Gizmodo

President Joe Biden has pitched himself as a presidential version of Captain Planet. His campaign climate plan included “banning new oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters.” But a new report shows he’s approving fossil fuel leases on public lands at a faster clip than his climate-denying predecessor, Donald…Read more...

Of course a third Venom movie is on the way. New Spider-Man: No Way Home footage gives a better glimpse at its multiversal menaces. A former Power Ranger heads behind the camera on Superman & Lois to give us a look at Clark’s updated suit. Plus, what’s coming when Sabrina weaves her magic in Riverdale. Spoilers away!

I’m a huge Tamagotchi fan (Exhibit A, B, and C), but after a week with the R2-D2 Tamagotchi, I realize I just spent $20 on something too extreme even for me.Read more...

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki mocked the idea of mailing out free covid-19 tests to every American household on Monday, in just the latest sign that President Joe Biden’s lack of imagination is making the pandemic worse.Read more...

MyCryptoWallet, an Australia-based cryptocurrency exchange that allowed users to buy and sell coins like ether and bitcoin, has collapsed and left users without access to funds, according to multiple reports. The company called in a firm called SV Partners on Friday to liquidate what remains of the exchange and deal…Read more...

Life360, a popular tracking app that bills itself as “the world’s leading family safety service,” is purportedly selling location data on the 31 million families and kids that use it to data brokers. The chilling revelation may make users of the Tile Bluetooth tracker, which is being bought by Life360, think twice…Read more...

Batman’s world is expanding, and its star power is rising. A few months back, news broke that Warner Bros. was developing a show centered on the new iteration of the Penguin from the upcoming Matt Reeves film The Batman. Colin Farrell plays Penguin in the film but, at the time, it was unclear if the star would reprise…Read more...

Donald Trump’s effort to launch a MAGA-centric tech firm to rival the likes of Google and Facebook landed a new CEO on Monday. It also disclosed that it’s under investigation by the feds.Read more...

Star Wars’ current canonical era—where the series is bigger and more expansive across film, TV, books, comics, and video games than ever, and yet also everything simply must align and matter to the rest of its wider universe—makes for a weird mix. It means that we’ve gone from, say, a side character in a series of…Read more...

Researchers in the UK are beginning an important clinical trial of a relatively new type of weight loss, or bariatric, surgery. The minimally invasive procedure is designed to reduce the production of the so-called “hunger hormone” called ghrelin, but with less cost and upkeep than existing bariatric treatments.…Read more...

James Cameron’s Spider-Man. It’s a phrase film fans have heard and thought about for years. The idea of one of the greatest blockbuster filmmakers in history tackling one of the most popular, cinematic superheroes ever is incredibly enticing. And, in the mid-1990s, it almost happened. Cameron was aggressively trying…Read more...

If you visited the Ocearch marine animal tracker in the last week, your eyes might have been drawn to the eastern seaboard of North America, where a bombardment of blue dots made it look like the coastline was being assaulted by white sharks.Read more...

One of the top executives of a gargantuan texting contractor has been accused of running a secret surveillance business, the likes of which sold access to the company’s partner networks so that governments could spy on various users.

As a longtime Android user, I’ve spent the better part of a decade on the sidelines of an entire product category, awaiting a wearable that could rival the Apple Watch. From startups to traditional watchmakers, many companies have promised a worthy alternative, only to release smartwatches with crippling compromises.…Read more...

While we sometimes mistakenly think of old Hollywood as being a relatively chaste place (compared to the modern film industry), where the Hays Code forced studios to self-censor sexuality and anything that bucked American social norms, that’s not at all the case.

The world dumps some 17.6 billion pounds (8 billion kilograms) of plastic into the ocean every year—and now, you can check out how all that trash moves around. NASA released an animation showing shifting plastic concentrations in the world’s oceans over an 18-month period, the first research of its kind to map…Read more...

In just a few days, the sixth and final season of Amazon’s beloved sci-fi series The Expanse will premiere. This new season is only going to be six episodes, so you know it’s going to hit the ground running—and you gotta be prepared, beltalowda! Here’s a crash course for fans on where things stand.Read more...

Donald Trump’s new tech company has raised $1 billion from investors, according to a press release from the former president and a report from CNBC. But there’s no way of independently checking whether Trump, a man known for lying about literally everything, has actually been able to secure such a huge sum in a…Read more...

Tens of thousands of honeybees in Spain’s Canary Islands can now add “survived a volcano” to their bucket list. Well, since they’re bees, we’ll add it for them.Read more...

Although some of us might forget since we’re too busy laughing, comedians, like songwriters, write content to entertain us. There’s a difference though: Songwriters get paid royalties for their written work, comedians don’t. In the age of streaming, comedians are hoping to change that, especially considering the…Read more...

Having just brought back those Weeping Angels a few weeks ago, Doctor Who is ringing in 2022 by calling in some old(er) foes in the form of the Daleks. Having spent most of Flux out on the sidelines, that emotionless master race is back to terrorize Jodie Whitaker’s Thirteenth Doctor and company in the holiday special…Read more...

We’ve only had six weeks in the TARDIS this time around, and at last: Flux is about to come to its final end. Come talk about Doctor Who’s present and future with us as we await it, why don’t you?

Since it was first reported nearly a full year ago, one of the big things on everyone’s mind in regard to Spider-Man: No Way Home are its villains. The returning baddies of Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus from Sam Raimi’s original trilogy and Jamie Foxx’s Electro of the Amazing duology…Read more...

It’s a shame that Nintendo used the tagline “everyone is here!” for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, because it may be more apt for Fortnite. After the end of Chapter Two yesterday, the online gaming homunculus of IP rebooted itself today with Chapter Three that brings in the biggest star on the planet at the moment: …Read more...

It’s been a little tough to figure out just what kind of vibe that Morbius is going for. Is it a tragic tale of a doctor desperate to save his life and losing his soul in the process? Is it a solo vampire story in the modern day, something we haven’t seen in movies in quite some time? The answer turns out to…Read more...

Although Facebook Messenger’s entry into personal finance isn’t new, I’ve never quite managed to think about it as a payments platform. It’s more an inbox that aunts, uncles, and friends from high school blow up with messages when I haven’t posted on Facebook in a while. But it’s now becoming more and more clear that …Read more...

Back when HBO Max was getting its feet off the ground in 2020, one of its big shows at the time was Raised by Wolves. Though some found Aaron Guikowski’s series about android parents tasked with raising some important human children to be a bit of a slog, the show was renewed for second season just a few episodes…Read more...

One of the brightest and most underused spots of the relatively short-lived Marvel/Netflix partnership was Jessica Henwick. As Colleen Wing in Iron Fist, Henwick brought a lot of charm to a show that was in real need of it during that first season and let her shine in season two. Just as the show was priming her for…Read more...

While Disney+ has had no problem putting out MCU shows this year, there’s still a vocal legion of fans who yearn for the stars of the once mighty Netflix series to get their due. Primarily, this hope has reserved for Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, and while Cox has rather gracefully talked about…Read more...

Google has delayed its return to office mandate for workers in the U.S. again as concerns over the new coronavirus omicron variant raise alarm worldwide and prompt new restrictions.Read more...

Some of you may remember the quote “intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism” from Craig Ferguson’s outstanding tribute to Doctor Who on the old (and far superior) The Late Late Show. But thinking back—on what is to be my last day running io9—I think it sums up how I’ve felt about working here for the last…Read more...

It’s not every day that two of the most famous directors in animation history jump into the world of comic books, but that’s about to happen. Directors Ron Clements and John Musker, who made films you may have heard of like Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Moana, are looking to make an animated movie based on the DC…Read more...

When most of us think of “inventors,” we’re probably thinking about folks like the Wright Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, or Thomas Edison—folks who changed the world by creating something new and lived to tell the tale. What gets talked about less frequently are the folks that aren’t so lucky: the people that tried…Read more...

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular round up of the latest and greatest in nerdy toys and merchandise. This week: Hawkeye sets its sights on some action figure goodness. Lego heads to the Clone Wars and to the Multiverse (of Madness) in two new sets, and NECA dives into two slick takes on RoboCop. Check it out!

Diplomats from around the world met in Geneva this week to hammer out agreements on how to manage autonomous weapons systems with many calling for an outright ban of the technology. One country is notably opposed to those agreements: The United States.Read more...

This post could go a few ways. I could start by saying, wow, the ocean is incredible. Or perhaps I could start by saying I hope you didn’t plan to sleep tonight. That’s because the giant phantom jelly captured by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute is a bit of a Rorschach test, one that can inspire awe and terror…Read more...

Over the summer, Google introduced the ability for Pixel users to effectively “lock away” photos in a vault to keep them hidden from prying eyes. The featured is called—what else?—Locked Folder, and anything stored there is protected by the device’s lock screen passcode. Locked photos won’t show up in the Photos grid,…Read more...

New research shows that someone has been running hundreds of malicious servers on the Tor network, potentially in an attempt to de-anonymize users and unmask their web activity. As first reported by The Record, the activity would appear to be emanating from one particular user who is persistent, sophisticated, and…Read more...

New research seems to confirm the idea that many of our cutest purebred pups are also burdened by their genetics. The study determined that most dog breeds have high levels of inbreeding. What’s more, this inbreeding can contribute to various health problems and expensive vet bills over time, particularly for larger…Read more...

You may have noticed that along with being perpetually out of stock, PC graphics cards are more expensive than ever. This is no coincidence, and it isn’t solely caused by the ongoing chip shortage.

Twitter’s new rule against posting “private media,” such as photographs and videos, depicting other people without their consent is already being exploited by fascists and white supremacists who are taking the opportunity to target anti-extremism researchers and activists.Read more...

Chucky will be back for more butchery and wisecracks—a second season of the hit SYFY and USA Network horror series starring the killer doll from the Child’s Play movies was announced this week. The finale of season one just aired, so there won’t be new episodes for awhile, but that didn’t stop us from hopping on the…Read more...

If you’re in the Lower 48 looking for snow, may I suggest a trip to Hawaii? While a good chunk of the U.S. suffers under a snow-killing heat dome, Hawaii is in for a real-deal blizzard.

The time has arrived for skywatchers to look up and catch a glimpse of comet Leonard. Here’s how you can find this gigantic ball of ice and dust.

As the world turns, another Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel arrives, doing its best to recapture the grim, grimy magic wrought by the 1974 horror classic. But the next entry in the series, which arrives on Netflix in February, borrows a page from the current Halloween films by billing itself as a direct sequel to Tobe…Read more...

It’s that time of year to take a look at the natural world through the eyes of some of the most talented wildlife photographers on the planet—and you can vote for your favorite. This week, the Natural History Museum in London released 25 images that it has shortlisted for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s…Read more...

Later this month, Boba Fett will make his play as a major new face in the Star Wars underworld in his very own Disney+ show, The Book of Boba Fett. But while this will be our “official” look at what Boba got up to after escaping digestion, it’s not the first time Star Wars has pondered what the infamous Bounty Hunter…Read more...

Apple recently revealed a new policy that would notify users if their devices were the targets of a state-sponsored attack conducted using spyware from Israeli surveillance-for-hire firm NSO Group. Now, just weeks later, a new report from Reuters claims at least nine U.S. State Department officials found themselves on…Read more...

Neither of the two monthly subscription services available to PlayStation gamers can compete with the library of games available through Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service, but Sony plans to change that as early as next year, according to a new report from Bloomberg.Read more...

The odds of a child in the United States being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder have risen once again, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests. According to their report out this week, about one in 44 children were expected to be diagnosed with autism by age 8 in 2018, a rate…Read more...