The Nintendo Switch is a tiny console with tiny controllers all powered by tiny batteries with tiny capacities. Charging is just part of life with the Switch, which is why it’s spawned hundreds of power accessories, including this portable battery that looks like the most boring Switch game you can play.
Once known for its quirky remote-controlled robot balls, Sphero parlayed that technology into a massive consumer hit with its Star Wars: The Force Awakens BB-8 toy. As a result, the company has been able to expand beyond the sphere, first with a robotic version of Cars’ Lightning McQueen, and now with an interactive…
E3 is here and that means it’s crazy gaming gear time! From Microsoft’s latest Xbox to a tiny Atari 2600, here’s the coolest stuff we saw this week.
Nintendo’s recently-announced classic games service will eventually bring your favorite 8-bit and 16-bit titles to the Switch. And when it finally launches, 8Bitdo’s new SNES30 Pro controller looks like it could be the perfect way to play everything from the original NES’ Super Mario Bros., to the Switch’s Zelda:…
Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition, which was nearly impossible to find from its initial release right up until the company stopped making it, proved gamers are hungry for nostalgia. But has 16 years been long enough for Microsoft fans to feel similarly nostalgic for the original Xbox’s gigantic controllers?
Call me a basic bitch all you want—and it’s true, I totally am—but I absolutely adore rose gold. In fact, if I’m being brutally honest, I think rose gold is the best thing that has ever happened to tech.
There are some fantastic bargains to be had if you can live without the shiniest, newest gadgets—but diving into the second-hand market comes with its own set of potential pitfalls and problems.
Nintendo’s questionable supply chain strategies mean there are still gamers trying to get their hands on a Switch, two months after its release. But why bother trying to hunt down another console when the smartphone in your pocket can already do almost everything the Switch can—with a few upgrades.
Dogs are some of the most loving and affectionate pets you can own, but they do have one sworn enemy: vacuum cleaners. They’ll incessantly bark, or run and hide while you’re cleaning your floors. But one dog adapted to its owner’s Roomba wandering all over the house like it owns the place—it’s apparently learned how…
Advertisers have found ways to bombard us with promotions no matter what we’re doing: watching TV, checking social media, and even when streaming music. But the future of advertising could be even more invasive when the next public event you attend is full of flying video drones projecting inescapable video…
How often have you pulled a rarely needed book off your shelf and needed to blow a layer of dust off of it? Now imagine what libraries have to deal with, given the tens of thousands of tomes in their collections. But it turns out someone’s already invented a machine that cleans books like a tiny waterless carwash.
Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's roundup of the most interesting toys we’ve seen this week. It’s a Guardians of the Galaxy blowout as we’ve got life-sized Groots, creepy plush Groots, and a fancy cassette player. But wait—there’s more, including a very swanky David Bowie figure and a very large Iron Man. Check it out!
With the exploding Note 7 battery fiasco, Samsung inadvertently did something that’s increasingly difficult these days: It made smartphones interesting for a flickering moment. Super interesting in fact. Besides the intriguing mournful saga of the Note 7, whose embarrassing recall cost the company billions, Samsung…
After releasing a stand that turned the Apple Watch into a miniature Macintosh computer to sit on your bedside table while it charges, Elago has now essentially done the same thing for your iPhone with its M4 stand, which lets your phone cosplay as a vintage Apple computer that’s woefully underpowered in comparison.
Was the Segway ahead of its time, or just an overhyped product that could have never lived up to the anticipation? Being pricier than a used car didn’t help the original Segway’s chances, but at least now, electrical engineer Olaf Winkler has solved that problem with a ball-based self-balancing scooter that features a…
Staying active is a big part of staying healthy, and that’s often the reason given for why you should wear a fitness tracker; they’re a constant reminder to get up off the couch. But stress can be just as detrimental to your health as sloth, so Garmin hopes its new vívosmart 3 will finally quantify what you already…
Like death and taxes, drone crashes are basically inevitable. Even experienced pilots aren’t immune to hardware failures or software problems. But instead of building drones stronger, or wrapping them in awkward safety cages, Swiss researchers have designed a flexible quadcopter that squishes when it crashes,…
It’s never been a worse time for your wallet if you have a predilection for buying rad toys and pop culture merchandise. There are so many cool things around, io9 is starting Toy Aisle: a brand new weekly column of the best and newest toys and collectibles. We’re kicking off with a very fancy Spider-Gwen, Plush Lego,…
It sounds like the best thing the new Nintendo Switch has going for it, at least at launch, is a new Legend of Zelda game. That makes it a hard sell, especially when this custom portable Super Nintendo already has a massive library of classic 16-bit games—most of which are probably collecting dust in your parents’…
Thanks to crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, the internet is flooded with ridiculous gadgets, devices that over-promise and under-deliver, and straight-up scams, all vying for your cash. Maybe that’s why this Stupid Hackathon, which encourages people to invent stupid things, is so refreshing—no one is…
