Stating that a device is "designed and manufactured in the USA" doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be a purely stateside product. Kyle Wiens and his team at iFixit took apart Google's Nexus Q, and found that the company sourced several of the Q's components from China, Japan, and other Asian or European countries.
Those of us who worry about the government creeping into all our lives can now stop fussing and fighting, cry it all out, and move on to implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), writes athenhealth's Jonathan Bush.
This week at Cape Canaveral ??? not far from where NASA launched the first American into space 41 years ago, and the last Americans one year ago – the space agency welcomed its next generation of manned spacecraft. The first space-bound Orion capsule arrived in Florida where final construction will take place before its first [...]
If you've got 15 minutes to spare, you too can learn Git. GitHub's new Try Git website puts the popular version control system inside your web browser for some hands-on learning.
The July 4th holiday has not been kind to Apple users and app developers. Starting late in the day on July 3rd, Apple began pushing out corrupt App Store updates that cause immediate app crashes. In effect, you launch your app, then -- boom! -- it dies.
Google signaled its intent [to go big on the public cloud/come after Amazon] when it removed the ???beta test??? tag last fall from Google App Engine and launched Google Cloud Storage, a separate service dedicated to housing large amounts of data, writes Wired Enterprise’s Cade Metz. But all the pieces fell into place at I/O [...]
Ever wonder what Steve Jobs would have done if he'd gotten into experimental physics? When CERN scientists announced that they'd probably found the Higgs boson, they got more than their fair share of smack talk from the design community for presenting their discovery in Comic Sans. Even the font's creator, Vincent Connare, wasn't impressed.
The midweek July 4 holiday is behind us, and now there's but a scant week separating us from the madness that is Comic-Con International in San Diego. You'd think that would mean we're just gonna coast this week, but how could we do that to you?
On March 15, 2012, Felix Baumgartner moved a little closer to record breaking jump. He left a ballon at an altitude of 71,581 feet. The goal is to get to the 120,000 ft altitude. He plans to break the following records: Highest exit altitude for a skydive. Greatest distance of free fall without a drogue [...]
Israeli researchers have developed a strain of medicinal marijuana that can ease symptoms of diseases such as arthritis without making patients "high".
Google is doing some spring cleaning in the middle of summer, announcing it will shut down five more services, including iGoogle. Fans of Google's widget-based homepage have a little over year to find a replacement.
In less than 2 years, a star system's planet-forming disk just vanished -- and the same thing may have happened in our own solar system.
A Defense Department investigation has recommended disciplinary action against the head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency for verbally harassing his subordinates.
An ocean explorer and his 48-man crew were anchored in Istanbul when the Turkish government asked to borrow their vessel. Astrobiologist, Extremo Files blogger and exploration fan Jeffrey Marlow explains how the crew recovered the bodies of two downed Turkish pilots.
As a new parent a decade-and-a-half ago I decided that I was going to raise my children in a commercial-television-free/video-game-free household. At the time, the American Pediatric Association was suggesting that children under 2 watch no television/have no screen time at all and that children over 2 receive no more than 1-2 hours of quality [...]
Jack Coleman terms it "getting the band back together." Jeph Loeb, executive producer of the Ultimate Spider-Man show in the Marvel Universe block on Disney XD, brought in some familiar Heroes to guest-star on the episode "Strange Days" airing on Sunday, July 8th at 8 p.m. EST. Another voice familiar to geekdom will also be heard in the episode: Mark Hamill as Nightmare.
A long long time ago a friend asked, "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?" My answer was not the tropical beaches of Barbados or the chic romance of Paris, it was Japan. Why? Because Japan really has it all for the geeks. Better yet, they actually embrace it. After two trips there (and surely more to come), here's my top 10 list of geeky reasons to visit Japan.
Sam Raimi, who will always be known as the director of Evil Dead in my mind (even if Disney would rather I mention Spiderman), is set to direct Oz The Great and Powerful. This one focuses on the origins of the wizard in the Wizard of Oz, as played by James Franco. I don't know about you, but those two sentences alone make me excited to go see this move.
My thoughts about mermaids and Norfolk's mermaid art got me thinking about the numerous other cities in America that have used city symbols as a vehicle for artists to show their creativity. I've seen them in many of the cities I've visited, and I know there are many more. This website attempts to keep up with community art projects worldwide. This can be a great way to explore a city you're visiting, particularly with kids: see if the city has a map or scavenger hunt of the sculptures.
Universal Studio Orlando's newest parade is the hit of the park. Focusing on some of the most popular animated characters today, Universal's Superstar Parade was a welcome break from all the walking around we did that day. The downside to watching most parades is getting a good seat takes holding down a piece of pavement for an hour or more. The popularity of this parade makes this no exception to the rule.
How to set up your tablet for a quick burst of usage by a toddler.
Jeff Atwood wants to make software developers better. No, scratch that. He wants to make the entire internet better. Atwood is the co-founder of StackExchange, a network of question-and-answer websites. StackExchange's original site, StackOverflow, caters exclusively to developers. "We have a reputation about being jerks about quality, but we want each page we put up to make the internet better, not worse," Atwood tells Wired. "Not even the same. Better."
Featuring an array of clickable candy-colored pieces, EteRNA looks a little like the popular game Bejeweled. But instead of combining jewel shapes in Tetris-like levels, EteRNA players manipulate nucleotides, the fundamental building blocks of RNA, to coax molecules into shapes specified by the game.
The hugely popular tabletop game Warhammer 40K is set in the far future and played with 28mm miniature figures. In preparation for Comic-Con, a few fanboys decided to supersize these little Space Marines and built 7-foot-tall, wearable replicas of their armor. Want to make your own? Go for it! It only takes 352 "terribly complicated" steps.
The classic books that record the revolutionary moments in science may not be intelligible to most people, so we asked scientists to explain what was, and still is, great about the seminal works in their fields.
Soldiers returning from war face huge obstacles getting back into civilian life: The loss of friends, limbs, minds and perhaps innocence, too, take their toll. As a supplement to traditional therapies for these issues, artist Monica Haller thinks photography and art can play a big role in a vet's recovery.
It's great that we're opening up a path to early-stage investing so that everyone can dabble in some VC action. But we shouldn't forget about the people who want to bring a dream to life without quitting their day jobs.
Apple barely even has to worry about wielding its patent holding for the design of the MacBook Air. It rules over potential ultrabook competitors by keeping a tight reign on the supply chain.
Series creator and showrunner Vince Gilligan talks about the creative magic that keeps Breaking Bad unbelievably good in this extended podcast interview.
Which video sharing app should you commit to? Viddy or Socialcam? Anil Dash breaks it down for you.
I don't get to play Dungeons & Dragons as much as I'd like (I know: Who does?), so I look forward Wednesday nights, when I drive to my Friendly Local Bookstore for a few hours of D&D Encounters.
Ancient Greeks imagined griffins that fused an eagle's head and wings to a lion's body, but that mythic hybrid looks like child's play compared to the Lizard, the multisourced movie monster that plagues Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man.
Right now, the power panel for my home is in the basement workshop. The very dark, no-windows workshop. When we lose power, I inevitably have to go hunting for a flashlight just to find my way through my... let's say, unorganized... workshop. Well, I've had enough of that. I've installed the Mr. Beams Home Power Outage Lighting System 3, with a Ceiling Light in my basement workshop and a Stair Light in the upstairs hallway (where its light will affect the largest area).
John Wilkes Booth has stolen Abe Lincoln's hat and disrupted the time-space continuum. It's up to you to defeat Booth and his minions (laser sharks, puking turtles, and luchadors) with your trusty Beardarang and meat-based weaponry. Pixel Lincoln is a deck-building card game based on a sidescrolling platformer video game based on a card game inspired by old Nintendo games. Got that? Trust me: it's a riot.
Receiving a copy of something billed as the first book in a new space opera series is not, by my tastes, unqualified good news. I prefer my science fiction a little harder, with protagonists who are a bit darker. In this case, though, the book was Further: Beyond the Threshold, by Chris Roberson.
Fans of Disney-Pixar's feature films know that the filmmakers will sneak little hidden items (called "Easter Eggs") into each film, usually references to previous films. Disney-Pixar's epic action adventure Brave features a few such gems, two of which are revealed after the break.
For one reason and another I lost track with Assassin's Creed. I caught up with Hughes Ricour, Senior Producer on Assassin's Creed III to find out more about the upcoming third major outing for the franchise.
Thanks to all the GeekDad readers who entered our drawing for a pair of four-day passes to Star Wars Celebration VI next month in Orlando.
The 1964-1965 Project FIRE tests gave engineers confidence that the Apollo Command Module would survive Earth atmosphere reentry when it returned from the moon. In 1966, engineers proposed new tests to show that Apollo-shaped crew capsules could withstand the even greater demands of returns from Mars or Venus.
Google's daily brainteaser helps hone your search skills.
Lawrence, Kansas is a great place to be a geek. It's home of the University of Kansas and the Center for the Study of Science Fiction. Every year since 1979 they've handed out the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best science-fiction novel of the year, and in 1987, they added the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of the year.
Your students and your kids may be curious about the Higgs Boson. What do you tell them?
The European Parliament on Wednesday declared its independence from a controversial global anti-piracy accord, rejecting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.
A collection of posts from the GeekMom archives for travel week. Stop here if you have spent the last year+ reading other, less interesting websites.
Let your girls play more video games. That is, if you want them to grow up to be rock star game designers like Jane McGonigal. Yes, we can enjoy games like Half Life and Angry Birds Space, but Games and gaming techniques can go beyond the entertaining app or console title and be used to educate ourselves and influence real world behaviors. Besides, there's good money in a career in game design.
Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week.
GeekMom Sarah visits Thomas Land in England and experiences her toddler's first ride on a roller coaster with some trepidation.
Dork Tower Wednesday
Over the next three weeks we will look at the top ten geeky things to do in each of the major theme parks in Orlando and then ask for you to vote on which has the best geeky attractions. To kick start the series we're heading to Disney's Animal Kingdom, possibly the least popular of the resort's four parks but still with plenty to see and do.
Who among us doesn't remember chanting, "igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic" during our grammar school geology sessions? Or holding those same types of rocks in hand as the teacher passed them around?
Connect wirelessly via Bluetooth from up to 30 feet away with any Bluetooth enabled smartphone or tablet and most laptops. Connection is simple, with a passcode right on the bottom of the device next to the on/off switch and volume and fast forward buttons on the side of the speaker. There's a micro USB port for charging (USB to micro USB cable included) and an audio in jack.
The auto world is mourning the loss of Sergio Pininfarina, one of Italy's greatest and most prolific automotive designers. Here's a look back on what Pininfarina bestowed on the motoring world before his passing at age 85.
Like any good parent I've read my kids The Very Hungry Caterpillar (in English ???and??? Chinese) countless times, and it's a fun book both for its subtle anti-junk food propaganda as well as the fun depiction of one of nature's most impressive magic tricks: the metamorphosis from a this crawly worm-like thing into a beautiful fluttering creature. However, it's not one that we often get to see ourselves.
Google's Hugo Barra, the product manager for Android, talks with Wired about what's new for the world's most popular mobile operating system: Google's voice, Google Now, Jelly Bean and the Asus Nexus 7 tablet.
A new simulation tool allows sailors and naval architects to better model waves and wind, something its creator says could revolutionize competitive sailing.
Chinese astronomers mark the beginning of Supernova 1054, heralding the birth of what will become known as the Crab Nebula.
As a country, we've made a historical commitment to ensuring that virtually every American has access to reasonably priced, standard, high-quality communications. Our national phone system was the envy of the world when it was first built. Now we're moving to a time of deep communications inequality.
Users and developers may be howling over Twitter's crackdown on third-party apps, but the intent is clear: Twitter wants to gain more Apple-like control over the Twitter user experience.
I can't believe this thing still exists. It's a tracing of my childhood teddy bear, Jingle—so named for a defunct bell in his right ear. It's the earliest independently made piece of artwork that I have any record of, and I actually remember creating it. I was 5, and I was doing something I'd do again and again in my life as a maker: breaking rules.
The cognitive perils of having lots of open windows have been somewhat overblown. It's not always bad for us—and sometimes it can be very good.
Ward Cunningham, the creator of the wiki, is proud of his invention. But there is one thing he regrets. The central idea of a wiki -- whether it's driving Wikipedia or C2 -- is that anyone can add or edit a page, but those pages all live on servers that someone else owns and controls. Cunningham now believes that no one should have that sort of central control, so he has built something called the federated wiki.
Grown-ups are experts at unwinding. We stuff our faces with name-brand farm animals, argue for hours about 20-year-old music, and guzzle cognac-and-espresso speedballs to stay up for karaoke. But won't someone please think of the children?
High-octane fuel. Ear-bleeding noise. Neck-snapping acceleration. Potential dismemberment. That’s what you get when you drive the 638-horsepower Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. Death is also an option. Also in this issue How I Accidentally Kickstarted the Domestic Drone Boom One One-Hundredth of a Second Faster: Building Better Olympic Athletes New Videogame Lets Amateur Researchers Mess with RNA [...]
Our cars collect a lot of data about itself. Sensors can tell us how well our engine is performing, detect problems and adjust itself to help keep us on the road and in control. But what if we could put that data to use in order to make us better and more active drivers, both in terms of immediate feedback and reporting about our habits? What if we could use this system to get lower car insurance premiums or to work with our kids on being better drivers when they first hit the roads? Those were some of the questions that Ireland-based Team Hermes asked themselves as they competed in the 2011 Imagine Cup in New York City. And success at the cup has led to the launch of their startup, CleverMiles.
Everyone knows to shield their eyes from sparklers and bottle rockets on the 4th of July, but another less obvious thing to beware of is the wire brush most of us use to clean our backyard grills.
The upcoming announcement of the results of the search for the Higgs Boson are promising to be ground breaking from a scientific point-of-view. There is a lot of information that may be confusing to some and will be misinterpreted by many. The practical application of being that closer to understanding the secrets of the Universe won't be realized for some time. It was decades from the discovery of radiation to the point where we could harness the power of the atom for power. As I sit here and write this post, I am still awaiting my Mr. Fusion device promised in 1985.
Prepare the fireworks: The discovery of the Higgs boson is finally here. Early in the morning on July 4, physicists with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN announced they have found a new particle that behaves similarly to what is expected from the Higgs.
I recently described IDW Publishing as "the anti-George Lucas." It's a loaded statement, for sure, but hear me out.
One of the many pleasures of stalking the show floor at E3 was bumping into some of the smaller developers. Two such encounters were with Dave Lang of Iron Galaxy whose new game Wreckateer was featured in the Xbox keynote and is coming later this year, and Tequila Works CEO Ra??l Rubio Mun??rriz whose game Deadlight is also due out soon.
This Independence Day, make sure you are taking the appropriate precautions to avoid a disaster while still having fun.
Australia is famous for a lot of things: amazing landscapes, endless beaches, laid-back surfers, kangaroos, wine and many more... including Lego. And it seems that the Australian Lego community has been fairly spoiled lately!
Independence Day is secretly a great geek holiday. Underneath all that grilling and baseball and apple pie is a holiday dedicated to those inventors and makers who dedicated themselves to the proposition that all men are created equal. So while you're at the beach, or the stadium, or while flying your awesome 3D Star Wars Starfighter Kites, pour a cold one in honor of these five* geeky reasons to celebrate the 4th of July:
Watch a live feed as CERN spokespeople announce their latest results in the search for the Higgs boson. What will they discover? The Higgs? New physics? Tune in to find out.
Google's daily brainteaser helps hone your search skills.
Take a glance at the photo above. It’s a snapshot of a life-size Pteranodon model on display at the San Diego Natural History Museum. The flying reptile – restored life size – looks like the standard image of Pteranodon I have seen in museums and books since I was a kid. The large pterosaur is [...]
If you've been on the fence about Android, or tablets in general, this is the tablet you've been waiting for.
These wireless, noise-canceling headphones from Parrot are packed with multiple sensors: capacitive surfaces, microphones and an NFC chip.
For seven months, Pakistan has blocked ground convoys from resupplying troops based in Afghanistan. Pakistan wanted an apology for the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers -- killed in U.S. airstrikes last November -- and a new fee for every shipping container transiting the country. Until Pakistan got its apology, the border would remain closed, forcing the U.S. into a costly aerial resupply route through Kyrgyzstan.
There has been a rise in speculation from the international physics community about the contents of a press conference that has been called by scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), to be held at 9am Geneva time (3am EST) on July 4, 2012. Physicists expect that the announcement will be positive proof of the Higgs boson particle and a successful mission for the team. The anticipation reached a frenzied state yesterday when scientists from the Tevatron at Fermilab in Illinois announced that they had found significant supporting evidence for the existence of the Higgs boson.
I recently spoke with a couple VPs that head up the cloud initiatives at Dell. I have been watching Dell closely, because I think they have one of the best platforms and bundle of products and services in which to launch a full-scale cloud solution.??But I have to wonder if it will pan out for [...]
Watch a live feed from Europe of the possible announcement of the Higgs boson discovery on Wired.com starting at 11 p.m PT tonight (2 a.m. ET). The announcement of results is expected to begin at midnight PT.
Apple must be doing something right in the PC space -- or PC makers or doing something wrong. The ratio of PC sales to Mac sales has dropped to the lowest point in about 15 years.
While folks like to talk about Google’s many failed properties, one that stands out for Apple is MobileMe. Well, Apple’s troubled child is no more as of Monday — Apple’s new golden boy, iCloud, is all things cloud at Apple now, and includes many of MobileMe’s features. Gadget Lab’s Christina Bonnington writes of MobileMe’s checkered [...]
Amazon has published a more detailed explanation about the Outage that knocked out a number of popular websites on Friday night, including Netflix, Instagram, and Pintrest. The culprit: a twenty minute power outage at a single Northern Virginia data center.
The Highway Loss Data Institute, a division within the automaker-supported Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), released findings on how active safety systems help drivers when their vehicles are fitted with crash avoidance technology and adaptive headlamps. But interestingly, lane departure warning systems aren't living up to their claimed potential. And in some cases, the tech may be increasing the number of crashes.
An accidentally published video appears to leak the long-awaited discovery of the Higgs boson that is rumored to be officially announced by CERN early tomorrow morning.
Vince Gilligan and his writers' finely tuned plot machine deftly keeps the chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-cooker hitting rock bottom -- and bouncing back for more madness.
The discovery of a fantastically preserved, bushy-tailed fossil theropod has cloaked the dinosaur world in feathers. Other feathered dinosaurs have been found before, but none so close to the trunk of their evolutionary tree.
Produced by Zach Galifianakis, the new documentary shows a man attempting to survive for 31 days and nights using nothing but Craigslist.
A federal judge has decided to uphold her decision to place a temporary sales ban on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in a patent fight between Apple and Samsung.
Ever wonder what you'd look like as paperweight? Now you can find out. A new app called OmNomNom??(say it out loud, it's the sound of a chomping jaw) designed by a member of the MakerBot community Thingiverse just made it way easy to transform any image???photo, jpeg, whatever???into a 3-D print, no CAD expertise required.
Google's been flaunting their Google Glass prototype left and right, but it may not be the only company getting into the heads-up-display business. Apple was granted a patent for a head-mounted display apparatus on Tuesday.
We've said it before and we'll say it again: The iPad Mini is the Apple rumor that refuses to die. The latest in the long twisted history of the fabled miniature tablet is that it will feature a 330 ppi resolution, 7.85-inch IGZO display made by Sharp.
Jake Kazdal, CEO of indie game developer 17-Bit, tells us about his upcoming game Skulls of the Shogun on this week's Game|Life video.
From Daenerys' dragons to the epic Battle of Blackwater, this goofball video from College Humor boils down major plot points from Game of Thrones' second season and serves them up in classic RPG style.
We brave flying crumbs and bits of hot dog to see firsthand what it takes to make it to Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest. Be careful. It's messy.
By??Jon Walsh Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a Cloud Computing Redbooks Residency at IBM in Raleigh, North Carolina, in the office with the longest corridors I have ever seen. IBMers in Raleigh must be the fittest on the planet because it is a mile walk for a coffee.As part of the [...]
Google pioneered the art of the "cloud" infrastructure. But Amazon beat it to the idea of sharing such an infrastructure with the rest of the world. Six years after Amazon first offered its web services to outside developers and businesses, Google is still playing catchup. But it's intent on making up that lost ground.
Copyright troll Righthaven, which famously went defunct last year after a epic failure in trying to make money for newspapers by suing sites that reposted even parts of news stories, is seeking a second life.
The last video from Eden TV showed the result of a large meteor impacting a taxi in London. This meme correctly captures my response. Clearly, they were trying to promote science with their Science Month. My only course of action was to make a quick calculation of the energy for such a large meteorite. Let [...]
