Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: Gizmodo Australia

REGULARS

Would A Tax On Netflix Make You Pirate More?

Streaming services are now at a surplus in Australia. Netflix may soon cost more, however, under a reported government plan to apply the GST to the international streaming service set to be announced in the Federal Budget. If Netflix increased in price, would you go back to piracy?

REVIEWS

Apple Watch: Australian Review

LUKE HOPEWELL27 APRIL 2015 12:00 PM

The next big thing from Apple turns out to be very small, very comfortable and a very smart way of making an iPhone way cooler to use.

SOFTWARE

What's The Worst Thing About Virtual Assistants?

KAILA HALE-STERNTODAY 1:30 PM

There’s a rumour that Apple will be redesigning Siri to better resemble its colourful Watch version. Cool. But with Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana getting a lot of development attention on their platforms, including a male version of Cortana, Siri probably needs more than just an interface overhaul. In fact, there’s annoying shit endemic to all of the “intelligent” assistants. What would you fix first?

GEEK OUT

These Augmented Reality Hands Are Giving Me Nightmares

CHRIS MILLSTODAY 1:15 PM

Evolution decided that humans should have five digits on the end of each limb. Not four. Not six. Certainly not five little hands attached to one big hand. But thanks to this art/technology/torture installation, some people got to experience what would have happened if Darwin screwed up.

GADGETS

The Best Portable Batteries You Can Buy In Australia

LINDSAY HANDMERTODAY 1:00 PM

Power hungry smartphones tend to run out of juice at just the wrong time. Fortunately it’s easily avoided with a USB power bank. To help keep you connected, we have put together a list of the 10 best large capacity models available right now.

ONLINE

Twitter Got Paid To Promote A Tweet About Killing Arabs

KATE KNIBBSTODAY 12:45 PM

Here’s a hateful message to spread under any circumstances: “My fellow Jews, the time to start killing Arabs is NOW.” And here’s a message that Twitter took money to promote: “My fellow Jews, the time to start killing Arabs is NOW.”

MOBILE

Ask Google Now Follow-Up Questions To Get Faster Answers

DAVID NIELDTODAY 12:30 PM

Google Now is the intelligent, voice-controlled digital assistant baked into Android and various other parts of the Google ecosystem. If you need to get a lot of information from Google Now in a short space of time, here’s a trick you might not yet be aware of.

SCIENCE

Doctors Just Discovered The Ebola Virus Can Live Inside The Eye

KIONA SMITH-STRICKLANDTODAY 12:15 PM

After working as a doctor in an Ebola-stricken nation, Ian Crozier felt like he had something in his left eye. He was right: a live, replicating reservoir of the Ebola virus.

PC & PERIPHERAL REVIEWS

Sandisk Ultra Dual USB 3.0 Flash Drive: Australian Review

CAMPBELL SIMPSONTODAY 12:00 PM

Just about the worst thing is being stuck on an airplane without easy access to your favourite downloaded videos due to a flat battery on your laptop. Sandisk’s latest dual USB drive lets you load it up with TV shows, movies or other media to watch indiscriminately on your laptop or tablet or smartphone, and it does so faster than ever.

GADGETS

So This Is What A Terrifying Quadcopter Tornado Looks Like

ANDREW LISZEWSKITODAY 11:45 AM

We’ve covered the remarkable work that researchers at ETH Zurich have been doing with robots and quadcopters before, but did you know its facility has a dedicated Flying Machine Arena where they tether drones to poles and make them fly in circles at terrifying speeds? It’s even more amazing than it sounds.

NEWS

One Year In, Uber Australia Has Given One Million Rides In Sydney

LINDSAY HANDMERTODAY 11:30 AM

That’s almost two uber rides every minute, 24/7 for a year. To celebrate, uberX crunched the numbers to come up with some very interesting statistics, such as the most popular late night hotspots based on pick-up location requests.