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This Hybrid Robot Cleaner Vacuums and Mops All the Floors In Your Home

If you’ve got a mix of hard and carpeted floors in your home that you just don’t feel like cleaning, you usually have to rely on two separate cleaning bots to get the work done. But you can write your Roomba and Scooba a letter of recommendation and send them on their way now that…

Vitamin C: Graduation (Friends Forever)

“What?” you say. “This isn’t my middle school graduation! Why is Vitamin C playing? What’s going on around here!” Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is my graduation from Saturdays to not-Saturdays, and I would be honored if you would take a moment to celebrate with me. I have been your trusty Saturday Gizmodo-pilot for nigh…

Science fiction and fantasy duke it out in an apocalyptic battle

In the final battle of genres, the wizards face off against the cyborgs while dragons dodge blasts fired by sentient aerial drones. Danil Shunkov‘s piece asks: which genre would win? Shunkov sells prints of his work on Etsy and Society6. Sci-Fi vs. Fantasy [DanilLovesFood via reddit]

How an Illegal Streaming Kingpin Makes a Living Off Piracy

If/When you download a torrent full of juicy copyrighted content (shame on you!), you’re not paying anyone; that’s part of the appeal. But there’s money to be made off sharing stuff for free, otherwise why would anyone do it? Torrentfreak sat down with a professional pirate to hear his story. It’s fascinating. Naturally the pirate’s…

Use a Laser Pointer to Turn Your iPhone Into a Microscope

We’ve seen ways to turn your iPhone into a DIY microscope before, but they always require buying something kind of exotic, like a ball lens, or an actual microscope. This new take from Yoshinok on Instructables just requires $10 bucks, a shitty laser pointer, and little bit of makin’. https://gizmodo.com/view-small-things-on-your-iphone-with-this-30-microsco-5848468 The end result isn’t the…

How Haven‘s Troubles turn people into true monsters

The theme of this week’s episode of Haven is how love—of people and power—can turn ordinary people into monsters. But if our actions can make monsters of Haven’s major characters, can inaction make monsters of them as well? I was worried that after last week’s reveal that Lexie was, in fact, Audrey, Haven would return…

Gotham and Metropolis football jerseys for Batman vs. Superman

It looks like Batman and Superman won’t be the only ones facing off in the Man of Steel sequel. Gotham City University and Metropolis State University will also have a showdown—on the football field. Batman-News snagged photos of the film’s football jerseys, and you can see slightly fuller versions of the uniforms over at their…

A Poster of Every Star Wars Character from Just the Good Movies

So you want a Star Wars poster featuring all the characters, but Jar Jar Binks and kid-Anakin keep polluting the scene? I feel your pain. But a new print by artist Max Dalton and put out by Spoke Art has you covered. It has all your favorite heroes…from episodes IV-VI and nothing else. The 18…

A sculptor carves his final work as the last humans turn to crows

The city of Bet She’an is undergoing a mystical apocalypse, neglected as its last human inhabitants transform into crows. But a lone sculptor pushes aside the strange terrors of the increasingly lonely city in order to complete his final tribute to humanity. Bet She’an is a moody film, enhanced by its lovely, sketched-out environments and…

Legend of Korra finally reveals whose Avatar Korra and Aang are

This week’s hour-long Legend of Korra takes a break from our regular cast of characters to tell a different legend: that of Wan, the first Avatar. It reveals a bit more about the nature of the Avatar universe and just whose Avatar Korra and her predecessors are. Korra takes the episode to recover from her…

Report: Twitter Music Is Already on Its Deathbed

Hey remember Twitter Music? Hadn’t thought about it in a while? Well apparently that’s a common problem, and according to a report by AllThingsD, Twitter is very seriously considering putting the service out of its misery. https://gizmodo.com/twitter-music-hands-on-a-celeb-stalking-music-discov-5994969 Multiple unnamed sources are telling AllThingsD that Twitter Music is not long for this world thanks to “abysmal”…

What Is Your Computer’s Name?

You’ve probably developed a pretty serious relationship with your computer, we all do. And whether you’re one to name inanimate objects or not, your computer needs one to identify itself on networks. A perfect excuse! If you leave it as just “Steve’s Computer” you are lame and boring. So interesting/insane people: what is that things…

50th Anniversary teaser flies through the history of Doctor Who

We’re just over a month away from the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary episode, and while this teaser doesn’t give us any footage from “The Day of the Doctor,” it does celebrate the history of Doctor Who. The BBC also released this image of the Eleven Doctors all in a row: “Day of the Doctor” airs…

Concept Art Writing Prompt: Meeting the Grim Reaper on the Road

What happens when you meet Death on the road? Maybe you give him directions, or maybe you ask for his help. Marc Simonetti was inspired to make “La mort et le bucheron” by the fable of the same name, via The Art of Animation. In the fable, a woodsman struggles beneath his load and summons…

These Literal Suicide Machines Exist Only To Destroy Themselves

It’s one thing to build the most useless machine, but artist Thijs Rijkers takes things one big step further; his machines actively destroy themselves. https://gizmodo.com/the-most-useless-machine-gets-even-more-useless-5970912 Thijs has built two different death-seeking models so far. The sand machine pours sand into its own churning gearbox, causing its cogs to wear away into total uselessness. The saw…

It took four miles of yarn to turn this tree into a knit squid

In downtown San Mateo, Calif., an unsuspecting tree has been yarn bombed, transforming it into a great blue squid. Knitters Lorna Watt and “Dapper Toad” Jill spent 20 hours knitting and 14 hours installing this delightful yarn bomb. It took four miles of yarn knitted on the Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine, after which the individual…

Windows 8.1, One-Handed Future Zippers, Cheating at Physics, And More

Who’d have thought one of the awesomest things we’d see this week would be a zipper. But that’s not all! Join us for a tour of the cave beneath Central Park, at look at Windows 8.1, an explanation of the iPhone 5s acceleromter problems and more. In An Artificial Cave 200′ Beneath Central Park with…

Original Empire Strikes Back trailer showed only McQuarrie’s art

Last week, Lucasfilm rereleased the original Star Wars teaser trailer, and this week, they’re sharing the original teaser for The Empire Strikes Back, which included no film footage, but instead featured concept artist Ralph McQuarrie’s paintings. https://gizmodo.com/watch-the-original-trailer-that-introduced-star-wars-to-1444365590 [via Geeks Are Sexy]

Having trouble trying to update to Windows 8.1 RT right now? That’s because Microsofthad to temporarily pull it thanks to an installation “situation.” It should be back soon.

Disney princesses dress up as their favorite heroines

The Disney princesses get into the Halloween spirit in a series of pictures by Isaiah K Stephens. Stephens dresses each lady up as a battle-ready heroine. He has more of these costumed princesses on his Tumblr, including Ariel as Black Widow, Aurora as Daenerys, and Snow White as Wonder Woman. He’s planning a second set,…