Sports

Players Help Power the Lights on This Soccer Field Just by Running

As they make their way up and down the field chasing the ball, the players on this new soccer pitch in Rio de Janeiro are actually helping to keep the lights powered when the sun sets. Because underneath the artificial turf are 200 special tiles that work like tiny generators to harness the kinetic energy…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Sep 12

Swinging the world’s longest golf club looks absolutely ridiculous

I don’t where people come up with the ideas to do these things sober but if you were ever wondering what the the Guinness World Record for world’s longest golf club was, the answer is 14-feet 5-inches. Karsten Maas from Denmark used the club to drive the ball about 180 yards. And look absolutely ridiculous…

Sploid Casey Chan Sep 11

Nike’s Concept Jet for Pro Athletes Is a Luxury Lounge at 40,000 Feet

Pro athletes lead a very luxurious life, with trainers ensuring they’re always in top physical shape. But they still travel in cramped airplanes that weren’t designed for seven-footers. Teague design firm and Nike have come up with a solution: a super-luxurious concept jet that caters to a team’s every need. First and foremost is space.…

Tech News Bob Sorokanich Sep 9

An Impossibly Thin Heating Element Stops These Goggles From Fogging Up

There’s nothing like a thin layer of condensation on your ski goggles to ruin a perfectly good run down a hill covered in tantalizingly fresh powder. But active people get warm and sweat, and science says that cold moist air condensing on your goggles is inevitable. Unless you’ve got a pair of these F-BOM goggles…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski Sep 8

A County-By-County Map Of NFL Allegiance

Facebook’s Data Science team has released its 2014 NFL American Fandom Map, to mark the beginning of the NFL season. The map uses Facebook “likes” to determine the most popular NFL team in every U.S. county. The result is “one of the most comprehensive samples of sports fanship ever collected.” Even if you’re not a…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Sep 7

Behind the Scenes at the San Francisco 49ers’ New High Tech Stadium

Candlestick’s out and Levi’s Stadium has been officially christened as the new home of the San Francisco 49ers. The brand-spanking-new site is all kinds of wired up and ready to receive upwards of 70,000 smartphone-wielding fans. I went behind the scenes to see how the tech has come together. Are you ready for some football?…

Tech News Jordan Kushins Sep 5

A Sit-Down Stand-Up Paddleboard For Taking It Easy On the Water

Stand-Up Paddleboarding has exploded in popularity over the past couple of years, but it’s an activity limited to those with a good sense of balance, and a strong set of legs. For the rest of us—and the lazy—there’s now the CruiserBoard which upgrades your standard paddleboard with a comfy place to sit and lean. Featuring…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Sep 4

This Cork Pot Holder Secretly Serves As a Ping Pong Net For After Dinner

Once you remove the placemats and centerpieces, your dining room table becomes the perfect stand-in for a ping-pong table. The only thing missing is a net, and that soon could also be just a quick transformation away if this convertible CorkNet pot holder is successful on Kickstarter. When you’re prepping dinner, the two triangular cork…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Aug 28

The Vyper Hands-On: This Vibrating Foam Roller Is Freaking Incredible

It’s no secret that foam rollers have been a key part of physical therapy for years. Athletes use them not only to heal from injury, but also to increase flexibility before training and to speed recovery after strenuous exercise. The Vyper is the first foam roller to add vibration to the equation though, and holy…

Tech News Brent Rose Aug 27

Just Six Months After the Olympics, Sochi Looks Like a Ghost Town

It’s been almost exactly six months since the Sochi Olympics wrapped up and the world promptly moved on to speculating about the Rio 2016. Since then, the area has been left holding the proverbial bag—which as Russian photographer Alexander Belenkiy shows us, is full of too many buildings and not enough people to occupy them.…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Aug 25

The Curveball Illusion Makes You Sure Your Computer is Pranking You

Look directly at the spinning disk and it will appear to fly straight. Look at the purple “fixation point” at the right, and the disk will keep sliding to the side. It is probably the eeriest thing you’ve seen today, and this paper will tell you why you haven’t really seen it. Like something coming…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Aug 25

Report: Apple TV’s Getting NFL Now App in Time For This Season

Microsoft and the NFL might have a cozy relationship, but that doesn’t mean Apple is being kept from all the action on the gridiron. 9to5Mac reports that the app, NFL Now, will also come to Apple TV later this month. The NFL made no mention of Apple TV when the app was announced back in…

Tech News Darren Orf Aug 4

Check Out The Brain On LeBron James

Cleveland’s prodigal son, LeBron James, has a better memory than you. But then, the same could probably be said of many professional athletes. Photo Credit: Jim Rogash/Getty Images Anyone left doubting the importance of intellect in professional sports would do well to read Brian Windhorst’s recent article on LeBron James and his exceptional brain. The…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jul 31

The Battered Bastards of Baseball Is the Best Netflix Original Yet

You’re well within your rights to obsess over House of Cards, or Orange Is the New Black, or maybe even Lilyhammer if it’s been a particularly rough month. But the best Netflix original isn’t a TV series. It’s a documentary. Specifically, it’s The Battered Bastards of Baseball. It’s possible (likely?) that I’m very specifically conditioned…

Movies Brian Barrett Jul 27

NFL Sunday Ticket Will Be Available Without Satellite Next Season (Updated)

Looks like DirecTV is poised to offer cord-cutters a big bucket of NFL, no satellite contract required: AppleInsider just found this unannounced promotional page promising all the out-of-market live games you can watch, every Sunday, starting at $200. Update: We reached out to DirecTV, and found out that this offer has been available for some…

Television Bob Sorokanich Jul 16

Nike’s New Baseball Glove Comes Already Broken In

Nike’s new Vapor 360 fielding glove is specially designed to be used “straight out of the box,” according to Nike. Forget stashing it under your mattress for weeks until the leather loosens up—this glove is broken in from day one. The key to the Vapor 36o’s ready-to-play design is the perforated leather on the palm,…

Tech News Mario Aguilar Jul 15

The Most Popular Sport in North America 900 Years Ago

Beneath the freeways of East St. Louis in Illinois there lie the ruins of a city built nearly a millennium ago, around towering earthen pyramids. Today called Cahokia, it held as many as 40 thousand people, and their influence spread throughout the southeast U.S. — mostly due the popularity of a game called chunkey. Some…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 14

How Far Do Soccer Players Run During a Match?

After four weeks of well-placed headers and acrobatic kicks and whatever was going on with Ronaldo’s hair, the World Cup finally draws to a close today. But while you’re holding your breath during the Germany-Argentina nail-biter, take a moment to appreciate the most astonishing feat that happens during these 90 minutes: How far these guys…

Tech News Brian Barrett Jul 13

Golf trick shot activates Rube Goldberg machine to cook hot dogs

You would think that you could only do so much with golf trick shots but David Kalb, trick shot extraordinaire, takes it to another level. He rigs his trick shots so they have to be absolutely perfect because they eventually turn into Rube Goldberg machines that can make hot dogs and create flaming watermelon heads.…

Sploid Casey Chan Jul 11

That Brazil-Germany game would have looked the same without Brazil

Someone had the clever idea to erase every Brazilian player out of the humiliating World Cup game with Germany. The fact is that it doesn’t really matter because Brazil was an invisible troupe of clowns to begin with. The game plays just the same without them. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join…

Sploid James Baker Jul 11

Players Help Power the Lights on This Soccer Field Just by Running

Swinging the world’s longest golf club looks absolutely ridiculous

Nike’s Concept Jet for Pro Athletes Is a Luxury Lounge at 40,000 Feet

An Impossibly Thin Heating Element Stops These Goggles From Fogging Up

A County-By-County Map Of NFL Allegiance

Behind the Scenes at the San Francisco 49ers’ New High Tech Stadium

A Sit-Down Stand-Up Paddleboard For Taking It Easy On the Water

This Cork Pot Holder Secretly Serves As a Ping Pong Net For After Dinner

The Vyper Hands-On: This Vibrating Foam Roller Is Freaking Incredible

Just Six Months After the Olympics, Sochi Looks Like a Ghost Town

The Curveball Illusion Makes You Sure Your Computer is Pranking You

Report: Apple TV’s Getting NFL Now App in Time For This Season

Check Out The Brain On LeBron James

The Battered Bastards of Baseball Is the Best Netflix Original Yet

NFL Sunday Ticket Will Be Available Without Satellite Next Season (Updated)

Nike’s New Baseball Glove Comes Already Broken In

The Most Popular Sport in North America 900 Years Ago

How Far Do Soccer Players Run During a Match?

Golf trick shot activates Rube Goldberg machine to cook hot dogs

That Brazil-Germany game would have looked the same without Brazil

Trump Is Reportedly Going Full Steam Ahead With The Golden Dome

‘Kamen Rider’ Is Ready to Take on the World

Twitter Just Can’t Stop Leaking Movies

The ‘Mass Effect’ Show is Getting Rewritten to Get Greenlit

See the Early Stages of How ‘Project Hail Mary’ Brought Rocky to Life

‘Cognitive Surrender’ Is a New and Useful Term for How AI Melts Brains

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Marshall Acton III Home Speaker Drops to a Record Low, the Deal Countdown Has Already Started

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Let us help find what you are looking for...