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Custom-Printed OwnFone Makes You Choose Your Friends Wisely

While most companies are pushing phones to have bigger screens and more processing power, OwnFone is taking things in the other direction with these extremely simple, custom printed dumbphones. With an OwnFone, you can take calls, and call people you know. That’s it. Before ordering an OwnFone, you choose up to twelve contacts and each…

Tech News Eric Limer

Apollo 13: The Real Terror of Space

I know Neil Armstrong was an Apollo 11 guy, but Apollo 13 still gives you a lot of insight into the sort of danger astronauts willingly put themselves. Landing on the moon is an insane accomplishment, and there was so much that could have gone wrong. Unlike your Alien and Star Warses and whathaveyou with…

Space & Spaceflight Eric Limer

Calamity Song: The Decemberists

So I finished Infinite Jest a few months ago, and as soon as I did, I came across the lovely video for The Decemberists’ Calamity Song. Admittedly, I was a bit more drawn to the whole Eshaton thing than the song at first, but it’s really started to grow on me, and I’ve been mumbling…

Tech News Eric Limer

The best way to honor Neil Armstrong

The family of the late Neil Armstrong released a brief but touching statement earlier this afternoon, to recognize the passing of the former U.S. astronaut. The entire thing won’t take you more than a couple minutes to read, and definitely warrants your attention, but we found this, the closing paragraph, to be particularly moving. Rest…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

This Tiny Camera Puts Photography Literally In the Palm of Your Hand

Size matters, and in this case, the goal is tiny. The new Diana Baby 110, a descendant from a line of already small cameras, is the tiniest yet. It’ll fit just nicely in the palm of your hands. Also it takes pictures. The Diana Baby comes with one 24mm standard lens, the option to add…

Tech News Eric Limer

What would happen if everyone on Earth jumped at exactly the same time?

If everyone on Earth stood shoulder-to-shoulder, they would occupy an area roughly the size of Los Angeles — about 500 square miles. Now imagine if every single one of them jumped. Together. All at the same time. What would happen? The answer? Basically squat. Humans — even in exceptionally large numbers — are small fry…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Apple vs. Samsung Jurors Say Verdict Was Well-Considered, Samsung Emails Damning

When the verdict in the Apple vs. Samsung trail came back so fast, despite having so many individual decisions to it, there was plenty of speculation that the jury might not have really cared or been informed. Jurors themselves are saying otherwise. CNET and Reuters reached out to two of the jurors, both of whom…

Tech News Eric Limer

Read the New York Times’ 1969 account of the Apollo 11 Moon landing

On July 21, 1969, The New York Times’ John Noble Wilford penned the newspaper’s front-page article on humanity’s first steps on the Moon. It is a tremendous piece of journalism — one that warrants revisiting today as we remember the late Neil Armstrong, who showed us what it means to dare mighty things. https://gizmodo.com/r-i-p-neil-armstrong-first-person-to-set-foot-on-the-5937873 We’ve…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Infinity Ring: A New Time Travel Series from Scholastic

Scholastic has just announced their next big multi-platform project and this time, it’s science fiction. Introducing Infinity Ring (Scholastic’s follow-up to The 39 Clues), a time-travel book that takes kids into the battle for history itself. In 2008 (two years before the introduction of the iPad) Scholastic realized that in the future kids wouldn’t be…

Books & Comics Michael Ann Dobbs

Watch Neil Armstrong Make His Historic Step on to the Moon

Whether you’ve seen it, or especially if you somehow haven’t, watch this historic footage of Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon and just think about it for a few minutes. That is a man—a real man—and he is stepping on the moon. On the moon. The man may be gone, but his legend is timeless.…

Space & Spaceflight Eric Limer

R.I.P. Neil Armstrong, First Person to Set Foot On the Moon

Neil Alden Armstrong, spacecraft commander of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission and the first person to walk on the Moon, has died at 82. The former U.S. astronaut passed away while recovering from heart-bypass surgery, a procedure he underwent just weeks ago, according to a statement released by his family. On March 16, 1966, Armstrong became…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

NASA’s Tiny Cubic Satellites Will Have Android Phones for Brains

On the surface of Earth, smartphones play a big part in our every day life. As it turns out, there’s a lot they can do in orbit as well. That’s why NASA has been developing tiny satellites that have Android phones for brains. PhoneSats, as NASA calls them, are tiny cubic satellites roughly 4 cubic…

Space & Spaceflight Eric Limer

RIP Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon

Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11 and the first man to ever set foot on the moon, died to today at age 82 due to complications from his heart surgery three weeks prior. From NASA: Neil A. Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, on August 5, 1930.…

Space & Spaceflight Eric Limer

Concept Art Writing Prompt: The Lady and the Cyborg

We have a contrasting pair of figures for today’s Concept Art Writing Prompt: a regal lady straight out of a fantasy scene alongside a rather militant looking cyborg, or perhaps an android. So what are these two doing in a single scene? See if you can come up with a story to match this image.…

io9 Lauren Davis

What Was Your Favorite Dumbphone?

Sure, I love my smartphone, but she’s not my first love, and she never will be. I’ve loved another, the beautiful LG VX8350, who treated me so very, very well in my youth. She was a solid little phone, with a front screen that was absolutely perfect for covertly checking texts in class and playing…

Tech News Eric Limer

Comic book writer sells off comics collection to pay for his baby son’s adoption and medical bills

It’s the ultimate geek dad gesture. Karl Kesel, a longtime comic book writer and inker who helped created the new Superboy character for DC in the 1990s, is selling off his valuable collection of rare comics to pay for the adoption of his son Isaac. Kesel and his wife Myrna recently adopted the infant, who…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

Finally, an explanation for Christian Bale’s gravelly Batman voice

Ever wonder why Batman’s voice in the Nolan trilogy sounds so familiar? Utubelor has your answer: he’s not our hero. He’s a silent sweets-fiend. A hungry protector. A Dark Cookie-Knight. Is this the best Sesame Street sendup since Cookie Rae Monster? We think so. http://gawker.com/5924786/room-for-one-more-the-sesame-street-send+up-of-call-me-maybe-starring-cookie-rae-monster Hat tip to Shirley!

Movies Robbie Gonzalez

Confessions Of an Apple Genius, Coffee Shop Dickheads, Every Positive Headphone Review Ever, and More

Another week, another deluge of news. With more iPhone 5 rumors swirling around, a kid losing a $675,000 copyright lawsuit, and an important step being made towards the fountain of youth, there’s a lot to sift through, but this list should help. Oh, and Apple won their patent lawsuit big time, but you’ve probably heard…

Tech News Eric Limer

So the movie you crowdfunded bombed critically. Now what?

When crowdfunded movies came onto the scene, they held a glorious promise. Finally, we no longer had to rely on Hollywood studios to choose our big screen entertainment. We, the moviegoing public, could decide for ourselves which projects to fund, and we could hand our dollars over to independent filmmakers with intriguing concepts. Here at…

Movies Lauren Davis

Read Tim Cook’s Blisteringly Cheerful Memo to Apple Employees About Patent Victory

The verdict in the Apple vs. Samsung case may mean that over a billion dollars will be headed Apples way out of Samsung’s pocket, it was also a moral victory, at least to Tim Cook. Shortly after the verdict—squarely in Apple’s favor—was announced, Cook sent out a memo, congratulating those at Apple for their work,…

Tech News Eric Limer

Custom-Printed OwnFone Makes You Choose Your Friends Wisely

Apollo 13: The Real Terror of Space

Calamity Song: The Decemberists

The best way to honor Neil Armstrong

This Tiny Camera Puts Photography Literally In the Palm of Your Hand

What would happen if everyone on Earth jumped at exactly the same time?

Apple vs. Samsung Jurors Say Verdict Was Well-Considered, Samsung Emails Damning

Read the New York Times’ 1969 account of the Apollo 11 Moon landing

Infinity Ring: A New Time Travel Series from Scholastic

Watch Neil Armstrong Make His Historic Step on to the Moon

R.I.P. Neil Armstrong, First Person to Set Foot On the Moon

NASA’s Tiny Cubic Satellites Will Have Android Phones for Brains

RIP Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon

Concept Art Writing Prompt: The Lady and the Cyborg

What Was Your Favorite Dumbphone?

Comic book writer sells off comics collection to pay for his baby son’s adoption and medical bills

Finally, an explanation for Christian Bale’s gravelly Batman voice

Confessions Of an Apple Genius, Coffee Shop Dickheads, Every Positive Headphone Review Ever, and More

So the movie you crowdfunded bombed critically. Now what?

Read Tim Cook’s Blisteringly Cheerful Memo to Apple Employees About Patent Victory

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