While there’s plenty of reasons to keep a critical eye focused on Google, Consumer Watchdog’s ad is a dishonest, factually inaccurate joke that shamefully got plenty of uncritical media attention. In the simplest terms possible, Consumer Watchdog is just wrong.

Footage from seven ongoing NASA space missions provide hyper-realistic scenery for the 3-D animated film, while the voices of multiple Captain Kirks and Darth Vaders play the parts of space explorers.

When the super-Earth COROT-7b was discovered in 2009, it was heralded as the rockiest, most truly Earth-like exoplanet yet. But a new study suggests it's more like a comet.

The presumed-dead videogame makes a splash appearance at Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle.

A first look at iOS 4.1 Gold Master, the latest release of Apple's mobile operating system due out next week. A developer sent me a copy and I have it installed on my iPhone 4. Major new features are the HDR photo mode and Game Center.

As we go backstage at the IndyCar Grand Prix of Sonoma, we ponder what's more important to fans -- the drivers' skill, or the cars' technology?

Just say "no" to be being an iClone. Get a device with an open OS, lightning-fast data connectivity and a network that won't drop calls every five minutes.

Don't hit the books without getting the right gear. We've got all the kit you need from taking scrupulous notes, to working off campus, to being the most popular kid in your dorm.

If you're even thinking of working off-campus without taking this Wi-Fi-spewing wonder card, you'll need to be fitted for a straight jacket.

The sparkle of starlight off water could be the clincher for finding oceans on extrasolar planets. And it could be observable with the tech that will be deployed in the next generation of space telescopes.

Unless you're majoring in spandex and minoring in too-cool-for-school at Steephill State, you may not need a road, fixed-gear or a mountain bike. Consider REI's Novara Fusion commuter. Sure this hybrid 8-speed won't get you anywhere in a mega-hurry, but you'll likely enjoy getting there.

Don't you wish there was a way to take notes with a pen and upload them to your computer? And don't you wish that pen had an infrared camera, a built-in speaker and mic? There is such a thing, and it's called the Livescribe Echo Smartpen.

By losing 30 pounds in less than a year, tennis pro Mardy Fish has quickly become one of the top Americans to advance at this year’s US Open in New York. Fish opens up on how he pulled it off and revitalized his career.

While winding down from Wednesday’s iPod announcements, Apple CEO Steve Jobs appears to have taken some time to respond to an e-mail criticizing the new look of the iTunes icon.

Joe Sylvester wants to set a new record for longest jump by a monster truck. Clearly he's still got some work to do.

In addition to the usual cadre of satellites, NASA is using a small fleet of unmanned aircraft into, over and around the hurricane as it tracks north from the Caribbean. While flying into a hurricane is nothing new, Earl is the first hurricane that NASA has observed using their unmanned Global Hawk observation aircraft.

Wired.com contributor Jeremy Hart is driving around the world in a Ford Fiesta. Along the way, he'll be testing gadgets from some of the most extreme — and amazing — locations.

EA Sports, publisher of the Madden NFL videogame franchise, has taken its latest game iteration, Madden NFL 11, and run through the upcoming 2010 NFL season, offering at least a simulated insight into who’ll be celebrating in Arlington, Texas, after Super Bowl XLV.

Six Apart is shutting down its Vox blogging service. Users have until Sept. 30 to export their data to another free blog publishing service like Six Apart's TypePad. After that, Vox will be gone.

This morning, the Smithsonian National Zoo launched a live webcam of the zoo's four new baby African lion cubs and their mother. The cubs were born during the late evening and early morning between Aug. 30 and 31 and will remain inside until late fall.

This week's episode of the Gadget Lab podcast is heavy on fruits. High on vitamin A, Dylan Tweney gushes over the pluot, a plum-apricot hybrid, while Brian X. Chen dishes out this week's announcements of brand new Apple gear. They also share our impressions of Samsung's iPad rival, the 7-inch Galaxy Tab.

It's easy to figure out why e-readers and tablets are the size that they are: They're all about the size of paperback books. But why are paperbacks that size? It all has to do with the sheep.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is on a mission to promote walking, cycling and mass transit in an effort to build healthier communities.

From bad girls and zombies to circus freaks and killer cars, the shock-and-awful recipe for grindhouse movies' tasty cinematic sausage never fails to satisfy. As Robert Rodriguez's timely homage hits screens, we look back at several decades of surprisingly influential B movies.

Craig Henderson achieved 119.1 mpg in a car he designed in 1984.

Viking 2, the second mission to Mars, lands on the planet and begins transmitting pictures and soil analyses.

Learn the nickname for the first synthetic organism and a derisive term for ungrammatical Tea Party signs.

Using Foursquare to stamp out sexually transmitted diseases is just the beginning of a brave new war on bothersome reality. Just think of all the amazing problems we can solve with the proper mix of badges, exclusive offers and unbridled optimism.

A group of French scientists have come up with a new physics equation to help explain how Brazilian soccer star Roberto Carlos scored his "impossible" kick in 1998.

With long straights, fast turns and tight chicanes, it looks like an exciting track. Now they've just gotta build it.

A modern take on Gustav Holst's orchestral suite uses theremins, accordions and other unusual instruments to make a musical statement. Who's listening? For starters, the director of Hayden Planetarium.

The increasingly popular online shopping site Thefind has finally found a way to connect with Facebook, without being creepy. It’s not a technical breakthrough — plenty of sites now work with Facebook to let users log-in — but Thefind has been grappling with how to integrate with Facebook in a way that’s relevant and privacy-respectful.

See what your food could be composed of in the most future-forward kitchens.

The Gods' Lake is an alternate-reality game designed to explore aboriginal Canadian legends through a contemporary setting. The game launched at the Toronto Fan Expo with a presentation by one of the game's characters and a scavenger hunt for QR codes hidden throughout the Expo.

A phone-hacking scheme involving British royals and reporters working for one of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid newspapers went far beyond what was previously disclosed and prosecuted. The British Prime Minister's current media adviser is accused of having encouraged the hacking.

If it's September, it's football season — which also means it's time for millions of fantasy football drafts around the world to commence. Maximize your in-season points while dealing with the setbacks that are bound to occur by following our guide.

The video site's ever-evolving terms of service drive an observer mad in this arty clip by Carlo Zanni. No charge for the 1984 references.

This week’s big Apple announcement featured one big disappointment: Apple TV’s relative lack of, well, TV. Out of all of the hundreds of channels available on cable and satellite, only ABC and Fox agreed to offer their programs for rent on Apple TV. The fact that Steve Jobs is the largest single shareholder in, and on the board of, Disney — owner of ABC — perfectly illustrates this digital divide.

Unlike infectious disease and information, behavior change spreads faster through online networks that have many close connections instead of many distant ties. Redundancy is key, as people are more likely to engage in a behavior if they see many others doing it. "There has been a lot of theory about the difference between information and behavior spreading," said economic sociologist Damon Centola of MIT and author of the study published Sept. 3 in Science. "We've assumed that they are the same, but you can imagine that behavior is not really like that, that you need to be convinced."

A new batch of sharp Martian close-ups from NASA's HiRISE camera were released, and we've gathered some of the best in the gallery.

A creepy caricature of Google CEO Eric Schmidt driving an ice cream truck is being displayed on a Times Square jumbotron and on YouTube. The video was produced by a consumer group targeting the search giant for its data collection practices.

The atmosphere of a young exoplanet didn't fit any of our existing models for what gas giants should look like. But when astronomers added huge dust clouds, it was a perfect fit, perhaps revealing a larger truth about gas giants.

Magnetic minerals in 15-million-year-old rocks appear to preserve a moment when the magnetic north pole was rapidly on its way to becoming the south pole, and vice versa.

Development Seed is engineering tools to create custom maps that work in a wider variety of situations such as natural disasters and in the developing world.

A reinterpretation of the fossil record suggests a new answer to one of evolution's existential questions: whether global mass extinctions are just short-term diversions in life's preordained course, or send life careening down wholly new paths.

The official Twitter app for iPad is finally here, and star developer Loren Brichter has polished yet another gem. Twitter for iPad sports a really elegant interface that's significantly faster and more intuitive than competing Twitter clients we've tested (such as Twitterific and Tweetdeck).

Fujitsu's scanner is your new (albeit bulky) buddy if you want high-quality images. The sturdy document feeder gets pages in straight, so you get them out right.

Google is celebrating the second birthday of its Chrome web browser with the release of Chrome 6. Among the new features are an updated user interface, auto-fill for web forms, extension syncing, increased speed and numerous bug fixes.

People in Silicon Valley have focused on the set-top box as the lever to attack the cable industry. Cable boxes blow, but that's a losing battle. So why is Apple TV different? Because Steve Jobs has not just created a new set top box. He's actually created a whole new media ecosystem built around the mobile phone.

It looks like a motorcycle, it performs like a Lotus and it's racing around the world.