Technology

How to Hack an ATM—With Video!

Computer security expert Barnaby Jack recently demonstrated how to get an ATM to spit money for minutes on end. Jack purchased some ATMs online for his research, and says the tools required to hack them cost less than $100. According to Technology Review: After studying four different companies’ models, he said, “every ATM I’ve looked…

io9 Allison Bond - Discover Aug 2

Quantum electron submarine holds the key to real, practical nanotechnology

In order to achieve levels of nanotechnology depicted in science fiction, we need to build machines one atom at a time. We’re not there yet, but now we’ve got a powerful, indirect way to manipulate individual atoms. Before this new breakthrough, the closest we had gotten to individual atom manipulation was to rather clumsily push…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Aug 2

Meet the Telenoid R1, a Casper-like robot that will haunt your dreams

Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University created this Telenoid R1 robot to “transmit the presence” of its user from afar. The Telenoid R1 was designed to be generic as possible, but it also resembles an embryonic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The silicon-skinned Telenoid R1 was designed to be entirely featureless so that people in its…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Aug 1

Electronic Home Library (1959)

Over at Paleo-Future Blog, Matt Novak documents the future that never was. Here, Novak takes a look at an electronic library from Arthur Radebaugh’s whimsical futurist cartoonist strip, Closer Than We Think. Remember 1959? You were just 9 years old, with not a care in the world (except maybe nuclear winter). You spread the Sunday…

io9 Matt Novak - Paleo-Future Blog Jul 31

Now you can make an electrical circuit out of dough

In the future, play-doh will be used to make electronics devices. That’s the message of “Squishy Circuits,” a project where students ran a motor and LEDs connected to a battery-powered roll of dough. Engineering professor AnnMarie Thomas and her students at Minnesota’s University of St. Thomas came up with a recipe for a conductive dough,…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 30

X Prize Offers $1 Million For Oil Clean Up Solutions

The X Prize Foundation, which spurs scientific and technological innovation with the greatest of incentives, a big pile of money, hopes we’ll have a significantly improved method for cleaning oil by this time next year. The carrot: a cool million. The foundation, which organized an on-going, Google-sponsored $30 million competition for landing a robot on…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Jul 29

Fly eyes will power the next generation of solar cells

In desperate need of a more efficient structure for their tiny solar cells, engineers turned to the world’s foremost expert on nanotechnology: Mother Nature. The corneas of flies are the perfect nanostructures for the next generation of solar cells. This particular field of engineering is known as biomimetics, which is pretty much exactly what it…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jul 29

New study looks at online breakups – and why post-breakup “Facebook stalking” is common

Anyone under 30 who is dating knows that flirtation, romance, and even breakups take place via SMS, IM, and social networks like Facebook. A fascinating new study looks at how people act when they break up online. LiveScience’s Jeremy Hsu writes about a new media studies book, The Breakup 2.0: Disconnecting over New Media (Cornell…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 28

Two scifi apps for iPhone that promise to ward off boredom

Everybody needs a cheap app or two to pass the time, and we’ve got two iPhone apps that let you kill zombies and become Captain Kirk. Not at the same time, sadly. Our first app is one we’ve been eagerly awaiting for a while – the Cowboys vs. Zombies app from Tall Chair, which lets…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 28

What it feels like to ride on the back of a rocket into the upper atmosphere

A Nexus One smart phone got launched 28,000 feet into the atmosphere, riding on the back of a rocket, and captured the whole ride on video. Yes, it’s a little dizzying (rockets spin as they fly) but still awesome. Find out more about this awesome project via MakeZine.

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 28

Google’s master plan – DO NOT ERASE!

These pictures of a whiteboard at Google headquarters were taken in 2005, and they reveal at last what the Big G’s plans for total world domination really involve. Apparently these plans were drawn up for the benefit of John Markoff, the celebrated New York Times tech reporter and author of a countercultural history of Silicon…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 27

The Industrial Revolution has a giant robot problem

In the industrial wilds of Petaluma, California, a group of giant robot artists called Survival Research Labs (SRL) staged a smackdown with an enormous metal chicken and “Big Arm.” (Yeah, it’s really big.) Witness the robot rumble! SRL has been covertly (and not-so-covertly) staging its industrial mayhem robot smackdowns since the 1980s. In this series…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 26

Are we searching for the wrong kinds of signals from aliens?

Science fiction author Gregory Benford and his twin brother, the physicist James Benford, say that scientists are tackling the search for intelligent life as if aliens had 1960s-era technology. Here are their suggestions for updating the search for ET. According to MSNBC, which has a terrific, lengthy article on the brothers’ research: Assuming that aliens…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 22

Ready for human testing: DARPA’s versatile prosthetic limb, controlled by user’s thoughts

The Modular Prosthetic Limb allows 22 degrees of motion, independent movement of the fingers, weighs as much as a human arm, and responds to the user’s thoughts. So how is it different from a real arm? It really isn’t. Developed by the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, the limb has nearly the same…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jul 22

Blood spatter model to help crime scene investigation

Reconstructing the sequence of events leading up to a murder could become easier and more precise thanks to a new system for producing a high-resolution 3D map of a crime scene. A post-mortem can shed some light on the circumstances surrounding a murder, and vital clues can also be gleaned from an analysis of bloodstains…

io9 Paul Marks - New Scientist Jul 21

Exotic nanodevice could let computers ditch slowpoke electrons and run thousands of times faster

Modern computers rely on electrons moving through wires to transmit information, which is far, far slower than the fast-as-light optics we theoretically could be using. And now we’ve found the exotic material that might allow us to leave electrons behind. Electrons may be the lifeblood of computer communications, but they have a dirty little secret:…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jul 20

Play the original Doctor Who theme using just a guitar and effects pedals

Sound geek Bill Ruppert has created this terrific how-to video that shows how to use Electro-Harmonix effects pedals and just one guitar to make the Doctor Who score, originally created in the BBC Radiophonics workshop.

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 17

Do you suffer from nerd rage? Take our quiz and find out!

This dude just said the Battlestar Galactica finale was “great storytelling.” WTF!? And then his friend started lecturing you about why your phone sucks. Are you starting to hyperventilate? You’ve got nerd rage! But just how wrathful are you? Answer the following questions as honestly as possible. Then add up your score and find out…

Movies Annalee Newitz Jul 14

Can I build an ansible to communicate across the cosmos?

In this week’s Ask a Physicist, we answer a question that’s on everyone’s mind: Can we use quantum entanglement to make a mockery of the speed of light, and create intergalactic communications devices like Le Guin’s “ansible“? This week’s Ask a Physicist comes to us from a huge number of you, but was first posed…

io9 Dr. Dave Goldberg Jul 13

Nano-generators can harvest electricity from your blood

We are one very big step closer to sending robots into our body for long-term, complex missions. New nano-generators can turn mechanical energy – like that of flowing blood – into electricity needed to power nanobots. The tiny generators are the brainchild of Dr. Yong Shi, a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stevens…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jul 9

How to Hack an ATM—With Video!

Quantum electron submarine holds the key to real, practical nanotechnology

Meet the Telenoid R1, a Casper-like robot that will haunt your dreams

Electronic Home Library (1959)

Now you can make an electrical circuit out of dough

X Prize Offers $1 Million For Oil Clean Up Solutions

Fly eyes will power the next generation of solar cells

New study looks at online breakups – and why post-breakup “Facebook stalking” is common

Two scifi apps for iPhone that promise to ward off boredom

What it feels like to ride on the back of a rocket into the upper atmosphere

Google’s master plan – DO NOT ERASE!

The Industrial Revolution has a giant robot problem

Are we searching for the wrong kinds of signals from aliens?

Ready for human testing: DARPA’s versatile prosthetic limb, controlled by user’s thoughts

Blood spatter model to help crime scene investigation

Exotic nanodevice could let computers ditch slowpoke electrons and run thousands of times faster

Play the original Doctor Who theme using just a guitar and effects pedals

Do you suffer from nerd rage? Take our quiz and find out!

Can I build an ansible to communicate across the cosmos?

Nano-generators can harvest electricity from your blood

‘Marvel Rivals’ Wants to Start Being More Than Just a Hero Shooter

‘How Do We Make Sure That Claude Behaves Itself?’: Anthropic Invited 15 Christians for a Summit

See the Next ‘Hunger Games’ in This Trip Down Memory Lane

Indie Animation Is Having a Moment on YouTube

Trump’s World Liberty Financial Makes FTX-esque Move, Borrows Against Its Own Crypto Token

Steven Soderbergh Wanted to Take ‘Bond’ Back to the ’60s

If You Make Fart Music, ChatGPT Will Be the Most Supportive Girlfriend You Could Ask For

This Loud-Ass Party Speaker Almost Got Me High AF

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

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

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

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