Gizmodo

The House of Representatives just narrowly passed a more than $2 trillion spending package that will include the first true climate change legislation passed since 2009.Read more...

George Lucas once told Mark Hamill, “If I could find every copy of that holiday special, I’d smash them with a hammer.” Lucus was referring to, of course, the legendarily awful Star Wars Holiday Special, which aired once in 1978 and has never been seen in an official capacity since. If he had, then I would have been…Read more...

The western remake of Train to Busan may get a truly dreadful title. Neo and Trinity are on the march in another new Matrix: Resurrections poster. Video game icon Earthworm Jim is getting a new animated series. Plus, another look behind-the-scenes on Hawkeye. To me, my spoilers!

Just as the U.S. barreled toward 2 million confirmed covid-19 cases in mid-2020, Charter Communications gave a carefully worded pat on the back to its “employees” who kept the country connected in dire times. “They’ve been asked to go well above and beyond the regular duties and they’ve delivered easing the strain for…Read more...

On Wednesday, amid a fresh surge in gas prices, the Biden administration announced that it had asked the FTC to investigate whether oil and gas companies were doing anything illegal to manipulate prices. Republicans have countered that it’s a cheap political stunt and blamed President Joe Biden’s energy policies.Read more...

Several European countries introduced new restrictions this week on people who refuse to get vaccinated against covid-19, and there was even an announcement from Austria on Friday that covid-19 vaccinations will become mandatory in February.Read more...

The boss has spoken (again): Apple employees will return to the office on Feb. 1, 2022.Read more...

One of the things that makes Hawkeye of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so unique is that he’s not unique. He’s just a regular person, same as you and me. He doesn’t have a super suit or come from outer space. Hawkeye is a human being who just so happens to be great with a bow and arrow. And that regular-guy persona…Read more...

A diplomatic meeting between two parties is tense, but seemingly successful—until the leaders rise to shake hands in front of the assembled group as flashbulbs pop and cameras roll. A firm handshake is one thing, but the characters in Ennio Ruschetti’s short film Hand in Hand take it to an extreme new level.

A bipartisan coalition of at least nine state attorney generals are investigating Meta over the potentially harmful effects Facebook and Instagram have on young users.Read more...

The S&P Dow Jones Indices is monitoring stock Twitter in real-time to see how positively people feel about 200 S&P 500 companies (Tesla) with the top sentiment scores. Today, it launched two Twitter sentiment analysis tools to measure the level of positivity toward companies (or their profit potential) via…Read more...

MediaTek’s smartphone chips typically play second fiddle to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors, but MediaTek just announced its new flagship Dimensity 9000 system-on-chip, and it features a number of notable firsts.Read more...

If you’re tired of the apps on your Android device doggedly tracking every move you make even after opting out, then good news. On Thursday, the privacy pros at DuckDuckGo announced a new feature meant to kneecap the invasive trackers and third-party players that might come bundled with the apps they download.Read more...

Federal health officials are expected to sanction covid-19 boosters for most Americans this week—a decision that’s become well-supported by the science. While the original shots still provide plenty of protection, booster doses are clearly restoring or even surpassing the high levels of effectiveness seen against…Read more...

Although fans have debated about the nature of the relationship between Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and the alien that lives inside him in the two Venom movies, sequel director Andy Serkis explicitly called Let There Be Carnage a “love story.” This makes the fact that this clip, released by Vudu, was taken out of the…Read more...

The fourth episode of Gizmodo’s podcast Gadgettes just dropped, and this week, we’re getting ready for the holidays. Your hosts, Gizmodo reporter Florence Ion and senior editor Caitlin McGarry, womansplain the latest gadgets we’re testing and reviewing. Usually, we interview our fellow Gizmodo reporters about the…Read more...

Our nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri, is 4.37 light-years from Earth, which is super close from a cosmological perspective but achingly far from a human point of view. A new telescope promises to bring this intriguing star system, and any habitable planets it holds, into closer view.

Star Wars’ Expanded Universe has lived on in myriad ways since it came to an official end in 2014, when Lucasfilm and Disney wiped the slate of continuity clean. While some elements and characters have rejoined canon, and re-releases of classic EU comics and books give chances to re-explore what was, one enduring EU…Read more...

Apple’s long-rumored but not officially announced electric vehicle has hit a number of bumps and detours during the course of its development, but now a new report is claiming that Apple has solidified the Apple Car’s roadmap, which will result in a fully autonomous self-driving electric vehicle by 2025.Read more...

Fast-casual pizza chain and frozen food disrupter California Pizza Kitchen reportedly suffered a data breach that exposed the Social Security numbers of over 100,000 current and former employees, according to a breach notification viewed by TechCrunch.

Hey, you remember that awesome lightsaber Disney revealed that looked like the laser blade was actually igniting and extending? Like a parent to a small child reaching for a pair of sharp scissors, Disney has said, “Only Daddy touch.” Meaning the company is not going to offer them to the public, even if you’re going…Read more...

Blood Rage—sometimes known as Slasher, plus there’s a version titled Nightmare at Shadow Woods, though Blood Rage really fits it best—is an outstanding example of what the worst Thanksgiving ever might look like. But fortunately for horror movie fans, that means the film is a feast of intriguing acting choices,…Read more...

The United Nations climate talks ended with a pretty mixed bag of results. The good? That there was a deal at all plus a number of commitments outside what is now the Glasgow Climate Pact. But the bad piled up, too. Many of the pledges are nonbinding and a last-minute gut punch to the pact watered down language around…Read more...

Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be released to the masses very soon, and considering you probably rewatched at least the original Ghostbusters and maybe even Ghostbusters II as prep, now you need something to watch afterward. No, we don’t have access to a time machine where we get another movie that continues the story…Read more...

From 1991 to 2014, Dark Horse Comics churned out more than 100 different Star Wars titles. It adapted novels, helped define the Old Republic era, emblazoned much of the universe both before and after the movies, and helped define what used to be called the Expanded Universe. Now it’s going to tackle series’ canon,…Read more...

A deep-sea scientific expedition off the coast of Mexico has uncovered some weird stuff on the ocean floor, including six possibly newly discovered animal species of arrow worms, crustaceans, mollusks, and roundworms. The research crew also found striking hydrothermal vents fueled by geologic activity beneath the…Read more...

Speaking to scientists yesterday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk offered an update on the Starship program and how the company plans to perform around a dozen launches of the gigantic rocket next year—the first of which could come as early as January.Read more...

Star Trek’s legacy is built on heroes doing the kinds of things that, really, they shouldn’t: captains beaming down on missions that could get them killed, reckless, brave officers who dare first and ask questions later. It’s always been an accepted part of the narrative; Star Trek’s leads, commanders, engineers,…Read more...

One of the principal organizers of the #AppleToo movement is reportedly set to depart the company on Friday after reaching a settlement with the iPhone-maker over a National Labor Relations Board complaint she filed in September.Read more...

Over 10,000 John Deere workers spread out across 14 locations have ended a nearly five-week-long strike after ratifying what the United Auto Workers Union is calling a “landmark agreement.”Read more...

Animal comedy capitalizes on the usual grace of the natural world and the inherent humor of slapstick. Since animals can’t do stand-up routines, we rely on their occasional anthropomorphics and blunders to get a laugh. Here are some of the winners of this year’s Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards, which honor photographers…Read more...

As part of its plan to elbow its way into every corner of commerce, Amazon has now partnered with Starbucks to open a new cashierless cafe in New York City. With around 30,000 locations, the coffee franchise represents an opportunity for Amazon’s camera-based payment system to see exponential growth if the pilot’s a…Read more...

New research Thursday aims to quantify a life-altering aftereffect of covid-19: a lingering loss of smell, also known as anosmia. The study estimates that up to 1.6 million people in the U.S. have experienced chronic anosmia lasting at least six months following their coronavirus infection.Read more...

MultiVersus, Warner Bros.’ forthcoming free-to-play video game, is one of the many attempts that companies have made at recreating the madcap perfection of Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros., a multiplayer fighter built on the premise of mashing up characters from different franchises as part of a wholly new, out-of-canon…Read more...

The new trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s next film has arrived, and boy... Nightmare Alley looks good. It also has a hell of a cast, but there’s so much going on it’s difficult to parse what’s happening in the final trailer for the film other than it’s set in the first half of the 20th century, Bradley Cooper appears…Read more...

There’s nothing quite like finding a piece of pop culture you connect with on a visceral level. This connection can manifest in different ways, whether it’s relating to a fictional character on screen or a real-life person with whom you share your obsession. No matter what, being a fan can show you that you’re a part…Read more...

Replaying the favorite video games of your youth isn’t as easy as re-reading a loved book or re-watching a movie you’ve already seen 100 times. And Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Gaming, thinks that’s a problem the games industry needs to address by embracing emulation with open arms.Read more...

Get a look at Kate Bishop and her friends in some new Hawkeye character posters. Doctor Who teases a dire season finale. Legends of Tomorrow gets riveting. Plus, what’s next on Yellowjackets and Batwoman. Spoilers now!

An Alienware executive once told me that Alienware would never make a thin and light gaming notebook, because the company preferred to deliver systems with good value and performance without compromising on thermals. But that exec doesn’t work at Alienware anymore, and after years of waiting for a system I thought…Read more...

From dimming the screen brightness to switching on airplane mode to carrying around a portable charger, keeping a smartphone battery alive as long as possible between charges is a challenge that we’ve faced for as long as smartphones have been around. With the many upgrades we’ve seen from smartphones over the years,…Read more...

You’ll no longer have an excuse to mess up the lyrics of every song. Spotify is finally adding a live lyrics feature, so all you have to do is play a song to finally find out if Taylor Swift is singing about “Starbucks lovers” (the answer, sadly, is no).

A scientist who works on the AstraZeneca vaccine with Oxford University in the UK has come out to defend the decision to sell its covid-19 vaccine at a profit, according to a new report from the Financial Times. AstraZeneca was previously unique because it sold the covid-19 vaccine at cost, unlike most other vaccine…Read more...

Whenever an app on my iPhone doesn’t work, I tend to open it and close it over and over again to try to will it back to life. If that doesn’t yield results, I tend to stare at my device and attempt to burn an imaginary hole through it with my annoyance. Yet, I have never been filled with “rage” about an app not…Read more...

More than a week after popular investment and trading platform Robinhood revealed that hackers had obtained access to a “limited amount” of its customers’ personal information, the company has now stated that some of the stolen information included thousands of phone numbers.Read more...

It’s not that uncommon for a director or writer to also star in the movie they director or wrote. What’s less common, by far, is when writer-director also plays the horrifying monster in their movie—but that’s the case with Death Valley, Matthew Ninaber’s new sci-fi horror movie coming to Shudder next month. The…Read more...

Still excited by last night’s Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer? Well, you can prolong those Marvel Cinematic Universe endorphins by checking out Hot Toys’ new figure of the upcoming movie’s Spider-Man. Not only is it gorgeous (as usual) but it offers a great look at the new costume Peter Parker (Tom Holland) will be…Read more...

TerraPower, an experimental nuclear power company backed by Bill Gates, could open its first site as early as 2028 in the coal mining town of Kemmerer, Wyoming. Adding a touch of symbolism for out with the old, in with the new, the company says their plant would be constructed near the premises of a pair of coal…Read more...

Apparently seeking to bring users more access to the wonderful world of sports, Apple is reportedly hard at work on a new framework that would potentially improve streaming coverage within its iOS and Apple TV apps.

Oh, Riverdale, please never change. Your ridiculousness is always a delight, and you somehow manage to keep getting more ridiculous. However, last night’s season six premiere on the CW set a bar so high I honestly don’t know how you’ll top it. It was also the beginning of a five-part Riverdale “event” and it kicked…Read more...

TikTok just agreed to settle a massive $92 million class action lawsuit, and anyone who used the app prior to Sept. 30 of this year could be entitled to a payout.