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io9Slum Life In New York City During the Nineteenth Century’s Gilded Age
Wealth flowed during the 1880s and 90s, but only to the upper echelons of society. A vast gulf opened between rich and poor, earning this era the nickname “the Gilded Age.” One immigrant photographer captured what it was like for New York’s poor during this time, and his images remain arresting today. The Danish-born carpenter … Continued
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io9FIFA’s New World Cup Ball Is The Fastest And Most Aeodynamic Yet
When the 2014 FIFA World Cup gets started on June 12 in Brazil, the world’s greatest soccer players will be booting around one of the most advanced balls ever created for the sport — and the science proves it. Called Brazuca, it was developed by Adidas. Here’s what makes it unique: It has six polyurethane … Continued
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Tech NewsA Bleak Look at the Life of Migrant Workers Building Qatar’s World Cup
Workers sleeping 12 to a room without access to clean water. Young men dying from heart attacks due to the extreme heat. One man who has been trying to leave for five years, except his passport was taken by his boss, who has disappeared. It’s the latest and most heartbreaking news on the highly controversial … Continued
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Tech News
iOS 8 Finally Lets You Install Any Damn Keyboard You Want
Many prayers were answered on Monday, when Apple announced that iOS 8 would support third party keyboards. That means you folks complaining that Swype doesn’t work on iPhone, don’t need to complain anymore. This, in addition to the new native keyboard functionality means that typing on iOS device just got a lot better. It is … Continued
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Tech News
Apple’s HomeKit Is an iPhone-Powered Universe of Gadgets
Instead of jumping head first into the smart home market by allowing iOS users to (finally) control all of their connected appliances and devices from a single app, Apple has instead decided to tip-toe through the connected home’s front door with a new API feature called HomeKit that ensures everything can be securely connected wirelessly, … Continued
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Tech News
Yep, iOS Is Getting Widgets
Apple has finally made its Notification Center functional. Now, you can include info- and function-packed widgets right in your Notifications screen. The new widget functions are part of iOS’s new, overall extensibility, but here, your apps have been molded into Notification Center-friendly form. For instance, if you have the eBay app, you’ll be able to … Continued
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Tech News
iOS 8 Apps Will Finally Be Able to Work Together
Until now, Apple has had very stringent rules about how apps can run in iOS. Apps have always run in “sandboxes” so they can’t talk to each other. Apple is finally loosening this restriction so that apps can work together. In short, Apple is expanding its support of extensibility, so that apps will be able … Continued
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Tech News
This Gold-Plated Bike Is Real and Costs $1,000,000
Choosing the right bike can be a difficult process, but now there’s an obvious choice for those with more money than sense: this frankly insane gold-plated Salsa Mukluk, which weighs in at a startling $1,000,000. Created by the House of Solid Gold, the so-called Beverly Hills Edition of the Mukluk is embellished and encrusted with … Continued
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io9
You Can Finally Own Anime’s Biggest New Hit — And I Mean Biggest
You may have watched it already on Netflix, Cartoon Network, or online. Let me tell you that if you’ve seen the smash anime Attack on Titan, you almost certainly need to own it, and if you haven’t seen it, you’re almost certainly going to want to. Tomorrow’s your chance! • Attack on Titan: Part One … Continued
By Rob Bricken -
io9
The World’s Most Patriotic Pubic Louse Study
When we hear that the pubic louse is facing extinction due to brazilian waxing, we forget how much of a scourge it once was. During World War II, the pubic louse threatened the fate of the world. This led to an odd experiment involving construction-working conscientious objectors wearing special underwear. It was the 1940s, and … Continued
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Tech NewsRiding Crimea On Victory Day
An amateur filmmaker rode a motorcycle from Moscow to newly-Russian Crimea for the Victory Day parade. How has the peninsula changed since the surprisingly bloodless annexation? Here’s his perspective. While perusing Reddit the other day, I found a link to this video. Could someone really have ridden through Crimea so soon following the controversial annexation … Continued
By Wes Siler -
io9Books & Comics
What Was The First Science Fiction Or Fantasy Book You Ever Read?
We endlessly debate which science fiction and fantasy books make great entry-level reads for newcomers to the genre. But what was the first book you ever read? What book brought you into science fiction and fantasy, and helped to hook you for life? Over at USA Today, they’re asking a bunch of SF authors what … Continued
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ScienceHealth
iOS Health: All the Important Data About Your Body in One Place
Apple just pulled back the curtain on a new native app called Health at WWDC. Yes, this is the same health tracking app we heard about a few months ago. And yes, you can buy a variety of compatible fitness tracking devices at the Apple Store. Health does more than count your steps, though. Health … Continued
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Tech News
iOS Is Finally Getting a New, Smarter Keyboard
One of our biggest frustrations with iOS devices has been the less-than-stellar stock keyboard. iOS 8 fixes that with Quicktype, a predictive, content-sensitive keyboard with multiple layouts that learns the phrases you use most and fills them in. It’s about ducking time. Update: Thanks to Extensions, iOS 8 also supports third-party keyboard apps (like Swype) … Continued
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io9
A Handy Chart Showing Every Tawdry Encounter Ever On Penny Dreadful
Last week, Penny Dreadful cranked through some very Victorian flashbacks and positioned itself for the second act. This week, things get even more Victorian as everyone goes out to a play and has the worst night ever — except for the people who stayed home, for whom the night was slightly worse. Spoilers ahead! This … Continued
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Tech News
iOS 8: All the New Features For Your iPhone and iPad
The new Apple iOS 8 presented at WWDC 2014 is a lot more than Healthkit—Apple’s new vital statistics monitoring system—and a few adjustments to the interface introduced last year. Here you will find the complete catalog of new features along with live commentary on all of them. Healthkit Apple has created a new API called … Continued
By Jesus Diaz