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Would you really watch a weekly show in the style of Paranormal Activity?

Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli and his collaborators are close to a deal with ABC to make a TV pilot in the same “spooky found footage” style. The River would focus on the search for a person who went missing on the Amazon. The Hollywood Reporter notes that ABC aggressively outbid NBC for the pilot,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

What Happened To Wicked Lasers’ Spyder III Pro Arctic Laser?

When we heard about Wicked Lasers’ Spyder III Pro Arctic laser, an ultra powerful portable laser with a lightsaberesque design selling for only $200, it almost seemed too good to be true. Turns out it might have been. https://gizmodo.com/the-spyder-iii-the-worlds-most-powerful-portable-laser-5560206 Since we first posted about the Spyder III in June, we’ve received a steady stream of…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

Facebook Blocked Ping’s API Access Because Apple Didn’t Have Authorization To Use It

We’ve heard that Apple launched Ping without Facebook support because the two companies couldn’t agree on some terms, but today AllThingsD explains that Apple actually ignored the fact that negotiations failed and incorporated Facebook’s API—until Facebook blocked things. https://gizmodo.com/if-apple-cant-deal-with-facebooks-onerous-terms-for-p-5628349 Basically, Facebook offers open access to its wonderful friend-finding API “unless some entity wants to access…

Tech News Rosa Golijan

Charles Darwin performed the world’s first terraforming experiment

Nearly two centuries ago, famed scientists Charles Darwin and Joseph Hooker transformed the barren volcanic island of Ascension into a lush artificial ecosystem, unwittingly inventing terraforming. Now, Darwin’s incredible achievement could help us transform Mars into a livable environment. Darwin and Hooker, with the assistance of the Royal Navy, managed to create a functional ecosystem…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The Ugly Carpets of Vegas are Hideously Clever Social Engineering at Work

Something this horrific can’t possibly be an accident. I mean, it takes genius to come up with something so offensive to the eye. Sure enough, the crazily appalling carpets that adorn Vegas casinos are designed to keep you gambling. Like some sort of vile afterbirth after a meeting of the 1990s and an insane asylum…

Tech News Sam Biddle

Ringtone Creation Stripped From iTunes 10

For reasons unknown, it appears Apple has removed from iTunes 10 the ability to create ringtones out of your songs for $0.99. The feature is still intact in previous versions of iTunes. [Mac Life]

Tech News Sam Biddle

Watch Arthur C. Clarke predict the world we live in, in a 1964 interview

Rendezvous With Rama author Arthur C. Clarke predicts telemedicine, telecommuting and mobile phones, in a 1964 BBC interview. Too bad we don’t have space colonies or mentally enhanced chimpanzee servants yet. I love where he says, “If what I say seems to you completely reasonable, then I will have failed completely. Only if what I…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Skype 5.0 Windows Beta Has 10-Way Video Calling!

Skype’s latest Windows-only 5.0 beta 2 doubles their five-way video calling to ten. TEN. How does ten-way video calling look? Like this. If you add two. We could only get eight, and four of them was me. While the eight-way video call was going, everything looked and sounded fine. I had to mute all four…

Tech News Jason Chen

MIT’s Self-Assembling Solar Cells Recycle Themselves Repeatedly, Just Like Plant Cells

Plants are extremely efficient converters of light into energy, setting the bar for researchers creating photovoltaic cells. A team of MIT scientists believe they’ve created a synthetic chloroplast that can be broken down and reassembled repeatedly, restoring sun-damaged solar cells. While the leaves on a tree appear to be as static as the PV cells…

Tech News Christina Bonnington

The classic Doctor Who monster that terrified young John Barrowman

Carole Barrowman talks about growing up as a fan of Doctor Who alongside her younger brother John — who became famous as the Doctor’s sexiest companion, Captain Jack Harkness, in this excerpt from the anthology Chicks Dig Time Lords. When my baby brother, John, was born, the Doctor was in his second regeneration, Jamie was…

io9 Carole E. Barrowman - Chicks Dig Time Lords

A Heat-Seeking, Automated Nerf Sentry Gun

Nerf guns these days are very scary. They have reloadable magazines and fire automatically and look like they could provide a suitable defense during an alien invasion. But how to render one even scarier? Make it heat-seeking. Video, please: https://gizmodo.com/so-this-is-what-nerf-guns-are-like-now-huh-5588890 Click to view That terrifying toy took Grand Prize at the MAKE/Design News Gadget Freak…

Privacy & Security Kyle VanHemert

Become As Efficient As Humanly, Android-ly Possible

The new Droid 2 has a redesigned QWERTY keyboard that’s intensely intuitive. And it’s only one of the evolved features that will help you be a Master of Efficiency, otherwise known as a texting, multi-tasking machine with no match in the smartphone-verse. Android OS 2.2 With the latest Android OS 2.2, you can view all…

Tech News Gawkercreative

Canon 4K Concept Camera: Please Be Real One Day

I really hope Canon makes this concept compact 4k camera one day, even if Canon says it’ll never come out just like this. It’s like the looming future of cameras sculpted in black plastic, a photon blaster-cum-camera. A mere 5.5 pounds, this working concept model shoots 4K video at 60 frames a second using a…

Tech News Matt Buchanan

2010 will be remembered as the year the Arctic Ocean became a trade route

In the 1980s, the Soviet Union built nuclear-powered ice-breakers, hoping to open a shipping route through the Arctic. They needn’t have bothered — there’s no ice left now in the summer, opening the fabled Northeast Passage to shipping. According to a new report in Barents Observer, the Northeast Passage, now renamed the Northern Sea Route,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

A Story About Woz and Jobs, Actual Partners in Crime

When Steve Jobs singled out Steve Wozniak as his “partner in crime” at yesterday’s event, he wasn’t just speaking figuratively. Here’s Woz recounting the time he, Jobs, and the infamous Captain Crunch got picked up by the police for phreaking. https://gizmodo.com/all-the-cool-new-stuff-from-apple-5627368 And here’s Jobs’ take, recalling the Blue Box era with decidedly less drama. Though…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

Gadget Deals of the Day

Can you smell what #dealz is cookin’? We’ve got some great bargains on a 13.3″ Core i3 HP Laptop, a nice 14MP Samsung HZ30W, and we’re storing that food in a free Ziploc Container. Mmmm, tasty. Top Deals: • 13.3″ HP dm3 Core i3-330UM ULV Laptop for $594.99 plus free shipping (normally $719.99 – use…

Tech News Adam Harris

Ask N.K. Jemisin about “The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms”

We’ve spent the week in the io9 book club discussing N.K. Jemisin’s novel The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Now you can ask the author about the book – she’ll be joining us tomorrow from 12-1 EST to answer! https://gizmodo.com/the-io9-book-club-is-in-session-lets-discuss-the-hund-5625153 If you have a question, just write it in comments below and Jemisin will get to as…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Canon’s Omnidirectional Camera Is a 50 Megapixel Eye That Looks Everywhere at Once

Panoramic photography can be tricky. What’s better? Canon’s camera that shoots a single, 360° image. The tech uses a giant, 50 megapixel CMOS sensor and aspheric mirror to capture a sharp, sweeping photo, exceeding the human eye’s measly 120° view. The resulting high-detail imagery can fluidly viewed and navigated without the seams and perspectival glitches…

Tech News Sam Biddle

The secret revealed: Gaze into the face of Buffy’s ultimate foe!

If you read the latest issue of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, you know Joss Whedon revealed a shocking secret on the final page. Here’s an exclusive look at the cover to Buffy’s next issue, which displays the terrible truth! Spoilers! A “censored” version of this cover was released already, and you can see it above.…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

Unlimited and 25MB Data Plans Available at Verizon Wireless Now

This is great news for pre-paid Verizon Wireless customers, with the carrier introducing unlimited and 25MB data options for their SIMs. Available from today in-store (or online on September 28th), the plans will only work with (most of their) 3G smartphones—which makes sense, really. The unlimited plan comes in at $30 per month, and for…

Tech News Kat Hannaford

Would you really watch a weekly show in the style of Paranormal Activity?

What Happened To Wicked Lasers’ Spyder III Pro Arctic Laser?

Facebook Blocked Ping’s API Access Because Apple Didn’t Have Authorization To Use It

Charles Darwin performed the world’s first terraforming experiment

The Ugly Carpets of Vegas are Hideously Clever Social Engineering at Work

Ringtone Creation Stripped From iTunes 10

Watch Arthur C. Clarke predict the world we live in, in a 1964 interview

Skype 5.0 Windows Beta Has 10-Way Video Calling!

MIT’s Self-Assembling Solar Cells Recycle Themselves Repeatedly, Just Like Plant Cells

The classic Doctor Who monster that terrified young John Barrowman

A Heat-Seeking, Automated Nerf Sentry Gun

Become As Efficient As Humanly, Android-ly Possible

Canon 4K Concept Camera: Please Be Real One Day

2010 will be remembered as the year the Arctic Ocean became a trade route

A Story About Woz and Jobs, Actual Partners in Crime

Gadget Deals of the Day

Ask N.K. Jemisin about “The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms”

Canon’s Omnidirectional Camera Is a 50 Megapixel Eye That Looks Everywhere at Once

The secret revealed: Gaze into the face of Buffy’s ultimate foe!

Unlimited and 25MB Data Plans Available at Verizon Wireless Now

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