Sky Go and Now TV both coming to British PS4s this summer

Quietly mentioned inside Sky's financial report for this quarter, the broadcaster has revealed that two of its streaming services will arrive on the PlayStation 4 in just a few months. Details are scant (it just says what we've written above), but...



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This is how ancient Egyptians moved rocks for pyramids

Long before the days of trucks and bulldozers, ancient Egyptians were building pyramids out of heavy rocks they had to haul by hand. After getting slowed down in the desert terrain, they figured out a way to make transporting heavy stones a little...



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Cox wants to hop on the gigabit internet bandwagon this year

In case there was any doubt that gigabit internet access is spreading like wildfire in the US, Cox has revealed plans to introduce an ultra-fast service of its own. The cable provider tells Bloomberg that it hopes to have 1Gbps speeds available by...



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Engadget Daily: Facebook anonymous login, Hulu adds free mobile content, and more!

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all...



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T-Mobile wraps up deal that promises LTE in more places

After champing at the bit for months, T-Mobile has finally closed its deal to buy $2.4 billion in wireless spectrum from Verizon. The UnCarrier now has the all-clear to roll out LTE data on the 700MHz band, which will help it upgrade its 2G-only...



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Google Now for Android remembers where you parked

You probably have a trick or two up your sleeve to remember where you've parked amidst a sea of other cars. But if you're still prone to forgetting your parking spot, Google's refreshed Android Search app might be able to help you out. The update...



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McDonald's partners with Kobo to give UK kids free e-books

Forget racecars and Disney princesses. Kids in the UK are getting something a little more digital with their McDonald's Happy Meal: an e-book. The golden arches is partnering with Kobo to include a download code for one of Enid Blyton's Secret Seven...



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Sony's 185TB data tape puts your hard drive to shame

It's hard for magnetic data tapes to stand out from the crowd in an era when it's easy to load up on legions of hard drives. However, Sony might have managed that rare feat with nano-sized tape tech that stores much more than off-the-shelf hardware....



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The US government is using social media to battle terrorist regimes

The United States government puts hundred of billions toward military spending to fighting terrorism each year, but it's also putting social media to work combating Al-Qaeda and other extremists. In a report released today, the US State Department...



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LeapFrog's latest gadget for kids is a Tamagotchi-Fitbit mashup

Look, we get it: wearable tech is big business these days. We also get that childhood obesity is a serious problem. That's why it's literally no surprise that the folks at Leapfrog are jumping on the nascent child wearables bandwagon with the...



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Bloomberg: Sprint planning a bid for T-Mobile this summer

Those longstanding rumors of Sprint hoping to buy T-Mobile USA may soon come to fruition: Bloomberg sources claim that Sprint has met with six lending banks in preparation for a takeover bid. There aren't any financing deals in place just yet,...



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Nanowires three atoms wide could lead to paper-thin gadgets

What's that odd shape, you ask? That's the world's thinnest nanowire -- and it could be the key to a future wave of flexible devices. In blasting single-layered, semiconducting materials with an electron beam, Vanderbilt University student Junhao Lin...



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Windows will let you search your computer using everyday language

If you've ever searched a computer's apps or settings, you know how frustrating it can be to guess the keywords you'll need to get a result -- why can't you just say what you want and let the PC figure it out? Microsoft must have asked itself that...



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Windows Phone 8.1's new apps let you make reading lists and bite-sized movies

The perks for Windows Phone 8.1's early users just keep on coming. Microsoft has posted versions of two desktop Windows 8.1 apps, Movie Moments and Reading List, that are built solely for its new mobile OS. Reading List is arguably the bigger of the...



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Photographer uses drone to create military-style landscapes of America

Tomas van Houtryve is a photographer with an eye for reframing perspectives -- particularly those we're more used to seeing in modern conflict. The image above is taken from a 16-page photo essay featured in April's Harper's Magazine (incidentally,...



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Mercedes' first electric vehicle for the US has a Tesla heart and plenty of muscle

I shouldn't be imagining the sound of crickets when test-driving a brand new Mercedes, but that's exactly what happened to me this week with the company's B-Class Electric. In this case, however, it's actually a good thing: the new US-bound EV, which...



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This $14,000 vacuum-powered brewer aims to make the perfect cup of tea

Here at Engadget HQ, most of us are used to the concept of heating a kettle or catching water from the office cooler in order to make a cup of tea. For true leaf aficionados, a more elaborate setup may be required, and that's where the Bkor Craft...



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Lightroom mobile review: Adobe brings (most of) its digital darkroom to the iPad

Talk about timing. Almost as soon as I convinced myself I could use an iPad Air in my life, Microsoft and Adobe made my day with mobile versions of two of my most-used PC/Mac programs -- Office and Lightroom. Not long after Microsoft revealed an iPad...



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Engadget HD Podcast 396 - 4.30.14

Net neutrality is still on the table for discussion this week and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler even wants to hear your opinion on the situation. Ben and Richard share their two cents on the issue and continue to cover all the cozying up between companies...



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Minecraft creator's latest game trades blocks for existential angst

While the game's intro tells us, "There is nothing," there is a lot more to the little word game beneath the surface. Drowning in Problems is in fact Minecraft creator Markus Persson's entry in Ludum Dare. The contest is an accelerated...



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Paym platform for sending and receiving money by mobile number goes live

Paym, a new mobile payment platform that lets you send money to a mate for your share of Friday's curry with only their phone number to hand, is now live in the UK. To use Paym, you'll first need to associate your mobile number with your UK bank...



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Rest in peace Ubuntu for Android, we hardly new ye

We can't say that the future of Ubuntu for Android ever looked particularly bright, but we were enamored with the concept. You'd walk around by day with a standard issue Android phone in your pocket, but when you docked it to a keyboard, mouse and...



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Facebook will let you log in anonymously

Just in case you've always been skittish about offering up your Facebook credentials when logging in to an unknown app, the company has just announced at its f8 developer's conference that it'll finally let you login to them anonymously. As it...



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FCC chairman to cable companies: forcing some net traffic into a slow lane will not be permitted

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's PR push to explain the new meaning of net neutrality that's under consideration continued today at The Cable Show 2014. Speaking directly to executives of the cable broadband industry, Wheeler claimed anyone opposing net...



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Motorola's first post-Google phone is coming on May 13th

Motorola will soon fall into Lenovo's clutches, but it's still got some shiny new hardware to show off in the meantime. According to an invite that just hit our inboxes, the company's planning to show off a brand new smartphone in London on May 13th....



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Google releasing standalone mobile apps for editing word docs, spreadsheets and presentations

Google's long had a Drive app for both Android and iOS, but who knows, maybe you just can't handle that many features in one program. If for some reason you're the kind of person who only wants to edit word documents and never see another spreadsheet...



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Yahoo Screen gives you yet another way to watch comedy clips on Android

Talk about impeccable timing: the same day Hulu announces it'll let users watch TV shows for free on their phones, Yahoo brings its video app to Android. That application, called Screen, is already available for iOS, and unlike Hulu, it's focused...



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You can now stream WWE Network wrestling on your Xbox One

We already knew WWE was bringing live-streaming of its wrestling matches to the Xbox One (and pretty much every other device you might have in your living room). For whatever reason, though, streaming wasn't actually available on the Xbox One back in...



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Nintendo bundling Wii U with two games and an extra controller for $330 on May 30th

You don't have a Wii U yet, right? You're forgiven, and far from unique (in that respect, anyway -- you're a unique snowflake otherwise). Should the eighth entry in the Mario Kart series pique your interest, Nintendo's got a pretty fantastic bundle...



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Hulu will bring free TV shows to your phone, and it's trying to reach your cable box

One advantage Hulu has always had over other streaming services is that it has newer TV shows, and you can watch them for free. What's frustrated viewers however, is that it only applies if you're watching on a computer, since phones and TV apps have...



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Lix reveals a portable, pro-grade 3D printing pen

There's little doubt that 3Doodler's 3D printing pen is fun, but it's not strictly a precision tool; it's big, and mid-air drawing can get messy. Lix believes that pros need something more accurate, so it's crowdfunding a 3D pen of its own. The...



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Dreamworks CEO believes films will be ready to buy 3 weeks after hitting cinemas

Jeffrey Katzenberg, the man who revived Disney's animation studios before co-founding Dreamworks, knows a thing or two about Hollywood revolutions. He believes that, if cinema is going to survive against its rival mediums, then the way films are sold...



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Concept smartwatch uses the whole screen as a joystick (video)

It ain't easy using a smartwatch, especially if you have gigantic fingers. So, a team from Carnegie Mellon University developed a concept smartwatch that turns the whole screen into one relatively big input mechanism. By that, we mean you can pan,...



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Sony's Evolution UI tries to make learning Android fun

Ever get "ghost hands," where you're always trying to take the smartphone away from a novice to show them how it's done? Well, Sony is working on something a little more polite. The company has announced Evolution UI, an intentionally hobbled Android...



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Hackers set to release Bitcoin-laundering app 'Dark Wallet'

Ever since sites like Silk Road showed the dark side of anonymous Bitcoin transactions, governments have been trying to regulate the crypto-currency. But a group of coders -- headed by 3D-printed gun creator Cody Wilson (above) -- want to keep that...



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Google no longer mining student Gmail accounts for targeted ads

Google makes no bones about scanning our emails for advertising purposes, but the company has suddenly become a bit more timid when it comes prying into students' messages. According to the WSJ, Google has stopped scanning the 30 million accounts...



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GTA 5 will survive GameSpy's server shutdown, but Rockstar's older games aren't as lucky

Since GameSpy announced that it was shuttering its online mulitplayer services come May 31st, a few companies have adressed how their respective legacy games would keep functioning in the future. Rockstar Games has recently come out with its...



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Secret's anonymous confession box comes to the UK, Ireland, Australia and NZ

Ever wanted to tell the world that you stuck your genitals into a bowl of jam (or vegemite) without compromising your reputation? Secret, the app that lets you anonymously bare your soul to the world has landed in the UK, the Republic of Ireland,...



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LG's probably going to announce the G3 and G Watch on May 27th

LG's new flagship phone is coming: the company told us to expect the G3 later this quarter, with a screen resolution going beyond the (increasingly standard) 1080p spec. New smartphone necessitates a glitzy press reveal, right? This time round, LG is...



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Essay generator can spew out BS, still get you an 'A'

While automated essay-grading machines can tackle 16,000 essays in 20 seconds, are they any good compared to a human? Online course administrators in the machine camp think so, but retired MIT prof Les Perelman has shown that such bots aren't about...



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Interactive chandelier turns data streams into a light show

Most hotels have fancy chandeliers hanging in their lobbies, but a new one in Palo Alto has something a lot more apt for its location: a "participatory" light fixture. This high-tech chandelier, which has a hundred bulbs that can dim and move...



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BioShock gets an HD remake, sort of

When it launched almost seven years ago, BioShock was quite the looker thanks to its stylized aesthetic and the custom version of Unreal Engine 2 under its hood. The game has held up pretty well in terms of visuals (all that water!), but it's...



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Lunecase harvests excess iPhone energy to light up LED notifications

iPhone cases are a dime a dozen, but the creators of Lunecase claim their masterpiece can do something special. While it looks just like any other case on the surface, Lunecase can apparently harness the electromagnetic energy the iPhone emits and...



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MIT students raise cash to give $100 in Bitcoins to every undergrad

Starting this fall, every MIT undergrad will have at least $100 worth of Bitcoins to their name, thanks to a couple of students who've raised half a million to do so. But, they're not just doing it so their schoolmates can eat something other than...



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Gibson has crammed a digital recorder inside a guitar cable

When I was an aspiring musician a few years back, I'd always forget new guitar licks that would arise from just messing around at rehearsals. Well, Gibson is looking to remedy that, and has partnered up with Tascam to do so. The result is the Memory...



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​New York City is cleaning its ancient Egyptian monument with lasers

A 69-foot, 3,500-year old granite obelisk has stood in New York City's Central Park for 130 years, and it's never, ever, been cleaned. The ancient pillar is deceptively fragile, and conservationists have been hesitant simply to hose it down. The...



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Twitter seeks to soar despite slowing adoption

When Twitter released its first earnings report earlier this year, one of the more distressing trends was that the company's user growth is slowing, and has been for the better part of a year. That's certainly not the kind of results you'd want from...



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The PS4's first big update is almost here, check out what's inside

Curious to know everything that's in the PlayStation 4's 1.70 update launching on Wednesday? You won't have to download it yourself to find out -- Sony has spilled the beans ahead of time. Some of these updates we've heard about before, such as the...



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​Judges have more discretion to punish patent trolls, but they probably won't

The US Supreme Court just gave judges a little more leverage to punish patent trolls: it defined the word "exceptional." A provision of federal patent law hinged on the definition of the word, stating that the court could charge a lawsuit's losing...



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GoPro's Android app now connects to your action cam automatically

GoPro's smartphone apps have been a useful addition to its popular action cams for quite some time, and now the Android version sees a nice update. First, and most importantly, the app now automatically connects to your camera's WiFi signal on...



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