Gizmodo

If you genuinely take your online security seriously you should be using two-factor authentication paired with a security key every time you log in. There are lots of options out there, including Google’s own $50 Titan security key set, but the company has also recently released software you can use to build your own…Read more...

The novel coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China continues to ripple around the world. More than 20,000 cases have been confirmed across Asia, Europe, North America, and Australia, and the official death toll of 425 has surpassed that of the 2002-03 SARS outbreak.Read more...

While working from home is a luxury for some, it’s becoming a necessity for others. The world is currently witnessing its “largest work-from-home experiment,” as Bloomberg put it, due to the rapid spread of the Wuhan coronavirus that’s killed more people than the 2002-03 SARS outbreak. Many businesses across China are…Read more...

Very few land turtles managed to survive the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, but at least one species of primitive turtle managed to fend off extinction in the northern hemisphere, according to new fossils found in France.

If you were on trial for a murder you didn’t commit, it’s possible that Facebook has evidence that could set you free. But it is extraordinarily unlikely that Facebook would hand it over. Facebook would not only refuse to help you, but it will pay exorbitant legal fees to fight your subpoenas through appeals courts as…Read more...

In a new privacy-related fuckup, Google told users today that it might’ve accidentally imported your personal photos into another Google user’s account. Whoopsie!Read more...

DC Entertainment is about to achieve something that Marvel Studios hasn’t. When Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) opens on February 7, it will be the first comic book movie starring an all-female superteam. And assuming the CW picks up the Arrow spinoff and Birds of Prey-inspired …Read more...

There are lots of valid reasons to be worried about how deep learning techniques could potentially be used to manipulate footage for nefarious reasons. But as Denis Shiryaev demonstrates by upscaling some old black and white film footage from 1896, those AI-powered tools can also be a powerful way to bring the past…Read more...

Ireland’s data protection commission has announced a new probe into Google’s handling of location data, specifically the “the legality of Google’s processing of location data and the transparency surrounding that processing.”Read more...

One of the scarier concerns about the Wuhan coronavirus may be overblown. This week, researchers appeared to debunk findings from last week that suggested the virus could spread from people not showing symptoms. Indeed, it seems the patient initially suspected of passing on the infection while asymptomatic did in fact …Read more...

Nvidia’s big game-streaming competitor to Google Stadia and Microsoft Project xCloud, GeForce Now, is finally launching today. While Stadia relies on a cultivated selection of games, and Project xCloud leans largely on Xbox One-only titles, the biggest appeal of Nvidia GeForce Now is the ability to play just about any…Read more...

Rally Sweden, with its treacherous snow-packed roadways and unique winter conditions, has been a longstanding gem in the World Rally Championship calendar. But the fate of this month’s February 13-16 event is currently hanging in the balance because there’s just not enough snow.

Last year, Del Rey’s excellent Star Wars novel series gave us a tale of damaged pilots amid the formation of the New Republic in Alphabet Squadron, a spiritual successor to the X-Wing books of the old Expanded Universe. Now, io9's got an exclusive look at the second book in the trilogy—where we’ll really get to know…Read more...

High in the Sierra Nevada, a spotted owl soundlessly touches down in a massive red fir. As its ears scan the forest for the faintest flying squirrel noises, the moon arcs overhead. A flood of hostile, feathered invaders is the furthest thing from its mind, but new research suggests that’s precisely what’s coming.

Could Black Adam be looking to cast another obscure comics hero? Kathleen Kennedy says Harrison Ford is still up for Indiana Jones 5. Go behind the scenes on Birds of Prey. A familiar MCU face is joining The Simpsons’ riff on Marvel. Plus, why Wally West’s Flash return will be such a huge deal, and what’s to come on …Read more...

If you buy a smart home device right now, it’s more than likely it’ll work with Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant, or maybe even both—but while these digital assistants are adding a layer of convenience on top of a living space full of sensors and gadgets, they aren’t really the smart home platforms we should be…Read more...

Have you seen that viral video of people farting in public, captured by China’s thermal imaging cameras that are on the hunt for coronavirus? It’s completely fake.Read more...

The Washington Post’s Tony Romm reported on Monday night that Twitter has decided it will allow certain right-wing accounts to spread disinformation about the Iowa Democratic Caucuses, including tweets that suggest the results are being “rigged.”

Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. has disclosed how much YouTube’s advertising business rakes in for the first time, writing in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the streaming giant made just shy of $15.15 billion in ad revenue in fiscal year 2019. It made some $4.79 billion of it in Q4 2019…Read more...

Update: 11:30 p.m. ET: Prior accounts of some problems with the app the Iowa Democratic Party is using to collect and tabulate results appear to have been somewhat... understating the situation. It is now hours after the process of releasing caucus results was expected to begin—and instead, there’s been little beyond…Read more...

When you think sci-fi, you think metal. You think space. You think speed, technology, lasers, and everything mechanical. You don’t think trees. You don’t think grass, rivers, or flowers. And yet, the crossovers between nature and sci-fi are everywhere, which is especially evident in this beautiful new art show.Read more...

Hey, hey! Here’s something you may not know about Babu Frik!

Cars parked outside $12 million renovation project at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ D.C. mansion were tagged with at least 564 separate parking tickets costing nearly $17,000, of which $5,600 were listed as unpaid in DMV records, WUSA 9 recently reported.

As if the Pablo Escobar Fold 1 wasn’t enough, there is now a second Pablo Escobar-branded folding smartphone. The name? Wait for it—the Pablo Escobar Fold 2.Read more...

China passed a bleak milestone over the weekend, as more people in mainland China have now died of the newly discovered coronavirus than did during the SARS outbreak, which also began in China almost two decades ago. Cases in other countries are also increasing each day.

A recently proposed House bill that calls for NASA to send humans to Mars in 2033 is coming under fire from scientists who think it would be a mistake to assign secondary importance to a lunar mission and to neglect technological contributions from the private sector.

When most of us think of how the concept of “data” has been skewered by the press, we’re probably thinking about an app’s location data tipping off our home address, or apps like Grindr tipping advertisers off about our sexuality. What’s less scrutinized, both by the public and by those in public office, is data that’…Read more...

Miami might be fresh on the mind for some because—hello!—Jennifer Lopez and Shakira completely stole the show at the Super Bowl Sunday. However, Miami is always on our minds at Earther because of climate change. And a recent report has put it front and center yet again because it shows just how vulnerable Miami (and…Read more...

Yes, that leaked Star Wars footage that surfaced last week was real. No, it’s not what you think it was.

Faster wireless speeds are on the way, but getting good signal strength in offices and homes is still a problem. To help address that problem, researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have developed a type of “smart surface” that it says can boost a phone’s signal strength…Read more...

Quibi officially launches in a little over two months, meaning that the funky, mobile-first streaming service is ramping up the hype by teasing out a handful of trailers for its short-form video series, a couple of which I’ll, somewhat begrudgingly, admit look pretty good!Read more...

Unlike Marvel’s previous live-action series whose connections to the larger MCU were tenuous at best, Disney+’s WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki are all set within the narrative orbit of Marvel’s films, making each of them an important piece of the franchise’s future as the studio plows forward…Read more...

It turns out that Google Maps is more fallible than you might want to think. Just look at German artist Simon Weckert, who managed to create a virtual traffic jam without a single car on the road. Why he did it, though, is the most interesting part.Read more...

Anker Soundcore Life Q20 Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Headphones (Black) | $40 | Amazon

A pair of new studies out Monday might nudge you to reevaluate your meat-eating habit. One study found evidence that eating at least two weekly servings of red meat, particularly processed meat, is linked to a slightly higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death. The second links eating a diet rich in plants to…Read more...

There hasn’t been a new BlackBerry phone since the Key2 LE (which is basically a slightly cheaper and slower version of the original Key2) came out in the summer of 2018. But now the entire future of BlackBerry phones is in question following a tweet from the official BlackBerry Mobile account.Read more...

The climate crisis is causing ice in Antarctica to melt faster than at any other time in recorded history. And scientists just found another troubling sign for Antarctic ice. Record warm water is surging under an Antarctica glacier that’s fate is intertwined with the millions of people who live along the coast.…Read more...

Apple is offering limited onsite iPhone repairs through its Authorized Service Provider Go Tech Services in select cities, meaning some customers can have their repairs done at their home or work.Read more...

Motorola’s reboot of the classic Razr featuring a new bendable screen was originally slated to go on sale in early January, but in order “to better meet consumer demand,” Moto decided to delay the phone’s launch to February 6th. However, it seems despite that new release date, some Moto Razr pre-orders have started…Read more...

Peloton’s advertising is bad. The pricey stationary bike’s TV commercials feature extremely attractive humans working out in the living rooms of their expensive high-rises or, even more improbably, in the same bedrooms where their partners are still sleeping. (You have the right to exact excruciating revenge on anyone…Read more...

While Disney’s upcoming live-action Mulan remake won’t exactly feature anywhere near as much of the whimsy as the studio’s 1998 animated feature, the final trailer makes obvious that what this movie’s lost in the way of cartoonishness, it’s more than made up for with straight-up epic fantasy action that’s unlike…Read more...

A sweet lunch box, laundry detergent, combination locks, and a lap desk lead off Monday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

If you want your photos to last for generations, you should be printing them out. But finding the time to decide which of your shots are worthy of hard copies can be time-consuming, leading most of us to simply not to. For $8 per month, however, Google Photos is testing a new service that automatically sends you…Read more...

Statistically, at least ten people reading this article will be dead within sixteen months. I just made that statistic up, but if you felt a little flutter of excitement at the prospect of your imminent demise, you might be verifying the death drive—Freud’s theory, postulated in 1920, that each consciousness is dually…Read more...

Donald Trump, the dumbest president in modern American history, congratulated the Kansas City Chiefs last night after they beat the San Francisco 49ers to win the Super Bowl, tweeting, “You represented the Great State of Kansas and, in fact, the entire USA, so very well.”Read more...

Happy Super Bowl Sunday, everyone! I hope that the fans out there have a nice time today. I imagine Roku owners will be especially pleased, given that recently announced Roku and Fox deal.Read more...

In a clip circulating on Twitter Sunday, noted leaker Ben Geskin shared what appears to be the first hands-on video of Samsung’s so-called Galaxy Z Flip ahead of its expected launch next week.

“Sub Rosa” was a very strange episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, an old-school gothic adventure featuring a haunted candle, a ghastly Casanova, and just enough scifi nonsense to keep the whole thing from being magic.Read more...

As the coronavirus outbreak rages on, its effects are being felt around the world. In Mexico, Uber felt compelled to act when it learned that its drivers had possibly come into contact with a person suspected to have coronavirus. Consequently, it temporarily deactivated the accounts of 240 users who had also travelled…Read more...

Colin Trevorrow, the Star Wars director who wasn’t, is currently hard at work for the production of Jurassic World 3, the third in a series of Jurassic Park revival films that, whatever you think of their quality, have produced some lush dino-riffic special effects.Read more...