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Android 13 Is a Subtle Improvement Over Android 12
Android 13 is here for Google’s Pixel devices, and if you’re wielding a compatible model, you can grab the software now by requesting the over-the-air update in the settings panel. The software update is available for the Pixel 4 and up, including the latest Pixel 6a release. Note that this is a staggered rollout, so…
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How Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Others Delay Action on Plastic
When a huge plastic producer like Coca-Cola says it’s working to solve the plastic crisis, what does that really look like? An investigation published Friday by Bloomberg documents how one initiative in Ghana was used by some of the world’s biggest plastic producers to battle against threats of plastic bans, while…
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New Users Have Flocked to Trump's Truth Social in the Aftermath of FBI Raids
Donald Trump-owned social media site, Truth Social, has seen a big influx of interest and new users following last week’s widely-publicized FBI raid on the former president’s Florida home.

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Fitbit Murder: Husband of Slain Wife Sentenced to 65 Years
Richard Dabate, the husband of 2015 murder victim Connie Dabate, was sentenced to 65 years in prison on Thursday. Prosecutors say that Richard Dabate’s police statements describing the murder did not match data present on Connie’s wearable activity tracker, Fitbit.

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A 'Fast-Moving' E. Coli Outbreak Is Hospitalizing People in the Midwest, CDC Warns
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is raising alarm over what it describes as a “fast-moving” outbreak of Escherichia coli bacteria. At least 29 people in Michigan and Ohio have been sickened by the same strain, while nine have been hospitalized, but more cases may emerge. A clear cause for the foodborne…
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This Week's Toy News Has Big Dome Energy
Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular round up of the latest in nerdy toys and merchandise. This week, ignore that it’s summer and get excited about Christmas with a Star Trek twist! In the meantime, Lego shines a light, and Hot Toys enters the Star Wars Inquisitorius. Check it out!
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Crypto Lender Hodlnaut Cuts Majority of Staff, Mentions Police Investigation After Ending Withdrawals
Crypto exchanges and lenders are still struggling to “hodl” onto their employees. As companies fight to keep afloat after the most recent crypto crash, hundreds of exchanges staff are being kicked to the curb, and some are reportedly trying to keep that fact a secret.
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12 Photos That Show the Extreme—and Extremely Weird—Sides of Life
The natural world is filled with moments of wonder and terror—and it’s those moments that are captured in the finalists of this year’s BMC Ecology and Evolution image competition. The photo contest, now in its second year, is intended as a creative showcase of the work that ecologists and evolutionary biologists…
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Star Trek Release Dates: When to Expect All the New and Returning Shows
Trying to keep track of what’s coming in the realm of Star Trekfeels like trying to stop a tribble from procreating. Before even more new series are announced, here’s our guide of when to expect all the new Star Trek shows, as well as returning familiar favorites, and what else is in the works right now. Engage!

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The Epic Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power Soundtrack Is Here, With a Theme by Howard Shore
Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films would be nowhere near as memorable without the musical stylings of Howard Shore. So it was only right that Amazon brought Shore back to contribute the theme to its upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power show, to assist the already quite capable and exciting composer, …
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YouTube's Adding a Watermark to Your Shorts When They're Shared Across Other Platforms
If you’re thinking of downloading your YouTube shorts and posting them on another platform, then YouTube is getting ready to take credit. The video sharing platform announced new features for creators of shorts, including the addition of a watermark that will soon be stamped on the brief videos when they’re shared…
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Magical Peril Abounds in This Excerpt From Claire Legrand's A Crown of Ivy and Glass
Claire Legrand is a best-selling YA author—her works include the Empirium Trilogy and Sawkill Girls—but next year, she’ll be releasing her first adult fantasy saga. The first book is titled A Crown of Ivy and Glass, and io9 is thrilled to be revealing the cover and an excerpt today.
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Meta Didn’t Bother to Translate Horizon Worlds Into Spanish When It Launched the Game in Spain
“A palabras necias, oídos sordos.” That’s how Meta’s Horizon Worlds has been described in Spain after launching in the country earlier this week. The comment on YouTube —which literally means, “turn deaf ears on stubborn words”—was made in frustration over the fact that Meta didn’t seem to realize that people who…
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Hori Redesigned Its Joy-Con Controllers to Look More Like Nintendo's
How do you play the Nintendo Switch? Perpetually docked and connected to a TV like a home console, or more frequently in handheld mode as you roam the house or take potty breaks (don’t pretend you don’t)? If you’re in that latter group, the new Hori Split Pad Fit should make your handheld experience feel a little more…
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For All Mankind, io9 Owes You an Apology
As the credits rolled on the third season finale of For All Mankind, I felt awful. But not because the show was awful. On the contrary. It was legitimately magnificent. I felt bad because I knew that I’d let a bunch of people down. Mainly, you, the reader, for not passionately screaming about just how excellent this…
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Washington State Entomologists Ask: 'Have You Seen This Huge Moth?'
Washington State entomologists are asking people to be on the lookout for a potentially problematic newcomer to the state: the Atlas moth. Fortunately, the insects are pretty hard to miss, with their nearly 10-inch wingspans and distinctive diamond markings.

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This Throwing Knife Launcher Is an Amazing and Terrifying Feat of Engineering
Steven Seagal makes knife throwing look effortless in movies like Under Siege, but it’s actually an incredibly hard skill to master if you don’t have Hollywood’s movie magic helping you out. That’s what Quint, of the YouTube channel Quint BUILDs, was lacking. But with some good old fashioned engineering, they managed…
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The Next Mobile Suit Gundam Series Kicks Off Early This September
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, the first main series in the legendary mecha franchise since 2016's Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, is set to kick off with a simultaneous broadcast in and out of Japan this October. But if you can’t wait that long for a glimpse, a special prologue episode is on…
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TikTok's In-App Browser Has Code to Track Users’ Inputs and Activity
Tick tock goes the clock. It seems that every day we find more examples of the ways some of the most popular social media apps are collecting data on users. Now TikTok itself seems to be wound up pretty tight about allegations they’re keylogging users using code found inside the in-app browser.
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Users Beware: Apple Announces Security Flaw Affecting iPhones, iPads, and Macs
Apple has warned of a major security flaw in some recent operating systems of Mac, iPhones, iPads, and some iPods that could allow hackers to take control of your devices.

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Wake Up, Sleepyhead, The Sandman Just Dropped Another Episode
If you’re struggling to wake up, rubbing sleep dust out of your eyes, yawning theatrically, and/or waiting for your coffee to finish brewing, you might not have noticed that Lord Morpheus (and Netflix) left a present for you to enjoy once you’ve fully awoken: a new, extremely unannounced 11th episode of The Sandman TV…
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Photos Show Shockingly Low Water at New Mexico's Largest Reservoir
Like Lake Mead and Lake Powell along the Colorado River, New Mexico’s largest reservoir has reached alarmingly low levels. Photos taken last week at Elephant Butte Reservoir, which is located along the Rio Grande, show stark “bathtub rings”—mineral lines that show where the water levels previously sat—and huge…
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