Ladies and gentlemen, brace yourself and grab a tissue. No, make that the whole box. We bring you a tale of technological woe, a David and Goliath story in which, alas, the Philistine wins, that will set even the stoniest heart ableed. Chase Giunta is a 25-year-old graphic designer in…
Four months ago, Ladar Levison was just another dude running a small business and really enjoying beach volleyball. Then, in May, the FBI left a business card on his doorstep. He, and eventually the rest of the world, would soon find out why. Levison, an SMU grad, runs Lavabit LLC,…
It should probably go without saying. If you get a random text message saying you’ve won a cruise, or telling you your debit card has been compromised, or offering discount Viagra, you should probably ignore it, unless, of course, you happen to be in the market for some under-the-table boner…
In simpler times, video games and all that they had to offer were fully contained within a gray plastic cartridge. As a result, buying a used game required very little due diligence beyond a quick glance at the visible circuitry and making sure the game wasn’t terrible. The used gaming…
Aereo, an online television streaming service backed by Fox television network creator Barry Diller, launched in New York City on Valentine’s Day 2012. Two weeks later, the major networks — ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CW, Univision, and, yes, PBS — banded together and asked a federal judge to shut down…
It’s hard to put your finger on what makes Google Glass so vaguely creepy. Technologically speaking, aside from a few extra tricks like the one that transmits sound not by making noise but by sending subtle vibrations through the skull, its basically like having a smartphone strapped to your head…
The Federal Aviation Administration has unveiled its official stance on Americans shooting at drones: You shouldn’t do that. According to the Associated Press, the FAA announced today that anyone discharging a weapon at a drone runs the risk of causing it to crash, thus injuring people or property, thus risking…
Erich Spangenberg, like others in his trade, would prefer that you refer to his stable of companies as “patent assertion entities.” But he has a thick skin; you’re more than welcome to call him a troll, so long as you point out that he is, in fact, the world’s biggest…
Two years ago, after their cameras were denied entry to a secretive government immigration camps on Christmas Island, the Australian version of 60 Minutes piloted a small, unmanned aircraft above the island detention center. A few months later, activists in Poland dispatched a drone to document the abuses of riot…
In late 2010, the social gaming company Zynga was on a buying spree. Riding high on the success of FarmVille, the San Francisco-based startup was snatching up smaller rivals across the country, including Dallas’ Bonfire Studios some three months after the firm released the not-at-all derivative We Farm. But there’s…
There’s still some debate over whether the return of manufacturing to the U.S. — “reshoring,” it’s called — is a lasting trend or just a bump on the road toward an entirely knowledge-based economy. Some experts suggest it’s merely a byproduct of the recession. But there’s no doubt that it’s…
The media has had a hard time labeling Barrett Brown. “Anonymous spokesman” doesn’t fit because Anonymous is too anarchic and loosely organized to have a spokesman. For the same reason, he’s not the collective’s “self-proclaimed” spokesman, though he did have more than his share of media appearances. The best option…
When Cody Wilson, a libertarian-minded University of Texas law student, first announced plans to fabricate a gun using a 3-D printer in hopes of radically democratizing access to firearms, it seemed a bit like tilting at windmills, especially after the printer he was using was seized. But Wilson forged ahead,…
On Monday afternoon, two homeowners in the Lower Greenville West Neighborhood Association grew alarmed when they spotted a team of a half dozen or so guys who were snapping pictures and trespassing on private property. The homeowners were suspicious and called 911. Later, they sent out an email blast to…
Turns out, those camera-mounted compact cars Google dispatches to prowl America’s streets haven’t just been collecting the panoramic Street View images that help make its maps feature so incredibly useful. Nope. As the search giant admitted yesterday, those cars have been gathering email addresses, search histories and other personal information…
Why one would feel the need to seek Mark Cuban’s advice, seeing as he doles it out readily on his blog, his reality show, in a dirt-cheap e-book, and via whatever other medium happens to be at hand, is beyond me. But if that’s not quite enough and you’re still…
Cody R. Wilson, a second-year law student at UT Austin, has a hobby that’s gotten a fair amount of media attention over the last few months: He wants to print out some guns. But his plan to make and test a pistol using a 3-D printer ran into an unexpected…
Gizmodo Wednesday had an anonymous tell-all from former employees of what it describes as “the most corrupt Apple store in America.” Where might that store be, you ask? NorthPark. And how did the NorthPark Apple store earn such a notable distinction? Well, allegedly, according to some anonymous guy (so you…
There is undoubtedly a tale of heartbreak in their past. Maybe Kevin Hamlen and Vishwath Mohan were disillusioned when the world made them computer scientists at UTD instead of pop stars. Maybe they were mad that their school’s mascot being a Comet named Temoc. Maybe they simply hate civilization as…
