Gizmodo

Amazon is on a mission to mechanize as much of its supply chain as possible, and has—through publicly available documents—considered autonomous vehicles, drones that react to screaming, and flying warehouses. Among the strangest is a patent application which became public today, and it’s, uh, some sort of crane game…Read more...

Throughout Kilauea’s ongoing and spectacularly destructive eruption, our eyes have mostly been trained on the fire fountains and vast river of lava flowing through the lower East Rift Zone. But there’s also been an incredible amount of drama unfolding at the volcano’s summit that shows no signs of letting up.

The most effective way to tell your co-workers you don’t want to be bothered is to close your office door. But if you’re stuck in cubicle purgatory, that’s not an option. Instead, try this Scrabble tile rack desk lamp that lets you spell out seven-letter warnings like ‘GO AWAY’, ‘NOT NOW’, or other, blunter messages…Read more...

The Chinese government’s anti-pornography office announced earlier this month that video streaming services in the nation need to “thoroughly clean up vulgar and pornographic ASMR content.” And while the agency called for a crackdown specifically on content that is “vulgar” or sexual in nature, many of China’s leading…Read more...

More than 2,000 academics, including graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and at least 1,300 professors, have signed a letter denouncing the Department of Homeland Security’s policy separating immigrant children from their families at the border.

Where do you go to tell a secret? Probably depends on the secret. What you’d feel comfortable murmuring to a friend in a private meeting is likely not what you’d say loudly to a coworker while your boss is in earshot. Online, we not only communicate, we calculate—based on who we’re speaking to, or what platform we’re…Read more...

Dig out your Fitbit tracker, wristband, or smartwatch from whatever drawer it’s gathering dust in and strap it back on—we’re about to show you some cool tricks you can try to do more with your wearable. From improving device accuracy to exporting your data, here’s how to get the most from your Fitbit.

Though the newest season of Netflix’s Voltron: Legendary Defender might not be the longest seven episodes of television you watch this year, the new plot developments it introduces are some of the most exciting in the franchise’s history.Read more...

Despite President Donald Trump and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross’ best efforts to save ZTE from a seven-year ban on using American goods, the Senate on Monday passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision to reinstate the ban on the Chinese phone manufacturer.

For 15 years, Erez Benari’s struggle with his type 2 diabetes had been a losing one. A software engineer at Microsoft in Seattle, Washington, Benari had stuck to a restrictive diet that kept him off most carbs, along with regular insulin shots. But still, his high blood sugar levels never dropped, while his health…Read more...

For those averse to talking on the phone, hotel stays can resemble a war of attrition, testing your mettle to see how long you’ll go without calling the front desk and admitting you forgot to pack your toothbrush. But Amazon’s new Alexa for Hospitality service, which puts an Echo device in your hotel room, might let…Read more...

Months after the rest of the DC TV shows have wrapped up their seasons Supergirl season three has finally come to a close. And while much was wrapped up, an adaptation of major Superman comic arc being adapted for Supergirl was teased.Read more...

The problem with becoming a massively successful company that’s publicly traded is that you have to keep growing. Facebook is running out of new places to force its ads and it’s now going to start throwing autoplaying videos into messenger.Read more...

There’s wild rumors abound for a surprising supporting role in the Joker origin movie. Michael Douglas spills the beans on how Janet Van Dyne returns for Ant-Man and The Wasp. Jeff Goldblum is already teasing Jurassic World 3. Plus, more set footage from Wonder Woman 1984, and another look at Preacher’s return.…Read more...

Adobe has embraced mobile photo editing with open arms, releasing robust apps like Lightroom for processing and perfecting your images on a phone. It hasn’t been quite as committed when it comes to mobile support for video production, which is why it’s nice to see its four-year-old Premiere Clip app being eclipsed by…Read more...

Blindly reaching under your desk to find an available outlet to plug in your dying laptop is never a safe idea—I’ve had it go wrong... it was not pleasant. Reaching for a flashlight is a safer approach, but Ten One Design’s new Stella plug is an even better one. It’s got its own built-in flashlight that only turns on…Read more...

Just when you thought you had car chargers pegged, Anker went out and made the smartest one you’ve ever seen.

The United States currently has over 100 concentration camps along the U.S.-Mexico border. The facilities have become controversial due to the Trump regime’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents—a policy that health care professionals explicitly call child abuse. And now Wikipedia, the user-edited…Read more...

Video game chain GameStop, which like many other retailers has fallen on some pretty harsh times in the age of digital distribution platforms and online sales, is considering a buyout from a private equity firm.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose company took in $17.9 billion in 2017's last quarter from China and has much of its supply chain located there, has been running around trying to slow down a possible US-China trade war threatened by Donald Trump’s administration—and while the White House might be largely ignoring his…Read more...

Electric car giant Tesla is pulling out all the stops trying to hit make-or-break production targets of 5,000 Model 3 four-door sedans a week, going so far as to set up a third line in a tent outside its Fremont, California plant. At the same time, it’s reportedly burning through financing, has faced claims of poor…Read more...

There’s plenty of Trek merchandise out there, from giant ship replicas, to fancy dolls, to actual meme statuettes. But for honest to god action figures, it feels like it’s been years since there’s been a line of Starfleet’s finest small enough to command your valuable desk space. That’s finally changing thanks to…Read more...

Pixar’s long-anticipated superhero sequel just rocketed to a record-setting premiere weekend. A new comics series will be showing the secret identity side of the Parrs’ lives and it’s almost a given that Pixar and their partners will be telling more Incredibles stories in the future. Let’s chat about what we’d like to…Read more...

Apoidea, welcome to the resistance.

Update: Last day!Read more...

You might have a pretty rigid understanding of the way stuff should look, at the most basic level. It should have a nucleus that is orbited by electrons. The nucleus should have protons and neutrons, inside each of which reside three quarks.

Earlier today, President Donald Trump said he’ll be directing the Pentagon to create the US Space Force, which would become the sixth independent branch of the US military. The move is meant to help the US keep pace with its rivals, but experts question the need for an entirely new military wing.Read more...

The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to consider an appeal in a long-delayed case that revolves around whether Apple’s App Store policies constitute a monopolistic practice that violates antitrust laws.

How many times have you accidentally given yourself a papercut after excitedly tearing open a delivery from Amazon? As Japan’s most resourceful knife maker demonstrates, those papercuts could be a lot worse if you spend hours painstakingly turning those cardboard boxes into a razor-sharp chef’s knife.Read more...

Most of us know that spending too much time at loud rock concerts can be bad for our hearing later on. But a new study published Thursday in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery suggests that kids as young as nine can be at risk of hearing loss from an unexpected source: their smartphones and tablets.Read more...

Tensions are high within Microsoft, as new scrutiny is given to a partnership between the company’s Azure Government cloud computing arm and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to several Microsoft employees who spoke to Gizmodo on the condition of anonymity. Two were considering leaving the…Read more...

Researchers at Purdue University have found a new way to get surveillance cameras to “talk” to the people they see. The system is called PHADE, which stands for “private human addressing,” and it enables cameras to send messages to people’s devices when they’ve entered a specific area without collecting their personal…Read more...

When Tropical Cyclone Mekunu rumbled over Oman in May, it dumped torrential rainfall on the city of Salalah. Now, a new satellite image reveals the extent of unloaded rainfall in the nearby desert of Rub’ al-Khali, the world’s largest sand desert and (normally) one of the driest places on Earth.Read more...

One of the hardest video effects to fake is slow motion. It requires software to stretch out a clip by creating hundreds of non-existent in-between frames, and the results are often stuttered and unconvincing. But taking advantage of the incredible image-processing potential of deep learning, Nvidia has come up with a…Read more...

There are lots of incredible things you can do with data. Like make this incredible animation of the Martian surface, for example.Read more...

On Friday, 20 groups of Amazon shareholders sent CEO Jeff Bezos a letter pressuring him to stop selling the company’s face recognition software to law enforcement, CNN reports. Called Rekognition, the software came under greater scrutiny last month when the ACLU published revealing internal documents related to its…Read more...

A bug in macOS’ Quick Look feature has seemingly been known to forensic experts for the better part of a decade, but security researcher Wojciech Regula shed new light on how the vulnerability actually works in a report published earlier this month.

Meet DeepCube, an artificially intelligent system that’s as good at playing the Rubik’s Cube as the best human master solvers. Incredibly, the system learned to dominate the classic 3D puzzle in just 44 hours and without any human intervention.

California’s two net neutrality bills are poised to become one, offering the state’s 40 million residents comprehensive protection against internet service provider trying to shakedown businesses and subscribers in the wake of the FCC repeal.

The Australian government is ending its plans for a national biometric database meant to help police departments track suspects and other persons of interest, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission announced Friday. Surveillance and security company NEC was awarded the contract in 2016, but after a…Read more...

There was no doubt that Incredibles 2 was going to be a box office hit, but it really can’t be understated just how wildly successful an opening weekend the movie just had.Read more...

Venus might seem rather Earthly, given its similar size and presence of a thick, carbon dioxide-filled atmosphere. But the more scientists observe it, the more surprises the second planet from the Sun throws at us.Read more...

You’d expect a $320 TV to be stripped of basically all features, but this 55" set from Hisense actually has smart apps, HDR support (though not Dolby Vision, sorry), and yes, even 4K resolution. It’s obviously not the best TV you can buy, but it’s a hell of a bargain if you’re in the market.Read more...

DNA from a 22,000-year-old fossilized panda skull suggests an entirely separate lineage of giant pandas once roamed the area that is now southern China.Read more...

If you watch Westworld for the shocks, last night’s installment couldn’t have disappointed you. And, while it didn’t reach the heights of last week’s phenomenal episode, which told an epic love story that had been lying in the margins of the main narrative, “Vanishing Point” told a story of self-obsession and…Read more...

As of now, Facebook users under the age of 18 can be served advertisements for firearm holsters, flashlight-mounts, and silencers, and other gun accessories. But a new policy is supposed to but an end to that starting June 21.Read more...

Anker’s Nebula Capsule mini projector gets all the hype, but if its standard definition resolution and 100 lumen brightness won’t cut it for your portable cinema needs, the brand new Nebula Mars II just launched with a $100 discount.

After pissing off law enforcement with its announcement that iOS 12 will include a tool intended to circumvent cracking of iPhone encryption, Apple has a new feature that police will probably like: Automatic transmission of location data when a user calls 911.

If you’re like me, you’ve been in this situation countless times: you’re driving along with a trunk packed full of garbage bags of piping hot chili, when you get a flat tire. To get to the tire under the trunk floor, you have to pull out all dozen bags, and in the process one of the chili bags invariably rips,…Read more...

If you’ve treated yourself to a shiny new computer then the excitement might be tempered somewhat by the thought of having to shift all your files and programs over to the new machine. With the right tools and know-how though, this doesn’t have to be a chore—here’s how to get it done quickly.