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Gmail’s New Compose Window Will Soon Be Your Only Choice

Gmail’s latest in a series of changes, the updated compose window, will soon go from opt-out to your only choice. Today’s Gmail blog post says that all Gmail accounts will switch to the new compose window in the next few days. If you’re not a fan of the new default, Google says you can expand…

Tech News Bob Sorokanich

io9 Book Club reminder: On 8/27 we discuss The Shambling Guide to NYC

In August, the io9 Book Club is reading Mur Lafferty’s goofy-smart urban fantasy novel, The Shambling Guide to New York City. We’ll meet August 27 to discuss it, and we hope Lafferty will join us later that week for a chat! Still not decided? You can read io9’s review of the book here. https://gizmodo.com/now-this-is-the-urban-fantasy-heroine-we-want-513271146 What…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

Microsoft’s Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard Is Easy on Wrists and Eyes Alike

Back in 1994, Microsoft’s first ergonomic keyboard showed us that the traditional design maybe wasn’t as comfortable as it could’ve been, and that we didn’t have to deal with a crippling pain in our wrists just to send an email. An age of ergonomic accessories was born, and the piece de resistance of the past…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Violent new video game is the perfect portrait of Southern California

In the mid 20th Century, hard-boiled detective stories and moody crime movies made Los Angeles, its scheming people and its endless decaying sprawl the main characters. The upcoming Grand Theft Auto V takes over “sunshine noir” by making the crime-ridden and corrupt boomtown of Los Santos the star of a video game that’s supposedly just…

Sploid Ken Layne

The complete history of the world — up to 1930 — in one glorious chart

Back in 1931, John B. Sparks put together this “Histomap” — an ambitious effort to chronicle all of the world’s history in a single five-foot long timeline. The word ‘epic’ most certainly comes to mind. The Histomap was brought to our attention by Rebecca Onion of Slate and it can be found in David Rumsey’s…

io9 George Dvorsky

Of Course Florida Might Deploy Drones To Combat Mosquitoes

Take any completely outlandish idea and put the word ‘Florida’ in the same sentence and all of a sudden it makes a lot more sense. The state, known for its roaming gangs of blood-sucking mosquitoes, is hoping to take to the skies to help battle the menace by using camera-equipped drones to spot shallow pools…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

9 Questions We Have About the Wool Trilogy’s Epic Finale, Dust

If you know Wool, then you’re already counting the days until Saturday. Hugh Howey’s epic about the last remnants of humanity living in massive underground silos — and the horrifying truth of why they’re there — has sold over half million copies online alone. The trilogy finally comes to a close this August 17th, with…

io9 Rob Bricken

Zoom into this map to see every single person in the US by race

308,745,538 color dots, each representing one inhabitant of the United States of America. The color is the race: blue is white, green is black, red is asian, yellow is hispanic and brown is native american, multi-racial or other races. Zoom in and see if you can find yourself. https://gizmodo.com/the-entire-racial-distribution-of-the-us-person-by-per-1118626554

Sploid Jesus Diaz

This Depression-Era Carphone Was Way Ahead of Its Time

Today if your car breaks down or you’re in an accident, help is little more than a phone call away. It’s something that many drivers of the 21st century take for granted, what with our Space Age smartphone technology. This automotive safety net, of course, wasn’t available in the 1930s. But one visionary who was…

Tech News Matt Novak

The Xbox One Can Tell When It’s Overheating, and Adjusts to Fix It

So here’s a cool thing the Xbox One can do: It automatically recognizes when it’s overheating—probably because you’re an idiot and left a pizza box on top of it—and can adjust on the fly. In fact, it’s designed with extra room to make those adjustments. In our chat with Xbox’s General Manager of Console Development…

Tech News Kyle Wagner

You Can Buy Samsung’s 55-inch Curved OLED TV Today for $9,000

The painfully-expensive yet admittedly awesome 55-inch curved OLED TV from Samsung is finally available to the public for $9,000—a full $6,000 less than previously thought. This curving, technological marvel, dubbed the Samsung KN55S9C, is supposed to offer a more “life-like viewing [experience],” which seems to come from the fact that the rounded form gives you…

Gadgets Ashley Feinberg

The President Gets a Personal Osprey He’s Not Allowed to Use

Even with the VH-71 helicopter project permanently grounded, President Obama still has a number of egregiously expensive air transport options—such as the newly unveiled MV-22 Osprey—to choose from. The only problem is the MV-22 is that he’s not actually allowed to ride in it. https://gizmodo.com/the-13-billion-presidential-helicopters-we-scrapped-an-978480541 The Marine Corps MV-22 is a specialized derivative of the…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

The Secret U.S. Government Program to Hook Spy Photos From Space

The early space age is marked by Soviet accomplishments — the first satellites, the first living being launched into orbit, and the first human in space to name just a few. But there was one very important technological first secured by the United States in 1960. America was the first nation to safely recover a…

io9 Amy Shira Teitel - Discovery News

The U.S. Once Tried to Wrap a Ring of Copper Wire Around the Earth

The Cold War was a crazy time. With the space race happening on one front and an arms race happening on another, the United States was constantly looking for ways to gain an advantage over the Soviets and were limited only by our creativity. And boy did we get creative. In the early 1960s, a…

Space & Spaceflight Adam Clark Estes

How the Xbox One Console Was Designed to Be an Everything Machine

As the dust settled over the new Xbox One this summer, one point that kept coming up—maybe predictably—was size: The console is surprisingly chunky. Just chunky enough to make you wonder whether its wide berth isn’t a hint at what Microsoft’s engineers were hiding in there—and what it could reveal about their intentions for future…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

Watching Toys Get Made Is Even More Fun Than Playing With Them

If you’re truly lucky in life you end up with a job that doesn’t actually feel like work. For example, most of us give up our toys sometime before we’re sent off to high school. But as this short video by Anthony Ladesich called The Secret Story of TOYS shows, a lucky few never have…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Atlanta sport fans keep dying from stadium falls: three in five years

A baseball fan died after falling 65-feet from a concourse at the Braves’ Turner Field stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Another one died when he fell from a stairwell in the same stadium in 2008. And a student was killed in another fall at the Georgia Dome in 2012. There was a common element in these…

Sploid Jesus Diaz

Early Humans May Have Ripped Off Neanderthal Technology

By the time modern humans arrived in Europe, Neanderthals had already made the continent their home. What’s more, they were already adopting behaviors that would later be characteristic of humans — including the development of a specialized tool still used by leather craftspeople today. It’s called the lissoir — and it’s the oldest specialized bone…

io9 George Dvorsky

Snowden: Any Unencrypted Message Goes to Every Intelligence Service

The New York Times Magazine has a quick Q&A with Edward Snowden, conducted through intermediary Laura Poitras, the documentary filmmaker who’s been filming Snowden since earlier this year. It’s mostly straightforward, except for one potentially significant reveal. The nuts and bolts of the interview are pretty standard, though still interesting given the subject: Snowden went…

Tech News Kyle Wagner

Test How Old Your Ears Are (And How Much Damage You’ve Done to Them)

Deep down we all know we shouldn’t crank our music or listen to headphones with the volume really high, but we still do. And if you’ve ever wondered if years of hard rock has done any serious damage, here’s an easy way to find out. Over time what’s known as hair cells in your ears…

Health Andrew Liszewski

Gmail’s New Compose Window Will Soon Be Your Only Choice

io9 Book Club reminder: On 8/27 we discuss The Shambling Guide to NYC

Microsoft’s Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard Is Easy on Wrists and Eyes Alike

Violent new video game is the perfect portrait of Southern California

The complete history of the world — up to 1930 — in one glorious chart

Of Course Florida Might Deploy Drones To Combat Mosquitoes

9 Questions We Have About the Wool Trilogy’s Epic Finale, Dust

Zoom into this map to see every single person in the US by race

This Depression-Era Carphone Was Way Ahead of Its Time

The Xbox One Can Tell When It’s Overheating, and Adjusts to Fix It

You Can Buy Samsung’s 55-inch Curved OLED TV Today for $9,000

The President Gets a Personal Osprey He’s Not Allowed to Use

The Secret U.S. Government Program to Hook Spy Photos From Space

The U.S. Once Tried to Wrap a Ring of Copper Wire Around the Earth

How the Xbox One Console Was Designed to Be an Everything Machine

Watching Toys Get Made Is Even More Fun Than Playing With Them

Atlanta sport fans keep dying from stadium falls: three in five years

Early Humans May Have Ripped Off Neanderthal Technology

Snowden: Any Unencrypted Message Goes to Every Intelligence Service

Test How Old Your Ears Are (And How Much Damage You’ve Done to Them)

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