The First 3D-Printed Gun Is Already in a Museum

Not just one, but two of the guns were purchased by London's V&A Museum for an unknown price. It could have just printed out its own and called it a day, but instead it opted to purchase a pair actually fired by Texan law student Cody Wilson. You know, the real deal.


The V&A described the purchase this way in a statement about the gun:

The invention of this so called ‘wiki weapon’ sparked intense debate and upended discussions about the benefits of new manufacturing technologies and the unregulated sharing of designs online. The V&A has acquired two Liberator prototypes, one disassembled gun and a number of archive items to enhance its collection of 3D printed objects and represent a turning point in debates around digital manufacturing.

True enough. But it also goes to show that a 3D-printed replication isn't quite as good as the real thing. But you can't 3D-print history. Yet. More here.

The Extra Glow Of Charcoal Candles Is Really Mesmerizing

Some people are all about candles. Dinner, baths, soy-based, scented. It's a whole thing. But candles can seem like more trouble than they're worth. These charcoal candlesticks from Japanese designer Eisuke Tachikawa have gravitas, though. There's something calming about them.

Tachikawa runs the design firm Nosigner and is currently showing home decor pieces in the French trade show Maison et Objet. No word on pricing or availability yet. The candles blend wax and charcoal to get the right look and warm glowing burn. Tachikawa likes to comment on memory in his pieces, and the candles reference materials used in heating and lighting rooms. And before they're burned the candles look even more like chunks of charcoal. They're pretty great looking. More here.

Intel Has Made a Processor That's Powered By Wine

The Intel Developer Forum is coming to an end, meaning its execs get to go wild and show some of the oddball concepts under way at the tech giant. These include a processor so efficient it can pull all the energy it needs to run from a glass of red wine.

Intel’s Dr Genevieve Bell plonked two electrodes into a glass of wine, that then reacted with the acetic acid in the booze to create a tiny current enough to power an incredibly low power chipset. Intel believes these ultra low power chips are the future, especially when it comes to connecting people in less developed countries. There are billions of people out there who are yet to be effectively monetised through mobile advertisements, after all.

Another clever little Intel innovation involved a sensitive accelerometer configured to recognise the walking style of the person holding it. If your phone knows it’s being held by you, it’ll unlock things quicker as it knows it’s you and there’s a reason you want to hurriedly page through the photo gallery and SMS history. More here.

You Can Pre-Order the iPhone 5C Right Now

iPhone 5C pre-orders just went live and if you want to brighten up your life with some colorful plastic and if you want to avoid waiting in a silly line, you can head over to Apple.com to get your new iPhone.

The carriers are all taking pre-orders too (along with others), so hopefully you have an easy time landing the exact color you want.

Usually in times like this the Apple website gets hammered to oblivion and spurts out nothing. If history has taught us a few tricks in handling these iPhone pre-orders, it'd be to maybe give the Apple Store App a try if Apple.com fails you. More here.

The Audio Cassette Is 50 Years Old Today

The humble cassette tape, beloved of 80s music lovers, may now be defunct—but it's hardly surprising given that the once-revolutionary medium turns 50 today.

The natural descendant of the 8-track—which used similar magnetic tape but housed it in a much bigger, bulkier frame—the audio cassette was the brainchild of engineers at Philips. It's precise birthday is open to some debate, but Philips is insistent that the format was officially launched at its Amsterdam HQ on September 13th, 1963. Containing a length of audio tape 3.15 millimeters wide that ran at 1-7/8 inches per second, it was originally designed to replace reel-to-reel tape for dictation—but became far more popular than that.

While the tape is now an object that would confuse teenagers worldwide—superseded initially by CDs and all manner of new technologies since—for many of us it's both an iconic object and a source of misty-eyed nostalgia. Whether it be compiling a mix tape with expert precision, queueing at the music store to pick up that copy of Nevermind, or cruising a highway while popping one into your car's dash, there's surely no shortage of fond memories to recall.

Remember how your cassette player used to chew tapes up with seemingly now warning? How they slowly deteriorated in quality when you listened to them over and over? The way you had to time songs in order to make them fit on your mix tape? Or that horrible noise they used to make on rewinding? Ah, those were the days. Long live the cassette tape. More here.

It's Official: Voyager 1 Has Left the Solar System

After months of back and forth, scientists now agree that NASA's Voyager 1 has become the first manmade object to leave the solar system. And it only took 36 years to make the 12 billion mile-long journey.

It's obviously a major milestone for space exploration which is probably why scientists have been arguing for months over whether or not Voyager 1 had crossed the threshold into interstellar space. In the end, it all came down to the plasma surrounding the spacecraft. After a burst of solar wind and magnetic fields caused the plasma around the spacecraft to oscillate in April, researchers realized plasma was also 40 times denser at that point than it was in the heliosphere. This was a sign that the Voyager 1 had entered interstellar space, and the team ultimately determined that the spacecraft crossed the line in August 12 of last year. (Listen to the sound of interstellar space below.)

"Voyager has boldly gone where no probe has gone before, marking one of the most significant technological achievements in the annals of the history of science, and adding a new chapter in human scientific dreams and endeavors," said NASA’s associate administrator for science John Grunsfeld. "Perhaps some future deep space explorers will catch up with Voyager, our first interstellar envoy, and reflect on how this intrepid spacecraft helped enable their journey."

In the meantime, all eyes are on Voyager 2, which is nipping at its sibling's heels, speeding fast into interstellar space. (That is, if 2 billion miles can be considered nipping at its heels.) Either way, Voyager is now on its way to another star. At it's current speed of 100,000 miles per hour, it'll only take her 40,000 years. More here.

iOS 6.1.4 Is Finally Jailbroken

The Evasion jailbreak for iPhones running iOS 6.x was patched up real well by Apple in iOS 6.1.3—but now, a dev has managed to finally crack version 6.1.4 on the iPhone 5.

iOS 6.1.4 rolled out in May for iPhone 5 users, offering bug fixes and stymying jailbreaks. But developer Winocm now has iOS 6.1.4 running Cydia on an iPhone 5. Details are prettythin on the ground, but Winocm has at least uploaded some of the code required to make the jailbreak work for iOS 6.1.4, and forums seem to suggest that some people have successfully managed to use it.

Sadly, though, it's quite an involved process: you'll need to wrangle with your own kernel exploits, as well as using Wincom's code, to jailbreak your iPhone 5 with iOS 6.1.4. One for the more technically minded, then. More here.

A Lightning Cable's Always Close at Hand With This iPhone 5 Case

There's rarely a time when your smartphone couldn't use a bit of a charge. And to save you from always having to carry a cable in your back pocket, South Korea's LAB.C has cooked up an iPhone 5 case with a short, flexible Lightning adapter on the back.

It assumes you'll always have access to a computer or some kind of powered USB port, and that you don't expect your iPhone to wander far from said port with its two-inch cable. But these are small compromises to make—including an estimated price of around $20 to $30—when your phone's battery is on death's door. More here.

The iPhone 5S Home Button Ring 2013

While it seems pretty certain that the next iPhone will come with a fingerprint scanner, what it will look like remains an open question. A "silver ring" around the home button (see below) is the prevailing theory.

Sure, these are just renders. But they're an excellent hint at what the Eye of Sauron Siri will look like in practice. And it's likely to be just about the only difference you'll notice between the iPhone 5S and the one that came before it. More here.

R2-D2 spotted in Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Wars droid R2-D2 made a cameo in the 2009 Star Trek movie, which left some fans wondering if the little guy made it into Star Trek Into Darkness. Now that the film is out on home media, R2-D2 has been spotted. Hi there!

Reader Rafael Oca passed along this screen shot, from somewhere around the one hour, 17-minute mark. After the Vengeance fires on the Enterprise while the ships are in warp, poor R2 gets sucked out of the ship with other members of the crew. I'm sure this plucky fellow will find a way back into the next film, though. More here.

New Connectors Let Solar Cells Withstand the Power of 70,000 Suns

The power of 1,000 suns? Pfft. That ain't nuthin'. A recent breakthrough in solar panel connections has allowed scientists to create arrays of solar cells that can stand strong under the blazing glare of 70,000 suns. Not that they'd ever have to, but still.

Stacked solar cells—which are exactly what they sound like—are some of the most efficient solar-sucking power generators on the market today. In general, they can turn just less than half of the sunlight they absorb into pure power. But stacked cell is only as strong as its weakest part; you have to connect the stacked cells in such a way that the energy doesn't get wasted in the connections. That gets especially hard under a lot of light.

Scientists at North Carolina State University recently discovered that a thin film of gallium arsenide in the solar cell junctions can stop virtually all voltage loss, and let the cells work efficiently under the power of 70,000 suns. Yeah, we only have one sun, but thanks to lenses we can beef that up to at least a few thousand in concentrated power.

Dr. Salah Bedair, a senior author of the study, described the accomplishment to PhysOrgthis way:[It] is more than sufficient for practical purposes, since concentrating lenses are unlikely to create more than 4,000 or 5,000 suns worth of energy. ...This should reduce overall costs for the energy industry because, rather than creating large, expensive solar cells, you can use much smaller cells that produce just as much electricity by absorbing intensified solar energy from concentrating lenses. More here.

The Next Android Version Is Called Kit Kat.

Well, that's different. The next major iteration of Android will be called Kit Kat, it seems. We know this because Android boss Sundar Pichai just tweeted a photo of a gigantic Android robot made of Kit Kats.

Apparently that's going to come along with a promo campaign in Kit Kats to win a free Nexus 7 or Google Play credit, which is a strange and probably unnecessary bit of advertising, but fine. Your operating system is a supermarket aisle ad now is all.

For the uninitiated, major releases of Android get dessert names, and they've been progressing in alphabetical order. So Ice Cream Sandwich was succeeded by Jelly Bean, and now Kit Kat. Our dumb but prescient guess in 2010 was Krispy Kreme.

Beyond the goofy name, this does have actual bearing on Android. The new name implies a major refresh to the operating system. Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) was released back in 2011 with a major redesign, and since then we've had three versions of Jelly Bean (now on 4.3). Kit Kat will be version 4.4, so we probably won't need to wait too long for it, but the advancement to a new name should mean we get some substantial updates. Or it could be the groundskeeper at Google got bored. Anyone's guess, really.

Do You Ever Listen to the Radio Anymore?

It wasn't that long ago that the radio was kind of a big deal. Even a young'un like me is old enough to remember inexpertly dodging commercials for local car dealerships while recording embarrassing mix-tapes. But the times have changed. A lot. Do you ever listen to the radio anymore? Is there any reason to, at all? More here.

This Fridge's Vacuum Sealed Drawer Puts Fresh Food Into Cryostasis

With its new Freshness Center refrigerator, Siemens wants you to get rid of that freezer bag sealing contraption on your counter. In addition to the standard fridge and freezer compartments, the KG38QAL30 has a third drawer with a section that vacuum seals itself, preserving fresh foods like vegetables and meats up to five times longer.

With the drawer closed, a simple button push sucks the oxygen out, reducing the air pressure by 300 millibars. So we're not talking the vacuum of space here, or enough to implode the fridge, but more than enough to discourage bacteria and other parasite growth. The Freshness Center is destined for a release in the Netherlands and Germany first, and if consumers are cool with the $2,000 price tag, Siemens might roll it out in other parts of the world later on. More here.

Why Your Eyeballs Keep Falling for Optical Illusions

Optical illusions are fun because you literally can't believe your eyes. But isn't it a little troubling that your eyes can get fooled like that? Why don't they show you the visual truth? How can you ever trust them if they don't?

Well that's not their job. You can't handle the truth. As ASAP Science explains, your peepers have painstakingly evolved to show you what you need to know in a way you can understand it. If you saw everything, you'd drown in the noise. Optical illusions are just a window into exactly how your eyes and brain team up to try and show you the world in context, in a way that makes immediate sense.

Wait, What? No! Samsung’s Smartwatch Has a Leather Case, Too?!

There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about the latest round of touchscreen timepieces like the Galaxy Gear, not the least of which being the fact that you'll apparently even be able to get a faux-leather stitched case for it. Guh.

So that's how Samsung plans to finally endear these devices to us? By embracing a side effect of the iPhone's popularity? That's obviously why Apple was able to make such a dent in the cellphone market; thousands and thousands of cheap-looking case options. At least the pleather industry has something to look forward to. More here.

Scientists Found the World's Largest Volcano on Ocean Floor Near Japan

The biggest volcano ever found on Earth—one of the biggest we know of in the solar system—has been hidden for ages. But now scientists have found it, just chillin' beneath the sea. It's a monster.

Tamu Massif sits on the floor of the Pacific off the east coast of Japan and occupies 119,000 square miles at its base, just slightly smaller than the entire state of New Mexico. And even though it doesn't come close to the breaching the ocean's surface, its peak is 2.2 miles high.

While Tamu Massif is a bit more squat than the the 12 mile-high Martian mammoth Olympus Mons—the largest known volcano in our solar system—its overall volume is only 25 percent less.

It's hard for something that gargantuan to go unnoticed, and scientists had an idea that something was down there. But they assumed it was a giant system of multiple volcanoes until a research team at Texas A&M University discovered that it's actually just one and had their findings published in Nature Geoscience. Oh and the name Tamu? That's no mythic Kaiju; it's just short for Texas A&M University.

Fortunately, Tamu Massif is probably long dead. The eruptions that helped it grow to its massive size happened 114 million years ago, and things have been quiet ever since. Hopefully things stay that way.

There could be other sleeping giants lurking out there too; the ocean is a big place. But until we find some other ancient colossus lurking in the depths, Tamu Massif is a pretty impressive reigning king. More here.

Sony Xperia Z1: A Waterproof Badass with a Killer Camera

We heard rumors about a mysterious "Xperia i1" a while back, but now it showed up for real. Sony's new Xperia z1 is the biggest Xperia yet at 5 inches, but more importantly, it's got a killer 20.7 MP camera on it too.

The Z1 packs its blazing 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 brain, 1080p display (exactresolution unknown), 3,000mAh battery, and 20.7 megapixel camera all into a slim waterproof (up to 5 feet!) body, made out of one piece of aluminum. The Xperia Z1 will launch with Android 4.2.2, complete with Sony's typical UI slathered on top.

The camera boasts a 1/2.3-inch sensor, roughly on par with the one in the Galaxy S4 Zoom. It's no Nokia 1020, but then that's a high bar to jump. Still, it's one of the beefiest cameras we've even seen on an Android phone. And it's got some fun features too, including a burst option which lets you fire off 30 shots with a single press of a button. More here.

How to Make a Watermelon Smoothie Using Just a Drill and a Coat Hanger

Now that it's September, you probably want to soak up as much of the summer as possible. And nothing says summer like watermelon. YouTube's favorite hacker Mark Rober just posted a video showing you how to make a watermelon smoothie in under two minutes. Get it while you can.

Just one question: What happens with the seeds?

The New iPhone(s) Are Officially Coming Sept. 10th

As is often the case, Apple has infused its invite with a not so subtle clue about what we can expect. The colorful dots are likely the palette that the iPhone 5C will come in, and they should "brighten everyone's day" because they are, er, colorful. Or it's a reference to the glittering gold champagne iPhone 5S that's coming down the pike. Or there's some sort of iFlashlight that's going to revolutionize the... flashlight... industry?

The event will be held at Apple's Cupertino headquarters instead of its usual Yerba Buena Center fête; that's not entirely out of the blue, though, as Apple last played a home game for the similarly iterative iPhone 4S. You can expect preorders to come soon after, with shipments arriving on Sept 20th.

Otherwise, the details of what we're expecting haven't changed much since AllThingsD first reported that Sept 10th would be the day of the big reveal. The only thing that's certain? There won't be many surprises. More here.