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Email widget takes on viral rumors, fact checks for you

Anthony Verrecchio — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:04:00 -0400

If you're one of those people who actually believes that Facebook is going to start charging users tomorrow, you're probably going to want to skip this post. LazyTruth is working on a Gmail widget -- something that could've easily been borne out of Google Labs -- that will automatically vet your messages and determine if they're full of viral misinformation. When it detects specific unique phrases that are consistent with known fallacies, it immediately circles back to Snopes.com and Factcheck.org (a pair of myth busting portals, if you couldn't guess) to provide original source links and even rebuttals. It seems like it could be a great way to make us all even ~~lazier~~ more efficient when it comes to debunking some of the wilder rumors that tend to affect our most gullible friends. Of course, given that there's no set release date just yet, perhaps the source link could use a scrubbing itself. We kid... we think.

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Nokia Plan B was just a hoax all along

Nilay Patel — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:11:00 -0500

There's been a lot of chatter about a "Nokia Plan B" over the past 48 hours -- the site was put up by "nine young investors" who outlined an audacious plan to rally shareholders, get themselves elected onto Nokia's board, and radically change the company's direction by firing Stephen Elop and committing massive resources to MeeGo. Needless to say, it resonated with many of Nokia's now disenfranchised fans and employees, and it made some serious waves -- enough so that Plan B was picked up by several major news outlets, including this morning's print edition of the Wall Street Journal.

There's just one problem, though: the "nine young investors" don't really exist -- according to the last tweet on the @NokiaPlanB Twitter account, it was all a hoax perpetuated by "one very bored engineer who really likes his iPhone." Ouch. That explains why the now-defunct site abruptly gave up the cause this morning after just 36 hours of existence, and it definitely explains why we never got any response to our emails trying to get further information. We'll award points for bravado and for doing a better job of rallying the troops than Nokia itself, we suppose, but we're sure quite a few Nokia fans are going to be crushed at this news. On the bright side, Plan B did inspire the excellent NokiaPlanS.com, which is sure to bring a smile to even the loneliest hearts in Espoo.

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April Fools' Day roundup: 'let me Topeka that for you' edition

Vlad Savov — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 06:44:00 -0400

Alright, good netizens of Engadget, it's time for us to bring you the sort of hard-hitting news content you can expect only on the first day of April. First on our slate we have the earthshaking news that Google is to officially rename itself Topeka, with the company's official blog urging all future communications to be addressed to Topeka Inc. This is to honor the Kansas town that renamed itself Google in an effort to curry favor with Goog... excuse us, Topeka's 1Gbit broadband program. We also have exclusive and absolutely official confirmation of the forthcoming Android 2.5 update, an inflatable laptop from Toshiba, YouTube's textual deviance, and the hands-down best iPad dock you will ever see. You'll have to come after the break for all those -- they're too hot to handle out in the open. We'll be updating this post as the day goes along, so keep it locked.

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Video: USB powered chainsaw makes short work of a fake plastic tree

Joseph L. Flatley — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:24:00 -0400

As far as USB gadgets go, this is one of the more unique ones, that's for sure. And while we usually don't have much opportunity to play with chainsaws 'round these parts (not in an official capacity, at least), the recently launched usbchainsaw.com has us wondering: perhaps we could stand to be a little more bloodthirsty in our Engadget labs torture testing -- if not for reasons of journalistic excellence, then at least for our own gratification. Of course, the i.Saw product website has all the hallmarks of a hoax -- but at least the video has provided some inspiration for the next time we're ready to wig out during a staff meeting. Check it out yourself after the break.

Filed under: Peripherals

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Skullphone decides to speak, probably shouldn't have

Donald Melanson — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:41:00 -0400

Now that Skullphone's act of purported electronic billboard hackery has been proven to be nothing more than a simple act of forking over some cash, the graffiti artist has apparently decided to try to explain things somewhat, albeit without going so far as to completely fess up. What's more, as evidenced by the tidbits of the conversion provided by PAPERMAG, Skullphone also didn't go so far as to make a lot of sense. On the central issue of hacking, Skullphone said that, "once again, it's a matter of semantics. What does it mean to hack the system. Is getting people to think for themselves hacking?" As if that wasn't enough profundity, Skullphone also said that "the art of hacking I know nothing about. What is hacking? What is art?," before going just a tad over the top by saying that "people thought Bob Dylan sold out when he went electric. I guess people weren't ready for it." If that's got you intrigued, you can hit up the link below for some more bits of wisdom.

[Thanks, David]

Filed under: Misc

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Skullphone's Clear Channel billboards not hax0r3d, actually pa1d for

Joshua Topolsky — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:54:00 -0400

That Skullphone billboard hack we saw yesterday had everyone at Engadget HQ pretty impressed with the corporate-pranking hijinks. Too bad it turns out that Skullphone is actually a phony (and total buster, we might add) who had to pay The Man (aka Clear Channel) cold hard cash to "glitch up" the digital billboards. According to Curbed LA (and our reliable tipsters / commenters), Skullphone paid the massive media conglomerate for one-day Los Angeles-wide ads -- there was no hacking involved at all. From now on, he should just leave the signage-goofing to the pros, or at least make it clear there's some money changing hands. Fool us once, shame on you... and... we won't get fooled again.

[Thanks, Dakota]

Filed under: Misc

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Yet another perpetual motion machine fails to prove anything

Darren Murph — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:57:00 -0500

We want to believe, we really do, but these failed attempts and poorly-lit basement videos aren't exactly confidence inducing. Nevertheless, Thane Heins' Perepiteia generator has reportedly made its way down to a number of universities and labs across America, and while some onlookers did admit that "it works," none have been able to support any underlying theories. No need to keep dashing your dreams -- click on through for one more mind-numbing video of something akin to (but sadly, not) "perpetual motion."

[Thanks, Mihir]

Filed under: Misc

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The gigantic "HTC Magnum" is convenient, inconspicuous

Joshua Topolsky — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:41:00 -0500

We're not really sure what to make of this supposed HTC "Magnum" that's been doing the rounds today. Sure, it looks like a gigantic, touchscreen HTC phone -- but we'd be hard-pressed to say this has any use outside of demo purposes and party time hijinks. Our guess is that this is a hilarious prank meant to thrill the interblogs, but it is possible that HTC has decided to move away from the tried-and-true handheld market to a more robust, manly line of products. Like a participant in a cat-fight, we won't "go there" on the specs, suffice to say, they make it sound really, really real. Check the video after the break to see the "phone" doing its thing, Ten Commandments-style.

Update: Yep, not real.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Handsets, HTC, Windows Mobile, Mobile

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The gigantic "HTC Magnum" is convenient, inconspicuous

Joshua Topolsky — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:41:00 -0500

Filed under: Cellphones

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Perpetual motion machine... isn't

Joshua Topolsky — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 22:17:00 -0500

Finally -- the laws of physics have been smashed to itty-bitty, succulent bits, like a thin piece of glass obliterated by a cartoon anvil -- all in some dude's low-lit basement. According to the video which you can watch after the break, a mysterious entity known as Alsetalokin has laser-gunned the forces of the universe to death with a perpetual motion device which he's demonstrated on an obscure internet website called YouTube. Like Fox Mulder, we want to believe, but just like the fate of Steorn's Orbo, this is looking like another quickly-debunked fiasco. After a few hours of this clip doing the rounds, the hive-mind of the information superhighway began to pick it apart, piece by piece. The noise swelled so loudly that the original poster has actually changed his angle on the story, but that won't stop you from seeing the eye-shattering, star-bending magic of this magnet-driven motor.

[Via Digg]

Filed under: Misc

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EcoWatts "free energy" device rebuffed, BBC falls for it

Conrad Quilty-Harper — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 20:46:00 -0500

EcoWatts and its fake free energy gadget is back in the limelight again, with the BBC Breakfast Show falling hook, line, and sinker in an interview with the company's "CEO" Paul Calver. Calver stated that "we're still getting to the question of why it works," explaining to a BBC presenter his bewilderment at his very own creation. The response from the interviewer? "The point is it does." Unfortunately, the point is that it almost certainly doesn't. Ben Goldacre used his excellent Bad Science Guardian column this week to dig up some dirt on the dodgy company, and managed to find a scientist who gave his stamp of approval to a similar free energy gadget four years back: "Using the apparatus provided, it's true, this scientist could get incredible results: the meters would read zero, and yet water would boil in around five minutes. Because the meters provided weren't working." The company that provided this former gadget along with the "broken" meters? EcoWatts.

Filed under: Household

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No guy in a coma, no missed iPhone launch, no kidding

Peter Rojas — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 21:03:00 -0400

Didn't think we'd have to bother debunking something this obviously satirical, but about a zillion people have tipped us today with a link to a post on iPhone Savior about "Geoff Evila," who reportedly went into a coma in early June, causing him to miss the iPhone launch he had been so eagerly awaiting. He awoke from the coma four months later, and supposedly his close friend "Steve Denots" convinced the local Apple store in Chandler, Arizona to help recreate launch day for him so Geoff could experience what he'd missed.

Sounds totally plausible, like the kind of filler you see every night on local TV news, right? Yeah, well besides all the obvious markers that this is a joke -- "Evila" is "Alive" spelled backwards, and the author's name, "Earl Sorel" is an anagram of "Real Loser" -- the pic accompanying the post was actually taken on launch day at the Apple store in Dallas. Yeah, it's definitely been slow around here today.

[Via Digg]

Filed under: Cellphones

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Steorn redux: more mad "scientists" tout free energy gadget

Conrad Quilty-Harper — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 16:56:00 -0400

We don't want to take this seriously, so we won't. Another company has claimed to have produced a device that produces more energy than is put in, which --we shouldn't have to tell you -- is impossible. The Daily Mail is the dumb -- but actually kinda clever, 'cause they'll get lots of readers, and they don't mind bending the truth -- deliverer this time, adding some kind of twisted authority to the "news." The company behind the free publicity is called EcoWatts, who are apparently keen to sell their £1,500-2,000 white tube thing to homeowners, with the aim of reducing their electricity bill (and not solving all the world's energy problems in one fell swoop, apparently.) Altogether now: "ughhh."

[Thanks, Alan]

Filed under: Household

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Windows Vista "Brute Force Keygen" a hoax

Paul Miller — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 13:01:00 -0500

It sounded too good to be true, and it turns out it was. KezNews forum frequenter "Computer User" confessed last night that his Brute Force Keygen hack for Windows Vista is a scam. "Fact is the brute force keygen is a joke, i [sic] never intended for it to work. I have never gotten it to work, everyone should stop using it! Everyone who said they got a key a probably lying or mistaken!" Oddly enough, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZD Net, who we sourced the news from yesterday, claims to have found two activation keys with this method, so it's hard to tell who to believe: a confessing prankster, or a potentially duped but trusted source. For the moment, we're going to go with Computer User's word on this one, because the likelihood that Microsoft would issue enough keys to make a random key generator at all viable for obtaining 25-character product keys is pretty dang slim.

[Via Slashdot; thanks Matt]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

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iPhone June 15 date a hoax -- game on

Ryan Block — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:02:00 -0500

Sorry everybody, we hate to be the bearers of bad news for you iPhone obsessives, but that iPhone FCC letter dating it at June 15th? It was a hoax. Our eagle-eyed friends over at Phone Scoop noted that the confidentiality agreement document is, in actuality, photoshopped. We looked into the original filing for that new Airport Extreme base station (FCC BCGA1143), which expired January 15th (days after the Airport device was announced), and is so far as we can tell they're wholly identical (save a bit of photo manipulation). That confidentiality agreement outlines a device for use on all the right frequencies for an 802.11a/b/g/n device (5180 - 5240MHz, 5190 - 5230MHz, 5745 - 5825MHz, 5755 - 5795MHz, 2412 - 2462MHz, 2422 - 2452MHz), too, so there's not a whole lot of doubt left. So, to everyone who thought they'd be getting their iPhone this June: sorry, we're all still in the dark on when Apple's going to launch. Click on for a bigger shots of the hoax FCC doc.

[Thanks, Rich]