
Gulf’s Depths Probably Still Clogged With Oil
Oil released during the Deepwater Horizon disaster and suspended deep underwater appears to be breaking down more slowly than expected, suggests a new study. The greatest damage to the Gulf may ultimately be in the deep sea, rather than the shorelines — a catastrophe in a black box. During the last two weeks of June, researchers [...]
08.19.10 -
Massive North Atlantic Garbage Patch Mapped
Millions of pieces of plastic — most smaller than half an inch — float throughout the oceans. They are invisible to satellites, and except on very calm days you won’t even see them from the deck of a sailboat. The only way to know how much junk is out there is to tow a fine [...]
08.19.10 -
Kia’s Pop Is An Itty-Bitty EV
Kia plans to roll into next month’s Paris auto show with an itty-bitty electric three-seater that looks like a doorstop. The Korean automaker didn’t offer any details on the car, which is about the size of a Toyota iQ but far more futuristic. The only thing Kia will say is it hopes to bring “innovative design [...]
08.19.10 -
Mild-Mannered Suzuki Sedan Tops 200 MPH
A heavily modified Suzuki sedan has just joined the 200-mph club at Bonneville and set a land speed record in the process. Road & Track’s Sam Mitani hit an average speed of 203.720 mph during a two-way pass at Bonneville on Wednesday morning, setting a new record for the blown gas coupe category. He just topped [...]
08.19.10 -
Video: Innovative Musical Themes Drive SOCOM 4’s Gameplay
SOCOM 4 composer Bear McCreary isn't just writing a pretty soundtrack for the PlayStation 3 game. He wants to heighten your gameplay experience.
08.19.10 -
The Psychology of Nature
In the late 1990s, Frances Kuo, director of the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the University of Illinois, began interviewing female residents in the Robert Taylor Homes, a massive housing project on the South Side of Chicago. Kuo and her colleagues compared women randomly assigned to various apartments. Some had a view of nothing [...]
08.19.10 -
Tiger Moths Scare Bats With Ultrasonic Clicks
It’s kinda tough being a moth. Not only do you have to go through the icky process of pupating, but you’re also the favorite food of bats, which use ultrasonic echolocation to swoop down and pounce on you when you’re just trying to have some fun, flapping around a lightbulb. But one species, Cycnia tenera, which [...]
08.19.10
-
‘Places’ Turns Facebook Into a Location Sharing Powerhouse
Facebook has jumped on the location check-in bandwagon with a new feature known as Places. Facebook Places has launched with four partners, all services that already offer check-in services — Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and Booyah. If you use Foursquare, Brightkite or other location check-in services there isn’t much to see in Facebook Places. The only [...]
08.19.10 -
Intel Hedges Bets With $8 Billion Acquisition Of McAfee
Chipmaker Intel Thursday announced a $7.68 billion bid to buy computer security company McAfee, a huge bid to secure the “internet of things” — the billions of chips in connected devices beyond computers. Intel is the dominant player in traditional computers but the action is moving far away from the desktop, and even from computers in [...]
08.19.10 -
The Never-Ending Stories: Inception’s Penrose Staircase
Christopher Nolan’s film Inception features a classic optical illusion called the Penrose staircase, which folds back upon itself in space. World-renowned puzzlemaker and LEGO constructor Eric Harshbarger takes us for a walk on the stairs. “Forever Ascending,” by Eric Harshbarger The popular film Inception provides its viewers with many twists and turns in both storytelling and visuals. [...]
08.19.10 -
Stern Korean Culture Stifles Biological Predisposition to Blab
Stressed-out Americans tend to vent. They talk about their troubles, and call up their friends for validation. Most Koreans, on the other hand, would rather keep it to themselves. According to a new study, that difference between European American and Korean customs is so powerful that it shapes the expression of biology: A genetic profile [...]
08.19.10 -
Army’s TNT Replacement Only Detonates On Command
The Army’s set to roll out a new explosive for large-caliber munitions; military-funded developers estimate that it’ll nudge out TNT “within a decade.” Called IMX-101 (which stands for Insensitive Munitions Explosive) the explosive is one successful result of a four-year Pentagon-funded effort that sought to replace TNT — military munitions’ longtime staple. First to go will [...]
08.19.10 -
Storyboard: Naomi Novik Talks Temeraire, Dragons and Pern
In between panels, movie screenings and general crowd-watching at this year’s Comic-Con International, Wired senior editor Adam Rogers found time to interview fantasy writer Naomi Novik. Storyboard Podcast: Episode 28 Subscribe to RSS feed Subscribe on iTunes » http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/Storyboard/Storyboard_028.mp3 She’s the scribe behind the Temeraire series of fantasy novels, in which dragons serve as the air force [...]
08.19.10 -
China’s Private Pilots Fly Under The Radar
China’s private aviation industry is growing with some serious regulatory shackles attached. Unfortunately for the growing population of Chinese pilots, there are so many restrictions on flying in the country, many are resorting to flying under the radar, both literally and figuratively. If you want to fly somewhere in China in your own aircraft, there are [...]
08.19.10 -
Aug. 19, 1839: Photography Goes Open Source
1839: With a French pension in hand, Louis Daguerre reveals the secrets of making daguerreotypes to a waiting world. The pioneering photographic process is an instant hit. Using chemical reactions to make images with light was not quite new. Doing it fast was. Inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niepce created a rough image using silver salts and [...]
08.19.10 -
Piranha 3D’s Painful Predecessors: The 24 Cheesiest Movies Ever Made
Follow us on Twitter: @hughhart and @theunderwire. See Also: Vintage Mexican Sci-Fi Beams a Blast From the Past, con Queso Cerebral Sci-Fi Films That Wipe Our Minds Wired’s Favorite Sci-Fi Flicks of All Time — Pre–Star Wars Wired’s Favorite Sci-Fi Flicks of All Time — Star Wars and After
08.19.10 -
Double-Whammy Earthquake Caused Tsunami
A giant earthquake that triggered a deadly southwest Pacific tsunami was actually two great temblors, finds a pair of new studies in the Aug. 19 Nature. These results uncover an unusual sequence of geological events that is the first of its kind to be observed by scientists, the study authors say. The earthquakes, which likely struck [...]
08.19.10
-
Mississippi Lawyer Drawn Into WikiLeaks Intrigue
A civil litigation attorney in Mississippi who has lent advice to WikiLeaks on occasion has found himself embroiled in intrigue and headlines after initiating conversation with the government over the secret-spilling site. Timothy Matusheski, who specializes in litigation around False Claims Act violations, landed in the middle of a he said-he said fight Wednesday after WikiLeaks [...]
08.19.10 -
“Shit I Say” By Me, Myself and I
Open publication – Free publishing – More twournal Think your Tweets are comparable to the pithy wisdom of Rumi or Nietzsche? Do you rage in your nightmares at the indignities of your Tweets’ ephemeral online existence? Or do you simply want to make it easier for the world to have your 140-character nuggets of wisdom available on [...]
08.18.10 -
David Petraeus: The Danger Room Interview
KABUL, Afghanistan — My 45-minute interview Tuesday with Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was considerably less physically taxing than the last time we talked in person. While on a military base in Mosul, Iraq, in March 2007, I learned that Petraeus, then the commander of the Iraq war, was on his [...]
08.18.10 -
Drones Surge, Special Ops Strike in Petraeus Campaign Plan
KABUL, Afghanistan — Ever since the Afghanistan war became a counterinsurgency fight, critics have charged that commanders’ cautions about using force only inhibit the fight against the Taliban. But in the shadows, NATO Special Operations Forces are engaged in an intensely lethal war of their own. According to information provided to Danger Room by Gen. David [...]
08.18.10 -
Facebook Launches ‘Check-In’ Service to Connect People in Real Space
Facebook announced a new Places product Wednesday evening that will let users check-in from a mobile device, see who is around them, let friends or the public know where they are, and find interesting, new places. The announcement extends, yet again, the reach of the immensely popular social network, in hopes that the new service will [...]
08.18.10 -
Shepard Fairey Auctions Pro-Peace Art, Studio Tour for Charity
Crossover street artist Shepard Fairey is offering a tour of his Los Angeles studio and signed prints of five pro-peace screen prints in an online auction launched by charitybuzz. Open to bidders now through Aug. 25, charitybuzz and Fairey’s latest auction benefits Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Foundation, the grassroots social-justice and economic-disparity group that employs [...]
08.18.10 -
Stoned on Success, Eureka Invents Worthy Fifth Season
How did everyone in Syfy's sci-fi standout series Eureka celebrate the Tuesday announcement of its forthcoming fifth season? They all got stoned.
08.18.10 -
General Motors Is Going Public
GM’s turnaround is almost complete. Today the General filed the first reams of paperwork needed to go public, a move that will free the automaker from government ownership and pay back the last of the billions it needed to stay afloat following its bankruptcy last year. GM’s 700-page S-1 Registration form filed with the Securities and Exchange [...]
08.18.10 -
Portal 2 Gets a Release Date, Stephen Merchant’s Voice
In June, we heard the bad news that Portal 2 had been delayed to 2011. Now we know where it landed. Game Informer reports that Portal 2 will be released February 9 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Mac. The Valve source that fed Game Informer the game’s release date also mentioned that Ricky Gervais Show [...]
08.18.10 -
Suda 51 Update: New Shooter, No More Heroes Moves on PS3
Game designer Suda 51 is making a downloadable shoot-em-up game, he said at Gamescom on Monday. Joystiq reports that Suda’s company Grasshopper Manufacture will collaborate with publisher Digital Reality on a side-scrolling space shmup called Sine Mora for download on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In a separate press conference, Konami announced that it will publish [...]
08.18.10
-
Court OKs Covert iPhone Audio Recording
Using an iPhone to secretly record a conversation is not a violation of the Wiretap Act if done for legitimate purposes, a federal appeals court has ruled. “The defendant must have the intent to use the illicit recording to commit a tort of crime beyond the act of recording itself,” (.pdf) the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of [...]
08.18.10 -
New Dungeon Siege III Screens Emerge from Gamescom
Square Enix revealed new screenshots of Dungeon Siege III on Wednesday. Dungeon Siege was originally developed by Gas Powered Games (Demigod, Supreme Commander) as a PC-exclusive series of action role-playing games that played similarly to Blizzard’s classic Diablo franchise. Dungeon Siege III maintains the hack-and-slash gameplay of the originals, but the new game is being developed by [...]
08.18.10 -
Beat Censorship By Hiding Secret Messages In Flickr Photos
Georgia Tech researchers have developed a tool called Collage that will allow Internet dissidents to insert hidden messages into Twitter posts and Flickr images in order to circumvent the censorship measures imposed by oppressive governments. ‘This project offers a possible next step in the censorship arms race’ The tool, which is implemented in [...]
08.18.10 -
Stress Hormones Could Predict Boxing Dominance
On November 25, 1980, professional boxing’s two top welterweights, Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Durán, squared off against each other in a rematch from five months prior, when the hard-hitting Panamanian won a 15-round, unanimous decision over the champion Leonard. During the first fight, Leonard unsuccessfully went toe-to-toe with Durán, so the rematch obviously called for [...]
08.18.10 -
When Spidey Swings Onto iPad, It’s Photoshop to the Rescue
Artist Frank Cho’s cool scene of Spider-Man clutching an iPad as he dangles over a fight ended up putting the web-slinger much closer to the action than the artist originally intended. A tight deadline from Marvel Comics and Cho’s faulty guess about the size of the Spider-Man and Wolverine logo left him scrambling to fix the [...]
08.18.10 -
A Design Contest for Web Fonts
The Web Font Awards are coming soon. It’s a new competition recognizing the most beautiful applications of web fonts in site design and technological achievements in type on the web. There’s no entry deadline or submission guidelines yet, but the contest will involve an actual meatspace awards ceremony and real cash prizes. From the Web Font [...]
08.18.10 -
Foxconn Rallies Workers, Leaves Suicide Nets in Place (Updated)
Foxconn Technology Group — the Taiwanese company that manufactures hardware for Apple, Dell, HP, Nokia and Sony and has been hit by a dozen suicides at its plants this year — is holding rallies at all of its factories to raise morale. The theme? “Treasure Your Life, Love Your Family, Care for Each Other to [...]
08.18.10 -
Photog Probes Secret Sites With Megazoom and Science
Geographer and artist Trevor Paglen has spent a career tracking the purposefully hidden cogs of U.S. military Secret Ops. Described by critic Paul Schmelzer as “part Gerhard Richter painting, part Bigfoot sighting,” Paglen’s imagery is both a best-attempt documentary of secret fragments that can be seen and a euphemism for all else [...]
08.18.10 -
Yeasayer Probes Human-Mutant Love With Kristen Bell
Fans of David Lynch’s Eraserhead and Frank Henenlotter’s Basket Case will probably dig Yeasayer’s new, horrifically weird video for “Madder Red.” However, those with a serious dislike of human-mutant love might want to find their arresting visuals elsewhere. Directed by Andreas Nilsson and starring fanboy favorite Kristen Bell (Heroes, Veronica Mars), the “Madder Red” video debuted [...]
08.18.10 -
As America Grows Fatter, It Burns More Gas
There is no doubt Americans are getting fatter and fatter. The latest stats from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the number of people identifying themselves as obese grew 1.1 percent — an additional 2.4 million people — between 2007 and 2009. The number of states with an obesity rate of 30 percent [...]
08.18.10
-
Video: Skimmin’ Stones With Milo and Kate at TEDGlobal
Remember hearing about Peter Molyneux’s talk concerning his Kinect game Milo and Kate at the TEDGlobal conference last month? Well, as with all TED conference presentations, the video of the talk is now available online. You might have already read Wired UK’s recap of the talk, but now you can watch it as if you were [...]
08.18.10 -
Networks Proving A Tough Sell for Google TV (Surprise!)
Google TV would combine video cable, satellite, web pages and possibly one’s own home network into a single, searchable interface — with contextual Google ads, of course. Makes perfect sense for Google, a big company which is seeing its bread-and-butter search business flatten out. And without a doubt, television’s ancient, byzantine menu systems are long overdue [...]
08.18.10 -
New Standard Hopes to Unify Your Address Book
If you’re like most of us, you probably have contact and address book data spread all over the web — friends on Facebook, contacts in Gmail, followers on Twitter, and names in your local address book application. Wouldn’t it be nice if all that data were available in one place where you could see it [...]
08.18.10 -
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Feels Like a Natural Woman
Inception’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt dreams of Carole King in a solo rendition of the singer/songwriter’s sultry anthem “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” above. Sure, it’s raw, but so is feeling like a natural woman. The warm, fuzzy performance was part of the Summer in the City series thrown by Gordon-Levitt’s crowdsourcing production company, hitRecord. [...]
08.18.10 -
Ambient Lighting Makes Drivers Feel Safer
Automakers are increasingly using gentle ambient lighting inside their vehicles, a trend that not only makes the cabin nicer but could increase safety and consumer perceptions about the quality of the car. A study by engineers at BMW and the Lighting Engineering Group at Ilmenau University of Technology found ambient lighting improved drivers’ perceptions of a [...]
08.18.10 -
Vimeo Spreads the HTML5 Love With Web-Native Video Player
Video sharing site Vimeo has taken the HTML5 plunge one step further with a brand new “universal” embeddable player aimed at mobile devices like the iPhone or the iPad. Vimeo’s new “Universal Player” is actually capable of serving several different kinds of video formats, but it uses a script to check the browser’s video capabilities. Depending [...]
08.18.10 -
Active Facebook Users More Likely to Stick With College: Study
Those obnoxious Facebook users who collect friends like stamps and post a status update every other minute are more likely to stick it through college than less active users, a recent study suggests. A study led by Abilene Christian University followed the Facebook profiles of 375 first-semester freshman students for nine months to examine how Facebook [...]
08.18.10 -
Petraeus: Here’s My Afghan Redeployment Strategy
KABUL, Afghanistan – General David Petraeus isn’t planning to wake up one morning after July 2011 and order his troops out of Afghanistan’s provinces all at once. Instead, his idea is to slowly and deliberately remove small units, district by district, in an intricate process he describes as “thinning out.” “You can reduce your forces. But [...]
08.18.10 -
‘Squirrel Baby’ Wants You to Win Tickets to Lost Auction
Killer Lost props like Claire’s creepy “squirrel baby” from the show’s final season will be on display at Lost: The Official Show Auction and Exhibit in Southern California this Saturday and Sunday. Get the squirrel baby’s back story in the video at right, which features Lost cast members and creative types discussing the bizarre prop. The [...]
08.18.10 -
Exclusive: Hear DragonForce’s Live Version of ‘Through the Fire and Flames’
Can your ears handle a blistering live version of one of Guitar Hero’s most notorious tracks? Now you can hear — exclusively on Wired.com — a new recording of DragonForce’s “Through the Fire and Flames.” Guitar gamers the world over know the name of DragonForce, the London metal band that contributed “Through the Fire and Flames” [...]
08.18.10
-
Piranha 3D’s Painful Predecessors: The 24 Cheesiest Movies Ever Made
08.19.10 -
Lego Wiz Re-Creates Zero-Gravity Inception Scenes
08.19.10 -
Addicted Gamer Sues Game-Maker, Says He is ‘Unable to Function’
08.19.10 -
This Summer’s Sexiest Images From Saturn
08.20.10 -
The Never-Ending Stories: Inception’s Penrose Staircase
08.19.10 -
Why Are There So Many Porn Ads on Britney Spears’ Facebook Page?
08.19.10 -
One Pair of 3-D Glasses to Bind Them All
08.19.10 -
GardenBot Brings Geek Power to Green Thumbs
08.19.10 -
USB Dongle Claims to Deliver First Easy Hack for PS3
08.19.10 -
Massive North Atlantic Garbage Patch Mapped
08.19.10 -
Alt Text: Brilliant Plans to Rescue Dying Industries
08.20.10 -
Focusing on Dark Energy With Cosmic Lens
08.19.10 -
Who Should Play Sergey and Larry in Google Movie?
08.19.10 -
Mississippi Lawyer Drawn Into WikiLeaks Intrigue
08.19.10 -
Mild-Mannered Suzuki Sedan Tops 200 MPH
08.19.10 -
Video: Chatroulette Users Encounter Surprise ‘Exorcism’
08.19.10 -
Court OKs Covert iPhone Audio Recording
08.18.10 -
One Surf Scientist’s Quest for a Better Wave of Boards
08.19.10 -
Aug. 20, 1960: Back From Space, With Tails Wagging
08.20.10 -
Sony Replaces All Gadget Wiring with Single Copper Strand
08.20.10
Services
Quick Links: Contact Us | Login/RegisterLogout | Newsletter | RSS Feeds | Tech Jobs | Wired Mobile | FAQ | Sitemap
Corrections | Sitemap | FAQ | Contact Us | Wired Staff | Advertising | Press Center | Subscription Services | Newsletter | RSS Feeds 
Condé Nast Web Sites:
Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (Revised 8/28/2008) and Privacy Policy (Revised 8/28/2008).
Wired.com © 2010 Condé Nast Digital. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast Digital.