Science needs your private data to speed up breakthroughs. Researchers find it increasingly hard to recruit participants. Apple did its part earlier this month with ResearchKit and made an attempt to get users involved in medical studies. But it soon…
Technical
Federal law enforcement is wasting a lot of money on drones
The US’ national law enforcement has been using drones to help nab crooks for almost nine years, but it’s still making plenty of rookie mistakes. The Department of Justice’s Inspector General has published an audit that shows its agencies not only ma…
Russia’s newest armored vehicle swims and picks its own shots
Russia’s latest armored prototype was recently spotted rehearsing for the nation’s upcoming May 9th Victory Day parade following more than half a decade of top-secret development. Dubbed the Kurganets BMP-25 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), this amph…
Facebook makes it easier to relive your memories
Facebook knows you don’t just want to keep tabs on the latest updates — sometimes, you want to wax nostalgic as well. Appropriately, the social network is rolling out a previously tested On This Day feature that shows posts you shared (or were tagge…
Costa Rica hasn’t used any fossil fuel in over two months
It’s been 75 days since Costa Rica’s power grid last had a sip of petroleum. Thanks to heavy rainfall at the start of the year, the Central American nation has been able to provide 100 percent of its energy needs via renewable resources. This certain…
Dish Anywhere adds profiles for personalized recommendations
Even though Sling TV has kept Dish extremely busy over the past few months, the company hasn’t forgotten about its core user base: the satellite service customers. As such, Dish let it be known today that it is bringing some new features to Anywhere,…
Beyond Facebook: What you need to know about texting apps
If you live in the United States, you might’ve been surprised when Facebook purchased WhatsApp for $19 billion — or, in other words, thing-you’d-think-you’d-have-heard-of money. Facebook identified what those of us in the US with texting plans and A…
PSA: YouTube’s tamer music awards show takes place March 23rd
The YouTube Music Awards is finally happening this Monday after taking a year off. There probably won’t be spontaneous antics and cake-digging this time, though — like the Google-owned video website announced in 2014, it’s doing away with the tradit…
Your Android phone will soon stay unlocked while you’re holding it
If you’re frustrated that your smartphone locks while it’s still in your hands, Google may soon come to your rescue. A handful of Android Police readers report that their Lollipop-equipped phones’ Smart Lock security now includes “on-body detection,”…
Holy sh*t snacks! Redditors find massive ‘Archer’ Easter egg
I’m not sure which is more impressive: the fact that the Archer series creators went through so much trouble to create such an elaborate Easter egg or the fact that someone was actually able to crack the multiple mind-bending puzzles needed to reveal…
DARPA taps golden age computers to solve tough simulations
If you thought modern computers were fast enough to solve any problem, nope! While certainly powerful, modern supercomputers aren’t always great at complex fluid and plasma dynamic simulations, and DARPA, the outfit that does science for the US defen…
Popular club drug assists therapy for the terminally ill
MDMA is widely used both on and off festival grounds. But the drug is quietly making a comeback as a therapeutic aid. Last week, the DEA approved a clinical trial that will use a combination of the psychedelic drug and psychotherapy to treat anxiety …
Cyberlegs project wants to equip amputees with robotic limbs
You’ll see a lot more instances of robotic arms in the news, but it doesn’t mean high-tech prostheses for the lower limbs don’t exist. The Cyberlegs project, for instance, is developing robotic legs that can help amputees move and walk more naturally…
Robert Downey Jr. wants to weird you into buying an HTC One M9
Two men sit in lawn chairs, one in a merman costume. The other, Robert Downey Junior, fires a blowdart at a moon sculpture, which crashes to the ground. “Shoot for the Moon,” says the aspirational HTC slogan. Did that make any sense? If so, you’re ap…
3M showed me how dirty my phone was at SXSW
I’m a certified germaphobe. In clinical terms, that makes me one of the 3.3 million Americans who suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Being at an event like SXSW where about 33,000 of my fellow digital comrades are coexisting in very public sp…