Avery Ellis, Author at Gizmodo

Can You Find the Bird(s) in This Branch?

Australia is best known for animals that are needlessly good at murdering things. The country is also home to the tawny frogmouth, an incredibly stupid looking bird. Just look at this weirdo: Because they’re big, nocturnal, and tend to eat vermin, frogmouths are often mistaken for owls at night. No doubt, frogmouths find the comparison…

Sploid Avery Ellis Sep 14

There’s an Air Highway That Keeps Planes From Crashing Into Each Other

If you’ve ever taken a transatlantic flight, here’s a terrifying thought—for a huge portion of that trip, your plane had no RADAR. The good news is there’s essentially a ten-lane highway over the north Atlantic Ocean that keeps flights between, say, New York and London, from getting too close to each other. As Wendover Productions…

Sploid Avery Ellis Sep 13

What Made Cartridge Games So Clever

Early consoles and home computers worked with extremely limited firepower. In those days, not only was the hardware less capable, there really wasn’t room for expandability to make machines like the Commodore VIC-20 or Famicom more capable. Or wasn’t there? Cartridge based software might have some nostalgic value for enthusiasts today (and it might also…

Sploid Avery Ellis Sep 12

Triple Domino Spiral Is a Marvel of Destructive Engineering

Domino master Hevesh5 spent 25 hours building this triple spiral over eight days. Despite following three separate paths at three different heights, the delicate structure takes less than two minutes to come tumbling down, creating beautiful patterns in the process. Perhaps from the vantage of an alien civilization, humanity’s ongoing self-destruction will also look as…

Sploid Avery Ellis Sep 11

Dye and Soap in Macro Looks Like Exploding Galaxies

Throw some dye into milk, add a drop of soap and suddenly the whole thing turns into a psychedelic mess of shapes and colors. Sound familiar? You probably did this science experiment in the 5th grade and felt astounded by it. Now you’re an adult, and the only way to recapture that magic is to…

Sploid Avery Ellis Sep 8

Is the New AppleCare Worth it?

In the midst of iPhone 7 excitement yesterday (Two cameras! Ugly headphones! COURAGE!) Apple also made some much quieter changes to its AppleCare+ program. As of yesterday, enrolling in AppleCare+ means you can get a broken iPhone screen repaired for $29. But is it worth the money? There are, of course, a few catches. The…

Tech News Avery Ellis Sep 8

What Makes Saving Private Ryan‘s Beach Landing Scene So Brilliant

Some movie scenes are unforgettable, and Steven Spielberg’s reenactment of the Normandy Landing is one of them. Every shot feels chaotic, with indiscriminate bloodshed consistent with this brutal event. But as Nerdwriter1 explains in the video below, Spielberg’s filmmaking choices are anything but random. For starters, he’s a student of history. In order to capture…

Sploid Avery Ellis Sep 7

Cliff Jumper Narrowly Avoids a Rocky Death

A diver, jumper, and all-around daredevil who goes by 8Booth decided to do a bit of creative trespassing near California’s Crystal Cove. He leapt from an outcropping known as “el morro” but apparently misjudged how far the rocks jutted out below. (Because no one would intentionally cut it this close, one hopes.) “I walked away…

Sploid Avery Ellis Sep 7

Keep Computer Duster Very Far From Boiling Water

Despite the name “canned air,” computer duster isn’t oxygen at all. It’s actually 1,1-Difluoroethane kept under pressure in its liquid form and released as a freezing cold gas. It can cause moderate frostbite. It can get you high if you huff it (but don’t do that—it’s a truly awful idea.) And it makes boiling water…

Sploid Avery Ellis Sep 7

The Best Portable Bluetooth Speakers For Every Sound

It’s been a long, long time since we checked back with bluetooth speakers, and the market is still flooded with an endless number of near-anonymous companies churning out absolutely awful products. To that end, little has changed. Thankfully, some of our past favorites have since created sequels to their more successful speakers—and previous contenders have…

Reviews Avery Ellis Sep 6

Making an Espresso Maker Out of Scrap Metal Is Just Gorgeous to Watch

This Old Tony is good on a lathe. Really good. If it feels self-explanatory as a tool (thing spins fast, other thing stays still) just listening to him talk about it makes it clear that most of us don’t know jack shit about machining. In his most recent project he made one of those fancy…

Sploid Avery Ellis Sep 6

Hauntingly Beautiful Drone Footage of a Boat Graveyard

Where do boats go when they’re no longer fit for the high seas? As it happens, they go to Staten Island. For instance: the Arthur Kill ship graveyard, located just across from New Jersey’s Tuft’s Point. The ship graveyard has a storied history reaching back to World War 2, when the nearby scrapyard bought obsolete…

Sploid Avery Ellis Sep 2

The Nintendo NX Is Bringing Cartridges Back: Report

The glory days of Nintendo consoles will forever be tied to endlessly blowing in plastic game cartridges. With its upcoming convertible system, Nintendo will try to recapture that magic, a source told The Wall Street Journal. Nintendo is no stranger to mining nostalgia. But a move to flash-based carts makes an awful lot of sense.…

Tech News Avery Ellis Sep 2

Which Tech Startup Is Trying to Throw an Office Stripper Party?

It’s no secret that tech companies sometimes breed a frathouse office culture. Palantir—the Peter Thiel-cofounded data firm, for example—is no stranger to beer pong, drunken injuries, or merciless pranks. But debauchery must have its limits. No one would be stupid enough to throw a stripper party in their own office, right? So far, no—but a…

Tech News Avery Ellis Sep 1

YouTube Stars Are Blowing Up Over Not Getting Paid (Updates)

For the past year YouTubers have been trying to navigate a deluge of false copyright claims and a changing algorithm that rewards needlessly-long videos. Now, allegedly, the platform is starting to withhold paychecks. For professional or semi-professional YouTubers, monetization through advertising is almost always their main source of revenue. Exurb1a, MrRepzion, Philip DeFranco—who alone has…

Tech News Avery Ellis Sep 1

iPhone Glitch Transforms Cats Into Caterpillars

Digital photography is reliable, consistent, and increasingly easy to use. But when it fucks up, boy does it fuck up. Panoramic shots on the iPhone in particular seem prone to some bizarre aberrations that squash or stretch objects. So a photographer who goes by Hanamomo on Twitter figured out a creative way to turn this…

Sploid Avery Ellis Aug 31

72 Hours in Model Horse Mecca

Horses are the one inescapable fact of Lexington, Kentucky—home to BreyerFest, the model horse Comic-Con, an annual convention for one of the last hobbies nearly untouched by culture at large. There’s a horse silhouette or some equine reference on almost every Lexington storefront and street sign. An impulse buy rack in the Bluegrass Airport’s gift…

Tech News Avery Ellis Aug 31

These Are the 10 Most Hated Reddit Posts of All Time

There are many ways to organize posts on Reddit, but none that reveal the most despised content to ever grace the site. Cornell student Horace He has sought to change that with his site notreddit.top. The site takes data from Reddit itself and finds the posts that have been downvoted to oblivion. “Typically, what happens…

Tech News Avery Ellis Aug 31

The DEA Now Thinks Kratom Is as Dangerous as Heroin

Back in June, Gizmodo reported on kratom’s growing popularity in the US among sufferers of chronic pain and opiate addicts trying to get clean. Now the plant’s time as a self-medication agent may be coming to an end. A new notice of intent from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) advises that kratom undergo emergency…

Tech News Avery Ellis Aug 30

Manhattan Sinkhole Swallows Fancy SUV

Here’s a bit of schadenfreude for those of us who can’t afford to breathe in New York’s Upper West Side: A water main break last night created a sinkhole, and that sinkhole swallow an entire BMW worth around $55,000*. DNAinfo reports that the break began around 9:15pm last night, while NBC reports the water flow…

Tech News Avery Ellis Aug 30

Avery Ellis

Can You Find the Bird(s) in This Branch?

There’s an Air Highway That Keeps Planes From Crashing Into Each Other

What Made Cartridge Games So Clever

Triple Domino Spiral Is a Marvel of Destructive Engineering

Dye and Soap in Macro Looks Like Exploding Galaxies

Is the New AppleCare Worth it?

What Makes Saving Private Ryan‘s Beach Landing Scene So Brilliant

Cliff Jumper Narrowly Avoids a Rocky Death

Keep Computer Duster Very Far From Boiling Water

The Best Portable Bluetooth Speakers For Every Sound

Making an Espresso Maker Out of Scrap Metal Is Just Gorgeous to Watch

Hauntingly Beautiful Drone Footage of a Boat Graveyard

The Nintendo NX Is Bringing Cartridges Back: Report

Which Tech Startup Is Trying to Throw an Office Stripper Party?

YouTube Stars Are Blowing Up Over Not Getting Paid (Updates)

iPhone Glitch Transforms Cats Into Caterpillars

72 Hours in Model Horse Mecca

These Are the 10 Most Hated Reddit Posts of All Time

The DEA Now Thinks Kratom Is as Dangerous as Heroin

Manhattan Sinkhole Swallows Fancy SUV

Two Songs We Really Wish Were the Anime Outros for ‘Steel Ball Run’

AI Training Data Giant Mercor Is Reportedly Looking to Buy the Work You Did at Your Old Job

Utah Is Giving Dr. AI the Power to Renew Drug Prescriptions

Here’s the Perfect Excuse to See ‘Project Hail Mary’ Again

US Airlines Are Hiking Bag Fees Amid Iran War Oil Crisis

This Ridiculously Simple Trick Might Stop Gulls From Nabbing Your Lunch

‘Starfleet Academy’ Season 3 Could Have Done the ‘Voyager’ Sequel Episode of Robert Picardo’s Dreams

Judge Kills Lawsuit Against Infamous Study That Might Have Increased Teen Suicides

Artemis 2: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

Researchers Discover How to Add Psilocybin, DMT, and Other Psychedelics to Tobacco

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

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