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The Rocketeer Has Left the Building

News broke yesterday that Dave Stevens, creator of The Rocketeer and Bettie Page fan, has died following a long fight with leukemia. Stevens, whose geek credentials include a stint working on Hanna Barbera’s Super Friends and Godzilla cartoons in the late ’70s, made his name creating The Rocketeer in 1982. Due to Stevens’ perfectionist tendencies,…

Canon 5D Mark II Rumored Specs and Details

The calendar tells us that the 5D, Canon’s second best DSLR range, is due for a refresh. It comes from a message board, so take this with a grain of salt, but someone on DP Review forums has posted specs for a second generation 5D with the following changes: A modest 15.3MP up from 12.8MP,…

http://www.gimundo.com/ Saw a link to an article on this site on Digg. What’s up with the URL? Do they report on quality products like Magnetbox and Sorny?

Coed Demonstrates Failed Molecular Dance Craze, Circa 1964

Just in time to ride the last wave of novelty dances that began in the early 1960s with the Twist, a George State College chemistry professor came up with the Molecule-a-Go-Go. Alas, even the comely coed he picked to demonstrate its moves (and they said girls didn’t like chemistry!) couldn’t fail to disguise the fact…

Pixar’s Wall•e New Full Trailer Blasts Us Into Space

I’ve to confess that I wasn’t sure about Pixar’s upcoming Wall•e, the story of a robot who is left behind to clean Earth by a starbound human race. After seeing how amazingly mindblowtastic the full trailer is, it’s now higher than the greatest drunk hero of all time in the must-watch list, although still below…

What’ll Be The Most Surprising Hit Movie Of The Summer?

Out of a dozen or so scifi movies coming out this summer, only four of them are absolutely bulletproof, according to you, our readers. Ten of this summer’s science fiction films are in danger of falling into obscure-cult-classic territory — or worse. But there’s also an excellent chance that at least one underdog will become…

Acer’s “Blue” Ace: Aspire Gemstone Blue Notebook

Today in New York, Acer’s big surprise is the Aspire “Gemstone Blue” notebook, equipped with a Blu-ray drive, true high-def screen, and CineReal sound, a second generation of Dolby Surround. Sexy, and yes, blue, and it doesn’t appear to suffer from port envy like some other notebooks, though it is slender. In size it’s somewhere…

The Toughest SciFi Soldiers For Your Squad

The aliens are invading and you want to assemble a crack squad of commandos to fight the tough battles and serve as human meatshields. But where can you find the best commandos in the galaxy? It’s time to mine science fiction history for some of the steeliest break-your-face soliders so you can sleep easy when…

Meet io9 Intern Nivair Gabriel

Say hello to Nivair Gabriel, who just received her io9 implant and started as our spring intern. She comes to us from MIT, where she’s working on a degree in aerospace engineering. Not only has she done multivariable analysis of design factors involved in constructing a large-scale, remote-controlled airplane, but she’s also working on becoming…

Acer Mystery “Blue” Mobile Gadget Press Conference

We’re at Frank Gehry’s IAC Building in Manhattan, and Acer president Gianfranco Lanci is at the podium promising something exciting in the color blue (incidentally, Pantone’s official color of the year). The company itself is #2 worldwide in notebook sales, solid #3 in all PCs worldwide, especially after acquisitions of Gateway and Packard Bell. With…

Modular DNA PC Concept Lets You Build it Like LEGO

This modular DNA PC concept looks quite similar to the Bookshelf Microsoft ISDA design concept from a few years ago, but it’s slightly different in that it’s almost entirely made out of cubes. The core idea is the same: you’ve got a base “PC” that you add features and peripherals onto by attaching them together.…

Time-Stopping Superpower Results in Bad Sitcom

Okay, so maybe there are better uses for the ability to freeze time than helping your friend be the world’s greatest DJ. Like saving Helen Hunt after she’s just been thrown off a building. This is your chance to ensure the world gets Mad About You and As Good As It Gets! Actually, that may…

Hi-Tech Desk Concept Includes Integrated Laptop Dock

This concept desk looks like standard Ikea fare upon first glance, but a closer examination reveals a recessed middle that’s contoured for a custom Samsung laptop to dock into. Once locked in, the laptop keyboard sits flush with the rest of the desk, bringing new meaning to the term desktop PC. A novel idea, but…

The Future of Portable Entertainment Is Not an Apple Product

The Future of Portable Entertainment has a 2.8″ touch screen, a 1.3MP camera and one big honking square orange button. And you all Apple haters can rest now, because The Future of Portable Entertainment “is not an Apple product.” Or so says the company that makes this cloned piece of crap metal and plastic called…

Alien invaders are back, Das Boot style! Instead of seeing the world destroyed by a puny virus or environmental disaster, we’re going to get the full-on intergalactic world-smash, maybe for the first time since 2005’s disappointing War Of The Worlds. Wolfgang Petersen will direct Uprising, about a group of human freedom fighters after a “powerful…

Archos 606 is their First 3G-Equipped PMP

This seems to be a France-only deal, but Archos’s upcoming 606 looks like their first 3G data-equipped player to be available anywhere in the world. The player looks around the same size as the already-released 605, but is completely black, has a 30GB hard drive, and certain pricing details that are only relevant for France.…

Show Off Your TV, Audio-Video Gear’s Beauty: Frame it

With flat-screen TVs becoming more elegant and less “boring black box,” perhaps we’re ready for the kind of Pimp My Lounge styling that Vismara Design’s Media Center frames offer. Turning your TV and audio-video system into a sort of giant art installation-cum-digital picture frame, they’re available now in baroque or art deco styles, in silver…

Testing the Brain Machine

Mitch Altman is a mad engineer, the kind of guy who invents things designed purely to question social norms. He achieved notoriety for creating the TV-B-Gone, a tiny device that will shut down most TVs by flipping through a couple hundred known remote-control “off” signals at the touch of a button. And now that he’s…

Canadian Robot Conquers Space

The looming 12-foot tall robot Dextre (pronounced “Dexter”) just hitched a ride on the Space Shuttle Endeavour to be assembled on the International Space Station. When he’s put together, the Canadian robot will be able to take on high-risk activities, like changing out components, that would otherwise require a spacewalk by the astronauts. Dextre’s arms…

Japanese Oral Grip Machine Tortures, Improves Smiles

The Japanese are not unfamiliar with using gadgets to improve their appearance, but this Oral Grip Machine just looks and sounds too painful to be used while not inundated with sake. It’s a couple pieces of plastic you shove in your mouth to work your oral muscles out with for four minutes at a time,…