Gizmodo

Microsoft is deprecating its WordPad software from Windows, leading to the end of a decades-old staple, the company announced on Friday. WordPad will no longer be available on future versions of Windows and Microsoft says it will no longer update existing software.Read more...

Photographers from around the world recently submitted 20,000-odd images of bird species to the Bird Photographer of the Year contest. The showcase captures the diversity of the class Aves, as well as the dramatically different habitats the animals occupy and the ecological niches they inhabit.Read more...

Apple may be thinking up ways to offer laptops that are cheaper and more pared downthan its existing MacBook Air line. As reported by DigiTimes (via MacRumors), industry sources are speculating Apple could be working on a lower-cost version of its MacBooks that would compete in the crowded Chromebook market.Read more...

Edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology features an introduction by acclaimed horror author Stephen Graham Jones and unsettling tales by a wide range of Indigenous authors. io9 is thrilled to share one of the entries, Night in the Chrysalis" by...Read more...

Less than one month after enduring public backlash over confusion about how it trains its artificial intelligence tools, Zoom says it's prepared to plow forward with a ChatGPT-style chatbot to embed in its videoconferences and accompanying chats. Zoom believes its beefed-up AI Companion AI tool could boost...Read more...

Plenty of men worldwide are carrying the human papillomavirus, or HPV, research out this week has found. The study estimates that about one in three men currently have at least one strain of genital HPV, while one in five have a strain known to increase the risk of certain cancers in both men and women. Most of the...Read more...

Remember earlier this month when Warner Bros. said that it had saved money on the strikes? Well, it seems like that may have been more than a little presumptuous. Today, Warner Bros. filed a document with the Securities and Exchanges commission that said it would be losing more money than expected in quarter three...Read more...

The next iPhone will be revealed on Sept. 12, 2023, thanks to an invite sent by Apple. The event, held at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California, will be streamed on Apple.com at 10:00 A.M. PT / 1:00 P.M. ET.Read more...

Adapted from Robert Jordan's epic fantasy tales, Prime Video's The Wheel of Time kicked off its second season last week. With three episodes out there in the world, and more coming each Friday through the eight-part season, io9 got a chance to talk to some of the show's directors and producers.Read more...

About 70,000 Burning Man attendees in Nevada's Black Rock Desert were stuck in the mud this weekend after torrential rains this past Friday evening.Read more...

Meta is removing Facebook's dedicated news tab in some European countries starting in early December, the company announced on Tuesday. The social giantclaims users do not visit the platform for news and political content and claims the change will affect a limited number of users.Read more...

There's a Barbie blowout celebration planned for all of September, so get your Barbies and Kens together-and all their outfits, of course-for encore fun.Read more...

Home invasion movies are so prevalent because it's horror, without the horror. Each and every one of us instantly shudder as we imagine the fear and shock of strangers forcing themselves into our home. But what if that stranger" was stranger than a normal stranger?" What if the stranger was an alien?Read more...

While we wait for Android 14's stable release, Google has decided to grace its users with an updated logo for the upcoming Android brand. The operating system has a new look, and the company is rolling out a few new features to celebrate the occasion. They include AI enhancements for the At a Glance widget and...Read more...

When we once again meet Michael Dorn's legendary Klingon hero Worf in Star Trek: Picard's third and final season, he's a very different man to the one we saw across The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine-tempered by a long life of isolation as he has gone on a one-Klingon mission to combat the changeling threat. But...Read more...

The Exorcist: Believer fears nothing except Taylor Swift-specifically, her surprise concert film, which nudged the horror revival's opening date forward a week. But from the looks of its visceral latest trailer, audiences will have plenty of nightmares when David Gordon Green's movie opens October 6.

The original Star Trek animated series turns 50 this year, and while there's certainly at least some animation from the boldly going adventures of the Trek universe still in the works at Paramount, the network is getting into a celebratory mood in the weirdest way possible.

Following an eventful lunar day, India's Chandrayaan-3 mission has been put to sleep to wait out the dreadful darkness of the Moon's nighttime.Read more...

The Community Notes fact-checking system on X, formerly known as Twitter, linked to a porn video in a post debunking a rumor about Nina Agdal, a Danish model and fiancee to influencer turned boxer Logan Paul.Read more...

Every time I learn something new about the residual system within the streaming era I see red. This weekend it's the fact that Eric Kripke, the man who created Supernatural, the hit show that went on for 15 seasons, at nearly 22 episodes per season, from 2005-2020, has never received residuals from Netflix.Read more...

An existing medication for multiple sclerosis could possibly be retooled into a treatment for Alzheimer's disease, new research suggests. A team of scientists has found evidence in mice and human brain tissue that the drug ponesimod can reduce the inflammation and toxic amyloid plaques found in those with Alzheimer's....Read more...

Netflix has released the first trailer for Aardman's next movie: a follow up to the animation studio's beloved 2000 poultry jailbreak Chicken Run. As with all good sequels, it looks like a twist on the original-this time the Chickens have to break in to somewhere rather than break out.

Indonesia issued its first Golden Visa" to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a bid to bring in foreign investors who have impacted the country's economic development. The visa was launched only last week and will allow recipients to live in the country for five to ten years and they'll be fast tracked by immigration services.Read more...

Dan Aykroyd arrives in a new clip from R.L. Stine's Zombie Town. A new Nun II clip teases Valak's frightful return. Plus, confirmation of My Adventures With Superman's season 2 renewal, and what's coming on Invasion. Spoilers, away!

Twitter is dying, and billionaire site owner Elon Musk knows precisely where to point the finger-not at the mirror, of course, but at the Anti-Defamation League. The Jewish civil rights organization is just one of several watchdog groups that have accused Twitter of platforming anti-Semitism.Read more...

In recent years, drink chains have switched their single-use cups from plastic to paper to avoid plastic pollution and pile-ups in landfills. But according to recent research, the plastic cup that we feel good walking out of a cafe with isn't great for the environment either.

When the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team introduced its new Go-Ahead Entry" facial recognition authentication method last week, it was intended to decrease wait times and increase efficiency. In reality, according to Axios, it did just the opposite. Glitches in the system accidentally picked up the faces of...Read more...

More than in recent years, 2023 has been extremely busy for video games. That even extends to the summer, as giants like Final Fantasy XVI and Street Fighter 6 have occupied a season that's normally dry in terms of big releases. Larian's Baldur's Gate 3 pretty much dominated the entire month of August-and will likely...Read more...

In the run up to Disney+ series Ahsoka, there was a lot to be said about how the show will approach its titular protagonist's relationship to the Jedi identity-what it means to be referred to as such outside of the confines of the Jedi Order, and what it can be as Star Wars more broadly looks to rebuilding that...Read more...

Prime Video's The Wheel of Time brings Robert Jordan's fantasy realm to life with striking detail. Season two, which just kicked off last week, opens the story even wider, revealing new characters who bring menace to the screen just by the fierce way they dress-and accessorize.Read more...

New footage from season two of Loki begins with the God of Mischief nearly in tears. He may as well be Marvel fans because they've been waiting a long, long time for him to return and bring some order back to MCU.Read more...

As pioneers at the forefront of immersive storytelling, Animal Repair Shop and its consumer brand Infinite Rabbit Holes are working on next-gen consumer products at the intersection of the physical and virtual world with their upcoming at-home alternate reality board game The Arkham Asylum Files: Panic in Gotham City.Read more...

The only thing that's predictable about the summer movie season is that it's going to be wholly unpredictable. In the lead-up, it's easy to pick out what you think are going to be Hollywood's biggest stories. Oh, that new Marvel movie is going to kill it." Who isn't going to go see the latest Tom Cruise film?" But...Read more...

When Jon Strahd, the evil CEO of Ravenloft Studios, was defeated, the crowd at Universal Studios gave a huge roar. A group of 500 adventurers had shown up to picket at the worst [Hollywood] location," and about 100 were now engaged in a existential fight with a contemporary capitalist, a spin on Wizards of the Coast'sRead more...

London's Natural History Museum will reveal its Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit on October 13, featuring 100 images showcasing the biodiversity of our planet and how organisms interact. The chosen 100 images are the winners selected out of nearly 50,000 entries submitted from 95 different countries,...Read more...

Google's next flagship has leaked, and a launch date has been set. The Pixel 8 will arrive less than a month after Apple plans to release the iPhone 15. Smartphone fall is coming!Read more...

For the first time since Shin Godzilla, Toho's take on the legendary kaiju Godzilla is back in theaters at the end of the year with Godzilla Minus One-and if this jaw-droppingly chilling trailer is anything to go by, his status as one of the most fearsome monsters of the silver screen is still as potent now as it was...Read more...

AMC's The Walking Dead was on the air for 11 years, which may be too long, depending on your point of view. While the franchise isn't aiming to slow down any time soon, one of its big spinoffs is focused on Norman Reedus' Daryl Dixon. With the fan-favorite archer taking center stage franchise collaborator Greg...Read more...

The big talk of the town this weekend is Netflix's long-awaited adaptation of One Piece. For the most part, critics and audiences alike have been able to get on board with the live-action series, with particular attention drawn towards its cast and willingness to lean into the stranger parts of Eiichiro Oda's manga....Read more...

July 21, 2023 ended up becoming one of the most important days of the year once folks realized that Warner Bros.' Barbie and Universal's Oppenheimer would come out on the same day. Once that sunk in, folks decided to smash the two into a portmanteau forever known as Barbenheimer." Along with with memes and videos...Read more...

Though Tobin Bell's John Jigsaw" Kramer died at the end of Saw 3, the grisly horror franchise has had no trouble keeping him around, either via flashbacks or through several disciples and imitators. Saw X, due out at the end of the month, puts Kramer back in the spotlight by winding back the clock and placing itself...Read more...

Sure, I used to be like you, up all night paging through Instagram or TikTok. That's great for beginners, but I've moved on to the hardcore stuff. These days, when I'm passing time on my phone, you'll find me scrolling AliExpress.Read more...

Notion combines note taking with project management, and has earned many fans because of its intuitive, open, flexible interface-it can essentially be anything you want it to be, giving you a web canvas to make your own mark on. Whether you're just getting started with Notion or you've been using it for years, these...Read more...

Fast X came out at the start of the summer, and it was...kind of a mess in the worst way. But a genuine bright spot within that mess is Jason Momoa as Dante Reyes, the son of Fast Five's Hernan Reyes who's come looking for revenge against Team Toretto. He's silly, he's threatening, he's kind of a gay techno Joker, and...Read more...

Netflix's Arcane hit at just the right time when it first came onto the scene in 2021. Based on Riot Games' long-running and very popular MOBA League of Legends, the show won over critics and audiences alike with its animation, writing, and voice work. And since it premiered as Riot was gradually making clear its...Read more...

If you're behind on what's happening with the robot uprising, have no fear. Here's a quick look at some of the weirdest and wildest artificial intelligence news from the past week. Also, don't forget to check out our weekly AI write-up, which will go into more detail on this same topic.Read more...

Much like the Naughty Dog games the show's based on, HBO's The Last of Us was a massive hit that secured a fanbase that's eager for season two to begin. Of course, like almost everything else, the Writers and Actors strikes have ground production for the zombie drama's second season to a standstill. HBO wanted to try...Read more...

It's been a strike-heavy couple of months, and now video game actors may get brought into the mix.

Sony is offering a new limited edition PS5 bundle tied into the upcoming Spider-Man 2 game. The bundle is available now, for $600, and includes a custom PS5 (really just custom outer panels), a custom DualSense controller, and a voucher code for Spider-Man 2, which you'll be able to download starting October 20...Read more...