Crave

Caption this: Google's giant I/O robot hand

It's Google I/O 2013 time, and that means revamped Maps, subscription music, Glass apps, and giant robotic arms!

At a Google I/O fete Wednesday night in San Francisco, partygoers took in sights including a shirtless Billy Idol, an electronic dance floor, and multiple robots roaming the joint.

One of the most rockin' robots had to be this giant hydraulic hand that picked up and crushed 55-gallon drums.… Read more

Motorcycle with airplane engine makes a roaring racket

When motorcycle enthusiasts say "loud pipes save lives," I don't think are imagining the Red Baron, an insane two-wheel machine powered by an actual aircraft engine. It's a beast. A monster. A crazed marriage of sky and land. It's also incredibly loud.

German tinkerer Frank Ohle spent 18 months bringing the Red Baron from concept to reality. It's not like you can just pull the engine out of a regular bike and pop in an aircraft engine. Just about every part of the motorcycle had to be customized to make room for the Rotec Radial R3600, a 150-horsepower, nine-cylinder engine.… Read more

Twitter unveils Google Glass app

Twitter launched its official app for Google Glass on Thursday.

The app lets Google Glass users tweet photos and text, as well as reply to, retweet, or favorite tweets and notifications. When you share a photo using the app, it will automatically put the words, "Just shared a photo #throughglas," in the tweet. If you're one of the elite few who own a pair of Google Glass frames, turn on the Twitter option here.

There was already a third-party app that let users tweet from the wearable tech, but it could only share photos. Twitter was caught … Read more

Facebook launches app for Google Glass

Facebook on Thursday launched a version of its app for Google Glass, becoming the latest technology company to release software for the computing eyewear.

The app allows users to upload photos from Google Glass directly to their Facebook timelines. They also can add optional photo descriptions, just by saying the information out loud. Right now, users can't tag people in photos from Glass, but they can tag the pictures after sharing them by going on a computer or mobile device. … Read more

Dream Chaser space plane to begin NASA flight tests

In another sign of ever-increasing commercial spaceflight activity, Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser space plane has arrived at NASA for testing.

Wrapped in plastic, the craft arrived at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., where it will eventually undergo its first autonomous free flight Approach and Landing Test (ALT).

Part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program along with SpaceX and Boeing, the Dream Chaser is designed to launch vertically on top of an Atlas 5 rocket, dock with the International Space Station, and then return to Earth like a glider, landing on a runway. … Read more

Report: EA to scrap Online Passes for games

Electronic Arts will be dropping Online Passes from all of its future games, citing lackluster player support, according to a report by Venture Beat.

EA Senior Director of Corporate Communications John Reseburg revealed the news. "Yes, we're discontinuing Online Pass," he said. "None of our new EA titles will include that feature."

EA is not the only game publisher that elects to bundle an Online Pass with new copies of its games. The one-time codes are designed to restrict access to key features, such as online multiplayer. Players who buy a second-hand version of the game are given the option to purchase an Online Pass for a fee, prior to being able to play with others. … Read more

3D scanning shows a butterfly's metamorphosis

Thanks to the magic of dissection, we have a pretty good idea of the changes that occur when a caterpillar spins its chrysalis and enters its metamorphosis -- the developmental stage that sees it move from the juvenile larval stage to the gorgeous adult life of a butterfly.

However, as you might have already guessed, dissection destroys the specimen, meaning that researchers are unable to follow the full development of a creature. We do know that the caterpillar will use enzymes to break down some of its proteins to reform; Scientific American called this a cocoon full of "caterpillar soup." However, scientists have performed research revealing that while some breakdown occurs, the idea of caterpillar soup is mostly wrong (but still gross).

Using micro-computed tomography, or micro-CT scanning, which uses X-ray imaging to re-create 3D cross-sections of the scanned object, Tristan Rowe and Russell Garwood from the U.K's University of Manchester and Thomas Simonsen from London's Natural History Museum have discovered exactly what happens to a painted lady butterfly inside the chrysalis. … Read more

Annoyed theatergoer ejected after grabbing cell phone and tossing it

I think of it less as a cell phone than as a self-phone.

So in a land so fond of the individual's primacy over the group, it's inevitable that having a gadget that contains the whole of your life is more mesmerizing than, well, anyone else or anything else.

The proof of this in public places is constant. And yet some choose to fight back.

In the very latest incident of someone using a cell phone when they should have been watching a cultural performance, Kevin Williamson decided he'd do something about it.… Read more

NASA's Kepler telescope crippled by technical failures

The Kepler space observatory has been a source of great wonder since it first launched in 2009. It has turned its eyes out into the great vastness of space and seen new planetary systems and potentially life-supporting planets. The telescope's original 3.5-year mission was extended into 2016, but that may now come to a halt as serious technical issues take a toll.

Kepler is able to look out in certain directions thanks to four reaction wheels that are used to point the spacecraft. As of Wednesday, two out of four reaction wheels have failed.… Read more