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Margaret Atwood’s Next Book Is a Prison-Bound Take on The Tempest

This year marks 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare, and to commemorate the bard, acclaimed authors are taking some of the most popular plays and retelling them with weird and wonderful twists. Margaret Atwood has revealed her own entry in the project: a novel that turns the fantastical world of The Tempest into…

This $6,000 Candle-Powered Guitar Pedal Is the Definition of Gear Lust

Zachary Vex has been building unusual guitar effect pedals for 21 years, but he debuted what might be his strangest yet: a vibrato/phaser run entirely by a candle. Because it’s a custom piece created by hand in a machine shop, one Z.VEX Candela Vibrophase will run you about $6,000, or at least that’s what Vex…

Tesla Powerwalls Just Got a Gorgeous Competitor

Tesla Powerwalls could change your whole home (and your power bill), but they’re still difficult to buy. Fortunately alternatives are slowly appearing on the market. Orison is one such alternative. Launched as a Kickstarter project earlier this month, Orison has already earned more than $250,000—five times the amount requested. We had the opportunity to see…

Two New Accessories Give LG’s Modular Smartphone Super Powers

You probably know by now that the LG G5 is a modular phone. The bottom of the device is removable and can be swapped with different accessories that multiply the phone possibilities. A couple of them caught our attention: a little module that will amaze audiophiles, and a bulky module that adds physical camera buttons.…

Why Scaring Animals Shitless Is Good for the Environment

Big carnivores are scary, both to humans and the animals they prey upon. But as a new study demonstrates, the fear that these predators instill among their prey can have a positive influence on ecological health and biodiversity, a finding with important implications for conservation. By playing the threatening sounds of large carnivores over speakers,…

Stop Netflix, YouTube, Spotify (and More) From Eating Up Your Mobile Data

If you stream videos or listen to music over a cellular connection, you probably want to keep your data usage down, so that you don’t end up with an ungodly phone bill at the end of the month. Luckily, the most popular streaming apps all have settings that can help. As an added bonus, you…

T. Rex Oven Mitts Make Kitchen Burns Extinct

The marvels of modern mold-making have allowed us to turn food-safe silicone into an endless run of novel kitchen accessories. This includes oven mitts in every shape, size, and color, but few have to be as satisfying to use as chomping down on a hot baking sheet with a silicone T. Rex on your hand.…

NYPD Admits the Battle Over Apple Will Set a Crucial Precedent 

Apple is still fighting with the government over whether it should create a special software to help the DOJ unlock an iPhone connected to the suspect in the San Bernardino shooting. But government officials and Apple execs agree about one key point: It’s not about one phone. This is about the future of security. In…

Stop Buying Coffee Pods

It’s time! This week, news that Hamburg banned coffee pods from government buildings set off a larger conversation about why we’re still giving our money to companies like Keurig and Nespresso. Let’s be honest: It’s time for the whole world to stop buying coffee pods. The news from Hamburg comes a year after Keurig announced…

Good news, US Doctor Who fans—Amazon has announced it will stream the first eight seasons of the show, following their pulling from Netflix and Hulu this month. In a year with very little new Doctor Who, losing streaming options was a blow to fans, but now the show will have a home on Prime Video…

DJI Releases Its Own Version of Apple Care Because Drones Constantly Crash

Everyone’s buying drones nowadays. They’re also crashing all of them. So the world’s biggest drone company has revealed a (pricey) protection plan that covers the next time your (already pricey) drone takes a spill. Chinese drone maker DJI revealed today that it’s launching “DJI Care,” which’ll give “peace of mind and an enhanced after-sales experience”…

These Award-Winning Underwater Photographs Are Dazzling

It’s often said that we know less about the deep ocean than we do about the surface of Mars. Looking at the 2016 winners of the UK’s Underwater Photography Contest, I can’t help but agree. Life beneath the sea is as alien and entrancing as any ancient, dust-blown crater on the Red Planet. Although only…

How Does a Game Boy’s Brain Work?

Despite a huge library of successful games, the Gameboy was deeply underpowered, even for its time. At its heart was a modified version of the same CPU that’s still used in some graphing calculators. Thrifty architecture created some benefits, like a lower price point and better battery life than its competitors. But that also made…

Tiny LCD Screen Eyes Make Cabbage Patch Kids Infinitely More Expressive

The dead, glassy stare of the eyes on most dolls is kind of creepy. So to help make its newest Cabbage Patch Kid more lifelike and responsive, Wicked Cool Toys is using a pair of tiny LCD displays for the doll’s eyes, allowing them to be animated with all kinds of reactions and expressions. The…

The First Details About Marvel’s Most Wanted Tease Some Big Changes for Agents of SHIELD

When does Spider-Man enter the scene in Civil War? Mads Mikkelsen teases his allegiance in Rogue One. Get a better look at Connor Hawke on Legends of Tomorrow. David Duchovny wants more X-Files. Plus, Ronda Rousey sets her sights on another nerdy movie role, and get a look at Agent Carter’s wild dream sequence. Behold,…

Lithium-Ion Batteries Banned as Cargo on Passenger Airplanes

The International Civil Aviation Organization has placed a ban on the cargo shipment of lithium-ion batteries on passenger aircraft, following concerns from pilots that they constitute a fire risk. The UN agency ruling will go into effect on April 1st. The ban is said to be mandatory for the 36 member states of the International…

Oppo Claims It Can Fully Charge a Phone in Just 15 Minutes

Fast-charging systems are making huge jumps in speed and Oppo seems to have reached a massive milestone: It claims it can fully charge an empty smartphone battery in a mere 15 minutes. Engadget reports from Mobile World Congress that a new reference device from the manufacturer boasts what’s being dubbed SuperVOOC quick-charging. According to the…

The 2016 Presidential Candidates’ Views on Biomedical Research and Medicine

America is a leader in biomedical research and medicine, and much of the fiscal fuel behind that research comes from the government funding the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Sure, scientific funding impacts our ability to understand myriad health conditions and figure out how to treat or prevent them.…

Ricoh’s New Action Cam Captures 204 Degrees of Your Escapades

If you want to capture as much of your action as possible, Ricoh’s new WG-M2 might be for you: It shoots 4K video across a frankly ridiculous 204-degree field of view. An update to the WG-M1, the new camera is 40 percent lighter and smaller than its predecessor while also being pretty tough—it’ll withstand freezing…

A Simple Vaginal Ring Can Reduce the Risk of HIV Infection

This plain-looking silicone ring is more useful than it looks. Doped with an experimental antiretroviral drug, when worn in the vagina by women in sub-Saharan Africa it was shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection by as much as 61 percent. The ring is part of a large study called ASPIRE, which is designed…