Christmas sweaters are one of those anomalies that everyone complains about, yet so many are sold every year that someone has to like them (kind of like fruitcake). Whether you're keeping tradition for tradition's sake, or secretly you actually enjoy ugly sweaters (we won't tell anyone), why not at least make this year one to remember?
Early last month, Sony released PlayStation Mobile, bringing PlayStation games to the PS Vita and other certified phones and tablets. The list of certified phones isn't as extensive as it should have been, consisting of only Sony devices (a few tablets and Xperia) and a couple of HTC ones. For anyone with a supported device, you can head over to the PS Store for the download and installation instructions.
The holiday season is creeping up fast, and if you're shopping for a Steampunk, it could be almost impossible to find anything for them unless you know exactly where to look. Luckily for you, some of us have done all of the work you'll need. Whether you're Steampunk shopping for Christmas, Hanukkah, Chrismukkah (yes, that's real), Kwanzaa, or Festivus, you're sure to find something for that special lady or gentleman in your life by taking a stroll down this list!
When money's tight and you're tired of re-watching and re-watching your gigantic DVD collection, there's always live television. Of course, you probably don't have cable, which means you're resorting to a homemade antenna like this to get broadcasted channels in your area. But, let's face it—it's just not good enough.
Doorbells are useful and all, but most of them are boring as hell. They use the same old generic sounds to let you know when guests have arrived, as demonstrated below.
While graffiti may never be fully accepted by the masses, it has already become a very large medium for creative artists across the globe, who make mundane and austere cityscapes a little more interesting for the rest of us. Walking past this Banksy stencil on my way to class (at UCLA) made my day. Art like this can cause people to stop and appreciate the otherwise boring and blank walls that surround the city. It can stir up artistic feelings, pensive thoughts, and other emotions stored insi...
Solving long and extensively complicated equations in grade school was tough to do by hand. Keeping track of which part of the equation to solve first took time, training, and lots of bad grades.
Google has just launched a new revolutionary augmented reality game for Android called Ingress. Their new mobile game centers around the fight for control of the minds of everyone here on Earth. It's a freaking worldwide fight—from your smartphone! While augmented reality in is nothing new in the smartphone gaming world, it has never seen the likes of this. With an almost Halo-like storytelling, Ingress seeks to bring out gamers all across the globe to perform physical activities by transform...
If you want to know the most up-to-date news on a trending topic, Twitter can be a great place to look since people generally tweet about things as they happen. It used to be easy to find Twitter results in Google Search, but after their deal expired last year, tweets are no longer included in search results.
Rockets will always be cool no matter what age you are, and building your own rocket is even better. If you have an iPhone that you aren't afraid to blast off into the sky, then you can try and build your own iPhone Rocket to record and analyze flight data, like Byte Works did. The list of parts is a little hefty, but their blog provides you with all of the information you need to make sure you have everything. The most important thing you need is the sensor tag, so that you can record the am...
On average, it takes three seconds to move your hand from the keyboard to the mouse, then click once and move your hand back to the keyboard. While the time wasted my sound trivial, it can add up quickly throughout the day.
Facebook has always been notoriously difficult to customize. Personally, I think this is an improvement over MySpace's totally open platform (some people should not use code), but users should still have the option to change a few things if they want. While you'll never be able to choose your own background image or add an obnoxious number of aWeSoMe quiz results to your profile, there are a few browser plugins that let you at least change the color scheme.
While the PlayStation and Xbox models may rule the current world of gaming, there are still those who love to keep it old school. The grittiness, toughness and nostalgia that is laced throughout old gaming consoles appeals to many people. Every time I play Donkey Kong 64 (with the expansion pack of course!), I revert back to the days of Sunday morning cartoons and only worrying about homework.
There's really nothing safe about transmitting sensitive information electronically, but even if it gets there safely without being seen by prying eyes, there's no guarantee what happens to it once it reaches its destination. And let's face it, there are some things that you just don't want floating out there forever. So what can you do? Whether you want to send an email, a text, or a link, there are ways to send messages that self-destruct so that once they're read, they immediately vanish. ...
Remember TwtRoulette? TwtRoulette was an online app that turned you into a so-called Twitter spy, letting you peruse someone's own timeline feed exactly how they saw it themselves. So, if you wanted to see what tweets Ashton Kutcher was seeing in his home timeline from the 700+ people he follows, you could.
So, you've got Windows 8 now, but what about all of those keyboard shortcuts that took you years to memorize? Just because Windows 8 is geared more toward touch interactions, doesn't mean keyboard shortcuts are gone—they're just a little different.
We all know the real reason why Facebook was created. No matter what Mark Zuckerberg says, or how many commercials about chairs the company makes, it all comes down to one thing—boobies.
There are several ways to send pictures to others on your smartphone—picture message, email, Bluetooth, and even by bumping phones together. Now there's an even more unique way to transfer pictures from one Apple device to another—with sound. Chirp for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
Playing advanced games on your phone can be pretty frustrating sometimes. Touchscreen devices are great for everyday apps and games designed solely for them, but when it comes to games that require multiple actions in conjunction with directional movement, it gets ugly.
Sitting in the Powell Library at UCLA was a constant thing for me. Directly after class, I would streamline my way there to study all night until my eyes shuttered to sleep. For the most part, my classes and professors managed to keep my studying online via PDFs, emails, long essays and journal entries.
The internet is full of information and entertainment, but if you have children, you might want to put a cap on what sites they have access to. While it may be a free world out there, it doesn't mean that little Mickey should be free to roam the web during his downtime (or uptime, if you know what I mean).
Have a super secret spy communication you'd like to send out, but don't have the funds to hire your own trusted operatives to deliver the message? Then stick to what you're used to—email it. SafeGmail is a browser extension that allows you to send encrypted emails right through your regular Gmail account. While this may seem a bit unnecessary for most messages, encrypting your email can definitely be useful.
One of the more innovative features about the new Windows 8 operating system is the ability to unlock the screen via a picture password. This new feature allows the user to select any photo they would like and use taps, circles or straight lines to unlock the device. The video below shows the picture unlock in action.
Sea otters are the largest members of the weasel family. When people started hunting sea otters for their fur, their population fell from roughly 225,000 to about 1,500, until the International Fur Seal Treaty took effect in 1911. Since the international ban on otter hunting, the population has rebounded back to roughly 107,000.
There are plenty of tank robots out there, but how many of them can recognize 3D objects and map their environment? Tanky, the tracked mobile robot, can do all that and more while rolling around on his bicycle chain treads. Created as a Master's thesis project, Tanky is made almost entirely of parts you can find at your local hardware store. It was built in two "layers" with the motors, electronics, and batteries on bottom and the processing unit, a laptop, on top. The motors came from cordle...
Apple's new iPhone 5 has enjoyed three weeks out in the public since its September 21st release. Millions of consumers have been shelling out big bucks and waiting in long lines just to get their hands on it. But sometimes users forget to actually keep their hands on their new phone, causing something like this... It only takes a second to drop your new iPhone 5, but the pain of picking up the phone and turning it over to reveal a cracked display lasts a lifetime. Well, not exactly a lifetime...
Wall Anchors. Drywall Wall Anchors. Plasterboard Wall Anchors. I discovered these plasterboard (drywall) anchors / plugs a few years ago and think they are fantastic. They are ridiculously easy to use and are extremely effective in attaching fixtures to walls. One of the main things to be aware of (as with all things that have fixtures hanging from them) is the recommended maximum weight loading of each size of anchor. What ever the packet says, adhere to it.
Forgot the passwords to your email or your other favorite websites? If you typically store your passwords in Internet Explorer (IE9 or other versions) it can be tricky to get your passwords back -- but this tutorial makes it really easy!
A couple of months ago at the Black Hat security conference, hacker Cody Brocious gave the hotel industry a nasty surprise when he figured out how to hack the locks made by Onity that are used in millions of hotels worldwide.
The original NES controller has become one of the most recognizable symbols of the Nintendo gaming culture, thanks to its perfectly rectangular shape and simple button design. But despite its popular appeal, people just don't game with them anymore. So, what do they do with them? They savor the memories and turn it into something more useful, like a light switch.
This may seem like an odd subject, because what do Steampunks and iPhones even have to do with each other? Actually, more than you might think!
To say that I am disappointed with the new Maps application in iOS 6 is an understatement. And it seems like the rest of the world is with me, so I needed to find a solution—and quick. Installing the Google Maps web application is a nice quick-fix, but those looking for a beefier navigation solution should check out one of these free map apps.
In our society, multitasking is an obsession. Whether it's driving while using your phone (DON'T DO IT) or drinking a cup of coffee while typing up some work, we multitask at every turn of the day. People that work all day in front of a computer are especially prone to multitasking, and that's why XDA-Developers member Floyd1973 has developed a way to control any Android phone while connected via USB to a Windows or Linux PC. Android Remote Phone Tools
Whether you've got an itch for a mini-flamethrower, a shower of burning sparks, or a exploding ball of flames, these little fireworks-producing lighters may be the answer to your pyrotechnic cravings!
Hate answering the door, but don't trust your friends with a set of keys? This RFID front door lock made by Steve Pomeroy will solve all your party-hosting problems. It reads the RFID tags in his friends' public transit cards and decides who's allowed in based on "groups" that Steve defines. And I have to say, it's also rather stylish. It's controlled by an Arduino serial console and a custom Android app to add and remove cards. The reader can store 50 or 100 tags at a time and allows 7 diffe...
Tired of the Instagram wave? If you're sick of having to view the world through low-contrast and sepia-toned filters, there's a way to get them back to how they're supposed to look, and it's called Normalize, which undoes the magic filtering that Instagram and similar photo filter apps provide. The process of un-Instagramming your (or anyone else's) photos with Normalize is perhaps easier than Instagramming them in the first place. All you need to do is copy and paste them into the app and wa...
For his thesis at Design Academy Eindhoven, artist/designer Tuomas Markunpoika Tolvanen created this incredible chair using tubular steel cut into thin rings. How did he get them to stay that way? He burned them. His project is called Engineering Temporality, and the inspiration came from his grandmother whose Alzheimer's disease is deteriorating her health and memories. Once he cut the rings, he laid them over an existing chair, only partially covering it. The fire acted as a varnish, creati...
Back in 2008, media artist Kyle McDonald created a 3D interface that could track movement, which he turned into a virtual Tic-tac-toe game.
Playing Angry Birds on a computer just got a lot more interesting. Design students Andrew Spitz and Hideaki Matsui made this awesome slingshot controller for one of their classes at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design.
In 1958, Patrick Flanagan invented the Neurophone, a device patented in 1962 that allows radio signals to be picked up by the human nervous system. The skin is the organ that receives the signal, converting it into a modulated molecular vibration, which the brain interprets into sound. Basically, it gives one the ability to 'hear' through the skin, making it sound like the audio you're hearing is actually in your head. It's kind of like having headphones in your brain. The only problem was th...
