Gadgets

It's hard not to be curious about the true identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, since he or she basically just stuck around on the internet long enough to introduce Bitcoin/get everyone all riled up and then disappeared. But Ted Nelson, the sociologist who invented the term "hypertext," thinks he knows who Nakamoto really is, and in the video below he calls out Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki.Read more...

That cat's out of the bag a day early, it seems. Yahoo's board has approved a $1.1 billion cash deal to purchase the blogging site Tumblr, according to The Wall Street Journal. We were expecting Yahoo to announce the acquisition during tomorrow's NYC media event -- CEO Marissa Mayer may instead use the last-minute gathering to detail the company's plans for integrating the popular platform. Developing... Filed under: Internet Comments Source: Wall Street Journal (Twitter)

A new Lumia phone from Nokia, this year's Google I/O and BlackBerry World -- yep, it was a pretty hectic week for us, but also a good seven days for tech news. Even if Google didn't have any truly new hardware for us, it's started up its own on-demand music service, gave us more details on Google Glass, redesigned its Maps and, well, it was a very long keynote. Join us after the break for a numerical breakdown of that and the rest of the week's big news. Filed under: Nokia, Google, Blackberry Comments

I don't have a desk, because there's no room in my apartment, but if I did it would probably be covered in so much crap that I wouldn't be able to use it anyway. And it makes me feel a little better to know that Nobel Prize-winning psychologist and economist Daniel Kahneman doesn't have a desk either.Read more...

In this day and age, you most likely have a bunch of old electronics lying around — namely computer parts — that you can’t justify throwing away because they still work fine, but…

45 mice, 15 newts, eight gerbils and a handful of snails returned to Earth today after a month in space in a Russian capsule. The Bion-M completed a parachute-assisted landing about 750 miles southeast of Moscow, and researchers immediately set up a mobile lab near the capsule to begin tests on the animals.Read more...

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. Eyes in the design world turned to New York City this week as New York Design Week officially launched. We hit the floors of International Contemporary Furniture Fair today to bring you the best new green designs from one of the largest contemporary design shows in the US -- including Blackbody's gorgeous OLED light trees and Tat Chao's ethereal LED lamps made from recycled wine glasses. We also checked out the locally focused BKLYN Designs show, where design duo Bower unveiled an awesome magnetic LED lamp, made from discarded pieces of scrap wood. Lighting designer Adam Frank unveiled three inspiring new designs at BKLYN Designs: the LED Lumen lamp, which casts tree-shaped shadows from a little candle holder; the incredible Reveal Projector, which projects an image of outdoor foliage and sky through a window on a blank wall (good for tiny NYC apartment dwellers); and the 3D Hologram-ish LUCID Mirror, which displays a 3D image of illuminated clouds over your head! Filed under: Misc, Science Comments

Keeping flowers or plants in your house is supposed to make things more beautiful, not chaotic. But this vase is only balanced when the flowers have water. If too much liquid evaporates, the counter-weight pulls one side of the vase down.Read more...

No one likes to live in the dark permanently, and there is nothing quite like the feeling of the dawn breaking right after a long night. Having a flashlight handy around is always a good idea, as you can never quite tell just when there might be a blackout. Since you are mulling over just which flashlight model to purchase, you might as well get one that aligns with your love for all things Doctor Who, where it will come in the form of the $29.99 Doctor Who Dalek Eye Stalk Flashlight. This is a flashlight that lives up to its namesake as it resembles a Dalek eyestalk, and it is a good thing that this is nowhere near as threatening compared to an actual Dalek. Each time you turn on the Doctor Who Dalek Eye Stalk Flashlight, it will play some Dalek sound effects for that added touch of realism to accompany your imagination. The Doctor Who Dalek Eye Stalk Flashlight will be powered by a couple of AA batteries, and among the phrases muttered are, “You are the Doctor. You must be exterminated.”, “You must be exterminated.”, and “Scan reveals nothing.” [ Doctor Who Dalek Eye Stalk Flashlight copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

There's a new kid on the Arduino block, and it's called the Arduino Robot. Launched yesterday at Maker Faire Bay Area, it's the company's first product that extends beyond single microcontroller boards. The Roomba-like design, which we first saw in November 2011, is the result of a collaboration with Complubot. It consists of two circular boards, each equipped with Atmel's ubiquitous ATmega32u4 and connected via ribbon cable. The bottom board is home to four AA batteries (NiMH), a pair of motors and wheels, a power connector and switch plus some infrared sensors. By default it's programmed to drive the motors and manage power. The top board faetures a color LCD, a microSD card slot, an EEPROM, a speaker, a compass, a knob plus some buttons and LEDs. It's programmed to control the display and handle I/O. Everything fits inside a space that's about 10cm high and 19cm in diameter. Pre-soldered connectors and prototyping areas on each board make it easier to customize the robot platform with additional sensors and electronics. It even comes with eleven step-by-step projects and a helpful GUI right out of the box. The Arduino Robot is now on sale at the Maker Faire for $275 and will be available online in July. Take a look at our gallery below and watch our video interview with Arduino founder Massimo Banzi after the break. Gallery: Arduino Robot at Maker Faire 2013 Filed under: Misc, Robots Comments Via: Make Source: Arduino