Gizmodo

The self-driving car owned by Uber that fatally struck a woman in March detected her in the road about six seconds before the crash, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board, which also acknowledged delayed responses from the vehicle’s automatic emergency braking system.Read more...

Instapaper has informed its European users that it will temporarily cut off their access to the platform starting today. The reason? This Pinterest-owned service needs more than the two years it had to comply with the European Union’s new batch of privacy rules that go into effect on May 25. Sorry, Europe!Read more...

Certain aspects of a neighborhood, including its ethnic diversity and the availability of public transit, are associated with better reported well-being among residents, according to a study published Wednesday in PLOS One.

With the U.S. midterm elections less than six months away, Twitter has announced a new effort to combat fake news and the impersonation of public figures. Twitter will be rolling out a new verification badge for all major U.S. political candidates on Twitter next week, complete with a new icon that goes beyond the…Read more...

It’s a lingering question as to just how dangerous firing up an e-cigarette really is, especially when compared to the health impact of traditional tobacco cigarettes. Yet research presented this week at the American Thoracic Society’s annual conference suggests that part of the potential harm of vaping could come…Read more...

Sony’s Bloodshot movie adds a few more interesting names. The Six Million Dollar Man movie reboot has been pushed back. Get to know the new superheroes of Incredibles 2. More Flash and Supergirl casting rumors hint at more comics characters coming into the CW TV fold. Plus, what’s to come on Handmaids Tale and Legion.…Read more...

The concerns at the heart of Detroit: Become Human are readily apparent almost from the very start: the existential crisis faced by androids that look and behave like people but are treated like things. But its lofty ambitions get hamstrung at the very start by some incredibly heavy-handed moments of shlock.

The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the manipulation of popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. It’s believed that some traders are manipulating the price of cryptocurrencies through illegal tactics like issuing fake orders, causing the price to go up and down at will.Read more...

Following an announcement Wednesday that Uber will lay off about 300 employees and close up shop on its self-driving car testing operations in Arizona, the company revealed it would revive the program in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Uber apparently did not bother to run that idea by the mayor of the city, as he was…Read more...

Spotify has faced a number of accusations regarding violations of copyright in recent years and this week saw one of those looming lawsuits put to bed. On Tuesday, a federal judge approved a $112 million settlement in a class action suit that accused Spotify of failing to adequately pay artists for the use of their…Read more...

Update: The FBI says it seized part of VPNFilter’s command and control infrastructure. The DOJ attributed the botnet to APT 28 (a.k.a. Fancy Bear). See the full update below the article.Read more...

How many times has this happened to you? You’re trying to organize the destruction of a major metropolitan area and the overthrow of a system you view as irredeemably corrupt, but you keep having to step out of the office to take a call. That problem is no more thanks to Bloxvox, the voice muffling muzzle that lets…Read more...

Phones are less expensive than a car, I get that, but here’s another bullet point to help illustrate the fact that more people are struggling to make their auto loan payments: Americans are prioritizing their phone bill over the car, reports Bloomberg.Read more...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues its descent into authoritarianism under Scott Pruitt. At a summit about reducing toxic chemicals in drinking water, the agency reportedly barred staff from Rep. Dan Kildee’s (D-Michigan) district from entering.Read more...

That’s one small hole for a probe, but one giant leap for NASA. This past weekend, the space agency jerry-rigged Curiosity’s malfunctioning drill, allowing the rover to bore into Martian rock for the first time in over a year.Read more...

Controversy over Apple’s battery management choices on older, out-of-warranty iPhones drove the company to offer discounted battery replacement services for affected customers toward the end of 2017. Now Apple is issuing a $50 credit to customers who paid $79 to replace their batteries last year, instead of the…Read more...

Following critical coverage of his electric car company, Tesla, Elon Musk has been on a Twitter tear against the media, threatening to build a service that would allow the general public to rank the trustworthiness and “core truth” of stories, journalists, publications, and editors.

As schools across the country remake themselves as surveillance sites, installing facial recognition and other high-tech monitoring devices to detect shooters, the laws governing public transparency are more important than ever. So when a bill that would permit schools to discuss critical safety issues without public…Read more...

The FCC chairman has been formally accused of dodging and deceiving the federal lawmakers charged with the oversight of his agency.

At Acer’s annual global press conference today, the company announced its usual assortment of new computers ranging from humble tablets built for education to the wild desktop rigs with dual Xeon CPUs. But among Acer’s avalanche of metal and silicon, there was one device that felt like an anchor for the company’s…Read more...

On Wednesday, Apple announced a new privacy website to help users better navigate just how much of their data is collected by the company, but so far, the feature is only available in Europe.Read more...

A federal judge in New York has ruled that President Trump cannot block users from seeing his tweets. His shitty, shitty tweets.Read more...

The popular conception of pterodactyl flight shows them in a pose with wings and legs spread far apart similar to the way bats do it. But as new research shows, it’s very unlikely that flying lizards were able to move their joints and hind legs in such a manner—a finding that could influence the way scientists study…Read more...

The recent images of Hawaii’s erupting Kilauea volcano are as fascinating as they are disturbing, but as this new timelapse video taken from the top of nearby Mauna Kea shows, the view from above the cloud tops is just as dramatic.

When you think of an alien world, you might think of a strange, stormy place with an inhospitable environment, frequent lightning strikes, and extreme radiation. But who needs an imagination when the storms here on Earth already beam radiation, including antimatter, down toward the ground?

Facebook users who want extra account security but don’t want to share their phone number with the company can now lock down their accounts with alternative two-factor authentication methods like code-generating apps, Facebook announced today.

Facebook is partnering with civil rights organizations to combat revenge porn on its platforms. The company announced Wednesday that it is rolling out a hashing system in the US, Canada, and the UK to block explicit photos from being shared on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram, including in private group chats. The…Read more...

A Detroit body broker was sentenced to nine years in federal prison on Tuesday for hustling diseased organs.Read more...

Can we take a minute to appreciate just how weird neutrinos are? The second most abundant known particle in the universe passes right through most regular matter like a ghost—you get hit with around a quadrillion of them from the Sun every second. Not only that, but neutrinos can even change between three different…Read more...

Imagine walking around on a daily basis with dolls moving on their own, clowns with sharp teeth on every corner, and zombies managing you at work. All the horror you can imagine from that and more is what it’s like watching Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale.Read more...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which oversees telecommunications like radio, TV, and the internet in the U.S., doesn’t regulate content on online platforms like YouTube. But that hasn’t stopped people from sending complaints about the video site to the federal agency—and they’re every bit as unhinged as…Read more...

You ever get in a fight? No, not on Twitter. I mean a real fight, you know, with your fists? If not, then Hykso’s $150 FightCamp punch trackers probably aren’t your bag. The wearable is designed to provide the hard-hitting boxer within you valuable insight about your performance, and show you how you stack up compared…Read more...

For years, the FBI has claimed it needs a backdoor for encrypted devices because too much evidence is being lost in our brave new world. At the end of 2017, law enforcement began a new push, claiming there were 7,800 devices waiting to be cracked. Now it says there was a programming error and that number was totally…Read more...

Marvel Studios’ parent company Disney would very much like to get its hands on all of the sweet, juicy, profitable comic book IP that Fox smartly secured back in the ‘90s, but the House of Mouse’s tentative $52.4 billion offer might no longer be enough to seal the deal.Read more...

The new Men in Black film adds another intriguing cast member. David F. Sandberg discusses Shazam’s movie suit. Argo City returns in new Supergirl pictures. Plus, good news for Krypton, a tiny look at Matt Groening’s new fantasy series, and teasers for Arrow’s next season. To me, my spoilers!

You know the scenario. You need to get a message out to a lot of people—the baby’s here, bring your own beer, that sort of thing—but you don’t want to drag dozens of contacts into a spammy, reply-all messaging nightmare at the same time. No matter what your preferred communication app of choice, here’s how it’s done.Read more...

The U.S. State Department issued a health warning this morning to U.S. citizens in China after an American government worker was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury. The unnamed worker reported “subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure.”

While other phone makers are busy trying to incorporate notches onto their latest devices, HTC is doubling down on some smartphone innovation that you can actually feel.Read more...

For a moment, Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance before members of the European Parliament looked like it was going to be a very bad day for the Facebook CEO. Then he started answering questions, a flood of pablum spewed from his mouth, and everyone got angry.

Last Friday, the New York City Police Department announced that 25 people in Brooklyn had been hospitalized soon after smoking synthetic cannabis; by Monday, the count had risen to 56 people. Police also announced Monday that they had arrested 13 people in connection with distributing the drugs.Read more...

Across the country, law enforcement agencies are teaming up with data firms to bring facial recognition to public spaces, including airports, schools, and even protests. Most of these efforts remain clouded in secrecy, but newly released documents from Oregon officials using Amazon’s facial recognition offer our…Read more...

Watchmen is heading to television—but in a way you might not expect, according to producer and writer Damon Lindelof. In a new letter to fans, the creator channels some of the series’ most beloved moments to explain what’s in store when it eventually makes its way to HBO.

Satellite images reveal extensive mining operations not far from the site of a 2017 US airstrike in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan—an attack most Americans remember only because of the nightmarish nickname of the weapon employed: The “Mother of All Bombs.” The 20,000-pound GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast,…Read more...

Neuralink, Elon Musk’s secretive startup dedicated to the development of brain-computer interfaces that could make it possible for people to communicate with computers using only their thoughts, is funding primate research at a California university, according to public records obtained by Gizmodo.Read more...

You’d be surprised at how many times someone has asked whether the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) could collide mundane things, like a sandwich. The answer is, not quite... but almost! It’s sort of a long story, and the explanation might surprise you.

To the victor go the spoils, or in some cases, the bodies of a vanquished enemy, as the discovery of remnants from an Iron Age battle in Denmark demonstrates.

For victims of sexual violence, many of whom are legally granted anonymity in the United Kingdom, all it might take is some simple Google sleuthing to dig up their protected personal information.Read more...

When George Lucas makes a suggestion about Han Solo, you listen. That was Ron Howard’s thought, at least, during the production of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Lucas, who created not just the character Han Solo but the franchise itself, was visiting the set one day and offered up a suggestion on how to change the scene.…Read more...

They both make some good points.Read more...

Sony’s new CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida, has a three-year plan to improve the company’s profits. During a presentation to investors today, he promoted three core areas of investment—services, semiconductors, and AI/robotics. If you’re a fan of Sony, one key thing seems to be missing from that future: Gadgets.Read more...