Gizmodo

Star Wars is a franchise with a lot of characters, but all of them all feel rooted in a particular place in time. You can feel that the Skywalker twins and Han Solo are products of the late 1970s to some degree or another. Similarly, you can see that someone like Din Djarin or Mace Windu is born out of the late 2010s...Read more...

What is this, a game controller for ants? The company that brought you wireless versions of the classic NEOGEO CD controller and an upgrade kit to turn an N64 controller into a wireless gamepad now has a controller so compact it seems purpose-built for getting lost between the couch cushions.Read more...

As we all know, with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA currently on strike, the production of major TV shows and movies has been put on pause. One of the biggest ones impacted is The Last of Us, the hit HBO adaptation of the PlayStation game which was gearing up for season two. Co-showrunner Craig Mazin said that before the...Read more...

New York University professor and Kara Swisher's podcasting buddyScott Galloway voiced his outrage at being banned from posting on Twitter in a Threads post on Tuesday. Galloway claims he's been locked out of Twitter (aka X) two days after allegedly declining an invitation to meet with the chief Twit himself.Read more...

The Wheel of Time returns to Prime Video on September 1, when the first three episodes of season two will reunite us with characters who went through a lot in season one-and introduce some new faces too. Get a glimpse of everyone in these new character posters that tease what's to come in the upcoming episodes.Read more...

Paleontologists have found a fossilized pterosaur precursor with gnarly, scimitar-like claws and a beak, indicating that the reptilian group it belongs to was more diverse than previously thought.Read more...

Newly unsealed court filings following a federal indictment accusing Donald Trump of trying to overturn the 2020 elections show the lengths Twitter lawyers went to try and notify the former president of the government's inquiry and delay investigators from obtaining detailed information from the former president's...Read more...

This week, DC Studios starts anew with Blue Beetle, officially kicking off the James Gunn and Peter Safran-led superhero slate in earnest with the studio's strongest film in quite a while.Read more...

Barbie, the billion-dollar sensation from Greta Gerwig starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is going to digital release on September 5. It's already available to pre-order on Amazon.

Otzi made international headlines when he was found by a pair of climbers, sticking out of an ice patch high in the Italian alps. When he was found, Otzi had already been dead for about 5,300 years, but his remarkably preserved remains have since given scientists a unique window into Copper Age Europe.Read more...

Warrior Nun wasn't the flashiest show on Netflix, but it was a show that captured the hearts of many. Fans loved this series so much that when it was cancelled after two seasons the hashtag #SaveWarriorNun was everywhere on social media. Fans launched tweet-in campaigns, wrote emails, and showed up everywhere they...Read more...

After days of devastating fires that have displaced thousands of people, and have burned down important historical sites throughout Maui, the official death count has risen to 106 according to officials.Read more...

Apple is still struggling to find a good place to move its End Call" button on the upcoming iOS 17. After shoving the button to the bottom right of the screen during calls, Apple is now testing putting it center stage, though still surrounded by other apps.

Printers are one of the great necessary evils in our modern world, much to the chagrin of consumers. Now a federal judge has ruled that HP must face a class action lawsuit, in which the plaintiffs argue that the company's all-in-one printers brick themselves when the ink runs low.Read more...

Intuitive Machines is gearing up for the launch of its mission to the Moon, hoping to become the first private space venture to land on the lunar surface. The company recently stated that its lunar lander would be ready to fly in September, with plans to launch the Nova-C lander to the Moon in November.Read more...

Cast and crew talk about Poirot's brushes with the supernatural in a new Haunting in Venice featurette. Get a look at the return of Shining Vale. The Hunger Games prequel reveals its lengthy runtime. Plus, Clark struggles with superhearing on My Adventures With Superman. Spoilers get!

People queued up outside the Bank of Ireland on Tuesday after a glitch in the system appeared to allow customers to withdraw money without affecting their balance. The bank, which is one of the largest in Ireland, acknowledged the glitch on Wednesday, saying the issue had been resolved, but only after customers had...Read more...

AYN has been ever-so-slowly unveiling more details about its upcoming Odin 2 handheld console for the past several weeks. Now, the company shared specs for its upcoming Steam Deck competitor, including storage, processor, and, most importantly, its competitive price: $299.Read more...

Did you forget that the characters from Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World-based on Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphic novels-were getting their own Netflix anime series? Did you worry that something that sounds so cool could never actually become a reality? Fear not: it's real, it's got a title (Scott Pilgrim Takes...Read more...

With Disney+ and Lucasfilm's Mandalorian universe expanding in Ahsoka, the fandom style experts over at RSVLTS have released a new drop just in time for the new series' premiere.Read more...

Harrison Ford has earned the right to be curmudgeonly-but the 81-year-old star of so many iconic films is known for tempering his grouchiness with sly humor and heart. That came through 100 percent in a statement he shared after scientists discovered a new species of snake in Peru's Otishi National Park and named it ...Read more...

ND Stevenson is still processing. About two weeks after the release ofNimona, the animated feature based on the webcomic he wrote in college, Stevenson and I were able to chat about the journey that Nimona has been on for nearly a decade. Not just going from page to screen, but going from studio to studio, and how...Read more...

Dungeons & Dragons might be bigger than ever, but the release of Baldur's Gate 3 has catapulted the fantasy world and mechanics of the world's biggest TTRPG into the hands of a whole eager new audience of players looking to gather a party and venture forth. If BG3 is your first proper encounter with D&D, it throws a...Read more...

It's been over 100 days now that Writers Guild of America members have been striking for a fair contract in Hollywood-and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is finally, seemingly, willing to negotiate. According to Deadline, the two groups are scheduled to talk again today, following up on last...Read more...

Free Speech Absolutist" Elon Musk appears to have hit a new low by standing in the way of website traffic flowing from X, formerly known as Twitter, to websites he doesn't like.The social media app targeted news sites including The New York Times and Reuters as well as competing social media platforms such as ...Read more...

Nebraska Republican Congressman Don Bacon says his emails were hacked as part of a suspected Chinese espionage campaign exploiting a vulnerability" in Microsoft software. The China-skeptical representative believes his hawkish views towards the Chinese Communist Party and public support for Taiwan made him a prime...Read more...

On paper, Elemental is a classic opposites-attract tale, in the most literal sense: the two main characters are the personification of fire and water. But when it came to animating the pair, the creative team behind Disney and Pixar's box-office hit faced unique challenges-one of which being, how do you craft a...Read more...

The road to unionization in the VFX and animation industries has been long and difficult. There's a predatory bidding system, studios that take advantage of contracts, and a massive base of freelancers who need to work. Disney and Marvel in particular have benefitted from a lack of unionization in VFX-something that...Read more...

Sorry gamers, Xbox says you need to behave. Starting today, Xbox will be cracking down on its Community Standards by rolling out an eight-strike policy that should help curb abusive behavior while educating players about their own rap sheet.Read more...

Options for foldable phones are expanding in the U.S. for the first time this summer, but this type of phone has been available overseas for several years now. Xiaomi, a Chinese smartphone brand, has been carrying the torch for some time. The Android phone maker revealed the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 Tuesday, and it's got a...Read more...

Toxie's back-though Troma fans all know he never really went anywhere. Fantastic Fest, the annual celebration of genre film in Austin, Texas, has announced Macon Blair's The Toxic Avenger will open this year's event, with visual proof in the form of our (murky) first look at Peter Dinklage as the mutant hero.Read more...

YouTube announced it's taking on the miracle cures, bogus disease prevention tips, and other health myths that litter the video-sharing site with a new assault on medical misinformation. The effort starts with a mass take-down of videos about harmful or ineffective" cancer cures, according to a Tuesday press release...Read more...

You can add regressive academic censorship to the list of unintended use cases for ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence models. In Iowa, a school district reportedly deployed AI software to identify and remove 19 books in order to comply with legislation prohibiting titles with descriptions or visual depictions of a...Read more...

Wilds of Eldraine, the newest set from Magic: The Gathering, invokes a storybook feel alongside fantasy villainy. In a press meeting, Wizards of the Coast senior communications manager Elizabeth Stewart said the set takes universal fairytale tropes and subverts expectations." Roy Graham, the game designer and story...Read more...

Americans are withdrawing from watching broadcast and cable TV. Nielsen reports the number of viewers dropped below 50% for the total TV usage in July 2023. This marks the first time linear TV viewership represented less than half of total TV usage.Read more...

A galaxy first seen in a massive Webb Space Telescope deep field image a year ago is one of the earliest ever spotted, according to a team of astronomers that reviewed imagery of the structure.Read more...

Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who co-wrote and produced the animated smash hitSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, spoke to Games Radar about thesmall changesfans have noticed in the digital release. The differences aren't due to tweaks in the story or adjustments to their creative vision-it's because the film was...Read more...

Google's Search AI is getting much more definition-heavy. The latest update to the Search Generative Experience will feature AI summaries of long articles. Search will also categorize the articles for users' quick-viewing pleasure, though the company will have to contend with some publishers' precious paywalled pages.Read more...

Tron: Ares director Joachim Ronning has confirmed that the expected production start on the Disney sequel will no longer go ahead this week due to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, blaming an extremely frustrating" lack of negotiations on the production's need to lay off 150 crewmembers indefinitely.

After playfully antagonizing the Internet with a revolving door of female vocalists, comedian Kyle Gordon is taking his viral summer parody song Planet of the Bass" to the next level with a bona fide music video and extended version.Read more...

In a move to consolidate their global footprint," Lucasfilm is shutting down its Singapore visual effects and animation studio. This division of Industrial Light and Magic was established in 2004 as the lead studio for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Variety reports that a Disney spokesperson also said that this decision...Read more...

Apple users are finally receiving their $65 payout following a 2018 class action lawsuit claiming Apple intentionally slowed down iPhones in an effort to push consumers to upgrade to a newer phone. The company agreed to pay up to $500 million to resolve the lawsuit in March 2020, but two iPhone owners filed an appeal...Read more...

Get a look at Kiernan Shipka's twisty new horror slasher, Totally Killer. Meet Susan Sarandon's Blue Beetle villain in new footage. Plus, what's coming in the final episodes of Riverdale, and more behind-the-scenes looks at the road to Ahsoka. Spoilers, away!

The Russian spacecraft headed for the Moon beamed back views of its journey, showing Earth and the Moon as tiny, bright specks amidst the surrounding darkness of the cosmos.Read more...

Hell hath no fury like Donald Trump scorned. Yesterday, Truth Social founder Donald Trump was indicted a fourth time, this time in Georgia for election interference. And if there's one lesson to take away from this latest legal fracas, it's never tweet.Read more...

Ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is again being accused of campaign finance violations. This time, prosecutors say the once-crypto kingpin used other FTX execs to hide just how much of the Washington machinery he was trying to turn pro-crypto.Read more...

Sometimes, a new device makes you reconsider what role technology plays in your life. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 did that for me.

The 1993 adaptation of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. video game franchise is a nostalgia sucker punch, and to celebrate its 4K restoration, there's a planned run to showcase the film in theaters.

The Georgia courthouse where grand jurors are currently mulling charges against former President Donald Trump weirdly posted what looked a whole helluva lot like evidence of an indictment to its website on Monday. However, the document was swiftly taken down and the court later told news outlets that no charges had...Read more...

Peter Jackson became an A-list powerhouse thanks to The Lord of the Rings' blockbuster and Oscar-winning reign, but he's also the guy whose first feature was low-budget splatter movie Bad Taste, and whose Hollywood debut was supernatural tale The Frighteners. All this is to say, the guy's a bona fide horror nerd, and...Read more...