Top 10 Awesome Features of Google Now
Google Now, the mind-reading personal assistant for iOS and Android, has gotten a ton of updates lately, making it the perfect smartphone companion for…well, anything. Here’s a list of the coolest…
Arkiv for Arkiver: Links
Report: Facebook Working on Another Snapchat Competitor, Slingshot
Just weeks after finally putting its would-be Snapchat killer Poke to rest, Facebook may be looking to test the disappearing-message waters again with a Snapchat rival called Slingshot. The Financial…
Watch Michael Jackson return as a moonwalking hologram
A hologram of Michael Jackson appeared tonight at the Billboard Music Awards, almost five years after the singer’s death. Jackson’s hologram was materialized sprawled on a shimmering golden throne…
YouTube reportedly buying Twitch for $1 billion
Sources with Variety report that YouTube is nearing a deal to buy Twitch, the popular game streaming startup, for $1 billion. The deal is said to be an all-cash offer, and will close «imminently.»…
“Stains of deceitfulness”: Inside the US government’s war on tech support scammers
Sitting in front of her PC, the phone in her hand connected to a tech support company half a world away, Sheryl Novick was about to get scammed. The company she had reached, PCCare247, was based in…
Facebook goes out of its way to irritate and annoy its users, again
Another Facebook redesign, and yet another demonstration of how little respect Facebook has for its own users. This time around, Facebook has gone out of its way to make clear that the company…
Google Maps Adds Elevation Profiles To Bike Routes To Help You Avoid Those Steep Hills
Google Maps now features elevation profiles for bike routes. Google added biking directions to Google Maps and specialized maps that highlight bike routes a few years ago. If you are weak like…
Google buys Word Lens, the app that translates languages with your phone’s camera
Google has acquired Word Lens, the mobile app that can translate text in real time using your smartphone’s camera, along with its development team at Quest Visual. The impressive technology will now…
OTTO Is A Raspberry Pi-Based GIF Camera That Says We’ve Reached Peak Hipster
Most cameras take either photo, video or both – but the OTTO, a new Kickstarter project, is a piece of dedicated hardware that actually captures animated GIFs. It uses a hand-crank to do it,…
The Busy Person’s Guide to Content Curation: A 3-Step Process for Your Blog, Newsletter, or Timeline
Museums curate works of art. We digital marketers curate blog posts. Though our link shares may not be artistic contributions, the idea of curation is at least the same at museums and online:…
I took a ride in Google’s self-driving car
It’s a warm day in Mountain View, and just outside the Computer History Museum, Lexus SUVs are pulling up to the curb. The Lexus RX450h is a beautiful car, but today my eye travels immediately to its…
Tagalog in California, Cherokee in Arkansas
Illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker Last month, I wrote about the fun and the pitfalls of viral maps, a feature that included 88 super-simple maps of my own creation. As a follow-up, I’m…
The State of the Internet Is… Not Good?
«You want [writers] to flower into their floweriness,» said Choire Sicha, smiling slyly at the audience at last week’s New York Ideas. And for The Awl, the current events and culture blog that…
How to Catch a Hacker in the Act
Image: Flickr/Brian Klug “As today 25 March 2014, PayPal is launching a new survey program. All customers are welcome to participate this survey. The survey will take 5 minutes and for your…
The Man Who Literally Built ‘Star Wars’
PLUS: The Art of Star Wars: See Exclusive Storyboards from the Original Trilogy One of the most memorable elements of the original Star Wars in 1977 wasn’t the story, or characters, or even the…