Gizmodo

A freak heatwave has been scorching most of the Arctic for weeks now, but it broke records Saturday when the temperature hit 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit in a town in Siberia, one of Russia’s northernmost regions.Read more...

The cynical, wry world of Daria is continuing on television, though not on MTV.Read more...

After facing customer backlash, AMC, the largest movie theater chain in the U.S., decided on Friday that health was more important than politics and announced that it would require all moviegoers to wear face masks in its theaters.Read more...

The neighborhood social networking platform Nextdoor dropped its “Forward to Police” feature this week, a widely panned function that’s faced years of criticism for purportedly facilitating racial profiling.Read more...

Kylo Ren has an official backstory, which involves him being shipped off to Luke’s Jedi Academy, his angst and frustration at trying to live up to his large legacy, and more than a little bit of big Dark Side intervention from the baddies of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. In Adam Driver’s mind, that story was a bit…Read more...

Imagine, if youwill, a world where M.O.D.O.K., the Marvel Universe’s most cylindrical villain,was mainstream. Such a strange, beautiful dream may be coming, what with him actually having an animated series on the way. But it could have happened much sooner.Read more...

Renewals all around! If you’re a fan of vulgar animated comedies, hurrah for you!Read more...

Apparently, the government was watching. The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used helicopters, airplanes, and drones in 15 cities to monitor demonstrations that protested the killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis who died after a police officer knelt on his neck to…Read more...

Unsurprisingly, it turns out parents aren’t too keen on their toddlers being co-opted for presidential propaganda.Read more...

One of our most eclectic, versatile actors died Friday at the age of 88. Sir Ian Holm was probably best-known for playing Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings, but he was so much more than that. An incredible dramatic actor with wonderful comic timing, his list of career films is proof positive that he belongs on a…Read more...

In light of rising covid-19 cases, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, Governor Gavin Newsom of California on Thursday announced that the state would require all residents to wear face masks or coverings in public and in situations deemed high-risk. The reasoning was simple. Apparently, too many people are…Read more...

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Snapchat received widespread criticism Friday for its Juneteenth filter that prompted users to celebrate the anniversary of the end of slavery in the U.S. by smiling to break chains. By mid-day, Snap quietly pulled the tone-deaf filter and the company has since issued a public apology. Apparently, this Lens was a beta…Read more...

Don’t you just love it when you’re doing something as stress-free as traveling during a pandemic and a fellow passenger decides that it’s that moment to exercise his right to be a pain in the ass?Read more...

Two years ago, musician Stuart Hyatt had no idea that the endangered species called the Indiana bat would be such a huge part of his life. But then in 2018, he chaperoned his 10-year-old son on a weekend school trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. On the final night of the trip, the group took a walk into the woods to…Read more...

From the evil android Ash to the quirky hobbit Bilbo, Ian Holm was as versatile an actor as one could ever imagine. He could do it all, and did so for decades, even earning an Oscar nomination in 1982. However, we’re sad to report that the incredible actor passed away this week at the age of 88 from complications with…Read more...

Apple’s Mac computers have gone through just two major CPU architecture transitions in their entire history: moving from Motorola 68k to PowerPC processors in 1994, and then switching from PowerPC to Intel x86 chips in 2005. Based on recent reports (and nearly half a decade of rumors), it appears Apple is on the…Read more...

Besides President Donald Trump, there’s no Republican who environmentalists are more keen to unseat this autumn than Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Two primary challengers have very different ideas of how to do so.Read more...

Pick up a Fire TV device or an Amazon Fire tablet, and the on-board operating system is only loosely based on Android: You’re actually dealing with a modified OS, cut off from Google’s apps and services, but it’s not particularly clear exactly what that means for your choice of apps and options. Allow us to add some…Read more...

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Big Oil has spent decades perfecting the art of lying and pursuing a strategy to divide the public so it can continue its polluting ways. It’s been a successful model that has run into a brick wall that is the new climate movement.

Britain swore an oath of sovereignty against Apple and Google earlier this year, resolving to devise a workable contact-tracing app that didn’t have to cave to Apple and Google’s user privacy demands. After numerous warnings from experts that the app simply wouldn’t work, the rollout has been delayed from May to…Read more...

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee were a no-show as top officials from Facebook, Google, and Twitter testified and answered questions about their companies’ efforts to safeguard voters from the spread of disinformation concerning the 2020 presidential election.Read more...

First came the memes about the PlayStation 5's swooped design, and now people are wondering just how big Sony’s next-generation console is going to be. From everything we’ve seen so far, the PS5 certainly looks like it will be a behemoth—it may even put your old DVD player and the original Xbox to shame. Sony hasn’t…Read more...

Pack your bags with as many winter clothes and things to bludgeon giants with as you can, adventurers: Wizards of the Coast has unveiled the latest adventure module for Dungeons & Dragons’ fifth edition. We’re heading off to Icewind Dale to uncover grand mysteries and sinister secrets.

This is your captain speaking. Dweeb alert! This is not a drill. Dweeb alert! That’s right, folks, there is a dweeb alert in effect on this aircraft.

We’ve been hearing rumors about all the devices—including a brand new smartwatch—that Samsung might show off at its upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event. But new leaked photos may have just given us the first look at the Galaxy Watch 3.Read more...

The ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic forced San Diego Comic-Con to go entirely digital this year. But voting for the annual Eisner Awards was meant to go rather smoothly as people could participate through an online portal put together with SDCC’s organizers. Just as the deadline for voting was seemingly extended,…Read more...

Measured against its peers, Facebook has been particularly soft on Donald Trump and his administration’s penchant for spewing violent rhetoric, misinformation, and outright lies. It seems, after no shortage of pressure, the social media company has found where it draws the line for a sitting president: the…Read more...

Facebook released a stand-alone gaming app in April, but, try as it might, the company can’t convince Apple to allow it in the iOS App Store. Facebook has submitted the app five times, in fact, according to the New York Times. The reason? Apple doesn’t allow apps that are essentially storefronts for distributing…Read more...

Science fiction has a rich history in countless cultures, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. And Netflix has been getting in on the action for a while now. Here are our five picks for international sci-fi shows you should definitely check out on the streaming platform.Read more...

Apple users will now be able to trade-in their old Macs in physical Apple Stores rather than having to use the company’s online system for these devices.Read more...

The U.S. military is the world’s largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels. Yet the carbon footprint of warfare hasn’t been a central focus of the U.S. climate movement. Even the game-changing Green New Deal resolution that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey introduced last year—the most…Read more...

The U.S. tick problem is not getting any better. And, unfortunately, we’re doing a dreadful job at tracking their movements, let alone keeping them in check, according to a new study out Wednesday.

The West Coast is preparing for a future where giant diesel transport trucks go electric. Utilities and state agencies in California, Oregon, and Washington announced a plan to transform highway infrastructure that would speed the transition.Read more...

Darkseid Is, and most importantly, Darkseid is here.

The world of Thra is full of incredible beings and creatures, from major civilizations like the Gelfling and the Skesis, to humble landstriders and adorable (and occasionally horrifying) Nurlocs. Now, a new book wants to detail Thra’s grand bestiary—and io9 has an exclusive look inside shows.

The long-standing controversy over the so-called “Apple tax” the company imposes on apps in its App store has resurfaced in a new standoff with recently launched email management app Hey, a dispute that brings into sharp focus the unchecked dictatorial power Apple wields over apps and their creators—and one that’s…Read more...

FBI agents used online evidence including an Etsy shop and profiles on LinkedIn and fashion website Poshmark to identify and charge a woman they say set fire to two police cars during recent protests in Philly, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Apple Watch has always been able to shrug off some amount of water, but since the Series 2 it’s been able to survive being completely submerged, accidentally or not. The only caveat is that water can get trapped in the smartwatch’s speaker, a problem Apple has solved with a clever water-eject feature that is…Read more...

Are you a frontline worker dealing with new stresses or irresponsible management? Is working (or not working) from home starting to take a psychological toll? How are you coping with reopening? Submit a story using this Google form or send me an email with the subject line “My Covid Story” and provide as much…Read more...

Your friends who refuse to read the lengthy articles you send no longer have an excuse. Google’s created a new extension that lets you create URLs that link to a specific section of text on a website, regardless of formatting.

Hurricane season has begun with a roar. The West is threatened by wildfires. Arizona is blanketed in a heat wave. Rains overwhelmed unmaintained dams in Michigan. At the same time, we are living through a combined health, political, economic, racial, and climate crisis.

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I have never been the runner who simply laces up their sneakers, pops in their headphones, and zips out the door. I’m the runner who laces up some smart sneakers, pairs their wireless earbuds, opens up a running app, straps on a chest strap heart rate monitor, starts a workout on one smartwatch, quickly starts another…Read more...

The extremophile bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans was first discovered in 1956 at Oregon State University, where it was busy ruining a gamma ray experiment designed to sterilize a tin of ground meat. The “sterilized” meat spoiled, thanks to D. radiodurans and its preternatural durability in the face of radiation: The…Read more...

Ewan McGregor discusses the tech powering the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ show. Legends of Tomorrow promotes another regular for its next season. Get a look at Netflix’s new The Grude show. Plus, what’s to come when Hanna returns to Amazon, and the Jeff Lemire/Dustin Nguyen comic series Descender could be coming to TV.…Read more...

Ice in the polar regions has been under assault from rising ocean and water temperatures. While human-driven climate change is driving widespread weirdness, natural patterns can also lead to chaos.

If everything in your peripheral vision suddenly changed from color to black and white, would you notice? There’s a good chance you wouldn’t—in a new study involving virtual reality, most people never realized that their surroundings had abruptly desaturated. The results add to a large body of research suggesting we…Read more...

Video chat service Zoom will finally add end-to-end encryption to calls placed by users on the free version of its service, weeks after announcing it would only be available to premium users who shelled out for the privilege.