by James Whitbrook on io9, shared by Kaitlyn Jakola t on (#5348K)
This is how you appropriately deal with the collaborative trauma of having been in multiple Michael Bay Transformers movies, right? Therapy dogs? Talking therapy dogs?
You can spend as much money as you want to customize a mechanical keyboard and install the fanciest switches, but it will never sound as satisfyingly clackety as this setup by Jatin Patel who built an unusual contraption that recreates the sounds of an old-school mechanical typewriter.Read more...
by Mike Fahey on Kotaku, shared by Kaitlyn Jakola to on (#53456)
Google Stadia launched back in November with a wireless controller that could only connect wirelessly to a Chromecast Ultra. Playing on a PC or laptop required a USB connection. An update to the controllers rolled out this week, allowing them to connect wirelessly to any browser-based Stadia client.Read more...
There are a few things to know about Samsung’s heir apparent Lee Jae-yong and how his family runs the company—he does not make frequent media appearances, apologies are rare, and family succession is a given. But in a press conference on Wednesday, Lee not only publicly apologized for his role in a bribery scandal…Read more...
by James Whitbrook on io9, shared by Kaitlyn Jakola t on (#53457)
We’ve spent the past few weeks boldly going through every Star Trek show—from its origins, to its highest highs, and its darkest chapters. We’ve even voyaged far and wide to give you the low down on the essential episodes of the franchise’s vast history. Now, it’s time to go back even further than the beginning: and…Read more...
The Onion What To Watch While Social Distancing |Jalopnik Elon Musk And Grimes Named Their Kid X Æ A-12 So Here's What We Think That's About |Kotaku Mortal Kombat 11's Story Mode Kontinues On May 26, With RoboCop |Deadspin These Amoral Lizard-People Have Reached A New Low: $25 Face Coverings That Don’t Work |The Takeout Auntie Anne’s DIY pretzels are a meal kit we can get behind |Read more...
by James Whitbrook and Gordon Jackson on io9, shared on (#5341D)
Ryan Murphy says his plans for American Horror Story’s tenth season have been massively changed by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Ed Solomon teases the world-uniting music of Bill & Ted Face the Music. Nick Fury is heading to Disney+ for a surprise new miniseries. Plus, a look at DC’s next animated movie, and what’s…Read more...
by Dharna Noor on Earther, shared by Brian Kahn to Gi on (#533X8)
Some of the most horrifying coronavirus outbreaks have been on vacation cruises. As ships have acted like petri dishes for the disease, hundreds of cruise goers have gotten sick and dozens have died. The industry was forced to shutter amid the pandemic, but touting new health protocols, it’s already planning its big…Read more...
Two years ago Microsoft made one of its best laptops, and my favorite budget computer, the Surface Go. The $400 Windows 10 tablet was absolutely not the fast computer in its price range, and it had a much smaller screen than the competition, but it also felt like the kind of perfect do anything device for someone on a…Read more...
Fitbit was one of the first tech companies to convince people that wearing a continuous heart rate sensor on your wrist was a good and useful thing to do. But in the years since releasing its first heart rate-tracking band, Fitbit has fallen behind when it comes to advanced health features. For instance, Apple put a …Read more...
Disney’s theme park in Shanghai, China will reopen on May 11 after being closed for over three months due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Disney CEO Bob Chapek. The park will observe new rules on everything from face masks to the number of people who will be allowed to enter the park at one time in what…Read more...
Single-celled organisms like Escherichia coli and yeast can grow and survive in an atmosphere like the kind theorized to exist on many rocky exoplanets, according to a new paper.Read more...
One warehouse associate at JFK8—Amazon’s massive fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York—has died of the novel coronavirus, in what is at least the third such death among the company’s ranks.
When I first saw an image of the Asian giant hornet, now famously referred to as the “Murder Hornet,” my first thought was “I’d probably eat that.” My second thought was, “wait, I probably have.”
by Dharna Noor on Earther, shared by Brian Kahn to Gi on (#5332H)
Covid-19 is a zoonotic virus, meaning it spread to humans from an animals. Scientists aren’t sure which animal spread it to us, though they think snakes or bats might have spread it to us via pangolins. But it’s not just exotic, wild animals that spread diseases. Newe research shows the next global public health…Read more...
Federal lawmakers say that in response to the pandemic, the FBI and other executive agencies may have placed unnecessary restrictions on Americans’ ability to file public records requests. They are now asking the Justice Department to explain what steps are being taken to ensure the law is being followed, to the…Read more...
In late December 2019, a 42-year-old man with pneumonia-like symptoms was admitted to a Paris hospital. Shockingly, a test of the patient’s stored sample swab came back positive for covid-19, suggesting the novel coronavirus was in France more than a month earlier than previously thought.Read more...
Adam Neumann, the controversial co-founder and former chief executive of spectacular startup failure WeWork, is suing Softbank over that failed multibillion-dollar bailout deal and claims that the company breached the terms of their agreement in doing so.Read more...
by James Whitbrook on io9, shared by Kaitlyn Jakola t on (#5332K)
Star Wars, a franchise barely anyone talks about these days, is primarily known for three things: stars, the existence of wars among them, and some really incredible (and incredibly silly) naming conventions. The fearsome Sith Lords of the Dark Side are no exception, and in light of their own equally silly day of…Read more...
If you have a domain through GoDaddy, you might want to take a minute to reset your password and PIN and enable two-factor authentication if you haven’t already. The domain registrar and web hosting company has been hacked, says Threat Post. According to the California Attorney General, GoDaddy submitted the breach…Read more...
Maybe one of the greatest ironies of Google’s Nest security cameras—and the Nest line of products in general—is just how dang insecure they are. In the past, we’ve seen these devices hijacked to spout North Korean propaganda, spy on sleeping toddlers, and harass families in their homes—leading the company to start…Read more...
by Beth Elderkin on io9, shared by Kaitlyn Jakola to on (#5332M)
Great Scott! Ravensburger is getting “heavy” with its latest game, Back to the Future: Dice Through Time, which puts players in the driver’s seat of the DeLorean to stop Biff Tannen from screwing up the timeline. In io9's exclusive first play-through, we found the game to be a fun and surprisingly insightful homage to…Read more...
In March, the spread of covid-19 forced Apple to convert WWDC 2020 into an online-only event. But back then, Apple never set a date for its annual developers conference. Well now we know: WWDC 20 starts on June 22.Read more...
Other than motion sickness, the uncomfortable bulkiness of VR headsets has always stopped me from dropping hundreds of dollars on one. If only they were more like Geordi LaForge’s visor. That’s some fashionable VR design I could get behind. But it seems like Facebook’s Oculus division is trying to change that,…Read more...
The dubiously legal work model Uber and Lyft take advantage of has been under fire for years, but in the U.S., the epicenter of that fight has been California. Now, with the pandemic as a catalyst, that long-simmering battle has apparently spilled over in a lawsuit filed today by the state’s Attorney General, alleging…Read more...
Astronomers and physicists continue to pursue the answers to the universe’s deepest questions, but on many matters, including dark matter and dark energy, they are stymied. What if an autonomously operating telescope, free from human biases and complications, could find the solutions we’ve been missing?
by James Whitbrook on io9, shared by Kaitlyn Jakola t on (#532SS)
Current events have rendered what was going to be a summer of vast franchises, teeming cinematic universes, and interconnected megablockbusters rather moot at this point. But in these trying times, we can still turn to one heroic universe that nails the shared concept unlike many of its theatrical counterparts: I am,…Read more...
by Yessenia Funes on Earther, shared by Brian Kahn to on (#532M7)
The U.S. just saw its biggest purchase of energy storage ever. California utility Southern California Edison signed seven contracts last week to launch several energy storage projects totaling 770 megawatts to come online in 2021. It’s a huge step, one that dwarfs all the storage purchased last year across the entire…Read more...
by Jason Torchinsky on Jalopnik, shared by Kaitlyn Ja on (#532PP)
As you may be aware, Elon Musk and Grimes have rubbed their space-genitals together over a Tleilaxu Axolotl tank and crafted themselves a human child. That child is now complete, and it’s a little boy, and, contrary to recent rumors, he’s not named Influenza. That would be ridiculous. Don’t be silly. He’s named X Æ…Read more...
While we sleep, our brains are busy organizing fresh memories into long-term storage—or at least, that’s the theory. Intriguing new research is bolstering this assertion, with evidence that our brains replay the day’s experiences during sleep, in what is an integral part of the memory-storage process.
We’ve seen phones with punch-hole selfie cams, pop-up selfie cams, and even 360-degree rotating cameras. But now, new leaks suggest that Lenovo’s upcoming gaming phone might get the wildest front-facing cam of them all thanks to a side-mounted motorized selfie shooter.Read more...
by Cheryl Eddy on io9, shared by Kaitlyn Jakola to Gi on (#532M8)
Rick and Morty is back (for the next few Sundays at least, until the show burns through the rest of season four)! To celebrate, we’re counting down our all-time favorite famous guest stars who’ve dropped by the show, giving voice to characters as varied as the Devil and a gaseous musical alien named Fart.
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on io9, shared by Kaitlyn Ja on (#532GN)
The concept of the U.S. Government establishing a new branch of the military just to muck about in space is patently funny on its face, but the more you think about it, the more depressing it becomes because it’s a dumb waste of taxpayer dollars...regardless of how many UFOs we think we’ve seen.Read more...
In 2018, Dyson released its V10 cordless vacuum and said goodbye to corded vacs forever. But while cleaning without wires is undoubtedly more convenient, batteries still limit how long a vacuum can run between charges. It’s an unfortunate downside, and one the new Dyson V11 Outsize specifically addresses by finally…Read more...
It’s absolutely primitive by today’s standards, but when Pong arrived in 1972, it was a technological marvel. So how did Tomy create a handheld knock-off of the game in 1977 when the electronics needed to miniaturize it didn’t exist yet? It created this mechanical alternative that might be one of the most bizarre…Read more...
by James Whitbrook and Gordon Jackson on io9, shared on (#532D1)
J.J. Abrams’ HBO sci-fantasy drama Demimonde has found itself some more producers. Joe Keery promises spooks abound when Stranger Things returns. Get a look at Mark Hamill vamping it up in What We Do in the Shadows. Plus, teases for Twilight Zone’s second season, and what’s to come on Harley Quinn. Spoilers, away!
It’s in the new iPad Pro tablets, it’s rumored to be coming to the iPhone 12 and a form of it has been appearing in Android phones for the last few years. What exactly is LiDAR, and why would you want it in a mobile device? Here we’ll take you through what the tech does, all of the ways it can be deployed, and why it…Read more...
Hong Kong’s government announced a plan to give every family at least 10 free face masks as it prepares to reopen large parts of society later this week. The region of 7 million people has experienced 14 full days without any community transmission of the new coronavirus, setting the stage for local politicians to…Read more...
Despite the stereotype of a lone, wild-haired Einstein working tirelessly at a chalkboard, today’s biggest discoveries in physics come from huge collaborations of scientists working on enormous apparatuses that can cost billions of dollars, often located in the most extreme places on Earth. After all, it’s just the…Read more...
Apple and Google aren’t developing coronavirus-tracking apps, but on Monday they shared examples of what those apps could look like. Most notably, the tech giants detailed what the public health authorities who can use their contact-tracing APIs to create those apps can’t do: namely, they can’t track your location and…Read more...
by Yessenia Funes on Earther, shared by Andrew Couts on (#531JT)
The coronavirus pandemic is truly showing us who the real snakes in Congress are. We already had an idea, of course, given how many right-wing lawmakers deny climate science, but even in the face of endless death, these fools continue to ignore science and public health all in the name of good ol’ American pandering.Read more...
In preparation for the upcoming Perseverance mission to Mars, astrobiologists performed a dry run to see if the new rover is actually capable of finding signs of ancient life. The good news: It is, if Mars is anything like Australia.
by Daryl Baxter on The Inventory, shared by Gabe Care on (#531JV)
A new month has brought a new update to Apple’s MacBook line today; the 13inch MacBook Pro. With that, it also signaled the end of the ‘Butterfly keyboard’, with the ‘inverted-t’ arrow keys and better feel now across the MacBook line.Read more...
You may remember the great Donkey Kong controversy of 2018, which stripped divisive arcade gamer Billy Mitchell of a years-long reign as Donkey King, of Guinness World records, and of his name from the leaderboards. Now, as Ars Technica first reported, Mitchell has filed a defamation suit against the gaming…Read more...