Gizmodo

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Apple has reportedly filed a patent application to bring Force Touch to the MacBook’s Touch Bar after ditching the pressure-sensing technology on its smartphones and smartwatches. And honestly, given the string of increasingly niche reboots in recent years, I say why the hell not.

Microsoft rolled out its new “Productivity Score” feature this month, which lets bosses track how their employees use Microsoft’s suite of tools. If that sounds like an Orwellian nightmare in the making to you, you’re not alone—privacy experts are criticizing the company for essentially gamifying workplace…Read more...

Since they’re primarily designed for kids Nerf’s dart blasters, even the battery-powered ones, aren’t actually very powerful. It’s why there are entire communities of Nerf modders out there, but Peter Sripol might be the first to upgrade a Nerf blaster with an internal combustion engine. The only thing you really need…Read more...

Please, this holiday season: be careful when your children enter ritual combat for the right to become Mand’alor.

As a fan of multiple meats, I’m always checking hamburgers, steaks, and other grilled gobbets with a portable thermometer to test for doneness. Until the ThermoWorks Signals, I haven’t been able to find a product that acts as sort of a meat tender, something that will monitor multiple foods at once. It’s not a new…Read more...

Yes, Stan Lee was known for punctuating his commentary with a hearty “excelsior!”. But this cute animated short, using some archival recordings from the Marvel Comics legend in action, sees him express a fondness for a shorter, equally emphatic bit of profanity.

For many kids, crusts are the bane of a delicious PB&J sandwich, but they eventually grow up to embrace a bread’s chewy outer wrapping. There are some holdouts, however, such as Andrew DeGonge who continues to despise crusts so much into adulthood that they built a smart automated robot that can automatically de-crust…Read more...

2020 is a weird year to give gifts and expect anything in return. With the COVID-19 pandemic still in full force—evidently fuller force than before—many businesses have closed either temporarily or for good, and as a result, unemployment has skyrocketed and the economy has taken a turn for the worse. This holiday, I…Read more...

A review of weather patterns in inner East Asia over the past 260 years suggests the region is currently caught in a dangerous cycle of heatwaves and droughts that could forever reshape the area, and possibly turn the Mongolian Plateau into an arid wasteland.

Having watched Cannibal! The Musical is one of those things that feels like a badge of honor. The movie was not something anyone saw first in theaters. It had to be discovered. You had to find it or be told about it by a friend. When you finally watched, you were rewarded with proof of pure genius—a film that by all…Read more...

A manufacturing error is raising concerns about a promising covid-19 vaccine being developed by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

For millions of people, Thanksgiving is going to look a little different this year. Because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, I’ve chosen to stay home instead of traveling for the holiday and interact with my family over video. But it doesn’t just have to be making an awkward toast to “These Strange Times” before…Read more...

If you’re paying hundreds of dollars extra for a Pro or Pro Max version of the iPhone 12, then you want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth—and taking advantage of the extra photo-taking capabilities is a key part of that. Here are the features you get, and how to get the most out of them.

Last week’s episode of Star Trek: Discovery put Michael Burnham in a hard place. At a crossroads between the potential new life she’d found in the 32nd century and her commitment to her family in Starfleet, our hero faced the consequences for trying to have it all. This week, the show decides that the actual solution…Read more...

The release of the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. seems to confirm that Nintendo has no plans to revive or revisit the Game Boy as it did with its NES and SNES throwback consoles. It’s time to move on because there are other companies happy to indulge your Game Boy nostalgia. With a matching Famicom-inspired design, …Read more...

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (PS5) | $48 | Amazon

Fujifilm announced the launch of its updated GFX100 large format mirrorless digital camera on Wednesday, which now comes equipped with infrared image-making capabilities that could be used in forensic, scientific, and cultural preservation capacities.Read more...

The Trump administration rejected plans for a controversial open-pit mining project in Alaska on Wednesday that, if approved, could have threatened a thriving ecosystem for wild sockeye salmon.Read more...

If you’ve been watching the crypto markets over the past few weeks you’ll have noticed something special: bitcoin, everyone’s favorite decentralized digital currency based on hype, lies, and general malfeasance, is about to hit $20,000—if it can break through what is known as a “resistance zone,” a financial term…Read more...

Covid-19 canceled Thanksgiving but that doesn’t mean you have to be alone. At the same time, there are probably a lot of you who are a bit relieved to not have to hang out with your weird family. But there’s still a communal-experience-shaped hole in your life. However you’re feeling, there’s a perfect way to waste…Read more...

The French Ministry of Economy and Finance has warned tech companies that it expects them to pay the nation’s new 3% digital service tax starting in December, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Who has ever written a letter to someone without the intention of ever giving it to them? How many of you also burned that letter? Felt nice, I bet, purging all those negative emotions. I’ve done this a lot. Burned a lot of pictures, too. Watched the glossy paper bubble up and split open as it was reduced to ash. Fire…Read more...

There are plenty of good reasons to skip the grocery store this Thanksgiving. With covid-19 cases on the rise, avoiding unnecessary shopping trips is a good idea, and so is refraining from big family gatherings. Somehow, even amid the pandemic, grocery lines are also super long.Read more...

After a summer of nationwide protests against unchecked state violence brutalizing Black people in America, Amazon’s ever-escalating push to make itself indispensable to daily police work is drawing fresh scrutiny from a host of leading civil rights advocates. The tech giant’s efforts to support and enhance police…Read more...

One of the better features of the new Chromecast with Google TV is missing support for some of Netflix’s best content.

Why not under, for one?

Ultraviolet lamps meant to kill viruses and bacteria seem to be causing unfortunate eye damage in some people. In a new paper this month, doctors report several cases where people developed inflamed corneas due to UV radiation exposure from “germicidal lamps” put in place during the covid-19 pandemic. Some of the…Read more...

Even with the expansion of corporate communication suites like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace (formerly known as G Suite), Slack remains one of the most popular enterprise communication tools. And despite a cursed collab with Cole Haan, Slack stock soared following rumors that the popular app might get acquired by…Read more...

The holidays are stressful enough during a normal year. Cooking a giant turkey plus what feels like a million sides. Traveling for hours in atrocious freeway traffic, or battling TSA lines at the airport. The CDC is recommending you cut the travel this year to prevent the spread of covid-19 and, well, if you break out…Read more...

A muscle-bound and joyful young man is cutting down the Charles River like a water strider. His chipper banter distracts you briefly from the whir of an internal flywheel and a constant stream of numbers—split times, speed, strokes per minute—helps keep up the momentum. With a little more push, a little more pull, you…Read more...

Amazon Web Services—or just AWS, for short—suffered a massive outage on Wednesday that left a ton of apps, sites, and connected devices relying on the hosting giant completely in the dark.Read more...

Keyhole wasps like to build their nests in tiny holes, including the openings of devices used to measure the speed of aircraft. A recent investigation shows the problem is worse than we realized.Read more...

In the latest example of Amazon buddying up with federal forces, the ecommerce giant announced a new partnership with the Department of Homeland and security and DHL dubbed “Operation Fulfilled Action,” aimed at cracking down on counterfeit products.Read more...

In terms of design, not much has changed with the Apple Watch. Since it was introduced in 2015, each subsequent watch has pretty much adhered to the same look. That might change starting next year. Apple prophet Ming-Chi Kuo noted in a report today that next year, we ought to expect both “innovative health management…Read more...

Researchers have uncovered what they’re calling a “bonanza” of ancient arrows and other hunting equipment, as well as signs of prey, on a remote Norwegian ice patch. The cache is a striking example of the burgeoning field of ice patch archaeology, which is unfortunately growing as the planet melts down. Global warming…Read more...

In the aftermath of Californian’s disastrous decision to avoid classifying gig workers as employees, the Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing a rule change that would allow businesses focused on the gig economy to compensate workers with equity.Read more...

Anker Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro | $110 | Amazon | Clip CouponRead more...

No matter who you are or where you are, 2020 has been a rough year. It’s been a year where things have gotten so bad, sometimes you just had to find joy in the most unexpected of places. Family, friends, a new book or video game. It’s different for everyone.

After successfully hacking Nintendo’s Game & Watch revival a day before the handheld was officially released, it didn’t lake long for Twitter user ‘stacksmashing’ to figure out how to get alternate games running on the device. They started with Doom, but have since succeeded in getting other retro classics like The…Read more...

Personally speaking, mustering the will to do pushups requires a lot of psyching myself up. A lot of walking around in circles, fiddling with my music, and wondering if maybe doing an extra few sets of overhead tricep extensions or holding a plank for two minutes would be a sufficient alternative to the dreaded…Read more...

The economic fallout of the covid-19 pandemic has hit the oil industry hard, and Exxon in particular is feeling it. Internal documents show the company’s not expecting to make a grand recovery any time soon despite putting on a good face for shareholders.

Thanks to phones like the Galaxy S20 Ultra, a new segment of devices with flexible screens, and lite versions of the Note 10 and Note 20, Samsung’s flagship phone portfolio has sort of ballooned out of control over the last couple of years. So in an effort to streamline its offering, a new rumor is claiming that…Read more...

A fascinating batch of new research papers are highlighting the various health risks associated with long-duration space missions, including troublesome observations having to do with the aging process and radiation-induced DNA damage.

As the owner of a substantial portion of the world’s most popular pieces of intellectual property, the Walt Disney Company is more than used to seeing its characters and branding pop up in unofficial, unlicensed places. In some instances, like when the family of a recently deceased child attempted to feature…Read more...

Do you remember the first electronic game you ever played? Maybe it was Super Mario Bros. on the NES? Pitfall on the Atari 2600? Pac-Man at the arcade? For me it was Tic-Tac-Toe played on what looked like a cordless phone called Merlin The Electronic Wizard featuring a ‘screen’ made up of just 11 glowing dots.Read more...

If you’re snapping a quick selfie for social media, the lower quality camera on the front of your smartphone is usually just fine. But what if you want to use the higher quality lenses and camera on the back to film yourself? It means you can’t see the screen and no longer have a live preview of yourself for framing.…Read more...

Unless you spend every year sheltering in place and worrying about a global pandemic, the upcoming holiday season is going to be different for a lot of us. Video calling apps like Zoom can keep us in touch with each other even while we’re apart, and these online and offline games will save you from having to make up…Read more...

The Walking Dead teases the arrival of Lucille. Mads Mikkelsen is still holding out hope that Hannibal could come back. Dead things don’t stay buried in the latest teaser for...whatever wild thing Riverdale will get up to this season. Plus, what’s to come on His Dark Materials. Spoilers away!

Jabra’s Elite lineup of Bluetooth earbuds have been a favorite of mine for years. But as the competition has become more intense and earbuds are packing in more features for less, Jabra was missing one big thing: active noise cancellation. The $230 Elite 85t with ANC is here, and after using these earbuds for a few…Read more...