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Enlarge Image Gary Hersho, Getty Images In the first published research on the phenomenon known as chemtrails, thought by conspiracy theorists to be evidence of a large-scale atmospheric chemical spraying program, a team of researchers has found that most scientists don't believe they exist. The trails of cloud left behind aircraft as they fly across the sky are caused by water vapour in the exhaust. As the hot exhaust hits the cold air, it condenses and crystallises into a cloud for a short time before dispersing. These condensation trails, or contrails, are thought by some to be the vehicles for chemicals, secretly released into the air by govements or industries."Our goal is not to sway t...

[embedded content] If you're frustrated with the limitations of the current generation of quadcopters, a team of researchers at ETZ Zurich, Switzerland has been working on a model that improves on precision maneuverability. Dario Brescianini and Raffaello D'Andrea have developed an eight-rotor aerial vehicle that has six controllable degrees of freedom, rather than the four quadcopters have."Typically, multi-rotor vehicles such as quadcopters are used to perform these tasks [such as surveillance] because of their agility and mechanical simplicity. However, these traditional multi-rotor vehicles are under-actuated, i.e. unable to independently control their thrust and torque in all three dime...

Nine contestants playing Hacker Jeopardy in a crowded Las Vegas ballroom room probably didn't expect to become the latest symbol of the tech industry's struggles to include women.But then the master of ceremonies told them one of the categories would be "Dicks." The answers were tongue in cheek, like "Dick Cheney" and "Charles Dickens." But then came a question about an actual dick. Contestants had to give the size of a certain po star's penis to within a half an inch. Women, one wearing skimpy clothes and a strap-on dildo, played roles on stage, such as serving beers. They also took off a piece of clothing each time contestants got a double jeopardy right. To many of the thousand attendees,...

The '80s creature-feature sensibilities of horror-adventure series "Stranger Things" have struck a chord with fans who love everything from kids classics "Goonies" and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" to terrifying movies like "Alien" and "Poltergeist." So it makes sense the Netflix show about kids searching for their friend lost in another, parallel world would become a perfect muse for fans wanting a retro-looking video game featuring characters from the show. Game artist Midio decided to do just that. On Monday, he tweeted an animated GIF of the the main characters Eleven, Mike, Lucas and Dustin looking for their friend Will where he disappeared into the creepy woods. Options in his game mock...

MIT recently unveiled Duoskin, and even though it looks like a simple fashion accessory, these faux tattoos have some cool functions: they're coected, and can receive input, coect wirelessly, and even light up with the right setup. We're also checking out a new HoloLens demo from N3S, an NES emulator team tuing 2D NES titles into slightly 3D experiences. The demo is in alpha, but it's another exciting showcase for what Microsoft's augmented-reality headset is capable of. Close Coected temporary tattoos are both flashy and functional (Tomorrow Daily 408) Drag Coected temporary tattoos are both flashy a...

Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go, appears to be bringing down the hammer on cheaters. Specifically, it's cracking down on users who have created bots to trick the game, as well as those who use the bots, by serving them a "lifetime ban" and pursuing legal action, according to The Guardian.Since the game has erupted in popularity, bots that help trick the location-tracking system have begun to crop up. Though this is considered cheating under the Pokemon Go terms of service, the bots and services, as well as those who have used them, have yet to be penalized.Now it looks like Pokemon Go addicts who have taken advantage of the loopholes might have to pay the ultimate price.Niantic didn't...

Following several reports that the release of upcoming role-playing game Final Fantasy XV has been delayed, Square Enix has confirmed a new launch date for the game. Final Fantasy XV will be released globally on November 29--nearly two months later than its previously scheduled September 30 launch date.According to a statement released by Square Enix, the new date "will allow the development teams time to further polish and conduct quality testing so that the reality of the game can match the expectations of both the fans and the creative teams."Game director Hajime Tabata said: "From the moment we joined this project, our vision was to create a level of freedom and realism previously unseen...

[embedded content] There's probably no logical, scientific reason to drop bowling balls 150 feet off a tower on to an axe and watch them get sliced and diced like a Benihana lunch. But sometimes human beings just like to break things. Or maybe someone clumsy who'd dropped a bowling ball on their foot one too many times wanted revenge. You might even say they had an axe to grind.When the affable Aussie trick-shot crew from the That's Ridiculous YouTube chael decide to go for a 7-10 split, they mean it literally. So many things amaze me in this video. The guy who drops the bowling ball directly on the axe blade from 150 feet high on his first attempt. How the dense ball just slices away when i...

Enlarge ImageMinecraft team member Tommaso Checchi plays the virtual-world video game while wearing Facebook's Oculus VR headset. Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET It's a match made in nerd heaven. Minecraft, Microsoft's tremendously popular video game, now works on Facebook's Oculus Rift headset, a highly regarded entrant into the new world of virtual reality. "We'd like to welcome you to the game all over again, because it's a fantastic new experience in VR, even if you're a Minecraft veteran," Mike McGrath, a Minecraft developer who helped build the software, said Monday in a blog post. The version requires people to use the Windows 10 beta-test version of Minecraft, which is free to t...

As the homogenization of social media continues, Twitter followed in Snapchat's wake by adding the ability to apply stickers with embedded hashtags. Now the business justification emerges: brands will be able to offer stickers with their own built-in hashtags so that you can promote for them and allow them to track your stickered tweets. The company's Promoted #Stickers initiative was aounced in a blog post on Monday, with Pepsi as the exclusive partner, and the option will be available to "select marketers" with managed accounts. They're pitched to advertisers as "a huge opportunity for brands to drive brand affinity and raise awareness of their message at scale." Happy brand-affinity drivi...

iPads for one and all! CNET At this point in the 21st century, it's safe to assume that the aual cycle of new Apple products is as regular as the progression of the lunar calendar.A report released on Monday and spotted by MacRumors has given us a glimpse of what to expect from the tech giant in both 2017 and 2018. Three new iPads are slated for release next year, according to Ming-Chui Kuo, a KGI securities analyst with a strong track record of getting Apple predictions spot on.Top of the bill will be a 10.5-inch iPad Pro, which should prove appealing to those who are keen to experience Apple's top tablet in a neat midsized package. It will be joined by a 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2 and a more aff...

Pekka Rantala, the new chief marketing officer for HMD Global. Rantala formerly ran Rovio and worked at Nokia. HMD Global The pieces are slowly coming together for the Nokia phone to make its comeback.In May, Microsoft unloaded the phone business it originally purchased from Nokia on FIH Mobile, a unit of Taiwan-based manufacturing giant Foxco, and HMD Global, a Fiish startup tasked with selling phones and tablets under the Nokia brand. Former Nokia executive Arto Nummela would lead the company as CEO. On Monday, another piece clicked into place. HMD tapped Pekka Rantala, former CEO of Angry Birds game maker Rovio, to revive the Nokia phone brand as its chief marketing officer. Rantala has a...

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.Enlarge ImageIs this the hell of an IT manager? BigPanda Are all the notifications getting to you?Does your phone buzz, ping and ding with far too many deeply unimportant messages?Imagine, then, you work in an IT department.It seems that, at least for some IT people, their brains are being addled by a constant stream of alerts. Can so many things be going wrong with IT systems? Are at least some of these alerts false alarms? How can you tell?A startup called BigPanda says it talked to more than 1,700 IT professionals in such industries as telecom, finance and health care and discovered that many are ...

Apple's Tim Cook tells The Washington Post about the "lonely" job of CEO. The Washingont Post/Screenshot by CNET For those of you who hold onto every word Tim Cook says, The Washington Post has about 10,000 to offer.Apple's CEO sat down with the Post for what it termed two "sprawling and highly self-reflective interviews" published Saturday that hit on topics ranging from losing and succeeding the late Steve Jobs, the company's recent fight with the FBI and who he tus to for advice.The Post prefaces the interview with a nice summary of what it covers. But we've also put together a few highlights:Mistakes: After admitting to making mistakes with Apple Maps and initially hiring the wrong perso...

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.Enlarge ImageIn the interests of justice? screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET I don't know whether you've heard, but there's no need to vote.The election is apparently going to rigged. At least that's what Republican candidate Donald Trump intimated on the campaign trail this week. It's unclear what evidence Trump has for this worrying assertion. What is clearer is that he's doing something about it.He's using the open and coected power of the web to hire so-called election observers. Well, when I say "hire," I of course mean "recruit as volunteers." It's not as if the property mogul became rich by j...

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.Enlarge ImageNot well balanced? WPVI-TV screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET Outrage can often be pointless.The best we can do is at least grab our phones, record what is happening and hope that someone else will care. A Pesylvania couple did just this. They were rather distraught at what they saw on the state's Schuylkill Expressway.So they filmed it and sent the results in to local TV station WPVI-TV. What appears to happen in the video is that a female driver is texting on her phone with both hands. She's keeping the car balanced by way of one of her New Balances.Yes, she's steering with her foot. ...

Enlarge ImageThe first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket successfully lands on the "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship stationed about 370 miles east of Cape Canaveral. SpaceX A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket boosted a Japanese communications satellite into orbit early Sunday, lighting up the deep oveight sky as it climbed away from Cape Canaveral on a jet of fiery exhaust.While the rocket's second stage was boosting the relay station to orbit, the first stage successfully flew itself back to landing on an offshore drone ship, the Califoia rocket builder's sixth successful booster recovery in 11 tries. It was the latest step in an ongoing push by SpaceX founder Elon Musk to lower costs by recovering,...

Enlarge ImageArvind Krishna, a senior vice president at IBM Research Stephen Shankland/CNET Bitcoin has a bad rap as the preferred currency of drug dealers. But that isn't stopping IBM and some of the world's most conservative businesses from tapping into its technological underpiings. Specifically, Big Blue is interested in the blockchain -- the mechanism Bitcoin uses to publicly record transactions. Today's businesses each have their own records, slowing transactions and triggering problems figuring out who's right when there are disagreements. But the blockchain approach is more cooperative by providing a consistent record that members of a network can see. "The blockchain is about distri...

More than 6,000 people fled war and slogged across a continent to get to a refugee camp in northe France. Now they endure political hostility in a place they don't want to be. Sudanese, Afghans, Chadians, Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians and others live in a Calais camp known as the Jungle, and another in Grande-Synthe about 25 miles east, because the camps are the closest jumping-off points to the UK, the country they want to be in. That's where many refugees, who often speak English, have family and friends. My colleague Rich Trenholm and I visited the camps in June to get a feel for how technology is -- or isn't -- helping refugees. Mobile phones provide a psychologically important link, but the...

We've lost R2. Actor Key Baker, aka lovable droid R2-D2, in the '70s. Getty Images Key Baker, the man who brought the much-loved R2-D2 droid to life in the Star Wars films, passed away at the age of 81 following a long period of illness. Baker's death was reported by The Guardian on Saturday, with his niece Abigail Shield telling the publication that the news was expected but sad. "He had a very long and fulfilled life. He brought lots of happiness to people and we'll be celebrating the fact that he was loved throughout the world. We're all very proud of what he achieved in his lifetime," Shield said. Baker, standing at 3 feet 8 inches tall, first hopped inside the shell of R2-D2 for 1977's ...