Andrew Liszewski, Author at Gizmodo

Watch the Incredible VFX That Brought War for the Planet of the Apes‘ Simian Stars to Life

The filmmaking techniques used to bring human-like apes to life have changed considerably since the original Planet of the Apes. Makeup still comes into play, but instead of putting bulky prosthetics on an actor, visual effects technicians cover their faces in tiny white tracking dots, allowing their performances to be translated to a digital creature.…

io9 Andrew Liszewski

An AI Created New Doom Levels That Are as Fun as the Game’s Original Ones

The technical skills of programmer John Carmack helped create the 3D world of Doom, the first-person shooter that took over the world 25 years ago. But it was level designers like John Romero and American McGee that made the game fun to play. Level designers that, today, might find their jobs threatened by the ever-growing…

Artificial Intelligence Andrew Liszewski

I Love Sharp’s New Steam Powered Oven Even If My Steak Was Soggy

As Moe the Bartender proudly reveals his new restaurant’s Navy surplus deep fryer that can flash fry a buffalo in 40 seconds, Homer laments: “Forty seconds? But I want it now!” He was right. In a time when instant messages and same day shipping are the norm, waiting for food to cook feels like an…

Home Entertainment & Smart Home Andrew Liszewski

A Lot of Work Went Into Digitally Recreating Chadwick Boseman’s Muscles in Black Panther

Wired sat down with Method Studios’ Visual Effects Supervisor Daryl Sawchuk to discuss the studio’s extensive post-production work on Black Panther. Included: this cool video, which includes some interesting behind-the-scenes secrets on how the artists digitally costumed actors Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan. At this point, it’s probably no surprise that both Black Panther…

io9 Andrew Liszewski

Lego’s Harry Potter BrickHeadz Are Going to Avada Kedavra You With Cuteness

Lego is about to take its biggest bite yet out of Funko’s domination of the adorably-deformed, collectible figurine market with the addition of its first Harry Potter BrickHeadz characters. The new figures include Hermione, Ron, Dumbledore, Harry himself, and his snowy owl, Hedwig. Harry Potter and Hedwig will be sold as a 180-piece two-pack for…

io9 Andrew Liszewski

This Glowstick-Shooting Star Wars Blaster Replica Looks Like It’s Firing Actual Lasers

Star Wars cosplayers of the world take note: Joerg Sprave, the internet’s favorite slingshot-designing mad scientist, has come up with a clever way to simulate blaster fire in real life. Instead of employing dangerously powerful lasers that will get you kicked out of a convention faster than you can reload, his replica of Rey’s blaster…

io9 Andrew Liszewski

Give the Finger to Jony Ive With a Case That Makes Your iPhone X Look Like the Original

It’s easy to look back on the original iPhone 2G with reverence. It revolutionized the mobile phone industry, and paved the way for our lives to be taken over by mobile apps. And for the three of you who yearn for a modern smartphone wrapped in 2007 design aesthetics, Spigen’s created an iPhone X case…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Stare In Awe, Disbelief, and Envy at This Console-Covered Boombox for Gamers

YouTube’s My Mate VINCE has a knack for wiring modern video game consoles to old-school TVs. After perfecting his skills, he’s hacked together what is undoubtedly his greatest, most absurd creation: a resurrected boombox that lets gamers play their favorite titles anywhere they’re strong enough to carry this monstrosity. At the core of this portable…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski

A Chef’s Knife Forged From Ice Is the Perfect Disposable Cutlery

After forging impressively sharp blades from random materials like saran wrap, chocolate, pasta, and even a dead fish, Japan’s most resourceful knife maker has created what could be the perfect disposable cutlery: a chef’s knife made from ice that simply melts away when dinner’s done. The immediate question that comes to mind is how do…

Sploid Andrew Liszewski

Turning an Ikea Chair Into an RC Plane Is Definitely the Cheapest Way to Fly

After miraculously getting a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe toy to take flight, the RC hobbyists at YouTube’s FliteTest challenged themselves to get one of Ikea’s cheap Jokkmokk wooden chairs airborne. Not only did they succeed, they also managed to complete all of the flightworthy upgrades in a mere six hours Building an RC plane isn’t…

Sploid Andrew Liszewski

This Guy’s Terrifyingly Detailed Venom Sculpture Should Bump Michelangelo’s David Off Its Museum Pedestal

I’m not questioning the artistic merit of Michelangelo’s David—the sculpture is unquestionably a masterpiece. It just doesn’t speak to me the same way a detailed sculpt of Marvel’s Venom does. And besides, by now it’s clear that soon every movie, TV show, and artistic endeavor is going to be tied to a Marvel comic book…

io9 Andrew Liszewski

A Ridiculously Posable Batman Cape, and More of the Most Delightful Toys of the Week

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s weekly round up of the best toys we’ve seen all week. This time we’ve got a bumper bunch of Jurassic Park merchandise (and some Jurassic-adjacent attempts too), rocking toys that boldly go, and perhaps the world’s most absurdly articulated action figure cape ever seen. Check them out! Kaiyodo DC…

io9 Andrew Liszewski

The Only Good Wearable Records Everything You Miss While Blinking Your Eyes

An eye blink is over in less than a second, which means you can’t possibly be missing much while your eyes are closed, right? But it’s estimated that humans can blink over 28,000 times a day, and as much as 10 percent of our time awake is spent with our eyes closed. So it turns…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Deep Learning Can Now Flawlessly Correct Photos Taken in Almost Complete Darkness

There are typically two approaches to taking usable photos in low-light conditions. You can either use a slow shutter, which requires a tripod to eliminate blur, or electronically increase the sensitivity of a camera’s sensor, which introduces ugly noise artifacts. But there’s now a third approach that takes advantage of machine learning to artificially boost…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

I Want to Super-Size Every Classic Lego Set I’ve Ever Owned

Matt Denton has been putting his 3D printer to good use again, possibly the only good use for those plastic-extruding machines. He’s super-sized all the pieces in Lego’s 1979 Technic Bulldozer set, which required over 600 hours of printing to recreate all 372 parts. Re-assembling all of those pieces into a five-foot long Lego Technic…

Sploid Andrew Liszewski

Someone Used a Robot to Fix the Biggest Problem With Sun Dials: the Sun

Build a better mousetrap, and they say the world will beat a path to your door. But the artists at Studio AATB probably shouldn’t expect much foot traffic after finding a way to use a wall-mounted robot arm to improve one of the oldest ways we have to tell time: the sun dial. Because our…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Tesla Could Learn Something From This Lego Car-Building Factory

Tesla’s hit a few speed bumps in getting all the pre-ordered Model 3’s out the door and onto customers’ driveways. But perhaps the company can learn something from Daniele Benedettelli, who created a fully autonomous Lego car factory using the iconic building toy. Now, I’m not saying Musk should consider rebuilding his factories out of…

Sploid Andrew Liszewski

Relive the Best Part of the Star Wars Prequels With These Custom-Built RC Pod Racers

Say what you will about The Phantom Menace, but the prequel’s pod racing scene is still one of the best sequences in the entire Star Wars franchise—even when you know Anakin was destined to win. But what if Sebulba had been victorious? Adam Woodworth built a couple of micro RC pod racers that let you…

io9 Andrew Liszewski

This Guy Hacked a Polaroid Camera to Print on Cheap Receipt Paper Instead of Pricey Film

Shooting on film continues to get more and more expensive, especially for fans of instant cameras like the reborn Polaroid. Sixteen bucks for just eight shots was far too pricey for Tim Alex Jacobs, so he hacked an old Polaroid camera to instead spit out images on cheap thermal paper, the same kind used in…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Watch How the Guardians 2 VFX Wizards Created David Hasselhoff’s Brief But Memorable Cameo

Ego revealing the truth about Star-Lord’s mom is one of the saddest scenes in the entire Marvel film universe, but James Gunn still manages to inject some humor into the moment with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’s best cameo: David Hasselhoff. Here’s a look at how Weta Digital morphed a disintegrated Kurt Russell into…

io9 Andrew Liszewski

Andrew Liszewski

Watch the Incredible VFX That Brought War for the Planet of the Apes‘ Simian Stars to Life

An AI Created New Doom Levels That Are as Fun as the Game’s Original Ones

I Love Sharp’s New Steam Powered Oven Even If My Steak Was Soggy

A Lot of Work Went Into Digitally Recreating Chadwick Boseman’s Muscles in Black Panther

Lego’s Harry Potter BrickHeadz Are Going to Avada Kedavra You With Cuteness

This Glowstick-Shooting Star Wars Blaster Replica Looks Like It’s Firing Actual Lasers

Give the Finger to Jony Ive With a Case That Makes Your iPhone X Look Like the Original

Stare In Awe, Disbelief, and Envy at This Console-Covered Boombox for Gamers

A Chef’s Knife Forged From Ice Is the Perfect Disposable Cutlery

Turning an Ikea Chair Into an RC Plane Is Definitely the Cheapest Way to Fly

This Guy’s Terrifyingly Detailed Venom Sculpture Should Bump Michelangelo’s David Off Its Museum Pedestal

A Ridiculously Posable Batman Cape, and More of the Most Delightful Toys of the Week

The Only Good Wearable Records Everything You Miss While Blinking Your Eyes

Deep Learning Can Now Flawlessly Correct Photos Taken in Almost Complete Darkness

I Want to Super-Size Every Classic Lego Set I’ve Ever Owned

Someone Used a Robot to Fix the Biggest Problem With Sun Dials: the Sun

Tesla Could Learn Something From This Lego Car-Building Factory

Relive the Best Part of the Star Wars Prequels With These Custom-Built RC Pod Racers

This Guy Hacked a Polaroid Camera to Print on Cheap Receipt Paper Instead of Pricey Film

Watch How the Guardians 2 VFX Wizards Created David Hasselhoff’s Brief But Memorable Cameo

Apple Offers Rare Olive Branch to Liquid Glass Haters

Mamdani Lifts NYC TikTok Ban for City Employees, but with Some Unusual Restrictions

Tesla Goes Ahead and Admits Its Robotaxis Are Sometimes Fully Human-Controlled

School Forced to Replace Toilets After Kids Flush Vapes

‘Scream 7’ Just Won’t Stop Making Money as ‘Scream 8’ Gets Started

The Curtain Has Closed on Meta’s Movie Rating-Inspired Content Filters

Good News! You Can Finally Change That Ridiculous Gmail Address

ExpressVPN Just Launched ExpressAI: Your Prompts Are Now Invisible

VR Just Took Another Massive Body Blow

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset