Gizmodo

Not too long ago, we here at Giz Asks contemplated what might happen if the entire internet shut down at once. One imaginative stumbling block, in playing out the implications of that scenario, was how something like that could happen in the first place. And so—without advocating any of the methods described below, or…Read more...

CyberPower Gold Box | AmazonRead more...

Hurricane Lorenzo has set records as it blasts its way through the central Atlantic, becoming a category 5 hurricane on Saturday night before weakening back down to category 3 status by Sunday evening, CNN reported.

A newly discovered strain of malware transforms PCs into what Microsoft ominously calls “zombie proxies” using otherwise legitimate programs, and the company claims it’s infected thousands of computers across the U.S. and Europe.

Well, this was one hell of a week for American politics. If you’re tired of seeing the word “impeachment” plastered in headlines all over your newsfeed, too bad because here it is again! In case you haven’t been keeping up—hey, no shame, there’s been a lot to keep up with after all—we explained why that whistleblower…Read more...

Antitrust investigators with the House Judiciary Committee are looking into Google’s plans to add Domain Name System over Transport Layer Security (DNS over TLS) to its Chrome browser, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, in the latest escalation of scrutiny over the company’s business practices. The Department…Read more...

And you can watch it. If you want. If that’s something you would like to do.Read more...

Just a few days ago, Tesla announced their new Version 10 software update, which included such things as the ability to play Cuphead and watch Netflix while in park, as well as their new Smart Summon feature, which frees humanity from the brutal indignity of short walks to their cars in parking lots. As you can…Read more...

Kylo Ren has a crew, and they have a very exacting dress code.Read more...

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the towering Mk1 prototype of his Starship space vehicle on Saturday evening in Boca Chica Village, Texas, announcing that the craft will be ready to fly within the next few months.

We’re drawing nearer to Joker’s theatrical release, and as we do we’re seeing more theaters across the country respond to the possibility, credible or otherwise, of the film being a possible flashpoint for incel violence.Read more...

In the ongoing saga of Nintendo’s Joy-Con drift problem, it appears even the Switch Lite isn’t immune. On Saturday complaints about the barely week-old system were added to a class-action lawsuit against Nintendo.

Oh, dear me, it’s the aliens.Read more...

Many fans have recreated old Mario games in different engines or in different styles. But one fan and his young kids are doing something different. They’re creating a totally original Mario game based on the animated segments from the popular Super Mario Bros. Super Show and it looks amazing.

Nite Ize Reusable 6" Gear Tie (Two Pack) | $7 | AmazonRead more...

A bit of Federal Election Commission drama went down on Twitter Friday when the board’s chair tweeted a draft memo on illegal foreign election activities purportedly blocked by its GOP commissioner.Read more...

The U.S. and UK governments are expected to sign a treaty in October that will force social media platforms based in either of the countries to “disclose encrypted messages from suspected terrorists, paedophiles and other serious criminals” to police in the other, according to the Times of London.

In late August, nine activists walked into the Merrimack Station in Bow, New Hampshire. They didn’t seek approval or go through any security to enter the coal power plant. The group of activists, which included members of 350 New Hampshire Action, the Climate Disobedience Center, and Nonviolent Citizen Action, had one…Read more...

German authorities raided a data center based out of “former NATO bunker that hosted sites dealing in drugs and other illegal activities,” the Associated Press reported on Friday, resulting in seven arrests.

The prototype SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will present on today sounds like something straight out of science fiction: its long-hyped Starship Mk1 spacecraft, a next-generation rocket the company describes as “a fully, rapidly reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon,…Read more...

It looks like Google’s dessert-themed naming scheme isn’t the only thing getting replaced with Android 10. YouTube Music is kicking Google Play Music aside as Android’s prepackaged music player, YouTube announced Friday. The app will come bundled with all devices launching with Android 10.Read more...

It’s only a couple months now until The Mandalorian launches on Disney Plus, and to whet our appetites for morally ambiguous space fantasy action we’ve got even more details to go through.Read more...

Boeing, already having taken a $4.9 billion after-tax charge this year amid the ongoing fallout from two deadly 737 Max crashes, now has problems with a different line of planes.

We’re fans of Karate Kid and its surprisingly interesting YouTube revival around these parts, so it’s particularly saddening to report that Rob Garrison, who played a role in the original Karate Kid and also returned for a short arc on Cobra Kai, has died.Read more...

Everything about The Addams Family beyond the (admittedly great) casting has confused me. A new animated adaptation of the creepy family? Okay, I get it, but the art style… seems a little off? The plot involves them, uh, going to New Jersey? And there’s been almost no marketing? Every bit of new information that…Read more...

Never mess with Scarlet Witch. If things go bad, and she gets upset enough, she could always, y’know, erase you from reality.Read more...

As Earther’s social editor and the youngest person on Gizmodo’s staff, our writers and editors frequently come to me with questions like “What do The Youth want?” and “What is a VSCO girl?” This has put me in a strange position as teens have yeeted themselves to the forefront of climate activism. On the cusp between…Read more...

Dark mode is everywhere. Apple’s newly released iOS 13? Dark mode. Android 10? Dark mode. Windows 10, macOS Mojave, Chrome, Firefox, Gmail, and Slack—blessed, healing dark mode. It’s the must-have feature for the dim days of 2019, its spread eliciting a collective gasp of ecstasy at every new iteration as if black…Read more...

These past few weeks have not been great for asshole bosses on Twitter.

Love them or hate them, AirPods have quickly become an iconic flex among the millennial and Gen Z crowds. Apple’s wireless earbuds are a not-so-subtle way to broadcast you’ve got money to burn on their high sticker price and any subsequent replacements after you inevitably lose one of the ridiculously tiny buggers.

While the larger conversation around Todd Phillips’ upcoming Joker film continues to intensify as people reflect on how the story’s depiction of a white domestic terrorist fits into our cultural landscape, Warner Bros. is attempting to take back some control of the narrative by barring print and broadcast press access…Read more...

A test of more than a dozen THC vape cartridges by NBC News has some produced some sobering results: Every sample bought on the black market was tainted by at least one toxic additive, including a chemical linked to the mysterious vaping illness that has sickened hundreds.Read more...

In what might be a first, doctors in Germany think that a too-gentle washing machine helped spread a superbug to more than a dozen newborns and children in the same hospital—though thankfully, no one was hurt.Read more...

Senator Elizabeth Warren has joined a small but steady chorus of Washington lawmakers working to revive a little-known government agency that, not so long ago, helped members of Congress grasp how cutting-edge technology could help tackle the deluge of complex policy challenges that faced them—from Alzheimer’s and the…Read more...

Why send one robot to explore a world when you can send a whole bunch all at once? Such is the thinking behind NASA’s highly conceptual Shapeshifter—a modular, morphing, self-assembling robot capable of deploying several smaller machines.

Thanks to a new bootrom exploit that affects multiple generations of iOS devices, the iPhone and iPad jailbreaking community may have just gotten a new lease on life.Read more...

Kingdom Came.

On Wednesday, officials from Rockland County, New York declared their almost year-long outbreak of measles over—a mere week before the U.S. would have to forfeit its status of having eradicated any local traces of the disease. If nearby neighborhoods report any more cases in the next few days, we could still lose our…Read more...

Firefox has announced it’s making encrypted DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) the default way of connecting to sites on the web. And this browser tech is coming soon to Google’s Chrome, too. If you’ve got no idea what any of that means, here’s what you need to know about the technology and the future of your browsing.Read more...

Electric scooters are all the rage here in the 21st century, with companies like Lime, Bird, and even Uber dumping them in cities around the world. But our generation obviously didn’t invent the motorized scooter. If you needed any evidence, just check out this film from the Chicago Film Archives showing off the…Read more...

Vimeo is in some hot water thanks to a class-action lawsuit that says the video streamer ran afoul of an Illinois law regulating the collection and storage of biometric information.

Some of the most distant rocks in our solar system act in a way that suggests there’s some massive object out there we haven’t been able to see. A planet? Maybe. But why not a small black hole?

At least two airlines have adopted the brilliant idea of allowing passengers to try to sit as far away as possible from auditory powder kegs—babies on airplanes.Read more...

Without the ability to connect it to a TV, there’s less of a reason for gamers to use a wireless gamepad with the new Nintendo Switch Lite. But if you still find the new console too heavy to hold for long periods, 8BitDo’s created a new Switch Lite specific wireless controller that’s as streamlined and optimized for…Read more...

While 5G is still in the early days of its development, now that Verizon has flipped the switch on its 5G network in New York City (alongside activating 5G in Boise, Idaho and Panama City, Florida), there’s another major battleground in the quest for 5G supremacy.Read more...

It doesn’t take your eyes long to adjust to the dark of night—or at least adjust enough so you can safely stumble your way to a midnight bathroom break. That is, unless you’ve put Death by Modernism’s Supervoid S-Chair somewhere in your path. It’s painted with some of the blackest paint available so it barely reflects…Read more...

The Good Place is back with its fourth and final season, and it doesn’t take long for the Soul Squad to realize that saving the world is going to be one hell of a task—especially with the goobers the Bad Place is sending their way. No one expected an experiment to determine the fate of humanity’s collective afterlife…Read more...

It’s fitting that the Nintendo Switch Lite launched the same day as a re-release of one of the best Zelda games of all time. The Switch line of consoles and the Zelda series of games feel inextricably linked. The original Switch is a remarkable and unusual piece of hardware unlike anything before it, and the Zelda…Read more...

Last Friday, an estimated 4 million people turned out for a global climate strike. This week, millions more are at it again.Read more...

A research team is proposing a major philosophical shift in our thinking about the spread of Earthly microbes in space and on Mars in particular. Believing interplanetary contamination to be “inevitable,” the team argues that future Martian colonists should use microorganisms to reshape the Red Planet—a proposition…Read more...