Gizmodo

Logitech G935 Gaming Headset | $120 | Amazon

Was it aliens or artists? Yesterday, the internet was enthralled by the discovery of an unexplained metallic monolith in the middle of nowhere by officers for Utah’s Department of Public Safety. Roughly 24 hours later, we have a lot more answers, all thanks to amateur sleuths online. And given the area’s long history…Read more...

SpaceX fired the engines on its Starship SN8 prototype on Tuesday evening, with billionaire CEO Elon Musk tweeting that the resultant “good static fire” produced during the final test had likely paved the way for the vehicle to take its first test flight sometime next week.

One of many things we’re missing during quarantine has been the kind high-profile, high-budget music video release we’ve come to expect from our pop stars in the 21st century. Sure, Cardi B brought out a live tiger and Kylie Jenner for her “WAP” music video in August, but social distancing requirements — and the…Read more...

An already cheap subscription just got cheaper.

Have you heard of Amazon Sidewalk? Probably not. But there is a good chance that you or someone you know has an Amazon Echo or Ring camera. And if you own one of those devices and live in the U.S. (or know someone who does), you need to tell them to opt-out of the service as soon as possible.Read more...

As Trump’s symbiotic relationship with Fox News has lost its shine, the President has taken to directing his followers to One America News Network, a low-rent cable news upstart with non-existent editorial standards. But no one gets a free ride on the Trump gravy train and OANN just found out that loyalty bordering on…Read more...

A leak in Tasmania is sparking fears of pollution. But it’s not an oil, gas, or chemicals; what leaked is at least 50,000 fish. Farmed salmon, to be exact.

Has Facebook learned jack shit from the past few nightmare years? Not really, per a report in the New York Times on Tuesday. Facebook only started giving more weight to reputable publishers in the News Feed days after the 2020 election and doesn’t plan on making that a long-term thing. Executives on its policy team…Read more...

Spotted earlier this year, asteroid 2020 CD3 is only the second temporary natural satellite, or minimoon, ever detected around Earth. It didn’t stick around for very long, but we learned some interesting things about our temporary companion and why a mission to intercept similar objects is a good idea.Read more...

Much of the news about the U.S.’s internet infrastructure is abysmal. Millions of urban and rural Americans either can’t afford or don’t have reliable access to high-speed internet. The financial reprieve so many ISPs offered customers at the start of the covid pandemic is long gone. A massive spike in covid cases is…Read more...

If you’re one of the troves of people who—for some bizarre reason—wants to be among the blue-checked elite on Twitter, then good news: everyone’s favorite app for posting bad takes will be bringing back its verification process early next year.Read more...

The Crock-Pot drama returns.Read more...

President-elect Joe Biden has chosen John Kerry to be his international climate czar. In the role, formally called the special presidential envoy on climate, Kerry will coordinate interagency programs in the White House. He’ll also be embedded in the National Securities Council—which advises the president on national…Read more...

Since March, the longest I’ve gone without running is six days. As temperatures rose this summer, my pace slowed from an average of about 10 minutes per mile to 11-12 minutes a mile. It’s not because I became a worse runner overnight. You can actually calculate by how much heat and humidity slow you down. You…Read more...

Finally, we are getting some FACTS out of the White House. Noted environmentalist and nepotistic grifter Ivanka Trump dropped some KNOWLEDGE on Twitter on Tuesday.Read more...

I know nothing about poetry, but I’m pretty sure Verse by Verse—Google’s new AI-powered poetry generator—is phoning it in.

It’s a given that Star Wars movies have great music. So when there’s a vinyl release of one of the soundtracks, the package better have artwork to match. Thankfully, Mondo has done just that for Solo: A Star Wars Story. The company recruited César Moreno to do brand new illustrations for an exclusive release, and it’s…Read more...

There’s a cave in California, roughly an hour’s drive from Santa Barbara, whose ceiling features a prominent pinwheel-like drawing. Fascinating new research suggests this painting is not some drug-induced abstraction, but a literal representation of the very thing that makes psychedelic trips possible.

The Rocinante is getting ready to make its final voyage. Amazon Studios has renewed The Expanse for a sixth and final season—although one cast member will not be returning for the last journey into the stars.

Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder who later pivoted to a career in being the richest man in the world, is losing his touch. If any of us were as bad at our jobs as Gates, we’d be on the bread lines faster than you can say, “guillotines are the future.” And this week, the man’s downward spiral continued.Read more...

A fire broke out on the United States Coast Guard’s largest ship last summer, destroying one of the vessel’s enormous electric motors. Now the Coast Guard, one of the five service branches of the U.S. military, is replacing that motor and documenting the entire process, which involves cutting a giant hole in the hull.…Read more...

While there are plenty of places where you can pay to put on a Mario cap and tool around in a go-kart making like it’s the Rainbow Road, real-life Mario Kart lacks the fun power-ups and gentle mayhem of the video game. I assumed Nintendo’s Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, which lets you drive a remote control kart with…Read more...

AeroGarden Harvest Slim | $80 | Macy’s

Chris Columbus still has hopes for a Gremlins 3. The success of Alien XMas could decide if Netflix goes for Killer Klowns from Outer Space 2. Get a glimpse of The Walking Dead’s return. Plus, tiny new snippets of Wonder Woman 1984 footage and Wandavision’s trip through TV history has a few more tricks to reveal.…Read more...

We’re all trapped at home sharing broadband for the foreseeable future with no end in sight, and our internet setups need some help. You might be looking at mesh routers as a solution to help blanket your house with wifi and ensure that every Zoom meeting, online class, and virtual exercise session goes off without a…Read more...

Samsung Odyssey G9 49" Gaming Monitor | $1,190 | Amazon

Officers from the Utah Department of Public Safety discovered a shiny metallic monolith in rural Utah’s Red Rock Country on November 18 while surveying big horn sheep by helicopter. The monolith has drawn comparisons to the black monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the helicopter crew…Read more...

Expanding upon an existing feature that warns users who attempt to retweet content that has already been flagged as “misleading information,” Twitter will now issue the same warning when users attempt to like content that has been similarly designated.

True to series creator Sofia Alexander’s vision, Crunchyroll’s Onyx Equinox is an animated action epic that uses all the hallmarks of your traditional anime-inspired series to tell a story about a young boy forced to set aside his fears in order to face the gods.Read more...

After waging a nefarious and ultimately successful campaign to avoid paying gig workers in California a living wage at all costs, Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc have been rewarded with an $810 million government contract.Read more...

Alexa, show me a corporate pivot to fitness tracking.Read more...

In another universe, this year in tech might have been defined by TikTok’s survival of numerous assassination attempts. Just as the (first) TikTok ban came down, Instagram swooped in with Reels; today, Snapchat announced that it’s launching a TikTok copycat feature called Spotlight. It’s not the first TikTok ripoff…Read more...

Next year, Comcast will start charging Xfinity customers in northeastern US states overage fees for exceeding their monthly data cap. As The Verge reports, customers not on an unlimited plan who exceed 1.2 TB of data in a month will have to pay $10 for every 50 GB of data they go over, topping out at $100. To put that…Read more...

A newly released indictment charges Apple’s Head of Global Security, Thomas Moyer, with for his alleged participation in a scheme to acquire concealed-carry gun permits for Apple’s security team in exchange for providing cops with iPads.Read more...

Archaeologists working near the ancient city of Pompeii have uncovered the remains of two men who were likely trying to find shelter during the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

As covid-19 continues to push theaters to the brink of bankruptcy, Disney has been cagey about the future of its planned theatrical releases. But a new report suggests more big-budget films could be heading to its service Disney+, as have recent releases like Mulan and Artemis Fowl. And even if theaters are able to…Read more...

On November 19, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) announced it would now allow autonomous taxi companies to charge for their services across the state. California already had the most stringent rules in the country for AV operators, and the newly created Drivered Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Program…Read more...

Since Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge only exists in two places on our planet, one might expect a VR experience based on it would just copy them, and give fans who can’t get to Disneyland or Walt Disney World a chance to visit Batuu right from the comfort of home. Star Wars: Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge by ILMxLab sort of…Read more...

Clockwork, makers of the Gameboy-esque GameShell, are back with a new mobile product aimed even more squarely at lovers of retro tech. Their DevTerm is a self-contained computer powered by a low-energy CPU or Raspberry Pi aimed directly at folks who are looking for a low-profile, extremely portable computer for…Read more...

The China National Space Administration’s mission to bring chunks of the Moon back to Earth for the first time in decades will kick off this week, with the Chang’e-5 spacecraft slated to launch on today from Wenchang Space Launch Center on Hainan Island.

Jack’s back...again. And this time, maybe he’ll finally get to meet the Thirteenth Doctor.

The big dish at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is on the verge of collapse, leaving officials with no choice but to retire the famous radio telescope. Astronomers around the world are now having to face a grim reality: that this dutiful dish—in service for the past 57 years—is no more.

Here are three crucial numbers from the past week: 2 million, 1.2 million, and 83,782.Read more...

When you’re a journalist or club promoter or financier, fraud is always a gamble—you might be publicly disgraced and have your venal misdeeds replayed over and over in Netflix documentaries and prestige podcasts, but you might also get away with it. When you’re a scientist—working in a field whose bedrock principle is…Read more...

The true spirit of Christmas is something that holiday movies have long been fascinated with, and Netflix’s Alien Xmas is no exception. What is exceptional about the special is that it brings extraterrestrial flair to the holiday, courtesy of the Chiodo Brothers, who made 1988 cult classic Killer Klowns From Outer…Read more...

Smart lights are the easiest, most affordable entryway into the smart home. In terms of convenience, scheduling your lights is one of the biggest perks, especially if you’ve got a set routine, your hands are tied, or you are going away for a few days. This is why it was really annoying that Google Assistant couldn’t…Read more...

Apple Watch Series 6 (GPS) | $330-$409 | Amazon

Despite what you may have heard online, there is at least one redeeming feature of Apple TV’s divisive touchpad remote: it can be replaced. The latest alternative that more or less maintains its slim, compact footprint is from Universal Electronics and unlike other third-party Apple TV remotes, this one includes a…Read more...

It’s never the good ones who want to ban Facebook.Read more...