Gizmodo

It took nearly 170 years, but geothermal heat pumps are finally ready to have a moment. The poorly named appliance—they heat and cool buildings—could be the key to ensuring our homes are more comfortable and climate pollution-free.

The residents of Lytton, British Columbia were ordered to evacuate after wildfire engulfed the region on Wednesday. The village of roughly 350 people also broke Canada’s record for the highest temperature on Tuesday, a whopping 121.2 degrees Fahrenheit (49.6 degrees Celsius). It was the third day in a row that Lytton…Read more...

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday against a Florida law that would fine social media companies $250,000 a day for banning political candidates, saying that the law likely violates tech companies’ first amendment rights.

Though the Scarlet Witch hasn’t technically been a mutant for some time now in Marvel’s comics, the Hellfire Gala event and its many invitations to non-mutant guests of the X-Men left little question as to whether the so-called “great pretender” would make an appearance at the function.Read more...

Like so many media companies before it, Instagram is gearing up for a sweeping embrace of video as its content of choice, the platform’s head, Adam Mosseri, announced on Wednesday.Read more...

In some ways, Space Jam fans were dreading this since the moment the first trailer essentially turned “cartoons play sci-fi basketball” into “what if Ready Player One had exclusive access to the Warner Bros. back catalogue?” but truly, to see this Matrix riff in action is... well, it’s a lot.

A company that makes small, mobile robots with thermal imaging cameras, Teledyne Flir, overnighted two of them to the Miami-Dade Fire Department in the hope they may help with the ongoing search-and-rescue effort following a disastrous condo collapse in Surfside, Florida.

United just announced that it’s making a massive purchase of 270 new planes. Better yet, those planes will have upgraded cabin technology, like upgraded in-seat displays, faster wifi, and, most notably, support for Bluetooth audio. And while it’s about time United’s planes got some new tech, I’m also wondering if it’s…Read more...

After facing countless class actions and probes from multiple regulators, the financial platform Robinhood is finally paying up. On Wednesday, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced it fined the company $57 million and ordered the company to pay back $12.6 million in restitution, plus interest,…Read more...

The foundation of the web is worth $5.4 million, apparently. In an online auction at Sotheby’s today, founder of the modern internet Tim Berners-Lee sold an NFT of the source code for the World Wide Web, which he authored in 1989. Berners-Lee has said he plans to donate the money to yet-unspecified charitable causes.…Read more...

Somewhere, 39 completed, official episodes of a Star Wars television show exist. A show George Lucas helped create. A show with Darth Vader, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and more. And yet, according to the show’s co-creator, odds are we’ll never get to see any of it.Read more...

Two lobbyists for Exxon have been caught on tape admitting how the company manipulates politicians and the public. Among the damning admissions are that the company views its advocacy for a carbon tax as little more than “an advocacy tool” and that it once funded “shadow groups” to fight climate science.Read more...

On Wednesday afternoon, New Yorkers’ phones started shrieking as an emergency alert warned them to conserve power or face the prospect of widespread blackouts. The city along with large parts of the East Coast are blanketed under an oppressive heat wave that is taxing the electricity grid, much as the record-setting…Read more...

Amazon has asked the Federal Trade Commission to recuse its new Chair, Lina Khan, from any upcoming antitrust investigations concerning the company, essentially arguing that she’s too qualified for the job.

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle Walensky, is trying to assuage vaccinated people’s fears about the Delta variant of the coronavirus. This morning, Walensky said that vaccinated people should remain protected from Delta and that they still didn’t need to wear masks in most…Read more...

Hayao Miyazaki might be better known for the incredible body of work he developed over his entire career at Studio Ghibli, but the animator’s theatrical debut didn’t just form a foundational base for that career, it gave one of Japan’s most beloved gentlemen thieves his all-time greatest caper: Lupin III: The Castle…Read more...

AT&T has announced it’s collaborating with Google to make Messages by Google the default messaging app on all Android phones supported by the network. This means AT&T subscribers will have access to Rich Communication Services (RCS) and Messages by Google’s built-in encryption abilities.

In a Tuesday interview with, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm suggested that sea level rise may have played a role in the devastating collapse of a condominium building in Surfside last week that killed 16 and left dozens still missing.

It’s hot outside, possibly hot as hell depending on where you live—but one way to keep cool is to plop down in front of a fan or the air conditioner, or perhaps inside a walk-in freezer, and crack open a fresh new sci-fi or fantasy book. We’ve got you covered this month with palace intrigue, space battles, doomsday…Read more...

Two trailers, two stars, two completely different feels, one movie. That’s what you’re getting today for Disney’s Jungle Cruise, which opens in theaters, and on Disney+ with Premier Access, July 30. The film stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt and, much as they were when the film was still scheduled for a 2020…Read more...

If iOS 14 was a visual overhaul that gave you full control over how your iPhone looks, iOS 15 is a logistical one that gives you full control over how your iPhone behaves, which in turn will change how you use it.

Most people are perfectly fine waiting until September for the annual upgrades to iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. But for the impatient few among us, you can actually test out Apple’s next-generation software for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch starting today by downloading the public betas if iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and…Read more...

When Apple previewed the features coming to watchOS 8, the next-gen software upgrade seemed iterative—great for overall performance, but perhaps lacking in terms of direction. This was especially true after watchOS 7, which turned the Apple Watch into a vital tool for navigating pandemic life. However, after living…Read more...

A smart home that responds to your every command and automates mundane tasks is a tantalizing dream. But the reality is that given the current limitations of technology, competing standards, and devices that quickly become obsolete, trying to make that dream a reality today just isn’t worth all the effort.

Despite the fact that more than a dozen federal agencies regularly use facial recognition tech, there’s hardly any oversight into the systems these agencies use. That’s according to a new report out Tuesday from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal watchdog agency that offers congresspeople…Read more...

Archaeologists in Finland have uncovered a remarkable wooden snake figurine that possibly belonged to a Stone Age shaman.

The endangered Joshua tree is getting some reinforcements from the legal system. A California couple agreed this week to pay an $18,000 fine for digging up 36 Joshua trees on their California property that sits just north of iconic Joshua Tree National Park.

Hammer Horror’s 1958 classic Dracula, also known as Horror of Dracula, has inspired a pair of strikingly realistic, highly detailed figures soon to join Sideshow’s Horror Collectibles line. Which dynamic duo? Creature of the night Count Dracula and his greatest foe, Doctor Van Helsing, of course. io9 is thrilled to…Read more...

Kids like to feel like grown-ups and in the pandemic, the grown-ups were all pedaling away on their Pelotons. So of course, now Little Tikes has made a Peloton-like stationary bike for kids called... Pelican.Read more...

A man in the UK appears to be a medical first, though probably not in the way he would have wanted. His doctors say he’s the first known person to have had his penis broken vertically during sex. Despite the odd injury, though, the man has fully recovered.

It’s the Fourth of July this weekend, which means beer, burgers, and parades. But in many cities across the West, this holiday weekend will be missing one celebratory staple due to fears that they could spark wildfires: fireworks.

All good television is born from taking a sense of stability—a status quo, a relationship, a perceived knowledge of the stage it’s set on—and blowing it up into tiny little bits. A good job then that Loki is about Marvel’s premiere agent of chaos then, because in order to get this interesting, all the show had to do…Read more...

Over 100 outsourced Spanish-language moderators and customer service representatives for WhatsApp claim that their contract company Accenture has denied them equal pay to other multilingual colleagues in the same building. A group of contractors from Austin, TX and Dublin, Ireland claim that, while Accenture hired…Read more...

Like each of Capcom’s Resident Evil games, Netflix’s new Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness series tells a story about a group of people from different walks of life whose fates all become entangled thanks to global superpowers and megacorporations obsessed with developing cutting edge weapons of war. But unlike the…Read more...

While Nintendo continues to drag its feet when it comes to making an official Game Boy Classic, smaller outlets like Epilogue are trying to come up with the next best thing with its new GB Operator looking like a cheap and easy way to play original Game Boy games on your PC.Read more...

As much narrative detail as each of Janelle Monáe’s multigenre concept albums are packed with, they’ve all ended having raised more even questions about the larger story being told about time-travelling freedom fighters. There’s still so much that hasn’t been explored about how Cindi Mayweather and Jane 57821's lives…Read more...

The shortlisted entries have been chosen for the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. From stunning sunsets on Mars to spectacular views of Saturn and stellar nurseries, these photos will transport you across the cosmos.

Production has begun on Marvel’s Black Panther sequel, Wakanda Forever. John Wick: Chapter 4's cast continues to expand. Get another close up look at Fear Street: 1994's creepy killer. Plus, new Forever Purge clips, and see Diggle’s arrival on The Flash. Spoilers, away!

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un said his country was facing a “great crisis” thanks to the “incapable and irresponsible work attitude” of his underlings, during a recent speech about the covid-19 pandemic, portions of which were published on Wednesday.

In a rare rebuke of a public figure alleging himself to be an intelligence target of the United States, the National Security Agency on Tuesday roundly rejected claims of illegal surveillance leveled by Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

The heat wave currently roasting the Pacific Northwest has made its way up to Alaska, where a 2.7 magnitude ice quake—the result of seismic activity triggered by melting glaciers—was just recorded 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Juneau.Read more...

It’s a moment that happened so fast you probably missed it—and even if you didn’t, maybe you didn’t believe it. In Marvel Studios’ latest trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the main character attends a cage match with two creatures duking it out. They’re only on screen for three seconds, but it…Read more...

The low-orbit satellite broadband service Starlink will be available for global coverage beginning in August, Elon Musk said on Tuesday, with the exception of the north and south poles.Read more...

Amazon has made no secret of making customers out of the whole family, including the kids. There are already various ways to bring Alexa into your child’s life, from devices like smart displays and Fire tablets to skills that enable everything from games to homework help. And now, Amazon has announced Reading Sidekick…Read more...

As the Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze has encountered all kinds of different demons and magical creatures during his adventures across multiple hell dimensions, and he’s built up a considerable set of skills in the process. But even with all of the experience he has, it’s still quite easy for Johnny to make dire mistakes…Read more...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced on Tuesday that vehicle manufacturers must report all incidents in which driver-assistance and self-driving systems are involved in a serious accident.

New research out Tuesday supports fears that at least some prisons in the U.S. have been a breeding ground for the pandemic. The study found a link between increased cases of covid-19 during the first wave last year and counties where state prisons were located. Most of these cases were likely the result of the…Read more...

About a week ago, many owners of the external hard drive product My Book Live woke up to discover that all of their data had been wiped from the device. It was quickly assumed that the products were the victim of a malicious hacking campaign.Read more...

T-Rexes? Good. Jurassic Park Ford Explorers? Good. Giant Robots? Good. Mashing all of those things together? Goooooood.

4DX—the gimmicky theatre experience designed to immerse you in the bangs, pops, flashes, and splashes of the cinema—is a format I reserve for a very particular kind of film. By all appearances, F9, the ninth movie in the Fast and the Furious franchise, should’ve been the platonic ideal of a 4DX movie. But appearances…Read more...