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Getting Cell Reception in War Zone Afghanistan Is a Bitch

The next time you complain about your cell service, keep this photo in mind: two Afghan National Army soldiers, perched atop a blast wall, struggling to get a signal. The reason? The Taliban often scares telecoms into shutting off service. [In Focus] Photo by Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

Tech News Sam Biddle May 5

The Best Deal of the Day

Once upon a time, I was working on my great American novel. It was a coming-of-age tale that involved elements of folklore, science-fiction, and espionage. Also, dragons. ANYWAYS, everytime I sat down and fired up my word processor on my ancient computer, I got the spinning beachball of death (Windows nerds, it’s like that hourglass…

Tech News Gizmodo Deals May 5

Poke Your head Inside Local Spots with Google Business Photos

“Google Business Photos” sounds immensely boring, but, to the contrary, it’ll be incredibly cool, once implemented next week. The idea: Street View for building interiors. So you can see just how divey that gross dive bar across the street is. This makes sense—Bing’s already beat Google to interior-peeking with Photosynth, which allows panoramic interior uploads…

Tech News Sam Biddle May 5

Mark Zuckerberg Upgrades To His Biggest Mansion Yet

Just in time for his birthday, Facebook’s CEO has acquired what will be his third home since September, a walled, 5,000+ square foot Palo Alto manse complete with a saltwater pool and music alcove. It cost $7 million. So much for Mark Zuckerberg’s everyman lifestyle. Zuckerberg won’t move in for several more months, according to…

Social Media Ryan Tate May 5

Cybernetic cat ears read your brainwaves and let the world know if you need a cheeseburger

We’ve looked into the great abyss and seen the future of fashion — and the future is robotic mood-swing cat ears. Behold the awesomeness that is Neurowear: wearable cat ears that respond to human brainwaves. Here’s some footage of a bunch of people trying on the latest style. They look like the cat’s pajamas. Get…

io9 Meredith Woerner May 5

Man and Superman: The Riddick DVD Collection

We first met Richard B. Riddick back in 2000 in an excellent little SF action movie, Pitch Black. He was introduced to us as a ruthless killer and the most badass criminal alive. But he was a lot more than that. Riddick was a man who through intelligence and sheer force of will had made…

io9 Richard Kadrey May 5

The Rocket That Launched the First American into Space

John Glenn and Neil Armstrong are household names in the US. But on May 5th, we remember the less-talked-about Alan Shepard, the first American to make it to outer space. And the rocket that got him there. https://gizmodo.com/fifty-years-ago-we-tensely-put-the-second-man-in-spa-5798891 On May 5, 1961, the 83-foot-tall Mercury-Redstone 3 hurtled Shepard toward space with 78,000 pounds of thrust…

Space & Spaceflight Max Behrman May 5

Wanna Wear an $8,000 Tank on Your Wrist?

The Azimuth SP-1 Landship watch is… conspicuous. In fact, it’s built to resemble a primitive WWI tank! So, it may not be a fancy golden Cartier affair, but if you’re into the tough-as-nails look, (and are rich!), it may tempt. It’s not the easier watch to read—the minutes and hours are separated into two slivery…

Tech News Sam Biddle May 5

The Seamless, Automagical Future of Software Updates

OS X Lion is coming to the Mac App Store, ushering in a new era of digital distribution for their desktop operating system. And rumors are flying that iOS devices will soon receive over-the-air updates. If we had to smash these two pieces of information together and speculate about the future a little bit, we’d…

Tech News Adrian Covert May 5

Tell the Time While Pretending This Clock is a Solar Eclipse

I don’t know about you, but I love solar eclipses. Only problem is, you can’t look at them directly—or shouldn’t, anyway. There are none of those rules with Cauca’s Eclipsion clock though, which mimics solar eclipses with the positioning of the “hands.” The clock costs $80, with $18 of shipping on top too. [Cauca via…

Tech News Kat Hannaford May 5

Helmet-wearing treehoppers are the weirdest insects around

All winged insects look more or less the same: a main thorax that’s split into three segments, two legs on each segment, and four wings. But there’s one exception, and it’s spectacularly weird. Meet the massive “helmets” of treehopper insects. In normal winged insects, those four wings are found on the rear two segments of…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 5

How Fast Is the New iMac’s Graphics Card?

The stock graphics card in the new Thunderbolt-y iMacs is AMD’s Radeon HD 6970M, in 1GB or 2GB flavors. How powerful is it? It was benchmarked it a few months ago. The bottom line? At the time, it was pretty fast (for Modern Warfare 2, at 1920×1080 with 4x AA and the highest detail settings…

Tech News Matt Buchanan May 5

Tomb Raider movie gets Iron Man writers… but who will play Lara Croft?

Iron Man screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby have been hired to write a Lara Croft origin story. So who will Hollywood get to fill in Angelina Jolie’s old thigh-holsters? The trades are reporting that the writers are gunning for an “Origin story for Lara Croft that solidifies her place alongside Ellen Ripley and Sarah…

io9 Meredith Woerner May 5

Navy SEAL Dogs Have TITANIUM FANGS (Updated)

Navy SEAL dogs are badasses, yes. But did you know some of them have titanium fangs, designed to rip through enemy protective armor? https://gizmodo.com/the-navy-seal-team-6-dog-is-a-bigger-badass-than-you-5798745 That titanium grill runs $2,000 per tooth. The end result, US military dog trainer Alex Dunbar tells The Daily, is that being bitten is “like being stabbed four times at once…

Tech News Matt Buchanan May 5

10 Coolest Bounty Hunters in the Galaxy

Bounty hunters are the ultimate anti-heroes. They’re tough as titanium and hard to kill, and they can find anyone, no matter how much you try and hide. Their only loyalty is to whoever can afford their services. It’s easy to see why bounty hunters are such a popular part of so many science fiction and…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 5

This Curtain is Super-Effective at Blocking Out Sounds (But Not Light)

What resembles a gauzy curtain—or a shower curtain, even—is actually a high-tech fabric that blocks out sound like nothing else before. Developed by the Swiss, the fabric is five times more effective at absorbing sounds than normal curtains, though I’m not so sure it blocks out the light as well. The curtains are going to…

Tech News Kat Hannaford May 5

Fifty Years Ago, We (Tensely) Put the Second Man in Space

This week’s situation room photo will likely be marked as one of history’s most famous—fraught with anxiety. But there’ve been other American rooms filled with tension. When the US put Alan Shepard into space, it was serious business. https://gizmodo.com/this-is-obama-and-his-team-watching-operation-kill-bin-5797874 Russia had already beat the US outside of the atmosphere. The Cold War stakes were high.…

Space & Spaceflight Sam Biddle May 5

Thief’s Cell Phone Pocket-Dials 911

A man driving around in a Kia Sportage “full of tools stolen from a business” and discussing plans for a future heist with accomplices accidentally pocket-dialed 911 on his phone, allowing the police to listen in and, eventually, arrest him. The Onondaga County, N.Y. Sheriff’s Office were, in fact, already looking for a suspect in…

Tech News Max Read May 5

If Only More Civil War Reenactments Involved Vampires

Not every book is special enough to merit its very own moving picture trailer, but then again not every book is about our 16th president butchering vampires with an axe. Fortunately for history lovers and gore fans alike, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is such a book. Now is your chance to not only read about…

io9 Sponsored post May 5

Are we surrounded by Dyson Spheres?

In this week’s “Ask a Physicist,” we’ll explore an awesome mash-up of exoplanets, supercivilizations, and dark matter, and try to figure out whether the “missing mass” in the universe is really advanced aliens with a cloaking device. It’s not often that I get a question that is straightforward, reasonable and terrifying as hell. Reader Marc…

io9 Dr. Dave Goldberg May 5

Getting Cell Reception in War Zone Afghanistan Is a Bitch

The Best Deal of the Day

Poke Your head Inside Local Spots with Google Business Photos

Mark Zuckerberg Upgrades To His Biggest Mansion Yet

Cybernetic cat ears read your brainwaves and let the world know if you need a cheeseburger

Man and Superman: The Riddick DVD Collection

The Rocket That Launched the First American into Space

Wanna Wear an $8,000 Tank on Your Wrist?

The Seamless, Automagical Future of Software Updates

Tell the Time While Pretending This Clock is a Solar Eclipse

Helmet-wearing treehoppers are the weirdest insects around

How Fast Is the New iMac’s Graphics Card?

Tomb Raider movie gets Iron Man writers… but who will play Lara Croft?

Navy SEAL Dogs Have TITANIUM FANGS (Updated)

10 Coolest Bounty Hunters in the Galaxy

This Curtain is Super-Effective at Blocking Out Sounds (But Not Light)

Fifty Years Ago, We (Tensely) Put the Second Man in Space

Thief’s Cell Phone Pocket-Dials 911

If Only More Civil War Reenactments Involved Vampires

Are we surrounded by Dyson Spheres?

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