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USA has put the pilot of its hacker TV show, Mr. Robot, onYoutube. You’ll have to wait until June 24th for the series to properly premiere on TV.

This Online Font Lets You Write in Instagram Pictures

Like our new logo? Just kidding: this is one of the many results you can achieve if you type a string of letters into Type to Design’s new site, which renders your text in carefully selected Instagram photos. The online app, made by the creative agency SuperHeroes, randomly chooses images to represent your typed characters…

What Words Does Your State Need Help Spelling?

Sometimes, you’re typing when you get to a word that you cannot, for the life of you, spell. That’s when you turn to Google, counting on the Internet to correct your spelling. Vocativ used Google Trends to pinpoint each American state’s most googled word. By far the most common word, was “grey,” with California, Florida,…

New Memory Alloy Springs Back Into Shape Even After 10 Million Bends

Memory alloys that spring back into a pre-defined shape are nothing new, but regular bending means they fatigue and fail within a relatively short time-scale. Now, a team of engineers has developed an alloy that rebounds into shape even after 10 million bends. Existing memory alloys have found plenty of uses, in everything from flexible…

This Is How NASA Tests Its Spacecraft-Saving Parachutes

How do you test the parachutes that will save spacecraft as they tumble towards the surface of a planet from the reaches of space? In the world’s largest wind tunnel, of course. This is a view inside the giant wind tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center (which might be the biggest, but not necessarily the…

Here’s Apple’s Temporary Fix For Its iPhone-Crashing Messages Bug

Earlier this week, it came to light that a simple text message can crash Messages on any iPhone it’s sent to. Apple hasn’t fixed the problem at a software level yet—but it does have a temporary solution that you can use if you’re affected. In a new support post, Apple says that is “aware of…

Maps of Cities Transformed Into Leaves

The human eye can find patterns in everything, even urban sprawl. Artist Andrew Martis has turned six cities into soothing prints of leaves. They’re all available for $36 on holstee, where Martis is the lead graphic designer. [via My Modern Met] Contact the author at [email protected].

The Most Accomplished, and Adorable, Detectives Are a Pig and a Cat

Move over Holmes and Watson, there’s a new super-team of detectives solving crimes in Victorian London. Nips and Porkington, a cat and pig with actual police badges, handily solve the crime of a kidnapped egg in this animated short by Melody Wang. Not only are the characters wonderfully designed, the newspaper background is so perfect…

Concept Art Writing Prompt: The Choir Of The Dead

This week’s Concept Art Writing Prompt, by artist Gary Laib, features the singing dead. What story can you spin about this choir of corpses? Each week, we try to get your creative juices flowing by sharing an interesting image and inviting you all to write stories inspired by that image. This week, tell us what…

Hands On With Google Now on Tap: Contextual Awesomeness

One of the most exciting features in the (distant future) release of Android M is the upgraded version of Google Now. It’s built to understand context better than before. I just got a quick look at it on a Googler’s Nexus 5, and while this was obviously a demo, I’m cautiously optimistic about it. https://gizmodo.com/android-m-is-here-and-so-is-googles-smartphone-future-1707461388…

Anthropologists Have Discovered a Totally New Human Ancestor

There’s a new branch on the human family tree. Anthropologists say they’ve found a new human ancestor, who lived 3.5 million years ago, right beside Australopithecus afarensis on the plains of what is now Ethiopia. Casts of the upper and lower jaw. Credit: Laura Dempsey You may have heard of the species of human ancestor…

Sunlight and Graphene Could One Day Power a Spaceship

Graphene, already a plenty weird wondermaterial, has an unexpected new property that could one day play a role in space exploration: When hit with light, it propels forward. Huh! Scientists accidentally stumbled across this discovery when studying graphene sponges, crumpled up versions of the single-atom thick sheets of carbon. As the team used a laser…

The Most Venomous Species On Earth

Everybody freaks out over the idea of getting bitten by a scorpion or spider — but those are nothing. Our planet contains creatures with much more deadly toxins to defend themselves with. Here are some revealing videos of the most venomous creatures on Earth. The 5 to 8 in (12-20 cm) long blue-ringed octopodes live…

Watch 300 rockets get fired off all at the same time

If you ever dared to wonder what it looks like when 300 rockets fire off all at once, don’t worry, mad genius Colin Furze has brought that ridiculous imagination to real life. This is what every child’s dreams are made of. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Watch The Most Insane Kung Fu Film Ever Made—Packed With Nazis And Dinos

Laser raptors. Gun-toting vikings. A kung fu-obsessed Adolf Hitler. Hacking your way back in time. This is just some of the ridiculousness that you can expect from Kung Fury, the crowdfunded movie that mashes together all sorts of action flick favorites into one hilarious short film. We’ve been waiting for Kung Fury ever since we…

Project Jacquard Hands-On: Google’s ATAP is Putting Sensors In Fabric

Roaming around the floor of Google I/O we got our hands on one of the prototypes from ATAP, Google’s DARPA-like experimental lab. It’s called Project Jacquard, and it’s nice n’ soft. It’s a fabric that can control your phone. Jacquard is about weaving touch sensor technology into fabrics. Using conductive thread it’s possible to weave…

Google’s Putting Some Icing On Its Half-Baked Android TV Cake

Last fall, Gizmodo’s Sean Hollister declared Android TV an exciting, beautiful mess. “You should probably steer clear till Google gets its shit together,” he wrote. Today at I/O, Google’s telling us about an updated Android TV that may indicate that its shit is actually being gathered. One of the biggest problems with Android TV was…

This Is How The Soundtracks At Theme Parks Get Made

What do theme parks sound like? For starters, there’s the sound of the people, the rides, the popcorn machines, the ambient noises of the highway and local wildlife. But there’s also an elaborate soundtrack that you may not have even known existed. And here’s how it’s made. Kinja user and sound designer 8bitdan stopped into…

Why Would You Add A Dash Of Curious Chloride To Your Soup?

Although curious chloride is not the most popular name for curium and chlorine, it’s actually an official name. And true to its name, this substance has a slightly-whimsical, slightly-sinister property — which actually might be useful when making soup. Curium was not discovered by Marie Curie. If it had been, it probably would not have…

Google’s New Android Features, As Told By GIFs

Android M is here! Ok, the developer preview is here but still. It’s got Android Pay. It’s got battery-saving superpowers. It’s got a more powerful Google Now. Here’s the very first look at Android M in the subtle art of the GIF. Pick-and-Choose App Permissions In today’s Android Lollipop world, if you download an app…