Gizmodo

In March, a woman crossing the street on a bicycle in Tempe, Arizona was struck by an Uber that was testing its autonomous driving mode. The victim later died from her injuries. Since then, Uber has been studying what went wrong and it has reportedly concluded that the hardware was working properly, but the software’s…Read more...

Once you’ve seen Avengers: Infinity War and processed your emotions, the questions begin to sink in. Did that really happen? What’s next for them? And then you look at the bigger picture and think, what about next year?Read more...

Android Things was first shown off back at Google I/O 2016, and now, two years later, Google’s nebulous internet of things platform is finally getting an official release ahead of the 2018 edition of Google’s annual developer conference.Read more...

Westworld’s latest park reveal may have seemed like a surprise to many viewers, but there have been hints about Park 6 for months. Of course, they weren’t easy to find, but someone did. We’ve got an interview with the fan who first came across the code to “the Raj,” and what he’s since found that hints at the future…Read more...

On Saturday, for the first time, a rocket blasted off from the US West Coast to fling its payload on an interplanetary trajectory. Despite being at Vandenberg Air Force Base for Mars InSight’s historic launch atop an Atlas V rocket, I never saw the spacecraft before it tore free from Earth’s greedy grasp.Read more...

Late last Friday, Nvidia said it was cancelling its controversial GeForce Partner Program in the wake of criticism that it was anti-competitive and an attempt to increase the company’s hold on the graphics card market. It’s the latest development in the ongoing saga of Nvidia and rival manufacturer AMD waging dueling…Read more...

NASA’s InSight lander is on its way to Mars following Saturday’s successful launch of an Atlas V rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. But the lander is not alone—it has a pair of twin communication CubeSats in tow. Called MarCO-A and MarCO-B, the tiny machines have already passed the first…Read more...

iOS: Apple’s iOS recently joined Android in offering a “Do Not Disturb While Driving” mode. Unlike the normal iOS “Do Not Disturb,” this mode also lets you auto-respond to anyone who texts. And you can activate it any time, not just when you’re driving. Tech investor Kevin Rose explains the steps. Here’s a summary.…Read more...

Astronauts hoping stay on the moon long-term missions have another reason to worry about moon dust: It could be quite harmful if inhaled, as demonstrated in a new study.

State laws that mandate universal background checks for buying guns and ammunition may save young lives, suggests new research presented this week at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies. The study found that states with stricter gun laws had lower rates of gun-related deaths among children compared…Read more...

It’s been a few weeks since a Russian court ordered ISPs to block encrypted messaging service Telegram—and the country proceeded to break its own internet to enforce the ruling. Google and Amazon made changes that help the ban, and Russia has moved to blocking VPNs. Now, privacy advocates are asking Congress to step…Read more...

Two Romanians, described as “international computer hackers” by the United States Justice Department, have been extradited to the United States to face hacking and fraud charges.

Though Groot doesn’t have all that much to say in Avengers: Infinity War, the talking tree’s last spoken dialogue in the film is apparently quite the tearjerker.Read more...

Today, Fitbit has begun to roll out a major update to its app that adds a handful of welcome features for its Versa and Ionic smartwatches.Read more...

Made up of colorful scrolls cascading down a wall, artist Dima Yarovinsky’s installation “I Agree” is beautiful—at face value. If you read the fine print, however, you’ll learn that it’s a statement against our blind compliance with tech giants.

Using ground-penetrating radar, three independent teams of researchers failed to detect the presence of doors or empty spaces behind the walls of King Tut’s funeral chamber. It’s a disappointing result, as archaeologists were hoping to find the final resting place of Queen Nefertiti.Read more...

ARECIBO, PUERTO RICO—Carlos Garcia lives in a tiny trailer right along Puerto Rico’s northern coast. A long-time community activist and avid environmentalist, Garcia keeps his door open during the day to let in the sun and breeze. He shuts it at night to protect his solar setup and the few appliances it powers. He…Read more...

In Fight Club, there’s a scene when after meeting Tyler Durden for the first time, the narrator cracks a joke about how the people you meet on airplanes are single-serving friends. And then, before even giving his seatmate a chance to respond, he launches into an explanation of his witty turn-of-phrase. But before he…Read more...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted in an unusually tense conference call last week that he doesn’t have a site confirmed to launch production of the Model Y crossover, but he’s confident (as always) it’ll start making the car in 24 months. By all accounts, it’s an aggressive, if not insane, timeline.Read more...

No doubt you’ve gotten an automated phone call at one point in your life. But since 2015, reports of robocalls have increased at quite an alarming rate, with around 4.5 million robocall complaints filed in 2017, an increase of about 2.4 million robocalls since 2015. A few million calls may sound like a lot, but it’s…Read more...

Last week, we got our first extended look at human life outside Westworld. This week, on “Virtù e Fortuna,” we finally got a peek at some of Delos’ long-hinted-at other parks, with callbacks to reveals in the season one finale and the season two premiere. Violent delights abound, of course.Read more...

Shooting on film continues to get more and more expensive, especially for fans of instant cameras like the reborn Polaroid. Sixteen bucks for just eight shots was far too pricey for Tim Alex Jacobs, so he hacked an old Polaroid camera to instead spit out images on cheap thermal paper, the same kind used in cash…Read more...

Cats are enigmatic little creatures. It’s hard to get a read on them. Does your cat love you, or would it gladly stab you in your sleep, if only it had thumbs and a slightly larger brain? The cat never tells—it thrives on inscrutability. But it can’t help betraying certain signs of its inner life: it’s hard to play…Read more...

Ryan Reynolds says T.J. Miller won’t be back for X-Force. Jack Black shares his Jumanji 2 dreams. Lin-Manuel Miranda makes his Ducktales debut. Plus, more footage from Solo: A Star Wars Story, and what’s to come on Westworld and Gotham. Spoilers, away!

Did you catch 60 Minutes last night? If you did, you may have learned about a drug called Acthar that went from $40 in 2001 to over $40,000 today. It’s a perfect illustration of just how poorly regulated the US pharmaceutical industry continues to be and how there’s absolutely no good reason for the extreme prices…Read more...

On the internet, a week is a lifetime—especially when it’s the opening week of Avengers: Infinity War. Unlike seemingly everyone else, I’ve yet to see the Marvel blockbuster, an admission that is likely enough to inspire my colleagues at io9 to greet me at my desk in the morning with pitchforks. It also means running…Read more...

Officials in Florida believe that the death of a 38-year-old man in St. Petersburg on Saturday is linked to the explosion of a vape pen, the Miami Herald reported on Sunday.

The eruption of the Mount Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island has continued to progress, with massive lava flows pouring out of what is now believed to be at least 10 fissures in the nearby residential neighborhood of Leilani Estates, the Washington Post reported.

Elon Musk is apparently planning to purge Tesla factories of contractors in the strangest way possible. The company CEO is planning to cut off access to the company to any contractor who doesn’t have a Tesla employee to vouch for the quality of their work.

Lo and behold, President Donald Trump has appointed none other than widely ridiculed quack Dr. Mehmet Oz—yes, the Dr. Oz so infamous for his dubious TV health advice that the British Medical Journal published a thorough trashing of him—to serve as a health adviser.

The Alabama Board of Education has launched an investigation after a high school in Escambia County discovered discrepancies in the grades of a number of students, apparently the result of a hack, according to CBS affiliate WKRG News 5.Read more...

The Knights of Ren, Kylo Ren’s troupe of followers, first teased in The Force Awakens and given a possible backstory as fellow students of Luke’s disastrous Jedi academy in The Last Jedi, have so far been absentees from the new Star Wars movies. Who are they? What are they like?Read more...

Facebook is connecting more than just distant relatives who post too much about their children, at least per a recent study that concludes it is connecting new affiliates to the Islamic State’s digital networks. According to the Telegraph, researchers with the Counter Extremism Project analyzed the social media habits…Read more...

The massive, ruined Star Destroyer in the Jakku desert might be the strongest image Star Wars: The Force Awakens has. It’s a perfect encapsulation of the film’s themes and history. And watching this YouTuber build his own is just as mesmerizing.Read more...

It might not have the name recognition of a Roomba, but this iLife robotic vacuum packs in much of the same features in a crazy affordable $119 price tag.Read more...

YouTube has removed “hundreds” of videos advertising an essay-writing service, EduBirdie, following a BBC investigation that concluded over 250 channels were promoting the Ukraine-based company.

Talking to Elon Musk on the phone does not seem like a pleasant experience. The billionaire reportedly hung up on the head of the National Transportation Safety Board during a tense conversation regarding an investigation into a fatal crash involving a Tesla earlier this year, marking Musk’s second major blow up…Read more...

One of the big questions animating the MCU’s fanbase at present: once Chris Evans retires as Captain America, who’s going to take up the shield?Read more...

UK authorities have ordered Cambridge Analytica, the sketchy election firm at the center of a data scandal involving at least 87 million Facebook users, to hand over all of the information it acquired on a US voter in a move that could potentially open the floodgates for others to know what information the firm…Read more...

While laborers all over the world spent May Day marching in the streets and demonstrating for worker’s rights, China’s government spent the holiday shaming citizens with outstanding debts by plastering their faces and personal information on giant screens.Read more...

Yesterday Disney released a whole new set of Forces of Destiny animated shorts, and there’s a lot of gold to mine in them space hills.Read more...

One of the most teased meetings in Avengers: Infinity War was between the mighty Thor and his fellow cosmic cohorts, the Guardians of the Galaxy. Now, directors Anthony and Joe Russo break that scene down shot for shot.Read more...

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has until Tuesday to decide whether to approve a dubious bill that would make it illegal to access a computer or network “without authority,” Wired reported, in what looks an awful lot like legislators trying to make something they don’t understand a crime.

NASA’s robotic lander InSight officially started its journey to Mars following a successful predawn launch aboard an Atlas V rocket Saturday morning. The launch took place at 4:05am local time from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.Read more...

Erik Killmonger’s tragic life is even more tragic than you thought.Read more...

If you primarily use your blender to make smoothies for yourself, you don’t need to make a giant pitcher dirty, you need a Nutribullet. This 1,000W model blends your drink inside an individual cup (it comes with two, plus lids), meaning you’ll have a much easier job cleaning up afterwards. And it’s only $60, if you…Read more...

Apple’s recent updates to iOS have left some owners of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus speechless...because the microphone is disabled. The company confirmed the issue is plaguing some devices in internal documents obtained by MacRumors.Read more...

If you want to place a political advertisement through Google’s massive advertising network during the upcoming US elections, you’re going to have to show some ID first. The search giant announced new policies Friday that will require advertisers prove they are a US citizen or permanent resident when buying election…Read more...

In the first full year of the Trump administration, the National Security Agency really went all out in efforts to surveil Americans. According to a new report released Friday, the agency sucked up more than 534 million US phone records in 2017, three times the amount it collected in 2016.

A little over a decade after the release of the original iPhone, it seems we have arrived at some basic grounds rules for phone use in movie theaters: calls are verboten, texting is a major offense, and checking your screen in anything but the most surreptitious manner is frowned upon. But what about when watching a…Read more...