Gizmodo

Mozilla beefed up Firefox’s already impressive arsenal of privacy-preserving tech on Tuesday with the addition of a new tool in its flagship browser: Total Cookie Protection. As the name suggests, the feature promises to put the lid on any creepy cookies or third-party tracking tech that might want to track your…Read more...

A fragment of 10,000-year-old dog bone found along the Alaskan coast could be the oldest evidence of domesticated dogs in North America, and potential evidence of a coastal route taken by the first people to cross into North America from Eurasia.

Apple has bought out just short of 100 small businesses over the last six years as part of its corporate acquisition spree, CEO Tim Cook told shareholders at a virtual meeting on Tuesday.

Stardew Valley — the beloved and deeply meditative farming RPG — is now a beloved and deeply meditative board game.Read more...

AT&T is said to be very close to a deal for a minority stake in DirecTV.

It’s been a mystery as to who is responsible for the disastrous pummeling of Accellion, the global cloud provider that, in December, suffered through a large cyberattack. This week, researchers announced that the responsible party may have ties to two prominent hacker groups.Read more...

The costs of the Texas blackouts is still mounting, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that Texans could be saddled with energy bills they’ll be paying for decades absent government intervention.

I’ve got that deja vu feeling. In 2017, the price of bitcoin exploded, prompting a bunch of random companies to announce their business was pivoting to “blockchain” in some form or another before being forgotten when the mania subsided. Three years later, we’re seeing bitcoin’s price fall from another record high and…Read more...

Dave Filoni has created a vast swath of the Star Wars universe through his Clone Wars and Rebels cartoons, The Mandalorian, and whatever else he has in the works next. He’s been such a driving force in the franchise that it can be hard to remember he didn’t actually make the first modern Star Wars cartoon. That honor…Read more...

Where I live in Baltimore, utility bills can be a crushing burden. That’s especially true for the city’s low-income residents, most of whom are Black. A 2020 study found that a quarter of low-income households here spent more than 21.7% of their 2017 income on energy, which is more than seven times higher than the…Read more...

Tesla might be the beneficiary of the GameStonks effect, at least according to analysts for the British bank and investment firm Barclay’s.

The ocean may have less time than we thought before massive, irreversible shifts take place. A new study finds that a crucial ocean system may reach its “tipping point” sooner than predicted if the rate of climate change continues at a breakneck pace.Read more...

Apple’s iPhone 12 MagSafe technology not only makes charging easier, it also enables functional accessories that can be snapped magnetically to the smartphones without using a case. The most anticipated of these is a portable charger, and it looks like Anker’s going to get one out the door before Apple does.Read more...

For a while it seemed like Sony’s high-end digital filmmaking cameras were on a collision course with its Alpha mirrorless cameras as those shooters became more capable at capturing video. Today the inevitable was confirmed: Sony officially revealed its FX3 with features from both the company’s digital cinema and…Read more...

While we wait for Android 12 to officially go live later this year, Google has a bunch of tweaks and updates coming to Android this spring.Read more...

In a 5,000 word article detailing the complex tale of the “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, one sentence sent fans into a mild frenzy: “He has reshot the ending with a hero cameo that will blow hard-core fans’ minds.”Read more...

Doctors say that a Michigan woman’s untimely death last fall was caused by covid-19 unknowingly spread through a double lung transplant. It’s likely the first clear case of covid-19 linked to transplantation. Another doctor contracted the viral illness through the procedure, but survived.Read more...

Webcams are a hot commodity these days, and if your laptop’s built-in cam isn’t doing you any favors, Razer’s new Kiyo Pro promises to make you look good even in bad lighting.

Pennsylvania’s Lt. Gov. John Fetterman shot to viral fame this fall as a (often hilarious) voice of reason during former President Donald Trump’s lie-filled campaign to undermine election results in the state. Now, he’s gearing up for new challenge: running for U.S. Senate to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pat…Read more...

Archaeologists have discovered a 17,300-year-old painting of a kangaroo at a rock shelter in Western Australia, making it the oldest known painted figure ever to be found on the continent.Read more...

Ravenloft is one of Dungeons & Dragons’ most iconic settings—its go-to source for all things spooky and horrifying. But, as iconic as figures like Strahd Von Zarovich and the gothic lands of Barovia are, they’re only one flavor of horror the plane has to offer. A new D&D campaign sourcebook wants to open up new…Read more...

In a research note, prominent Apple prognosticator Ming-Chi Kuo says that both HDMI port and SD card slot will be returning to the MacBook Pro in the second half of 2021. Halle-fucking-lujah.Read more...

The tantalizing promise of true wireless charging—not just plopping your phone down on a charging pad—feels even more real as companies like Xiaomi, and now Oppo, demonstrate prototypes of their respective approaches to the technology. Although if Oppo’s wireless charging ever reaches consumers, your phone might still…Read more...

Fans of Sony’s virtual reality efforts have been wondering what was to become of console-based VR with the launch of the PlayStation 5. Today the company announces that a next-generation virtual reality system is in the works for the PS5, but it’s not going to launch this year.

This past fall, Fitbit went hard on mental well-being with its Sense smartwatch, which introduced an electrodermal activity sensor (EDA) to help quantify your stress levels. It was a thoughtful addition that went above and beyond the typical breathing reminders you see on smartwatches. Now, the company is hoping to…Read more...

It seems like every tech company is working to launch some kind of augmented reality app or headset. Now Qualcomm is releasing a reference design for smart glasses to hopefully speed up development of future AR gadgets.

MSI is one of the best makers of powerful but still portable gaming laptops. And with this year’s Stealth 15M, aside from a couple minor quibbles, it really feels like MSI has honed its craft. Not only is the Stealth 15M the thinnest 15-inch gaming laptop you can get right now, it features a 144 Hz screen combined…Read more...

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Facebook will allow users in Australia to read and share news on the social media platform again following negotiations with the Australian government, according to Australia’s treasurer Josh Frydenberg and representatives from Facebook. Who blinked first? That’s a matter of interpretation, it would seem.Read more...

New research suggests a hacking tool previously developed by the National Security Agency was stolen years ago by a prolific Chinese cyber group and was subsequently used against a variety of U.S. targets.

Dish Network is doubling down on its intention to launch its 5G network in major cities by September, The Verge reports. Since Dish acquired Boost Mobile last year, that puts the company in a unique position to compete with existing mobile carriers, and Ergen said during the company’s earnings call today that Dish can…Read more...

How does a service stay competitive while also continuing to hike up the cost of its subscription? A bundle, of course.

Social media has long been the bane and the muse of anyone suffering from an eating disorder. To exist online with a pulse in the year 2012 was to understand the cesspool of “thinspiration”-style content that proliferated on platforms like Tumblr, Xanga and Pinterest, and more recently, the rise of “influencer”…Read more...

Traeger pellet grills and smokers are the centerpieces of many suburban barbecues, and those lucky enough to be able to tend these machines are considered gods among the brisket set. Now, after years of only being able to check and tweak your grill via your phone, Traeger is now offering an Apple Watch app for…Read more...

A tiny ear bone belonging to a cave bear that died some 360,000 years ago has yielded the oldest genome not sourced from permafrost. The newly sequenced genome is offering new insights into the evolution of cave bears and how climate change can precipitate the emergence of entirely new species.

Megan Thompson-Munson, a geologist and climate scientist, has seen your drawings of icebergs and had enough. It’s time for a scientific reckoning.Read more...

NASA has released stunning footage of the Perseverance rover landing on Mars, in what is a seminal achievement for the space agency.

A new malware strain has infected Mac devices all over the world—most prominently in the U.S. and parts of Europe—though experts can’t decide where it came from or what it does.Read more...

Foldable phones still aren’t quite mainstream, but Huawei’s new Mate X2 looks like it may just be real competition for Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 2.Read more...

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, the rabidly pro-Trump pillow magnate who bafflingly became one of the key figures in the ex-president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 elections, is now facing a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit from election tech manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems. While the suit appears to…Read more...

A robot built out of Lego can solve a Rubik’s Cube in about 3.2 seconds, but some 40 years after I first picked up the iconic puzzle, I’ve yet to solve it on my own. I assumed that successfully unscrambling a cube would forever remain on my bucket list, but a smart Rubik’s Cube is finally teaching me the strategies to…Read more...

An Arizona law helping people with drug possession convictions earn early release from prison is being effectively ignored in many cases due to flaws in state’s inmate management software, according to a Phoenix-area public radio station citing multiple government sources.

Real-world data is offering hope that mRNA vaccines are highly effective at limiting infection and presumably transmission of the coronavirus, in addition to their already-known ability to prevent symptoms of covid-19. The findings, based on research from Israel and elsewhere, are good news for containing the pandemic…Read more...

Throttling is the not-so-secret way traditional “unlimited” cellular data plans keep you from tapping into all that data. T-Mobile’s new Magenta Max Plan, which is designed to maximize the potential of faster 5G speeds, is promising to make unlimited data truly unlimited for the first time in a long time.Read more...

If you haven’t seen the latest episode of WandaVision yet, you might want to click away. Heck, even if you have seen it you might want to be careful. If you don’t, a certain song is about to be stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

Audiophiles, rejoice. Spotify announced today during a media event that starting later this year, Premium subscribers will get the option of streaming CD-quality, lossless audio via a new paid tier dubbed Spotify HiFi.Read more...

Netflix just made offline viewing a whole lot simpler.

Clubhouse—the invitation-only audio app best known for courting everyone from Elon Musk to Mark Zuckerberg—has promised to implement new safeguards after suffering its second high-profile security snafu this month.Read more...

It’s been a little over a week since former-President Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate in the impeachment trial surrounding his role in inciting a riot at the Capitol in January, and Google thinks it’s time we get back into the political swing of things.Read more...

Every day, the Arctic slips further into an unstable state. The latest sign: A Russian icebreaker and liquid natural gas ship have traversed the Northern Sea Route in February for the first time due to exceptionally low and weak sea ice cover.