Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: Gizmodo Australia

REGULARS

Australian Federal Government Bans Hoverboards (Temporarily)

An interim ban on not-really-hoverboards was announced by the Assistant Treasurer Friday, preventing the sale of dodgy hoverboards that are prone to exploding. The ban will take effect from Saturday March 19 and will be in place for 60 days, until further action can be decided upon.

MOBILE

Telstra Says Sorry For Outage With Another Day Of Free Data

RAE JOHNSTONYESTERDAY 7:45 AM

At around 6pm last night, reports of outages on the Telstra network — again — started to emerge. The network began sporadically working again from 7:30pm onwards, and for the inconvenience Telstra are giving away a day of free data on Sunday 3 April.

SCIENCE & HEALTH

Ancient Warrior Found Buried With Ritualistic Spears Stabbed Into His Body

GEORGE DVORSKYTODAY 12:00 PM

Archaeologists working at the Pocklington burial site in Yorkshire have discovered the 2500-year-old skeletal remains of a high ranking warrior who was buried alongside his sword — and who had a half-dozen spears thrust into him in ritualistic fashion.

SOFTWARE & DESIGN

That Amazing House-In-A-Cliff Concept? They're Actually Going To Build It

LOGAN BOOKERTODAY 11:30 AM

We see insane architectural concepts all the time, but they’re almost never given life, destined to remain as sketches in a designer’s portfolio. Not so in the case of “Casa Brutale”, the cliff-embedded dwelling we saw last year. Turns out someone is really going to build the thing.

ENTERTAINMENT

The Cast Of Marvel's Agents Of SHIELD Told Us Just How Crazy Things Are About To Get

GERMAIN LUSSIERTODAY 11:00 AM

The fact that the set of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD is so quiet on a Wednesday afternoon is in direct opposition to the insanity of the show itself. We visited the Culver City set and there was nothing going on in Coulson’s office. Fitz and Simmons’ lab was silent and the common area was deserted. But on the show, which just got renewed for a fourth season, things are on overload.

ONLINE

Microsoft Edge Is Finally Becoming A Real Browser

CHRIS MILLSTODAY 10:30 AM

I know, Microsoft Edge is basically a rebranded Internet Explorer, and for that reason alone most people stay a full barge-pole length away from Window’s default browser. But thanks to some upcoming changes, it might stop sucking so bad.

ENTERTAINMENT

The Divergent Series Is The Ultimate Teen Dystopian Sugar Rush

CHARLIE JANE ANDERSTODAY 10:00 AM

Divergent and its sequels don’t make a whole lot of sense — but what they do have is a blend of wish-fulfillment, anarchic WTFery and actual social commentary that amounts to the Platonic ideal of “dystopia as fairy floss”. You will be in a sugar coma at the end of this film, but the sacrifice of your brain may not be entirely in vain.

ENTERTAINMENT

The Intense New Warcraft TV Spot Is Jam-Packed With New Footage

JAMES WHITBROOKTODAY 9:30 AM

Video: It’s been a while since we last saw a full trailer for Duncan Jones’ Warcraft movie, but this new TV spot includes more Orcs and Humans than you can shake a stick at, and then Dwarves and magic as well!

COMPUTING

South Korea Will Try To Save Itself From The Inevitable Robot Takeover By Investing $1.3 Billion In AI

SOPHIE KLEEMANTODAY 9:00 AM

South Korea appears to be taking a “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach to the forthcoming machine revolution. On Thursday, president Park Geun-hye announced plans to invest one trillion won ($1.13 billion) in the country’s artificial intelligence industry by 2020, largely as a response to the recent shellacking of countryman Lee Sedol at the hands of — you guessed it — Google’s artificial intelligence bot AlphaGo.

ENTERTAINMENT

Steven Spielberg Didn't Have To Look Far For His Indiana Jones 5 Writer

GERMAIN LUSSIERTODAY 8:30 AM

Besides the name “George Lucas”, the biggest omission from the announcement of a fifth Indiana Jones film was the writer. It didn’t take long for director Steven Spielberg to land on someone: David Koepp, who wrote Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, will be responsible for bringing Indy back one more time.

ENTERTAINMENT

The Most Ridiculous Rumour You'll Ever Hear About The Walking Dead's Season Finale

JAMES WHITBROOKTODAY 8:00 AM

And even more death is coming to the show. The Russo brothers tease the possibility of more than one Civil War post-credits scene. Get a brief glimpse of the Star Trek TV show… sort of. Plus, more Ready Player One casting, Batman v Superman B-roll and a clip from Agents of SHIELD. To me, my spoilers!