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Microsoft Will Give Students a Free Xbox 360 If They Buy a Windows PC

No one will like you if in college if you don’t have a laptop. Kidding! But seriously, in college, a laptop is your life. Microsoft wants to help you kiddies out: Just like last year, if you buy a Windows PC, it’ll throw in a free Xbox 360. https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-giving-free-xbox-360s-to-pc-buying-students-t-5803566 Here’s how it works: Starting May…

Tech News Mario Aguilar May 18 '12

This HP Touchpad Is Your Fire-Sale-Reborn Deal of the Day

I’m looking for a replacement for my laptop. It’s not broken, just since starting this working-online thing, I’ve become feeble. I need something light to carry around with me. I’d be more than happy to just leave it all up to my phone, but there’s only so much typing I can do on such a…

Tech News Andrew James May 18 '12

A Chart that Reveals How Science Fiction Futures Changed Over Time

The future may seem to be closer or farther off, depending on the era you’re living in. That’s one of the possible conclusions you can draw from this chart (embedded below), created by Stephanie Fox for io9, based on research we’ve done over the past month. We wanted to know whether there are historical trends…

Movies Annalee Newitz May 18 '12

The 10 Most Depressing Alternate Realities From Marvel Comics

Comics starring the Avengers and X-Men have a rich tradition of alternate realities — and many of these parallel dimensions are complete hellholes. Here are ten of the worst universes in the history of Marvel Comics. In many of them, absolutely every single superhero you know and love has been put through the meat grinder.…

Books & Comics Cyriaque Lamar May 18 '12

Apple FaceTime Over 3G Seems Closer Than Ever

With my loved ones long away from me, I have missed the ability to use my iPhone’s FaceTime over 3G a few times. Even if the quality would have been bad. Well, it seems that Apple is really getting ready for it, according to this screenshot that just appeared in iOS 5.1.1. https://gizmodo.com/what-facetime-looks-like-over-3g-5576537 The error…

Tech News Jesus Diaz May 18 '12

Dominate the Waves Aboard This Gorgeous Wooden Honeycomb

Today’s conventional polyurethane foam surfboards are lightweight, strong, and maneuverable. But that comes at the cost of a more jarring ride in rough seas—not to mention PU isn’t exactly an environmentally-friendly material. So New Zealander Mike Grobelny is taking carving back to its roots with a CNC-milled, hollow wood board. Surfboards used to be made…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola May 18 '12

When insanity is your superpower, reality will eventually become your Kryptonite

From the beginning, Awake’s Michael Britten has seen his delusion about seeing two different versions of reality as a possible strength: He can learn something in one world and use it in the other. As he tells Bird in last night’s episode, sometimes he knows stuff that he shouldn’t be able to know. So being…

Television Charlie Jane Anders May 18 '12

Tripping Through the Cold War: Drug Warfare in the Retrofuture

Chemical warfare is nothing new. As early as 428 BC the Spartans were burning wood soaked in resin and sulfur for use against their enemies. And the First World War is often remembered for its horrific deaths due to mustard gas. But the mid-20th century ushered in a new futuristic chemical weapon: LSD. Lysergic acid…

Tech News Matt Novak May 18 '12

Someone Put a Giant Soda Fountain Shower On a Beach

I can’t wait to go back to Brazil and spend some time in Rio, the famous city where people dance in thongs while showering under giant soda fountains in the middle of the bea—wait. What? Actually, it’s just a very clever promotional campaign for Sprite Brazil. And thankfully, the shower works with water, not actual…

Tech News Jesus Diaz May 18 '12

A tick bite could turn you into a vegetarian

Ticks are known for transmitting disease, but they’ve also been known to make people deathly allergic to meat. Discover Magazine is running a really interesting post on little-known facts about allergies. The link between ticks, meat and violent allergic reactions immediately stuck out. Since 2009, immunologist Scott Commins has been studying this bizarre connection. His…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez May 18 '12

The Wonderfully Nerdy Intricacies of Brewing Good Coffee

Coffee is an extremely fickle drink when it comes to its creation. Weight, temperature, and time are all key factors in brewing a great cup, but those variables rarely stay the same for the making of any given cup. What you can master, however, is technique. And when it comes to brewing pour-over coffee with…

Tech News Adrian Covert May 18 '12

We Set Off Homemade Smoke Bombs — and Survive!

Does it give you pleasure to watch things burn? In this week’s episode of the io9 show We Come from the Future, we set off homemade smoke bombs without burning ourselves or getting arrested. We also explain why we’re disappointed by the new Dark Knight Rises trailer, and bring you the latest news from the…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 18 '12

A List of Better Ways to Spend $41 Than a Share of Facebook

Facebook is now a publicly traded company, weeeeeeeee! What you didn’t buy in? We didn’t either. Here’s what to do with your $41 instead. Unless you’ve got millions of dollars and huge portfolio with a major firm, you didn’t get that $38 asking price before the bell. Now it’s at $41. Who know what’ll be…

Tech News Mario Aguilar May 18 '12

The One Place That Needs More Censorship

This week’s Internet-based teapot tempest swirled around the venerable TED talks, which were accused by one presenter of censoring his talk because he spoke truth to power and talked about income inequality. Shenanigans, replied TED’s Chris Anderson. Shenanigans and poppycock. But here’s the thing: TED’s biggest problem isn’t that it’s engaging in too much censorship,…

Tech News Mat Honan May 18 '12

SpaceX Falcon 9: The Future of Commercial Space Flight Blasts Off Tomorrow

Until just a few years ago, manned spaceflight was the exclusive sandbox of not just nations, but of the world’s select superpowers—the countries with enough disposable income to say, “F-ck it. Let’s go to the Moon.” Those days are over, sadly, slowly smothered by shrinking budgets and realigning priorities. But this isn’t the end of…

Space & Spaceflight Andrew Tarantola May 18 '12

15 Awesome Art Installations Painted in Light

With the proper projector, the world is your canvas. Our friends at Oobject have assembled 15 of the most innovative building facade projections since MIT employed one as a giant Tetris board. https://gizmodo.com/mit-students-hack-building-play-tetris-5904520 Be sure to also check out these 15 Blade Runner Buildings, these 12 movable facades, and this collection of ginormous screens. 3D…

Tech News David Galbraith - Oobject.com May 18 '12

Turns out Sonic Screwdriver beats Lightsaber

This is our new favorite piece of fan-art ever. The Doctor faces off against Darth Vader, and uses his sonic screwdriver to go all “cortosis blade” on Vader’s lightsaber. Now we want to know if psychic paper is more powerful than the Jedi mind trick. Kudos to artist K.K. Jordan for capturing the look of…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 18 '12

Badass Fitness Weirdo Runs 13 Miles on Treadmill Attached to Hot Air Balloon

Rob Ginnivan just performed a batshit fitness publicity stunt. The Australian just ran a half-marathon on a generator-powered treadmill floating on a hot air balloon. Unconventional! At least it’s for charity. OK, so Ginnivan is obviously operating on an entirely different plane of consciousness than the rest of us, but his feat is downright impressive.…

Tech News Mario Aguilar May 18 '12

The Mark Zuckerberg Wealth-O-Meter: Sad, Absurd, And You Know You’re Curious

As a species, we are very stupid and fascinated with things that have nothing to do with us. It’s what drives ordinarily sane people to, say, stand in Times Square and take photos of rich people doing rich people things on jumbotrons. And also what drives us to follow, minute-by-minute, the outrageous wealth of a…

Social Media Kyle Wagner May 18 '12

Your Brain on Facebook

Today is all about Facebook’s big $100 billion IPO. But how did the social media titan get so titanic to begin with? Harvard Business Review’s David Rock explains that Facebook is so far ahead of human practice, it actually hacks our brains. While Facebook’s rise took many by surprise, its success was little surprise to…

Social Media David Rock - Harvard Business Review May 18 '12

Microsoft Will Give Students a Free Xbox 360 If They Buy a Windows PC

This HP Touchpad Is Your Fire-Sale-Reborn Deal of the Day

A Chart that Reveals How Science Fiction Futures Changed Over Time

The 10 Most Depressing Alternate Realities From Marvel Comics

Apple FaceTime Over 3G Seems Closer Than Ever

Dominate the Waves Aboard This Gorgeous Wooden Honeycomb

When insanity is your superpower, reality will eventually become your Kryptonite

Tripping Through the Cold War: Drug Warfare in the Retrofuture

Someone Put a Giant Soda Fountain Shower On a Beach

A tick bite could turn you into a vegetarian

The Wonderfully Nerdy Intricacies of Brewing Good Coffee

We Set Off Homemade Smoke Bombs — and Survive!

A List of Better Ways to Spend $41 Than a Share of Facebook

The One Place That Needs More Censorship

SpaceX Falcon 9: The Future of Commercial Space Flight Blasts Off Tomorrow

15 Awesome Art Installations Painted in Light

Turns out Sonic Screwdriver beats Lightsaber

Badass Fitness Weirdo Runs 13 Miles on Treadmill Attached to Hot Air Balloon

The Mark Zuckerberg Wealth-O-Meter: Sad, Absurd, And You Know You’re Curious

Your Brain on Facebook

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