Gizmodo

Instagram is working on a new messaging app called Threads “meant to promote constant, intimate sharing between users and their closest friends,” the Verge reported on Monday, in what seems like yet another attempt by a Facebook-owned property to edge in on Snapchat’s turf.

The 2019 D23 Expo is now in the books and if you’re a fan of pop culture, your head may still be spinning.

She was just the first one announced.Read more...

In a landmark ruling, Oklahoma judge Thad Balkman ruled against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson today in the first trial meant to extract retribution from drugmakers for fueling the unprecedented wave of opiate-related overdoses and deaths in the U.S.

The Federal Aviation Administration probably isn’t a fan of the drone flamethrower attachment that went viral last month.Read more...

In early August, sailors in the southwest Pacific Ocean began to see their environment transmogrify. As far as the eye could see, the ocean turned from an azure delight into a colossal gathering of clinking, floating rocks. And then came the foul, sulfurous odors.

Roughly a week after it was reported that Apple’s iOS 12.4 update unpatched a vulnerability that allowed for jailbreaking (and was previously fixed in an earlier update), the company has released a patch to again fix the bug after the issue was flagged by security researchers.

Thanks to groundbreaking science, conservationists could save the critically endangered northern white rhino. Only two animals of this species remain—Najin and Fatu, both of which are female—and an international team of scientists have come together to harvest 10 eggs from the hopeful rhino mamas in the Ol Pejeta…Read more...

On Monday, Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang put out his climate plan. And Yang Gang, I am sorry, but your man is still the most dangerous Democratic presidential candidate.Read more...

The International Astronomical Union has approved new names for five recently discovered moons around Jupiter.Read more...

City living is producing something new for you to worry about: high crow-lesterol (sorry, I’m sorry, I’m trying to delete it).

This morning, Lucasfilm gave us our latest, shocking glimpse at the final chapter in the Skywalker Saga. Although fairly light in content, that doesn’t mean the footage wasn’t jam-packed with clues and hints about what to expect—or what to prepare yourself for—in The Rise of Skywalker.

Airport security is famously dehumanizing, and reports reveal that for transgender travelers, this can be an especially intrusive and traumatizing experience given the current status of screening. From January 2016 through April 2019, nearly 300 civil rights complaints were filed regarding TSA screening of transgender…Read more...

The creator of a curious encryption technology was heckled on stage during a bizarre presentation at the recent Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, and now the company has filed suit against the conference organizers for allowing them to be roasted.Read more...

Despite what companies like Apple and Facebook claim, you don’t need a giant corporation telling you what news stories you should read every morning. Nearly every website (worth reading) still operates an RSS feed. And now one of the oldest and most robust RSS readers, NetNewsWire, is back from the dead and worth your…Read more...

The true identity of last week’s purported neutron star-black hole merger may never be known, as follow-up searches for a source of the signal have turned up nothing.

We say this every year, but damn we’re excited for fall’s thrilling crop of genre TV shows—be they airing on old-school network TV, a cable channel, or one of the ever-growing number of streaming services. Here’s our guide to what’s new, what’s returning, and when you can start watching!Read more...

You used to know a cheap HP laptop just by glancing at it. There’d be a lot of plastic painted to look like metal, and it’d probably be too thick. But the new HP Envy 13 is a shockingly good deal of a laptop. It looks good, it’s fast, and boy is it cheap. But as with many devices that seem too good to be true for the…Read more...

Did Samsung’s still-not-released but definitely-really-coming-sometime-next-month Galaxy Fold influence Rey’s flashy folding lightsaber in the next Star Wars film? Probably not. But it’s undeniable that flippy gadgets are having a moment. Rey’s lightsaber would look a lot more silly if that weren’t the case.Read more...

In July, an Uber driver we’ll call Dave—his name has been changed here to protect his identity—picked up a fare in a trendy neighborhood of a major U.S. metropolitan area. It was rush hour and surge pricing was in effect due to increased demand, meaning that Dave would be paid almost twice the regular fare.Read more...

Nintendo Switch Online Family Membership 12 Month (Digital) | $28 | TargetRead more...

We’ve got a little more than two months before the launch of Disney+, meaning many of us may be weighing whether to pull the plug on some of our other streaming services and instead opt into Disney’s enormous catalog of movies, television, and originals—particularly given that its subscription price comes in lower…Read more...

New satellite imagery shows gigantic plumes of noxious carbon monoxide wafting over Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and surrounding areas—the result of massive forest fires currently raging in the region.Read more...

Many journalists are very indignant that Trump allies are reportedly combing through social media to identify embarrassing things they may have posted long ago that can be used to discredit them. In this case, I’m afraid, the outrage seems to be missing the point.Read more...

Nathan Fillion joins James Gunn’s Suicide Squad. The Snake Eyes spinoff has found its Storm Shadow. James Wan’s betwixt-Aquaman horror project fills out its cast. Plus, what’s to come on Fear the Walking Dead and The Purge’s new season, and Taika Waititi denies a Thor: Love and Thunder rumor in very Taika Waititi…Read more...

Dark times call for dark measures.

Animals that think and talk like humans have long enchanted the public—in the form of myths, children’s books, and overrated TV shows. Somehow even the most mundane aspects of daily life—paying taxes, or preparing sandwiches, or staring at yourself in the mirror with a drained, sallow look and thinking, who am I, how…Read more...

Antlion ModMic Wireless | $100 | AmazonRead more...

President Donald Trump is denying a report from Axios that claimed he wants to nuke hurricanes in order to neutralize them. Trump has called out Axios by name and insists that he “never said this,” according to a tweet sent earlier today from the G7 summit in France.

Seven of the biggest names in publishing filed a lawsuit against Audible on Friday, arguing that its recently announced AI-generated captions feature breaks copyright law.Read more...

This week at Gizmodo, we took a long, hard look at what could have been with our Alternate Internet series, cataloging some of the ways the web could have been different—or still could be. While we didn’t have the time to write a sweeping, The Wheels of Time-length series on what would happen if I was given absolute…Read more...

Residents in Boca Chica Village, Texas, near a SpaceX facility in Brownsville received a warning from the Cameron County Office of Emergency Management that tests of the company’s Starhopper prototype on Aug. 26 could break windows in their homes, according to the Brownsville Herald.Read more...

The Clown Prince of… what?Read more...

For two years fans have been wondering what a Star Wars hotel would be like. Well, it turns out, it’s not a hotel at all.Read more...

Australia laid out some of the country’s first concrete steps to make good on its promise of combating the spread of extremism online at this year’s G7 leader’s forum, Reuters reported Sunday. Officials said the government intends to cut off all access to any internet domain that fails to block terrorist material…Read more...

Brazil has deployed nearly 44,000 soldiers as part of an operation to fight the rampant fires currently burning in much of the Amazon, with officials stating two C-130 firefighting planes have also been dispatched, according to the Daily Beast.

Listen, keeping up with the disputes of major media corporations is tricky. There’s a lot involved—character rights, media laws, the vast financial and sociopolitical resources of massive organizations spanning the globe. Hearing about all this Spider-Man stuff going down, you might be confused.Read more...

When the Dragon Ball Z anime premiered in April of 1989, it was a mere six months behind its Dragon Ball manga source material. For a half-hour show that aired every week without fail, this wasn’t much of a gap to fill. It was important to the Dragon Ball Z showrunners that the anime storyline never surpass the…Read more...

Pixar movies always seem to have a deeply touching premise and their next film, Onward, is no different. Fans saw about eight minutes of the movie at the D23 Expo this weekend and the scenes were a perfectly-Pixar blend of magic and emotion.Read more...

It’s Sunday, which means it’s time for another big Kindle eBook sale, Today, the focus is all on nonfiction titles, including a biography of Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew Yang’s memoir, a deep dive into North Korea, and a whole lot more.

Democratic National Committee delegates in San Francisco voted against allowing candidates to participate in a primary debate focused on climate change, per the Mercury News, in a contentious 222-137 vote that comes amid ongoing devastation in the Amazon rainforest and growing evidence that scientists have…Read more...

We might have our first-ever case of space crime on our hands, folks. Though I don’t suspect it’s the kind that’d attract interstellar bounty hunters any time soon.Read more...

The Suicide Squad has found its King Shark. Let all the criminals in the sea and on the surface rejoice.Read more...

Among the many, many movies Disney talked about at their big panel at the D23 Expo on Saturday, few were as stunning as Mulan. Director Niki Caro took the stage and debuted an extended look at the film, which had action, humor, heartbreak, and more.Read more...

The Spider world is a mess right now, at least so far as the live-action iteration is concerned.Read more...

Fans have been clamoring for a new glimpse at Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ever since the first trailer debuted in April. And, at this year’s D23 Expo, director J.J. Abrams didn’t disappoint.Read more...

A doctor who treated survivors of a mysterious nuclear accident in Russia was told that the radioactive isotope cesium-137 must have made its way into their body due to “Fukushima crabs,” according to CNN.

If you thought the president was going to give up fighting for his right to block critics on Twitter just because of a simple court ruling, and then an appeal process, which ended with a circuit court upholding that ruling, then think again.Read more...

The long-awaited confirmation of the Black Panther sequel! Even more incredible Eternals stars! Here’s a roundup of that and everything else Marvel-related we learned at D23 Expo’s movie panel.

Lucasfilm. Marvel. Pixar. Disney Animation. Walt Disney Studios has plenty of companies releasing movies these days and Saturday at the 2019 D23 Expo all of them took the same stage to tell the world what’s next.Read more...