Gizmodo

“Good times or bad times, there are still ultra-rich people paying whatever needed to get what they like,” as the South China Morning Post quoted a Hong Kong real estate rep this week. Hard to argue with that when parking spots are trading hands at close to a million bucks.

A Russian research group ran out of money after the eagles they tagged flew out of range of cell service and then to Iran, resulting in tons of expensive text messages, according to a post on the Russian social media service VK.Read more...

A former top lawyer at Apple, who was responsible for ensuring that employees weren’t involved in insider trading, has been indicted on charges of insider trading, reports a press release from the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.

On Wednesday, a group of Republican members of the House barged into a closed-door meeting held in a Capitol sensitive compartmentalized information facility (SCIF) used by legislators to assess sensitive or classified information, possibly compromising the facility’s security. Those in attendance insisted that their…Read more...

Apple released a new entry level iPad last month, and while it does have a slightly larger screen and a smart connector that the previous model lacked, it’s otherwise the exact same tablet with the same internals.

We do just about everything inside a browser nowadays—stream movies, write essays, chat with friends, edit photos—and serious slowdowns inside this key bit of software can have a serious impact on how much we get done. With that in mind, these are the reasons that your browser is slowing down, and what you can do to…Read more...

If it ain’t broke, and you manage to sell over 100 million units, don’t fix it. That best sums up the latest version of Google’s Nest Mini (formerly the Home Mini) smart speaker. If you’re in the market for a cheap smart speaker that will occasionally be used for listening to music, it’s still Google’s best bargain.…Read more...

If we fail to stop climate change, the world will be screwed. Like thousands will die, hundreds of millions will be displaced screwed. The actions society takes over the next decade will largely dictate what our climate will look like by the end of the century.Read more...

Searching for information online sometimes takes creativity—depending on how you word a query, Google can bring back some wonky results. That’s why Google announced today that it’s improved search to better understand natural language for “queries [it] can’t anticipate.”Read more...

Images from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory show its next-gen rover standing on all six wheels for the first time.Read more...

The Red Hydrogen One was a phone from another dimension. It was big, super heavy, and was billed the world’s first holographic phone. Except it never quite delivered, and now, alongside a retirement announcement, Red Founder Jim Jannard is canceling Red’s Hydrogen project altogether.Read more...

Most smart appliances can be remotely operated using an app, but for voice control, you usually need to add an intermediary like Google Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa. Sony thinks Aibo could fill that role too, in the company’s latest attempt to convince consumers to spend $2,900 on its robotic dog.Read more...

The border wall is an ecological disaster. Thousands of scientists have said as much. The federal government has said as much. And recent images of wall construction workers bulldozing cacti have shown it writ large.Read more...

Roughly a third of the Netherlands lies below sea level. Even when water isn’t physically present, the specter of it is.Read more...

The Craft reboot just keeps finding new castmates. Ruben Fleischer is already thinking about Zombieland spinoffs. Lucifer will get downright musical and noir in its last season. The CW wants a spinoff of The 100. Plus, what’s to come on Supernatural, and the end begins for Arrow. Spoilers away!

Nintendo Switch Bundle (Console, Choice of Game, and USB-C Dongle or Carrying Case) | $330 | WalmartRead more...

Streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and Spotify might be required to issue emergency alerts from the government if U.S. lawmakers have their way. TV and radio stations operating in the U.S. are required by law to issue emergency warnings, like the infamous fake missile alert for Hawaii issued in early 2018, but…Read more...

TikTok aimed to “set the record straight” Thursday in a company blog post detailing its practices after Congress raised national security concerns about the viral video app among other China-owned properties earlier this week. In it, TikTok maintained that its focus is entertainment, not politics, and no foreign…Read more...

Update 10/24 5:16 PM: A Disney spokesperson replying to Gizmodo’s request for confirmation told us that Disney CEO Bob Iger comments were misinterpreted when he said, “if you are a subscriber, you can download it and put it on a device and it will stay on that device as long as you continue to subscribe.” According to…Read more...

Scientists have previously run experiments teaching rats how to play hide-and-seek. Now researchers at the University of Richmond in Virginia have managed to teach 17 rats how to drive tiny electric cars around in pursuit of food, with the rats apparently loving it.

It’s always been evident that cryptic malevolence lurks beneath the blasted “Johnny Johnny no Papa” TikTok meme. That peril may be national security risks.

We see a lot of deals around the web over on Kinja Deals, but these were our ten favorites today.Read more...

First, it was Ninja, and now it’s Shroud, as Microsoft has inked a deal that will have yet another one of Twitch’s most popular streamers switch exclusively to Mixer.

The veritable parade of Trump administration officials facing scrutiny of their use of personal email for official business continues, this time with Commerce secretary and walking corruption scandal Wilbur Ross.

You can get comprehensive lists of everything coming to streaming services anywhere. But half of those titles you don’t care about, and the other half are terrible. Where’s the good stuff? io9 is here to help.

Displays on older models of Tesla electric vehicles are bricking because of shoddy flash memory, according to reports in Inside EVs and Motherboard.

Twitter is never, ever going to ban Donald Trump for reasons ranging from the self-apparent (he’s the president, and a conspiracy-obsessed one at that) to perhaps the cynical (whether or not his incessant tweeting helps the company’s bottom line).Read more...

Batman. Spider-Man. Superman. Captain America. The Teen Titans. The X-Men. Whoever your superheroic comic star of choice is, odds are they’ve been around for decades and countless creative teams have come and gone in their stories, creating endless versions of characters that have otherwise lived ongoing lives on the…Read more...

At a time when the Star Wars movies and tie-in materials are now more than ever questioning the legacy of the Jedi—and what it means to be a Jedi—there is a certain irony to there now being a literal dictionary definition of what a Jedi is.

Nature can be glorious, miraculous, and sometimes downright brutal. Not all of us get to witness the amazing feats of the natural world happening in the flesh, though. Luckily, we have wildlife photographers who’s riveting images can help bring the wilderness into our living rooms.

When it comes to campaign ads on Facebook, you can lie or be racist—but don’t you dare cuss or stick a button in the ad. In the first half of October, Facebook has removed over 160 ads from the Biden, Warren, Sanders, Steyer, and Trump campaigns but for reasons that mostly pertain to design, according to a review by…Read more...

Amazon is marketing its facial recognition software to Florida police departments that are currently partnered with its home surveillance company, Ring—arrangements that allow police to request access to video footage captured by homeowners.

Roku users are about to get two times the Apple—beginning today.

Gestures on a smartphone aren’t exactly new tech, but they are new to Google’s Pixel 4. Thanks to a teeny tiny Project Soli radar, you can now wave at a Pixel 4 to poke Pokémon wallpapers, as well as control your music, timers, and phone calls.Read more...

A knife, chisel, arrowheads, and other gear belonging to a Bronze Age warrior have been uncovered on a 3,300-year-old battlefield in Germany.

Taco Bell stealthily yanked heaps of beef following a report that a diner found metal in their Mexican-inspired fast-food cuisine, angering customers across the country.Read more...

In an effort to broaden the public’s understanding of the challenges faced by local officials ahead of the 2020 election, Democratic lawmakers traveled to Gurnee, Illinois, on Tuesday to hear testimony from leading election and cybersecurity officials. The meeting also served as an opportunity for the Democrats to…Read more...

The Pixelbook is the best Chromebook you can buy, but it’s also one of the most expensive Chromebooks you can buy. The big pitch for the Pixelbook Go is that it takes a lot of what you like about the Pixelbook and Google’s aesthetic in general, and charges only $650. That’s a damn fine idea, but my limited time with…Read more...

The Voyagers 1 and 2 spacecraft measured the Sun sending a pulse like a “tsunami” into the interstellar medium, according to a new paper.Read more...

JoAnna Wendel is a science cartoonist and writer in Washington, DC. She loves space, planets, rocks, and her cat, Pancake. You can find her work at joannawendelcomics.com and follow her on Twitter at @JoAnnaScience.

In a somewhat unconventional spectacle that included a fireside chat about the company’s environmental initiatives and photographer Annie Leibovitz dropping by to talk about smartphones, Google’s Pixel 4 event in New York today included few surprises, and at times, even fewer details on its new hardware.Read more...

On Monday, Reuters scored an exclusive interview with Ben van Beurden, the CEO of the Shell Oil Company. During the sitdown, he decried people demonizing oil and said it’s “entirely legitimate to invest in oil and gas because the world demands it” and that “we have no choice” but to keep investing in dirty fossil fuel…Read more...

The return of The Expanse feels like a reunion, but there’s a “fresh face” in the mix in the form of Torchwood’s Burn Gorman. In a one-on-one interview with io9, Gorman shared details on Adolphus Murtry, whether he’s actually a villain, and why Doctor Who and Expanse fans aren’t so different in the end.Read more...

Archaeologists in Cambodia have used jungle-penetrating laser to confirm the location and layout of an ancient capital city associated with the early stages of the Khmer Empire.

Final numbers are still rolling in, but it seems safe to say that Gemini Man is not the hit anyone involved might have hoped it would be. Ang Lee’s science fiction action movie, starring Will Smith as both an aging assassin and his younger, stronger, faster clone, landed in third place at the box office this weekend…Read more...

The toxic class of so-called “forever chemicals” is finally getting some much-deserved attention from government officials. The Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General will be evaluating the military’s use of PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances that the military has used in firefighting foam and have now…Read more...

Less than a month before multiplex film juggernaut Disney is set to launch its streaming service, the largest theater operator in the world has released its own on-demand online movie store.Read more...

As we saw last season, and as we’ve known for decades thanks to Stephen King’s interconnected stories, Castle Rock is a grim little town—there’s no way one odd outsider is gonna change the status quo too much. But of course, Annie Wilkes still manages to stir up some chaos.Read more...

Google has been working up to this for more than four months, but now it’s here, so say hello to the Pixel 4.

Made by Google 2019 is finally here. And thanks to the Pixel 4 getting leaked to the point of exhaustion, we had a pretty good idea of what to expect heading in. But the tech titan still managed to unveil some surprises on the Google Assistant front, with new applications and integrations across Google’s devices.Read more...