Gizmodo

The president has been once again tweeting about the most pressing issue of our times: the fate of his Twitter account and is showing the world that, in the spirit of true leadership, he’s willing to torpedo a nearly $1 trillion military spending bill to defend it.

“Something extremely bogus is going on,” Elon Musk tweeted on Nov. 13. It’s been a busy month, and you could be forgiven if you forgot about the Tesla founder’s confusing tweet in which he said that his rapid antigen test had come back positive and negative. It appeared that Musk may have covid-19, but then we didn’t…Read more...

“The house of 1999 will be virtually maintenance free,” the narrator declares in his 1967 concept film. And while you can probably guess some of the technological advancements in the movie—like computers, fax machines, and even email—there’s one prediction from the short promotional film that didn’t quite pan out. It…Read more...

As feared, the 900-ton instrument platform collapsed yesterday at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, falling onto the gigantic radar dish below. Photos of the scene are revealing the extent of the damage at the famous facility, which is known for contributing to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and …Read more...

I can’t even remember the last time I actually held a CD mixtape, much less played one. But there’s a CD wallet kicking around in storage that’s filled with unassuming silver discs doodled on with short titles and dates, part 1s, part 2s, and “greatest hits.”

SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless Gaming Headset | $240 | Amazon

Now that the transition to Apple Silicon is well underway, it seems like Apple could be gearing up for a rapid shift to mini-LED displays too.Read more...

You think after the Rise of Skywalker stuff and last season’s Marvel-a-go-go Epic that Disney wouldn’t want to put the hottest father/son team-up it’s got in the world’s biggest video game?

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The world is on track to blow past the climate goals outlined in the Paris Agreement. Despite record fossil fuel-demand drop amid the pandemic, fossil fuel companies are still planning to produce more oil, gas, and coal in the coming decade, and governments are aiding and…Read more...

In what has become a yearly tradition in early December, Qualcomm has announced its next flagship mobile chip designed for use in high-end phones and tablets. This is the chip that will be found in the biggest phones from Android makers, and plenty of tablets too. So here’s a rundown of all the new specs and features…Read more...

There are a handful of gadget-related sounds that fill my heart with dread, but few are more fear-inducing than the repeated tick-tick-tick of a dying hard disk drive. I’ve been hurt by that sound more than a few times in my life. So this year I finally tasked myself with a quest to get rid of all my HDDs and really…Read more...

Dell 24 Monitor | $100 | Dell

Congratulations on getting yourself a brand-new PlayStation 5! After making all of your friends incredibly jealous, it’s time to dive into everything this next-gen console has to offer. Here are 10 tips and tricks for making the most of your PS5.Read more...

Health authorities in the UK have approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by U.S.-based pharma company Pfizer and German-based biotech firm BioNTech, according to a press release from the two companies. The first doses will be given free to some of the most vulnerable Britons and health care workers early next…Read more...

Each December, Apple picks the best App Store games and apps that debuted or rose to popularity in the preceding year. It’s usually a hodge-podge of social apps, wellness services, and addictive games with a few under-the-radar surprises for good measure. But in the year 2020, which forced us all to stay at home in…Read more...

Massachusetts lawmakers voted on Monday to pass a police reform bill that would outlaw the use of facial recognition technology by police departments and other public agencies in the state.Read more...

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...