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This Is How the iPhone 5 Might Look in Your Hand

We have published mockups of Apple’s next iPhone—before. But these are the definitive ones, showing what the iPhone 5 or whatever it is called would look like in your hand. https://gizmodo.com/apples-next-iphone-home-page-will-probably-look-like-th-5920479 And, as it turns out, it looks pretty damn good. My favorite is now the black one. I can’t really decide. In black, the…

Why Do the Mars Rover’s Images Look So Bad?

A lot of people are wondering why the first color image from the Mars Curiosity Rover looks so murky. Or why the black and white pictures look so low-resolution and out of focus in some areas. Calm yourselves. They will look absolutely amazing soon, perfect and in high-def. https://gizmodo.com/the-first-color-photo-of-martian-landscape-from-the-mar-5932445 There’s many good reasons why they…

Carl Sagan’s message to future explorers of Mars will cold-cock you right in the touchy feelies

A few months before he died, Carl Sagan recorded a moving message which he dedicated to future explorers and settlers of Mars. A brief excerpt of that recording has been making the rounds on the internet since early Monday morning, in the form of the quote featured up top — but Sagan’s entire message is…

Holy heck, this skee-ball machine made entirely out of K’Nex actually works

Oh, this is frighteningly cool. Over the course of a year, Instructables user Shadowman39 built a live-size, functional skee-ball machine using oodles of the interlocking plastic construction toy K’Nex. As he explains of its specs: This machine is full-size, coin-operated (takes quarters), turns itself off automatically, and counts points using a mechanical counter. And, all…

Is This Inductive Stand Worth Twice What an iPad Costs?

The convenience of being able to charge a device without having to hunt down a power cord is certainly appealing. But convenience isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you gaze upon Strut’s new LaunchPort iPad charging system. The triple-chromed steel base secures your iPad through a set of neodymium magnets, ensuring it’s…

10 Surprising Uses for WD-40 (and 5 Places It Should Never Be Sprayed)

Everybody knows WD-40 is the go-to product for silencing squeaks, displacing moisture, preventing rust, and loosening stuck parts. You probably have a can sitting in your garage right now. It has a ton of uses, but it’s no panacea. In fact, there are a some jobs that the lube will absolutely ruin. Your house is…

Guillermo del Toro teases “big name” writer for his Incredible Hulk TV show

The post-Avengers Marvel project we’re perhaps most excited about — sorry, Thor 2 and Captain America 2 — is the promise of a Hulk TV series produced by Guillermo del Toro. But the Pan’s Labyrinth director is often followed with a list of forever-in-development projects, so imagine our surprise when he announced that the show…

10 Best Spy-Fi Movies of All Time

Spies are like the better dressed version of superheroes. They stop supervillains from destroying the world, and they do incredible superhuman feats, with the help of insane gadgets and vehicles. With a new Bourne movie in theaters on Friday, it’s a great time to celebrate the “spy-fi” genre, that combines spies and science fiction. Here…

Facebook fights for your right to “Like” without getting fired. [GigaOm]

Ejector Seat Bar Stools Are the Most Efficient Way To Get Rid Of Creeps

If you completely avoid the bar scene because you’re tired of spending your nights dealing with creeps, you’ll sincerely wish this bar stool—crafted from an F-4 Phantom ejector seat—were fully functional. Because instead of having to jot down a fake phone number to escape an awkward situation, you could simply send the jerk blasting through…

Methane-exhaling microbes found in undersea volcanoes reset the limits of life

As unbelievable as it sounds, it’s thought that up to a third of all the Earth’s organisms by mass live in rocks and sediments. Suffice to say, we know excruciatingly little about the lives and ecology of these highly inaccessible creatures. But a new study from the University of Massachusetts Amherst is offering an unprecedented…

This is how sperm whales sleep. Yes, really.

Ever fallen asleep standing up? Then you know what it’s like to snooze like a sperm whale. This image, captured by photographer Magnus Lundgren for Wild Wonders of Europe, is actually a few years old, but it highlights an interesting bit of cetacean neuroscience that’s definitely worth sharing, and explaining in greater detail. Until just…

Report: iOS 6 May Confirm Taller, 4-Inch iPhone

Well this is interesting. iOS 6, pictured above on the left, is now able to scale to show five full lines of apps when displayed at 640×1136—the resolution a reported 4-inch iPhone would have. https://gizmodo.com/iphone-5-the-complete-rumor-roundup-5930100 iOS 5.1, which is on the right, only shows four app rows when run in the same iOS simulator app.…

Remember when Superman smoked a dozen cigars at the same time?

Superman comics in the 1950s and 1960s were the apotheosis of the comic narrative, thanks to DC Comics’ willingness to throw any damn idea at the wall, no matter how stupid, offensive, or offensively stupid. https://gizmodo.com/remember-when-superman-turned-into-satan-5830713 http://io9.com/5819900/the-wrongest-scenes-from-the-time-lois-lane-got-zapped-with-a-weight+gain-ray https://gizmodo.com/the-10-most-baffling-moments-in-lois-lane-and-supermans-5897128 These comics offer the impression that the Silver Age DC Comics editorial office was an episode of…

Spotify is now available in the Amazon App Store, meaning Kindle Fire owners can get in on the action. [Amazon]

Oil and Alcohol Make a Stunning Slow-Motion Ballet

It’s an experiment that’s been conducted for over a hundred years now, but these days it’s incredibly easy to record and share the complex interactions of a drop of naphthenic oil as it plunges through a tank filled with isopropyl alcohol. The unique patterns and shapes that are created as the oil drop makes its…

10 Biggest Gadget Design Fails

A fair number of companies that read our product reviews tell me that they take our criticism to heart to improve their wares. That’s flattering to hear, but I don’t think the message is getting to the right people. How do I know? Companies continue to send us new laptops, tablets and smartphones that exhibit…

Want $50,000 Worth of Development for Your Brilliant App Idea?

BMW’s i concept vehicles are all about efficiency and sustainability — in vehicular engineering (who knew a battery could be integrated into the chassis?), design that makes their cars look like works of art, and more. They’ve even been building out apps to help make your driving experience more efficient and sustainable. Now you have…

Report: Underage Children Abused in Samsung Factories

A new report by a Chinese labor watchdog makes Apple’s Foxconn woes look like a game of spin the bottle, Laptop Mag reports. Untreated injuries? Check. Dangerous workplace? Check. Hitting children and forcing them to stand? Check. This is bad. The report chronicles the inner workings of HEG Electronics, which manufactures gadgets on behalf of…

Prisons Are Getting Fewer In-Person Visitors Because of Skype-Like Video Visitation

How close does a video call come to replicating actual human contact? What if that call is the only contact you have with the outside world while in prison—does that change the calculus at all? Apparently so, for inmates in the District of Columbia Department of Corrections. The department’s installed 108 video units, split between…