Gizmodo

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular round-up of the newest and greatest plastic-based news. This week: Loki brings its latest mystery to the toy shelf, McFarlane goes retro with the Bright Knight, and Donald Duck (and his nephews) get some adorably animated figures. Check it out!

We might not be getting a Gambit movie anytime soon, but at least we’ve got another card-wielding superhuman on the way: DC Comics’ Madame Xanadu. True Blood writer and executive producer Angela Robinson is heading to HBO Max with a new TV series based on the immortal clairvoyant, with J.J. Abrams serving as producer.

After two years of investigations and a 30-hour debating session on the House floor, the US House Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to pass a sweeping six-bill package collectively meant to reign in Big Tech’s massive market power.Read more...

Someone is using cracked copies of top video game titles to install crypto-mining malware on PCs belonging to hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting victims—a ploy that’s netted the criminals a hefty $2 million so far.

Six months have passed since news of the next Star Wars movie broke and now we finally have another piece of the puzzle. We already knew that Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins will be making Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, and that the film is aimed at a December 22, 2023 release. Now we know it’ll reportedly be written…Read more...

Perhaps weary of America’s gruesome mass-murder ritual, cows across the country have decided to do something else and go somewhere. We can’t know why or where because we can’t talk to them, but the thought process was probably along the lines of: There’s somethin’ happenin’ somewhere. Baby, I just know that there is.…Read more...

Covid-19 booster vaccines could eventually be needed for everyone, though some faster than others—at least, those are the apparent expectations coming from the World Health Organization. On Thursday, Reuters reported on WHO internal documents laying out their scenarios for the near future of the pandemic, including…Read more...

The truth is finally out here. On Friday, the Pentagon released its highly anticipated report summarizing previously classified information about the military’s research into UFOs—or as it prefers to call them, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). What bombshell revelations does the report contain? Well, it’s only…Read more...

It is a good time to be a superheroic animal. DC’s League of Super-Pets animated movie is on the way and has somehow nabbed Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the voice of Krypto the Superdog, along with Kevin Hart as Ace the Bat-Hound, plus Keanu Reeves, Kate McKinnon, Diego Luna, and more. But these critters—and maybe…Read more...

Verizon is looking to sell you a smart display, perhaps to finally launch its BlueJeans video conferencing service.

An upgraded FAA operators license now allows Virgin Galactic to include paying customers on its space flights, in what is a major milestone for the company and also the nascent space tourism sector.

Insert “the spice must flow... later” joke here. Warner Bros. has shaken up its 2021 release schedule, moving Dune once again further down the line. However, this time it isn’t as dramatic. It’s only by three weeks.

Even though many people agree Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is the worst Star Wars movie, it’s one of the most consequential. The latest episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch dug deep into that film, with characters and revelations that will get even the most casual Star Wars fans speculating.Read more...

Researchers peering at layered deposits on Mars’ south pole found what appear to be dozens of subsurface lakes, though many of them are in areas where water would be frozen.

When Microsoft introduced Windows 11 this week, it also made a fanfare of bringing Android apps to the OS through the Amazon Appstore. It’s an exciting feature both for Windows diehards looking for more ways to tinker and for casual users who might want the added utility of an Android app. But the initial announcement…Read more...

Evil is back—streaming on Paramount+ instead of CBS in its second season—and its most memorable character, Leland Townsend, is already causing mischief for its trio of Catholic Church-sponsored supernatural investigators. To learn more about what’s to come, we hopped on the phone with the actor who brings him to life:…Read more...

A San Francisco tech company paid millions by the U.S. military has turned an army of overseas cellphone users into a sweeping open-source intelligence network, gleaning data from cell towers and wifi hotspots in countries long engulfed by armed conflict with American forces and allies.

In what looks to be a bigger push into the secured messaging space, Amazon’s AWS has just announced that it is acquiring Wickr.Read more...

Here are some terrifying images of the growing tick threat in North America, courtesy of NASA satellite data. The images accompany recent research showing that warmer climates over the past two decades have allowed Lyme disease-carrying deer ticks to survive and spread farther into Canada and parts of the Northern U.S.

Warren Ellis, known for his work across Marvel and DC Comics and Netflix’s Castlevania adaptation, has made a new statement after a year of public silence following numerous allegations in 2020 of longstanding sexually predatory behavior. The author has asked his fans not to defend his prior actions in the wake of a …Read more...

New research shows we have to start getting cars off the road—and fast—if we want to avoid cities being overrun by gridlock.Read more...

Following airlines warning this week that domestic flights are devolving into psychological thrillers, the TSA has cautioned that checkpoint security personnel, too, are facing Americans’ inexplicable wrath. In a statement released Thursday titled “TSA reminds passengers to remain calm and respectful at security…Read more...

“Bridgadoon, Schmigadoon.” Saturday Night Live’s Cecily Strong and Key and Peele’s Keegan-Michael Key are stretching their vocal cords in new series Schmigadoon, about a couple who’s stuck in a world of song and dance until they can find “true love.”

Police in Japan have arrested three individuals for posting “fast movies”—entire films edited down to summaries of around 10 minutes or less, which anti-piracy groups claim goes far beyond fair use—in a first-of-its-kind crackdown, according to the Japan Times.

An Aboriginal group is accusing an Australian mining giant of destroying priceless historical materials and keeping their destruction secret for decades, claiming that some artifacts were quite literally thrown into the trash.Read more...

Look, I get it. Your fluffy backyard flock is a source of never-ending joy, delicious fresh eggs, and hilarious antics. Sometimes you just want to scoop up a hen and give her a big fat kiss on the head because she’s so dang cute. Here’s the thing: Don’t.Read more...

Even after you watch the titular boogeyman of director Bernard Rose’s 1992 Candyman tear into victims with his gruesome hook hand, it’s inexplicably tempting to find the nearest mirror and speak his name five times just to see what will happen. Everything about Candyman explains why you shouldn’t do this. And yet…Read more...

The rumor mill surrounding Samsung’s next-gen smartwatches has been absolutely buzzing these past few weeks. The latest contends that Samsung’s next flagship—the Galaxy Watch 4—might add a bioimpedance analysis (BIA) sensor. If you’ve never heard of BIA before, it’s the same tech used in smart scales to determine your…Read more...

A comprehensive analysis of an unusually large skull found in Harbin, China has led to the reported discovery of a previously unknown species of extinct human, dubbed “Dragon Man.” Dating back some 146,000 years, the skull is forcing a re-think of human evolution in Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, but…Read more...

Once an expensive convenience reserved only for premium headphones, completely wire-free options are now the norm. If you haven’t already, now’s a great time to upgrade, because the headphone jack is disappearing from more and more devices, and it’s not ever coming back. How you plan to use your headphones will…Read more...

Ahead of their rumored launch sometime in August, Samsung’s two next-gen foldable phones have seemingly just been revealed in a series of leaked photos sporting some interesting upgrades.Read more...

Supernatural fans “rejoiced” (maybe?) when they learned star Jensen Ackles and his wife Danneel Ackles were developing a prequel series about Sam and Dean’s parents, called The Winchesters. But there’s one person who apparently didn’t get the memo: Sam Winchester. “I’m gutted,” actor Jared Padalecki said.Read more...

Kevin Smith can’t help but hype up Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Phil Lord and Chris Miller are back to working on Clone High. The Walking Dead offers a tiny tease of what to expect next season. Plus, Mattel really wants to keep that Polly Pocket movie happening. Spoilers now!

The days of pressing the wrong key and losing a whole week’s worth of work should be long gone now. Today’s cloud-based apps keep duplicate copies of everything, saving you the hassle of manual backups. These programs also have detailed version histories, so you can quickly roll back to a different version of a file…Read more...

For every popular YouTube channel with millions of subscribers (think Mark Rober, Adam Savage’s Tested, and The Slow Mo Guys), there are even more interesting, under-the-radar channels worth following. These are perfect for an end-of-work-day distraction—a soothing way to get you through the last few hours of a 9-5.Read more...

Western Digital’s popular My Book Live hard drives are being deleted remotely by an unknown attacker, according to the company. And there’s not much anyone can do at this point but unplug their drives from the internet.

El Salvador will give every adult citizen $30 in bitcoin, provided they download and register the government’s cryptocurrency app, known as Chivo, according to President Nayib Bukele.

Robinhood’s plan to go public this summer is facing delays as federal regulators scrutinize its growing cryptocurrency enterprise, Bloomberg reports.Read more...

Did anyone really think Michael Myers was gonna perish in Laurie Strode’s fiery home at the end of 2018's Halloween? He’s survived being shot, stabbed, beheaded (sort of)... hell, he’s even been set on fire before. And we all knew Halloween Kills was coming. So yeah. But still, the first trailer for the…Read more...

All aboard the space balloon!Read more...

Much like the first Iron Man took a smaller character from the comics and made him into a huge star to kick off a brand new story, Shang-Chi will soon do the same. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will be the full-fledged theatrical kickoff to Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Its second trailer is…Read more...

For the first time in more than a decade, a legislative effort to capture Supreme Court hearings and other federal court proceedings on camera has cleared the Senate committee.Read more...

Windows is my desktop operating system. It’s what I’ve been using all my life. I feel just as married to it as my Android smartphone, which has been my mobile OS since the dawn of smartphones (or just shortly thereafter). But despite the different ways that I can sync the two platforms through apps and browsers, I…Read more...

It’s the halfway point on Star Wars: The Bad Batch and there’s still plenty of loose ends to tie up. This past week was the Disney+ series’ eighth episode, with eight more to go in the first season. So far Clone Force 99 has run into Captain Rex, Cad Bane, Kanan Jarrus, Fennic Shand, and more. Now, a new video looks…Read more...

It feels like we’ve lived with the “Does Batman perform oral sex?” discourse for a million years now, because this is the internet and that’s how time works. It felt that way, perhaps, when Justice League director Zack Snyder eventually weighed in with... let’s say declarative artwork that Batman does indeed do what…Read more...

ATM hacking is nothing new. Like any human-designed system, they’re bound to contain a flaw or two, or simply fail with time against faster, better technologies. Unlike most hardware, though, ATMs seem to occupy a special place in the imaginations of people who derive sick pleasure from watching supposedly impregnable…Read more...

Today Microsoft announced the next big chapter for its ubiquitous operating system: Windows 11 is here, and while there’s some awkwardness to work out (specifically in the way Microsoft is handling Android app integration), Windows 11 feels like the big facelift Microsoft really needed.Read more...

The evolution of the Fast and Furious films really makes it a fascinating franchise. It began simply enough; a familiar action film set in the flashy world of car modification and racing. But things got bigger. And bigger. Characters rose from the grave. Then they started jumping out of airplanes and flying through…Read more...

A major security flaw in Dell’s firmware updating and operating recovery software, BIOSConnect, potentially exposes tens of millions of devices that Dell preinstalled it on.

Ben Reilly already had a very wild legacy at Marvel Comics, but his return a few years ago in Clone Conspiracy—and his spinoff series as the Scarlet Spider once more—only added to a backstory that, even by comic book superheroes’ most egregious standards, was a bit bonkers. Ben’s pushing all that aside though in a new…Read more...