Latest

The Beatles: Birthday

Every year, my parents would wake my brother and sister and I up to this song on our respective birthdays. It’s a tradition that my father, a Beatles fanatic, started before I was even so much as a thought. I anticipated the White Album song serving as my alarm clock on one morning every year.…

Tech News Leslie Horn Aug 6 '14

No, The Man Tested for Ebola in NYC Does Not Have Ebola

The CDC has now officially confirmed that the man in New York who, as of Monday, maybe (but almost certainly not) had Ebola definitely does not have Ebola. While the mention of even a Ebola test set off scary, screaming headlines all over New York, there would be no reason to freak out even if…

Tech News Sarah Zhang Aug 6 '14

Watching a transparent mantis eat is both disgusting and fascinating

Watch this video of a young glass mantis eating a blue bottle fly. Why? Because while it’s totally gross, you won’t be able to look away as the food travels all through his body. It’s fascinating and gross beautiful and gross but cool all at the same time. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome…

Sploid Jesus Diaz Aug 6 '14

The Power Went Out At This Antarctic Research Station While It Was -67F

It’s been a very, very cold winter in Antarctica, with scientists reporting record lows all over the continent. Which makes the fact that researchers living on the Brunt Ice Shelf lost power for 19 hours even scarier. Today, the British Antarctic Survey announced it’s halting all science until the situation gets resolved. There are 13…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Aug 6 '14

Concept Art Of The Alien Race That Was Cut From Guardians Of The Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy nearly featured the Badoon, one of the most fearsome warrior races in the Marvel Universe — and here’s the concept art (by Goran Bukvic) to prove it. Plus check out more of Bukvic’s concept art, covering weapons and and a cool table. Minor spoilers below… Bukvic seems to have been mostly…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Aug 6 '14

Google May Bring Multiple Accounts To Your Smartphone With Android L

Having multiple accounts on desktops and tablets seems like common sense. After all, we don’t need nosey roommates or tablet-savvy children who sometimes act like nosey roommates interfering with our sacred apps and digital configurations. With Android L, it looks like Google is extending the same logic to smartphones. In an official developer forum, one…

Tech News Darren Orf Aug 6 '14

A Side Table For Charging Gadgets That Plugs Right Into the Wall

The wireless utopia we’ve all been patiently waiting for (while tripping over cords) is still nowhere to be seen, but it’s not for lack of trying. Designer Youmin Vincent Kim has come up with a wonderful interim solution with the Soak desk that leans up against, and plugs directly into, a wall—allowing it to serve…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Aug 6 '14

Otherworldly Winners From National Geographic‘s Traveler Photo Contest

The winners of the 2014 National Geographic Traveler’s Photo Competition have been announced. This year’s prizewinning images are, as always, superb. Above: “The Independence Day,” photographed by Marko Korošec, who captured the image while approaching the storm near Julesburg, Colorado on May 28th, 2013. In 2014, the competition received more than 18,000 entries from around…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Aug 6 '14

A Genuinely Smart Watch That Puts a Hands-Free Flashlight On Your Wrist

Nearly every non-mechanical watch comes with a light of some sort letting you read the time in the dark, but SureFire’s 2211 Luminox WristLight is the first to come with a built-in light that can illuminate an entire room in the middle of the night. Specifically designed for law enforcement, the military, and emergency response…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski Aug 6 '14

MIT Invented Magnetic Hairs That Can Make Water Flow Uphill

Inspired by the coats of fur on some animals, researchers at MIT have developed a flexible skin-like material covered in thousands of tiny magnetic hairs that can move in varying directions in the presence of a magnetic field. That might not seem particularly useful, until MIT points out that the new material can be used…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Aug 6 '14

Ancient Worms May Have Saved Life on Earth 530 Million Years Ago

About 2.5 billion years ago, microbes began making a poison that would cause one of the largest mass extinctions on Earth. The few organisms that could handle this poison flourished, going on to become our ancestors. The poison? It was oxygen. It’s a wonder that oxygen levels didn’t keep rising until Earth became uninhabitable, though,…

Tech News Sarah Zhang Aug 6 '14

Who Owns Copyright On A Selfie Taken By A Monkey?

If you think that it should go to the photographer who created the conditions such that the monkey was in a position to release that shutter, then you’d be in disagreement with Wikimedia. Here’s the photo in question, on the left. It’s a female crested macaque in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. She picked up David Slater’s…

Biology Jason G. Goldman Aug 6 '14

Will Bee Disappearances Lead To A Honey Shortage?

As our bee populations dwindle, could we also be facing down the prospect of a honey shortage? Entomologist May Berenbaum joined us today to take our questions about bee behavior and disappearances, including a question about what we might expect to happen to our stores of honey as bee populations continue to falter: The short…

io9 Ria Misra Aug 6 '14

Watch the Evolution of Amazon’s Kindle Hardware In a Single GIF

The Amazon Fire Phone is kind of whack, but being ugly is not one of its problems. Amazon’s hardware design has improved over the years, and the GadgetLove team created this GIF to illustrate how its products have evolved since that first clunky, oddly designed Kindle. Not every iteration is included (no Paperwhite, for example)…

Commerce Kate Knibbs Aug 6 '14

Full Fathom Five Confirms Max Gladstone As An Author To Watch

Full Fathom Five, the third entry in Max Gladstone’s Craft sequence is a modern fantasy thriller that has some interesting things to say about the world around us, and it’s one of the best fantasy novels of the summer. Spoilers below… Gladstone’s new novel isn’t a sequel to the first two books in his Craft…

io9 Andrew Liptak Aug 6 '14

The Weirdest Products Apple Tried To Sell In the 1980s

In 1986, Apple tried to turn itself into a beacon for the fashion world. Banking on the popularity of the Mac, the company launched an extensive catalog of clothing and accessories known as the Apple Collection. And it couldn’t have been more 80s. A lot of the photos from the catalog are well known—the baseball…

Tech News Angel Jimenez de Luis Aug 6 '14

Marvel Wins, As DC/WB Moves Batman V. Superman‘s Release Date

I knew it. I knew DC/WB didn’t have the guts to keep Batman V. Superman’s premiere on May 6th, 2016, the same date as Captain America 3. Warner Bros. has moved BvS to March 25th, 2016, so the two superhero movies won’t cannibalize each other’s box office, and oh, by the way now DC/WB has…

io9 Rob Bricken Aug 6 '14

Lemmings don’t commit mass suicide, Disney pushed them off a cliff

Lemmings have gotten a bum rap as being panicky rodents prone to throwing themselves from cliffs during their annual migration. But it turns out that the “documentary” that first promulgated this lie was more snuff fantasy than scientific fact. You don’t normally expect that from a Disney production. The year was 1958. The film was…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Aug 6 '14

Twitter’s Latest Test Suggests That Tweet-Based Shopping Is Coming Soon

A group of Twitter users have spotted a “payment and shipping” option within their Android apps. As The Next Web pointed out, this is just one in a series of tests that suggest Jack Dorsey might be able to buy his latest monochromatic designer suit from within the platform he helped build. The option can’t…

Tech News Kate Knibbs Aug 6 '14

Charles Yu’s Insanely Helpful Advice On “Getting Stuck” While Writing

What do you do when you’re in the middle of working on your writing, and you get stuck? And then you start beating yourself up, which only makes it worse. This happens to everybody — but Sorry Please Thank You author Charles Yu has some terrific advice on how to cope. Talking to Suvudu at…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Aug 6 '14

The Beatles: Birthday

No, The Man Tested for Ebola in NYC Does Not Have Ebola

Watching a transparent mantis eat is both disgusting and fascinating

The Power Went Out At This Antarctic Research Station While It Was -67F

Concept Art Of The Alien Race That Was Cut From Guardians Of The Galaxy

Google May Bring Multiple Accounts To Your Smartphone With Android L

A Side Table For Charging Gadgets That Plugs Right Into the Wall

Otherworldly Winners From National Geographic‘s Traveler Photo Contest

A Genuinely Smart Watch That Puts a Hands-Free Flashlight On Your Wrist

MIT Invented Magnetic Hairs That Can Make Water Flow Uphill

Ancient Worms May Have Saved Life on Earth 530 Million Years Ago

Who Owns Copyright On A Selfie Taken By A Monkey?

Will Bee Disappearances Lead To A Honey Shortage?

Watch the Evolution of Amazon’s Kindle Hardware In a Single GIF

Full Fathom Five Confirms Max Gladstone As An Author To Watch

The Weirdest Products Apple Tried To Sell In the 1980s

Marvel Wins, As DC/WB Moves Batman V. Superman‘s Release Date

Lemmings don’t commit mass suicide, Disney pushed them off a cliff

Twitter’s Latest Test Suggests That Tweet-Based Shopping Is Coming Soon

Charles Yu’s Insanely Helpful Advice On “Getting Stuck” While Writing

Latest news

Anker Prime 220W Power Bank Hits Its Lowest Price of the Year, 20,100mAh Capacity With 2 USB-C and 1 USB-A Ports

‘Star Wars’ Is Only a Small Part of What’s Coming to the Lucas Museum

Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 FE See Second Price Drop This Week, Now at a New Record Low on Amazon

The Next ‘Blair Witch’ Movie Is Bringing Back (Most of) the Creatives From the Original Film

LEGO Star Wars Deals Are Live on Amazon Ahead of May the 4th With Mandalorian Helmet, R2-D2 and More

Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo Review: Your Gaming Lifestyle Deserves Two Screens

Apple’s Incoming CEO Makes His Earnings Call Debut

Spotify Will Now Verify Non-AI Artists

Latest Reviews

Steam Controller Review: Trackpads Change Everything for PC Gaming

Soundcore Space 2 Review: A Shockingly Stellar Value for Budget ANC Wireless Headphones

Anker’s UV Printer Can Handle Almost Anything… If You Know What You’re Doing

HP’s EliteBoard Keyboard-Computer Proves We Can Stick a PC in Anything

Sleep-Tracking Earbuds Didn’t Fix Me, but They Did Open My Eyes

I’ve Tested a Lot of Bad Smart Glasses and These Are the Worst Yet

Roborock’s Qrevo Curv 2 Flow Is the Ultimate Robot Mop—If You Don’t Have Corners or Walls

Alienware’s $350 QD-OLED Gaming Monitor Nixes Everything for a Pretty Screen

Let us help you find what you’re looking for...