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Cell Phone Prison Keeps Distracting Apps on Lockdown

A plastic prison for cellphones might only seem useful for parents who want to make sure their kids are doing homework instead of texting friends. But just think how much work you could get done without easy access to Twitter, Facebook, and Words With Friends. This $20 novelty item could vastly improve the nation’s productivity.…

Privacy & Security Andrew Liszewski

A sneak preview of next week’s issue of Before Watchmen

Here’s an exclusive first look at the next issue of Before Watchmen — Before Watchmen: Minutemen, which features the handsome artwork of Darwyn Cooke. In this miniseries, Cooke (Richard Stark’s Parker, DC: The New Frontier) pens The Minutemen, the pulpy World War II superhero team who laid the groundwork for such unstable crime-stoppers as Rorschach.…

Books & Comics Cyriaque Lamar

Scientists identify virus that makes snakes tie themselves into knots and starve to death

This is about as nightmarish as it must get for snakes: Scientists have finally identified an ebola-related disease that causes snakes to tie themselves into knots, stare off into space, and waste away. The condition, which was first discovered in the 1980s, is called inclusion body disease (IBD), and is known to affect pythons and…

io9 George Dvorsky

Can dinosaurs still be badass with feathers?

This week on the io9 show, we debate whether you can still be scared of dinosaurs now that we believe they were covered with proto-feathers or “dino-fuzz.” And we talk about all the other ways that science has shattered our science fiction dreams, including telling us that ray guns and blasters could never work. Plus,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Windows 8 Tells Microsoft About Everything You Install, Not Very Securely

I’ve recently been using the final, Released to Manufacturing version of Windows 8 on one of my computers, to much delight. I’ve been very impressed by how fast, well-designed, functional and capable this latest iteration of Windows is. However, my tinkering around from a security/privacy perspective has left me concerned. Nadim Kobeissi may be young,…

Privacy & Security Nadim Kobeissi

Another FujiFilm Retro Beauty Leaks (This Time Pocket-Sized)

Shortly after supposed leaked images of a rumored FujiFilm X-E1 hit the web, another camera oozing vintage magnificence has shown up. https://gizmodo.com/leaked-images-reveal-more-retro-camera-goodness-might-b-5937559 The same website where the X-E1 image surfaced, Digicam Info, now has pics of a compact version of Fuji’s popular “X” line. This little dude, possibly known as the “XP1″ or “XF1″ (as…

Tech News Michael Hession

10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

We’re coming up on the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but it’s still amazing how ground-breaking that show feels. Deep Space Nine didn’t just defy our expectations of what a Star Trek show could be — it also helped to transform our ideas about genre television, in general. To watch DS9 is…

Television Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders

This Toaster-Sized Box Detects Cancers and Infections Instantly

This 20 pound box the size of a toaster can change the way people are diagnosed, instantly detecting “everything from infections, to stress, blood cells, cancer markers,” and even the quality of food. It’s called Microflow. Sounds like a device from Star Trek or out of Tony Stark’s laboratory, but it’s real and NASA is…

Tech News Jesus Diaz

How I drew Willow from Buffy The Vampire Slayer

There are many talented comic book illustrators out there, but very few do “sublimely gorgeous” quite like artist David Mack. Mack — who you may know from such comics as Kabuki, Daredevil, and Alias — recently gave io9 an exclusive tour of his sketchbook. He’s illustrating the covers for Dark Horse Comics’ upcoming Willow miniseries,…

Books & Comics David Mack

Sports Illustrated Cover Model Kate Upton Took Her iPhone to a Galaxy Note Party

Here’s Kate Upton at the Samsung Galaxy Note launch party last week. WITH HER iPHONE. Which you won’t see because it’s very small and you’re staring at Kate Upton. Happy Friday. [Knottycelebs via Loopinsight via Twitter]

Tech News Kyle Wagner

Learn everything you need to know about Judge Dredd’s war on drugs

What is SLO-MO? How do you use it? What does it do? And how does it mess with your head? This new featurette from Pete Travis’ 2000 AD adaptation Dredd explains everything you need to know about the hottest drug in Mega-City One. Plus, they also show how they shoot the sparkly drug scenes, which…

Movies Meredith Woerner

Google’s Big Brains Think an Algorithm Will Help With Their Girl Problems

We hear about this issue all the time: tech companies, even the big guns, have trouble attracting and retaining women. Interestingly enough, Google has taken the least human and most nerdiest possible route to tackling this gender issue—algorithms. Per the New York Times: Executives had been concerned that too many women dropped out in the…

Tech News Leslie Horn

Go Check Out Google’s New “I’m Feeling Lucky” Button

Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button was cool back in the day, but lately it hasn’t served much purpose; Google Instant has made it pretty much irrelevant. Now Google’s spicing the old trick up a bit with new adjectives. If you hop over to Google right now, and hover your cursor over the “I’m Feeling Lucky”…

Tech News Eric Limer

The First Ever Horror Movie About How Much Ghost Hunters Sucks

The Apparition, out today, is a vaguely adequate horror movie in which a young couple struggles with some paranormal-ass activity. Where this movie shines, though, is in showing how braindead the whole “paranormal expert” subgenre of television and movies is. Whenever you meet a paranormal expert in a horror movie, they’re always right about everything.…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

The New Furby Review: Absolute Horror

The Furby materialized on American shelves in 1998, after a brief warp-trip from some ethereal hell-domain. It drove parents insane. Their children wanted one, insanely badly. They sold out, insanely quickly. Now, the Furby is back, and it is insanity incarnate. General Omar N. Bradley commanded American ground forces in Germany during World War II,…

Reviews Sam Biddle

Scientists develop flameproof makeup

Exposed skin and massive blasts of heat are generally considered a bad combination — and now scientists have created a lotion that could protect soldiers and firefighters from flames. Explosives can cause damage in two ways — through either a concussive blast, or the shortly following heatwave that can hit temperatures of 1,112°F. Unsurprisingly, the…

io9 Tim Barribeau

What is the secret to a long life?

Early longevity studies led scientists to the conclusion that a creature’s lifespan was proportional to its body mass and heart rate; “the big, slow elephant outlives the quick, small mouse,” explains Fred Guterl in a recent piece for Scientific American. But small, long-lived organisms like naked mole rats (which can live up to 28 years…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Diving Is Totally Allowed in the World’s Deepest Swimming Pool

God help you if you have to get your PADI certification in a public pool—you’re about to spend more than a few hours steeping in all sorts of fun bodily fluids. You’re better off buying a plane ticket to Brussels, home of the deepest—and likely cleanest—indoor pool in the world. Diving enthusiast John Beernaerts began…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

Next NASA Mission Will Go Deep Under the Surface of Mars

Right after Curiosity’s success, NASA has announced a new Mars mission called InSight. It will be a spacecraft designed to get deep under the surface of Mars and find some its hidden secrets. It will launch in 2014. InSight—which conveniently stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport—will carry various instruments, but…

Space & Spaceflight Jesus Diaz

Pokémon, in the style of Tim Burton

What if the cheery world of Pokémon was designed by gloom-and-doom moviemaker Tim Burton? It would probably bear a resemblance to Vaughn Pinpin’s artwork. Check out this adorable collection of Burtonized Pokémons with sad little eyes and vacant expressions. Perfect for the nebbish leading man who wants to cautiously sputter-whisper, “Gotta catch em all… if…

io9 Meredith Woerner

Cell Phone Prison Keeps Distracting Apps on Lockdown

A sneak preview of next week’s issue of Before Watchmen

Scientists identify virus that makes snakes tie themselves into knots and starve to death

Can dinosaurs still be badass with feathers?

Windows 8 Tells Microsoft About Everything You Install, Not Very Securely

Another FujiFilm Retro Beauty Leaks (This Time Pocket-Sized)

10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

This Toaster-Sized Box Detects Cancers and Infections Instantly

How I drew Willow from Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Sports Illustrated Cover Model Kate Upton Took Her iPhone to a Galaxy Note Party

Learn everything you need to know about Judge Dredd’s war on drugs

Google’s Big Brains Think an Algorithm Will Help With Their Girl Problems

Go Check Out Google’s New “I’m Feeling Lucky” Button

The First Ever Horror Movie About How Much Ghost Hunters Sucks

The New Furby Review: Absolute Horror

Scientists develop flameproof makeup

What is the secret to a long life?

Diving Is Totally Allowed in the World’s Deepest Swimming Pool

Next NASA Mission Will Go Deep Under the Surface of Mars

Pokémon, in the style of Tim Burton

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