Gizmodo

At the start of the pandemic, Apple and Google scrambled to enable covid-19 contact tracing on their respective smartphone operating systems. The feature, which works across iOS and Android, was designed to help folks quickly determine if they’d been exposed to the virus by simply enabling a contact-tracing setting.…Read more...

A known DDT dump site off the coast of Southern California is considerably larger than suspected, in a discovery that’s sounding the alarm bells.Read more...

At approximately 2:45 p.m. ET on Saturday, a ray of light illuminated my personal wrinkle of our ongoing global nightmare: I got my second shot. What followed was roughly 48 hours of debilitating side effects—a consequence I can only describe as fantastic.Read more...

Razer products are known for their in-your-face-designs and attention-grabbing RGB lighting, but for its new Orochi V2 mouse, Razer stripped away almost all the extra fluff and created a super simple and lightweight travel mouse for gamers.

In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s fourth episode, the titular pair of former Avengers are on a mission to stop Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman) and her fellow Flag-Smashers. The group’s ill-defined plan puts them at odds with John Walker (Wyatt Russell), the U.S. government’s newly christened Captain America,…Read more...

For three months in 2019, physicists blasted a beam of electrons at lead atoms that were held in place by foil made of diamond. The team was trying to determine the thickness of the neutron skin, the sheath of neutrally charged neutrons that surrounds the positively charged protons in a lead atom’s nucleus. They…Read more...

Though movie theaters are starting to allow patrons these days, the safer option remains streaming. Those who choose to stay home and stream are constantly rewarded with so much new content it’s mind-boggling. At the start of each month, most streamers—Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Disney+, and HBO Max—do a little shuffle,…Read more...

Apple’s second generation of custom ARM processors have reportedly entered mass production, reports Nikkei Asia. Sources familiar with the matter told the publication we could see MacBooks with the new chip start shipping as early as July this year. Rumors that next-gen MacBooks will go on sale later this year have…Read more...

When discussing planet-warming emissions, we often talk about carbon dioxide. In the U.S., it accounts for about 80% of our greenhouse gas output. But a new study shows we’d do well to focus more on another greenhouse gas: methane.

In a coming-of-age tale for the 21st century, Disaster Girl—the cherubic 4-year-old whose criminal grin in front of a burning building captured the internet-poisoned soul of her forebearers—has become an NFT. Now-Disaster Woman Zoe Roth, age 21, has sold her image for 180 Ethereum (currently, $473,000 USD).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is relaxing its guidelines around wearing masks during the pandemic. On Tuesday, it announced that people fully vaccinated against covid-19 should feel safe and free to not wear masks outdoors, unless they’re in crowded settings. The guidelines also note that unvaccinated…Read more...

Oh, and that RoboCop-centaur? He’s Paul Revere, because that’s what happens when you let the makers of Archer retell the founding of the United States.

Two things can be true: President Joe Biden will not ban burgers and we also need to consume less of them. This tension is central to what could be the most pitched culture war of this decade as the U.S. grapples with reducing emissions as part of a global effort to address climate change.Read more...

I can’t believe it took this long to happen, but Cartoon Network’s hit DC cartoons Teen Titan Go and DC Super Hero Girls are finally teaming up. The two shows and their heroes will join forces in a one-hour special this May when they both get invited to... the Space House. It’s in space.

Last week, NASA selected Elon Musk’s SpaceX over two other contenders to build the upcoming Artemis lunar lander. Blue Origin, founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has now filed an official protest against the decision, in a development that’s bound to intensify this long-standing rivalry.

Despite containing no actual magic, the Magic 8-Ball has been providing random answers to life’s important questions since 1950. But the iconic toy is over 70 years old now, and it’s about time for an upgrade for the 21st century. DJ Harrigan modernized the device so that it now responds with animated GIFs.Read more...

So far this year Samsung hasn’t said much about its next batch of foldable phones, though thanks to a recent spate of leaks and rumors, we may now have a better idea of what to expect as early as this summer.Read more...

We’re just days away from the debut of Yasuke, but Netflix has dropped a new trailer for the anime series that somehow has us even more excited to see it. That’s possibly because it features a lot more plot... but also possibly because it showcases some wild ninja magic and something that is clearly a steampunk mecha?

Climate change and global inequality are deeply intertwined. The climate crisis disproportionately affects impoverished people who are more exposed to extreme events and risk losing everything when disaster strikes.Read more...

After creator Joel Hodgson launched a new Kickstarter, it took just over a day for Mystery Science Theater 3000’s legion of fans to bring back the show (again). This shouldn’t have surprised anybody—there’s a reason why MST3K has stuck around for more than 30 years, and that’s because people love watching robot…Read more...

In a first for virtual reality headsets, HTC announced it’s partnering with iFixit to offer official HTC Vive parts, accessories, and repair guides so customers can fix their own headsets.Read more...

Every culture has a different benchmark for when a boy becomes a man. But for handheld consoles, it apparently happens somewhere around the time that they’re upgraded with a color screen and the ability to play NES games. But despite the status update, the Grumpy Modeler’s Nintendo Game Man still isn’t allowed to vote.Read more...

It was supposed to be an easy gig. Jason Glick had been acting for more than 30 years, mostly in stage productions, but the occasional on-screen commercial work helped cover the bills, and the shoot for the Quantum Code paid too well to pass up. In a half-hour pitch video with more than 4 million views on Facebook,…Read more...

Hackers with the Babuk Locker ransomware gang claim to have stolen 250GB of sensitive internal documents belonging to the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, and are now extorting the public agency for an unknown sum of money.Read more...

Netflix has nabbed itself a new Thai horror film about supernatural research. Josh Hartnett joins the Fear Index adaptation. Plus, Legends of Tomorrow teases its finale. Spoilers get!

Our minds were blown back in 2012 when researchers at MIT demonstrated a new coating that let ketchup slide right out of a bottle with ease. Nine years later, the technology, known as LiquiGlide, is about to make it incredibly easy to get every last drop of toothpaste out of a tube without having to completely flatten…Read more...

You may have missed it in between the colorful new iMacs and AirTag announcements, but the iPad Pro models that Apple introduced last week come with an interesting video-calling feature called Center Stage, which is designed to keep you in the center of the frame at all times. Here’s how it’s supposed to work, and the…Read more...

YouTube launched a series of public service announcements on Monday encouraging people to get vaccinated for covid-19. The videos come as health experts in the U.S. worry there will soon be more covid-19 vaccine doses available to Americans than people who want to take them.Read more...

Four years in the making, a pragmatic mission concept for an interstellar probe would go beyond the Voyager Interstellar Mission, in which two spacecraft left Earth in the 1970s and are now the most distant human-made objects. The team behind the project detailed their proposal today at the annual general assembly of…Read more...

Out of all the awkward and weird things that made this year’s Oscars rather cringeworthy at times, nothing stood out quite like the Academy’s decision to commission artist Andre Oshea to create NFT art of Chadwick Boseman.Read more...

BuzzFeed has posted the entirety of internal Facebook documents outlining in detail the results of the company’s investigation into its role in the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, during and after which at least five people died.

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak has backtracked on legislation plans that would have allowed tech companies to form autonomous “Innovation Zones” anywhere in the state, reports The Nevada Independent. Instead of allowing categories of tech companies, including blockchain and internet of things, to create what are…Read more...

Roku is publicly duking it out with Google, a feud that could see the YouTube TV live television app disappear from the streaming platform.Read more...

With the long-awaited Y: The Last Man series set to hit FX on Hulu sometime later this year, another upcoming Brian K. Vaughan adaptation has now taken a big step forward. Amazon has just revealed some major casting for its adaptation of Vaughan and Cliff Chiang’s acclaimed comic Paper Girls.Read more...

If you haven’t already, you should update your Mac right now. A recently patched zero-day vulnerability in macOS operating systems has been allowing hackers to bypass much of Apple’s security protocols and deploy malware on an unknown amount of computers, new research shows.Read more...

With Falcon and the Winter Soldier done and dusted, so cometh the inevitable wave of tie-in merchandise to capitalize on the Disney+ streaming show. But if you’re looking for, say, an action figure of Sam Wilson as Captain America from Hasbro, it turns out you’re gonna need a lot more than the 20-odd dollars you were…Read more...

This summer, you might want to add “unplugging Google” after checking for bedbugs to the list of tasks to complete when you settle into a hotel room.

iOS 14.5 is finally here, baby! And with it comes much-anticipated Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature, which allows users to grant or deny apps permission to track their activity for targeted advertising. (This feature has been in the works for awhile, and it’s got companies like Facebook shaking in their boots…Read more...

On Thursday, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro did something weird: He pledged to double his government’s spending to enforce measures to reduce deforestation in the Amazon and stop it altogether by the end of the decade.Read more...

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will be hearing a case that started with a few swears shared on one teen’s Snapchat account, before turning into a major suit that tests the limits of what students are allowed to say on their campus.Read more...

Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train already made waves in its home territory as large as its name is long last year, as Japan’s most financially successful movie in the country’s box office history. It’s only been out in the United States for a weekend, and it’s already breaking records here too.

What happens if you put 15 people together in a dark cave and take away their ability to track the passage of time? An extraordinary experiment in France has attempted to answer this question, and the results are fascinating.

An Alaska state senator filmed arguing with Alaska Airlines staff and police at Juneau International Airport over her refusal to wear a mask before boarding a flight is finding out the hard way that actions have consequences.

While A Black Lady Sketch Show’s best joke of season one was actually the slow-burn, apocalyptic narrative stringing all of the different sketches together, the finale’s cliffhanger left a rather important question looming over the series’ future: how the hell do you keep that story going? The season two premiere…Read more...

In this tipsy-topsy world of ours, it seems like nothing is set in stone—especially if it’s part of the Game of Thrones franchise. But fans can breathe at least one sigh of relief because HBO’s House of the Dragon, the TV series prequel that chronicles the civil war that engulfed House Targaryen, is officially in…Read more...

With their rigid structures and lack of appendages, sponges can seem more like plants or fungi than the animals that they are. Long assumed to be basically immobile, sponges have been spotted leaving trails on the Arctic ocean floor, evidence they have more going on than scientists previously thought.

Buying a high-end GPU is the fastest way to fill up your wallet with Ethereum, Litecoin, or whatever the cool kids are mining these days. But you can program virtually any computer to process hash functions—even the Commodore 64.

Ridley Scott’s Alien is always going to end the same way. Ellen Ripley will always think she’s escaped the Nostromo until one last, surprise showdown with the alien, which she then—finally—blasts into space. It’s a fantastic ending. The culmination of an undeniable masterpiece. Now imagine sitting down to watch Alien…Read more...

iOS 14.5 is officially rolling out today as an over-the-air update for iPhone owners.

Did you watch the new Mortal Kombat movie this weekend? While it wasn’t a flawless victory, fans of the hyper-violent video game shouldn’t have much to complain about—it’s incredibly authentic to its source material, right down to the gory fatalities. It sounds like the sequel, if one gets made, will be as well.