Fortress Investment Group reports a $3.7 million loss on Bitcoin

The first public company to invest in Bitcoin had a $3.7 million paper loss on the digital currency, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Fortress Investment Group, which was founded as a private equity fund but expanded into hedge funds and other types of investments, reported that it bought $20 million worth of Bitcoin in 2013. The company was still holding onto its Bitcoin as of the filing, meaning it could recoup its losses and even make money if the currency's value rebounds.
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This Guy Had a TV In His Taxi Before Most People Had One At Home

Less than 1 percent of American households had a TV set in 1948. But if you were lucky enough to hail a special cab in Chicago during the summer of '48, you got a brief taste of America's television-obsessed future.
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New Gesture-Recognition Tech Lets You Control Your Phone in Your Pocket

Wouldn't it be cool if you could skip to the next track without taking your phone out of your pocket—or without touching anything at all? Or if you could adjust the thermostat with the flick of a wrist? You may soon be able to thanks to new gesture-recognition technology. It doesn't even require batteries!
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Apple planning to release software update to fix Touch ID fading issue

Are you having problems with your iPhone 5s’ Touch ID? Apple is preparing to release an update to improve the performance of the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, according to AppleInsider. Continue reading →

Apple Adds New “Designing Great Apps” Micro Site For iOS 7 Developers

Apple has offered up a central location that houses a number of resources around designing software for iOS 7. The collection of videos, documents and whitepapers seems aimed at making it easier for developers to not only accommodate their existing designs for the new, pared down graphical look of iOS 7, but also to help them start thinking about how to push the envelope with the UI of their app… Read More

Savor Introduces A Personalized Deal Finder & “Flipboard-Like” Coupon Catalog For iPad

A company called Savor is trying to re-imagine how coupon aggregation websites and services, like RetailMeNot or Coupons.com, would operate had they been invented today. Instead of just throwing a bunch of offers at users, Savor says it’s working to build a service where the coupons presented are personalized to each consumer’s interests. Personalized offers are something big-name deal… Read More

App-Connected Hypercar Is a 280 MPH Smartphone Accessory

The race to make the world's fastest production car has turned into an all-out war, and as our pals at Jalopnik report , the viciously bonkers gearheads at Koenigsegg are readying a jaw-dropping juggernaut. It's got all the mind-blowing stuff you'd expect: well over one thousand horsepower, a theoretical top speed of 280 MPH, carbon fiber everywhere. But huge power and exotic materials are expected in this strata of supercars. It's the technology that puts Koenigsegg on another planet.
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Physicist Proposes 1,000-Foot Anti-Tornado Walls Across the Midwest

When it comes to radical mega-infrastructure projects, we can only dream—but we dream big. Here is one such staggering proposal to build miles and miles of 1,000-foot tall super-walls that will once and forever save Tornado Alley from its eponymous natural disaster.
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This Awesome Next-Generation Exosuit Goes 1,000 Feet Under the Ocean

Meet the Exosuit. It's a $600,000 atmospheric diving suit capable of taking a human 1,000 feet underwater at surface pressure, and it's the first of its kind. If you have dramatic music handy, you should go ahead and play it, because this thing is insane.
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Apple's new US promo gives Apple TV buyers free $25 iTunes gift cards

Color us intrigued. Apple seldom offers discounts on any of its devices outside of Black Friday, and yet it just launched a short, US-only promotion (PDF) that gives Apple TV buyers free $25 iTunes gift cards to jumpstart their media libraries.... read more

Nissan's Smart Rearview Mirror Isn't Blinded By Passengers or Cargo

Have you ever been hesitant to over-pack a vehicle with luggage or passengers because it would obscure the sightline for your rearview mirror? Nissan's Smart rearview mirror solves that problem by alternately displaying a live video feed from a camera mounted on the back of the vehicle.
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More Bad News From Mt.Gox: All Your Bitcoin Money Is Gone

The Mt.Gox saga just gets sadder and sadder. Not only did the company file for bankruptcy, but Mt.Gox CEO Mike Karpele went on Japanese TV a few minutes ago and admitted that everybody's money is gone. Gone, gone, gone.
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Israel Is Putting Frickin' Lasers on Its Commercial Airliners

It's not just IDF forces and Israeli settlements that come under rocket fire; militant groups have been known to take pot shots at commercial airlines as well—such as when a pair of SAMs narrowly missed an Israeli charter shortly after it took off from a Mombasa, Kenya airfield, in 2002. To protect vulnerable aircraft from future attacks, Israel has developed this belly-mounted laser shield for commercial jets.
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Adobe makes huge $300 million contribution to Obama's technology education program

Adobe has joined President Obama’s ConnectED initiative to help bolster technology education in US schools. The company plans to contribute $300 million in software to teachers and students, including Photoshop Elements, Premiere Elements, Presenter, Captivate, and even EchoSign, which Adobe hopes will help improve schools’ administrative processes. "We believe in the power of media creation as a way for youth to express their creativity and build their skills for future success," said Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. The company has also committed to providing training resources to educators across the US.
ConnectED has now brought in over $1 billion in donations from tech businesses; Apple, Microsoft, and several US mobile carriers...
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California Appeals Court rules that using mobile maps while driving isn’t illegal

In what appears to be a very crucial ruling, the California Appeals Court has claimed that using of smartphone guided maps or navigation while driving cannot be classified under ‘distracted driving’. This comes after a user named Steven Spriggs was booked and given a $165 ticket for using his iPhone 4 to look for an alternative route while stuck in a busy traffic jam. Continue reading →

Save $224 With This 3D-Printed Adapter To Affix Google Glass To Standard Frames

Google is now selling its own Glass-compatible frames for prescription lenses, but they’ll set you back $225 a pair, lenses not included. That’s a bit steep, especially when you’ve already forked over $1,500 for Glass itself. A DIY project from design studio Pixil 3D can modify Glass to work with your existing prescription glasses for under $1 in material costs, provided you… Read More

A Clip That Turns Any Stack of Paper Into a Homemade Notebook

Tired of waiting for Field Notes to release a notebook in your favorite color? Take matters into your own hands with this simple $5 Eco Clip. All you need is a stack of letter or legal-sized paper and enough strength to fold it in half. Then you just slide the Eco Clip down onto the edge and bam—instant notebook.
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The next flu drug might already be in your medicine cabinet

On January 31st, billions around the world rang in the Chinese Lunar New Year. Hualan Chen, a scientist with the
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, however, celebrated from her office. Like so many days before, Chen got to work and immediately checked the number of new cases of H7N9 flu that had been recorded overnight. After a small outbreak in 2013 the virus had gone quiet, only to resurge with a vengeance in December.

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March Madness Live app dribbles its way to Windows Phone 8 this year

This year, Windows Phone 8 users can watch all 67 NCAA men's basketball games too, now that the March Madness Live app has arrived (there's also a new app for Windows 8, if the browser doesn't cut it). The streaming app was previously available on... read more

A Strong Case For an Umbrella With a Bendable Handle

As useful as an umbrella is for staying dry when it's pouring rain, they can be a pain to deal with when you get back inside and they're soaking wet. But designers Liang-Hock Poh and Ming-Hung Lin realized that by simply making the umbrella's handle flexible, it was far easier to hang somewhere for drying, and easier to carry with you.
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Rumor: Microsoft Is Considering a Free Version of Windows 8.1

If you can't make people buy your new OS , why not give it away for free? At least, that's what Microsoft is thinking of doing with Windows 8.1, according to rumors.
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Pure space porn: these are the naughtiest rocket parts

Rocket hardware is always awesome eye candy, no matter what country is sending stuff into space. Awesome, and, well, sexy. You know what I mean. I like the rockets with the boom. Just look at all these pretty space-bound asses.
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Sony to reportedly offload its old Tokyo HQ for some quick cash

It appears Sony isn't quite done selling off assets in a bid to reverse its financial losses. Just weeks after it sold its VAIO PC business, the company is reportedly in talks to offload another one of its properties: its former headquarters in... read more

This Japanese rocket launch looks like an early atomic bomb test

This stunning image shows the launch of the Japanese H-IIA rocket as it carries the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory into space. The rocket thundered into the sky at 1:37 p.m. EST on Thursday February 27th and this image was, unsurprisingly , captured by NASA photographer Bill Ingalls.
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ShowYou update turns viral videos into a personalized iPad TV channel

For all the great videos on the web, picking which ones to watch has never been much fun. Sites like YouTube and Vimeo suggest related videos for you to watch, but often require a lot of decision-making on your part. YouTube's TV interface will choose videos for you and play them back to back, but it still asks you to pick a channel before diving in. A true TV experience for web video — something you can simply turn on — has proven elusive. Now ShowYou, an app that collects and highlights all the videos being shared across your social networks, is trying to change that.
With an update to the iPad app today, ShowYou will now begin playing your personalized video stream as soon as you open the app. (It will continue to work as before...
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These Autonomous Drones That Flock Like Birds Sound Horrifying

The thing about mad scientists is that they're both mad and good at science. It seems obvious, but the outcomes are always unexpected. Case and point: this team of Hungarian physicists whocreated a bunch of autonomous drones that flock like birds. The invasion begins now.
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Apple’s new management features help locked-down iPads stay locked down

Apple has introduced some features that make it easier to manage iPads and iPhones.

Apple

iPhones and iPads have muscled their way into locked-down, Windows-centric schools and businesses thanks to the "bring your own device" phenomenon, and Apple has been adding more features to help IT shops lock iOS down and make it easier to manage. Yesterday, the company introduced a handful of changes that will make it simpler for schools and businesses to mandate settings on their iOS devices and to make sure that those settings stay applied to their iOS devices at all times.
With these changes, the company is introducing "zero-touch" configuration for new iOS devices via the Device Enrollment Program if you're running your own mobile device management (MDM) server. Customers who go to deploy.apple.com and sign up can enroll new devices by serial number or order number, allowing admins to apply their settings to devices bought from Apple without even removing them from their boxes. This is a significant improvement over the previous system, where each device needed to be connected to a computer running the Apple Configurator utility to get things set up.
Most crucially, these management profiles can be made mandatory, preventing users from uninstalling the profiles themselves. This feature in particular seems intended to prevent the kind of thing that happened in the Los Angeles Unified School District late last year, where students "hacked" iPads given to them by the school (read: deleted the management profiles) to get around the district's settings and limitations.
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Apple, If Samsung And Sony Can Make A Waterproof Phone, So Can You

Just this week Samsung revealed the Galaxy S5. It’s water-resistant. Sony also announced the Xperia Z2, the waterproof successor to the also waterproof Z1. So where’s my waterproof iPhone? The technology and demand are here. Water-resistant or waterproof, Samsung and Sony’s latest flagships are waterproof enough that a drop in the toilet will not destroy the device. That’s… Read More

Ex-Apple Engineer Launches Moov, The Next Generation Of Wearable Fitness Tracking

Welcome to the next generation of wearable fitness tracking! The first round of fitness trackers focused on introducing the idea of data to your daily activity and workout, but a new company called Moov wants to go beyond basic "step" data to tell you how to improve your form and get the most out of your workout. The band uses a combination of hardware (9-axis sensors) and software algorithms… Read More

Apple Design Award Winner Tapity Releases A “Flappy Bird” Clone

Everyone is building “Flappy Bird” clones now, even Apple Design Award-winning app developers like Tapity, apparently. The company, known as the makers of well-built and beautifully designed apps like Languages, Grades 3, and Hours, recently explained why they felt the need to throw their hat into the highly-pixelated ring, with this week’s launch of their latest app,… Read More

Obama says US Army is building a real Iron Man and no, he is not joking

Feb 27th 2014, 17:51, by Jesus Diaz on Sploid, shared by Brian Barrett to Gizmodo

Last Tuesday President Obama met with top engineers and Pentagon people. He publicly said: "Basically, I'm here to announce that we're building Iron Man [...] Not really. Maybe. It's classified." People laughed, but the truth is that yes, the US military is building Iron Man, and the first prototypes are coming in this June.
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Meet Moov, the fitness tracker that turns Siri into your new personal trainer

Nikola Hu is running wrong. He’s loping along, leaning back as he goes. Suddenly a voice emerges from his phone: "Your cadence is low. Try swinging your arms legs and arms faster." Hu’s phone knows he's has running injuries before, so it’s hypersensitive to how his feet land on the ground. "Lean forward and land mid-foot to soften your impact," it tells him. He obliges, and the voice comes back immediately. "Good job!"
Hu, a former Apple engineer, is jogging inside this glass-walled conference room to demonstrate Moov, a new wearable device that adds entirely new levels of meaning to the phrase "fitness tracker." Rather than collect and chart data in the hope that simply seeing their habits will help users to be healthier, Moov...
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Facebook discontinuing its Messenger for Windows app on March 3rd

It looks like Facebook is getting a jump on spring cleaning. Three days after shuttering its @facebook.com email service, the company said it's killing off Messenger for Windows. Though the Windows desktop app won't be discontinued until March 3rd,... read more

​Boeing's Bird of Prey: A Prototype Jet Worthy of the Klingon Empire

From the U-2 Dragon Lady and A-12 Oxcart , to the SR-71 Blackbird and D-12 Ramjet Drone , there's been no shortage of exotic aircraft (and UFO sightings) in the skies over Nevada's Area 51. But among the most extreme examples of bleeding-edge avionic design tested was the otherworldly Boeing Bird of Prey.
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Joby Ogwyn is going to jump off Mount Everest in a wingsuit

Not long after 39-year-old Joby Ogwyn climbs to the summit of Mount Everest this May, he's going to strap on a wingsuit and jump right off it. He will fall for 10 minutes traveling at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour before he reaches his final destination at Everest base camp — unless he miscalculates and hits a rock face or a rogue wind gust blows him into China. Fortunately, Ogwyn is bringing his passport.

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Google highlights specialized maps from around the world in new online gallery

In December, Google collaborated with National Geographic to bring more than 500 of the magazine's historic maps online. The effort was created through Google Maps Engine, which lets third-party developer tools build maps on top of the company's location platform to create specialized maps. But National Geographic was only one of Google's partners — and today, the company is beginning to highlight the rest of them with the new Google Maps Gallery.
Nonprofit groups, government organizations and cities are among the groups that have contributed to the project so far. They have posted maps detailing municipal construction projects, old city plans, changing populations, and the path of deforestation. Early partners include the US...
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ABC to stream Oscars for the first time, but with major limitations

For the first time ever, ABC plans to stream the complete Academy Awards ceremony this Sunday. That's the good news. The bad news is that the network is limiting the feed to its Watch ABC website and mobile app, which requires a cable subscription for live content. Worse still, since Watch ABC isn't yet available nationwide, the Oscars will only be streamed in select cities: viewers in Chicago, Fresno, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham, and San Francisco can watch online. Most cable providers support Watch ABC, though Time Warner Cable stands out as a notable exception. But if you're with one of the other big cable companies (including Comcast, Optimum, Verizon FiOS, and even Google Fiber) and live in one of...
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Your smartphone's WiFi hotspot might double as a disaster rescue beacon

 When disasters strike, communication services tend to go down; you can't simply call for help or share your location online. However, engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology have found a way to use a smartphone as a... read more

Incredible Concept Art From The Most Amazing Sci-Fi Movie Never Made

Before we get into the concept art here, you've gotta watch the trailer for Jodorowsky's Dune, a new documentary chronicling the eponymous Chilean director's crazy-ambitious attempt to bring Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic to the big screen in the 1970s.
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British surveillance reportedly collected webcam images from millions of Yahoo users

Britain's surveillance agency is said to have captured images from millions of Yahoo users' webcams as part of a broad program running from 2008 through at least 2012. According to the Guardian, the GCHQ was able to intercept webcam images from more than 1.8 million users over a period of just six months in 2008. The images were used for intelligence by gathering metadata and testing facial recognition technology — though they were reportedly taken from users who had not been suspected of wrongdoing. Yahoo denies having knowledge of Optic Nerve and calls the alleged program "completely unacceptable."

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BBC head wants all iPlayer users to pony up the licence fee

The BBC's budget is getting squeezed, and as such, everyone who uses its service is going to be made to pay up. Lord Hall, the BBC's Director-General, has announced that he's pushing to close the famous iPlayer Loophole, adding around £72 million to...

Now You Can Narrate Your Crazy GoPro Stunts Using a Bluetooth Mic

Most GoPro videos of extreme stunts are accompanied by the sound of rushing wind, the roar of an engine, or just straight-up screaming. But with Sena's new Bluetooth Audio Pack for the GoPro Hero 3, you can use a wireless mic to provide narration alongside whatever stunt you're attempting.
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Electronic Floor Sensors Turn Whole Rooms Into Immersive Touchscreens

Growing older comes with a few nice things. Knowledge evolves into wisdom. Context informs perspective. A long life's ups and downs are woven into a rich tapestry of memories.
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FDA redesigns nutrition labels to reflect how Americans actually eat

For the first time in 20 years, the FDA has proposed changes to its Nutrition Facts food labels. In the FDA's new designs, several important food stats have been enlarged, and some have even been recalculated in accordance with the actual serving sizes Americans eat today, The New York Times reports.

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Google's Project Ara could go on sale next year for $50

Google's Project Ara modular smartphones could arrive early next year for as low as $50, reports Time. The company's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group — which is developing the project to make smartphones composed of small, swappable pieces of hardware — reportedly plans to finish a functioning prototype within weeks and begin preparation on a version for consumer sales beginning in the first quarter of 2015.
Ara will support three device sizes
While multiple phone models may be available from the start, in a deep dive with the Project Ara team, Time reveals that ATAP is focused on offering an extremely basic and low-cost option. Its $50 device might even stretch the definition of smartphone in some people's books:...
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Google adds the 'Polar Bear capital of the world' to Street View

 One of the more immediate effects of climate change is that the icy habitats of the Polar Bear are very rapidly evaporating. In an attempt to connect people more directly to the issue, Google and Polar Bears International have teamed up to bring the... read more

This Sheet of Space-Bound Silicon Contains 1.75 Billion Transistors

This single 8 inch-diameter sheet of silicon is etched with 35 replicas of five different chips, each one destined to be sent into space.
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There Is Now A Samsung Store In Nearly Every Best Buy Store

Have you been in a Best Buy recently? The stores are starting to look more like exhibition halls than a warehouse retailers. And that’s by design. Stores within stores. Nearly every Best Buy store now has space dedicated to Samsung products and about half of the stores has space for Windows products. The company details the store-within-a-store concept in its 2014 fourth quarter results… Read More

The Dalai Lama Is Now on Instagram

After joining Twitter back in 2010, the Dalai Lama has now taken the plunge and signed up to Instagram. So why not follow him, lean back and peace out with your newly mindful Instagram feed? Here are some of our favourite recent posts by the big dude.
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