Gizmodo

Months after Russia banned the sale of gadgets that aren’t pre-installed with Russian-made software, government officials in that country have drafted new guidelines on what types of software companies may have to install.Read more...

A San Diego jury ruled this week that Apple must pay Quarter Hill Inc.’s Wi-LAN a cool $85 million in a patent infringement case that’s been ping-ponging around the courts since 2014, Bloomberg reports.

The saga never ends. With Uncharted recently losing a director and hunting for a new one, it’s being pushed back in the release schedule. Which isn’t surprising. But it’s not the only movie that got bumped.Read more...

I, for one, am not ready.Read more...

Google announced that it was going to start charging law enforcement authorities for legal data disclosure requests, such as subpoenas and search warrants, related to its users. The company receives thousands of petitions from authorities every year and has decided to charge to help “offset the costs” associated with…Read more...

For a while there, in the late ‘90s, it felt like we were all really afraid of snakes. The vanguard of that fear was Anaconda, one of the most-mocked and most-beloved garbage monster movies of the era. Starring Ice Cube, Jennifer Lopez, and Jon Voight, it was a delightful romp through the Amazon. Or, well, it was a…Read more...

Public libraries are a national treasure that few people seem to appreciate anymore, but I am here to tell you that you are ignoring a precious resource because these bastions of socialism don’t just have free books. They have free ebooks. We’ve definitely preached the benefits of library ebooks before, but like the …Read more...

A 50-foot ring topped with white insulation sits attached to wires, pipes, and other electrical components in a warehouse on Fermilab’s northern Illinois campus. Scientists taking data with this device have the potential to rock the field of particle physics to its core, but they’re missing a crucial number to make…Read more...

Vine and its sequel, V2, may be dead, but from their ashes arises a new contender to take up the six-second video mantle: Byte.

The U.S. Justice Department is hosting a workshop next month seeking “a wide diversity of viewpoints” on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the federal statute that, with few exceptions, protections major internet companies and private website owners from liability when it comes to the posts and comments…Read more...

The Trump administration is adopting a tougher stance to combat the multi-billion dollar market of selling counterfeit goods on online platforms like Amazon, per a Department of Homeland Security report released Friday.

Over the years, Google’s become somewhat notorious for killing off its projects, beloved or otherwise. The most recent casualty happened today, with the announcement that the company’s backing off of a controversial search engine update—one that made organic search results and paid-for placements nearly impossible to…Read more...

The White House initially minimized the consequences of retaliatory Iranian missile strikes that hit joint U.S.-Iraqi bases in Iraq on January 8 in response to Donald Trump’s reckless decision to assassinate a senior Iranian official. But last week, news broke that at least 11 U.S. troops had actually been treated…Read more...

The contractors charged with keeping YouTube clean from the vilest forms of content that surface on the platform are reportedly being coerced to sign agreements acknowledging that the job could have a severe impact on their mental health, seemingly making any job-related fallout the responsibility of those workers…Read more...

The Iowa caucuses are just over a week away, and Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are neck and neck in the polls. In the past few days, the two have sparred over corruption and Social Security and gun control, and earlier this week, both campaigns released videos coming after the other candidate.Read more...

Unless you’re an avid reader of the sort of books CEOs tote around, you may not have heard of Clayton Christensen. You have, however, felt the impact of his work. Christensen, who died at 67 on Thursday due to complications from cancer treatment, is the scholar responsible for coining the term ‘disruptive innovation.’…Read more...

The new streaming service Quibi is facing an uphill battle. Most people don’t know what it is or why it exists. That’s partly because it hasn’t even launched yet, but CEO Meg Whitman recently put it on the map in a less than tasteful fashion when audio leaked of her comparing journalists to pedophiles. She has now…Read more...

The similarities between Donald Trump’s newly revealed United States Space Force logo and the logo for Star Trek’s Starfleet are uncanny.

Amazon’s home security company, Ring, pressed the chief editor at a Ukrainian business publication last year to delete a passage in an article touting the successes of Ring’s Kyiv-based research lab, the Intercept reported Friday. The article reportedly included a quote attributed to the general manager of Ring…Read more...

A grim report from the United Nations warns that unusually large swarms of locusts will be descending upon East Africa in the coming months, in what could be the worst infestation in a quarter century. The pests could pose a serious risk to crops and livelihoods in the region.Read more...

Back before the Juul was a meme or status symbol or sign of impending doom, it was just a new nicotine-based product from people known for weed. Juul was born out of the same minds as Pax, the most stylish weed flower vape around. Now Juul is a threat to lungs and Big Tobacco while Pax is still focused on delivering…Read more...

It’s a new year but things are still the same when it comes to Disney’s catalog of classic films. After a year that saw remakes of Aladdin and The Lion King become billion dollars hits, it makes sense for the trend to continue. And next on the list is Bambi.Read more...

As the final chapter in a trilogy of trilogies, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker puts a period on what fans have long known as the main story of Star Wars. It also offers a chance to look at the galaxy moving ahead and see how its conclusion compares to the previous ones.

One of the things that really bugs me about the Jurassic Park movies is the prominent role given to Tyrannosaurus rex—a dinosaur that didn’t appear until the ensuing Cretaceous period. I am therefore thrilled to learn about Allosaurus jimmadseni, a newly described apex predator that, unlike T. rex, actually lived…Read more...

Samsung has already demonstrated the vast potential of bendy screen devices with the Galaxy Fold, but there are still a number of improvements needed before foldable gadgets can really go mainstream. And if rumors are true, Samsung may have solved one of the Fold’s biggest shortcomings.Read more...

For employees who’ve spent decades working for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Trump administration is like nothing they’ve ever seen before. That’s exactly why—for the first time ever—the agency’s union employees have authored a Bill of Rights to set the agency back on track to meet its mission.

John Kapoor, the founder of Arizona-based drug company Insys Therapeutics, was sentenced to just over five years in prison Thursday, far short of the 15 years that federal prosecutors had asked for after he was first found guilty in Boston last year.

Federal health officials have identified a second U.S. case of the deadly new coronavirus that’s sent parts of China into lockdown, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday. While officials say that the risk to the U.S. from the virus remains low, the overall situation worldwide is set to get…Read more...

A massive blast at an industrial facility in the 4500 block of Gessner Road in northwest Houston killed at least two people, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters hours later on Friday.

Pixel 3a with $100 Amazon Gift Card | $349 | Amazon

Carbon dioxide. We should stop emitting it.Read more...

The dystopian nightmare begins. Today, London’s Metropolitan Police Service announced it will begin deploying Live Facial Recognition (LFR) tech across the capital in the hopes of locating and arresting wanted peoples.Read more...

Sprint says it will fix your cracked Galaxy screen for just under 50 bones, and you don’t have to be a Sprint customer to benefit.Read more...

Tinder has a proven track record of providing a dating platform to some less-than-stellar men who have been accused of raping—and in one grisly case, dismembering—women they’ve met through the platform. But even when the company does something right, there are still privacy trade-offs to consider.

When the Nintendo Switch arrived, I decided it was the first console on which I’d buy all my games digitally to improve its portability. Not having to wrangle a pile of cartridges was great, but I’m starting to rethink that approach after EA recently revealed its iOS version of Tetris was disappearing in a few…Read more...

Our phones carry so much of our lives these days—our social networks, access to our banks, home security apps—that keeping them safe and protected is of paramount importance. These are three of the most common ways your phone can be hacked, and how to stop them.Read more...

A Sperry semi-annual sale, a throw blanket, Give’r gloves, and an LED light Gold Box off Friday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

A recent study is one of the first to highlight the plights faced by a small segment of the population: people who can’t smell the world around them normally. In it, sufferers describe feeling depressed, unable to enjoy eating, and sometimes even scared for their lives.

Shanghai Disneyland will close its gates on Saturday in an effort to stop the spread of a new SARS-like virus that has killed 26 people and sickened at least 881, primarily in China. It’s not known when the theme park may reopen.

Obi-Wan Kenobi first fell on the Death Star. He may have just fallen again in a corporate boardroom.Read more...

Just a few short days ago, Sonos dropped the bomb that some of its older products would no longer receive software updates starting in May 2020. In the initial announcement, Sonos reasoned that the ‘legacy products’ were all reaching the end of their useful life. It then told users they could either recycle the…Read more...

The company behind a popular at-home DNA testing kits, 23andMe, has laid off roughly 100 employees amid waning demand for its product.Read more...

The plan is that soon you’ll be able to waltz into a gym, connect your Apple Watch to a treadmill, and earn cash back or a free watch just for showing up.

Archaeologists in Mexico City have uncovered a pre-Hispanic steambath dating back to the 14th century. Its location in the city’s historic district confirms the whereabouts of a vibrant neighborhood that once stood in Tenochtitlán—an ancient urban center that eventually became Mexico City.

Dreamworks’ Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is all about a group of (mostly) average kids making their way around a strange post-apocalyptic land. It’s been overrun with mutated, sentient animals who’ve driven most of humanity to live in hiding underground. On any given day, chances are good that you could run into a…Read more...

We drove past the perfect-circle frozen pond delineating the Booster—the second in a sequence of Fermilab’s particle accelerators—and then onto the 2-mile ring road that traces the tunnel that houses the Main Injector accelerator. Along the road are unfrozen ponds filled with water used for cooling research equipment,…Read more...

I get it. The Kindle and its ability to shop for and instantly buy books anywhere using wifi or Whispernet are incredibly convenient, and it’s what’s made Amazon’s hardware the obvious choice for consuming ebooks. But supporting awful companies like Amazon is getting harder and harder if you were born with a…Read more...

The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers just removed federal protections for hundreds of thousands of small waterways and many of the nation’s wetlands. Later today, EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler will announce the change at a conference of the National…Read more...

It’s impossible to go a day here in San Francisco without hearing the words ‘tech’ and ‘gentrification’ in the same sentence. And with the tension compounded by outlandish housing costs, a homeless crisis, and fears over major cultural changes being inflicted onto the city, you start to see a culture where it’s easy…Read more...

DirecTV is rushing to move one of its satellites to a higher orbit due to the likelihood it will go boom, pow, kablam, rattle-rattle-bang, Space News reported on Wednesday.