Gizmodo

This year’s Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando, Florida, brings a full slate of horror—tapping into both familiar and original frights to realize the nightmares in its haunted houses. io9 was invited to visit all of them in one night on an “RIP Tour” with other members of the press; it was an…Read more...

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It’s been a rough year for animation—not because of a dearth in quality of material; if anything, there’s more great series and movies to watch in 2022 than ever before. But as the industry faces mistreatment and mishandling by corporate interests, it’s getting harder and harder for ideas to thrive. Which is why it’s…Read more...

When last we left the world of Willow, a would-be sorcerer helped defeat an evil queen and put her rightful heir on the path to the throne. Now, decades later, Willow returns, this time on Disney+, and the D23 Expo has several costumes from the show on display.Read more...

A huge satellite is about to take flight, spreading its giant antenna array to potentially block astronomers’ views of the cosmos. AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 is scheduled for launch on Saturday to test the company’s broadband network technology, but the prototype satellite is extremely bright and could interfere…Read more...

The Lord of the Rings is a story about disparate societies coming together in the name of good—and casting aside generations of mistrust and prejudice to do so. Hobbits being unlikely heroes, Dwarves standing side-by-side with Elves, Rohan riding to Gondor’s aid, it’s an idea key to the fabric of the narrative, and so…Read more...

A healthy mouth may just help keep the brain healthy as well, new research out this week suggests. The study, a broad review of the existing evidence, found that poor dental health was linked to a later higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia. This increased risk was especially apparent for those missing some or…Read more...

Every Fall, the Bird Photographer of the Year competition celebrates the diversity and beauty of the creatures that constitute class Aves. The contest is open to hobbyists around the globe, and in 2022 entrants submitted over 20,000 images of feathered friends of all kinds: Some swim, some soar, some burrow, and they…Read more...

Researchers recently used CT scans to peer inside three mummies from South America, and they discovered evidence suggesting that two of the individuals were murdered. Warning: This article contains photos of one of the bodies that may be disturbing.Read more...

Quentin Tarantino and Miramax have reportedly buried the hatchet in their dispute over NFT auction excerpts of Pulp Fiction. The quiet resolution brings an end to a legal skirmish that could have had profound implications in determining who gets paid for NFTs based on films if it had gone to trial. The settlement also…Read more...

Monkeypox is currently spreading across the country (and the world at large), with over 21,000 cases reported in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of August 22. After a faltering initial response, the White House has taken a more aggressive approach in its response and…Read more...

Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to the hardware they game with. Some like giant arcade sticks, some prefer smaller gamepads, and the debate between symmetrical and asymmetrical joystick layouts will continue for centuries. What everyone can agree on is that a a controller that replaces every button with analog…Read more...

Storms have formed off both the East and West coasts of the United States, breaking a rare streak of inactivity. Last month was the first August with zero named storms in 25 years. This is also the third time since records began in the 1940s that there were no named storms in the Atlantic, according to E&E News. This…Read more...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a draft order that would require satellites to reenter Earth’s atmosphere just five years after their missions end, rather than the current 25-year deadline, in what is an effort to reduce space junk.Read more...

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Star Wars’ much-anticipated Ahsoka series for Disney+ has found its Ezra Bridger in newcomer Eman Esfandi. Bridger was first introduced in Star Wars Rebels following the success of the animated series The Clone Wars. Ezra grows up on the show, transforming from a streetwise…Read more...

Already, Matt Murdock (played by fan favorite Charlie Cox) is being set up to be the best part of Marvel’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Tatiana Maslany is doing her best with what she’s given, but uneven writing (and the frankly distracting VFX work) has made it hard to find her Jen Walters more than passingly pleasant…Read more...

That floor won’t clean itself… well, quite literally it won’t, especially if the vacuum robot you bought to clean the floor won’t hop off its dock when the servers are down.Read more...

We still don’t know what the fifth Indiana Jones film is going to be called, but now we have a new, albeit quick glimpse of it after that single image released at Star Wars Celebration. At the D23 Expo in Anaheim, CA, the Lucasfilm Pavillon has a display of costumes and concept art for three different characters:…Read more...

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft is finally within sight of its target. In 17 days, the probe will crash head-on into Dimorphos, a natural satellite of the asteroid of Didymos.

Just about a million organ transplants have now been performed in the United States. The milestone was reached Friday, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the nonprofit facilitator of these life-saving operations in the U.S. It’s been nearly 70 years since the first donated whole organ was…Read more...

SpaceX performed a static fire test of a prototype Starship rocket on Thursday, in which all six raptor engines were engaged. The eight-second test appeared to go well, save for the problematic brush fire that ensued.Read more...

I first read Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series when I was in high school–about five years after the initial run of the comics had ended. This meant omnibus editions, which were the only thing I could find at my library anyway. The series immediately sucked me in with its blend of serialized short stories emblematic of…Read more...

Cryptocurrencies haven’t been doing so hot lately. The last three or four months have seen prices plummet, and the general outlook for crypto bros (and gals) has been grim. But crypto’s cruel summer and the instability that’s come with it haven’t changed the fact that fraud, theft, and financial mayhem are still…Read more...

Being a notepad and pen replacement is just one of the roles that smartphones fill for us now—alongside being our go-to digital cameras, musical jukeboxes, address books, ever-expanding encyclopedias and so much more. Not all the note-taking apps for phones and tablets are created equal, though: Whatever the reason…Read more...

The man whom multiple young woman alleged coerced them into amateur porn shoots is on the lam from federal law enforcement, and all that running has only made cops want to dress him down even more, so to speak.Read more...

Patreon, the online platform that allows content creators to foster a direct subscriber base, has laid off five employees responsible for its security engineering. The company confirmed the worker cuts in an email to Gizmodo on Friday.

Unlike an iPhone, which might spend most of your day sitting in a desk or hiding away in a pocket, the Apple Watch is an expensive device that’s exposed to the world all day long. The chance of it getting banged up and needing repairs one day is very high, and for the Apple Watch Ultra, it seems like repairs won’t…Read more...

This week marked the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII’s North American release—and a new book by Aidan Moher, out October 4, examines the game’s scope of influence, not just on its legions of fans, but on the realm of Western pop culture itself. io9 is pleased to share an exclusive excerpt from Fight, Magic,…Read more...

More than two dozen civil organizations and advocacy groups are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to block Amazon’s $1.7 billion acquisition of Roomba maker iRobot. If allowed to go through, the advocates warn the deal could “endanger fair competition,” and jeopardize consumer privacy.Read more...

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RIP, Queen Elizabeth II. There are a lot of things to do in the digital realm when a monarch dies, and one of the first places people go when a famous person dies is Wikipedia. While some on the internet were glued to Twitter or the BBC, checking for news or watching the planes en route to Balmoral Castle, one group…Read more...

One day Cobra Kai is going to stop being so good that we’ll have to stop using the following joke. But that day is not today. Season five is now on Netflix and the Karate Kid sequel show remains the best...around! Nothing’s ever gonna keep it down!Read more...

Tesla is on the prowl for new places to build its Supercharger charging stations for their electric vehicles. The company announced on Twitter that voting would be “coming soon.”

As smartphones continue to grow larger and larger, they’re leaving less room in your pockets for other devices like handheld consoles, unless you opt for something like the Game Boy-inspired PocketStar, which measures in at just a bit taller than a Lego minifigure.Read more...

Failed presidential and New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang has swaddled himself in the sometimes comforting yet constantly stifling confines of Web3 and crypto. After years of trying to get people on board with the idea of universal basic income, Yang has since pivoted to crowing about how digital currencies are…Read more...

The U.S. Postal Service just released a majestic, glittery, and fabulous new stamp to commemorate the Webb Telescope, the most powerful space-based observatory ever built. The new addition is a reminder of the many striking stamps that have celebrated U.S. achievements in space over the past seven decades.Read more...

As the world of Gundam on the small screen gets ready for a new future with The Witch From Mercury, on the big screen we’re about to jump right back into its earliest history again—because at long last, the latest movie in the franchise is finally making its way out of Asia.

Rapid sea level rise, mass die-offs in coral reefs, and quickly melting glaciers are closer to occurring than we think. The planet needs to stay within 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming if we want to avoid triggering some of these events, but a new study published in Science on Thursday finds that we’re already in the…Read more...

Halloween Ends merch teases a grim new look for Michael Myers’ iconic mask. Handmaid’s Tale will return for a sixth and final season. Solar Opposites is getting a Halloween special. Plus, what’s coming on Resident Alien, and a new look at Amazon’s take on William Gibson’s The Peripheral. To me, my spoilers!

Choosing a phone isn’t just about choosing between iOS and Android: It’s also about deciding which apps you’re going to pick for your emails, your driving directions, your music, and everything else. We’ve used both sets of native apps for years, and thought it was time to deliver our verdict for 2022.

“No justice, no peace, tech workers are in the streets!” Those words echoed through the air outside Google’s New York City office as workers left for the day on Thursday evening. Outside, they faced a street packed with dozens of Google and Amazon employees opposed to Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing…Read more...

Law enforcement officers across the country have obtained access to an obscure cellphone tracking app allowing them to map out people’s movements going back several months in time. The app, known as “Fog Reveal,” was first brought to light this month in a story by the Associated Press, which relied on documents…Read more...

It’s clear that Twitter vice president of product Keith Coleman genuinely believes in Birdwatch, the platform’s community-based debunking feature that will be expanding to 50% of U.S. users this week. The feature has been met with skepticism by some, who worry bad actors will misuse it and fill the social network with…Read more...

Children’s hearing protection product HearMuffs are designed to protect your kid’s ears at loud events like concerts and football games. But the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall on Thursday, warning that batteries in the HearMuffs—used to power the device for both “active” noise reduction and…Read more...

On a spring afternoon in Guatemala, I watched Patrick Melder, a 55-year-old missionary, find a potential convert. He began his pitch with the cadence of an experienced salesman.Read more...

With Black Adam now just a few weeks away, it was about time for another trailer to get unleashed on the world. This new trailer makes the upcoming film look much different from its previous teases. Yes, Black Adam (played by Dwayne Johnson) is at the forefront, but now the Justice Society—the super team tasked with…Read more...

Twitter agreed to pay whistleblower Peiter Zatko about $7 million dollars in settlement money back in June. Zatko also signed a non-disclosure agreement, as part of the settlement, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, which is based on an unspecified number of anonymous “people familiar with the matter.”

Like a student late to submit an assignment, NASA has requested an extension from the Space Force that would allow the space agency to perform a third launch attempt of its mega Moon rocket later this month.

A health and fitness app launched by a popular social media influencer suffered a glitch that may have shared users’ intimate workout photos and other personal account information with the wrong users.Read more...

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds brought a first-look clip for season two and some exciting casting news to its segment of Star Trek Day. Carol Kane (whose dozens of credits include The Princess Bride, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Scrooged, and Broadway’s Wicked) is coming aboard the USS Enterprise.