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  • Apple's Patent Win Delays Shipments of Two HTC Smartphones

    Wired Top Stories
    Nathan Olivarez-Giles
    16 May 2012 | 2:33 pm
    Shipments of HTC's One X and Evo 4G LTE smartphones have been delayed by U.S. Customs enforcement as the result of a December Apple patent lawsuit win over the Taiwanese smartphone maker.

  • A Bow to Heritage, With a Hot Rod Under the Hood

    Product Reviews
    Jackson Lynch
    16 May 2012 | 5:33 am
    The Olympus OM-D E-M5 micro four-thirds camera is available as a body only, or with a kit (shown) that includes a 12-50mm f3.5-6.3 lens and a flash. Photo by Jackson Lynch/Wired The latest micro four-thirds camera from Olympus is clearly designed to appeal to all those hoary, wizened photographers who long for the good ol’ days. Olympus’ new digital OM series is modeled after the company’s original, beloved OM film cameras from the 1970s. But the new OM-D line is not just some tossed-off homage — the first camera in the line, the E-M5, is a fantastic picture-making…

  • Make a Soda Fountain with the Imagination Movers

    New Videos
    16 May 2012 | 1:04 pm
    The Imagination Movers show us how to make a soda fountain for National GeekDad Day!

  • Build the Shelving System of Your Geek Dreams

    Wired How-To Wiki
    howto_admin
    14 May 2012 | 11:34 am
    Summary: [[Image:Geekshelves1.jpg|630px|thumb|left|Your shelf says a lot about you; put your DIY lifestyle on display. Photo by Robert S/[http://www.flickr.com/photos/adventureswithbob/2447584101/ flickr]/CC]] {{#shtml:Template:Ryobi3}} Why would you want to build a shelving unit? I mean actually build it, not just assemble it. You can pick one up at IKEA for the price of a bottle of Scotch if quick assembly's your thing, and an hour or so later — shelving! That may be fine for just any old shelf, but for the ultimate shelving unit, store-bought won't cut it. The ultimate shelving unit is…

  • Chrome Offers Tabs to Go With New Tab-Syncing Features

    Webmonkey
    Scott Gilbertson
    16 May 2012 | 10:35 am
    Image: Google Google has released an update for its Chrome web browser that adds tab syncing to Chrome’s list of tricks. Using the latest version of Chrome you can now access the tabs open on your desktop at home while you’re out and about with your Android phone. The syncing should work with any device that can run the latest version of Google Chrome. Current Chrome users will be automatically updated to the latest version. If you’d like to try out the latest version of Chrome head over to the download page. The tab-syncing feature was already available to those using the…
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    Wired Top Stories

  • Apple's Patent Win Delays Shipments of Two HTC Smartphones

    Nathan Olivarez-Giles
    16 May 2012 | 2:33 pm
    Shipments of HTC's One X and Evo 4G LTE smartphones have been delayed by U.S. Customs enforcement as the result of a December Apple patent lawsuit win over the Taiwanese smartphone maker.

  • Nvidia, Citrix Bringing Graphics Power to the Cloud

    Mike Barton
    16 May 2012 | 2:15 pm
    The graphics chip giant Nvidia has combined forces with Citrix to deliver graphics processing power from the cloud.

  • Hands-On: Flipboard iOS App Adds Audio to Your Social Magazine

    Christina Bonnington
    16 May 2012 | 1:51 pm
    Flipboard is a graphically stunning social media aggregator that organizes your friends? tweets, posts, and links into a magazine-like spread. But now that experience isn't just visual: In an update yesterday evening, Flipboard added sound to the mix, so you can enjoy your favorite podcasts and music through the app.

  • China Flies New Stealth Fighter as Problems Plague U.S. Jets

    David Axe
    16 May 2012 | 1:27 pm
    The second copy of China's stealth fighter prototype has just flown at a research facility in the city of Chengdu. The first flight of the J-20 Mighty Dragon with the nose number 2002 doubles Beijing's stealth test fleet at a time when America's latest jet fighters are hobbled by cost overruns, labor disputes and lethal design flaws. But it's far from certain how much, and how fast, the new Chinese jet will alter the military balance.

  • Dell Targets SMBs With Boomi-Based Cloud Packs

    Mike Barton
    16 May 2012 | 1:05 pm
    Fresh on the heels of rolling out its virtual desktop Simplified DaaS , Dell is bolstering its cloud services offerings again with Integration Packs, "... a point-to-point integration solution ... that enables automatic synchronization of critical data between popular software applications."
 
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    Product Reviews

  • A Bow to Heritage, With a Hot Rod Under the Hood

    Jackson Lynch
    16 May 2012 | 5:33 am
    The Olympus OM-D E-M5 micro four-thirds camera is available as a body only, or with a kit (shown) that includes a 12-50mm f3.5-6.3 lens and a flash. Photo by Jackson Lynch/Wired The latest micro four-thirds camera from Olympus is clearly designed to appeal to all those hoary, wizened photographers who long for the good ol’ days. Olympus’ new digital OM series is modeled after the company’s original, beloved OM film cameras from the 1970s. But the new OM-D line is not just some tossed-off homage — the first camera in the line, the E-M5, is a fantastic picture-making…

  • Cans With a Kick

    Ramona Emerson
    15 May 2012 | 5:26 am
    Can something as delicate and complicated as brewed coffee really succeed as a mass-produced canned beverage? Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired On a hot day, a cup of ice-cold brew from the local coffee shop is a thing of eternal beauty. But the typical artisanal iced coffee isn’t an option when you’re at the Safeway, hoarding snacks for a bargain matinee showing of Cabin in the Woods. It’s 80 degrees out, and the heat is making you sleepy. As you gaze bleary-eyed at the “Cold Drinks” section, you spy a beautiful silver cylinder of something called illy Cappuccino. You…

  • Axe-Shaped AirPlay Speaker Sounds Decent, But Lacks Killer Chops

    Terrence Russell
    14 May 2012 | 4:43 pm
    The design of Altec Lansing's inAir 5000 speaker is rather cutting-edge. Photo by Ariel Zambelich/Wired Freed of the 30-pin connectors, buttons and recessed charging ports required on traditional smartphone speaker docks, AirPlay device manufacturers are given the liberty to pursue more creative designs. We’ve seen some oddball shapes as the result. This AirPlay speaker, the Altec Lansing inAir 5000, is one of the more striking specimens — it’s shaped like a giant axe head, with the “blade” pointing toward the sky. The iOS-friendly music streamer doesn’t…

  • No, Officer, I Don’t Know How Fast I Was Going

    Basem Wasef
    11 May 2012 | 5:25 am
    The 2012 Porsche Cayman R is a proven attention-getter. Photo by Basem Wasef/Wired In this unprecedented age of obscene horsepower and affordable performance, the Porsche Cayman R is the Jenyne Butterfly of the sports car world. Who is Jenyne Butterfly? Look her up, preferably not at work. Ms. Butterfly’s sinewy muscles are cut on gracile bone, and articulate her long limbs with purposeful flexibility. She’s graced with the sort of physique you’d associate with an Olympic swimmer or an extreme yogi. She also possesses a preternatural ability to fling herself across a pole…

  • Biking to Work? Here’s Some Loot for Your Commute

    Wired Product Reviews
    9 May 2012 | 11:01 pm
    << Previous | Next >> With big cities around the U.S. and Canada celebrating Bike to Work Day, we want to remind you of the joys of pedal-based transport. Not only is it a path to a healthier lifestyle, but it's fun and economical. So with gas prices and temperatures on the rise, the timing couldn't be better to adopt a new motto: "Two wheels good, four wheels bad." The problem is, neither you nor your coworkers consider spandex appropriate for the office, and you don't want to click-clack around Trader Joe's in your carbon fiber cycling shoes. Luckily, there's a whole industry…
 
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    Wired How-To Wiki

  • Build the Shelving System of Your Geek Dreams

    howto_admin
    14 May 2012 | 11:34 am
    Summary: [[Image:Geekshelves1.jpg|630px|thumb|left|Your shelf says a lot about you; put your DIY lifestyle on display. Photo by Robert S/[http://www.flickr.com/photos/adventureswithbob/2447584101/ flickr]/CC]] {{#shtml:Template:Ryobi3}} Why would you want to build a shelving unit? I mean actually build it, not just assemble it. You can pick one up at IKEA for the price of a bottle of Scotch if quick assembly's your thing, and an hour or so later — shelving! That may be fine for just any old shelf, but for the ultimate shelving unit, store-bought won't cut it. The ultimate shelving unit is…

  • Construct a Standing Desk to Extend Your Longevity

    howto_admin
    11 May 2012 | 10:50 am
    Summary: spelling and punctuation [[Image:DrillBit.jpg|630px|thumb|left|Photo by Samuel Livingston/[http://www.flickr.com/photos/39747297@N05/5229733311 flickr]/CC]] {{#shtml:Template:Ryobi2}} Most of us shudder at the number of hours we spend sitting at our desks each week. We'd like to say it's 40, but usually that's a lie. Even with good posture, those days we spend sitting at a desk each week (yes, you can measure your time at a desk in days) starts to take a toll on the body. There's even…

  • Get Your Shed in Order With a New Shelving System

    howto_admin
    10 May 2012 | 10:15 am
    Summary: [[Image:BrokenShed.jpg|630px|thumb|left|Shed your broken backyard mess and make a new home for your tools. Photo by Donnie Nunley/[http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbnunley/4163920973/ flickr]/CC]] {{#shtml:Template:Ryobi1}} The shed. If you live in the 'burbs, chances are you have one of these in your backyard. If your name is [http://www.sloshspot.com/blog/09-04-2009/Trailer-Park-Boys-The-Timeless-Wisdom-of-Bubbles-209 Bubbles], you may well call one home. They're the place where we stuff everything that's needed to keep the lawn green, the snow shoveled, and the hedges clipped. Kids'…

  • Passively Job Hunt by Automating Your Search

    howto_admin
    8 May 2012 | 9:32 am
    Summary: [[Image:JobBulletin.jpg|630px|thumb|left|Finding a job shouldn't be a job in itself. Photo by cwgcph[http://www.flickr.com/photos/cwgcph/199900922/ flickr]/CC]] {{#shtml:Template:MonsterLogo}} Unless you helped start Instagram, you probably need a job. Maybe you already have a job, but it's not turning out the way you imagined it would. Or perhaps you're looking to change careers, or maybe you're re-entering the job market for fun after you got bored traveling the world with your dot-com millions. Whatever the case, finding a job can be daunting, especially right now. The economy is…

  • Whip Up Gourmet Grub in the Backcountry

    howto_admin
    7 May 2012 | 5:42 pm
    Summary: spelling and punctuation [[Image:Backcountrygourmet.jpg|630px|thumb|left|Go beyond hotdogs and marshmallows and become the Anthony Bourdain of the wilderness. Photo by Martin Cathrae/[http://www.flickr.com/photos/suckamc/5886328620/ Flickr]/CC]] If you’re planning a backpacking trip, it’s a safe bet that you’ve resigned yourself to doing without creature comforts. Improvements in technology have made most pieces of backpacking gear lighter and thinner; still, no one has yet made an air-conditioner or a toilet seat that you’d want to tote on your back for mile upon mile.
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    Webmonkey

  • Chrome Offers Tabs to Go With New Tab-Syncing Features

    Scott Gilbertson
    16 May 2012 | 10:35 am
    Image: Google Google has released an update for its Chrome web browser that adds tab syncing to Chrome’s list of tricks. Using the latest version of Chrome you can now access the tabs open on your desktop at home while you’re out and about with your Android phone. The syncing should work with any device that can run the latest version of Google Chrome. Current Chrome users will be automatically updated to the latest version. If you’d like to try out the latest version of Chrome head over to the download page. The tab-syncing feature was already available to those using the…

  • Flickr Goes Big With Larger Images, Responsive Redesign

    Scott Gilbertson
    15 May 2012 | 1:22 pm
    Flickr: now with bigger images and a (mostly) responsive design.Flickr recently changed its “lightbox” photo pages — the darker photo-friendly interface on the site — to display much larger photos. Now the grandfather of online photo-sharing sites is rolling out a site-wide redesign that uses the same big, beautiful images to put your photos front and center on every page. The larger images in Flickr’s revamped photo pages put the emphasis where it belongs — on your photos. Peripheral information, like comments, maps, tags, set info and so on are still…

  • Firefox for Android Preps for Prime Time

    Scott Gilbertson
    15 May 2012 | 11:14 am
    Flash Player running in Firefox for Mobile. Photo: Scott Gilbertson/Wired Mozilla has released an update for its Firefox for Android beta mobile web browser. The latest beta sports a redesigned interface that looks a little less like Firefox and a little more like a native Android application. If you’d like to help Mozilla test this beta, head on over to the Android marketplace and download a copy today. Unlike the recently updated Chrome for Android, which requires the latest and greatest Android Ice Cream Sandwich, Firefox for Android will run on Android Froyo 2.2 and better (it is,…

  • Use Your ‘Head’ For a Better Way to Serve Images

    Scott Gilbertson
    14 May 2012 | 1:08 pm
    A better way to serve responsive images. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired.com Responsive web design has grown well beyond its humble beginnings — using liquid layouts and media queries to scale websites so they fit any screen — and now means developers must wrestle with much more complex problems, like serving the right image to the right screen. Mobile screens are small; downloading full-size images is a waste of bandwidth (and quite possibly users’ money as bandwidth caps become more common). But serving tiny pixelated images to increasingly high-resolution screens…

  • Jokes for Nerds: HTML9 Responsive Boilerstrap JS

    Scott Gilbertson
    11 May 2012 | 3:34 pm
    4... 3... 2... 1...If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the endless proliferation of responsive grids, adaptive images, HTML boilerplates, CSS frameworks and JavaScript whirligigs then what you need is the HTML9 Responsive Boilerstrap JS. To install HTML9 Responsive Boilerstrap JS just “attackclone the grit repo pushmerge, then rubygem the lymphnode js shawarma module — and presto!” If you’re wondering what H9RBS.js actually is, well, you can abandon any hopes of one day being hip. But if you must know, H9RBS.js is a “flexible, dependency-free, lightweight,…
 
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    Autopia

  • Someone Needs to Buy the ‘World’s Fastest’ Amphibious Car

    Damon Lavrinc
    16 May 2012 | 5:20 am
    Image: Fantasy Junction If you needed more proof that you can win a world record for just about anything, meet the Sea Lion. It’s an amphibious car capable of speeds of up to 180 mph on land and over 45 mph at sea, and it’s all yours for the bargain-basement price of $259,500. On sale at Emeryville, California-based Fantasy Junction, the Sea Lion is the embodiment of our childhood dreams rendered in brushed aluminum and stainless steel, and powered by a 174-horsepower 13B rotary engine pulled from a 1974 Mazda RX3. Image: Fantasy JunctionThe Sea Lion was developed over the last…

  • As Congress Mulls Mandate on Car Black Boxes, Data Ownership Remains Unclear

    Doug Newcomb
    16 May 2012 | 5:15 am
    Photo by Harris Technical Services The term “black boxes” conjures up images of plane crashes for some and inspires conspiracy theories for others. For the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), the automotive black box became a key source of impartial information in the unintended acceleration controversy focused on Toyota vehicles. That’s partly why Congress now seems set on passing legislation that would make an Electronic Data Recorder (EDR) – the technical name for an automotive black box – required equipment on all new cars. And lawmakers also want to…

  • Google Goes to Washington to Lobby for Self-Driving Cars

    Doug Newcomb
    15 May 2012 | 12:48 pm
    Photo by Allen Tran Google is evidently taking its campaign to make its driverless cars legal on U.S. roads from state capitals to the nation’s capital. A Google robo-Prius was spotted last Tuesday roaming the streets of Washington, D.C., only a day after Nevada became the first state to legalize autonomous vehicles on the Silver State’s roads. U.S. News & World Report speculated that Google was in town to appeal to federal policymakers, and possibly take them for joyrides in one of the company’s self-driving Prius hybrids. The outlet also noted that Google has racked up a reported…

  • SpaceX Counting Down For Historic Launch To Space Station

    Jason Paur
    15 May 2012 | 12:43 pm
    Photo: NASA Elon Musk is one step closer to his end goal of making human life multi-planetary. No, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket hasn’t boosted the Dragon spacecraft into its rendezvous orbit with the International Space Station quite yet. That launch is scheduled for Saturday morning at 4:55 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral in Florida. But as Floridians were drifting off to sleep last night, halfway around the world a Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off with a pair of cosmonauts and an American astronaut bound for the ISS. Last night’s launch was part of the reason SpaceX delayed the launch…

  • OnStar Files Patents for Minority Report-Style Billboards

    Keith Barry
    15 May 2012 | 5:15 am
    Two weeks ago, a patent filing by General Motors was uncovered that proposed using data collected from its OnStar service to tailor public advertisements to individual drivers. Like the billboards Tom Cruise encountered in Minority Report, the OnStar-linked ads would be tailored to passing motorists based on personal information they’d shared with their telematics service. Perusing the patent’s text, nightmare scenarios flooded our thoughts. Kids in the backseat? Be prepared to see ads for Happy Meals and nearby amusement parks. Headed to the doctor’s office? A friendly…
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    Danger Room

  • China Flies New Stealth Fighter as Problems Plague U.S. Jets

    David Axe
    16 May 2012 | 1:27 pm
    China's second J-20 stealth fighter. Via David Cenciotti and fyjs.cn The second copy of China’s stealth fighter prototype has just flown at a research facility in the city of Chengdu. The first flight of the J-20 Mighty Dragon with the nose number 2002 doubles Beijing’s stealth test fleet at a time when America’s latest jet fighters are hobbled by cost overruns, labor disputes and lethal design flaws. But it’s far from certain how much, and how fast, the new Chinese jet will alter the military balance. The challenges for American stealth developers are clear. It…

  • Step 1 in U.S. Plan to Rule Sea and Sky: Actually Share Data

    Spencer Ackerman
    16 May 2012 | 12:24 pm
    Until the Navy and the Air Force develop better data-integration systems, their plan to dominate the seas and skies could be hung up by an inability to communicate by more than semaphore, shown by this sailor aboard the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk. Photo: U.S. Navy No one really understands the Navy and the Air Force’s new blueprint for dominating Earth’s seas and skies. But what’s increasingly clear, even to the heads of both the Navy and the Air Force, is that there’s a big challenge ahead for it, one that doesn’t have anything to do with an adversary like China: getting…

  • Why the World Isn’t Freaking Out About Iran’s Plasma-Powered Spy Sat

    Noah Shachtman
    16 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits an exhibition of Iran's laser science. Photo: AP/Mehr News Agency Next Wednesday, Iran will try to launch an experimental reconnaissance satellite into orbit — just as international negotiators gather in Baghdad for talks about Tehran’s nuclear program. The timing couldn’t be more inflammatory, and rogue state satellite launches are usually considered to be missile tests in drag. So why isn’t the world throwing itself into a tizzy about the mission? After all, when North Korea last month tried (and utterly failed) to…

  • Majority of Mexicans Want More U.S. Help in Drug War

    Robert Beckhusen
    15 May 2012 | 4:00 pm
    A U.S. Army National Guardsman at his post along the U.S.-Mexico border near Nogales, Arizona, on Jan. 17, 2007. Photo: Department of Defense. This summer, Mexicans will go to the polls to choose their country’s next commander-in-chief. But the new president will also have to deal with ominous developments in the drug war and the fact that few Mexicans believe the government’s strategy is working. He or she will also have to negotiate with the U.S. on the scope — and responsibilities — of America’s role in fighting the cartels. The reason is stunning. More than…

  • Defense Chief Restricts Stealth Jet Till It Stops Choking Pilots

    Spencer Ackerman
    15 May 2012 | 2:07 pm
    An F-22 Raptor. Photo: USAF For five years, America’s most expensive fighter jets have been poisoning their pilots and crew. On Tuesday, the Defense Secretary finally stepped in — restricting the flights of the F-22 Raptor, and ordering the Air Force to begin an “expedited installation” of an automatic backup oxygen system for the entire fleet of Raptors, Pentagon spokesman George Little tells reporters. But Panetta is allowing the stealthy dogfighter to keep flying — for now. The new oxygen systems will undergo flight tests through November, with installation…
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    Epicenter

  • Google Revamps Search With Massive ‘Real World Map of Things’

    Ryan Singel
    16 May 2012 | 12:02 pm
    Google has grown a brain, and users in the U.S. will soon begin to see new search results starting Wednesday, where Google will display a widget of information about a topic or thing, instead of just a list of links. It’s called the Google Knowledge Graph, which the company says includes some 500 million persons, places and things — and their billions of relationships to one another. Google calls it a new underpinning for its still-dominant search engine — a change the company says will affect more searches, percentage-wise, than when it introduced “Universal…

  • Can Anything Take Down the Facebook Juggernaut?

    Steven Johnson
    16 May 2012 | 11:59 am
    Illustration: Mister Mourao Sometime in early 2004, as Mark Zuckerberg was furiously coding the first iterations of The Facebook in his Harvard dorm room, the Internet passed what then seemed to be an impressive milestone: 750 million people worldwide had become connected. The exact birthdate of the Internet is difficult to pin down, but it’s fair to say that it took at least three decades for the net to reach a population of that size. Today, after just eight years in existence, Facebook now has more than 750 million users all by itself. At that astonishing rate of growth, the company…

  • Angel No More: Why One of Silicon Valley’s Savviest Investors Has Shut His Wallet

    Michael V. Copeland
    10 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    Kevin Hartz CEO of Eventbrite and an angel investor is waiting out this investment cycle. Photo: Jon Snyder/WIRED Kevin Hartz is sitting this one out. Sure, Hartz is busy with his day-job as CEO of online ticketing startup Eventbrite, but it’s not a time management thing that keeps him from his usual angel-investing habit. It’s more a money management thing. Hartz doesn’t like to invest his when there is so much sloshing around Silicon Valley. The last new investment Hartz made was more than a year ago. At the time it was a little company no one had heard of called Pinterest. You’ve…

  • The A/B Test Results Are In

    Michael V. Copeland
    9 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    How IGN Makes Small Changes for Mass(ive) Effect What follows are seven tweaks gaming site IGN made to its homepage. Employing the A/B testing methodology, IGN is constantly modifying its site looking for those small changes in wording, placement, even color and form that will yield huge increases in click-through rates. Original Version-click image for Revised Version Revised Version-click image for Original Version 1. CHANGE: Moved “Videos” in the nav bar from in between “News” and “Guides & Cheats”, to in between “My IGN” and “Xbox 360” RESULT: Moving the…

  • Test Everything: Notes on the A/B Revolution

    Brian Christian
    9 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    In an A/B world something either works or it doesn't. Photo: shellygrrl/Flickr Welcome, guinea pigs. Because if you’ve spent any time using the web today — and if you’re reading this, that’s a safe bet — you’ve most likely already been an unwitting subject in what’s called an A/B test. It’s the practice of performing real-time experiments on a site’s live traffic, showing different content and formatting to different users and observing which performs better. Though it came into its own on the World Wide Web, the idea of A/B testing predates it, going back at least as…
 
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    Gadget Lab

  • Hands-On: Flipboard iOS App Adds Audio to Your Social Magazine

    Christina Bonnington
    16 May 2012 | 1:51 pm
    Flipboard has added audio content to its social magazine offerings. Image: Christina Bonnington/Wired Flipboard is a graphically stunning social media aggregator that organizes your friends’ tweets, posts and links into beautiful, magazine-like spreads. But now the basic Flipboard experience isn’t just visual: In an update Tuesday evening, Flipboard added sound to the mix, so you can enjoy your favorite podcasts and music through the app as well. Flipboard now includes programming from NPR and Public Radio International (PRI), as well as integration with Soundcloud, an online…

  • Flexible Displays Landing in 2012, But Not in Apple Gear

    Christina Bonnington
    16 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    Samsung's flexible OLED display technology is being mass-produced this year. Photo courtesy Jennifer Colegrove Flexible displays have tickled our imaginations for years. And before the end of 2012, we’ll finally see companies employing flexible displays in their products. But while the possibilities are tantalizing, don’t let your imagination run wild. The earliest iterations of flexible displays won’t be very bendy, and they won’t appear in Apple hardware as some news outlets have recently speculated. In early March, Samsung announced it would be mass-producing its…

  • Report: Google Will Unveil Android 5.0 on Multiple Nexus-Branded Smartphones

    Nathan Olivarez-Giles
    15 May 2012 | 8:31 pm
    The Galaxy Nexus was Google's flagship Samsung phone for the Android 4.0 launch. In support of its upcoming Android 5.0 operating system release, code-named Jelly Bean, Google will deploy the OS on not a single Nexus smartphone per Android tradition, but perhaps on five Nexus phones this fall — so says a Tuesday report by Wall Street Journal. The move would be a huge reboot for Google’s Nexus program, which so far has resulted in three phones over the last three years — the HTC Nexus One, and Samsung’s Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus. Each handset has shipped with a…

  • LG’s Quad-Core Optimus Phone Heading to Europe But Not the U.S.

    Nathan Olivarez-Giles
    15 May 2012 | 7:37 pm
    A model shows off LG's Optimus 4X HD smartphone. Photo: LG Electronics LG’s first quad-core smartphone, the Optimus 4X HD, is launching in Europe next month, taking on other four-core flagships such as the HTC One X and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S III. Just one caveat: The top-of-the-line Optimus 4X HD might not make its way to the U.S.  At this point, no quad-core smartphones have come to North America, though Samsung’s Galaxy S III has been announced with a four-core CPU, and a stateside launch of sometime later this summer. The North American version of the HTC One…

  • Nokia Brings Web Browsing, Social Networking to New Low-End Phones

    Alexandra Chang
    15 May 2012 | 3:42 pm
    The new Nokia 112 (left) and Nokia 110 (right) give users web-browsing access at a low cost. Image: Nokia Don’t look now, but Gadget Lab is actually excited by a couple of feature phones. Nokia isn’t just focused on bolstering its position in the smartphone market. The company on Tuesday unveiled two new feature phones — the Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 — that will bring web browsing, social networking and gaming to budget-conscious consumers and emerging markets. The Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 will both cost less than $50 without contracts, and will run on Nokia’s…
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    Game|Life

  • First Impressions: Diablo III Is Beautiful, Addictive Nonsense

    Ryan Rigney
    16 May 2012 | 11:50 am
    Image: Courtesy Blizzard It’s been just a little over a day since Blizzard performed one of the old rituals, releasing Diablo upon the world for the third time, and I’ve been doing my best to play all the hell out of it. There’s a lot of hell in there, though. Wired will have a full review of Blizzard’s long-anticipated action role-playing game in due time, but first, here are some early thoughts about the experience I’ve had so far. Not all of them are positive. I’m currently near the end of Act 1. I play as a Demon Hunter with a crazy magic bow and…

  • Survey: Japan’s Interest in Wii U, Vita Declines

    Daniel Feit
    16 May 2012 | 11:35 am
    A Sony booth worker holds up a PlayStation Vita at Tokyo Game Show last September. Interest in Vita has since cooled.Photo: Robert Gilhooly/Wired.com Fewer than 8 percent of Japanese consumers want to buy a PlayStation Vita or a Wii U, according to a recent survey conducted by online firm Goo Research. This is the third such survey in a row to report a decline in interest. Among the 1083 people surveyed, 701 (64.7%) said they owned at least one video game console. From that group, 61.6% said they owned a Nintendo DS (this included all iterations, including the 3DS), followed by PlayStation 2…

  • Nintendo Patches Shortcuts Out of Mario Kart 7

    Daniel Feit
    15 May 2012 | 11:25 am
    Players can leap into the lava of Bowser's Castle 1, shown here, and end up ahead in the race.Photo: Wired A mandatory update will remove three extreme shortcuts from Mario Kart 7 online matches, Nintendo said Tuesday. A glitch in the popular Nintendo 3DS racing game that allowed players to leap from the track and respawn in advantageous positions in the Wuhu Island Loop, Wuhu Mountain Loop and Bowser’s Castle 1 racetracks will no longer work once the patch is applied. All players who connect their 3DS to play Mario Kart 7 online will be prompted to quit and download the “Ver…

  • Tomb Raider Bumped to 2013

    Chris Kohler
    14 May 2012 | 12:23 pm
    Tomb Raider has been delayed until 2013, but here's a new screenshot to make up for it.Image: Square Enix First it was BioShock Infinite. Now Square Enix’s reboot of Tomb Raider has been delayed from the fall of 2012 into the first quarter of 2013. Unlike Infinite, however, Lara Croft’s new adventure will still be shown at this year’s E3 Expo in June. Two high-profile delays and it’s not even E3 yet. Who wants to place some bets on the next game to get bumped into next year?

  • Browser Game: Sprite x Xevious, The Lymon-Flavored Shooter

    Bryan Lufkin
    14 May 2012 | 11:18 am
    Screengrab: Wired The arcade classic Xevious is now playable online at no cost, thanks to a Japanese campaign for Sprite. As part of a retro-themed campaign for the citrusy soft drink, which features Sprite’s classic logo and other nostalgic imagery, you can now play a slightly tweaked version of the 1982 aerial shooter called Sprite x Xevious. It’s got online leaderboards and can be controlled with either the keyboard or mouse. Oh, and many of the enemies have been replaced with twirling soda caps and bottles. Otherwise, the gameplay is mostly unchanged. There’s still the…
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    GeekDad

  • 22 Years Later, Remembering Jim Henson

    Matt Blum
    16 May 2012 | 9:15 am
    Photo by Alan Light; used under Creative Commons license. It’s been 22 years since the world lost Jim Henson, and I still can’t think about it without tearing up a bit. His death at age 53 was sudden and catastrophic, like being hit by lightning on a cloudless day. Along with countless others around the world who had never met him, I felt like a close friend was gone. Five of my fellow GeekDads and I put together this article two years ago as a tribute to his memory on the 20th anniversary of his death. On the following pages are our thoughts on that anniversary of his passing,…

  • DROKK – A Soundtrack to a Film That Doesn’t Exist (But Actually it Does)

    Nathan Barry
    16 May 2012 | 7:36 am
    Drokk: Music inspired by Mega - City One If you recognise the word ‘DROKK‘, then you’re already halfway to understanding what this post might be about. For those that don’t, it’s a made up, sci-fi expletive along the lines of BSG’s ‘Frak’ or Red Dwarf’s ‘Smeg’. It’s found in the Earth’s future Mega-Cities, often spoken by perps when they’re apprehended by the mighty Judge Dredd from the 2000AD comic book universe. In this instance it’s the name of the soundtrack collaboration between Geoff Barrow (of…

  • Drive the Economy in Titans of Industry

    Jonathan H. Liu
    16 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    Round 6 of Titans of Industry. (Game prototype; not final components.) Photo: Jonathan Liu Overview: Titans of Industry is another heavy-duty worker placement game set in the 1920s, with players competing to build factories, produce resources, and then sell them at businesses for profit and sweet, sweet victory points. The game is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter; I received a prototype to try out. Players: 3 to 5 Ages: 12 and up Playing Time: 90 minutes Retail: $55 on Kickstarter (or $80 for wooden bits or $10 for print-and-play version); eventually $60 retail Rating: Titanic! Sorry,…

  • My Inner Thrall Has Been Released

    Anton Olsen
    16 May 2012 | 2:59 am
    Photo by Anton Olsen My wife laughed nervously when I told her that I’d won a Doomhammer sculpture. She was aware that I had entered the contest at the NY Toy Fair back in February. She even commented on the picture on Facebook, and reposted it to her friends, but I’m sure it never crossed her mind that I could win. She was excited when I got the email in March informing me that I’d won. Her enthusiasm waned a little when I told her it was a life size replica of the Thrall’s Doomhammer made with MEGABlok. Neither of us had any clue exactly what “life size”…

  • GeekDad HipTrax #88

    Z
    16 May 2012 | 2:00 am
    GeekDad HipTrax Logo by Dave Banks As the weather warms up the new music just comes rolling in! In this episode we spotlight a trio of fantastic new songs from three of our longtime favorites. Get your geek on with: “Mountain Fortress Delta VII” by The OneUps The newly released Nerdapalooza 2011 Recordings album contains no fewer than three dozen amazing live performance tracks from last year’s festival. Of course you can keep up with all the earth-shattering developments concerning this year’s event over at the official site. “Never Fall (feat. Kirby…
 
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    Webmonkey

  • Chrome Offers Tabs to Go With New Tab-Syncing Features

    Scott Gilbertson
    16 May 2012 | 10:35 am
    Image: Google Google has released an update for its Chrome web browser that adds tab syncing to Chrome’s list of tricks. Using the latest version of Chrome you can now access the tabs open on your desktop at home while you’re out and about with your Android phone. The syncing should work with any device that can run the latest version of Google Chrome. Current Chrome users will be automatically updated to the latest version. If you’d like to try out the latest version of Chrome head over to the download page. The tab-syncing feature was already available to those using the…

  • Flickr Goes Big With Larger Images, Responsive Redesign

    Scott Gilbertson
    15 May 2012 | 1:22 pm
    Flickr: now with bigger images and a (mostly) responsive design.Flickr recently changed its “lightbox” photo pages — the darker photo-friendly interface on the site — to display much larger photos. Now the grandfather of online photo-sharing sites is rolling out a site-wide redesign that uses the same big, beautiful images to put your photos front and center on every page. The larger images in Flickr’s revamped photo pages put the emphasis where it belongs — on your photos. Peripheral information, like comments, maps, tags, set info and so on are still…

  • Firefox for Android Preps for Prime Time

    Scott Gilbertson
    15 May 2012 | 11:14 am
    Flash Player running in Firefox for Mobile. Photo: Scott Gilbertson/Wired Mozilla has released an update for its Firefox for Android beta mobile web browser. The latest beta sports a redesigned interface that looks a little less like Firefox and a little more like a native Android application. If you’d like to help Mozilla test this beta, head on over to the Android marketplace and download a copy today. Unlike the recently updated Chrome for Android, which requires the latest and greatest Android Ice Cream Sandwich, Firefox for Android will run on Android Froyo 2.2 and better (it is,…

  • Use Your ‘Head’ For a Better Way to Serve Images

    Scott Gilbertson
    14 May 2012 | 1:08 pm
    A better way to serve responsive images. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired.com Responsive web design has grown well beyond its humble beginnings — using liquid layouts and media queries to scale websites so they fit any screen — and now means developers must wrestle with much more complex problems, like serving the right image to the right screen. Mobile screens are small; downloading full-size images is a waste of bandwidth (and quite possibly users’ money as bandwidth caps become more common). But serving tiny pixelated images to increasingly high-resolution screens…

  • Jokes for Nerds: HTML9 Responsive Boilerstrap JS

    Scott Gilbertson
    11 May 2012 | 3:34 pm
    4... 3... 2... 1...If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the endless proliferation of responsive grids, adaptive images, HTML boilerplates, CSS frameworks and JavaScript whirligigs then what you need is the HTML9 Responsive Boilerstrap JS. To install HTML9 Responsive Boilerstrap JS just “attackclone the grit repo pushmerge, then rubygem the lymphnode js shawarma module — and presto!” If you’re wondering what H9RBS.js actually is, well, you can abandon any hopes of one day being hip. But if you must know, H9RBS.js is a “flexible, dependency-free, lightweight,…
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    Raw File

  • Found Contest: Imagine the Future of School Science Fairs

    Wired Magazine
    16 May 2012 | 12:55 pm
    Photo illustration: Brita d'Agostino Wired magazine’s Found page represents our best guess at what lies over the horizon, from touchscreen windshields to organ farming. Now, we’re inviting readers to help create Found pages: What do you think our world will look like in 10, 20, or 100 years? Found Found: The Future of Toiletries More Artifacts From the Future Each month, we’ll propose a scenario and present some ideas and concepts. Then it’s up you: Sketch out your vision and upload your ideas (below). We’ll use the best suggestions as inspiration for a future…

  • Director’s Homecoming Spawns Award-Winning Photo Project

    Jakob Schiller
    16 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    The winner of this year’s Webby for best use of photography, “God’s Lake Narrows,” is a multimedia project that takes viewers inside a Canadian Indian reservation and tells director Kevin Lee Burton’s personal story of growing up there. Burton left Gods Lake when he was 15 because the reservation’s school only goes through the 9th grade. But Burton says he was secretly happy to get away because people on the reservation often bullied him for being queer and half white. “It was complicated and it was shitty,” he says about life in Gods Lake.

  • Photo Project Memorializes Fallen Insects

    Jakob Schiller
    15 May 2012 | 1:19 pm
    Using tiny props, the Carmichael Collective has built a series of small remembrances for dead bugs they found around their office and on the street. The “Bug Memorials” project documents these shrines in photos and a short YouTube video. Dave Damman, the driving force behind the collective, says the project is all about perspective. “We live in this world where we feel like it’s big news if Kim Kardashian changes her pants, so why in that same world can’t we take a moment to acknowledge the death of a moth,” he says. While ad agencies are known for their…

  • 7 Budding Photo Collectives You Need to Know

    Pete Brook
    14 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    << Previous | Next >>In recent years, the photo collective has emerged as a clear and strategic response by photographers who've reasoned that – in uncertain times – there is strength in numbers. "In an industry that has become increasingly disjointed and often predatory upon its contributors, the collective has become a final refuge and place of community," reasons Justin Maxon, founding member of Razón collective. "The collective provides not only creative inspiration, but also a sense of support that can be lacking in this field." Photo collectives differ in organization…

  • Must Read: The Photographs That Got Away From Famous Shooters

    Pete Brook
    11 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    “Everyone, in both personal and professional experience, is familiar with moments of regret, of chances seen but not seized. But photographers might have this sensation more often than most.” – Andrew Moore, from Photographs Not Taken Photographs Not Taken is a book about photography in which there is not a single photograph. It’s a collection of essays by 62 photographers about the ones that got away: the images — burned to memory and conscience — that, for one reason or another, the photographer could not make. The photo community has grasped this little book to its…
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    This Day In Tech

  • May 16, 1988: Nicotine Declared as Addictive as Heroin, Cocaine

    Tony Long
    16 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    An anti-smoking advertisement from the American Lung Association. 1988: C. Everett Koop, surgeon general of the United States, publishes a report declaring nicotine as addictive as either heroin or cocaine. Nicotine serves as the tobacco plant’s natural defense against insects and, in its pure form, is more poisonous than either strychnine or arsenic. Its chemical structure is similar to acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter, giving it easy access to the brain’s reward and pleasure pathways. Koop, something of an idiosyncratic figure despite serving in the conservative Reagan administration,…

  • May 9, 1960: Easy Birth Control Arrives, But There’s a Catch

    Tony Long
    9 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    Photo: nateOne/Flickr 1960: The birth control pill wins the approval of the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA gives its blessing to the 10-milligram dose of Enovid, which by then had been in clinical trials for four years, and the Searle drug company starts selling the pill a month later. The pill, which was nearly 100 percent effective, nevertheless came with some severe side effects, including life-threatening blood clots. Further research found that the approved dose was 10 times too high. The first pill was developed from synthetic progesterone, which itself derived from the steroid…

  • May 8, 1886: Looking for Pain Relief, and Finding Coca-Cola Instead

    Tony Long
    8 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    Image: Public Domain/Wikimedia 1886: Trying to come up with a headache cure and general pain reliever, pharmacist John Pemberton invents the beverage that will become known to the world as Coca-Cola in a backyard kettle. Pemberton received a medical degree at 19 and worked as a druggist in Columbus, Georgia, before joining the Confederate army during the Civil War. He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel with the Third Georgia Cavalry and was severely wounded in battle. Trying to control the pain resulting from those wounds, Pemberton became addicted to morphine. After the war, Pemberton…

  • May 7, 558: The Roof Caves In on the Hagia Sophia

    Tony Long
    7 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    A modern-day view of the Hagia Sophia. Photo: F Mira/Flickr 558: The dome of the Hagia Sophia cathedral in Constantinople collapses following an earthquake. Built by the decree of Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian, the Hagia Sophia was completed in 537, only five years after construction began. Given the scope of the ambitious project, it turned out to be something of a rush job, a fact that has plagued the building over the centuries. Justinian intended the cathedral to stand as the ultimate symbol of his empire’s Byzantine Christian faith, and its design, both in concept and scale, was…

  • May 2, 1952: First Commercial Jet Flies From London to Johannesburg

    Tony Long
    2 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    A BOAC de Havilland Comet jet airliner, en route to Johannesburg from London, breaks its journey at Entebbe Airport, Uganda. Photo: British Ministry of Information/Wikimedia 1952: A de Havilland Comet, flying for British Overseas Airways Corporation, becomes the first jet aircraft to enter commercial service, carrying passengers from London to Johannesburg, South Africa. The early Comet was a four-engine aircraft, roughly the size of a small Boeing 737. It carried between 36 and 44 passengers, depending on its cabin configuration. Regardless of configuration, most early commercial jets were…
 
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    Threat Level

  • ‘Dead Man Walking’ Tricks Airport into Giving Him Top Security Job

    Kim Zetter
    16 May 2012 | 12:53 pm
    The TSA may have its eagle sights set on your underwear and water bottle, but it failed to miss the real security threat under its nose, it was revealed Monday after a supervisor holding a top security job in a New Jersey airport was arrested for using the stolen identity of a dead man. Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole, known to his fellow workers as “Jerry Thomas,” obtained his job as a security supervisor at the Newark Liberty International Airport with credentials he’d allegedly stolen in 1992 from a petty criminal who was shot and killed in New York that year, according to CBS.

  • Banned PlayStation Hacker Sees Hope of Return in Jailbreaking Deliberations

    David Kravets
    16 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    Hacking sensation George Hotz, aka "GeoHot." Photo: George Hotz George Hotz, an infamous hardware hacker better known online as Geohot, has a PlayStation that he’s not allowed to play with — at least not the way he likes to, which involves figuring out how to bypass manufacturers’ artificial limits on what users can do with their gadgets. Geohot settled a civil suit filed against him by Sony for figuring out how to let people play homebrew games on the popular console — in violation of a federal law that prohibits getting around encryption in hardware and…

  • ACLU Warns State Dept. Against Firing Worker Who Criticized Government

    Kim Zetter
    15 May 2012 | 4:35 pm
    The American Civil Liberties Union has come to the defense of a former State Department employee who looks likely to be fired for blogging and writing critically about the reconstruction efforts in Iraq. The ACLU says doing so would violate the constitutional rights of veteran State Department employee Peter Van Buren, according to a letter the group sent the government on Tuesday. The letter further accuses the government of unlawful retaliation against Van Buren for publishing critical comments about U.S. foreign policy on his personal blog last year. “The Supreme Court has repeatedly…

  • Popular Surveillance Cameras Open to Hackers, Researcher Says

    Kim Zetter
    15 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    Photo: redjar/Flickr In a world where security cameras are nearly as ubiquitous as light fixtures, someone is always watching you. But the watcher might not always be who you think it is. Three of the most popular brands of closed-circuit surveillance cameras are sold with remote internet access enabled by default, and with weak password security — a classic recipe for security failure that could allow hackers to remotely tap into the video feeds, according to new research. The cameras, used by banks, retailers, hotels, hospitals and corporations, are often configured insecurely —…

  • Court Upholds Google-NSA Relationship Secrecy

    David Kravets
    11 May 2012 | 2:29 pm
    A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the National Security Agency’s decision to withhold from the public documents confirming or denying any relationship it has with Google concerning encryption and cybersecurity. That’s despite the fact that Google itself admitted it turned to “U.S. authorities,” which obviously includes the NSA, after the search giant’s Chinese operation was deeply hacked. Former NSA chief Mike McConnell told the Washington Post that collaboration between the NSA and private companies like Google was “inevitable.” The…
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    Underwire

  • Twisted Tweets Fuel Robots Feel Nothing When They Hold Hands

    Hugh Hart
    16 May 2012 | 12:43 pm
    New book Robots Feel Nothing When They Hold Hands compiles the Twitter witticisms of three Family Guy writers.Image courtesy Chronicle Books When Family Guy’s writers aren’t crafting wisecracks for the raunchy animated comedy, they dispense twisted Twitter musings which have now been assembled for posterity in a handy book called Robots Feel Nothing When They Hold Hands. Illustrated by Joe Vax and Dominic Bianchian, the paperback, out Wednesday, features an introduction by Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane. Speaking of the book’s chief instigator, Alec Sulkin (@thesulk),…

  • With Space Program: Mars, Tom Sachs Transforms Armory Into Red Planet

    Beth Carter
    16 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    << Previous | Next >>A Mars Roving Vehicle constructed of everyday parts explores the simulated surface of the red planet in Tom Sachs' art show Space Program: Mars. Photo: Genevieve Hanson, NYC.<< Previous | Next >>View all NEW YORK — Step through the doors of the Park Avenue Armory today and you’ll join a DIY expedition to Mars that’s part hard science, part Capricorn One. With new installation Space Program: Mars, sculptor Tom Sachs and his team of 13 astro-artists have crafted an otherworldly fantasy out of common materials, assembling the…

  • Theoretical Physicist Brian Greene Thinks You Might Be a Hologram

    Geek's Guide to the Galaxy
    16 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    Author and theoretical physicist Brian Greene discusses science fiction, Star Trek and parallel universes in this edition of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. Characters on Star Trek suffer frequent misadventures on the holodeck, a room that creates advanced holograms indistinguishable from reality. But now theoretical physicists such as Brian Greene, host of the recent PBS special The Fabric of the Cosmos, are starting to wonder if every object in the universe isn’t some sort of hologram. Episode 60: Brian Greene Subscribe to RSS feed Subscribe on iTunes Download free MP3…

  • See Spidey Save a Bridge in New Amazing Spider-Man Preview

    Angela Watercutter
    15 May 2012 | 1:10 pm
    Want four minutes of the new Spider-Man? You’re in luck! It’s officially summer blockbuster season, and movie teasers are shooting onto the internet faster than webs from Spidey’s wrists, including this new spot for The Amazing Spider-Man. Much of this footage has been seen before, particularly the parts giving exposition to the backstory of Peter Parker (played by Andrew Garfield) and his relationship with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). But the heretofore-unseen scene at the beginning — when Spider-Man saves a series of cars from falling off a bridge — is pretty…

  • In Joel Stein’s Man Made, a Wimp Learns to Sack Up

    Jason Tanz
    15 May 2012 | 5:30 am
    In his new book Man Made, Joel Stein engages in some very manly activities. Joel Stein is a pussy. I know this because he openly admits as much, right at the beginning of his new book, Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity. (I also know this because, full disclosure, I have played poker with him several times.) Stein becomes gripped with panic when he learns that he and his wife are going to have a son — not because of the financial, emotional or circadian devastation his offspring is sure to wreak, but because Stein himself is singularly unmanly, and thus feels unprepared to raise a…
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    Wired Science

  • Paralyzed Woman Controls Robotic Arm With Her Mind

    Sarah Jane Keller
    16 May 2012 | 12:15 pm
    Two stroke victims unable to move or speak can now control a robotic arm with their minds. By thinking about moving her own paralyzed arm, one woman in the experiment used an artificial limb to serve herself coffee for the first time in 15 years. It’s the most complex task yet achieved with a brain-computer interface. “When the woman with the brain stem stroke reached out for that thermos of coffee and put it to her mouth and then she put it back down, the smile on her face was remarkable,” said Brown University neurologist and engineer Leigh Hochberg, who led the study published…

  • Tracking Ocean Sulfur Could Help Test Gaia Hypothesis

    Wired UK
    16 May 2012 | 9:50 am
    By Duncan Geere, Wired UK Geologists at the University of Maryland have published research that could help prove or disprove Gaia theory — the notion that the Earth is one single self-regulating system. The concept dates from the 70s and was initially formulated by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis. It proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings comprise a single system that maintains the conditions for life on Earth. It was initially met with skepticism from the scientific community, and remains somewhat controversial, but is now an important area of research in Earth…

  • World’s Subways Converging on Ideal Form

    Brandon Keim
    15 May 2012 | 6:09 pm
    Sample of subway network structures from (clockwise, top left) Shanghai, Madrid, Moscow, Tokyo, Seoul and Barcelona. Image: Roth et al./JRSI After decades of urban evolution, the world’s major subway systems appear to be converging on an ideal form. On the surface, these core-and-branch systems — evident in New York City, Tokyo, London or most any large metropolitan subway — may seem intuitively optimal. But in the absence of top-down central planning, their movement over decades toward a common mathematical space may hint at universal principles of human self-organization.

  • Power Postures Can Make You Feel More Powerful

    Danielle Venton
    15 May 2012 | 12:30 pm
    Amy Cuddy (here in the Baker Library at Harvard) discovered that the way you sit can actually change your cortisol levels. Photo: Guido Vitti Also in this issue The Man Who Makes the Future How to Spot the Future The Rise of the Robot Reporter Sit up straight and listen: Amy Cuddy has a plan to help you change your life. And it’s easy. The Harvard psychologist recently completed a study demonstrating that positioning our bodies a certain way doesn’t just tell people we’re powerful, it actually makes us more powerful. And she has the data to prove it: Standing tall directly…

  • Startup Company Raffles a Ticket to Space

    Dave Mosher
    15 May 2012 | 11:00 am
    A new startup company’s $10 space posters come with a chance to win a ride on a suborbital space vehicle. Called ”I Dream of Space,” the company is selling 25,000 posters at $10 apiece, the proceeds of which should cover a $200,000 ride on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo or a $95,000 seat on XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx, plus some profit for the company’s founders. No spaceflight company has yet made a commercial flight, and it could be years before they do, but that day is approaching. “Given the kind of progress we’re seeing with these companies, and…
 
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