Matt Novak, Author at Gizmodo

Before TV, Kids Would Flock to Midnight Ghost Shows

Throughout the 1930s and ‘40s, Americans flocked to their local movie theaters to be scared out of their wits. Sure, they loved the classic movies of the time like Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy. But it was the terrifying and humorous stage shows—known generically as the Midnight Ghost Show—that really packed the theaters to capacity.…

Tech News Matt Novak

Did the ‘War of the Worlds’ Radio Broadcast Really Cause Mass Panic?

PBS has a documentary about Orson Welles’ infamous 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast and the resulting hysteria that swept America. The only problem? Many scholars contend that the program didn’t actually cause mass panic at all. The story is burned into our national consciousness: Airing on October 30, 1938, the War of the…

Tech News Matt Novak

The Internet Archive Opens Its Historical Software Collection To All

Gamers of a certain age will no doubt scream Oh wow, I remember that! as they click through the Internet Archive’s latest project. The non-profit organization recently launched the Historical Software Collection, with the mission of making old programs accessible (including plenty of games!) that were originally released for platforms like Atari 2600, Apple II,…

Tech News Matt Novak

What if Google is Building WALL-E Robots Under the Name “By And Large”

In one of the weirdest stories of the week, it looks like Google is building something super-secret near Treasure Island, just off the coast of San Francisco. And boy is it big! When CNET reporters went down there to investigate they learned that a company called “By and Large LLC” was the newest tenant. Is…

Tech News Matt Novak

This Week in Time Capsules: Huey Lewis and the Canoes

This week in our time capsule news round-up we have questions about the World Series of 2213, the retro-futuristic death of a monorail in Australia, and a bunch of 1988 music that’s scheduled to be unearthed 75 years from today. Boundary Waters Capsule Filled With Fishing Lures, Greatest Hits of 1988 A time capsule in…

Tech News Matt Novak

18 Bizarre Letters to the Future That Only ’70s Kids Will Understand

Will the year 2000 be filled with flying cars or polluted air? Push-button lunches or the start of World War III? These were just some of the predictions made by fourth grade kids in 1976, who had trouble deciding if the future was going to be filled with high-tech gadgets or nuclear war. Or maybe…

Tech News Matt Novak

Being a Courier For The Manhattan Project Sounded Like An Awful Job

What would you do if your boss handed you a mysterious box and said that if anything weird started happening with it, to just ditch the thing and run as fast as you can? Well that’s exactly what happened to a poor courier working for the Manhattan Project back in the 1940s — a courier…

Tech News Matt Novak

Balloon Jumping: Yesterday’s Fun (and Dangerous) Sport of the Future

Faster than a speeding dirigible! More powerful than a horseless carriage! Able to leap short cottages in a single bound! It’s a bird! It’s an aeroplane! It’s a… jumper balloon? In the go-go 1920s, everything was looking up. People imagined that the skies of the future would soon be dotted with airships and flying cars.…

Tech News Matt Novak

Before The Age of Automobiles, Cyclists Fought For Better Roads

If you’re a time traveler who’s looking for a good cyclist’s map of California in the 1890s, well, today’s your lucky day.** Rebecca Onion over at Slate’s The Vault history blog has found this beautiful 1895 map of California that rated the state’s major roads and their suitability for bicycles. Before the dawn of the…

Tech News Matt Novak

Paleofuture PSA: 2 More Years Before Marty McFly Arrives In The Future

Don’t believe that Facebook post your uncle put up today about Back to the Future II. Today is not the day that Marty McFly arrives in the future. We still have two years to go. And then we’ll finally get our hoverboards. Finally! https://gizmodo.com/the-director-of-back-to-the-future-ii-lied-to-us-about-1449661852 https://whitenoise.kinja.com/today-is-the-day-marty-travels-to-in-bttf-actually-it-1450046230

Tech News Matt Novak

The Lindy Lid: A Forgotten Fashion Craze From The Golden Age of Flight

In the summer of 1927 a new fashion craze swept the nation. Called the “Lucky Lindy Lid,” it was a ladies’ felt hat that came in a variety of sizes and colors. Adorned with a small propellor on the front and two miniature wings darting out on each side, it may have looked a bit…

Tech News Matt Novak

The Director of Back to the Future II Lied To Us About Hoverboards

Are hoverboards real? Well, no. But if you were a kid in the 1980s and happened to see the “making of” documentary for Back to the Future II, you’d be forgiven for thinking so. When I first started the Paleofuture blog back in 2007 I got some rather curious emails about hoverboards. Specifically, some people…

Tech News Matt Novak

This Week in Time Capsules: Hot Dogs, Elephants, and a First-Gen iPhone

This week in our time capsule news round-up Harvard buries a first-gen iPhone, an animal park in the UK hopes to raise awareness about elephants, and the Sunshine State seals dozens of capsules in celebration of Florida’s “discovery” 500 years ago. Harvard Seals Capsule With Coke Zero, First-Generation iPhone Harvard’s Anthropology Department created a time…

Tech News Matt Novak

Did Al Gore Invent the Internet?

Anytime someone online writes about internet history, the comments inevitably fill up with jokes about Al Gore. There’s a popular myth that Gore once claimed to have invented the internet, which means many people think that “Al Gore” works as both a set-up and a punchline. What these jokesters might be surprised to learn is…

Tech News Matt Novak

Who Would You Nominate for the Internet Hall of Fame?

The Internet Society is currently taking nominations for 2014 inductees to the Internet Hall of Fame. They’re searching worldwide for people in three categories: Pioneers, Innovators, and Global Connectors. The nomination form is even open to the public. So who would you nominate? Nominees can have contributed to the development of the internet in any…

Tech News Matt Novak

Today’s “Kitchen of 2063” Sounds a Lot Like Martha Stewart’s ’90s Dream

The high-end appliance company Miele recently commissioned an interesting study about the kitchen of the future. It projected that in 50 years our food will be 3D-printed, walls in our homes will grow food, and we’ll even have mini-fish farms right in our kitchens. But you’d be forgiven for feeling like you’ve heard this all…

Tech News Matt Novak

What New York City Sounded Like in the 1920s

Ever wonder what New York City sounded like in the 1920s? Not the music or even the individual people, but the ambient noise—that swirling mix of life in America’s biggest city? Thanks to historian Emily Thompson, that idle question now has an interactive answer. Thompson, author of the 2004 book The Soundscape of Modernity, worked…

Tech News Matt Novak

The Computer Doctor Every ’80s Kid Was Promised

IBM’s Watson supercomputer may be boning up on its medical bona fides, but the concept of Dr. Watson is nothing new. We’ve been waiting on our super-smart computer doctors of tomorrow for over 30 years. https://gizmodo.com/ibms-watson-is-planning-to-fix-americas-healthcare-sy-1445486305 The 1982 book World of Tomorrow: Health and Medicine by Neil Ardley showed kids of the 1980s what the…

Tech News Matt Novak

The 50 Biggest Websites of 2010 (As Predicted in 2000)

Remember Webvan.com? A lot of people do, but you’d be hard pressed to find someone with anything nice to say about it. At the dawn of the internet retail revolution, Webvan was supposed to do for groceries what Amazon had done for books. The site failed miserably. But that’s not what futurists of the year…

Commerce Matt Novak

When the Next Flu Pandemic Hits, Keep Your Smartphone to Yourself

At the end of World War I, tens of millions of people died in just a few short years. But these deaths had nothing to do with the bullets and bayonets that had taken so many lives in battle. It was, instead, the Spanish Flu, which killed off about 5% of the world’s population from…

Tech News Matt Novak

Matt Novak

Before TV, Kids Would Flock to Midnight Ghost Shows

Did the ‘War of the Worlds’ Radio Broadcast Really Cause Mass Panic?

The Internet Archive Opens Its Historical Software Collection To All

What if Google is Building WALL-E Robots Under the Name “By And Large”

This Week in Time Capsules: Huey Lewis and the Canoes

18 Bizarre Letters to the Future That Only ’70s Kids Will Understand

Being a Courier For The Manhattan Project Sounded Like An Awful Job

Balloon Jumping: Yesterday’s Fun (and Dangerous) Sport of the Future

Before The Age of Automobiles, Cyclists Fought For Better Roads

Paleofuture PSA: 2 More Years Before Marty McFly Arrives In The Future

The Lindy Lid: A Forgotten Fashion Craze From The Golden Age of Flight

The Director of Back to the Future II Lied To Us About Hoverboards

This Week in Time Capsules: Hot Dogs, Elephants, and a First-Gen iPhone

Did Al Gore Invent the Internet?

Who Would You Nominate for the Internet Hall of Fame?

Today’s “Kitchen of 2063” Sounds a Lot Like Martha Stewart’s ’90s Dream

What New York City Sounded Like in the 1920s

The Computer Doctor Every ’80s Kid Was Promised

The 50 Biggest Websites of 2010 (As Predicted in 2000)

When the Next Flu Pandemic Hits, Keep Your Smartphone to Yourself

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

‘Supergirl’ Will Feature David Corenswet’s Superman in a Sort of Big Brother Role

Report: FDA Set to Unban RFK Jr.’s Favorite Peptides

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