Gizmodo

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular roundup of the coolest toy news on the Internet. This week, Hot Toys returns to The Empire Strikes Back’s climactic duel, Hasbro summons the might of Mighty Morphin’s power sword, Jurassic World gives you your own baby raptor, and... we all just want to hug Kirby, really. Check…Read more...

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Epic stories demand epic stakes all the time: evils to face, worlds to save, the chance for you to be, or watch or read along with, a hero who takes it all on and triumphs, only to be called into action time and time again. Final Fantasy XIV does exactly that, but in its latest chapter, it also asks you to do…Read more...

With talk about the future of DC films on the tip of everyone’s tongue, one of the smaller movies just took a giant leap forward. Riverdale’s KJ Apa and Young Sheldon’s Isabel May have been cast as Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna in the upcoming Wonder Twins movie heading to HBO Max.Read more...

Three wild bald eagles found dead in Georgia were confirmed to have died from bird flu on Thursday, increasing the toll from a recent surge in avian influenza cases that’s caused the death of tens of millions of birds in total.Read more...

One month ago Brandon Sanderson revealed that he had written four novels over the past two years, and he was Kickstarting their publication. Now, a week after the end of the crowdfunding campaign, we can definitively say that Sanderson’s project has not only become the most-funded Kickstarter ever at $41 million…Read more...

For anyone whose pockets aren’t overflowing with the cash needed for a brand new flagship device, Samsung will start selling “re-newed” versions of last year’s Galaxy S21 series at a discount. Yes, they do spell it that way.

As Paramount looks to solidify its streaming service, what was once wide access to beloved franchises like Star Trek has become slowly but surely tighter—until a future where Paramount+ is going to be the only option to access Trek new or old. Which makes it a problem when any episode of the series seemingly vanishes…Read more...

The cute little Twitter bird has teeth. Today, the company announced it has poisoned the local watering hole, hoping it will stall Elon Musk as he seeks to swallow up the social media company in a hostile takeover.

The Mars lander InSight photographed an austere Martian sunrise earlier this week. The probe has called Mars home since 2018 and has taken thousands of images during its time there, while also collecting some fascinating scientific data on the planet’s geology.

One of America’s most beloved fraudsters is bounding into the cryptocurrency world. Jordan Belfort, better known by his moniker “The Wolf of Wall Street,” sees cryptocurrencies as “digital gold” and wants in. That’s great, because if there are two things the decentralized digital finance industry really needs, they’re…Read more...

A young man’s session of masturbation inadvertently led to him spending almost a week in the hospital. In a recent case report from Switzerland, doctors detail how a 20-year-old ended up with air leaking into his chest after some seemingly innocent self-love. Fortunately, the injury wasn’t severe and he recuperated…Read more...

Jonathan Hickman might be beloved for his creator-owned work at Image and his iconic runs on Avengers, Fantastic Four, and most recently X-Men at Marvel, but his next big project is a huge, out-of-this world collaboration on Substack with Mike del Mundo and Mike Huddleston—and io9 has a peek inside.

Although it wasn’t the first to do it, Nintendo certainly brought a renaissance to miniaturized throwback consoles with its NES and SNES Classic Editions, which then inspired miniaturized versions of the Sega Genesis, PlayStation, but, tragically, not the Vectrex, forcing Retro Game On’s Brendan to build their own.Read more...

There are two scenes in Wes Craven’s 1988 horror film The Serpent and the Rainbow that everyone remembers: Bill Pullman’s character having his groin mangled, and Bill Pullman’s character being buried alive with a tarantula. Those stick with you. Other elements of the movie are murkier—but a rewatch offers a reminder…Read more...

Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and BP, four of the largest petroleum companies, are raking in record profits. Meanwhile, prices at the pump have surpassed the (non-inflation adjusted) highs of 2008. If that dynamic seems fishy to you, you’re in good company. First, U.S. House Democrats and President Joe Biden raised concerns.…Read more...

A private aerospace company is preparing for the ultimate stunt in rocketry: attempting to catch a rocket mid-air as it returns to Earth from space using a large helicopter. The mission is scheduled to take off within a two-week window starting April 22.

This week on Gadgettes, we’ve got Kate Kozuch from Tom’s Guide joining us to talk about why the future of the smart home is not quite here yet. The unifying Matter standard won’t arrive until the end of the year, but we’ll talk about why that’s good news for your smart bulbs.

There’s a very good reason why the latest Buffy comic from Boom Studios is called just “The Vampire Slayer.” Buffy isn’t in the title because, well, Buffy isn’t the Slayer.Read more...

Don’t tell me that you didn’t like having a long Q-tip shoved so deep into your nostril that you felt like the swap was scratching an unknown itch in the back of your brainstem. Well, fine, now there’s another option for anybody too much of a wuss to take the “long 3,” as we “test-heads” or “swabbies” like to call it.Read more...

A string of severe hepatitis cases in children has doctors across both sides of the pond spooked. Dozens of children in the UK and Europe, as well as some in the U.S., have come down with symptoms of hepatitis not currently explained by known causes. Theories for the outbreak include the resurgence of an existing but…Read more...

Film, television, and game-inspired attractions and events are expanding both within theme parks and outside of them in new and exciting ways. Walt Disney World has officially announced its opening date for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Halloween Horror Nights Orlando tickets are on sale, and Coachella is…Read more...

Razer’s latest laptop has arrived, but it’s not what we were expecting. Not only is this Razer Blade 15 doppelganger not meant for gaming, but it’s not even being sold by Razer. This unique new notebook is instead a collaboration between Razer and Lambda, a company that makes workstations, GPUs, and servers for…Read more...

Employees of an environmental law clinic that has gained attention and support from celebrity heavyweights like Mark Ruffalo and the Daily Show say the organization has a culture hostile to LGBTQ people, E&E News reported Thursday. Leaders of the nonprofit law organization have reportedly also maintained relationships…Read more...

This May, Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi’s spiritual sequel to their “Shin Tokusatsu” series—encapsulating first Godzilla, and soon Kamen Rider—Shin Ultraman is will finally hit theaters in Japan, following multiple delays. But our latest look at the movie makes it clear it will be worth the wait.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams may well believe that all those who aren’t as big as he is on surveillance tech don’t have nearly as much “swagger” as he does, but he’s pushing for what could potentially be the widest adoption of a gun surveillance system of any city in the world.

It’s unfortunate that the fundamental ingredients that make food taste better—salt and sugar—can have less than desired effects on the human body if over-consumed. But just as VR goggles can trick the eyes into seeing 3D worlds that don’t exist, these chopsticks can trick the user’s tongue into tasting salty flavors,…Read more...

Grant Morrison is well-known for their many acclaimed contributions to comics—with writing credits for Marvel (Fantastic Four, X-Men) and DC (Batman, Superman), as well as the upcoming Flash movie, Peacock’s Brave New World series, their nonfiction book Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero, and so much…Read more...

Marvel’s Emmy plans seemingly confirm there won’t be more on the way for either Hawkeye or Moon Knight. A familiar Munsters face will return for Rob Zombie’s new movie. Jean-Luc Picard faces the wrath of the FBI in a new Picard clip. Plus, more mystery Kraven casting. Spoilers get!

Soil scientist Rose Abramoff has long tried to be “apolitical,” she says, in her efforts to educate people about climate change: She’s supported efforts at non-profits and fact-checked materials for organizations, for example, alongside writing her own reports on the climate crisis. But not anymore.

Chances are you spend a lot of time in a web browser every day—so anything you can do to speed up the way you get around the internet is going to make a significant difference to your productivity levels (and give you extra time to do something more exciting). Yes, even on the best web browsers. Here’s one such hack…Read more...

Lenovo’s Yoga 9i (formerly Yoga 900) laptops have been some of the easiest to recommend in the past thanks to their premium feel and robust feature sets, but they have, in recent years, lacked a certain something. The MacBook Air gets by on build quality and outstanding performance, HP’s Spectres are pure luxury, and…Read more...

Apple is readying its next fleet of laptops and desktops as it transitions into the second phase of Mac products powered by custom silicon, a new report from Bloomberg says.

A plant named for its own disappearance isn’t quite so extinct after all. In new research this week, botanists provide clear evidence that populations of the wildflower Gasteranthus extinctus can still be found in the cloud forests of Ecuador, decades after it was thought to have been killed off. The plant’s…Read more...

The hackers behind the March 23 theft of roughly $625 million worth of cryptocurrency from the Ronin blockchain are based in North Korea, according to a new announcement from the FBI. The federal law enforcement agency claims the Lazarus Group, North Korea’s most notorious hacker gang, is laundering the money for Kim…Read more...

The X-Men are in a better place right now at Marvel Comics than they have been in arguably a decade. The Krakoan era has revitalized an incredible line of X-Comics, and within the fiction mutantkind stands powerful, united (well, if you don’t squint), and ascendant. But for some, the X-Men will always be that halcyon…Read more...

There are many, many things that make the world of PlayStation’s Horizon Forbidden West incredibly excellent. The dynamic hero, Aloy, is one. The mysterious, global story is another. But truly, the thing that I love most about the world of Horizon is all the amazing robot dinosaurs.Read more...

Space is practically infinite, but it’s been unreasonably restrictive when it comes to inclusivity. NASA announced the release of its first-ever equity action plan to try to resolve the diversity and accessibility issues that have plagued the space agency for decades.Read more...

Sometimes things that make stereotypes ugly need to be made powerful. In Everything Everywhere All at Once, the Daniels (directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Shneirt) have proven that they don’t care about stereotypes, and they may have you questioning why something as ubiquitous as a fanny pack became a source of…Read more...

I recently visited the site of a soon-to-open superconducting particle accelerator, where researchers will probe things like the mechanisms behind photosynthesis and the efficiency of batteries using some of the most powerful X-rays in the world. Being there felt a bit like seeing the future. Here’s a look at what’s…Read more...

As easy as it is to flip the Nintendo Switch from a handheld gaming system to a full-blown gaming console, the dock Nintendo bundles with it for connecting it to a TV is big, bulky, and incredibly immobile. A better alternative when traveling with the Switch is something like the Genki Covert Dock, which looks like a…Read more...

The upcoming DC Universe film Blue Beetle has added Susan Sarandon as main antagonist Victoria Kord, the Wrap reports. Previously Sharon Stone was in talks to join the film in the same role; Kord is a new character created for the movie.Read more...

Chile’s Atacama Desert is a place of surreal contradictions: Delicate flowers, blooming only once or twice a decade, suddenly cover a bone-dry landscape. Huge dunes of discarded clothing appear alongside undulating sand.

Whenever a revival or legacy sequel to a popular piece of media springs up, one of the first real questions is which veteran actors will return. These days, actors going back to the iconic roles that helped make them famous is practically a job unto itself, if not the point of these revivals from the jump. Either in…Read more...

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WhatsApp is getting new features that will let users grow their circle of friends or grow to hate their circle of friends. Dealer’s choice, really.

Following his $43 billion offer to buy Twitter, Elon Musk shared his perspective on the future of the social network on Thursday during a live TED event.Read more...

A team of researchers poring over archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope found an ancient object they believe may explain how quasars—supermassive black holes surrounded by jet-spewing discs of matter—emerge from dusty “starburst” galaxies.

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Big tech daddy and daddy are fighting.Read more...