Gizmodo

President Donald Trump delivered a shocking speech from the Oval Office on Wednesday night about the COVID-19 pandemic, announcing that virtually all air travel from Europe would stop for 30 days, all cargo shipments from Europe would be suspended, and health insurance companies would waive co-pays for all coronavirus…Read more...

For its first official collaboration with Nintendo, Lego could’ve just rolled out another series of collectible minifigures featuring beloved video game characters and fans would have been very happy. Instead, the toymaker is introducing a new way to play with its iconic bricks, allowing builders to create real-life …Read more...

You don’t need a high-end PC to play virtual reality games anymore. Shadow, a 5-year-old cloud gaming platform, is launching what it calls a “VR Exploration Program”—a fancy way of saying a closed beta for people who want to play VR without splurging on a gaming PC.

Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Generation) | $25 | WootRead more...

Actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson have tested positive for the new coronavirus in Australia, a country with at least 128 cases and three deaths from COVID-19. Hanks is in Australia preparing to shoot a new biopic about Elvis Presley and it’s not clear if he contracted the disease in Australia or the U.S., where…Read more...

Apple is notorious for its stranglehold on repairs and managing to weasel its way out of regulation by offering limited repairs through third parties—which Apple alone has the authority to choose. Right to repair activists have long called out Apple and many of its peers for restrictions that attempt to prevent…Read more...

In a speech to the nation on Wednesday night, President Donald Trump partially blamed the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic to the United States on Europe, announcing that the White House will take the unprecedented step of suspending travel by most foreign nationals who have been in Europe’s Schengen Zone to…Read more...

After years of drumming up ridiculous hype, producing a mediocre product, and raising an absurd amount of money (a little over $2 billion, to be a little more precise), augmented-reality start-up Magic Leap is reportedly looking to sell itself. According to Bloomberg, a sale could net the company more than $10 billion—…Read more...

Shortly after one of the worst riots New Delhi has seen in decades, law enforcement agencies in India used facial recognition technology to identify more than 1,100 people who allegedly took part in those riots at the end of February. India’s home minister, Amit Shah, told parliament that law enforcement provided its…Read more...

A major congressional study of U.S. preparedness in cyberspace released this week found that the U.S. needs to catch up, and fast—or run the risk of being caught off guard by an adversary.

Get it? Because it’s all heads.Read more...

Imprisoned activist and former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning attempted suicide on Wednesday in the Alexandria, Virginia, jail where she’s been held for a year following her refusal to testify before a federal grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.

In the wake of the World Health Organization (WHO) formally declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden has introduced legislation that—depending on the spread of the new coronavirus in the United States—may require all states to allow Americans to vote using absentee ballots in the upcoming…Read more...

In a company blog post today, Amazon announced it’s creating a financial safety net for its contingent workers, making it one of the last major tech companies to do so amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.Read more...

NewsTubers, rejoice: YouTube has reversed course and decided to allow select creators to monetize coronavirus content. Previously, any video mentioning the word had their ads removed, per YouTube’s “sensitive content” policy which categorized the coronavirus as a global health crisis (in league with natural disasters,…Read more...

An individual involved with an international expedition to study the effects of climate change in the Arctic has tested positive for the coronavirus, in a development that could interrupt this important science mission.

Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the controversial face recognition company Clearview AI alleging its efforts to collect images of Vermonters without their consent to fuel a law enforcement database is in violation of multiple state laws.

Paleontologists working on the Isle of Skye in Scotland have uncovered around 50 dinosaur footprints, including track marks compatible with Stegosaurus. The discovery points to the tremendous ecological diversity of the region some 170 million years ago.

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In December, a video blazed through gay Twitter of a teen doing the popular “Say So” dance, pioneered by TikTok star Haley Sharpe. Halfway through the video, the teen is interrupted by Laura Dern, her mother, who proceeds to finish the dance (and badly.) To date, the video has over 200,000 likes and 2,300 comments.…Read more...

Coronavirus has been declared a pandemic. Schools are canceling in-person classes, theme parks around the world are closing their doors, and several major events have been called off. Some folks are wondering what this means for the biggest comic convention of the year, San Diego Comic-Con, as well as next month’s…Read more...

After getting chewed out by federal agencies, lawmakers, and more than a few parents, TikTok is finally giving us a window into the ways it targets, tracks and moderates all of the teens and tweens on its platform.Read more...

A theory-defying anomaly has persisted in the latest results from a Large Hadron Collider experiment, according to new results.Read more...

Over the past few weeks, rumors about Google’s next mid-range phone—the Pixel 4a—have been slowly trickling out. Now, a new leak has pegged the price of the Pixel 4a at $400, which means it’s a good time to rundown everything we know about the phone so far.Read more...

For the last two weeks, youth climate organizers in New York have been discussing how climate striking may change now that the novel coronavirus had reached the state. These conversations have been happening elsewhere, too, including in Spain and Belgium. And now Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teen activist that …Read more...

A little over halfway through Bloodshot, everything clicks. Up until that point, the new Vin Diesel joint is a familiar sci-fi action movie about a soldier who is brought back to life and goes after the man who killed not just him, but his wife. Then the story changes and like the last piece of a puzzle, you step…Read more...

COVID-19’s spread around the globe has passed the point of no return, according to the World Health Organization. On Wednesday, WHO officially declared the outbreak of disease caused by a novel coronavirus a pandemic, the second to have occurred in the 21st century. Meanwhile, the U.S. is scrambling to make screening…Read more...

To some, the idea of a computer that didn’t ship with a screen is simply bizarre. To others, Commodore’s computers were where their obsession with technology and gadgets began, and those with fond memories of banging away on those old clackety keys will be happy to hear that a simple adapter turns the Commodore 128 …Read more...

Disney has set an opening date for its Marvel park experience at Disney’s California Adventure, revealing that Avengers Campus will open this July. It sounds like a wild time...but what about that whole looming pandemic thing?Read more...

The tiny skull of a hummingbird-size dinosaur has been found trapped in amber, raising important questions about the evolution of birds and the surprisingly early trend toward miniaturization.

The biggest trade show in video games is skipping a year. E3 2020, which was planned to take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center this June, is cancelled as a result of the Covid-19 coronavirus that is currently spreading across the globe, the organizers of the conference said today.

The world economy has had itself a start to the week, and not in a good way. The creep of COVID-19 across the world has revealed the interconnected nature of just about everything, particularly global markets.Read more...

A Roav Smart Charge FM Transmitter, Lasko tower fan, an Insignia Air Fryer, Super Mario Maker 2, and a sale at Baby Gap are some of Wednesday’s best deals of the day.

The saga of Pablo Escobar-branded folding phones continues. When the Pablo Escobar Fold 1 and Fold 2 launched, every phone nerd could tell that these phones were blatant, suspiciously priced rebrands of other foldable smartphones. Namely, the Royole FlexPai and the Samsung Galaxy Fold. Well, now YouTubers have gotten…Read more...

Despite looking like a miniaturized clone of Nintendo’s Switch Lite, the Powkiddy Q90 lacks the power needed to play nearly every game released in the past 25 years. Guess there’s something to be said about not judging a book—or a console—based on its cover. The $50 Powkiddy Q90 is, however, a solid and cheap way to…Read more...

House Republicans were warned by a public health expert in a closed-door briefing last week that most Americans will eventually be exposed to the novel coronavirus, according to a new report from the Daily Beast. The news comes as President Donald Trump continues to downplay the danger from the virus and public health…Read more...

You’ve got more choices than ever when it comes to building a home speaker setup. But the real question is: Should you buy wired speakers, wifi speakers, or Bluetooth speakers? What about a mix of the three? Here we’ll outline the different approaches these three standards take in terms of audio, and what the benefits…Read more...

Neewer 2-Pack Video Light | $93 | AmazonRead more...

The state of Colorado is opening the country’s second drive-thru coronavirus testing station in Denver on Wednesday, according to a press release sent to Gizmodo late Tuesday. But there’s one catch: People can only get tested if they receive a doctor’s note recommending a test for the virus.

Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2020 in Los Angeles is canceled, Ars Technica reported on Tuesday evening, citing multiple sources who said that the its organizers at the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) will soon make a public announcement.

Google has asked all of its North American employees—well over 100,000, counting all those working under parent company Alphabet, and a similarly massive number of contractors—to work from home due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, Business Insider reported on Tuesday.

We’ve known for awhile that Invisible Man was just the beginning of Universal’s “let’s try this again” revival of its monster series (after the Dark Universe flopped). Now, there’s another classic joining the list of upcoming projects: a brand-new take on Dracula from a director with major horror cred.

A Senate subcommittee on Tuesday took aim at what one witness described as a “dire threat” to the digital marketplace—the processes by which “platform monopolists” such as Google allegedly maintain a stranglehold over the range of apps and services most commonly adopted by consumers; using its own services, in fact,…Read more...

When Montblanc launched its Summit 2 smartwatch two years ago, the pricey device was notable for being one of the only Wear OS watches around with the next-gen Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip, which offered better performance than past Android watches. But the Summit 2 cost a whopping $995. Now Montblanc is back…Read more...

The other day, I was scrolling through Netflix, looking for a distraction from all the pain of my hair and all my terrible car opinions, seeking out some quality space-travel-focused sci-fi, because I love that crap. As I was scrolling, looking at the thumbnails of the various movies and shows and whatever, I realized…Read more...

A new study out Tuesday seems to confirm a remarkable achievement in the world of HIV research. A London man living with HIV who received an experimental stem cell transplant has appeared free of the virus for at least 30 months despite no longer taking medication. They say it’s strong evidence that he may be cured of…Read more...

While COVID-19 may have forced Google to cancel in-person attendance of Google I/O 2020, that doesn’t mean the company isn’t working on new gadgets to show off like the rumored Pixel 4a and potentially now this: a Chromecast Ultra powered by Android TV.Read more...

On Monday, President Donald Trump once again tried to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak that’s now hit over 100 countries and begun spreading within the U.S. He tweeted that the seasonal flu has killed over 37,000 Americans this winter—far more than the 22 deaths from COVID-19 that had been reported…Read more...

If you’ve ever had to fly during the cold winter months you’ve probably already experienced the hassle of a delayed flight because the aircraft had to be blasted with deicer before take off. But annoying delays are just one of many issues ice build-up on a plane can cause, so researchers have come up with a better…Read more...

The U.S. government definitely has its priorities in order. Apparently, it’s considering using the coronavirus outbreak as an excuse to pour money into fossil fuel companies.Read more...