Gizmodo

Remember Mega, the encrypted cloud storage company? No? Well, maybe you remember its predecessor, Megaupload, the file hosting provider that was accused of acting as a haven for licensing pirates during the mid-2000s and was subsequently shuttered by authorities. Prior to its shutdown, Megaupload was thought of as…Read more...

Those weird “loved ones come back from the dead to visit you” stunts pulled by celebrities like Kanye West may soon become a reality through your digital assistant.

With Prime Video’s prequel series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power arriving in early September, it stands to reason there’ll be a renewed interest in J.R.R. Tolkien’s original writings on Middle-earth’s Second Age. So the timing is perfect for The Fall of Númenor, which gathers all of Tolkien’s works on the…Read more...

Eventually, Google and other big tech companies want to dispense with passwords entirely, but until that day comes, a Google Password Manager feature called on-device encryption might be your best bet for protecting your precious codes. Though it quietly came out earlier this spring, since you can now easily access…Read more...

Health officials in the UK are on the hunt for any signs of the dreaded polio, the potentially debilitating viral illness that has been nearly eradicated worldwide thanks to vaccines. The country declared a national incident over conspicuous repeated findings of a weakened version of the poliovirus in London sewage.

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Born on the same fated day in 1989 to mothers who weren’t pregnant when they woke up that morning—then raised by an eccentric father figure keenly interested in their various superpowers—the Hargreeves siblings have been through a hell of a lot. Season three of The Umbrella Academy arrives on Netflix today to send…Read more...

Google has introduced a new label in Maps and Search that allows businesses to self-identify as LGBTQ+ owned, adding to a series of labels already on Google Maps that are meant to help people locate and support local businesses. It also comes with the capability to report any related harassment.Read more...

Smart hot tubs—yes, that’s a thing!—are the web’s newest spot for cybersecurity snafus.

NASA wants to build and transport a nuclear reactor to the Moon, which would power a sustained human presence for at least 10 years. To that end, the space agency has chosen three companies to develop design concepts for a nuclear fission system to be placed on the Moon in conjunction with the Artemis program.Read more...

Neo has taken the crypto red pill. Keanu Reeves and his partner Alexandra Grant have joined in the efforts of a foundation focused on NFTs and art in the metaverse, the Futureverse Foundation.

When we last saw Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) on Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, she was running away from scary government drones and agents, led by Agent Deever (Alyia Reiner) and straight into Kamran’s (Rish Shah) fancy car, where she meets the cute new boy’s mysterious mother Najma (Nimra Bucha). She says she’s been…Read more...

Although as inevitable as death and taxes, yesterday Micron revealed that its new industrial-grade i400 microSD will come in capacities ranging from 256GB to 1TB, and for the first time ever, a never-before-seen 1.5TB option that will undoubtedly be devastatingly expensive.Read more...

Scientists are investigating how blood splatter-like spots in snow could be connected to climate change. The reddish dots are made up of tiny algae that grow on snowy mountain ranges. The algae is originally green, but when it’s hit with sunlight, it turns red, creating the eerie blush.

In a new interview with Variety, Natalie Portman got candid about how she felt when she was asked to bulk up for her return role as Jane Foster in Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder. “On Black Swan, I was asked to get as small as possible,” she said. “Here, I was asked to get as big as possible. That’s an amazing…Read more...

If you’ve seen Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, you know the Marvel hero faces a bevy of villains—Gargantos the tentacle monster, the mentally unbalanced Scarlet Witch, and even an extremely evil version of himself. But in his jaunt through the multiverse, Strange managed to create a new foe—one that…Read more...

Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet company is on a collision course with 5G. That’s what SpaceX wants you to think, anyway.Read more...

It seems like magic: In millions of operations scattered around the globe (some big, some very small), waste is transformed into energy. Landfilled garbage, sewage, and farm effluent are processed into burnable biogas, which can be used as a substitute for natural gas, a fossil fuel. Unlike natural gas, which sits in…Read more...

NASA announced in May that its InSight Mars lander—a spacecraft that has spent nearly four years investigating Martian geology and seismic activity—would likely cease scientific operations in mid-summer and terminate all operations by the end of the year, due to low power levels. Now, the agency plans to stretch …Read more...

Obi-Wan Kenobi has reached its conclusion and I feel super weird about it. It’s that feeling you get after you finish a movie, show, or book you’ve been waiting forever for and it hasn’t quite processed yet. You know that it’s over, the mysteries are solved, and yet, you can’t believe that it happened. Obi-Wan Kenobi was kind of…Read more...

You’ve seen time machines that are cars. You’ve seen time machines that are phone booths. You’ve even seen them as hot tubs, spaceships, boxes, and necklaces. But you’ve never ever seen a time travel mixtape. That is, until Press Play.Read more...

Bats could be up there with elephants as animals that never forget. A new study found that wild bats were able to remember a specific ringtone four years after learning to associate it with food.

Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Sony, and other tech giants have formed a group designed to ensure interoperability in the metaverse. Notably absent from this list of heavyweights is Apple, a company heavily rumored to be working on its own mixed reality products.

There’s no worse way to spend a weekend afternoon than tromping through a maze-like Ikea store, which is why the augmented reality features in the company’s mobile app that let you try before you buy are so useful, and now even more useful, as the app can now automatically erase your room’s existing furniture without…Read more...

UK health officials are planning to more widely offer smallpox vaccines—which are effective against the related monkeypox virus—to some gay and bisexual men. The expanded outreach is part of a renewed strategy to contain the emerging viral disease, which recently has spread far beyond the few areas of the world where…Read more...

Vape ‘em while you still got ‘em. A new report says that the Food and Drug Administration is planning to cut off Juul from the U.S. market, a move that would likely doom the e-cig manufacturer and leave a huge hole in the alternate-nicotine industry just as federal regulators are planning to nerf traditional…Read more...

Twitter is allegedly gearing up to launch a long-form blogging feature on its websites that will allow users to expand on its 280-character limit.

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Acclaimed singer-songwriter Kate Bush has rocketed back to the top of the streaming charts according to both Billboard and Spotify after her 1985 hit Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) was featured in the hit supernatural series, Stranger Things. According to The Hollywood Reporter, after the show’s initial…Read more...

For a lot of us, day-to-day computing involves using more than one computer—and sometimes more than one computer operating system too. That can mean a lot of wires and a lot of swapping between keyboards, mice and trackpads, but there are now multiple hardware and software options for sharing one set of input devices…Read more...

As capable as the Apple Watch is at keeping users connected and keeping tabs on their health, it hasn’t completely lived up to the promise of being a truly all-in-one device you can wear. With a new app called WatchTube, however, it might finally fulfill that promise with millions of hours of distracting YouTube…Read more...

Amazon has faced lots of public scrutiny and backlash for the dangerous working conditions in its warehouses. And rightfully so. Amazon warehouses seem like bad places to work. As a consequence, there’ve been hints that the company is struggling to find enough people to fill all the warehouse jobs.

Gaming laptops are trending toward mobility, with sleek notebooks like the Asus Zephyrus G14 and Alienware X15 punching well above their weight class in terms of gaming ability. But every millimeter you take away leads to compromises, often in the way of performance and cooling. Enter the MSI Raider GE76 12U, a…Read more...

At least 1,000 people are dead and more than 1,500 were injured after a massive earthquake struck a portion of southeastern Afghanistan early Wednesday morning, according to state-run media and the United Nations. Experts expect the death toll to increase as more victims are accounted for.Read more...

There are even more rumors about Thor: Love and Thunder’s runtime. Apple’s fantasy animated musical Spellbound adds some heavy hitters to the cast. Plus, get a look at Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ fantastical new episode, and a clip from today’s Ms. Marvel. To me, my spoilers!

The MacBook Pro 13 is a forgotten child, the only remaining product in Apple’s notebook family without a redesigned chassis and upgraded specs. Besides receiving a new processor, this latest model was left untouched. As such, this review is as much about Apple’s M2 chip as it is about the newest version of the MacBook…Read more...

Workplace messaging app Slack wants to give you even fewer reasons to return to the office. The company plans to add video calling to its “Huddle” feature, which as of now allows two or more users to speak to each other via voice chat. Multiple coworkers will also be able to share their screens simultaneously in the…Read more...

President Joe Biden will ask Congress to suspend the federal gasoline tax for three months in a speech on Wednesday afternoon, according to a new report from the New York Times. The nationwide average for a gallon of gas recently topped $5.00, though the average in some states like Calfornia is more like $6.38 per…Read more...

This past weekend Lego held its second annual Lego Con: an online virtual event where the company revealed a collection of new sets for 2022 that would have otherwise been announced at events like Toy Fair New York which have been cancelled once again due to the ongoing pandemic.Read more...

Scientists have finally unraveled the genetic secrets of humanity’s coziest roommates: Demodex folliculorum, also known as the skin mite. Among other things, the findings confirm that these mites actually do have anuses, contrary to previous speculation. They also indicate that the microscopic animals may not be as…Read more...

Just before the Gaming Shelf takes an extended break (we’ll be back July 12!) I’m thrilled to be able to spotlight some tabletop games and creators who have been working hard over the past months to bring us some great pieces. We’ve got indie studio Possible Worlds Games as well as a bit of a new direction for the…Read more...

Just in time for the release of Thor: Love and Thunder or San Diego Comic-Con convention season, here are some worthy fashions, collectibles, and accessories to add to your Marvel Studios collection. You can find them at ShopDisney, Disney Parks, Box Lunch, Hot Topic, HerUniverse, Ulta, and other retailers.Read more...

Microsoft’s turning its back on its scientifically suspect and ethically dubious emotion recognition technology. For now, at least.Read more...

Today is officially the first day of summer, but seriously hot weather first arrived in some parts of the country over a month ago. And the scorching trend is set to continue. The National Weather Service is forecasting more triple-digit temperatures across large swathes of the U.S. this week.

IGN has revealed a series of photos from the new Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, this time showing off the “new and unimproved” Orcs of this age. And for once, worse is actually better here.Read more...

Joe Biden’s administration is looking to reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes sold in the U.S., the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. The move could be a big blow to the tobacco industry but may help curb smokers’ dependence on cigarettes.Read more...

NASA wrapped up its fourth wet dress rehearsal of the Space Launch System yesterday, during which time ground teams achieved a number of key test objectives. That said, an unresolved hydrogen leak prevented a full completion of the test, in a development that could further complicate the Artemis 1 mission schedule.Read more...

On Monday, one of the world’s biggest purveyors of porn, MindGeek, announced that executives CEO Feras Antoon and COO David Tassillo have resigned from the company following a string of controversies.

The best movie rewatches happen when you revisit a film you know you liked, but don’t really remember. That happened to me last week with Steven Spielberg’s 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report. I saw it in theaters when it was released 20 years ago this week but have probably only seen it once since then. So I was…Read more...

Nothing, the smartphone brainchild of CEO Carl Pei, co-founder of OnePlus, is once again testing the efficacy of its hype machine. The company is currently known for its economical earbuds, the Ear (1), which offer a pretty impressive bang for the buck at $100. It’s also been relentlessly teasing the upcoming launch…Read more...