Sony teases PlayStation 4 hardware ahead of Xbox event, says you’ll ‘see it first at E3′

Sony teases PlayStation 4 hardware ahead of Xbox event, says you’ll ‘see it first at E3′ Sony has teased the hardware design for its upcoming PlayStation 4 for the first time, after a February reveal that kept the device completely under wraps and left fans guessing about how Sony’s next-generation console would look. In a new video, shown below, the company teases the PS4′s hardware with a blurry black rectangle....

Fountain of youth: with Tumblr, can Yahoo buy a new generation of users?

Fountain of youth: with Tumblr, can Yahoo buy a new generation of users? Marissa Mayer just made her biggest bet to date as Yahoo’s CEO — and if it goes badly, she may not get the chance to make another. A series of recent acquisitions culminated Monday with the announcement that Yahoo is spending roughly one sixth of its cash hoard to buy Tumblr, the popular but under-monetized blogging platform. The deal brings Yahoo the vibrant....

‘The Pirate Cinema’ monitors popular torrents to create a video wall of piracy

‘The Pirate Cinema’ monitors popular torrents to create a video wall of piracy The Pirate Cinema is a cinematic collage or sorts. Its creators took torrent database The Pirate Bay’s Top 100 video files and monitored each, creating small, fragmented clips based on traffic (torrents are transfered block-by-block in a somewhat random order). The resulting installation, which runs through to May 29th in Montreal’s Eastern ....

Jolla prices first Sailfish OS smartphone at €399 for a 2013 launch

Jolla prices first Sailfish OS smartphone at €399 for a 2013 launch Jolla has just unveiled its first smartphone, which will go on sale this year for €399 (roughly $510). Running the company’s MeeGo-derived Sailfish OS, it features a 4.5-inch display, a dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera, LTE (in selected markets), removable back covers, 16GB of onboard storage, and a microSD slot. According to Jolla, the handset will be &#....

Samsung beats Chromebook Pixel and Retina MacBook with new high-res laptop display

Samsung is to unveil a new super-high resolution panel which could set the standard for notebook displays. This week, the company will launch a 13.3-inch QHD 3200 x 1800 panel with 276 pixels-per-inch (PPI), and offers greater pixel densities than Apple’s Retina MacBook Pro 13 (239 PPI) and Google’s Chromebook Pixel (227 PPI). Samsung has yet to confirm if its LCD panel will come to new ultrabooks, but if it does, Toshiba’s ....

‘Breaking Bad’ creator Vince Gilligan is ‘grateful as hell’ for Netflix binge-watching

‘Breaking Bad’ creator Vince Gilligan is ‘grateful as hell’ for Netflix binge-watching Breaking Bad is on a brief hiatus in the middle of its fifth, final season, with shooting already wrapped on what may be the most anticipated eight episodes in recent television history. But for all the show’s success, creator Vince Gilligan believes that things may have been very different if not for a shift in viewing habits ....

Space guns, boreholes, and biodomes: the lost dreams of 20th century science

Space guns, boreholes, and biodomes: the lost dreams of 20th century science The 20th century, in particular the latter half, played host to some of the most ambitious scientific projects in history. Atlas Obscura‘s feature Ruins Of Super Science takes a look at some forgotten gems, many of which are in a state of disrepair. There’s the Kola Superdeep Borehole, a Russian project to drill as far into the earth as possible, which re....

Google Hangouts upgrade removes ability to host Google Voice calls on your computer

Google Hangouts upgrade removes ability to host Google Voice calls on your computer Google new Hangouts messaging service is quite impressive — it takes Google’s old and neglected Talk service and upgrades it with always-on communication, support for images, video calling, and much more. But for all of the improved service that Hangouts offers, if you upgrade the Google Talk service within Gmail to Hangouts (by selecting the ̶....

Nook Simple Touch e-readers reportedly adding web browser and email client next week

Nook Simple Touch e-readers reportedly adding web browser and email client next week Barnes & Noble’s E Ink e-readers are getting an update next month that will add a web browser and email client, reports TechCrunch. Citing an unnamed source, it writes that the Nook Simple Touch and Simple Touch with GlowLight will start receiving the updates on June 1st. The Nook Simple Touch shipped with a limited, hidden web browser when it was....

Inside the private push for consumer space travel

Inside the private push for consumer space travel Since the 1960s and PanAm’s ill-fated Moon Flights Club, commercial passenger flights to space have been a tantalizing dream, one that’s expected to finally come to fruition within the next year. For its cover story this week, New York Magazine takes an in-depth look at the industry, including interviews with Buzz Aldrin, Richard Branson, and several others. In it, Virgin Galactic ....