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Lockheed Martin HULC Exo-Skeleton Prepares to Smash Human Beta Tests

The HULC exo-skeleton, Lockheed Martin’s prototype heavy lifter for infantry troops in the field, has its battery and is now ready for human trials. If they’re successful, field tests could be close on their heels. https://gizmodo.com/remainders-the-things-we-didnt-post-talk-of-tomorrow-5454948/ Click to viewA quick primer though, before anything else: HULC, or Human Universal Load Carrier, could be the military’s…

Tech News Jack Loftus

The many faces of Nick Fury, Agent of S.U.A.V.E.

This week, the always entertaining Comic Twart collective illustrated everyone’s favorite stogie-chomping super-spy — Colonel Nicholas Joseph Fury. Furthermore, they went the extra mile and drew the 1960s version of Nick. Groovy. Be sure to check out the rest of Comic Twart’s designs at their website. [Spotted at Forbidden Planet International] By Francesco Francavilla By…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Tokyo billboards can instantly deduce your age and gender in the name of better marketing

Are you sick and tired of walking past billboards that offer generic pitches to buy their products that aren’t specifically tailored to your gender and age group? Well, fear not, because high-tech Japanese billboards are here to save the day. The billboards are part of the Digital Signage Promotion Project, in which 27 of the…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Nokia Kinetic Concept Declines Calls Using Playful Flicks

Designer Jeremy Hopkins, perhaps taking a cue from those inflatable clown punching bags that would always right themselves thanks to a special weight, has designed the Nokia Kinetic to do pretty much the exact same thing. Don’t want to answer? Screen that call with a simple flick. The Kinect will then bounces down to the…

Tech News Jack Loftus

July 19 Motorola Droid X Update Includes Numerous Efficiency Fixes

An upcoming July 19 Droid X software update includes patterns of sorts. Mainly, the words “improved,” “faster,” and “streamlined” appear frequently throughout the bullet point list of fixes. A small sampling, courtesy BGR: * Improved battery charging status indicator. * Smoother transition for camera and camcorder functions. * Faster Exchange ActiveSync® email loading. * Streamlined…

Tech News Jack Loftus

Shark Faucet Just Wants to Be Touched By Your Dirty Hands

Lately there’s been no shortage of sleek, designer faucets here at Gizmodo, and today is no exception. Called the Shark, this touchscreen faucet won’t devour your hands, but it will be touched by them. https://gizmodo.com/a-faucet-this-high-tech-is-not-necessary-5584020 Designed by Simone Micheli for Italian bathroom outfit ST Rubinetterie, there’s not much to go by with this faucet other…

Tech News Jack Loftus

The ruins of a Black Sea resort town

Russian photographer Slesarev Oleg Victorovitch took these photos of Gagra, a once-thriving resort town on the coast of Black Sea. Gagra was a palatial tourist destination until 1992, when the area was at the forefront of the War in Abkhazia. Gagra, which was a resort city in both Czarist and Soviet times, became a ruined…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Witness the amazing planet that’s also a comet!

The remarkable extrasolar planet HD 209458b is a gas giant a little smaller than Jupiter that’s constantly venting its atmosphere into space, giving it a very comet-like tail, all thanks to its super-close orbit around its sun. The planet is found about 153 light-years away from Earth. As you can see above in an artist’s…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

New Nook 3G Outed by FCC Report

The news is kind of unsurprising, but there’s evidence out today, courtesy an FCC filing, that the Nook is about to welcome a new 3G version to the fold. Perhaps a “Nook 2?” Updated: Update: This is potentially a new version of the existing Nook 3G ereader. [FCC via Best Ereaders – Thanks, Ben]

Tech News Jack Loftus

Swype Input Interface Sneaks Into Windows 7 Demo

The Swype text entry interface that’s been tearing up Android phones, World Records and maybe iPhones was spotted doing more of the same on a large touchscreen at the Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference. Spoiler: It looks like Swype, but bigger: https://gizmodo.com/swype-the-fastest-way-to-text-is-coming-to-androids-5564750 It is only a demo, and there’s not even a wisp of an inkling…

Tech News Jack Loftus

$5000 dystopian short film “The Raven” to be full length, could possibly star Mark Wahlberg

Ricardo de Montreuil’s snazzy short The Raven cost a mere $5K and was shot over a single weekend. Now Universal wants a Raven feature film, and Mark Wahlberg is potentially on-board to produce and star as the telekinetic hero. When we last saw The Raven this April, it was making the rounds on the internet…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Robbing cancer cells of their immortality could stop the disease in its tracks

Cancer cells are effectively immortal, unaffected by the processes that cause regular cells to stop replicating and die. But now we’ve found a protein that gives them immortality – and, just maybe, a way to switch it off. Every time normal cells reproduce, they lose a little part of the protective tip of their DNA.…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Atheists’ Latest Gadget: The Hairdryer

What does an atheist do when they’re trying to prove a point and “de-baptize” non-believers? Why, use a hairdryer of course, as Edwin Kagin has done with a “flock” of atheists at this year’s American Atheists Convention in New Jersey. Kagin, no stranger to provocative speeches against religion (pictured), uses his “Reason and Truth” hairdryer…

Tech News Jack Loftus

A map for aspiring diamond hunters

Find out which parts of the world to visit if you want to walk away with diamonds on the soles of your shoes. Some of you out there are tired of your office jobs. Some want a diamond on their finger without having to contribute to political strife. Others just refuse to give a single…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

MicDroid: Android Users Get Their Auto-Tune App

Hey Android users! Envious of the iPhone T-Pain app? Hungry for some portable Auto-Tune action? Are you still reading? Great, because MicDroid, the purported first Android Auto-Tune app, has landed. Commence with the rolling eyes and bleeding ears: PocketNow, modest as ever, says this is an early stage app, and that features are sparse, but…

Tech News Jack Loftus

Why Do Anonymous Geeks Hate Scientologists?

NYU professor Gabriella Coleman opened this profoundly profanity laced academic talk with a question: why have internet enthusiasts been drawn to denounce Scientology so vehemently for two decades? Scientology, she explained, has provided a perfect nemesis for geekery. To the geeks, freaks and hackers of the net the Church of Scientology subverts the idea of…

Tech News Quinn Norton

Prototype Vehicle Warning Seat System Vibrates When Danger Is Near

Is my ass vibrating again or am I about to run headlong into a Mack truck? Well, if a prototype out of the Yale School of Engineering comes to pass, in my hypothetical future both could be true! Wild ride! You see, this particular warning system, which joins flashing side mirrors (Audi) and “stay awake,…

Tech News Jack Loftus

Could “blue holes” offer clues about the biology of extraterrestrials?

In the Bahamas’ submerged inland caverns, or “blue holes,” a thin layer of fresh water separates oxygen from salt water. This creates a submerged, oxygen-free environment that could resemble underground water pockets on Mars or the seas of Europa. In the blue holes of the Bahamas, the anoxic salt waters supports ecosystems that are completely…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Artist Births Jedi In Seven Months Flat

Robert Burden, the time lapse painter who’s graced Gizmodo before with his He-Man Battle Cat and Voltron paintings, is back. The latest is “Birth of a Jedi.” And no, that’s not a third leg coming out of the Tauntaun. https://gizmodo.com/he-mans-battle-cat-gets-painted-time-lapse-style-5371273 The oil on canvas painting took seven months to complete, and measures an impressive 10’x7′.…

Tech News Jack Loftus

There’s still 12 minutes of new Lost left to see, starring Ben Linus and Hurley!

You thought you were at last finished with Lost…but Lost isn’t yet done with you. The upcoming sixth season and complete series DVDs will feature an all-new, 12 minute vignette featuring Ben and Hurley. And yes, it will answer questions! Michael Emerson and Jorge Garcia are both reprising their roles for the DVD extra, which…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Lockheed Martin HULC Exo-Skeleton Prepares to Smash Human Beta Tests

The many faces of Nick Fury, Agent of S.U.A.V.E.

Tokyo billboards can instantly deduce your age and gender in the name of better marketing

Nokia Kinetic Concept Declines Calls Using Playful Flicks

July 19 Motorola Droid X Update Includes Numerous Efficiency Fixes