Gizmodo

The Babar I remember from childhood was a jolly elephant who goes on adventures. Somehow that’s all I took with me into adulthood from early readings of The Story of Babar by Jean de Brunhoff (and his wife Cécile, who first told their children the story at bedtime), a children’s classic that spurred an immensely…Read more...

First it was the Kindle that allowed the world to enjoy its romance novels without fear of public embarrassment. Next, Google will let everyone browse the web in the privacy of virtual reality with its Chrome browser and Daydream VR headset.Read more...

Have you ever seen a kid take a marker or crayons to a phone or iPad? If so, you might be able to imagine what it was like to see kids of the 1950s drawing all over the fantastic new technology of the day: television. But in at least some cases, this wasn’t a horrifying mistake. The person on the TV screen told them…Read more...

The deadly Carr Fire burning in Northern California can now claim an unfortunate milestone: It has officially cracked the list of the 10 most destructive wildfires to ever beset California.Read more...

MoviePass apparently fucked up yet again over the weekend after complaints began pouring in that the app wouldn’t let users buy tickets to the new Mission: Impossible flick. But as analysts dog the much-hyped film’s box office performance, it’s becoming clear exactly why we need MoviePass to survive.

N 48.12885°, W 123.68234°—Amid the panoply of greenery that makes up the Hoh Rainforest, a gap in the old growth forest arises. Well, more accurately it’s a gap in a tree—a hollow inside a towering sitka spruce that stands like an open door. Beyond it, a short game trail through ankle deep mud and pools of water…Read more...

It’s been a weird month for DJI. The Chinese drone giant had planned a big press event on July 19 but postponed it at the last minute. Now, several leaked images showing three new DJI drone models are floating around the internet. They all appear to be part of the Mavic family, and damn, do they look cool.Read more...

One of the 2018 Tesla Model 3’s most distinctive features is its spartan interior, a virtually button-free environment with most controls confined in a horizontal touchscreen. Now, the automaker is planning to introduce a similar interior for its more expensive vehicles, the Model S and X, according to a new report…Read more...

Based on the timing of last year’s Pixel 2 launch, we’re still a solid two months away from confirming whatever Google has planned for 2018. But that isn’t going to stop internet sleuths from trying to dig up any info they can. Over the weekend, two leaks popped up that could have some interesting consequences for…Read more...

Star Wars fans collectively wiped tears from their eyes last week after learning that Carrie Fisher would indeed appear in J.J. Abrams’ Episode IX. Mark Hamill and Fisher’s family have weighed in on the news...and if you’ll excuse me, I may have something in my eye again.

NASA’s newest exoplanet-hunting spacecraft has started taking scientific data as of last week, according to a NASA release. Read more...

Twitter, a social network known for its perpetual feed of virulence and targeted harassment, is turning to academia to answer the decade-old question: Why is it so bad?

A weird thing about reviewing gadgets for a living is that my neighbors notice. Sometimes they just call me out for getting a lot packages in the mail. Other times, they ask me for advice. One neighbor recently pointed out the $190 Jabra 65t Elite Active truly wireless buds I was wearing in the elevator. “What do you…Read more...

Instead of repeatedly standing in front of a camera and waving an LED bulb to create long-exposure light paintings, Josh Sheldon automated the process with an impressive photography rig that takes orders directly from 3D animation software. The resulting animations, made with precise camera moves and robot-controlled…Read more...

The final season of Star Wars Rebels hits Blu-ray Tuesday and with it, of course, will be a nice selection of special features. io9 is excited to debut this lovely clip from the set, which focuses on Hera and Kanan. Specifically, the course of their relationship during the animated series.Read more...

While a lot of the stuff you do with your phone will involve wifi, the essential functions of a phone—the calling and the texting—still rely on a connection to a cell tower. If that link breaks, you can miss important messages or be out of reach to family and friends. Here’s what you can do if you struggle to get a…Read more...

The BBC’s His Dark Materials adaptation rounds out its cast and Wonder Woman 1984 picks up a few more actors for the tubular sequel. A famous DC bodyguard is set to make their debut on Supergirl, someone looks like they’re quietly exiting the MCU, and David Tennant joins the cast of another animated series. Allons-y,…Read more...

Update: We’re having some trouble with the code right now, but we’ll update the post when we hear back form Elevation Lab.Read more...

Do you remember Facebook’s terrible TV ad back in April that tried to “apologize” for abusing your data? It was disingenuous bullshit. But with Facebook back in the news after the company lost $120 billion in value last week, John Oliver has revived the ad. Only this time the TV spot has a little more honesty.

July 2018 is nearly out the door, and it’s certainly been a long one, ladies and gentlemen. In this era of the 24-hour news cycle, here are some things you may not have remembered happened just weeks ago:

Guards for Arctic cruise line passengers shot and killed a polar bear on the island of Spitsbergen in the remote Svalbard region of Norway, resulting in condemnation on social media and swift apologies from the tour operator.Read more...

Amazon is ending its policy of letting viewers vote on which TV pilot episodes they would like to become full-length series, announcing at the Television Critics Association’s press tour on Saturday that it was ending the crowdsourcing portion of its original content program.

Two people enter into a pharmaceutical trial that promises to fix everything that ails their minds. And then things get out of hand.Read more...

Writing a complex ensemble cast in an ongoing television show is tricky. Sometimes, you want to build up the major conflict, but you just... can’t let it happen. It’s a problem.Read more...

California’s devastating Carr Fire is now measured to have spread to over 89,000 acres on Sunday, resulting in at least five deaths, hundreds of destroyed structures, and severe damage to western parts of the city of Redding after it ravaged the nearby communities of Shasta and Keswick.

There was once a time when Desmodromic valve technology was cutting edge and a necessary competitive advantage for Ducati in racing. The Desmo head doesn’t use a valve spring to return the valve to the closed position, instead relying on a second valve rocker and a second lobe on the camshaft to pull the valve closed.…Read more...

Fear the Walking Dead, the prequel spin-off of The Walking Dead, still has a lot of fear left in it, as this weekend at the Television Critic’s Association it was confirmed the AMC series is getting a fifth season.Read more...

On a lazy summer Sunday, Amazon is helping you want to stay in bed even more with this sheet sale. Choose from regular cotton or Egyptian cotton, with a king set for as low as $27. If you’ve been eyeing a new set of sheets, this is the sale for you. Stock up and enjoying being in bed even more.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, whose status as an unwanted guest at the Ecuadorian embassy in London has been growing ever more tenuous for months, could reportedly be booted at any time, according to reports in CNN and the Times of London.

The two creators previously worked on The Jungle Cruise and the upcoming Star Trek 4.Read more...

Tom Cruise has a penchant for wild stunts. Now, he’s worked them into the press tour.Read more...

Texas Senator Ted Cruz took some time out of his busy schedule of being generally hated by everyone on Saturday to defend conspiracy theorist and Infowars grifter Alex Jones against a temporary suspension on Facebook.

Streamer apotatomaybetwo has created a video explaining, point by point, how to play Overwatch if you only have access to a single hand. It’s educational.

Before Chris Hemsworth’s Thor was a box-office juggernaut and one of the most beloved Marvel Cinematic Universe characters, he was a design nightmare. How do you create a Thor film, with the full, flamboyant aesthetics of Asgard intact, in a way that complements the rest of the universe—that can filimically exist…Read more...

This end table does it all. Not only does the base include a bluetooth 360 degree speaker, the top is a Qi charger, so you can place your compatible devices next to you on the couch and they will charge wirelessly. Grab it for $190 on Woot today.

UK legislators are accusing social media giant Facebook of providing “disingenuous answers” during testimony on alleged Russian infiltration of the site in 2016 while avoiding other questions “to the point of obstruction,” the New York Times reported on Saturday.

A Black Lotus from the original release of Magic: The Gathering sold this week on online auction site eBay for $87,672. That’s a lot of money for a little bit of cardboard.Read more...

Slowly, Iron Fist is inching toward an honest-to-god costume for Danny Rand.

The first season of Netflix’s Castlevania anime adaptation, led by Warren Ellis and Adi Shankar, was one of the best surprises of last year. Now, it’s gearing up to return and visit Dracula’s bloody vengeance upon the Earth.

It might come as no surprise to you that Google has launched something that isn’t really finished: YouTube Music is available now in the U.S. and several other countries, but it barely qualifies as a music streaming service today. After using the platform for several days, here are the biggest problems we want fixing.Read more...

We generally recommend buying a separate modem and router, so that you can upgrade one as necessary without upgrading the other. But if you live in a fairly small home and would rather just have one device, this TP-Link combo is cheaper than ever at $99 today. If you’re paying your ISP a modem rental fee, this will…Read more...

Against all odds, Warner Bros. has managed to make an Aquaman standalone movie that actually looks like it might be the most epic DC movie to date. But let’s all be honest with ourselves for a second: Hot or not, Aquaman’s still a goofy character, and this fan edit of the recent trailer using old animated footage…Read more...

To anyone whose YouTube pages started to look strange today, you’re not alone: with little fanfare, the site pushed a change that now adapts its video player to match the aspect ratio of your content.Read more...

LinkedIn, a social network for people who enjoy soul-crushing banality, knows you get more than a few emails from randos wanting to add you to their “professional network.” Sick of reading messages from these random acquaintances looking to discuss synergy-based solutions and B2B services? Well, now you can listen to…Read more...

Days after the ACLU released a damning report on Amazon’s face recognition product Rekognition, Amazon’s general manager of AI, Dr. Matt Wood, countered its findings in a blog post. The ACLU used Rekognition to scan the faces of all 535 members of Congress, finding the software mistook 28 of them for suspected…Read more...

Magic Leap has promised it’ll start shipping its mixed-reality headset by the end of the summer, and it’s going to need developers to get cranking on content. New additions to developer guide show us what its operating system will look like. The verdict: It looks pretty nice.Read more...

The FCC’s chronic refusal to answer a few simple questions about an alleged security incident that supposedly wrecked its comment system has reached its final form. Despite being pressed for a straightforward response by a half-dozen lawmakers over the past year, the agency’s Republican chairman, like a malingering…Read more...

Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity is magnificent. For a hundred years, it has consistently predicted all sorts of wacky phenomena scientists have later observed throughout space. One international team is now announcing that a 26-year-long observation campaign has once again confirmed the theory.Read more...

Disney has revealed the cast of Star Wars: Episode IX, which will see the directorial return of J.J. Abrams. Among the cast are the expected stars, like Daisy Ridley and Oscar Isaac. But it looks like Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) will be back and we’ll even see the return of the late Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa. It…Read more...

Shoppers at the Chinook Centre, a mall in Calgary, Canada, have been unwittingly scanned by face recognition software.Read more...