Gizmodo

Look, it ain’t fancy, but this 43" 4K Insignia TV is worth every penny at $200. It has Fire TV smarts and Alexa voice-control built-in. And it’ll likely perform as well as any budget TV, so its perfect for a guest or child’s bedroom. This current price is about $50 less than usual, so it’s as good a time as any.Read more...

In December of last year, Rolling Stone reported that at a Taylor Swift concert at the 2018 Rose Bowl, there was a mysterious kiosk playing clips of the singer that doubled as a facial recognition system to flag any of Swift’s stalkers. A number of reports covered the alleged kiosk—including Gizmodo—but little was…Read more...

Between read-it-later services, social media feeds, and the unbelievable speed at which a Google search can find the exact information you’re looking for, browser bookmarks have become a forgotten a relic of a previous internet age. But the basic bookmarking tools built into your browser can still be hugely useful in…Read more...

Today, the grocery delivery battle is being waged between companies like Amazon, Walmart, Target, FreshDirect, and Instacart. But there once was a time when the most futuristic thing in food shopping was the car. Specifically, drive-in shopping like these stores from the 1920s.

Facebook is considering ways it could prevent the spread of dangerous anti-vaccination content on the platform.Read more...

This winter’s U.S. flu season hasn’t been and won’t be anywhere near as devastating as the historic season that killed 80,000 Americans last year. That might make latecomers eager to brush aside the idea of getting a flu vaccine. But a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should hopefully…Read more...

Editors note: Given ongoing issues in the games industry, the AFL-CIO recently reached out to Kotaku about addressing the people who make games. The AFL-CIO represents more than 12 million workers in the United States across more than 50 labor unions (including the Writers Guild of America, of which Kotaku and its…Read more...

Researchers at the non-profit AI research group OpenAI just wanted to train their new text generation software to predict the next word in a sentence. It blew away all of their expectations and was so good at mimicking writing by humans they’ve decided to pump the brakes on the research while they explore the damage…Read more...

How do you build the next $1 billion unicorn start-up in the hacking industry? One group of spy technology entrepreneurs says it’s found the answer.

Scientists are dreaming up ways to probe the nature of the Universe’s smallest bits—quarks—by observing ultra-dense neutron stars slamming into each other.Read more...

Ring may be best known for its video doorbells, but if you want cameras around the rest of your home’s perimeter, they sell well-reviewed standalone spotlight and floodlight cameras as well. Right now, both are $30 off their usual prices, whether you want the wired or the battery-powered version.

The Samsung leaks keep coming. This time around, an update to Samsung’s wearable app has revealed its entire lineup of wearables that will probably be announced along with its upcoming Galaxy S10.Read more...

Despite being one of the many poop-themed, gross-out toy reveals at last year’s New York Toy Fair, Jakks Pacific’s toilet-paper shooting Skid Shot turned out to be a fun alternative to traditional toy blasters that just shoot foam ammo. For 2019, Jakks is releasing an improved version called the Sheet Storm that fixes…Read more...

When Samsung released the Galaxy Tab S4, I liked its blend of sleek design, long battery life, and Android-based OS supported by Samsung’s Dex desktop software. But its steep price and outdated specs made it impossible to love. That might change with the new Galaxy Tab S5e. Samsung streamlined its flagship tablet to…Read more...

Something strange is happening to the northernmost city in the United States. It’s the dead of winter, and temperatures in Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) should be well below zero. Late last week, they soared into the 20s and 30s—practically beach weather for Arctic Alaska.

Wireless networking is kind of like an emergency kit for your car (or earthquake-prone California home). You don’t really think much about it when it’s there, but you’re going to notice it’s missing when you need it. Also, you want to make sure it’s set up to give you the best possible experience.Read more...

Obviously, these $40 Bluetooth headphones from TaoTronics don’t sound as great or block noise as well as a high end pair of Sony or Bose headphones. Obviously!

Dubai International Airport (DXB) was shut down and all flights were grounded for roughly 30 minutes this morning after a drone was spotted in the area, Dubai Media Office reported on Twitter. It was the latest airport shut down in what’s becoming a troubling pattern of drone sightings around the globe.

California was hit this week with a massive atmospheric river, with the state bracing for potential mudslides and flooding. By Thursday, multiple counties were reporting record rainfall amid chaotic road closures and unprecedented flash floods.

Even Twitter knows there is something fundamentally broken about its platform. But what if users could just, uh, clarify their bad tweets? This was an idea evidently presented by Twitter CEO and witness to goat slaughter Jack Dorsey while speaking at a Goldman Sachs event in San Francisco on Thursday.

Facebook wields unparalleled power when it comes to the amount of data it collects on its billions of users—this we know. But thanks to all that information it hoovers up across its various services, the company is also able to use said data to track individuals it deems as posing a threat to the company or its…Read more...

Update, 9:20 pm:Read more...

The classic Marvel Star Wars comic was one of the earliest, tentative steps into what would ultimately transform into the original Star Wars expanded universe; a world that fleshed out Han, Luke, and Leia’s adventures between and beyond the original films. These days, its stories are left to legend, with a new canon…Read more...

For two years, the European Union has been mulling over a serious overhaul of its copyright laws. But last year, it became increasingly clear that key provisions in the looming copyright directive pose a serious threat to the free exchange of information online, the culture of fair use, and the ability of startups to…Read more...

Facebook is in active negotiations to resolve the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation into the company’s privacy failures, according to a new Washington Post report, talks that could result in a multi-billion dollar fine or a heavyweight court battle. The report didn’t include an exact figure and said that …Read more...

We love a good time travel movie, especially when it does something different and cool with the idea. And that’s exactly what happens in this exclusive clip from the upcoming sci-fi comedy Mega Time Squad. It shows time travel used and abused in ways that would be highly, highly problematic...if it was actually real.

A newly approved NASA mission, called SPHEREx, will use a space-based observatory to study the early conditions of the Universe and hunt for the celestial ingredients required for life.Read more...

A spending bill expected to pass the House and Senate on Thursday, and then be signed by President Trump before this weekend to avert another disastrous government shutdown, contains at least $100 million earmarked for the development of surveillance technologies such as unmanned aerial drones and facial recognition…Read more...

Black Panther’s Erik Killmonger is one of the MCU’s most complex villains. His heartbreaking dialogue toward the end of the film is one of his most powerful moments and perhaps something you wouldn’t normally expect to hear in a superhero film. Black Panther co-writers Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole put it in there…Read more...

You don’t just see one stink bug. You see seemingly infinite stink bugs: in the couch, among the dishes, somehow under your pillow. Sure, try to kill them—they’ll just come right back.Read more...

California Governor Gavin Newsom has asked his aides to create a “digital dividends” proposal for a plan that would allow consumers in the state to get a portion of the money that tech companies make from using their personal data.Read more...

It’s imminent. Multiple outlets now report that Apple will announce new video streaming and news subscription services at a celebrity-studded event in Cupertino on March 25. BuzzFeed News cited anonymous sources who said the event would take place at Steve Jobs Theater and focus on the news service. Bloomberg’s Mark…Read more...

The Senate will be taking up a vote for the Green New Deal in what’s widely seen as a cynical ploy by Mitch McConnell to divide Democrats at the expense of millennials and future generations. The thing is, millennials are pretty pissed and they’re not going to let the vote happen without making some serious noise.Read more...

If you’re looking for 241-page, beautifully illustrated, expertly researched book chronicling the history of Han Solo, Star Wars Icons: Han Solo by Gina McIntyre is it. But that’s not all that makes the book so great.Read more...

In 2015, Ontario high school teacher Ryan Jarvis was caught secretly recording the chests of female students with a spy pen. But Jarvis was acquitted after the Ontario Court of Appeal reasoned that the students didn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy at the public school. Today, the Supreme Court of Canada…Read more...

Tepco, the state-owned operator of the badly damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, has conducted an important test in which a remote-controlled probe managed to grasp several small grains of radioactive debris, AFP reports. The successful operation marked an important achievement for the company as it prepares for a clean…Read more...

Coffee Meets Bagel—the worst-named dating app in an extremely competitive field—spent Valentine’s Day performing one of the more intimate acts a company can engage in: informing its users of a data breach.Read more...

Walmart has published a wide-ranging report on how the company predicts automation will unfold across the nation. Based on data supplied by the McKinsey Global Institute, the report “examines more than 3,000 counties in the United States with the goal of helping communities plan for their individual situations and…Read more...

After months of fierce opposition from local leaders, the New York Times reports that Amazon has decided to pull out of its plans to place a new satellite headquarters in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York.Read more...

Apple diehards have long defended the company’s “walled garden” approach to its ecosystem. While there are plenty of malicious Android apps, Apple’s strict app review standards generally kept iPhones safe. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. According to a Reuters report, sneaky app makers are using Apple’s…Read more...

On Wednesday, a flight from LaGuardia airport to Texas turn unexpectedly smoky when a vape battery reportedly stored in an overhead bin overheated and burst into flames.

El Niño has looked “imminent” since October, but the wait is over. Happy Valentines Day-Niño to all the climate nerds.Read more...

Researchers in France are calling their six-legged creation the “AntBot.” This 9-inch robot doesn’t just skitter around like a desert ant, though—it also borrows their unique navigational skills.Read more...

Jason Momoa is really pumped about the Aquaman sequel. The Mummy franchise gets a refreshing pitch. Plus, updates on Marvel’s Eternals film, Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, and the crossover you’ve been waiting for. Spoilers drip acid right this way...

These days, it seems all you hear about are full-frame mirrorless cameras, with their glorious image sensors about the size of a 35mm film frame. Sony, Canon, and Nikon all seem to have their focus set on the market for high-end full-framers, but with few exceptions, Fujifilm has been steadfast, choosing instead to…Read more...

Fox News has refused to air an ad for the short documentary film A Night at the Garden, according to a new report from the Hollywood Reporter.Read more...

CNN reported on Wednesday evening that “two people with knowledge of the matter” had confirmed that Michael Sanchez, the brother of the woman with whom Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had an affair, was the person who initially tipped off the National Enquirer to the secret romance and set off a firestorm.

The internet is a vast well of (often extraordinarily idiotic) conspiracy theories, some of which are so convincing that they creep out from their remote corners of the web to hook the attention of millions on social media.

When Canon announced its first full-frame mirrorless camera in the EOS R, there was a lot of excitement. But just making one camera was a bit of a head-scratcher when everyone else was releasing two at a time. Nikon released two versions of its mirrorless platform in the Z6 and Z7, and so did Panasonic with the Lumix…Read more...