Matt Novak, Author at Gizmodo

The Magazine of the Future (on floppy disk!)

In 1987, a small Dallas-based company launched a floppy disk magazine that was supposed to be a grand experiment in the future of the medium. At $19.95 an issue, The New Aladdin was a bi-monthly general-interest magazine that hoped to give readers an entirely new kind of interactive experience; complete with animated graphics, computer games,…

Tech News Matt Novak

The Disco-Blasting Robot Waiters of 1980s Pasadena

In 1983, a Chinese fast-food restaurant in Pasadena, California hired a curious-looking pair of servers: two robots named Tanbo R-1 and Tanbo R-2. At 4.5 feet tall and 180 pounds, the robots would scoot around; bringing trays of chow mein, spareribs and fortune cookies to customers’ tables. Shayne Hayashi, the owner of Two Panda Deli,…

Tech News Matt Novak

Print the News, Right In Your Home!

The introduction of broadcast radio caused some in the newspaper industry to fear that newspapers would soon become a thing of the past. After all, who would read the news when you could just turn on the radio for real-time updates? Newspapers had even more to fear in 1938 when radio thought it might compete…

Tech News Matt Novak

Be prepared to speak pleasantly: the White Castle checklist of 1931

1931 checklist for White Castle employees (source: Philip Langdon) From the vantage point of 2012, it’s somehwat hard to imagine a time when conformity was the restaurant industry’s strongest selling point. But during the rise of fast food restaurants in the first half of the 20th century, people were very much attracted to the idea…

Tech News Matt Novak

The Flying Ambulance of Tomorrow

In the 1920s, just as some imagined rooftop airports for the aeroplane commuter of the future, others figured there would soon be a market for flying automobiles. The Roaring Twenties brought Americans a new era of mass-produced goods and, with it, an emerging middle class clamoring for newly affordable automobiles. In 1925 you could buy…

Tech News Matt Novak

Astrologers Predict 1929 Will Be Year of Prosperity

1929 is a rather infamous year in American history. It was the year that the first science fiction comic strip was introduced; Babe Ruth became the first major league baseball player to hit 500 home runs; and the first Academy Awards ceremony was held in Hollywood. But you’ll be forgiven if you only remember 1929…

Tech News Matt Novak

The 1960 patent for the “pink slime” process

I keep reading articles that make it sound like the process to create so-called “pink slime” was invented in the 1990s. The process dates back to at least 1960, as evidenced by the patent filed by Chicago meatpacker Armour and Company on April 5, 1960 and approved in 1962. Patent 3,062,655 was initially intended to…

Tech News Matt Novak

Hiroshima, U.S.A.

There’s no city that Americans fictionally destroy more often than New York. New York has been blown up, beaten down and attacked in every medium imaginable throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. From movies to novels to newspapers, there’s just something so terribly apocalyptic in the American psyche that we must see our most populous…

Tech News Matt Novak

The Milkman’s Robot Helper

Remember milkmen? Yeah, neither do I. In 2007, I moved into an apartment building in St. Paul that was built during the early 1920s. I remember asking the building manager what the small, two-foot tall doors attached to the outside of each apartment were for. The doors had long been painted shut and no longer…

Tech News Matt Novak

Rick Santorum’s Dystopia of the Year 2014

According to Rick Santorum, if Obama is re-elected Americans will be forced to fill up their heads with gasoline Probably inspired by Hunger Games mania, Rick Santorum recently released the most dystopian campaign video we’ve seen in quite a while. Called “Obamaville,” the video depicts the bleak world of 2014: President Obama has been re-elected,…

Tech News Matt Novak

Tomorrow’s Mobile Home

Recently we looked at a 1946 prediction for a gigantic atomic-powered sphere that would traverse the country as a kind of hamster-ball land cruise for humans. About a decade earlier there were predictions of a similar looking ball — but for use as homes. The September, 1934 issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics imagined the…

Tech News Matt Novak

Fighting Terrorism in the Future

The 1981 book World of Tomorrow: Future War and Weapons by Neil Ardley is (naturally) a little dark for juvenile literature. Space pirates slaughter families while they picnic on space colonies, armies poison each other to create vivid hallucinations, and people on Earth live in underground shelters after a horrifying nuclear war destroys life as…

Tech News Matt Novak

Telemedicine Was Predicted in 1925

The 1920s was an incredible decade of advancement for communications technology. Radio was finally being realized as a broadcast medium, talkies were transforming the film industry, and inventors were tinkering with the earliest forms of television. People of the 1920s recognized that big changes were ahead, and no one relished in guessing what those changes…

Tech News Matt Novak

Moebius (1938-2012)

French artist Jean Giraud, better known as Moebius to his fans, died today. His work had a profound influence on a huge number of filmmakers and comic book artists. Moebius did the set and costume design for Tron, and though he didn’t work on Blade Runner directly, his work had a great influence on that…

Tech News Matt Novak

Super-Sized Food of the Future

We often associate food futurism with the concept of meal pills. But another popular prediction from the “freaky science” file of retro-futurism involved gigantic fruits and vegetables. (And not just Great Pumpkins, such as the ones that competitive growers are creating today.) The December, 1900 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal featured a fascinating article titled…

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The bigger the box, the bigger the reward

This 1913 newspaper advertisement for The Arcade Bakery in Placerville, California insisted that the bigger the box of candy you brought home to your wife, the bigger the… ahem… “reward.” You will be well rewarded if your visit includes the offering of a box of our candy. The bigger the box the bigger the reward.…

Tech News Matt Novak

Information Overload Is A Recurring Fear

A 1971 essay in The Futurist magazine opened with some alarming numbers. The average city, it said, now had six television channels. But, the author warned, there was already one city planning 42 channels and in the future, there could even be places that support 80, 100 or 200 channels. Where will it end, the…

Tech News Matt Novak

The iPad of 1935

There’s no denying that devices like the iPad, Kindle and Nook have dramatically changed the way that many people consume media. Last year, online retailer Amazon announced that electronic book sales had surpassed print book sales for the first time in history. The future of the book has quite a few failed predictions in its…

Tech News Matt Novak

Is the stock market gambling? (1912)

In 1912 almost all forms of gambling were illegal in the United States. A handful of states allowed betting on horse races, but that was pretty much it. It wasn’t until the Great Depression in the 1930s that gambling laws loosened, as gaming was seen by some as a way to stimulate the U.S. economy.…

Tech News Matt Novak

1970s Children Draw Robot Presidents and Nuclear Apocalypse

American futurism of the 1970s is a fascinating mix of sleek Jetsonian utopianism and dreary mushroom cloud hellscapes. Nowhere is this dichotomy of tomorrowism more evident than in children’s drawings of the future. I’ve always found that some of the most interesting predictions come from children, who tend to express ideas that reflect both the…

Tech News Matt Novak

Matt Novak

The Magazine of the Future (on floppy disk!)

The Disco-Blasting Robot Waiters of 1980s Pasadena

Print the News, Right In Your Home!

Be prepared to speak pleasantly: the White Castle checklist of 1931

The Flying Ambulance of Tomorrow

Astrologers Predict 1929 Will Be Year of Prosperity

The 1960 patent for the “pink slime” process

Hiroshima, U.S.A.

The Milkman’s Robot Helper

Rick Santorum’s Dystopia of the Year 2014

Tomorrow’s Mobile Home

Fighting Terrorism in the Future

Telemedicine Was Predicted in 1925

Moebius (1938-2012)

Super-Sized Food of the Future

The bigger the box, the bigger the reward

Information Overload Is A Recurring Fear

The iPad of 1935

Is the stock market gambling? (1912)

1970s Children Draw Robot Presidents and Nuclear Apocalypse

Source Code for Anthropic’s Claude Code Leaks at the Exact Wrong Time

SpaceX Starlink Satellite Malfunctions, Breaks Apart in Orbit

‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ Stinks

‘Scream 4’ Is Back, and on Tape

Iran Threatens to Attack U.S. Tech Companies Starting April 1

Amazon Clears Out Netflix-Licensed Nebula Capsule 3 Mini Projector at 32% Off, Dolby Audio Home Theater for Less

Anker 160W Laptop Charger Briefly Returns to Black Friday Pricing in a Last-Minute Amazon Spring Sale Deal

The New ‘Backrooms’ Trailer Is Packed Full of Endless Dread

Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo Falls Under $25, a Budget Bundle Deal in the Final Hours of Spring Sale

Liquids Crack With an Audible Snap, Study Finds

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