Gizmodo

Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., announced it’s doing some restructuring to merge Google Maps and Waze employees amid pressures to streamline the business and cut costs. The company has said both mapping apps will continue to operate independently.Read more...

A new study may help us understand our canine companions a bit better. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health say they’ve uncovered some of the ways that genes can influence the behaviors of certain breeds, such as dogs meant to herd livestock.

If the Golden Age of half-assed kids’ cartoons was the early ‘80s, then I would like to dub the latter half of the’90s to be the Silver Age. It was a time when animators would throw syndicated crap into children’s eyes after school to see what stuck, and almost none of it did. Half of these half-assed series were…Read more...

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When it comes to tracking the incremental advances of AI potential, humans have an odd tendency to think in terms of board games we probably haven’t played since childhood. Though there’s no shortage of examples, even recent ones, highlighting AI’s ability to utterly own the cardboard gaming space, those tests only go…Read more...

In Sayburç, Turkey, not far from the famous settlement of Göbekli Tepe, an archaeologist discovered an 11,000-year-old scene carved into a wall. It’s one of the oldest narrative depictions in the archaeological record.Read more...

Strike while the iron is hot: that’s the prevalent thinking in Hollywood when it comes to making a sequel. If you have a success, get another one out as soon as possible. In 2009 and 2010, James Cameron’s Avatar wasn’t just hot, it was the surface of the sun. The 3D movie about the blue people on an alien planet…Read more...

A mayor and city council in the Pacific Northwest are hoping to help a group of endangered orcas by formally declaring that these marine mammals should have legal rights.

I should have known immediately Infinity Pool, the upcoming film by David Cronenberg’s son Brandon, wasn’t going to be a simple thriller. He’s directed the sci-fi horror flicks Possessor and Antiviral, so what seems at first to be a simple tale of a privileged white guy who travels to a foreign country, hits someone…Read more...

In October, Elon Musk purchased Twitter for a cool $44 billion dollars. Among a variety of other assets and headaches, the deal came with one resource that’s gone under-explored: a vast data collection network spanning the sites of more than 70,000 Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, non-profits, universities,…Read more...

The iOS 16 update is now firmly established on a large chunk of iPhones, but you might not be completely happy with every tweak and modification that’s been made. The good news is that at least some of the changes can be reversed by delving into the iOS Settings screen, and we’ll cover some of the most important ones…Read more...

Apple has officially killed one of its most controversial proposals ever: a plan to scan iCloud images for signs of child sexual abuse material (or, CSAM).Read more...

When Warner Bros. hired James Gunn and Peter Safran to reimagine the DC Universe, everyone expected changes. But no one could have expected that one of the studio’s surefire heroes, Wonder Woman, would come under the axe. That is apparently what has happened though, as Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 3 has been canceled—w…Read more...

When you’re dealing with franchises as popular as the ones Lucasfilm makes, it’s not all that surprising to see hugely famous people pop up in small roles. Everyone wants to work on Star Wars or Indiana Jones so they’ll do whatever they can to get on screen. Apparently though, that also extends to Willow.Read more...

Earlier this year, Dyson revealed its first audio product, a pair of headphones that promised to not only block noise, but unwanted airborne particles as well, thanks to a built-in filtration system and mask. Today, the company revealed more details on the Dyson Zone, including when you’ll be able to buy a pair and…Read more...

As the saga of the “Twitter Files” continues, the platform’s former CEO Jack Dorsey seems to be wondering why we can’t just hurry this up already and dump all of the company’s related dirt in one fell swoop.Read more...

Despite his rather chipper name, there’s not a lot that ex-startup executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani can feel happy about during his long Wednesday spent in court. A federal judge sentenced Theranos’ other big executive to 155 months, or a little less than 13 years in prison.Read more...

Author Lauren Beukes (Broken Monsters) has been an io9 favorite for many years, and saw her profile raised earlier this year with Apple TV+’s adaptation of her time-travel thriller The Shining Girls, starring Elisabeth Moss. Next year, Beukes will release a new spec-fiction novel, Bridge, and io9 was excited to talk…Read more...

Taylor Swift came close to finalizing a sponsorship deal with FTX earlier this year as the crypto company was in a downward spiral and burning through all the money it didn’t have. The deal would have brought yet another celebrity into the already-sizable FTX endorsement fold, reportedly for a price tag of $100…Read more...

Apple is making new efforts to increase user security. While the company has previously touted its overall privacy prowess, the new features are specifically meant to to safeguard iCloud accounts and iMessage.

Elora Danan has been captured by servants of the Crone, an unspeakable evil that threatens to destroy the world. They mean to banish Elora’s soul for all eternity, completing the task the evil queen attempted in the original film. So it’s up to Willow and his friends to go after her. But first, how about a nice…Read more...

NASA’s plan for an upcoming infrared asteroid-hunting telescope, called Near Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor, has officially changed. NEO Surveyor’s expected price tag has doubled from an estimated high of $600 million to a whopping $1.2 billion, while the launch has also been pushed from 2026 to June 2028.Read more...

The Northern Lights (aurora borealis) are caused by energized particles from the Sun that collide with gases in Earth’s atmosphere. The collisions cause the dazzling light displays known as aurorae; in the southern hemisphere, they’re aurora australis.

Although we’ll likely never get a movie that takes place between Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, James Cameron apparently knows exactly how the main characters of his first film lived their lives during that time. In fact, he’s already written it.Read more...

This holiday season, Amazon says it will pay its delivery workers an extra $5 every time a customer tells their Alexa smart speaker to thank their driver. That sounds like a nice gesture until you realize Amazon’s allegedly spent years redirecting or stealing tips intended for many of those very same drivers.Read more...

On this fine Wednesday, may I present you with a rare bit of positive climate news: Sustainable energy is on the rise. Globally, the amount of renewable energy from sources like wind and solar is set to increase as much in the next five years as it did over the past 20, according to a new report from the International…Read more...

A book detailing Elon Musk’s chaotic Twitter takeover is already in the works. Ben Mezrich, the author of “The Accidental Billionaires” which became the inspiration for the film “The Social Network,” announced he will be publishing his new book “Breaking Twitter” next year.Read more...

AMC+ has released another trailer for Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, the second installment in Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe. Mayfair Witches arrives in January, following up the the wildly successful and critically acclaimed Interview with the Vampire. Watch the new trailer below.Read more...

Big Oil has a fancy new piece of climate technology to sink money into. As Bloomberg reported on Monday, both Shell and Norwegian oil giant Equinor have helped a new Israeli direct air capture startup, called RepAir, raise a cool $10 million in funding—despite the company only having a shoebox-size prototype for a…Read more...

Reviews of Netflix’s Addams Family spin-off Wednesday have been mixed, but there’s one thing everyone could agree on: Jenny Ortega’s unapologetically goofy dance scene was amazing. Unfortunately, notice I said “could”—your enthusiasm might wane upon learning she filmed the scene while having the coronavirus.

Telegram is not yet done finding new ways to monetize access to its platform. On Tuesday, the encrypted messaging app announced users will be able to sign up for its services without needing access to a SIM card. How, you may ask? By buying up a phone number with crypto, of course.

Blue Origin is once again making a pitch to build a lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis program. The space company is partnering with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Astrobotic Technology, Honeybee Robotics, and Draper in hopes of building a second lander, Blue Origin announced on Tuesday.Read more...

Sigourney Weaver’s character in the first Avatar movie—Dr. Grace Augustine—is dead. During a press conference for Avatar: The Way of Water on Tuesday, both James Cameron and Weaver wanted to make that explicitly clear. But Weaver was such an integral part to Cameron’s vision that he brought her back for the Avatar…Read more...

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Meta and an assortment of public advocacy groups, normally at odds on just about everything, joined forces this week to oppose a major piece of legislation ostensibly aimed at giving news publications the power to collectively bargain with social media companies for more ad money. Flexing its muscle, Meta threatened…Read more...

If you’re still hunting for holiday presents, we’ve got you covered with the latest pop culture drops to add to your cart—but don’t delay; shipping cut-offs loom at various places online, like ShopDisney for its Marvel and Star Wars goods. Some mall favorites, like Box Lunch, Target, and Hot Topic, may also offer “…Read more...

This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.

After achieving instant meme-ability in her first trailer—which kind of came out of nowhere, and elevated an “ugh, not another killer-doll movie” situation to “OMG WHEN CAN I SEE THIS” status—M3GAN’s overprotective, alarmingly powerful plaything has returned for another tease.

Orion’s most recent accomplishments include a new distance record, a close flyby of the Moon, and a trajectory correction maneuver that sent the uncrewed capsule on its journey back to Earth. Not surprisingly, these milestone events made for some excellent photo opportunities.Read more...

In a hasty retreat, San Francisco lawmakers have reversed a vote allowing local police to use remote-controlled robots equipped with lethal explosives in extreme situations. The move comes after a wave of backlash from the community and activist organizations.

German authorities dismantled what’s being called a far-right terrorist group that was behind alleged plans to overthrow the government. Police arrested 25 suspected conspirators who had set up and communicated on several channels on the platform Telegram to plan the coup that authorities believe would have likely …Read more...

For the first time, Uber customers will be able to hail a third-party autonomous vehicle in the company’s app—at least in Las Vegas. The rideshare service is partnering with autonomous vehicle company Motional to offer robotaxi rides in the Nevada city.

Privacy regulators in the European Union have ruled that Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, can’t make giving up data for targeted ads a condition of joining the social networks, according to reports published Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. The decision threatens to upend the social…Read more...

If James Cameron is lucky enough to make a fifth Avatar film, not all of it will take place on Pandora. At a recent press day for Avatar: The Way of Water, io9 asked Cameron’s producer Jon Landau if the Earthlings who were defeated and left Pandora at the end of the original film will return to bring war to the Na’vi.…Read more...

When Elon Musk took over Twitter, he prompted a mass exodus of advertisers worried his reign might elevate hate speech and other stomach-churning content that would then appear alongside their ads. Musk had said he would restore a vast swath of accounts banned for violating Twitter policies, and he did, resurrecting…Read more...

The Pale Blue Eye is an adaption of a novel by Louis Bayard that imagines a chilling horror story set in West Point during the time that Edgar Allen Poe was in attendance. The early 1800s time period places the film well before Sherlock Holmes, offering a darker, more reserved kind of horror, creating a strange,…Read more...

A team of scientists sequenced the most ancient DNA yet, found in permafrost in the northernmost reaches of Greenland. The DNA is 2 million years old, blowing past the previous record for the most ancient DNA by a million years.Read more...

The Bad Batch, is ready to come back, and now the team behind Star Wars’ Clone Wars spinoff has a new mission: fight back against the Empire instead of merely survive it.

If you’re not into decking the halls with shimmering baubles or cutesy Hallmark Keepsake ornaments, Jeroen Domburg has created a fantastically nerdy alternative: a tiny retro desktop PC ornament complete with a working screen that actually plays Doom.Read more...

Meta has taken its (in)famous avatars out of the “metaverse” and has been dropping them into its social apps, hoping personalized cartoon versions of people will generate enough interest in the company’s flagging metaverse project. After adding them to Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, the company has finally come…Read more...