Gizmodo

Jacinda Ardern has won a lot of rightful praise for New Zealand’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The nation has stood as an outlier with cases that have stayed low, and the country is beginning to reopen in what it hopes is a safe way. So maybe we should also be paying attention to what their ideas are for a…Read more...

Humans and other animals are quite alike—we all just speak different languages. For humans, it’s about the spoken word. With animals, the language may have nothing to do with the auditory sense. It could be gorgeous, like Caribbean reef squid that communicate through color patterns. Other times it’s tactile, like the…Read more...

If you’re choosing a new tablet, or a new tablet that can turn into a laptop if you attach a keyboard to it, then you’ve got three choices: iPadOS, Windows, or ChromeOS. One dedicated tablet OS, recently split from the iPhone, and two converted desktop OSes doing double duty on tablets. Which one is best for you?

According to multiple ads I’ve seen, we are in this thing together. “Together we will prevail,” the ads say. You lay there—alone, in a shirt stained with who can say what—and think: nothing. What is there to think? If you were going to have an interesting thought, you would’ve had it weeks ago. Better to wreck…Read more...

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In some places around the world, you can find bright green balls of moss scattered across glaciers. That picture is incredible all by itself, but what is truly mind-boggling is that this colony of moss balls moves. All at about the same speeds and in the same directions.

That sure was quick.

End-to-end encryption for RCS appears to finally be in the pipeline for Google’s messaging app. That’s according to code spotted in an upcoming version update by the folks at APKMirror, as first reported by 9to5 Google this weekend.

One thing that global isolation has been good for (other than not getting sick) is the wave of lo-fi homemade short films from the sort of people who would normally be starring in, y’know, big expensive movies instead of making silly movies for Twitter.Read more...

Speaking just two days after President Donald Trump said churches and other houses of worship were “essential” and argued that they should reopen this weekend, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said that churches may not be safe for people with pre-existing conditions.Read more...

AT-ATs, one of the most visually iconic markers of the Empire’s military reign, have one serious problem: their big dumb stupid fragile legs. You know, the ones that can be stopped with the application of a particularly taut rope. But maybe they’re not as big of a problem as they appear?Read more...

I’m still reelingfrom the whirlwind of She-Ra and the Princessesof Power’s final season. But even in a season full of excitement andwarfare, what sticks with me about the show isn’t the big, dramatic setpieces.It’s how well the show understands what it means to grow.Read more...

If you’ve ever installed a backyard bird feeder in hopes of peacefully observing your fine feathered friends, you’re probably aware that it quickly becomes a target for your local squirrel population. Now, if anyone can stop a squirrel from breaching a bird feeder you’d assume a former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory…Read more...

HBO Max is an opportunity for Warner Bros. to flex its muscles, leveraging its long creative history to make the sort of shows and films that entice people to buy into a new streaming platform. Which means that fans of classic Warner animation get a special treat: New Looney Tunes. And the first episode of Looney Tune…Read more...

A sale on New York Times best-sellers, a massive ass cleaver, a super useful cooler backpack, JACHS NY polos, and more are Sunday’s best deals.

It appears the UK wants Chinese telecommunications company Huawei as far away from its 5G network as possible. In an about-face, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told officials to create plans to reduce Huawei’s involvement in the country’s 5G networks to zero by 2023.Read more...

After shutting down indefinitely in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Universal announced this week that its Orlando parks will reopen their gates beginning on June 5. Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure, and Volcano Bay have been empty for months following several other high-profile theme park closuresRead more...

In a hard-fought victory for privacy reformers, the U.S. House of Representatives is now expected to vote as early as Wednesday on an amendment that would explicitly prohibit the warrantless collection of internet search and browsing history without a warrant, sources tell Gizmodo.

If you were wondering, will we, as a people, ever escape from the spectre of velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus rexes chasing us through spectacular pyrotechnic conflagrations? The answer is, absolutely not.Read more...

After years of complaining of online bias against him, President Donald Trump is thinking about doing something about it—again. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump is considering forming a panel to review (so far unsubstantiated) allegations of anti-conservative bias on social media, which could include the…Read more...

Honestly, if Iron Man really existed, he’d probably be more dangerous to himself than anyone else.Read more...

Canines beware: Apparently we humans aren’t the only ones who need to worry about our inevitable robot overlords replacing us.

If you watched Back to the Future: Part II when it first hit Netflix, you might have noticed a little something was missing. According to the writer of the series, it wasn’t exactly Netflix’s fault.Read more...

A reckoning is coming. (Spoilers for the end of the third season incoming.)Read more...

Who knew vampirescould be so hilarious?Read more...

The U.S. Commerce Department has put another 33 Chinese businesses—many of which develop artificial intelligence and face recognition tech—on its economic blacklist as a punitive measure for purportedly conspiring with Beijing and the government’s brutal crackdown on Muslim minorities.

In his latest push to quickly reopen America despite all evidence suggesting that that’s a pretty dumb idea, President Donald Trump declared places of worship “essential” and called for reopenings nationwide this weekend, even as several areas remain under coronavirus lockdowns.

This might not come as a surprise if you ever use Twitter, but it turns out bots are driving the push to “reopen America” on the platform.

A coalition of major tech companies and digital rights organizations sent a letter on Friday to House leaders of both parties urging them to allow a vote on an amendment to prohibit the FBI from collecting Americans’ web browsing data without a warrant.

For reasons known only to Hell itself, an editor—or more likely, several—decided today to run a profile in Bloomberg entitled, “Elon Musk Is the Hero America Deserves.” We can debate whether that’s a hidden dig at the worthiness of this lapsed country, or if recycling quotes from an overrated Batman movie says…Read more...

If you’re single and stuck inside at home during the pandemic, online dating can be a creative way to pass the time—after all, what’s more romantic than a first date over Zoom? But if, in a fit of boredom, you’re tempted to try Facebook Dating, let me tell you now: Don’t even think about it. I speak from experience.Read more...

Each season of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power explored different aspects and forms of love as its massive cast of characters clashed, made up, and chose their sides in the larger battle for the fate of the universe. Catra and Adora’s relationship was always one of the series’ most emotionally complex, and io9 had…Read more...

While lockdowns remain in effect in many states, health officials still say outdoor exercise is a good way to stretch those legs and shake off some cabin fever. I’ve been religiously walking and running—while maintaining the appropriate distance, of course—and so have plenty of other folks in good ol’ New York. And,…Read more...

Requiring federal agents to have “probable cause” to eavesdrop on the internet activities of American citizens poses a direct threat to national security and would force the FBI to stand by while terrorist plots unfold on U.S. soil, according to a leaked copy of talking points distributed to Senate lawmakers this…Read more...

Over 4,300 people who were recovering from coronavirus were sent to nursing homes under a New York Health Department directive, possibly accelerating outbreaks in those institutions that claimed over 5,800 nursing and adult care facilities throughout the state, the Associated Press reported on Friday.Read more...

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated information on its website about how covid-19—the disease caused by the novel coronavirus strain SARS-CoV-2—travels to indicate that the virus “does not spread easily” on surfaces. However, the change comes with a big caveat: The CDC site says it could still…Read more...

Word emerged Wednesday of a new project, called Insignia, that aims to recreate the original Xbox Live service, potentially restoring online play to many dozens of classic Xbox games that fell offline when the original Xbox Live service (hereafter, “Xbox Live”) closed on April 15, 2010.Read more...

The U.S. Copyright Office has released a long-awaited, 192-page report that could give the music and movie industry an opening to fight for stricter enforcement of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

No matter how they may make you feel, licking your gadgets and electronics is never recommended. Unless you’re a researcher from Meiji University in Japan who’s invented what’s being described as a taste display that can artificially recreate any flavor by triggering the five different tastes on a user’s tongue.Read more...

It seems that the European Union’s digital privacy protections aren’t just a handy way to keep the Facebooks and Googles of the world from snooping into your personal life. According to a recent court ruling in the Netherlands, these same protections can apply to overly invasive family members, too.

Earlier this week Google announced that the Google App was finally getting an official dark mode on Android and iOS, which is something that would normally make me happy, but I’ve suffered not one, but two rants from my colleagues complaining about dark mode. So consider this piece a direct rebuttal to my colleagues’…Read more...

Ohio legislators have approved plans to build North America’s first-ever freshwater offshore wind farm. On Thursday, the Ohio Power Siting Board unanimously approved the Icebreaker wind project, a six turbine project slated to be constructed off the Lake Erie shore near downtown Cleveland. The wind farm would include…Read more...

Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling from 2018, most of the evidence that might be hidden on a suspect’s phone is only accessible with some sort of warrant. Now, a Seattle judge is extending these protections even further.Read more...

Here’s our roundup of the latest developments and research into covid-19, including more insight into its deadly effects on the body, how ready U.S. states are for reopening, and a massively disappointing result for two potential treatments that were once hailed as “game-changers” by President Trump.Read more...

In spite of growing federal demands for transparency regarding the number of covid-19 exposures among the second-largest U.S. workforce, Amazon’s stance so far can be largely characterized as “fuck you, make me.” Unsurprisingly, this disdain is extending to local-level concerns, too—now most urgently in Kenosha,…Read more...

A man in Morrow, Georgia, has been charged for allegedly submitting a fake medical letter for a positive covid-19, defrauding his company and causing an estimated $100,000 in damages after his employer was forced to close and unnecessarily quarantine several of the man’s colleagues.Read more...

You’ve seen Night of the Living Dead, Psycho, and Rosemary’s Baby. But have you seen a pre-Star Trek William Shatner being chased by a succubus in a movie filmed entirely in Esperanto? Or a made-in-Japan (with a non-Japanese cast) alien creature feature with the grooviest theme song ever? Read on!

This story will provide important context for the headline, and I encourage you to read it—but really, the headline tells you what you need to know: It was 80 degrees Fahrenheit above the Arctic Circle this week.Read more...

Despite recently having to announce the lay off of 1,000 employees, it would now appear that Magic Leap has somehow pulled a $350 million miracle out of its ass.Read more...