skydiving

Millions of people around the world observed an unbelievable feat yesterday as Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a balloon-slung capsule floating at the astonishing altitude of 128,097 feet and then safely landed in the record books.

Curiously, the best angle from the whole free fall jump so far -- Baumgartner's chest camera -- didn't make it to the general live-stream footage. The video from this perspective reveals just how terrifying and awe-inspiring our world looks at such extreme altitudes and the speeds (well upward of 700 mph -- or was that, um, downward?) at which he was traveling. … Read more

Latest update: October 15 at 5:38 a.m. PT

One false start was enough for Felix Baumgartner.

On Sunday, the 43-year-old extreme skydiver ascended to the upper reaches of the atmosphere above Roswell, N.M., in a bid to come racing back down in a supersonic freefall.

At first, Baumgartner's Red Bull Stratos team said that the unofficial top speed of the freefall was 1,137 kilometers per hour, or 706 miles per hour. Later, they raised that to 1,342.8 km/h, or 834.4 mph.

The team's expectation was that 690 mph would be … Read more

Last update: 10:55 a.m. PT.

Felix Baumgartner wants to make history as the first person to achieve supersonic speed in freefall, but that won't happen today.

At about 10:45 a.m. PT, with Baumgartner in his capsule and his balloon just beginning to be inflated, the decision came to abort the mission because of gusting winds.

The liftoff had been scheduled to begin at about 5:30 a.m. PT, but was delayed as the weather conditions at the launch site in Roswell, N.M., failed to cooperate. Tomorrow's weather is apparently not looking favorable, … Read more

This week, you finally get to see the results of my high-flying Road Test of the HTC One X! I actually jumped out of a helicopter because we were so sure that this HTC One X commercial, touting its camera features to such an extent that it could be used in a midair fashion shoot, was a ridiculous put-on. You'll see in the segment whether I managed to get the shot, and whether the phone's camera and features performed as advertised.

Special thanks to the folks at GoPro, who helped us set up this shoot and loaned us … Read more

The video below, part of which was recorded from an iPhone free-falling 1,000 feet after being dropped by a BASE jumper in a wingsuit, is at least three things: link bait, a promotional stunt, and pretty damn cool.

G-Form, the maker of smartphone and tablet cases with a penchant for torturing devices with drops from great heights, sought to outdo itself with this stunt.… Read more

The debate about "unboxing" rages on, so in this week's Always On episode, I actually get down to using a pocket knife to open up the new Google Nexus 7 and Nexus Q. And I try to bring back some of that old Molly snark so many of you have been asking for. Sometimes it's hard to put together a whole show and then remember to write in the personality! I'm working on it, though.

I had a pretty great time running around Google I/O, mainly because of the food, and of course, the … Read more

Sergey Brin stormed on the stage in his Google Glasses like Iron Man Tony Stark, prepared to give the crowd of 5,500 developers what he called an "awesome" display of technology and daredevil live action.

He gave the play-by-play as a troop of skydivers, bikers, and rope rappellers converged on the Moscone convention center, in a scene that could have been the opening sequence of a "Mission: Impossible" movie (if it wasn't part of Brin's Google I/O Glass demo). 

The skydivers made jumping out of an airship look easy. But before … Read more

Paul the German Octopus is officially more powerful than our own Wilson G. Tang at predicting the future. The mollusk in Oberhausen is 8 for 8 in forecasting the winning teams in this year's World Cup, including yesterday's triumphant victory for Spain over the Netherlands.

In fact, we already planned to invite Paul into the studio this Friday to tell us about the iPhone 5, but recent news tells us that the eight-legged wonder is already planning his retirement from the soccer prediction industry.

If you haven't figured it out by now, The 404 crew is complete … Read more

If you're gutsy enough to skydive or BASE jump, you might as well go the whole nine and do it looking like a superhero.

Phoenix-Fly is out with a new wingsuit, the red Vampire 2, that has a distinctly William Katt in Greatest American Hero look while promising to maximize your glide and delay your freefalls.

The company calls the getup, which incorporates 3D CAD (computer-aided design) "the most advanced wingsuit the world has seen to date." The suit boasts revolutionary new materials and all kinds of enhancements to make you birdlike: new shoulder inlet technology that … Read more