Gizmodo

After Microsoft caused an uproar with its very weird, very invasive “Productivity Score” tool, which essentially spied on Microsoft 365 users’ activity and reported it back to their employers, the company has walked back the creepiest part of that feature.Read more...

If you’ve ever tried in vain to figure out whether or not a local restaurant takes reservations, or spent hours researching the perfect hiking trail only to arrive and find it closed for maintenance, you understand the unique hassle of living in a society. Things are always changing! It’s all terribly confusing and…Read more...

As much as I love technology, there’s still a lot about it that I don’t trust. Driverless cars are one of them. One horror story about an autopilot malfunction is enough to scare most people away from the tech, and that’s definitely the case for me. I’ve spent 15 years learning how to dodge a car that’s about to merge…Read more...

Sequels are hard; any fan of pop culture can tell you that. A sequel can’t just match the success of the original, it has to expand on and deepen it. Recontextualize the whole thing in new and exciting ways. Very few sequels achieve this and no one would know that better than fans of, or characters in, Ernest Cline’s …Read more...

While reports of Xbox Series X fires seem to have amounted to nothing after it turned out people were blowing vape smoke through the cases, reports of NZXT’s H1 PC cases catching on fire—the ones that kind of look like an Xbox Series X—are real. As reported by TechSpot, the company is advising H1 owners who have yet…Read more...

Back in September of 2019, a 600+ foot cargo ship called the MV Golden Ray, which was apparently loaded in an unstable fashion with over 4,000 cars, capsized in St. Simons Sound just off the port of Brunswick, Georgia. Since then, responders have been working to remove the ship in sections to send the hulk to the…Read more...

It’s tempting to think that since 2020 was basically one real-life nightmare after another, the last thing anyone would want to do is engage with fictional horror on top of that. But that would be discounting the positive power of certain horror movies, TV shows, and video games that helped us navigate through the…Read more...

We can’t blame you if you forgot about Facebook’s Libra project. The blockchain-based ZuckBuck scheme is the basis for a future payment/scam gateway, but not much has come out of the platform in the past few years... until now. In fact, the fintech giant is proud to announce that the platform has taken the bold and…Read more...

A tiny mystery object is zipping past the Earth today, providing astronomers with an excellent opportunity to finally confirm it as being the upper stage of a Centaur rocket that was launched by NASA in 1966.Read more...

Never underestimate the power of one cell. That’s how many cells foraminifera—little sea creatures with striking shells—have. But boy can they do a lot with it. They’re the world’s tiniest geochemists, tinkering with the ocean.Read more...

Well, it looks like YouTube TV is losing another sports channel.

If you’re anything at all like me—and God, I hope you’re not—you never throw anything that uses electricity out, and have developed an elaborate series of dubious justifications to explain why it is actually perfectly rational. Maybe, after all, you’ll need that USB-A to RCA converter cable in the future, or you’ll…Read more...

While the Nintendo Switch is undoubtedly a great little game console, but more than three years after its launch, some of its software still feels a bit clunky. Now Nintendo is officially joining the year 2020 (just as it’s about to end, but that’s fine!) with a Switch upgrade that adds some much-needed features.Read more...

Following a months-long staffing spree, Facebook’s Independent Oversight Board announced the first six cases it’s taking on to deliberate Facebook’s sprawling policies surrounding content moderation.Read more...

Uber claims more turf in the pandemic food delivery conquest: the company has finally acquired the grocery delivery service Postmates because, in Uber’s masterful doublespeak, “combination of platforms provides more choice.” They actually said that. Postmates will retain its logo and app but will merge its delivery…Read more...

Pavilion 13t (Core i5, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) | $579 | HP | Promo Code SMBHOL10Read more...

Showtime’s got some good shows, but streaming them requires yet another subscription. However, according to Variety, the premium channel is now adding a smattering of its original programming to a free channel on Pluto TV.Read more...

We got another one. On Monday evening, Bank of America said that it will no longer finance fossil fuel exploration in the Arctic, joining Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Chase, Wells Fargo, and CitiBank, which all announced similar policies this year. That means no major U.S. bank will fund oil and gas production in…Read more...

Robots might have already taken over industries like manufacturing, but when it comes to more creative endeavors, like the arts, humans still hold a strong lead. But for how long? Disney’s researchers have created a system that allows human artists to teach aspiring robotic Michelangelos how to sculpt clay using tools…Read more...

When the fossil fuel industry finally winds down in the coming decades, 2020 will stand as a pivotal year. Major corporations have been knocked off their pedestals, and there’s no bigger fall than Exxon’s.Read more...

A Game of Thrones star is set to board the remake of cult classic The Toxic Avenger. The Mandalorian may have more in store for its recent guest star. Hawkeye’s Disney+ series may finally be underway. Plus updates from Batwoman, The Flash, Star Trek: Discovery, and more. Spoilers away!Read more...

Consumer mixed-reality headsets have come a long way since the first Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, thanks to higher-resolution displays, faster refresh rates, improved motion-tracking, and more. However, enterprise-level headsets have arguably made even bigger strides, and with its new third-gen VR and XR HMDs, Varjo…Read more...

With the RTX 3090, 3080, and 3070 graphics card launches now behind us, Nvidia has one more trick up its sleeve to close out 2020: the RTX 3060 Ti. Not quite a high-end graphics card and not quite a budget card, this latest addition to the 30-series family packs a bigger punch than any of the last-gen 20-series Super…Read more...

The 1,000-foot radio dish at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has collapsed, according to officials and local reports.Read more...

One of President Donald Trump’s remaining election lawyers, Joe diGenova, declared on Monday that former DHS cybersecurity official Chris Krebs should be executed. Krebs was fired from the Trump administration in mid-November after releasing a statement that the 2020 election had been the most secure in American…Read more...

After a three-month stint on the White House’s coronavirus task force during which he advocated for “herd immunity,” lambasted mask-wearing and generally acted like a contrarian, anti-science douche, Dr. Scott Atlas tendered his resignation on Monday night.Read more...

Fitness+ was announced back in September and slated for release before the end of the year. But we’re just weeks away from the start of 2021 and Fitness+ is still nowhere to be found. So what gives?Read more...

The Supreme Court on Monday expressed skepticism about the sweeping nature of the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, claiming that the cybercrime law — the only one of its kind in the United States — could lead to a slippery slope where average Americans are criminalized for innocuous transgressions like checking…Read more...

Even though Samsung’s latest wireless earbuds—Galaxy Buds Live—first went on sale not long ago in August, it seems the Korean electronics giant is already preparing for a follow-up. Filings for a product called Galaxy Buds Pro have appeared in multiple locations.

If you are of a certain age and nationality, you’ll remember the BBC Micro or Beeb, a computer produced by Acorn for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, an effort by British Broadcasting Corporation to bring computer literacy to the lads and lasses of that fair isle. The Beeb is a beloved piece of hardware to many…Read more...

The Fab Four are no more. Doctor Who stars Tosin Cole and Bradley Walsh—who’ve played companions Ryan and Graham for the past two seasons—have confirmed that they’re set to depart the TARDIS after the upcoming New Year’s holiday special.Read more...

The Nintendo Switch, the PS5, and the Xbox Series X all have something in common: A controller button that lets you quickly and easily take screenshots of games. While this feature feels like something obvious that’s been around for a long time, it only first became a thing in 2013’s PS4. The share button has since…Read more...

Otters’ dick game is getting weaker, and toxic oil waste products are to blame, according to a new study in the journal Chemosphere. By dick game, I mean their actual penis bones, which are getting more brittle. This might sound like it’s just bizarre clickbait, which, yes. But it’s also actual science, and it’s…Read more...

In a new letter to the editor pulled from the prestigious scientific journal Nature, a team of Israeli researchers pose a frankly wild-sounding question: could a computer hack result in a scientist being swindled into creating a piece of genetic code that’s harmful—or potentially toxic—rather than helpful?Read more...

As you look back on a year spent in as much isolation as you’ll ever experience (hopefully), what do you have to show for all that time at home? Did you learn to cook? Master an instrument? Clean out the garage? Whatever it was it probably wasn’t as gung-ho as the LaRochelle family, who put us all to shame by building…Read more...

December is usually a pretty light month for new book releases, and while 2020 has been anything but traditional, that’s still the case here. However, you’ll find there are plenty of enticing new volumes heading to shelves, including an entire book of stories written during lockdown. Stay home, stay safe, stay reading!Read more...

Black Widow by Waid & Samnee: The Complete Collection | $20 | Amazon

Cloud-based business software mammoth Salesforce is reportedly buying Slack, the searchable workplace chatroom interface for team organization and office-appropriate dog photos. This probably won’t impact the daily lives of us users, for whom Slack will remain a record where everything we say can be held against us in…Read more...

As The Mandalorian’s stakes have gradually risen with each episode, the series’ connections to the Star Wars franchise’s larger epic narrative have grown stronger, particularly as characters like Bo-Katan and important items like the Darksaber have been incorporated into the plot.Read more...

The world’s leading climate scientists have made it abundantly clear that the only way to avert catastrophic climate breakdown is to quickly decarbonize the entire global economy. But so far, world leaders aren’t making anything close to the necessary changes. To avoid subjecting any more people to a hellish future,…Read more...

Cartoonish internet supervillain Ajit Pai, the Donald Trump-appointed Republican chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, announced Monday that he is leaving the agency on Jan. 20 before the incoming Biden administration shows him the door. Pai’s departure marks the end of an era at the FCC overshadowed by…Read more...

Et tu, Spotify?Read more...

The European Space Agency has signed a historic deal with Swiss startup ClearSpace to remove a single item of space debris in 2025. The $103 million price tag is steep, but this mission—involving an orbiting, mouth-like net—could herald the beginning of an entirely new space industry.

Wi-Fi 6 has accelerated its creep into mainstream wireless networking, urged along by the similarly accelerating spread of gigabit internet. Until the last few months or so, purchasing a Wi-Fi 6 device has largely been a decision more about future-proofing and less about immediate gain. That’s quickly changing,…Read more...

Atlantic hurricane season began early, ran wild all year, and is now, officially, at an end. Just don’t tell that to the actual Atlantic, which may well churn out another cyclone.Read more...

43% Off Select Anker Gear | AmazonRead more...

For folks living in the world of AMC’s The Walking Dead, only three things matter: How do I survive, how can we fix this...and why is this happening? The last question might seem like the easiest one to answer, but it’s something TWD’s chief content officer Scott Gimple says we may never know.

Biotech company Moderna will ask for an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its covid-19 vaccine on Monday, according to a new press release posted to the firm’s website. Moderna also released new information indicating its messenger RNA-based vaccine has a 94.1% efficacy rate in a…Read more...

Two folks from Marvel’s Thor universe hang out...what could it all mean?? The Walking Dead: World Beyond’s showrunner gives some big season two hints. Plus Sonic the Hedgehog 2 may start running pretty soon, Lucifer is about to have his hands full, and more. Spoilers away!Read more...

Look, 2020 was supposed to be my year. I set out with what I thought were pretty reasonable New Year’s resolutions—one of which was to spend less time on my screens. And then the pandemic hit. During the endless hours that ensued, I noticed something: My digital filing system was a goddamn mess.