Gizmodo

Elon Musk's big push to make Twitter into an everything app" like the China-centric WeChat is taking the app down the rabbit hole of dubious data collection. This week, the company modified its privacy policy to include provisions for Biometric Information" and Job Applications/Recommendations."Read more...

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The world is covered with plastic pollution. That breaks down to become microplastics-tiny bits of plastic smaller than 5 mm. We know that it isn't healthy to find these bits of plastic all over the planet (and in our bodies) but there isn't much research on how this is going to affect mammals. A new study published...Read more...

The Wheel of Time enters its second season this week with a third installment already on the way. That frees up Prime Video's Robert Jordan adaptation to delve into storylines that don't have to be resolved in just eight episodes-with stakes that feel both higher and more uncertain for all its characters.

The International Gemini Observatory, a key player in global astronomical research, has temporarily halted astronomical operations following a cyberattack. The culprits and their motives remain unknown.

Philips Hue, the brand mostly known for its smart home lighting tech, is casting a big, blinding spotlight on its new new security tech suite. Despite the shift to smart home cameras and sensors, the company is saying it's still focused on lighting tech, though its now-Matter-enabled brand of bulbs and strips are...Read more...

Deadline reports that Hollywood studio execs are supposed to meet tonight in order to get on the same page" regarding negotiations with the currently striking writing and acting guilds, presumably after the latest round of bad press surrounding the AMPTP's failure to negotiate in good faith.

The unfortunate removal of Star Trek: Prodigy from Paramount+ earlier this year hasn't been a killing blow for the team on the animated series, who continue to work on finishing the previously greenlit season two in the hopes that the show can find a home elsewhere. But what then? It's not necessarily the end of the...Read more...

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Sony is hiking its PlayStation Plus Premium subscription cost by $40 starting next month, the company announced on Wednesday. The price adjustment will apply across all tiers under the 12-month subscription and will take effect in all countries where PlayStation Plus is available.Read more...

Do you have enough Marvel heroes on your toy shelf? Do you need additional renderings of Black Widow, Bruce Banner, Captain America, War Machine, Spider-Man, Thor, and possibly two more Iron Man armors? The Hasbro Marvel Legends series has got you covered, with a new release featuring all of the above.Read more...

Elijah Kinch Spector's sequel to debut fantasy adventure Kalyna the Soothsayer is on the way, and from the title alone-Kalyna the Cutthroat-you can tell things have shifted a bit for the central character. The book's not out until late 2024, but io9 has the cover reveal and an exclusive excerpt from Kalyna the...Read more...

Not one to let Apple hog the buzz of phone launch season, Google declared Wednesday it's planning to host its own big phone announcement extravaganza soon. Called Made By Google," the event will include a livestream keynote where the company is expected to unveil its Pixel 8, the Pixel Watch 2, and more hardware.Read more...

Alcohol's effect on men's dating attitudes might be more complicated than we think, new research this week suggests. The small study found that young men's perception of a woman's attractiveness didn't change once they started drinking. But, when under the influence, the men did become more willing to try meeting...Read more...

Ever since Doctor Who teased the arrival of someone else named Rose in the world of adventures of time and space, fans have been speculating about who she really is. And while it's not quite the child of the Bad Wolf just yet, it's still nice to learn a little more about her.

Meta, the benevolent maker of Facebook, is solving the most important problem in the tech industry, one that every person on the internet definitely knows and cares about. At long last, the characters in Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse are getting legs. Sort of.

On Star Wars Rebels, Sabine Wren never gave off strong Jedi vibes. She occasionally used a lightsaber, and she was incredibly badass, but there was never any indication she was Force-sensitive. It was a piece of information that felt at odds with the revelation of her becoming the apprentice of Ahsoka Tano on Ahsoka....Read more...

A rapidly spinning dead star's wacky fluctuations in brightness are due to the extreme environment surrounding the object, according to a team of astronomers who observed it.Read more...

Google researchers may have finally found a tech solution for the laborious task of training stubborn dogs to listen to commands. That is, of course, if you're willing to opt for a robot dog.

Our Flag Means Death, the sleeper hit pirate romance/comedy that is loosely" based on the true lives of two infamous pirates-Ed Blackbeard" Teach and Stede Bonnet-returns with an official teaser trailer for season two. As Taika Waititi's Blackbeard deals with heartbreak and Rhys Darby's Bonnet (The Gentleman Pirate)...Read more...

Two fans of Ana de Armas, Peter Michael Rosza and Conor Woulfe, last year won the ability to take Universal to court over a misleading trailer" for the film Yesterday. The trailer they saw featured de Armas, but the movie they watched did not. The main argument they gave was: are trailers artistic expression, or ...Read more...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating Tesla vehicles for an Elon Mode" feature that allegedly lets the driver-assistance system take over for drivers for an extensive amount of time. The administration ordered Tesla to hand over data surrounding its Autopilot feature in a July 26 ...Read more...

We have to keep it cool," Jonny (Kiah McKirnan) insists in this clip from Jennifer Reeder's new horror film Perpetrator. That request is difficult for the kid she's with-because as you can clearly see, there's something very weird about Jonny's suddenly shape-shifting face.

As we slide down into September, Apple hype is reaching its peak. Now that Apple has announced its Wonderlust" event will take place Sept. 12, aficionados already have a vague idea what the next iPhone's default wallpaper will look like.Read more...

The Chandrayaan-3 rover is the first to leave its track marks on the Moon's south pole, and the six-wheeled explorer has made a breakthrough discovery that could have major implications for establishing a future lunar habitat.Read more...

Yes, we've had Detective Pikachu, and Netflix is about to get into the TV business of Pocket Monstering with Pokemon Concierge, but another new TV adventure is on the way for the iconic gaming franchise-although not exactly ni the form of adaptation.

Hurricane Idalia made landfall over Florida this morning as a high-end Category 3storm with maximum sustained winds over 100 miles per hour.Read more...

Rosamund Pike teases a more human turn for Moraine in Wheel of Time's second season. A Lego Jurassic Park special is coming to Peacock. Plus, LaKeith Stanfield takes on Nazareth's other disciples, and hints for the final episodes of Doom Patrol. Spoilers now!

Samsung Electronics is releasing a food and recipe app powered by AI with 160,000 recipes readily available to users, the company announced on Wednesday. The app, called Food, builds on its previous acquisition of Whisk, a food database that Samsung acquired in 2019.Read more...

Sometimes, product leaks feel like shots in the dark, dependent on sources of dubious nature who have all the motivation and ability to fake people out. And then there's Google, who seems a little bit too willing to drop hints of its still-unannounced Pixel 8 Pro phone. The tech giant accidentally uploaded an image of...Read more...

You read that correctly. A team of scientists just tested wild boar meat from Southern Germany and found that radioactivity in the boars stemmed from nuclear weapons testing, rather than the Chernobyl power plant disaster of 1986.Read more...

At turns action-packed and emotional, One Piece is really working hard to convince fans that it's going to do right by the manga. With some epic lines and Luffy's non-stop positive attitude, the newest trailer-released less than a day before the series goes wide on Netflix-shows the Straw Hats fighting Vice-Admiral...Read more...

One of the coolest little tricks you can do to make your TV image look better is to add some bias lighting. That means your screen is backlit, usually with a gentle glow behind it, which makes colors pop more and makes blacks look deeper. It's an old trick, but one that has some newer spins with smart lighting systems...Read more...

I love the Fairphone's ethos. It's an Android-powered, modular smartphone that you can repair yourself. The company, same name as its product, launched its fifth-generation flagship, the Fairphone 5, and the device is Fairphone's most polished productyet, with an OLED display, increased water resistance, and a bigger...Read more...

It's nearly time to return to the galaxy far, far away for the week, with Ahsoka's third episode dropping tonight on Disney+. But while we wait to talk all things spoiler, why not stay a while and whet your Star Wars appetite with a little dogfighting?

Before anyone goes screaming to the comments, we know it's not a space guitar-it's a Baliset, the nine-stringed instrument played by Josh Brolin's Dune character, Gurney Halleck. Fans who hoped to glimpse it in Denis Villeneuve's first film now have even more reason to count down the days to the sequel, because the...Read more...

With a new ride coming on one side and a new restaurant on the other, it makes sense that Disney has decided to add some new blood outside one of its most iconic rides: the Haunted Mansion.Read more...

It's a bad day to be named Bob and be a current or onetime CEO of Disney. As Deadline reports, Bob Iger and Bob Chapek are among the names attached to a lawsuit filed by investors over the alleged sleight of hand accounting the company used to hide streaming losses."Read more...

Meta has rejected its own Oversight Board's recommendation to immediately suspend the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Cambodia's former Prime Minister Hun Sen, an authoritarian dictator who refers to political dissidents as dogs and has been accused ofusing Meta's platforms to incite violence. The decision marks a...Read more...

Not many movies could be re-released in theaters after 30 years and still make a dent at the box office, but not many movies are Jurassic Park. This past weekend, Universal Studios celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Steven Spielberg classic by re-releasing it in 3D on over 1,200 screens. And while it didn't quite...Read more...

Twitter, rebranded as X, is bringing political ads back to its platform for the first time since 2019, the company announced on Tuesday. The move comes ahead of the 2024 presidential election and Twitter claims it is hiring employees to expand Twitter's safety and election teams.

Jupiter's orbit is swarming with nearly 100 moons, but none are as hardcore as the volcanic world Io. That's why it's going to take an iconic collaboration to truly probe the odd satellite in order to unravel its many mysteries.Read more...

With a limited amount of pre-press happening for new shows right now due to the strikes, this Inside Look" featurette teasing Apple TV+'s The Changeling may be one of few tidbits you can watch before the show arrives September 8. But that's not necessarily a bad thing for this eerie adaptation of Victor LaValle's...Read more...

Insects are cool (if you look past all the legs). They break down dead things by eating them and pollinate plants so that we can grow enough crops to feed the world. Conservation encourages us to protect wildlife, especially bugs that are now looking down the barrel of an insect apocalypse.

Here's some extra material for your nightmares: In a case report out this week, a group of scientists say they've found a new species of roundworm that's capable of infesting our brains-one that normally plagues snakes. The discovery was made when they extracted a living worm from an Australian woman's head during...Read more...

What happens when movie theaters slash ticket prices drastically for one day only? Apparently, people turn out in droves.Read more...

McDonald's busted ice cream machines have long been a meme across cyberspace, but iFixit wants to put an end to it. The popular how-to tech website is appealing to Congress after applying to circumvent a copyright law that prevents the average Joe from fixing the problem.Read more...

Ahsoka is here at last, and with it, the deluge of Star Wars tie-in merchandise that is customary any time the galaxy far, far away even twitches in the presence of new media. As part of a livestream today Hasbro revealed a ton of new toys and figures based on the series after teasing some at San Diego Comic-Con this...Read more...

YouTube is changing its community guidelines to give creators more leeway for violating its content rules, the company announced on Tuesday. Content creators will now have the opportunity to take an educational training course that reviews why their video violated the guidelines. The move comes as social media...Read more...

Meta says it has identified and removed more than 7,700 shady accounts and 990 pages on Facebook linked to Chinese law enforcement in what the company is calling the largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world." The accounts, which tended to boost positive commentary about Chinese policies...Read more...