Gizmodo

Houston, Texas, served as the backdrop of the third Democratic presidential debates held on Thursday night. It’s the perfect place to talk about sea level rise, the United States’ role as the second-largest oil exporter, frontline communities, a just transition for fossil fuel workers, recovery and managed retreat, or…Read more...

Move over, Vantablack. MIT engineers have developed a material they they claim is 10 times blacker than any other to date.Read more...

Remember the tunnel ride in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? Imagine a 50-minute journey into that weird and wild beyond, except instead of a chocolate maker it’s an AI who turned herself into a giant ghost and led some hunters on a cyberpunk chase through the galaxy. Blood Machines is here, and it’s ready to…Read more...

Despite designs that often make them look like they’re part of the US military’s advanced arsenal, Nerf’s dart-blasters are just toys, and as a result their performance often disappoints compared to other mock weapons like paintball guns or Airsoft rifles. That’s not the case with Dart Zone’s new PRO MK-1 blaster. At…Read more...

Work on Venom 2 begins later this year. JJ Abrams is teaming up with Warner for new shows and films. Gamma speaks (well, whispers) in a creepy new teaser for The Walking Dead. Plus, what’s to come on Batwoman and Legacies. To me, my spoilers!

The Spotify apps are constantly updated, tweaked and refined, and that means a steady flow of new features for you to try out. In case you’ve been buried in your playlists to such an extent that you haven’t noticed what’s changed in Spotify since you first signed up, here are nine really useful features to take…Read more...

The body of William Moldt, a 40-year-old Florida man who was reported missing in November of 1997, has been found. And it’s all thanks to Google Maps, strangely enough.Read more...

Extra 60% Off Clearance | Eddie Bauer | Promo code EXTRA60EBRead more...

Copco Lazy Susan | $12 | AmazonRead more...

Two Australian travel bloggers have been arrested in Iran for flying a hobby drone without a permit. The bloggers often take photos with their drone and publish them to social media, but the couple disappeared from the internet in June after posting from Pakistan.

California became the largest state to ban police from using body cameras with facial recognition software after lawmakers passed a three-year moratorium Thursday, Reuters reported. This landmark bill comes as legislators nationwide struggle to keep regulations apace with the fast-growing, and notoriously inaccurate,…Read more...

To make sure subscribers aren’t abusing Spotify’s family plan, the streaming music giant has started checking in on where they live. Over and over again.Read more...

The winners of the 2019 Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year have been announced. This year’s crop features a stunning images, from auroras and sunspots to galaxies and nebulas—along with a perspective of a lunar eclipse unlike anything we’ve seen before.Read more...

Apple had its most important event of the year earlier this week, and judging by its lackluster presentation for Apple TV+ one could be forgiven for thinking that it isn’t putting too much importance in its fledgling streaming service. Meanwhile, the mysterious millennial-focused streaming startup Quibi has a…Read more...

Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter has been the springboard for countless original products over the years, but an apparent attempt by the company’s management to bust up an ongoing union drive is dismally old-fashioned.

After rolling out dark mode on mobile earlier this year, workplace chat app Slack is finally bringing its dark theme to desktop as well.Read more...

The United Nations released a new science-based report Wednesday that shows the ways climate change can reverse the progress the world has made to end inequality through the U.N.’s sustainable development goals. The international institution offers plenty of solutions to combat this disappointing reality, but among…Read more...

Australia currently hosts some of the most upsetting animals known in the world. But researchers this week are keen to point out that incredibly strange animals have lived there for thousands of years—namely a group of extinct giant marsupials that likely weighed over a ton, wielded long claws, and had weird-ass…Read more...

Pre-orders for the iPhone 11 and its Pro siblings start on Friday at 5am PDT/8am EDT. While Apple didn’t announce a ton of new features for the devices this year, there are some subtle but important changes happening around trade-ins and upgrades. So we made you a little guide to make sure you don’t get bamboozled by…Read more...

We can add yet another way to measure the universe’s expansion onto the pile of controversy that could perhaps be the most exciting story in cosmology today.Read more...

The market might be dominated by Apple and Samsung—with an occasional ripple of interest every time a new Pixel arrives—but there are more companies out there making phones than you might have realized. Not only that, they’re often doing more in terms of innovation and experimentation than the big names.Read more...

New research suggests rats are capable of learning to play hide-and-go-seek with humans—and they appeared to legitimately enjoy the game. Rats, as this new research demonstrates, just wanna have fun.

Another September is here, and as we say goodbye to the Summer, we once again say hello to the agonizing upgrade decisions following Apple’s annual iPhone event. Let’s break down which iPhone 11 might be best for you, and whether or not it’s actually time for an upgrade.

Maxciel Pereira dos Santos, a veteran defender of Brazil’s indigenous people, has reportedly been shot dead in a remote Amazon town while riding his motorcycle.

The next time you ask Alexa a question, the answer could come from some rando with an internet connection. Amazon is publicly launching its Alexa Answers program, a way for the company to crowdsource answers for questions Alexa doesn’t have a response for.Read more...

Nevada police say they arrested a YouTuber and his friend, both from the Netherlands, this week after the pair allegedly defied notices and trespassed at a secure government site near Area 51.

With a ban that will effectively prevent Huawei from doing business with U.S. companies set to go into effect in November, it seems Huawei has come up with an idea that could potentially allow it to maintain a foothold in western markets: a one-time licensing deal that would give a buyer unlimited access to Huawei’s…Read more...

Preorder Borderlands 3 [PS4] | $60 | Amazon | $10 Amazon credit for Prime membersRead more...

Cellebrite, an Israeli firm that sell forensics tools capable of bypassing the security on most cellphones, has secured a new $30 million contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Daily Beast reported late Wednesday.

In a movie like Avengers: Endgame, you’re dealing in worlds, characters, and costumes that are all built from visual effects, to the point where even the office building from the Captain America vs. Captain America fight was all-digital. Sometimes, it’s nice to celebrate the moments that were real. One character,…Read more...

Anyone who’s ever said they felt scared to their bones might have been speaking more literally than we knew. A new study out Thursday seems to show that in both mice and humans, bones secrete a hormone in reaction to stressful situations. What’s more, this bone hormone seems crucial to our fight-or-flight response,…Read more...

An indoor frisbee golf set, PS4 Fortnite controller, Simplisafe Home Security System, and an Under Armour sale lead off Thursday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

When Samsung announced the arrival of two versions of its latest Galaxy Note—the 6.3-inch Note 10 and the 6.8-inch Note 10+—it signaled a small departure from previous years. In spirit, the Galaxy Note 10+ is the true successor to Samsung’s iconic big-screen phone line, while the standard Note 10 seems like something…Read more...

Sega was always more loved than it was successful. At no point was the maker of the Genesis and Dreamcast the worldwide leader in video games. When it succeeded in America, it fell short in Japan, and vice versa. The Genesis Mini is an encapsulation of that moment when it came closest to victory—a reminder of what the…Read more...

The French government is vowing to block Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency from being introduced in Europe, according to French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who denounced the planned digital currency at a meeting of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris today.

Chiwetel Ejiofor joins the cast of the Reincarnationist Papers adaptation. Watch Angelina Jolie get glammed up for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Amazon fleshes out the cast of Hanna’s second season. Plus, our first tiny glimpse at the last season of Supernatural, and what’s to come on The Flash and Black Lightning. To…Read more...

3-Pack David Archy Micro Modal Boxer Briefs | $28 | AmazonRead more...

Anker Premium 5-Port Charger With USB-C PD | $35 | AmazonRead more...

Israel was allegedly behind the Stingray spy devices discovered around Washington, D.C. in 2017, according to an explosive new report from Politico, which notes that they were primarily intended to spy on President Donald Trump and his associates. The Israeli government denies the charge, but Politico’s sources…Read more...

Projectors can be a cheaper and far more convenient way to put a gigantic 100+ inch TV in your living room. But to get an image that rivals an LCD or OLED TV, you can’t just point them at a bare wall. So with its new LS500 short-throw 4K laser projector, Epson is including a perfectly-sized ambient light rejecting…Read more...

After the California legislature passed AB5, a bill designed to force tech companies to treat gig economy workers as employees rather than contractors, Uber has pulled an well-worn card out of its hat: inventing an excuse to just like, not do that.

Comcast and a bevy of cable giants including Fox, CBS, and Disney are suing the state of Maine and 17 municipalities over a recently passed state law that mandates cable TV operators allow subscribers to pick and choose which channels and programs they want to pay for, the Bangor Daily News reported this week.

Bloodshot then Harbinger. Bloodshot then Harbinger. That had been the plan to kick off a Valiant Cinematic Universe for years. And while Bloodshot starring Vin Diesel is in the can and on its way for a 2020 release, that second piece of the puzzle just went in another direction.Read more...

Star Trek: Nemesis is a nightmare of a movie, but one of its slightly better nightmares is the bonkers performance a young, spectacularly shaved Tom Hardy gives as Shinzon, the villain of the film and also the Romulan-made clone of Jean-Luc Picard. But what if instead of just inviting us to believe that Patrick…Read more...

An amateur astronomer may have detected an object from outside our solar system, according to an announcement from the Minor Planet Center.Read more...

With Apple’s annual September event this year, we finally have answers around what its Netflix streaming contender will look like at launch: sparse in offerings and incredibly cheap—if not altogether free. But before we write it off entirely, Apple’s TV+ foray into streaming may be smarter than it reads at first…Read more...

We get it: Hansel and Gretel is scary. It’s about two kids who find a witch’s gingerbread cottage and—depending on what version you’re looking at—are either killed, escape, or become witch hunters played by Gemma Arterton and that guy who had a social networking app. But after seeing the trailer for Gretel & Hansel,…Read more...

Purdue Pharma, the Oxycontin manufacturer that largely fueled the opioid crisis, reached a tentative settlement with attorneys representing municipalities, states, and tribes across the country, according to reports from the Washington Post and New York Times.

AB5, the California bill that would codify a state Supreme Court ruling putting in place a strict test for whether a worker classifies as an independent contractor and has potentially profound implications on the ridehail industry, is awaiting Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature to become law. But that is unlikely to…Read more...

The new iPhone 11 looks like a great device. It’s got a new dual-camera system that can zoom out and take ultra-wide photos. The device sports an all new ultra-powerful A13 Bionic processor, which Apple says is the best in the industry. The iPhone 11 even comes in fun new colors, including one that looks like seafoam…Read more...