Is the Leap finger twitching good? Photo: Leap Motion Technology is always chasing after science fiction. Star Trek communicators became the cell phones in our pockets, and the wireless in-ear headset Uhura wore eventually became the Bluetooth headset. And now the futuristic, gesture-driven computer interface portrayed in Minority Report is being tackled by today’s technology. On Monday, Leap Motion introduced the Leap gesture-based computer interaction system. Similar to the Microsoft Kinect, ...  show all text

Looking to promote a new product online? Study the Orabrush marketing machine. Image: Courtesy Orabrush We’ve all spent a sleepless night channel surfing at 3a.m. Flicking around at that hour, you’re sure to come across an infomercial for a Revolutionary Floor Cleaner or an Abs-of-Steel Machine urging you to be one of the first 500 callers and get a free set of steak knives. Bolstered by breathless, off-their-meds hosts, these feature-length commercials are wildly profitable. (Americans bought ...  show all text

<< Previous | Next >> Star Wars – Just the Essential Plot << Previous | Next >> View all Everyone has their reasons for loving Star Wars (or not) — some live for Stormtroopers, others are fans of Luke Skywalker and still others just really like Wookiees. Now, thanks to the glories of video editing, it’s possible to watch just the things any particular fan wants to see. The folks at the Cussing Channel — who previously brought you all the gear-shifting in the Fast and the Fu...  show all text

Ninja job postings are up 7,000 percent in the past few years. Photo: pasukaru76/Flickr Companies are looking for ninjas, Jedis, and rock stars, but nobody wants a brogrammer. That’s according to data compiled by Indeed.com, a job listing website, which tracks a 7,000 percent growth in the number of job listings that include the term ninja over the past six years. Not so with brogrammer, a recently minted term denoting frat-house coder types who like to do shots and rage the clubs. Indeed.com d...  show all text

Photo: Courtesy of Supreme Court The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a $675,000 file-sharing damages award that a jury levied against a college student for making 30 music tracks available on a peer-to-peer network. Without comment, the high court, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Stephen Breyer not participating, declined an appeal brought by former Boston college student Joel Tenenbaum. His petition (.pdf) claimed that Congress did not intend “unrestrained discretionary jury dama...  show all text

The HTC Nexus One was Google's first flagship-status phone, released in January 2010. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired This fall, with the expected release of Android 5.0, Google might completely reinvent its Nexus smartphone program: Instead of partnering with a single handset manufacturer to launch a single flagship Nexus phone, Google could release as many as five Nexus-branded smartphones, each running a pure, unadulterated version of the company’s next operating system. This move, first reported ...  show all text

You can't even escape Facebook on Google+. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired According to a recent poll by the Associated Press and CNBC, 46 percent of respondents think Facebook will “fade away as new things come along.” That’s an ominous data point for a company whose IPO dominated the news cycle last week, and claims some 900 million worldwide users. Facebook seems to be infiltrating every facet of our lives. “Like” buttons appear on every website. “Like us on Facebook!” shouts at us during TV ...  show all text

In his new Hulu show Spoilers, Kevin Smith will talk movies with 50 other passionate film fans. Photo courtesy Hulu Kevin Smith likes to talk. He’ll riff for hours on pretty much anything — comics, farting, hockey, Bruce Willis, the general state of the internet. But mostly he likes to talk about movies. A lot. With people. And with his new series Spoilers, that’s pretty much all he has to do. The show, which will premiere June 4 on Hulu, will showcase Smith and 50 die-hard movie fans right aft...  show all text

An annular solar eclipse will be visible May 20 from eastern Asia, the Pacific Ocean, and much of the North American West Coast. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, casting a shadow that blocks out the sun’s light. But in an annular eclipse, the moon is too far from the Earth and the sun’s light isn’t completely blocked. Instead, a thin ring of glowing fire will be visible around the black circle that is the moon’s shadow. Above, you can watch a live...  show all text

Sigh: touchscreen keyboards. Those tiny letters. The complete lack of charm. If only our shiny new gadgets could incorporate some of the clackety-clack of those old Royal Portables. Now they can. Inventor Jack Zylkin of Etsy shop USB Typewriter has modified antique typewriters to work as USB Keyboards for PC, Mac and iPad. Do they work? Who knows! Just get us one. You can buy the full setup for $799.00 or a Mac, PC or iPad conversion kit that requires tools and assembly for $74.00.