Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: gizmodo australia

REGULARS

The Google Photos Moment

SEAN HOLLISTER4 JUNE 2015 9:45 AM

I have over 300GB of photos and videos sitting on a couple hard drives. I never look at them. I’ve never found the time to organise them. They just sit there. The new Google Photos claims it can fix that. It’s like Gmail for your photos, the company whispers.

GAMING

Can't Code? This iPad App Will Easily Let You Make Your Own Video Game

ANDREW LISZEWSKITODAY 7:00 PM

There’s no shortage of nit-picking gamers who feel they could easily make better video games than what’s being released every week. And thanks to a new iPad app called Toy Engine, they can put their money where their mouths are and design their own side-scrolling video game, even if they have never written a single line of code.

GEEK OUT

Robot Arm Beats A Master Swordsman At Slicing Things

CASEY CHANTODAY 6:30 PM

Video: It’s a totally unfair fight, since this Yaskawa Bushido industrial robot arm basically stole all of master swordsman Isao Machii’s moves and is not human, so it can be programmed and won’t get tired. But it’s really fun to see man vs machine swinging swords to see who can slice things best with diagonal cuts, rising cuts, horizontal cuts and a thousand cuts.

GEEK OUT

This Is The Gear That Took Me To Southeast Asia

CHRIS BRINLEE JRTODAY 6:00 PM

What clothes, gadgets, and backpack does a photographer and writer for an adventure travel site rely on when he’s going to Asia and travelling light? This is my pared down adventure-storytelling kit, and how it performed.

GEEK OUT

Your Confessions Are Completely Safe With This Plush Pope

ANDREW LISZEWSKITODAY 5:30 PM

In September the Pope will be visiting Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families Congress and to mark the occasion the US will be doing what it does best: churn out heaps of merchandise, including an adorable plush version of Pope Francis himself.

SCIENCE

Cooking Chicken And Rice In Space Is Always Fun To See

CASEY CHANTODAY 5:00 PM

Every variation of chicken and rice is great so even though this space version of tumeric chicken and whole red rice looks like the least chicken and rice-y dish ever (for obvious utilitarian reasons), I would totally give it a bite or five. The key to cooking in space (if this can be considered cooking) is making sure all that goop sticks to the tortilla.

GEEK OUT

A Light Carbon Fibre Hat Insert Protects Pitchers From Line Drives

ANDREW LISZEWSKITODAY 4:30 PM

One of the more stressful jobs in baseball is standing on that pitcher’s mound. Not only are you trying to avoid giving up a hit, you also want to avoid taking a line drive to the head. A baseball cap provides zero protection, but a new lightweight carbon fibre insert wants to change that.

SCIENCE

The US Is Cutting Down Its Forests To Feed Europe's Biomass Fuel Craze

SARAH ZHANGTODAY 4:00 PM

Since 2012, the US has held the title of world’s number one wood pellet exporter. What’s the big deal with wood pellets? Well, Europe has very keen on replacing coal with more environmentally friendly wood pellets — except, well, depending on who you ask, wood may not be that great either.

GEEK OUT

Look At This Cute Street Sweeper Just For Bike Lanes

ALISSA WALKERTODAY 3:30 PM

Los Angeles is slowly but surely working its way towards being one of the most bike-friendly cities in then country by laying down a comprehensive network of bike lanes throughout the city. And this cute pint-sized street sweeper employed by the city makes sure they’re kept free of debris. Awwwwww.

GEEK OUT

The World's Biggest Aircraft Could Launch A New Age Of Airships

BRYAN LUFKINTODAY 3:00 PM

Airships lost much of their popularity after the fiery Hindenburg disaster in 1937. But one company’s looking to revive the technologywith the biggest aircraft on Earth.

ONLINE

You're Way Less Apathetic About Privacy Than You Realise

ANNALEE NEWITZTODAY 2:30 PM

I have heard people use every kind of wording — from offhand quip to nine-part rococo longread — to say “we’ve all given up our privacy and nobody cares”. It’s the worst kind of knee-jerk cynicism, especially because it’s probably untrue.