Gizmodo

Chinese officials will begin cracking down on internet users liking social media posts that are deemed illegal or harmful amidst nationwide protests against China’s zero-Covid policy.Read more...

Yesterday, SpaceX performed a static fire test of a prototype booster in which 11 of its 33 Raptor engines were briefly engaged. The private company could very well be on target to launch the fully stacked Starship system next month.Read more...

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Among Twitter’s multiform ongoing disasters, the one that threatens its financial prospects the most is perhaps fleeing advertisers. Elon Musk’s latest complaint on the topic finds him picking a public fight with Apple, suggesting the iPhone maker pulled its Twitter ads because “they hate free speech in America.”…Read more...

One thing that always confused me about Andor was why Fiona Shaw—a Shakespearean actor extraordinaire and multiple award-winning star of stage, screen, and TV—would have accepted the small, muted role of Maarva Andor, Cassian’s adoptive mother. That is, until I saw the series finale, where Shaw’s massive talents were…Read more...

Apple’s poor keyboard design, which the company spent half a decade shoving into its MacBooks has finally, officially, come to bite the company in the posterior, at least financially.Read more...

Satellite operators are often challenged by the horrendous amounts of data that satellites collect and transmit back to Earth. A recent experiment with prototype Amazon Web Services (AWS) software suggests cloud-based solutions, when used way above Earth’s actual clouds, can lessen the data load.

On February 11, astronomers saw a distant flash of light that seemed to come from a source as bright as a quadrillion suns. They alerted other scientists to the event, and several telescopes quickly pivoted to focus on the flash. Now, two teams of researchers have identified its source: a black hole feasting in the…Read more...

Airbnb has launched a new long-term listing service intended to make it easier for would-be-renters to find apartments where they’re allowed to sublet short-term. The site, similar to Zillow or StreetEasy, currently shows listings for about 175 buildings in more than 25 U.S. locations.

Further demonstrating the power of artificial intelligence when it comes to photorealistically altering footage, researchers from Disney have revealed a new aging/de-aging tool that can make an actor look convincingly older or younger, without the need for weeks of complex and expensive visual effects work.

Sorry Apple Music fans, it’s the most wonderful time of the year for insufferable Spotify users—it’s time for Spotify Wrapped.Read more...

Jon Kasdan talks about the importance of the Willow RPG and Ghostbusters 2 to the new series. Jeffrey Dean Morgan teases his arrival on The Boys. Plus, Terry Matalas talks about making Picard’s final season feel even more like Star Trek: The Next Generation. To me, my spoilers!

Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, began erupting earlier this week after nearly 40 years of no activity—the longest quiet period for the volcano in recorded history. I’ve been fascinated by the eruption since it began on Sunday and realized I had a lot of questions, including some that seemed pretty…Read more...

We can now add the European Central Bank to the ranks of high-ranking crypto skeptics, with high-ranking execs going further to say that crypto shouldn’t be legitimized by any government or major financial institution.Read more...

In the near future, police in San Francisco may be able to deploy robots armed with explosives and instruct them to kill a human being.Read more...

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, says he donated equally to both Democratic and Republican politicians before his cryptocurrency platform filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, wiping out billions of dollars in customer deposits. And that fact is going to come as a real shock to right-wing political operatives…Read more...

Eufy, the company behind a series of affordable security cameras I’ve previously suggested over the expensive stuff, is currently in a bit of hot water for its security practices. The company, owned by Anker, purports its products to be one of the few security devices that allow for locally-stored media and don’t need…Read more...

Rolls-Royce and easyJet, a European-based airline, have successfully tested a hydrogen-powered jet engine, the two companies announced in a press release on Tuesday. The pair say the goal is to curb emissions by 2050 and said the ground test marks “the world’s first run of a modern aero engine on hydrogen.”Read more...

You could spend every night of December watching a different Christmas horror movie—heck, there are almost enough Silent Night, Deadly Night entries to fill up an entire week by themselves!—but most of those would hail from America, with maybe a few British and Canadian entries tagging along. This yuletide season, why…Read more...

The influenza virus has finally returned in earnest. Flu season activity is high throughout the U.S., and experts expect many more cases and hospitalizations to occur in the weeks ahead. One bright spot is that this year’s vaccines appear to be well-tuned to the currently circulating flu strains, so they should…Read more...

Video games depicting armed military combat have come a long way from the rudimentary, textureless early iterations of Call of Duty and Medal of Honor. But what happens when graphics and gameplay collide and progress to a point where they can fool casual observers into mistaking gameplay for reality? While Fox News…Read more...

As the semi-proud owner of a cracked, dirty, degrading Google Pixel 3 phone, I would never make claims that its night camera is very good for taking pictures of something as fast moving as a meteor shower, let alone my late night, near dark selfie sessions (don’t judge).Read more...

An irreparable software glitch has put an end to Geotail, a JAXA-NASA joint mission. The satellite observed Earth’s magnetosphere for more than 30 years within an extremely elliptical orbit, but the mission has officially been terminated, according to JAXA’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS).Read more...

Even though a second trailer is now here, it’s still a little hard to fully fathom that this is real: Nintendo teamed up with Illumination and made a full-on animated Super Mario Bros. movie. And while the first trailer focused more on the franchise’s villain, Bowser, this one shifts to those lovable Italian plumbers,…Read more...

Apple Music has finally unveiled the songs and artists that ruled the streaming service this year. Everything from TikTok viral hits from GAYLE and Jack Harlow to veteran Elton John revisiting his own discography in a collaboration with Dua Lipa to the respective comebacks of Harry Styles and Adele, 2022 was…Read more...

As 2022 winds to a close, Apple is ready to reflect on the apps and games that made its tech so fun to use. Today, Apple released its list of the best apps and games from the year, curated by Apple’s global App Store editorial team.

Many of the traditional companies that jumped into digital streaming to catch up to the likes of Netflix are now finding that the streaming wars haven’t done much to help their business. Like the kingdoms of old regularly found out, wars are costly, and drained coffers won’t do anything to help you stay in the fight.Read more...

I don’t know why the Muppets love Christmas so much, but they certainly do. Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and the extended Muppet cast of characters have made nearly a dozen holiday specials, along with a feature-length TV movie and a theatrical movie. That last one is The Muppet Christmas Carol, one of the…Read more...

The mind-altering effects of a well-known parasite may extend to more species than we thought. In new research this month, Yellowstone scientists are making the case that Toxoplasma gondii infection can influence the behavior of gray wolves in the area. It appears to increase their odds of risk-taking behaviors, such…Read more...

Texas-based ICON has been assigned the pivotal task of developing the means for NASA to build critical infrastructure on the Moon to further its Artemis ambitions.Read more...

Terraforming Mars, the resource-building strategy board game where you play as rival CEOs attempting to make Mars habitable, might be heading to your screens, reports Deadline. The game is widely considered a fantastic example of larger strategy hex games, and has already been adapted as a video game.

Digital thieves are using horny TikTok viewers’ thirst for nude images against them in a new malware attack.Read more...

The original Willow film feels like the first act of a larger story. While it does end with the defeat of the evil Queen Bavmorda thanks to Willow and his friends, almost every other major character and storyline is left dangling. The whole film is predicated on this small child, Elora Danan, being the chosen one…Read more...

Frequent Elon Musk watchers raised an eyebrow on Monday when the billionaire started lashing out at Apple and its CEO, Tim Cook, over the many ways Twitter had been wronged, at least in his view. At one point, Musk even tweeted a meme about “going to war” with Apple, but later appeared to change his mind. He deleted…Read more...

Alexa, are you feeling okay? Amidst ongoing reports of turmoil in the tech industry from mass layoffs to consumer privacy issues, there has been buzz around the future of Amazon’s iconic voice assistant. As former employees and sales trends paint a devastating picture for the fate of Amazon’s Alexa, the technology is…Read more...

The Great Barrier Reef is in danger and should be labeled with that official designation on the list of World Heritage sites, according to a joint assessment by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The report,…Read more...

Two major tabletop conventions are happening this weekend: Dragonmeet in London and Pax Unplugged in Philadelphia, and if you’re going to either, I am very jealous and hope you have a wonderful time. So many of my favorites will be there; if you’re in the UK say “hi” to Rowan, Rook and Decard at Stall 41 and if you’re…Read more...

Federal water authorities warned California cities and industrial water users to prepare for water cuts in 2023 as the state enters what is likely to be a fourth consecutive year of drought.Read more...

SpaceX is readying a Falcon 9 rocket for launch on early Wednesday morning. The mission, featuring both private and public payloads, exemplifies the current state of the spaceflight industry and the changing manner in which we’re exploring space.Read more...

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Starting early next year, Sony plans to capitalize on the rise in popularity of VTubers—virtual YouTube (and sometimes Twitch) celebrities—and our slow but steady transition to a life spent entirely in VR. The company will be introducing a new and relatively affordable motion capture system that relies on just six…Read more...

Just over a year ago, io9 broke the news that best-selling YA author Chloe Gong (These Violent Delights, Our Violent Ends) would be making the leap to adult fantasy fiction with 2023's Immortal Longings, the first in a new trilogy. Now, we have the first excerpt from the novel for you to peruse.

Twitter has dropped its covid-19 misleading information policy that used to prohibit users from spreading misinformation about the virus. Over 11,000 Twitter users were banned under the platform’s previous policy, and nearly 100,000 posts involving content that included covid misinformation was removed between January…Read more...

Next year, the final movie in the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi, turns 40. And just as it had done so with A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back before it, Hasbro is celebrating with familiar faces in classic packaging.

The Monopoly Man, AKA Rich Uncle Pennybags, has been a staple at big tech hearings on Capitol Hill. As much as these hearings often lead to no tangible action on actually addressing the tech industry’s missteps, at their worst those hearings allow CEOs like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg to appear like the smartest man in…Read more...

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

It’s been two years since IDW’s runaway hit comic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin arrived on shelves, an alternate-universe tale starring a bitter Michaelangelo as the sole survivor of the Turtles and their friend. Soon, fans can return to Mike’s gritty adventures in a new follow-up: Teenage Mutant Ninja…Read more...

The third season of Star Trek: Picard won’t arrive until February, but the crew of the Enterprise-D can’t wait for what might come after it. Youmay want to set your alarm to watch (or avoid) the next trailer for Mario’scinematic outing. Plus, learn more about the next projects of FrankMiller, M.Night Shyamalan,…Read more...

China sent a new crew to its brand new Tiangong space station on Tuesday. The astronauts will spend around six months aboard the orbital outpost, preparing it for operations.Read more...