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How Cigarette Packaging Fools You

A new study shows we’re still suckers for canny packaging of cigarette brands, especially those claiming to be slightly less bad for us than the usual variety. A team of Australian researchers investigated the effects of plain packaging laws, publishing their findings yesterday in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. Plain packaging…

This 360 Video Puts You Behind the Wheel of a Formula Drift Race Car

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift sucked, but that’s just cause it wasn’t shot with 360 degree cameras. This 360 degree video from the top of a Pro Drifter’s car does the art of drifting justice the way the movie never could. We took the 360fly to a Clubloose Slay Ride drift event and…

CBS Suddenly Wants to Put a Stop to Axanar, the Crowdfunded Star Trek War Movie

Axanar has attracted a lot of attention since its hugely successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns raised over a million dollars to make a movie set decades before the events of the original Star Trek series. But after over a year of tolerating the film’s existence, CBS and Paramount have cracked down. https://gizmodo.com/first-look-at-axanar-the-star-trek-war-movie-weve-wait-1716037166 Axanar promised to…

Maze Balls Are the Perfect Shape To Throw Across the Room in Frustration

It’s easier to dedicate yourself to solving a complex maze when in the back of your mind you know that should frustrations arise, you’ll be able to simply hurl it across the room for some instant stress relief. Shouldn’t all puzzles be as relaxing? Available in three different skill levels including easy, medium, and hard,…

Check Out This Uncanny, Never-Before-Seen Back to the Future Poster

It’s almost impossible to think of Back to the Future and not instantly conjure thoughts of Drew Struzan’s iconic poster of Marty McFly stepping out of the Delorean. But we almost had a poster where the amazing time-traveling car wasn’t the star. Hell, it was barely even on the poster. This unused poster concept recently…

Pointing at This Glowing Clock Isn’t Rude, It’s the Only Way to Display the Time

So how do you sell a standalone clock in a time when almost every electronic device already has one built in? You turn it into a magnificent piece of art like this Shadowplay clock that uses shadows from a pointed finger as its hour and minute hands. A ring of LEDs around the clock’s frame…

The 100 Most Popular io9 Posts of 2015

It was a year of splendid science fiction, some pretty strange science…and a little movie called Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Somehow that dress made the cut too. These are the 100 most popular io9 posts from 2015, according to data from Google Analytics. This Animated Data Visualization Of World War II Fatalities Is Shocking…

The 100 Most Popular Gizmodo Posts of 2015

From weird robots to headphone rants to the darkest, creepiest crevasses of the internet — and that goddamn fucking dress. These are the 100 most popular Gizmodo posts from 2015 as per Google Analytics. Revisit. Reread. Rejoice. This Site Will Make a Stuffed Animal Clone of Your Pet Saying goodbye to a pet is sometimes…

How to Sync iTunes Music To Your Android Device

Taking your iTunes library out with you on an Android smartphone or tablet is no longer the impossible mission it used to be—there are a number of apps and services that can help, including Apple’s first major Android app. We’ll go through the various options so you can choose the one that works best for…

Cheap Projector Uses Prisms to Create Color Images from B&W Source

Before LEDs and lasers came along, video projectors would shine white light through a rotating color wheel to produce full-color images. But researchers at Dartmouth College and Disney Research Zürich have come up with a more unusual projection approach using prisms and very precise computer-generated black and white images. What’s most remarkable about this unique…

Samsung’s Latest Transformative Gadget Is… a Smart Belt?

Samsung just revealed the first class of gadgets to emerge from its Creative Lab projects. They’re creative alright! Topping the list of shiny new things from the Korean electronics giant is a smart belt called WELT. Yes, you heard that right. Samsung describes WELT as “a smart wearable healthcare belt that looks like a normal…

DC Comics Wants You To Color In Its New Comic Covers

We’re in the middle of that already weird limbo-week between Christmas holidays and New Years celebrations. Are you stuck at work with nothing to do? Stuck at home and wanting to unwind after all that family togetherness? DC Comics’ might be able to help. Every January release from the company will have one “Adult Coloring…

Here’s Some Crazy Speculation About The True Identity Of Star Wars‘ Mystery Villain

Check out brand new looks at X-Men Apocalypse and Ghostbusters. Benedict Cumberbatch almost didn’t manage to star in Doctor Strange. Kristen Bell heads to iZombie. Plus, tons of new glimpses of Shadowhunters, and the return of Supergirl. Spoilers Now! Star Wars Ever since The Force Awakens released, speculation has been rife about the true identity…

Facebook and Twitter Say They Ban Terrorism. Well, What the Hell Does That Mean? 

Twitter and Facebook have both explicitly banned terrorist content this year. Yet neither will comment on how they define terrorism. Are they using the FBI’s definition in US code? Or something else? Twitter announced an update to its “Twitter Rules” today, changing the language in its “violence and threats” section to forbid “threatening or promoting…

LG’s SmartThinQ Hub Puts All Your Smarthome Notifications on a 3.5-inch Screen

The flawlessly interconnected smarthome we’ve been promised remains a mess of competing standards and random devices battling for your attention. To help streamline all that noise, LG has revealed an Amazon Echo-looking hub that includes an LCD display for keeping an eye on what your smarthome is up to. Whereas the Amazon Echo is dependent…

Despite Tim Cook’s Trashtalking, Apple Will Pay Italy $348 Million in Back Taxes

Apple, like many other companies, is infamous for funneling money through its European headquarters in Ireland and benefitting from a lower tax rate. Well, Italy’s had enough of it, and Apple just agreed to pay the boot-shaped country $348 million in back taxes. Tim Cook must be pissed. Tim Cook must be pissed since earlier…

23 Things To Look For When You See Star Wars: The Force Awakens Again

We’ve already told you seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens again is probably a good idea. We’ve also given you lots of questions to ponder once you leave the theater. But now, we’re going to give you 23 things to look for when you see the movie again. 1. The first line of dialogue may…

How To Control Thermite Pyrotechnics with 3D Printing

Thermites are a class of materials known for producing dazzling pyrotechnic displays in high school chemistry classes, and they’re used in all kinds of real-world applications. But these reactions are very unpredictable, releasing a lot of energy all willy-nilly. Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have figured out how to use 3D printing…

New Research Could Improve Artificial Retinas To Help a Blind Eye See

It’s possible to restore some rough semblance of sight in the blind with artificial retinas. New research suggests that varying the length of the electrical pulses used to let a blind eye “see” could enable much higher-resolution retinal implants, so that blind people can better navigate their environment with confidence. Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a…

Guillermo del Toro divulged his top 10 Criterion films to the DVD site, and (unsurprisingly, given the director’s deep love of cinema) it’s an eclectic, intelligent, and wide-ranging list that he groups in “thematic/authorial pairings.” Among his picks: Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (pictured) and Time Bandits.