Gizmodo

Blast off to adventure in the amazing year 2021! No doubt, we’re expecting a ton of cool and exciting space-related happenings next year, with these stories being among the most highly anticipated.

Humanity will survive this pandemic, but the past 10 months spent isolating, social distancing, and quarantining has been rough for us all. As bad as this year has been, it could have been a lot worse were it not for a handful of technologies that stepped up to help us all get through it.

Patty Jenkins is already getting asked specific details about the recently announced Wonder Woman 3. Details of Marvel’s Eternals surface thanks to action figures. Plus updates from Star Trek series Picard and Discovery. Spoilers away!Read more...

Sometimes it feels like gaming headsets have just gotten a bit too extra recently, with everything from superfluous RGB lighting to built-in rumble motors. When I’m trying to pick out an excellent wireless gaming headset, I’m not asking for much. I’m looking for comfort, solid audio, strong battery life and…Read more...

There’s a brand new version of Windows on the way, and it’s set to change how we interact with our PCs—and even change our ideas about what a PC actually is. Here’s everything you need to know Windows 10X as it stands now, and the devices that will be compatible in 2021.

PowerA Wireless GameCube Controller Party Pack | $70 | Amazon

At what passes for its best, technology would seem equipped to provide a slight relief from tedium/despair, or a semi-efficient if error-prone method of trying to keep in touch with your parents. What it seems wholly unequipped to provide is “happiness.” Think of the most smartphone-dependent people you know. Do they…Read more...

Have you seen that sleek Apple Car video that’s currently going viral on TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube? The car has bizarre spherical wheels and can self-park, if you can believe your lying eyes.

Treblab Z2 Wireless Headphones | $59 | Amazon

A pilot in Southern California has captured video of what appears to be a person flying a jetpack, the first visual evidence of an unexplained flying object that seems similar to a reported jetpack sighting near the Los Angeles airport in August. But we still have a lot of questions about what we’re seeing in the…Read more...

It’s a lesson many of us learn throughout life: First they laugh at you, then they copy you. That’s exactly what Xiaomi did when it made fun of Apple for deciding to stop shipping wall chargers with its iPhones earlier this year. In the greatest of twists, just two months later, Xiaomi now thinks nixing wall chargers…Read more...

I now know when it is likely that I will have a heart attack. It will be when I’m walking, unsuspectingly, on the sidewalk and a Tesla happens to honk using the most terrifying sound I’ve heard in weeks: a bleating goat. Now, I’ve looked up videos of other goats bleating, and they do not scare me. In fact, they’re…Read more...

Voat, the abhorrent Reddit clone that became a home for toxic communities and conspiracy theories like QAnon, has shut down. Although the site has claimed to be closing before, this time it appears to be legit. When you type in its address in your browser, you are not able to access the site, and instead see this…Read more...

Various users that received Apple devices as Christmas presents unfortunately did not experience immediate joy due to a problem with iCloud Account and Sign-In. The company states that the issue began occurring on Christmas morning and is affecting some users.

It’s still 2020 folks, so I’ll believe anything. However, after learning that Square, the digital payments processor, is reportedly talks to buy Tidal, the music streaming service, I thought the world was getting really weird. At first glance, that is one strange pairing, but after thinking about it for a good long…Read more...

One of the best things to do during Christmas, in my humble opinion, is to check out all the ornaments on the trees. I especially like to look for the ornaments that are a little out of the ordinary—think Christmas tree on top of a car—cause they just rule. This year, I’ve found a tech ornament that’s absolutely…Read more...

Friday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

GoDaddy decided that December would be a great time to test whether its employees are staying alert when it comes to cybersecurity threats. At a time when its staff is trying to navigate a holiday season hobbled by a pandemic and an ailing economy, the web hosting giant sent a phishing email with an offer that was too…Read more...

I have a confession: I bought almost no Christmas presents this year.Read more...

It’s “a powerful reminder that we can no longer trust our own eyes,” a representative for the UK broadcaster Channel 4 told the Guardian. Each year, the BBC broadcasts a special Christmas address to the nation from Queen Elizabeth II. But it’s 2020 and that means everything has to be extra weird. So, Channel 4 has…Read more...

I recently upgraded my PC thanks to some encouragement from my French bulldog, Remy. Turns out there are only so many times a 37-pound dog can enthusiastically slam his bodyweight into a desktop tower before something stops working.Read more...

The Child Pint Glasses Set | $10 | Bed Bath & Beyond

A lot of our faves on Star Trek: Discovery have been through some weird, weird stuff in three seasons, but few have had quite the journey Lieutenant—now Captain—Saru has had. But this week’s episode, “Su’Kal,” throws one hell of a curveball to our Kelpien friend...and to Doug Jones, the actor behind the makeup who…Read more...

If you’ve got your hands on a brand new PlayStation 5 then it’s likely that you’ve also got a PlayStation 4 of some description set up as well—and moving over your PS4 games to your new PS5 isn’t difficult to do. You can carry on gaming on your new console almost right away, but here we’ll explain the steps you need…Read more...

After Cyberpunk 2077 debuted to the world and set off a trash fire of rage and disappointment, the clock starting ticking. Many wondered when that anger would manifest itself into a lawsuit to take the game’s publisher, CD Projekt Red, to court. It happened on Christmas Eve.Read more...

I didn’t pour a ton of money into upgrading my tech this year. Our flailing economy and my general unease about the impact of the pandemic on our already troubled news industry left me feeling a little more conservative than usual about how to spend my pocket money. Where I did invest, however, I believe I did so…Read more...

When we ask who should take the rap for the decline of local news, most folks agree the blame partially lies on Google’s shoulders. The tech giant has spent the past decade systematically swallowing a larger and larger chunk of the digital ad market, diverting the dollars that outlets—particularly smaller…Read more...

Senior officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs abruptly cancelled a scheduled briefing with congressional leaders this week regarding the extent and impact of the SolarWinds cyberattack, a far reaching intrusion into the networks of multiple U.S. agencies and powerful corporations allegedly perpetrated by an…Read more...

We’ve already counted up our best and worst TV shows of 2020. But now we’re getting micro-focused on those special (and not-so-special) TV moments that made us laugh, cry, shriek, recoil, rewind, and make memes. You know, the ones that remained burned in our memories long after the episode or season ended. Behold!

Of all the privacy-preserving goodies Apple promised to roll into the iOS 14 update, its so called “Tracking Transparency” alerts were probably the most controversial, stirring up enough pushback from fellow tech giant Facebook that the feature ended up being delayed past its original autumn deadline.

Where I live, it’s too warm out for a white Christmas. But in the deep ocean, it’s always snowing. I’m talking about marine snow, or flakes of biological debris like dirt, dead phytoplankton and algae, and even bits of fecal matter that shower down from higher waters. So festive!Read more...

This fall was a blizzard of hardware and console announcements from practically every major company, all timed to launch just before the holiday shopping season. Nvidia wowed us with new graphics cards. AMD hit the ground running with new processors and its own graphics cards. Intel’s Iris Xe integrated GPU was…Read more...

Animal Crossing Nook Miles Mug | $17 | Amazon

So you’ve decided to treat yourself (or maybe you were treated) to a brand new Xbox Series X or Series S and immerse yourself in the next generation of consoles—but are you getting the most out of your Microsoft-made box? These quick tips and tricks for your new console will help, covering everything from automatic…Read more...

Nearly three weeks after the abrupt exit of Black artificial intelligence ethicist Timnit Gebru, more details are emerging about the shady new set of policies Google has rolled out for its research team.Read more...

Driverless delivery service Nuro has been cleared for California’s first Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Permit, meaning the company could soon launch a fleet of autonomous commercial vehicles on city streets around the state.Read more...

Medical experts are begging, warning, and bargaining with us to hault the holiday parties. One epidemiologist likened a Thanksgiving gathering to gasoline on the fire, and run-down California health officials have made a potential Christmas transmission surge sound like a reactor meltdown.

Apple is getting ready to remove thousands more video games from its App Store in China due to pressure from the Chinese government, reports the Wall Street Journal. The company had previously warned Chinese video game developers that premium gaming apps were at risk of removal from the App Store, but the Chinese…Read more...

Dating apps are usually cutesy, at best. The questions they ask are always geared toward the agreeable and the design is chipper and romantic. Taste, a new dating app, isn’t that.

You. Yes, you, with your finger poised over the download button of some kind of diet or calorie-counting app. Stop it. I know January, a prime time for weight loss resolutions, is right around the corner, and that some of you might be feeling not-so-great about extra pounds gained during quarantine. Others might feel…Read more...

The Libyan government released a suspected Russian intelligence agent, Maxim Shugaley from prison, in part because someone paid actors Dolph Lundgren, Charlie Sheen, and Danny Trejo to endorse his release on video app Cameo.

Apple TV+ had a rough launch over the course of the past year, perhaps in part because of repeated meddling by Apple execs in creative decisions. It’s starting to turn the ship around with a stronger slate of programming and is hoping to win an award or two over the next few months.Read more...

In just 57 days, NASA’s Perseverance rover will attempt a landing on Mars. Mission controllers say it’ll be “seven minutes of terror,” as this new depiction demonstrates in dramatic fashion.

Health care costs in the U.S. are rising most everywhere, and a new study out Wednesday suggests that people seeking care for neurological problems are no exception. The study found that people with private insurance are increasingly paying out-of-pocket for services like MRIs, and that these costs have risen over the…Read more...

Anyone who has sat through an interminable panel discussion on a random topic and thought to themselves, “I wish this would never end,” will find a lot to like on Clubhouse. But due to the closed beta nature of the audio-focused social network, most people will have to make do with reading trend pieces about how much “…Read more...

Substack, the popular mailing list platform that is purported to be the next big thing in media, is talking about content moderation and bias, and it’s going about as well as you’d expect.Read more...

Disappointments are a natural part of life. Sometimes you buy a new game that doesn’t live up to the hype, or you end up with a new gadget that, while cool in concept, is actually kind of useless. In my case, that meant (possibly) breaking a playlist-roasting bot that my coworkers and colleagues were raving about.Read more...

When Gilad Shtienberg began digging on an Israeli beach in August 2018, the last thing he expected to find were seashells. Boring some 30 feet below the sandy surface, Shtienberg, a geomorphologist at the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology in California, was excavating a doorknob-shaped cove called the Bay of Dor.…Read more...

On January 7, 2020, I wrote about a mysterious, pneumonia-causing viral illness making people sick in Wuhan, China. It was the first Gizmodo article about what eventually became known as covid-19, the second pandemic to strike humanity in the 21st century. It’s eerie to look back at those early days and weeks, when it…Read more...

The weather forecast for South Florida is sunny with a chance of stunned iguanas. Miami faces its coldest Christmas in more than 20 years, and the National Weather Service has issued a warning that chilly temperatures could send ectotherms plummeting from trees or curling up on sidewalks and roadways.