Gizmodo

Somehow, not everything was bad this year.

A new scientific report out Tuesday concludes that plastics and the chemicals they leave behind in the environment are a major threat to human health. It identifies over 140 chemicals readily found in plastic products that can harm our bodies, particularly through interfering with the endocrine system.Read more...

The first 10 minutes of Wonder Woman 1984 moved me to tears. Part of it was the long-awaited return to Themyscira, seeing a young Diana (Lilly Aspell) battle her fellow Amazons in an epic action scene set to an incredible new score by Hans Zimmer. But another part was just that after a year of delays and uncertainty,…Read more...

I’ve tried way too many distraction-free writing devices, from the Freewrite to an old Brother typewriter. As a glutton for punishment, however, I may just build the FeatherQuill while I’m trapped at home.Read more...

The debate over which is the better gaming system—a console or a PC—may never be resolved, but it’s hard to argue against the benefits of gaming with a keyboard and mouse, including improved accuracy. You can have the best of both worlds, however, as this clever hack that grafts a computer mouse onto a console gamepad…Read more...

Signal, the encrypted messaging app beloved by tech privacy enthusiasts around the world (including Edward Snowden), is taking on the world of group video calls. The company rolled out a new video-based group chatting feature on Monday alongside its latest app update, promising these chats will have the same end to…Read more...

A scary situation is developing in the southern Atlantic Ocean, as iceberg A68a is now within striking distance of South Georgia island. Alarmed by the turn of events, a team of scientists is heading out to investigate the ways in which this gigantic iceberg might affect the local wildlife.

In March, Exxon CEO Darren Woods whined that other oil companies drafting climate plans were simply engaging in a “beauty match.” Now, Exxon has a climate plan of its own. But it’s the ugliest and most craven of the bunch because it actually says nothing about reducing emissions.Read more...

Debuting back in 2017, the Google Home Max was a hi-fi alternative to the original Google Home smart speaker, promising better sound but still providing access to Google Assistant. It was big, kind of pricey at $400, and from our testing, not as loud or booming as you’d expect, so Google has done what Google does best…Read more...

The Gita by Piaggio Fast Forward is the weirdest product (project?) I’ve ever reviewed. Created by a skunkworks associated with Italy’s Piaggio Group—makers of the Vespa—the Gita is a mobility tool designed for cities of the future.Read more...

The director of White House security, Crede Bailey, became sick with covid-19 back in September and has kept a low profile during his health struggles since being hospitalized in early October. But a new report from Bloomberg News contains new details about Bailey’s medical hardships, including the fact that Bailey…Read more...

An abandoned tanker carrying 1 million barrels of oil is at risk of spilling its toxic cargo into the Red Sea, a group of concerned scientists is warning.

California regulators slapped Uber with a $59 million fine on Monday after they determined that the company had failed to adequately respond to questions about a report detailing thousands of sexual assaults that occurred during trips taken with the company’s ride-hailing platform.Read more...

The re-analysis of an old fossil has revealed features never seen before in a dinosaur, including a long, fur-like mane along its back and a pair of stiff structures jutting out from its shoulders. Scientists say these elaborate decorations were likely used for display, in what is a very early version of peacocking.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday asked a Sacramento County Superior Court judge to intervene in what he claims is now six months of Amazon failing to comply with investigative subpoenas over how its warehouse workers were treated during the covid-19 pandemic.

Voting systems manufacturer Smartmatic has sent legal letters to conservative news network Fox News, as well as its ultra-right cousins Newsmax and One America News Network, demanding they retract coverage spinning baseless conspiracy theories about the company’s role in the 2020 elections or face legal action.

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday announced it was issuing orders to nine of the most popular social media and streaming platforms in the U.S., requiring them to offer up intel on business practices ranging from data collection to advertising, to the way that user engagement gets tracked overtime.Read more...

As the first covid-19 vaccines roll out across the U.S., some of us are chanting “inject me now!”, while others are anxious about potential side effects. I reached out to two dozen scientists and public health experts to see how they’re feeling about these vaccines. I asked them if they’re planning to get a vaccine…Read more...

To a certain degree, using smartwatches and fitness trackers to quantify the body’s response to external factors makes a lot of sense. For instance, researchers are studying to see if wearables can identify infectious diseases, and on a more personal level, you can measure the effects of your own fitness routine. But,…Read more...

Many of the things we see on TV or movies can often only be explained with the word “magic” (or, your know, visual effects.) What would it be like if the magical inventions we see on our screens existed in real life? Now, at least one does, and you apparently don’t have to be a wizard in order to use it.Read more...

Collab—the jam-session app that’s also the latest project from Facebook’s experimental New Product Experimentation (NPE) team—is finally out of its beta.Read more...

With ray tracing on, Cyberpunk 2077 is hungry. You could call it the new Crysis. Even Nvidia’s RTX 3080 is almost no match for the game when settings are cranked to the max, yet a high-end, current-gen GPU is crucial if you want the absolute best visual effects possible. For most people, that’s out of the question.…Read more...

In an attempt to push one more iPhone and iPad update out before the end of the year, today Apple released iOS and iPad OS 14.3. Fitness+ is now live.Read more...

The crew of the Rocinante has long been a solid unit, traveling the galaxy to save humanity from evil spores and, well, itself. But in season five of Amazon Studios’ The Expanse, these crew members are doing something they’ve avoided until now: they’re going their separate ways.

All of our crops have naturally-occurring predecessors that are found in the wild. But that may not be the case for long. A new study found that those OG edible plants are doing badly.Read more...

Reddit is buying up TikTok’s biggest competitor in the U.S., Dubsmash, in a deal with undisclosed terms, the company announced on Monday.

Adding something truly new to the canon of Star Wars media has to strike a delicate, daunting balance. Anything so vastly removed from what we know about the franchise—particularly the Skywalker saga—has to balance feeling worthy of being called new, while paradoxically still delivering that vague, yet tangible, feel…Read more...

Surprising absolutely no one, Tim Cook is not a fan of now-dead Gawker Media, of which Gizmodo was a part. And though Gawker has been dead since 2016, it appears that Cook also decided to kill a fictional Gawker by pulling the plug on a proposed Apple TV+ show about the site’s glory days.Read more...

The U.S. saw a horrific hurricane season, unprecedented wildfires, and a powerful derecho this year alone. A record-breaking 16 climate disasters caused at least $1 billion in damage each. And yet the Federal Emergency Management Agency is pursuing a plan that would cut disaster aid to certain states.Read more...

Pornhub announced today that it’s removing all videos uploaded to the site by unverified users, purging millions of uploads in the process.

While everyone might not be on board yet, one of the things I like most about flexible display tech is the way it allows phone makers to get really creative with new designs. Thanks to a partnership with Japanese design firm Nendo, Oppo’s new triple-hinged slider phone might be one of the most interesting concepts…Read more...

It will never not be spooky that a new adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand came out in 2020. Much like the year itself, the story begins with a pandemic and goes on to showcase some truly awful human behavior. CBS All Access certainly has timeliness on its side—but what about the rest?

After months of late fall cosplaying as early fall, we’re finally jumping right into winter in the Northeast. A full-blown nor’easter is set to bring the first meaningful snow of the season to the region as well as the Mid-Atlantic.Read more...

Oculus Rift S | $300 | Amazon

It takes years of practice and tutelage under a master to become a chef worthy of your own restaurant—or reality TV show—but as with everything in life, there are shortcuts. Assuming your kitchen is as large as one of Amazon’s warehouses, there’s a gadget or machine that can take care of every culinary skill you don’t…Read more...

The Bose QuietComfort earbuds slip into my ears relatively easily. They connect to my phone, and the moment they do, that pleasing Bose brand of silence washes over me. I can’t hear the fridge’s compressor or the steady hum of my server—only silence. Then, because the Bose QuietComforts are pretty large, one pops out…Read more...

Nancy Drew is adding deep cut kid’s lit stars. Superman & Lois gives us a new look at our heroes at home. The Witcher’s second season resumes production. Plus, what’s to come in The Outpost, and Dwayne Johnson just can’t help himself teasing Black Adam.

Bomaker Projector GC357 | $65 | Amazon | Use Code VRK8I652

It’s not just you. YouTube, Gmail, and just about every conceivable Google-based service, from Google Docs to Google Play Movies to Google Calendar, is down right now across several parts of the globe, including the U.S., UK, Japan, India, and Australia, among a host of other countries.

President Donald Trump, the person most responsible for the deaths of 300,000 Americans thus far from covid-19, issued a tweet Sunday night announcing that most White House staff would no longer be getting vaccinated for coronavirus before other Americans. The tweet came after a report on Sunday from the New York…Read more...

There are some 8.7 million known species on Earth. But it’s always exciting to know when scientists find some mysterious creature they didn’t know existed or rediscover one not seen in ages. When it comes to biodiversity, more is a good thing. And I know this is silly, but honestly, bonus points if they’re cute, right?Read more...

State-sponsored hackers have reportedly tapped into internal email systems at several U.S. federal agencies, including the Treasury Department and the Commerce Department’s internet and telecom branch, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

On the same day that Tesla CEO Elon Musk told his employees that they needed to increase production “as much as possible” for the remainder of the year, the company purportedly sent out an email informing its employees at its Fremont, California factory that it was shutting down its Model S and Model X production…Read more...

The first shipments of the covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech are reportedly en route to distribution centers nationwide. The first of nearly 3 million doses are expected to be doled out to health care workers and nursing homes within the coming week now that the vaccine has the final nod from the…Read more...

Joe Manganiello isan actor and a huge nerd. He’s got one big love: Dungeons& Dragons. He’s very ready to talk about it, too.Read more...

Star Wars Kids does a great job of makingentertaining, accessibly bite-sized chunks of StarWars that are probably great for children. But this latest time they hadan unenviable task: condensing The Rise ofSkywalker, which has a… less than simple plot, into a scant fiveminutes.Read more...

Dyson Ball Total Clean Upright Vacuum | $200 | Best Buy

Ever since I was young, I’ve always been a cat fan (although dogs are lovely, too). Nonetheless, my current landlord doesn’t allow me to have a cat, so I just settle for following cute ones on Instagram. Considering that I live alone, there have been many times during the pandemic where I’ve thought, “Wouldn’t this be…Read more...

Disney World will reportedly stop “enhancing” on-ride photos by pasting digital face masks onto maskless park guests. And no, you aren’t reading the Onion. It’s 2020, baby, where reality is so much of a joke at this point that headlines and punchlines are literally synonymous.

Nearly two years after its last flight, Virgin Galactic—the space tourism venture founded by Richard Branson, another billionaire who loves space—aborted the scheduled test launch of its SpaceShipTwo commercial aircraft into suborbital space today because of an issue with its rocket motor.Read more...