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Real Clean Slate Program Loses Trademark Case Against Dark Knight Rises

Decided yesterday in the 7th Circuit: Users can tell the difference between The Dark Knight Rises fake “clean slate” program — which can delete every reference to you on every computer, everywhere — and a real program which restores default settings to shared computers. On August 14, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an…

This Site Automatically Saves Your Favorite Username on New Services

Boy do you have to be quick when signing up for new services these days. Dilly-dally a little and you’ll find that your favorite username has already been snapped up. Now, a new startup called Earlyclaim can automatically reserve your favorite username for you. “This is an effort to help people create a consistent online…

The latest version of Google’s Voice Search allows you to choose up to five languages as your default instead of just one—which means you can search in different languages without having to change a single option anywhere. Neat.

The Xbox One Media Player Is Gonna Be Great for Watching Torrents

Microsoft announced its plans for a new standalone media player on Xbox One earlier this week—and it turns out that it will be perfect for watching torrents. https://gizmodo.com/the-xbox-one-could-soon-stream-tv-straight-to-your-phon-1620037840 The new player will support playback of both files from USB and local networks via DLNA. But more usefully, it will support a wide array of codecs—including…

This animation short is so good that they’re making it into a full movie

This short film created by former Pixar animator Adam Wood is so good that Adam McKay and Will Ferrell will be producing a movie based on it. It tells the story of a clumsy janitor at a museum who accidentally finds himself inside the sophisticated, out-of-control armor of a famous supervillain. They are aiming for…

NASA Scientists Have Found the First Interstellar Space Particles

NASA has identified for the first time seven rare, microscopic interstellar dust particles—that date to the beginnings of the solar system. The particles have been identified amongst samples obtained by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft, which returned to Earth back in 2006. The craft contained a tray of silica aerogel, which captured small interstellar dust particles as…

How Do You Know You’re Real?

It’s Friday morning, and maybe you’re questioning your life a little: is it worth this long hard slog each week? But there are bigger questions to ask yourself, like, do you even exist in the first place? This lovely video by James Zucker is really just a super-accessible take on René Descartes’s Meditations on First…

Microsoft Research has created aSnapchat clone called Windup, which is available for Windows Phone 8 and 8.1. It lets you share pictures, videos and audio snippets, as well as text—and choose how long your friends get to see them for.

The Man Who Invented Pop-up Ads Is Very, Very Sorry

Pop-up ads have got be in the top five list of the digital world’s most hated things, not including Internet Explorer. Now, the man who invented them back in the mid-90s, wants to apologize. Ethan Zuckerman, the head of the Center for Civic Media at the MIT, says that he didn’t know what he was…

Are These Star Wars Episode VII‘s New Stormtroopers? [UPDATED]

Website Indie Revolver has shots of what may be a version of Imperial stormtrooper we’ll be seeing in Episode VII. And the photos are very convincing. Spoilers of a sort ahead. But mostly speculation. Here’s the first design revealed by Indie Revolver: Comic Book Movie says that this is being referred to as a “Jungle…

Looks like YouTube’s been completely redesigned for TV sets. The visual refresh looks not unlike YouTube’s iOS and Android apps, complete with a pretty, scrollable sidebar and a special focus on playlists. If you’re on the XBOX One, you should be updated already. If you have another set-top box, you should get the update shortly.…

NBC’s got more musicals coming: This time, a 10-episode series called Robin Hood & Marian. This is it, everyone. NBC is apparently going all in on being the place to go for musical television. [The Hollywood Reporter]

The Gyroscope In Your Smartphone Can Be Easily Used To Spy On You

Sure, the gyroscope in your smartphone is great for whizzing past the competition in Need For Speed. But did you know that it can also be used to eavesdrop on your conversations? Researchers from Stanford University and Israel’s defense research group, Rafael, have developed a way to turn a smartphone’s gyroscopes into crude microphones. They…

The Shark Family’s Weird Cousins That Live in the Deep Water

The Goblin Shark (above), the Frilled Shark, and the Megamouth Shark are the shark equivalent of that cousin you don’t see that much, but is always brought up at family dinners. Like, “I don’t even know about Mary. Her mother says she grew to 20 feet and can unhinge her jaw.” Read more about these…

The Next Popular Kids Toy Should Be a Pile of Ants

It wasn’t until I stumbled upon this video that I remembered doing this exact thing as a child at camp. Ants are fun. And its not just as an Etch-a-Sketch that make ants a great choice for a kids toy: There’s also the fact that they have properties similar to the Gak and cornstarch+water playthings…

Uber, AirBnB And Many Other Services Might Accept Bitcoin Soon

You might soon be able to pay for that Uber ride or that AirBnB reservation using bitcoin. The Wall Street Journal reports that eBay has been working to integrate bitcoin into its Braintree payments subsidiary. Who uses Braintree for backend payment processing? GitHub, Hailo, Fab.com, LivingSocial, OpenTable, Hotel Tonight, and many many others. This doesn’t…

Are these the 10 best looking movies that have used CGI?

Though CGI may be overused in some movies and poorly executed in more, some visual masterpieces have relied on the fantastic tool to create beautiful worlds that push the possibilities of our imagination. Here’s Watch Mojo’s list of the 10 most visually striking movies that are filled with CGI. Gravity Avatar The Lord of the…

Expendables 3 Is Your Ultimate Cure For Frozen Overload

Two years ago, io9’s own Garrison Dean proved that Expendables 2 was the most important movie of summer 2012. (Yes, more important than Avengers.) Because America. And explosions. Now Dean is back, with a trailer that shows how Expendables 3 will help balance out the lingering sweetness of your Frozen addiction. Here it is, Expendables…

Time lapse of an airport makes airplanes look like shooting stars

Aside from going through security and lugging around your carry on and rushing to the gate and avoiding human swarms, airplanes are magical places. Okay, maybe not. But there’s beauty in how they operate. Just watch this ballet of airplanes at Shanghai’s airport. It’s like seeing man made shooting stars. Or a light dance with…

Sundance’s Scariest Movie The Babadook Gets A Terrifying New Trailer

The Babadook made made everyone scream back at Sundance and now it’s finally getting a theatrical release! We couldn’t be more terrified. To celebrate, check out this creepy new trailer all about the Babadook. Here’s the official premise: Six years after the violent death of her husband, Amelia (Essie Davis) is at a loss. She…