December 2011
54 posts
Gear Guide, December 21
OUTDOORS The World’s Most Expensive ATV The Wazuma V8 has a top speed of 150mph thanks to a 250hp Ferrari engine and a BMW six-speed gear box. This one-of-a-kind vehicle just went on sale for $260,000. @BBCnews Super-Light Backpack weighs 14 Ounces Terra Nova’s Quasar series of packs will use a polyethylene material used in yacht sales. They’ll be released early next year, and cost around...
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Wired Daily Digest
A Hot Moment: First Measurement of Electrical Resistance’s Start The onset of electrical resistance — the beginning of friction as electricity circulates through circuits — has been measured for the first time. German physicists caught the change in the movements of electrons with a fast-pulse laser. Small Town Cops Ready to Kick Big Time A “If terrorists ever target Fargo, N.D.,...
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Culture Counter (Dec. 21)
A bonus last minute gift alert: EA and Gameloft put a lot of their titles to $.99
Trailer: The Hobbit
In the second installment of epic movie trailers this week, first teaser for The Hobbit was released. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first of a two-part LOTR prequel that Peter Jackson has cooking. This film will debut in December 2012.
New Stan Lee comic will include his first Indian...
Gear Guide, December 20
GAMING Sony Vita Trips out of the Starting Gate The launch of Sony’s handheld gaming system has been marred by customer complaints of unresponsive touchscreens and freezing. Sony has issued an apology. @BBCnews Star Wars/WoW Knights of the Old Republic has been in development for three years, and comes out today. The game combines massive multiplayer online elements with Wookies and Sith Lords....
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Wired Daily Digest
New Police Gear: Sound-based Shields Could Make Breathing Difficult New riot shields could disperse crowds by producing low-frequency sound that incapacitates people by resonating in the respiratory tract. Defence firm Raytheon filed a patent for the device last year. Goodbye Glaciers and Polar Bears, We’ll Still Have Grapes As warming temperatures shift grape-growing regions, growers from ...
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Culture Counter (Dec. 19)
Nintendo teams up with The Louvre
If the company is worried about the sale of 3Ds consoles, at least The Louvre will take 5,000 off their hands. The world’s most visited museum announced they’ll start using the devices in March 2012 to act as digital guides to patrons browsing their 35,000+ art pieces. The museum is also working on similar smartphone/iPad initiatives, Nintendo says they’re not in...
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Wired Daily Digest
Bridge Over Troubled Web Waters E-mail scams are becoming more targeted and trickier to avoid. Writer Simson Garfinkel tells you how to avoid getting hacked: be careful with your passwords, WiFi access, use authentication tokens and keep hard copies. No Fear Pill The Pentagon this week announced an $11 million grant for researchers at three institutions studying the ability of D-Cycloserine ...
Gear Guide, December 15
SOFTWARE/APPS GTA III Out on Android and iOS Rockstar Games’s seminal PlayStation 2 game is now available for $5 at the App Store and Android Market. Complaints of quick battery drainage are the only problems so far. Microsoft is Getting a Social Network Code-named So.cl, the network was leaked back in July, and more details have just been released. The program will try to marry search with...
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Culture Counter (Dec. 15)
Trailer: Expendables 2
The trailer lasts about a minute and perfectly captures why folks will go see this. You get the impeccable acting of Mr. Willis and Mr. Stallone, then a who’s who of ass-kicking action stars holding weapons: Norris, Li, Statham, Lundgren and the (former) Governator. The film is tentatively set for August 2012.
Animal Planet will potentially change its name
…for a...
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Culture Counter (Dec. 14)
As a bonus today, let’s appreciate a Drive sequel will exist (in book form… but you can picture Gosling already).
The Shins detail new album
It’s called Port of Morrow and will be the band’s first release since 2007’s Wincing The Night Away and the band’s comeback tour (with revamped lineup) this year. James Mercer is back at the helm and his own label will produce it. The release...
Gear Guide, December 14
SMARTPHONE/TABLET Prada’s Smartphone The LG Prada 3.0 will run Android Gingerbread, but through a customized UI featuring a blacked-out menu system. It’ll also have a fold out QWERTY keyboard. Look for a January launch, though no price details have been given. @BGR Nokia Brings 4G Windows Phone to US Available January 11, the Lumia 710 will be available exclusively on T-Mobile, and will feature...
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Wired Daily Digest
The Ice Man Eateth Ötzi, a 5,000 year-old-man found mummified by ice in the Alps, died on a full stomach of ibex, not hungry and exhausted as researchers had assumed. What examiners had thought was his empty stomach was, in fact, a section of his colon (whoops). His stomach has been forced upward, and is now lodged under his ribs. Health Care Needs a Moneyball Moment America spends money on...
“[T]he old newsroom debates over what images to publish are moot, resembling the...”
– Jack Shafer, ”The Gaddafi corpsewatch,” in Reuters.
Gear Guide, December 13
MEDICINE Headset Tracks Brain Blood Flow to Detect Head Injuries PhysioSonics’ monitor is a portable ultrasound that can index flow to find evidence of lethal brain trauma, like pressure buildup. Likely to be applied for military field injuries. @techrev Honda Debuts Personal Mobility Robot The Uni-Cub is a motorized unicycle that gives the seated passenger 360-degree mobility in a frame more...
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Culture Counter (Dec. 13)
Trailer: G.I. Joe: Retaliation
The sequel to G.I. Joe (2009) is set to debut in June 2012. Channing Tatum is back, joined by The Rock and Adrianne Palicki (and a surprise big name action star shown only at the end of the trailer). The Joes are set up by the government to be executed, but our three heroes survive and have to avenge it all. Somehow, Kill Bill style samurai sword fighting while...
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Wired Daily Digest
Weighty Physics News: LHC Gets Whiff of Higgs Big news in physics today: The Higgs particle, responsible for giving mass to matter, is revealing hints of itself. The main detectors of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva are (at last) spotting indications of the Higgs — the final piece of the Standard Model. We’re not at the end of discoveries, however. The Higgs looks to be lighter than...
Gear Guide, December 12
HOUSEHOLD Box Collects Medical Monitor Intel, Stores to Cloud Qualcomm’s collects the information from non-connected monitoring devices, like fluid-retention scales, glucose meters, etc. and holds the most recent data on tap for doctors to tap into. When vitals dip into dangerous territory, the box can send out alerts. @techrev Idiot-Proofing Your Garage The HeadsUp wireless alert system...
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Culture Counter (Dec. 12)
Jackie Robinson biopic gets Harrison Ford
Jack Nicholson was reportedly the early favorite to play Dodgers GM Branch Rickey, but over the weekend Ford was announced at the helm of the upcoming film. Chadwick Boseman (The Express) will play Robinson and Brian Helgeland (Mystic River) will write/direct. No timetable has been set on the film.
Trailer: Men In Black III
Both Will Smith and Tommy...
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Wired Daily Digest
Citizen Banking Rises From the Crowd The momentum of the Occupy Wall Street movement rides on the ire of those who feel large banks are doing a crappy job. Can citizen lending, through online peer-to-peer sites, do better? Unfortunately for many, probably not.
Tiniest Steam Engine Sputters To Life The world’s smallest steam engine, measuring mere micrometers across, works as efficiently as...
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Wired Daily Digest
MythBusters’ Cannon Lands In House Rhett Allain, of Dot Physics, explains what went wrong Tuesday when MythBusters sent a cannon into a residential neighborhood in Dublin, Calif. Pavillion, Wyo.’s Water Is Fracked Up EPA officials linked water contamination to frack fluids for the first time in a report released today. The report directly contradicts arguments the drilling industry has long...
Shameless Materialist, December 9
SOFTWARE/APPS
Cell Phone Locating from Just Your Number Loc-Aid, a startup company, needs just your cell phone number to find your location. The opt-in service is of interest to credit card companies hoping to reduce fraud. @techrev Amazon Video Streaming Nabs Glee, Sons of Anarchy Amazon Prime’s video streaming service got the FOX and FX bigshots today and have made them immediately...
Shameless Materialist, December 8
OUTDOORS Stormtrooper Motorcycle Suits The suits are made of cow hide, and the top and bottom units connect. UD Replicas also has Iron Man and Batman suits, too. Stormtrooper white suits start at $1,200. @OhGizmo Cycling Notebook for the Tim Ferriss-Style Riders Rapha has released two sizes of leather-bound notebooks with a debossed Rapha logo, and pages for writing ride times and drawing...
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Wired Daily Digest
What Is, “Your Latest Prescription” for 20 Alex After beating two human “Jeopardy!” champions, the technology behind Big Blue will now be used as a cloud-based service to look for new drugs. Red Cross Questions If Video Gamers Should Follow Geneva Conventions Tens of millions of people are possibly violating international humanitarian law, virtually. Gamers are not about to be prosecuted,...
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Culture Counter (Dec. 7)
Trailer: The Three Stooges
Larry, Curly and Moe meet iPhones, Snooki and more in the Farrelly brothers adaptation. The highlight of this is still the perfect casting of Will Sasso, not sure it equates to must-see overall. The film debuts in April.
New Andrew Bird LP
The LP is called Break It Yourself and it’s due out March 6. Bird recorded and produced the entire album in his bard (western...
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Wired Daily Digest
Out-of-Body Illusions Hint at Soul Spend time around Henrik Ehrsson and he may have you thinking that you’ve swapped bodies with someone, grown a third arm (!), or shrunk Alice in Wonderland style. Ehrsson studies illusions hoping to understand gives us our sense of self.
Lights Spied by Satellite’s Reveal Changing Planet Details in the changes happening on earth, in population and economic...
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Shameless Materialist
SOFTWARE/APPS Windows 8 App Store Unveiled The software shop will be a balance between the lawless Android Market and the strict Apple App Store. Apps range in price from $1.49 to, and this is not a typo, $999.99. @redgirlsays for @gadgetlab Flipboard Comes to iPhone The previously iPad-exclusive magazine app is available for free and features the same news browsing format as it’s big brother. ...
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WatchDaily Digest Video
Video taken 46 miles above the ground in a jet aircraft reveal a strange kind of lightning caused huge electrical bursts high in the atmosphere.
[via Danielle Venton]
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Culture Counter
Wired.com: Avoid the gamebreaking Skyward Sword bug
Nintendo’s latest game in the Zelda franchise is apparently excellent (a lot of 10.0 reviews) but has a fatal flaw. Around 30 hours into the game, there is a glitch that could damage your save file. Usually that’s not a huge deal, but this particular game only allows you one saved game at a time (so to backup any files you need to transfer...
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Wired Daily Digest
Imagine This: Your Universe The universe is such an awfully big place. Even if you could wrap your head around it’s size, it’s expanding, your work wouldn’t be done. Wired Science offers some tips for those interested in contemplating the square footage of this particular piece of real estate.
Mind to Motherboard: NYTimes’ TechLit Smorgasborg The Science Times offers...
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Wired Daily Digest
Fairely Innovative: Maker Movement Heralds New Creative Age Smart DIYers may be the best source of fresh innovation. The maker movement has the ingenuity and technological access to usher in a new industrial revolution. (ProTip: Look for the Chris Anderson quote in the conclusion.) Molecular Mixology The tricks of the cocktail bar are steeped in lore, skill and (most importantly) physics and...
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This week's press coverage of Wired
Rachel Maddow Show: Spencer Ackerman’s anti-Islam break results in White House review CNN Newsroom: John Abell on employers blocking Cyber Monday shopping
Business Insider: A look at the WIRED Store’s ridiculously cool tech BBC: John Abell weighs in on the future of Google+ G4 TV: Attack of the Show visits the WIRED Store in Times Square CNN International: Geekdad’s Daniel Donahoo...
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Reviews News
SMARTPHONE/TABLET Fingerprint-Repellant Screens Zee Germans have created a precise type of surface roughness that can repel oil, meaning greasy fingerprints. The groundbreaking technology: Candle soot. Transformer Tablet Launching December 12th The Asus quad-core laptop with a detachable screen has been written up in anticipation for its just-announced release date. It’ll sell for $500. @BGR ...
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