Gizmodo

Younger readers might not know, but there was once an annual tradition in which Apple would release a new iPhone, old iPhones would suddenly start performing poorly, and users would speculate about a conspiracy to get them to buy the shiny new thing. It turned out that a conspiracy, of sorts, did exist, and Apple has…Read more...

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first rapid coronavirus test kit that can be performed at home, issuing an emergency use authorization to manufacturer Lucira Health late on Tuesday.Read more...

In spite of coronavirus cases continuing to climb around the world, Facebook’s legions of contracted content moderators are still required to work out of offices “to maintain Facebook’s profits during the pandemic.” This is according to an open letter published on the company’s internal Workplace communication…Read more...

Growing up in New England, I used to spend winter weekends skating on ponds and the occasional drainage ditch in the middle of a six-lane road (it was the suburbs, OK?). Millions of other people around the world have similar memories of skating, ice fishing, and other wintery outdoor activities.Read more...

Every six years, an alien comes to Earth looking for a fight. This has happened for generations. As a result, every six years, a team of expert martial artists must face him, using techniques this alien himself passed down centuries ago. If they don’t, everyone on Earth will die. Is Nicolas Cage up to the task?Read more...

Google has just completely redesigned its Google Pay app in a bid to make managing your money easier than ever by giving you a bird’s eye view of your financials and spending habits. But it also wants to do this by becoming a banking middleman and turning your transaction history into a kind of Hangouts feed with…Read more...

Not unlike Twitter’s new Fleets, the company’s time is rapidly expiring. The platform, which is now dedicated to dunking on the earnest, yelling about conspiracies, and sharing bad memes, is on its way to the big social media cemetery in the sky to join MySpace, Plurk, and (hopefully soon) Facebook.

In 2004, astronomers spotted a unique celestial feature that, when observed in ultraviolet, bore the appearance of a glowing eye staring directly back at Earth. Unbeknownst to them, it would take 16 years to figure out what caused the Blue Ring Nebula to form.Read more...

In a year that feels like Captain Trips has started creeping on the real world, the timing of CBS All Access’ new adaptation of Stephen King’s plague-apocalypse epic feels eerily appropriate. But Josh Boone and Ben Cavell’s take on The Stand has some big cloven hooves to fill: the hit 1994 miniseries.Read more...

I see you, fellow lazy people. While password managers are an absolute must for digital security, they are freaking annoying to set up, and occasionally, annoying to use. But now that macOS Big Sur is here, popular password manager 1Password is adding several new features, including the ability to unlock the app with…Read more...

Just 1% of the global population was responsible for half of the world’s commercial flight emissions in 2018, a new study found. Those elite “frequent fliers” travelled about 35,000 miles (56,000 kilometers) that year.

On Wednesday, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced even more encouraging results from its now-completed covid-19 vaccine trial. The experimental vaccine appears to be 95% effective at preventing illness overall and seems nearly as effective in people over the age of 65, a key population. Despite the very…Read more...

When it comes to delivering a big-screen experience in a package that still fits in a purse or pocket, rollable phones might be an even better solution than foldable handsets like the Samsung’s Galaxy ZFold2. However, with its new Oppo X 2021 concept, it looks like Oppo has figured out a way to turn a mind-bending…Read more...

No kicks required. Just Michelle Yeoh reading an Orion for filth.

Epic’s quixotic lawsuit against Apple over the fees it collects from the iOS App Store may be mired in the slow grind of the court system, but we’re already seeing the iPhone maker reevaluate its approach to taking a cut.Read more...

The Boeing 737 Max aircraft has been approved to fly again by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, according to a press release by Boeing and a statement from the FAA. The 737 Max was the model of plane that crashed in 2018, killing 189 in Indonesia, and again in 2019, killing 157 in Ethiopia. The aircraft was…Read more...

Aaron Driver is teaming up with Ariana Greenblatt for a new sci-fi thriller. Bruce Campbell returns to horror with a new Black Friday themed adventure. Charmed is introducing a new trans character. Plus, familiar foes confirmed for Stargirl’s return, and what’s to come on His Dark Materials. Spoilers, away!

I was definitely excited when AMD announced all the specs and neat features of their 6000-series graphics cards at the end of October, albeit skeptical of what kind of ray tracing performance AMD’s latest GPUs would have. AMD was quiet about the ray tracing performance, and it could have been because its cards…Read more...

27" GIGABYTE G27QC | $260 | Newegg | Use code 2BFSTNW257

The U.S. could see 2,000 Americans dying per day by Christmas if strict new mitigation strategies aren’t adopted, according to warnings from doctors on the White House Coronavirus Task Force and a new report from CBS News. The alarming news comes as the U.S. reports 1,565 deaths from covid-19 on Tuesday alone, with…Read more...

We’re still doing this, huh?Read more...

Of all 20 member countries in the G20—a group of powerful nations which accounts for 85% of the world’s GDP and creates some 78% of all global greenhouse gas pollution—the U.S. has been hit hardest economically by extreme weather fueled by the climate crisis. But when rather than using covid-19 economic stimulus bills…Read more...

The Los Angeles Police Department issued a moratorium on the use of commercial facial recognition software on Tuesday, effectively ending a trial with dystopian software manufacturer Clearview AI that the department had long sought to downplay.Read more...

President Trump has fired the nation’s top election security official, Christopher Krebs, head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Trump announced his decision Tuesday night via Twitter.Read more...

Apparently drunk with power after slapping ‘misleading information’ labels on several of President Donald Trump’s tweets, Twitter is now reportedly “exploring” the option of adding a ‘dislike’ button.Read more...

Stock trading app Robinhood is seeking financial advisers to help it go public as soon as the spring of 2021, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Police in central England are asking for help catching thieves who made off with an estimated $6.6 million in Apple gadgets last Tuesday night.Read more...

The latest Firefox update is finally here, and comes packaged with a new feature that tries to make browsing a bit less scary.Read more...

An Arianespace Vega rocket carrying two satellites failed to reach orbit yesterday after experiencing a catastrophic failure eight minutes into the launch. Officials are attributing the loss of the rocket to a “series of human errors.”

A team of astronomers is reviving an idea that NASA sidelined a decade ago, in which a huge observatory would be installed on the Moon. Dubbed the “Ultimately Large Telescope,” the facility would easily outperform every other telescope in its class and spot objects that are predicted by theory but have never been seen.

Thank the gods for Lindsey Graham’s alleged spineless criminality. Without the presence of the senator from South Carolina, today’s Big Tech hearing on censorship and election interference on social media might’ve been completely off-topic.

Earlier today, Zack Snyder released a new teaser for his cut of Justice League that’s coming to HBO Max next year, and broke it down point by point on social media.Read more...

Plenty of big-name tech giants have tried their hand at augmented reality headsets or smart glasses. Most have failed. That’s not stopping Oppo, however, which announced at its Oppo Inno Day conference today that it plans to release its own pair of smart glasses next year.Read more...

This holiday season’s gonna be different for many of us, and not by choice. You might not be able to go home to see your family and laugh over a tasty home-cooked meal. Gifts may be opened from across state lines via Zoom or FaceTime. Honestly? That all sucks and there’s really no way around that. But even so, a good…Read more...

After releasing the NES and SNES Classic Edition consoles in 2016 and 2017, many hoped that in 2019, for its 30th birthday, Nintendo would release a Classic Edition of the Game Boy too. It didn’t. Instead, a year later, to celebrate Super Mario Bros. 35th birthday, we get a revival of Nintendo’s Game & Watch line. As…Read more...

President-elect Joe Biden is beginning to fill top positions for his administration, including sending a climate signal. Rep. Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana Democrat, will reportedly serve as director of the Office of Public Engagement, Bloomberg reported on Monday evening. According to Politico, that role will include…Read more...

Great news for chickens: It’s now easier than ever to pretend you never posted that cringe to Twitter, which is rolling out a new, Instagram Stories-like type of post that auto-deletes after 24 hours. These are called Fleets, which is slightly confusing until you realize it’s a bad pun.

While Microsoft has declared the release of the Xbox Series X and S as its biggest console launch ever, one thing that could seriously sales of Microsoft’s next-gen system over the new few months is limited supply, which based on some recent info, could continue until April of next year.Read more...

Even if you haven’t been on TikTok, you probably know that the app is full of teens, and teens, in general, don’t always have the best judgement. In light of that, the platform unveiled a bevvy of new parental controls today geared towards keeping the millions of teens on the platform safe from the creeps, or at…Read more...

Scientists are urging caution over a mysterious, Ebola-like viral disease that appears to have spread from person to person during a small outbreak in Bolivia last year. The disease, caused by the Chapare virus, killed three people and is thought to have sickened at least five during the outbreak, including three…Read more...

It’s barely been three months since Huami launched the Zepp E smartwatch, and yet it’s already got its second Zepp smartwatch ready to go. This time, we’ve got the Zepp Z, a more classic looking watch that adds Amazon Alexa compatibility.Read more...

While it’s hard to say that Wear OS is innovating the wearables field, in the past year it’s done quite a bit of catching up. Today, Google’s announcing a few new updates to the Google Fit and Wear OS that should help close the gap between it and other smartwatch platforms.

In addition to presiding over our food, the supply chain, and acting as a rent-seeking middleman for retail while quietly picking off the competition, Amazon will now oversee drugs. Today, the behemoth launched Amazon Pharmacy, which is certain to leave more small business owners out in the cold.Read more...

Someday, I would like to write a happy story about ice. Today is not that day.Read more...

The new Batman TV universe looks to be having a bit of trouble getting off the ground. io9 has confirmed a report from The Hollywood Reporter that writer and showrunner Terence Winter has left HBO Max’s The Batman spinoff series, over creative differences with movie director Matt Reeves and the show’s fellow producers.

Lynne Ramsay is heading to the world of Stephen King adaptations. Jeffrey Dean Morgan still has hopes for a Negan Walking Dead spinoff. Get a look at Adventure Time’s return in the opening minutes of Distant Lands: Obsidian. Plus: Javicia Leslie’s new Batwoman drops down for a new teaser. Spoilers now!

The MacBook hasn’t changed much in recent years. Every generation gets a slight spec bump but otherwise looks and performs pretty much the same as the one before it. The new MacBook Air is not a radical departure in terms of laptop design, but underneath the hood, this thing is wildly different from every other…Read more...

Federal agents arrested Matthew Piercey near Redding, California, on Monday over an alleged $35 million Ponzi scheme, but Piercey didn’t surrender quietly. The suspect reportedly fled FBI agents in a truck before jumping out, getting something out of his vehicle, and hiding in the freezing water of Lake Shasta for 25…Read more...

Hisense H65G 50" | $300 | Best Buy

The U.S. Navy destroyed a mock intercontinental ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean early Tuesday morning in a successful test of America’s experimental missile defense system, according to press releases from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and defense contractor Raytheon. The new test was notable for destroying…Read more...