Gizmodo

Like it or not, Meta’s doubling down on its efforts to make 3D avatar playpens synonymous with future computing. In an event on Tuesday, the company showcased a variety of new AI tools, including a voice assistant, a universal language translator, and a programming tool capable of generating digital objects through…Read more...

Vaccines seem to significantly reduce the risk of long covid, UK health officials say. In a recent review of the evidence, they concluded that vaccinated people who developed covid-19 were much less likely to experience long-term symptoms than those unvaccinated. Vaccines may also show some promise in reducing…Read more...

As an ongoing political crisis continues to roil Ukraine, the nation’s banks and government agencies have been struck with disruptive cyberattacks for the second time in two weeks.Read more...

A California court ruled this week to let Waymo hide some of the safety data for its autonomous vehicles—a decision that could have ripple effects for how other autonomous vehicle makers handle the trade secrets of their self-driving tech moving forward.Read more...

The Oscar broadcast has cut eight awards presentations from its live line-up—including craft categories like Production Design, Film Editing, and Sound that have often been where science fiction and fantasy films have found their most success.Read more...

A well-known erectile dysfunction drug might just have added benefits for dogs, too. A recent study suggests that liquid sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, may help treat dogs with an enlarged esophagus that makes them unable to eat food easily and can sometimes prove fatal. More research will be needed to…Read more...

The Fairly OddParents is back—but not exactly how you remember it. Paramount+’s new series The Fairly Oddparents: Fairly Odder picks up years after the original animated series ended and reboots the beloved characters... into our world.Read more...

Production workers on Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites—both popular animated series co-created by Justin Roiland—are unionizing; they’ve filed to join the Animation Guild, also known as IATSE Local 839. Neither Adult Swim nor Hulu’s parent company, 20th Century Fox, have voluntarily recognized the unit.Read more...

Frontier, the financially troubled telecom previously dogged by lawmakers and consumer rights advocates, has officially become the first national provider to offer a 2Gbps fiber plan across its entire network.

A pair of translucent glass spheres, each measuring over a half-inch thick, have been spotted in an impact crater near the lunar south pole. They’re the first of their kind to ever be discovered on the Moon.

Because all things Stephen King never go out of style—and because pop culture never tires of stories revolving around kids with spooky powers—there’s a new Firestarter movie arriving in May. With that in mind, we figured now was as good a time as any to hop in the rewind machine and watch tiny Drew Barrymore start…Read more...

The Environmental Protection Agency has fined Tesla a paltry $275,000 for repeated Clean Air Act violations—chump change for the $800 billion electric vehicle company heralded as an environmental champion. I love a little irony in the morning!Read more...

Sea ice around Antarctica has dropped to the lowest level in more than 40 years, according to satellite data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.Read more...

Law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology during investigations has blossomed in recent years thanks in no small part to a booming surveillance industry built on the back of an ever-expanding buffet of publicly available biometric data. The limits on where and how that technology can be used though remain…Read more...

Hey, remember in Spider-Man: No Way Home, when they did the Thing? Well, they did the Thing again in a clearer, more convenient form for all your Thing-based posting needs. But you’ll finally get a chance to own the first version of the Thing when No Way Home gets its home release next month.

In 2016, a massive heist shook the crypto world. Someone robbed The DAO—an early, Ethereum-based, decentralized autonomous organization. The DAO was supposed to be a “revolutionary” entity that showed all the promise that the crypto industry had to offer, but, instead, it became an early warning about the industry’s…Read more...

If your Wordle streak isn’t as share-worthy as it was before the New York Times bought out Josh Wardle’s creation, just do what Chris Greening did and transform a 3D printer into a simple robot whose only task is to solve the daily Wordle puzzle using some added smarts and access to the entire dictionary.Read more...

For those willing to splurge on a truly big-screen experience at home, all-in-one projectors have made it incredibly easy to build a solid home theater without completely breaking the bank, and the latest offering from BenQ caters to gamers too with 4ms response times and impressive brightness.

Marvel’s Blade movie adds another mystery role. Matt Reeves is teaming up with director William McGregor for a new vampire movie at Netflix. Lin-Manuel Miranda teases his new material for the live-action Little Mermaid. Plus, what’s coming on Naomi and Superman & Lois. To me, my spoilers!

When we put the leading MagSafe battery options to the test last year, one feature was oddly missing: None of them could actually be charged using a MagSafe charging pad—only wires. It’s a seemingly obvious feature that’s only now being introduced by OtterBox with its new 5K Wireless Power Bank for MagSafe.Read more...

A group of paleontologists discovered a large, well-preserved pterosaur on a rocky beach off the coast of Scotland. Boasting roughly an 8-foot wingspan, the ancient reptile is the largest of its kind to be found from the Jurassic Period.Read more...

If you want to buy a new Android phone and Google’s new Pixel lineup isn’t doing it for you, the Samsung Galaxy S22+ is the flagship to buy. While it’s not an over-the-top, cutting-edge phone like Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra, it has many of the same bells and whistles, including an ultra digital zoom, a gorgeous…Read more...

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Disney’s chief corporate affairs officer Geoff Morrell posted a tweet on Tuesday about the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy attraction at Epcot in Walt Disney World. And while the tweet seemed innocent enough at first glance, Morrell may have spilled some sensitive secrets, at least by Disney standards.

Imagine a former co-worker told the world you were coming back to work with them without your knowledge. That’s apparently what happened last week to several members of the cast of the recent theatrical Star Trek films.Read more...

With all the multitudes of surprises, guest stars, and fan service found through Spider-Man: No Way Home, it’s tough to say that the movie’s last reveal (sans the post-credits scene) of Peter Parker’s new Spider-duds would make even a top 10 list of the film’s “whoa!” moments. But there’s more going on with the outfit…Read more...

Based on the Nicolas Roeg sci-fi classic, Showtime’s The Man Who Fell to Earth serves as a continuation of the film that starred David Bowie. This time Chiwetel Ejiofor arrives on Earth to complete a mission from the same home world as Thomas Jerome Newton, who arrived decades before. Bill Nighy takes over the role of…Read more...

Gun-related fatalities have surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of deaths from physical trauma, according to new research. In recent years, more lives—and years of life—were lost to firearms than to motor vehicles. The majority of these deaths involved suicide, particularly among older white men, but Black…Read more...

Peloton’s stock value is spiraling downward, it recently laid off 20% of its workforce and replaced its CEO, and demand for its products has dropped off a cliff. As if things couldn’t get worse, we’re now learning that as Peloton’s business was corroding, so were its bikes.

A Colorado web developer refusing to offer website services to a same-sex couple has found herself at the center of a national debate over the legal limits of free speech and anti-discrimination laws.Read more...

As Star Trek: Discovery’s fourth season builds up to its endgame pitching the Federation into a dangerous first contact with a mysterious, extra-galactic threat, at the heart of it all has been a mysterious, planet-wrecking anomaly known as the DMA. But as we’ve learned more about the anomaly, it’s revealed a…Read more...

If you want a digital watch that doesn’t look like a miniature smartphone on your wrist, there aren’t a lot of stylish options. One alternative to Timex and Casio’s offerings is from Girard-Perregaux, which is resurrecting a classic digital design from the ‘70s in which displaying the time almost seems like an…Read more...

New observations of the football-shaped exoplanet known as WASP-121b have revealed clues to its atmosphere and weather. Astronomers say it may have metal clouds made up of iron, corundum, and titanium.Read more...

Never underestimate the scope of fandom. That’s a lesson the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is currently learning, if we’re to believe a report from Deadline last week. The trade said that while most assumed a popular comic book movie like Spider-Man: No Way Home or Zack Snyder’s Justice League, both of…Read more...

The Marine Corps says it will need to spend $5 billion over the next 30 years to update two recruit depots for both climate resiliency and the integration of women into boot camp, the Marine Corps Times reported. This move comes as the U.S. military is pushing for better preparation for climate change-fueled…Read more...

Bad news for New York City’s mounting number of grocery apps promising super-fast deliveries. An upcoming bill from City Councilman Christopher Marte would keep the city’s delivery apps from promoting the 15-minute delivery times that have become their main selling point.Read more...

Renowned animator and film director Hayao Miyazaki’s first standalone graphic novel, Shuna’s Journey, is receiving an American release via the Macmillan graphic novel imprint, First Second. Translator Alex Dudok de Wit describes the book as an homage to the traditional emonogatrari comics of late ‘40s and ‘50s Japan,…Read more...

An apparent rip-off of Donald Trump’s social media network Truth Social has racked up downloads in the six figures on Google’s Play Store, causing confusion by MAGA types who failed to realize the distinction.Read more...

A faulty memory chip caused a problem last year with NASA’s upcoming Space Launch System megarocket—an issue the space agency says is now resolved.Read more...

Environmental activists and Native American tribes attempting to permanently shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline scored a major legal victory on Tuesday as the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the pipeline’s developers. That rejection means the court will let stand a lower court ruling which called for…Read more...

The epic, sprawling, story of Horizon Forbidden West is one of the many reasons the game is so addictive. When we last saw the daring warrior Aloy at the end of 2017's Horizon Zero Dawn, she’d defeated the evil program HADES and, she thought, saved the world. But questions still lingered. How did HADES get awakened?…Read more...

Aaron Taylor-Johnson won’t be playing the only Spider-Man villain in next year’s Kraven the Hunter. His character’s half-brother—Chameleon—is coming along for the ride, too.Read more...

German officials said Tuesday that they would block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, an enormous project that would double the flow of Russian natural gas into the country. The announcement comes in response to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.Read more...

Based on the trailers and the fact that producer Taika Waititi co-stars as Blackbeard, we were already extremely pumped for HBO Max’s new pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death. But then we got a chance to see the first few episodes, and our enthusiasm has reached outrageous heights—a sentiment shared by the show’s own…Read more...

Tonga residents began to finally see some lights at the end of the tunnel on Tuesday, with internet services jumping back online for the first time in five weeks after a massive volcanic eruption ripped apart the country’s sole subsea fiber optic cable. The repair marks a significant recovery milestone for the country,…Read more...

Scientists in Australia thought they had developed an innovative new tracking device to help them monitor magpies, but these crafty birds had other ideas.

Despite the fact that nearly every device I rely on now has the capability to play or stream digital audio files, I would still happily embrace the inconvenience of carrying around a standalone MP3 player if it put Winamp, one of the earliest MP3 players for PCs, in my pocket.Read more...

If you watched last Thursday’s first season finale of Peacemaker, you know that the show ended on some very special, yet extremely unexpected, cameos by a few DC Comics characters. But they’re more than just mere cameos, which star James Cena is well aware of—and it turns out there may have been more to these cameos…Read more...

Sony has finally given us our first look at the PlayStation VR2 along with more detailed shots of the Sense 2 controllers. The headset looks similar to the previous model but adds some noteworthy enhancements, including a lens adjustment dial and a new vent design.

Last May, Panasonic renewed its commitment to Micro Four Thirds cameras by announcing the Lumix GH5 II and teasing the GH6 which missed its 2021 arrival but is finally here in early 2022 with the largest megapixel count on a Micro Four Thirds sensor to date and some impressively upgraded video capabilities.Read more...