Gizmodo

A recent genetic analysis of dog coloration found that mutations in one gene are responsible for five distinctive coat patterns in dogs. These patterns manifest in iconic breeds like the corgi and the Bernese mountain dog, and a team of researchers were even able to trace one coat type, called dominant yellow, to an…Read more...

Vampires were only the beginning, it seems. The AMC network has just announced that its adaptation of Anne Rice’s beloved novel Interview With the Vampire (which recently cast Sam Reid as Lestat) will be joined by a Mayfair Witches series, based on Rice’s Lives of the Mayfair Witches book trilogy.Read more...

There’s an old proverb that says, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. But as ‘Developer Hendrik’ demonstrates on Instagram, even if it is broken, you don’t necessarily need to repair it if you’ve got the skills to program a tiny robotic arm to help an object like a busted clock carry on its important, time-telling duties.Read more...

Back in July, cybersecurity researcher Bob Diachenko found what seemed to be a leaked FBI watchlist naming the personal details of close to 2 million suspected terrorists. Diachenko quickly filed a report to the Department of Homeland Security, hoping the agency would issue some sort of patch to keep this data from…Read more...

The Rocketeer wasn’t exactly a hit when it premiered in 1991, but it’s become a rather beloved family classic over the last three decades. There’s just something about watching a traditional, square-jawed hero use a jetpack to fight Nazis back in the 1940s that remains eternally enjoyable. It’s a joy that Funko hopes…Read more...

OnlyFans—the subscription-based platform that provides a direct link between adult content creators and customers—has begun promoting its first app, but says the NSFW content that the platform has become known for will be taking a back seat for now.

Last week, California authorities announced that they had arrested a college professor under suspicion of starting several fires near the Dixie Fire, which has ballooned since starting in July to become the second-largest fire in state history. Like clockwork, the tweets started.Read more...

Ever since Google got into the mid-range phone game with the Pixel 3a, Google’s most affordable handsets have just been getting better and better. And when you combine all of Google’s Pixel-only software features with an even bigger screen, improved durability, and new support for water resistance on the new Pixel 5a,…Read more...

T-Mobile lied, at the expense of low-income prepaid phone subscribers, in order to get its $26.5 billion acquisition of Sprint approved, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has alleged. Last Friday, in a ruling reported by Ars Technica, the CPUC ruled that T-Mobile may face sanctions for misleadingly…Read more...

Blue Origin has filed a suit with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims over NASA’s decision to award a lucrative lunar lander contract to SpaceX. The move is raising eyebrows, given Jeff Bezos’s past remarks about how such lawsuits hinder progress in space.

Asus’s ROG Phone 5 was already one of the most powerful phones on the market, but it seems that wasn’t enough because less than five months after its release, Asus has just announced an even faster and more extreme version of its splashy gaming phone.

In each of What If’s self-contained stories from different parts of Marvel’s multiverse, specific characters emerge as people whose actions have an outsized impact on the arc of history. While the universal consequences of people’s actions may be obvious to viewers (and the Watcher), the big flashy differences in…Read more...

The U.S. government looks set to tell most everyone to get a booster shot against covid-19 sooner rather than later. Late Monday, the New York Times reported that officials will issue a blanket recommendation as early as this week for people who received either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccine to get a third…Read more...

I get it, really. If you’re going to hunker down for a long gaming sesh, you need a comfy chair. You need lumbar support. Maybe even a headrest.

The Pet Sematary prequel has found a few more stars. Denis Villeneuve is excited to get back to the world of Dune. Nia DaCosta delves into the history of Candyman in a new BTS short. Plus, delight pictures of What We Do in the Shadows’ season three return. Spoilers, away!

There was a time when third-party controllers were a cheap alternative to the gamepads included with consoles, and saved for visiting friends during multiplayer battles. Thanks to companies like Scuf, that’s no longer the case. Its controllers not only match the quality of OEM offerings, they’re also highly…Read more...

The West’s biggest water supply system is in crisis, with the federal government declaring the first-ever shortage for the Colorado River on Monday. That declaration will trigger cuts for users who rely on Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the U.S., hitting farmers in Arizona particularly hard.Read more...

We’ve gotten glimpses of Star Wars: Visions—the upcoming Disney+ series where various Japanese anime studios have produced their own take on that galaxy far, far away—before, but never anything like this. This...this simply looks phenomenal.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, a leader in the Catholic church, has been placed on a ventilator after contracting covid-19, according to the cardinal’s Twitter account. Burke has repeatedly made bizarre comments about the pandemic since it began last year, including claims that governments might try to place microchips in…Read more...

The government of New Zealand announced Tuesday the entire country will go into lockdown after the first mystery case of covid-19 since February was detected in the city of Auckland. The whole country will go into lockdown for at least three days, with the cities of Auckland and Coromandel locking down for seven days.Read more...

Even without a slew of fun surprises, the new Ryan Reynolds movie Free Guy probably would’ve been a hit. The story of a video game character who becomes self-aware and has to save his world is one of those perfect, marketable ideas, Hollywood loves. And, of course, a movie set in a video game world is going to have…Read more...

This week may mark the beginning of the end for The Walking Dead, but like the zombies on the show itself, it’s pretty damn hard to kill. The final season is broken into three eight-episode arcs that will air into next year. Fear the Walking Dead is still on. A new season of World Beyond is coming. There’s also a Rick…Read more...

Tinder will start rolling out an ID Verification feature in its popular hookup app. ID Verification relies on a government-issued piece of paper, like a passport or driver’s license, for proof of identity. The feature has been in use on Tinder in Japan since 2019, and it’s now rolling out globally, though it’s not yet…Read more...

The Canadian province of British Columbia is on fire. Hundreds of fires are burning out of control across the region, and smoke from the blazes is turning the skies black in the middle of the day.Read more...

Halloween is only a couple of months and change away, so you know what that means: io9's annual round-up of the worst and weirdest costumes 2021 has to offer. But that’s for some other day, because right now we’re taking a look at Disney’s new line of pet costumes! If you and/or your dog like to play dress-up, here…Read more...

The race to electrify every house in the U.S. just got a jolt courtesy of California. The most populous state in the country has passed new energy codes that incentivize electric appliances and efficient heating and cooling systems, a move that could wind down the use of fossil fuels in buildings.Read more...

The scientific objectives of the upcoming Dragonfly mission to explore Saturn’s moon Titan are described in a new research paper, along with the instruments required to fulfill these goals.

Good news, fellow millennials. Yik Yak—the anonymous messaging app once popular with college students across the country—is back. Roughly four years after the company’s co-founders announced the app’s shutdown, the company’s Twitter account sprang back to life on Monday to announce the app was back for a new…Read more...

“If you build it, he will come” just got a whole new meaning. A week after Major League Baseball unveiled a newly constructed baseball stadium inspired by 1989's Field of Dreams, a new TV show based on that sports fantasy movie has been announced from Good Place and Office writer Michael Schur. The series “will…Read more...

The Dallas Police Department has announced that a city employee accidentally deleted eight terabytes of its data—a fuck-up that has now endangered an unknown amount of court cases that relied upon the data as evidence.Read more...

The arrival of What If on Disney+ has brought with it a new shieldbearer that Marvel Studios seems pretty keen on making the face of a multiverse of superheroics: Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter. No longer just an Agent of SHIELD, as we best know her, but the latest holder of the Captain mantle. As Sam Wilson’s new reign…Read more...

As the Dixie Fire continues to spread unabated in California, Pacific Gas & Electric—the largest utility company in the state—said that it was mulling potential power cuts in the areas closest to the blaze in an effort to proactively control its spread.Read more...

If you have an iPhone, chances are you might want to use it with your computer to back up files or import photos. Using an iPhone with a Mac is undoubtedly easier than using it with a PC, because the two work so seamlessly together. You can pick up a task on a Mac that you started on your phone, and soon you’ll be…Read more...

As the live-action adaptation of Y: The Last Man hit reworks and reshuffles, it felt like we’d go months and months without seeing a single glimpse of what the hell the show was actually going to be. Now that we’re less than a month away, however, footage is making a habit of showing up like all those buses you…Read more...

Early Monday morning, the Wikipedia pages for a slew of celebrities, writers, and political figures were replaced by full-page spreads of black and white swastikas on a bright red background. The vandalism was reversed within minutes of being noticed by users (and Ann Colter).Read more...

Still stinging from the recent ISS cartwheeling mishap, Russian state-owned news agency TASS alleges that a NASA astronaut deliberately damaged a docked Soyuz spacecraft for the purpose of facilitating a prompt return to Earth, in an incident dating back to 2018. The claim is unfounded and outrageous—but you wouldn’t…Read more...

Simu Liu, the star of the upcoming Marvel Studios film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is standing up to the man in charge. Last Friday, Disney CEO Bob Chapek spoke on an investor call about the release of the upcoming film, revealing that it would not be streaming on Disney+. He also called it “an…Read more...

For years, conservationists have successfully fought to restore the Midwest’s wolf population. A new state policy could imperil that progress: Wisconsin’s Natural Resources Board voted last week to allow hunters to kill up to 300 wolves during a fall killing period this year, ignoring recommendations from an advisory…Read more...

The phrase “Never judge a book by its cover” is almost always true, with a few unfortunate exceptions. One such exception is the 2006 film Snakes on a Plane. Those four words tell you everything you need to know about the movie: it’s about “snakes” that are “on a plane.” Why would snakes be on a plane? If snakes did…Read more...

This summer has seemed an endless march of devastating climate disasters, from wildfires to droughts to floods to landslides. And, in case you forgot to worry about hurricanes, we’re moving into peak Atlantic storm season. There are currently three systems spinning the basin, with two in the process of making landfall…Read more...

It’s no secret that Intel has been working on a new line of GPUs for both desktops and laptops for quite some, and today Intel finally announced the new brand name covering all of its upcoming high-end graphics products: Intel Arc.Read more...

In a year where it’s all about Wear OS, it seems like Fitbit is dedicating 2021 to its trackers. After adding the Luxe to its lineup this past spring, we’re now seeing leaked renders for a potential Charge 5 for this fall.Read more...

You know how it is with those wars in the stars. If you have even the slightest inkling that a place seen in a new television series might be related to a place from the old expanded universe, odds are you’re going to be right.

In the wake of the Taliban’s recent capture of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, it looks like the Republican Party is quietly scrubbing traces of the former president’s deals with the militant Islamist group.Read more...

A team of astrophysicists looking at data from the Cassini spacecraft’s tour of Saturn have estimated a new size for the planet’s core. Studying gravitational effects on the icy rings, the team determined that Saturn’s core is a combination of ice, rock, hydrogen, and helium about 50 times as massive as Earth, making…Read more...

The animated Witcher spin-off movie Nightmare of the Wolf is only a few days away, but there’s still more Witcher coming down the pike. Netflix has announced the many, many people who’ll be joining Blood Origin, the live-action miniseries set more than a thousand years before the smash-hit show starring Henry Cavill…Read more...

Even with the global chip crunch continuing to throw wrenches in largescale gadget production, Apple seems to be prepping for multiple major product launches with several events expected to be scheduled throughout the fall.Read more...

The U.S. government is opening a formal probe into Tesla’s Autopilot software over the automated system’s reported tendency to send cars crashing headlong into emergency vehicles.Read more...

Are you struggling with a Monday-hating, lasagna-scarfing cat whose lazy lifestyle is starting to become a health issue? If they’re not interested in climbing off your computer keyboard to chase mice, there’s a chance this Nerf blaster that fires discs made of catnip instead of foam might be better motivation to make…Read more...

Christopher McQuarrie teases the arrival of a familiar face in the next Mission: Impossible. Get a creepy look at Syfy’s new Chucky show. There are more American Horror Stories on the way. Plus, Stargirl introduces us to Green Lantern’s daughter, and what’s next for Legends of Tomorrow. Spoilers now!Read more...