Gizmodo

The spacecraft Hayabusa2's first touchdown onto the asteroid Ryugu is scheduled for this week. If successful, the craft will shoot a bullet into the rock in order to capture samples to bring back to Earth.Read more...

Mobile World Congress starts in Barcelona, Spain, next week, and ahead of all the announcements from that show Samsung’s pointing the spotlight at itself today by announcing the Galaxy S10, at least a couple of other variants, and possibly even the company’s much-hyped folding mobile device. Here’s how to watch it all …Read more...

Syfy is developing a truly insane take on The Banana Splits. Dune’s impressive cast continues to expand. Could another Star Wars show be headed to Disney+? Batwoman finds Kate Kane’s dad. Plus, new Captain Marvel footage, and what’s to come on Star Trek: Discovery. To me, my Spoilers!

Right now, there’s a big networking and storage sale going on at Amazon. Highlights of this Gold Box include big discounts on wireless routers, mesh networking systems, like the Netgear Orbi and the D-Link Covr, modems, and Powerline adapters.Read more...

Since becoming one of China’s most popular smartphone brands, Xiaomi has slowly been gaining steam globally, claiming the top spot in India while also expanding into the Middle East and Europe. And while you can buy a smattering of Xiaomi products like the Mi Box in the U.S., Xiaomi phones are still a no go, which is…Read more...

Chip manufacturer Qualcomm, which is locked in a bitter patent battle with tech giant Apple that has yet to go to trial, is asking U.S. trade officials to reverse a court ruling and impose a ban on imports of some iPhones, Reuters reported on Tuesday.Read more...

Amazon has a lot riding on its secretive, $250 million deal with The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate, publisher HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema to produce a streaming show in the franchise’s Middle-Earth setting, with expectations that the budget could cross one billion dollars.

There is allegedly a great, big super moon outside my window—not just any super moon, mind you, but potentially the biggest, brightest, super mooniest super moon we’ll get to see until 2026. I could look at it, but I will not. Sorry, moon! I’m sure you have many other, far more interested fans.Read more...

Donald Trump’s administration rushed to reach a deal to provide Saudi Arabia and its despotic government with protected U.S. nuclear technology, despite numerous legal and ethical warnings that such a deal was ill-advised and possibly in violation of the law, Democrats in the House of Representatives alleged in a…Read more...

Digital tools like 3D animation and motion capture helped revolutionize the visual effects industry, but there’s still plenty of room for practical effects to help bring the impossible to the big screen. Solo: A Star Wars Story’s VFX supervisor Julian Foddy revealed to the BBC that one of the film’s most memorable…Read more...

Members of Congress on Tuesday requested a briefing with Facebook over allegations that the social network potentially misled users who discussed their medical conditions in “closed” groups that they believed to be private and anonymous. But Facebook says users who shared information in these groups should have…Read more...

The myths and legends of days gone by are coming back for a new generation. Fremantle and the Jim Henson Company have announced that they are teaming up with Neil Gaiman to bring back The Storyteller—an anthology series that brings classic folktales to life with puppets.

In case low salaries and thankless work weren’t enough to keep you from seeking a public service job in Arizona, a new bill seeks to force applicants to hand over a sample of their DNA and pay a $250 processing fee. The proposed legislation would apply to anyone in Arizona who is required to be fingerprinted for a job.Read more...

The Food and Drug Administration is officially not a fan of Elizabeth Báthory. On Tuesday, the agency sent out an advisory warning people to avoid clinics and companies that promise to rejuvenate health with infusions of blood plasma taken from young people. Among other things, they noted, there’s no proof these…Read more...

Scientists have discovered a nearby “stellar stream” containing thousands of stars spanning the southern sky. They made the discovery thanks to the recent release of data from the Gaia sky survey.Read more...

A Virgin Atlantic flight making the grueling journey from Los Angeles to London yesterday hit a ground speed of at least 801 mph, thanks to a streak of fast-moving air in the jet stream over Pennsylvania. You’re probably wondering how, as breaking the sound barrier over land is illegal, but despite surpassing the…Read more...

Last summer, voice actor Vic Mignogna went into a booth with a few others to record audio for a video game. At one point, Mignogna asked the client, who was overseeing the session, if she was okay with his performance. When she didn’t answer right away, he followed up with: “You know the old Latin—or is it Greek?…Read more...

Earlier today, President Donald Trump signed a directive to create the Space Force, what will become the sixth branch of the U.S. military—but the new branch will be placed under the purview of the U.S. Air Force, rather than being a separate and autonomous branch, as the president had initially hoped.

The World Wide Web turns 30 this year, and to celebrate three decades of utter chaos and brilliance, CERN developers and designers have created a version of the original WorldWideWeb browser that can run inside a modern browser. What, you wonder, is it like to surf the original web? Well, give it a try here. It’s kind…Read more...

The great white shark is impressively terrifying (though not actually much of a threat to humans). But a new study shows that the animal is also an impressive feat of evolution. For the first time, scientists say they’ve fully unspooled the genome of the great white, a discovery that will help us better understand why…Read more...

Making bullshit copyright claims to get content removed from YouTube remains a tried-and-true way to screw with creators, which is why the company’s plan to overhaul its “three-strikes” policy sounds like the much-needed improvement users have been asking for. But confusingly, YouTube’s new policy update has…Read more...

On Friday, President Trump tossed precedent out the window and declared a national emergency to pay for an unneeded border wall he previously promised Mexico would pay for.

A paper published Monday in a well-known science journal begins with the following sentence: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a pair of grape hemispheres exposed to intense microwave radiation will spark, igniting a plasma.” A universally acknowledged truth indeed... but what causes this microwave marvel?

Our online conversations are riddled with emoji, and while the amusing characters can be a creative way to express certain concepts between friends, how they’re interpreted can be a giant legal headache.Read more...

Earlier this month, a National Park Service safety manager sent a “rogue” email alleging the improper storing of radioactive material at a Grand Canyon facility frequented by children, the Arizona Republic reports.Read more...

Amid a firestorm of legal and political salvoes fired at Huawei by the U.S. government, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei insisted this week that “there’s no way the U.S. can crush us” while denying that his company will give China’s government backdoor access to its next-generation 5G network.Read more...

This might tell us a little bit about what Pepper Potts is up to in what’s apparently her final Marvel movie, but it’s also a bit weird, considering Paltrow is 7 years younger than her Marvel co-star Robert Downey Jr.

Have you ever watched a show like Mad Men and wondered where they found those early Xerox machines? Or where The Americans got their hands on all the Reagan-era IBMs that you thought would be piled in a landfill? Well, there’s a good chance these historically-accurate gadgets came from a massive warehouse in…Read more...

An 80-year-old woman from the United Kingdom is the first patient to undergo gene therapy to treat age-related macular degeneration—the most common cause of sight loss in the world.Read more...

The Surface Studio 2 isn’t supposed to just be Microsoft’s answer to the iMac or an alternative to a gaming desktop. It’s a machine built for designers, animators, artists, and other people who spend most of their day hunched over a giant display with a stylus in their hand, which is what I do as a creative producer…Read more...

VR is still in its infancy. It’s at the stage at TVs before color, or computers before they got personal. It’s easy to forget that because there are so many headsets (and cardboard boxes). But Varjo’s VR-1, a slick looking headset intended for the professionals making the content you’ll one day use, is a great…Read more...

Get a look at Creepshow’s spooktacular host. There might be more Doctor Who on the way this year, just not in the way you’d expect it. Melissa Rosenberg is already promising big things for Jessica Jones’ final season. Plus, meet a few more of Detective Pikachu’s horrifyingly adorable Pokémon pals, and a new Toy Story 4…Read more...

You probably know Sphero best for licensed toys like the super-cute-but-now defunct BB-8 and other licensed bots. But its latest robot, the RVR (pronounced Rover) pushes forward with the company’s renewed focus on STEAM friendly robots, by adding a modular robot that can keep up with more advanced coders.Read more...

Thousands of people have been infected in a measles outbreak that has been linked to the deaths of 136 people, according to the Philippine health secretary on Monday. The Associated Press reported that most of those who died were young children, with roughly half between the ages of 1 and 4.Read more...

Last week, I asked you—yes you, or at least, the plural you that is the io9 readership—to tell me your favorite spaceship reveals in sci-fi and pop culture at large, that grand moment when an iconic ship comes into the scene for the very first time. And boy howdy, did you tell me about a lot of good spaceships.

Chrome OS users are reporting an alarming bug in the latest stable version of the operating system. Something in the most recent update is causing the CPU usage to sky rocket to 50-100 percent capacity on certain systems. Amusingly, developers believe it may be related to checking the CPU usage in the task manager…Read more...

We’ve sung the praises of filmmaker K-Michel Parandi on io9 in the past, and now there’s a new verse: XYZ, From Fire and Dust, a proof-of-concept short about artificial humans that Parandi hopes may become a series one day, according to Short of the Week.Read more...

Apple seems to really, really want people to commit to its services.

For the last year, the Federal Aviation Administration has been conducting an investigation into Southwest Airlines’ practices for tracking the weight of baggage loaded onto its jets, according to documents seen by the Wall Street Journal. The regulator has reportedly considered these weight inaccuracies to be a…Read more...

For the privacy-minded among us, Chrome’s Incognito mode can offer at least some added peace of mind during browsing sessions. But some sites may know that you’re trying to access them in Incognito, and Google reportedly wants to put a lid on it.

Frank Castle might still be stuck in the war zone of his mind, but Netflix’s The Punisher has come to an end after two seasons. His Marvel compatriot, Jessica Jones, will also see her story end—but it’ll be after the third season of Jessica Jones airs. This news comes courtesy of Deadline today.

A British parliamentary committee concluded its 18-month investigation into social media practices and issued its report on Monday. Facebook received particular focus in the report with lawmakers accusing the company of intentionally breaking the law and claiming that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has failed in his leadership…Read more...

Between phones, tablets, wearables, e-readers, and battery packs, you probably have at least four devices that you need to keep charged when you’re traveling, and this portable charger from Aukey can juice them all up for just $16 with promo code AUKEYPT7. It even has foldable prongs to take up less space in your…Read more...

Star Wars Resistance has had us wondering how the animated series fits in with the story being told in the sequel trilogy. “The Core Problem,” the latest episode, made the biggest connection so far.Read more...

If you’re watching newsreel footage of an eruption, and don’t live near a volcano yourself, you may find yourself wondering, “Why would anyone choose to live there?”Read more...

Unless you’re a staunch advocate for your kids having zero screen time, at some point you’re going to distract them with a mobile device. But instead of putting your expensive, fragile smartphone in their hands, LeapFrog’s new RockIt Twist is like a baby’s first Game Boy that makes gaming more accessible with a bunch…Read more...

It is a routine emotion in 2019 to urgently wish, four or five times in a day, to be launched not simply into space but to the very edge of the universe, as far as it is possible to get from the fever dream of bad weather, busted trains and potentially cancerous thigh lesions that constitute life on Earth. But what…Read more...

Space enthusiasts collectively mourned this week with the death of Opportunity, the Martian rover that chugged along making important scientific discoveries for far, far longer than it was expected to explore the Red Planet. In case you missed it, Gizmodo wrote about the incredible distance traveled by Opportunity…Read more...

Jeff Bezos yanked his would-be HQ2 campus this week in a show that Amazon simply couldn’t take the heat from New Yorkers who opposed the secretive deal and its potential implications for the city’s residents, and the Queens community in particular. After Amazon announced it was pulling out, many progressive…Read more...

Officials in Tokyo are testing a new technology that utilizes weather radar and terrestrial digital radio waves to “quickly and precisely predict torrential rain and tornadoes” up to 20 to 30 minutes in advance, the Mainichi reported on Sunday.