Gizmodo

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, the sponsor of a recent amendment to stop the FBI from capturing Americans’ search and web browsing histories without a warrant, is now asking the nation’s top spy (acting) to disclose whether his office has accurately reported on such activities, which the law seemingly requires.

A report released Wednesday provides some early insight into the damage covid-19 has already wrought on one of the hardest-hit regions: New York City. It concludes that the first wave of the outbreak has shaved five years off the life expectancy of NYC residents.

It seems like social media companies are finally realizing that no one likes rando trolls blowing up their mentions. Or being ratioed. Or having unwelcome porn bots reply to something you tweeted five years ago. Taking a cue from Instagram’s latest tag and mention controls, Twitter has just started testing its own…Read more...

Well, well, well.

Ever since Elon Musk introduced the radical-looking electric Tesla Cybertruck late last year by smashing its windows in front of a crowd, one thing has been certain: Tesla will have to build them if they want to sell them. I did the math, it’s true. Tesla is planning on building the Cybertruck in an all-new Cybertruck…Read more...

When we talk about Google, regard for personal privacy is generally the last thing on any of our minds. So when Google announced on its company blog yesterday that the latest Chrome update—Chrome 83—would be jam-packed with new goodies meant to beef up the browser’s privacy and security chops, I was, in a word,…Read more...

India and Bangladesh are currently reeling from Cyclone Amphan. The cyclone made landfall Wednesday, forcing millions into shelters.Read more...

Some fans demanded it, we’ve all debated it, and now it’s finally happening. On Wednesday, Warner Bros. announced that a new cut of Justice League, one approved and finished by Zack Snyder, will be released on its upcoming streaming service, HBO Max.Read more...

High-frequency sound waves aimed at specific brain regions can influence monkey behavior, according to a new study. The finding complicates our conceptions of free will, but this research could yield new insights into the brain and new treatments for disorders such as addiction.

The final season of Netflix’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power has arrived, and overall it’s a great end to the story of Adora, Catra, and everyone else. But that doesn’t mean it’s totally perfect.Read more...

Plenty of companies have experimented with vlogging—including cameras like the Nikon Z50, Canon G7X Mark II, and others—but based on what we’ve learned from leaks and teases, Sony might finally put everything together on its upcoming ZV-1.Read more...

Disney wants to apply the baseball rule of personal risk assessment to slowly but surely re-opening its theme parks at the height of a viral pandemic that is killing thousands of Americans by the day. At least there are branded masks?

By the end of March, things were looking good for the group video chat app Houseparty as quarantined young people, perhaps put off by Zoom’s relentless security failures, were looking for a less corporate-seeming platform to keep in touch with friends and family. Vogue gushed that it was “the quarantine app you need…Read more...

Lego and Nintendo have been slowly trickling out sneak peeks of their upcoming playsets, including expansion packs and an ever-growing collection of buildable levels. Today Nintendo also revealed that Mario himself can also be upgraded through four different Power-Up Packs giving the hero new costumes and new…Read more...

On Wednesday afternoon, Cyclone Amphan made landfall on the India’s border near Sagar Island in West Bengal, bringing sheets of rain and wind speeds up to 100 mph. The storm knocked over trees, uprooted electrical poles, and forced at least 2.6 million people to flee to shelters. At least one person—a two month old…Read more...

Last summer, an anonymous contractor revealed that Apple had contractors listening to private conversations, unknowingly recorded by their devices, as part of a “grading” system to improve Siri. Now, the whistleblower has gone public in a letter sent to European data protection regulators, decrying the lack of action…Read more...

In the days after coronavirus started to hit, Contagion and Outbreak were two of the most popular movies on streaming services. It’s no surprise: People wanted answers and hope that things would turn out okay. The Stand might be about good overcoming evil, but this post-apocalyptic tale of a pandemic that’s killed 99 …Read more...

Unless you’re completely irresponsible and utterly lacking in empathy, wearing a face mask is going to be a routine part of life well into 2021. In a questionable attempt to make masks more comfortable, a YouTuber has shared his custom creation that can automatically open to let fresh air in when no one’s around—at…Read more...

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Jamie Lee Curtis is making her debut with a climate-changed theme slice of horror. Michael Bay is lending his particular brand of extra to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Tomorrow Studios’ Marty Adelstein gives an optimistic update about Netflix’s One Piece adaptation. Plus, what’s to come when Legends of Tomorrow…Read more...

Meeting up with friends and family is difficult (if not impossible) right now, which is why we’re all experimenting with different ways to keep in touch. Not every form of communication has to be a live video chat, though—there are tons of options that allow you to leave audio and video messages for friends and family…Read more...

As the planet warms, parts of the planet are going green—and not in the environmentally friendly way. Snow in coastal Antarctica is literally turning the color green.

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Singapore’s Supreme Court sentenced a man to death via Zoom video chat on Friday, according to a report from the Strait Times. It’s believed to be the second time that a death sentence has been handed down this year over the video service, which has seen a dramatic increase in use since the global coronavirus pandemic…Read more...

Last week, Twitch announced a new Safety Advisory Council intended to provide input on some of Twitch’s most pernicious issues, including work-life balance, safety and moderation, and protection of marginalized groups. The council is made up of social media experts as well as a small handful of streamers. One of those…Read more...

Republicans and Democrats engrossed in a fight over the future of privacy in America say the public support of a specific influential Democrat is likely critical to secure a vote next week on an amendment that would prohibit FBI agents from demanding Americans’ web browsing data without a warrant.

NASA’s associate administrator for the human exploration and operations mission directorate, Doug Loverro, has abruptly and unexpectedly resigned—after just seven months in that role and just over a week before the first manned test of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.

It’s kind of amazing how one of the biggest shows of the 21st century is now just something that happened. Game of Thrones was a world-changing television experience, one that ended with such a thud that the one-year anniversary of the series finale has passed by like a quiet fart. Well, take a good long whiff,…Read more...

There aren’t many things scarier than facing months or years of social distancing, especially when you’re stuck in your house by yourself. But what if maybe, just maybe, you weren’t actually alone? Shazam director David F. Sandberg has released a new short film about a woman who’s worried someone, or something, is…Read more...

The weather was perfect, the booze was flowing, and the big cars were going vroom vroom: What possible reason was there for the annual Go Topless Jeep Weekend at Bolivar Peninsula’s Crystal Beach in Southeast Texas not to go forward this past weekend?

Norma McCorvey, the woman known as ‘Jane Roe’ in the milestone Roe v. Wade case, makes a stunning confession in a new FX documentary about her life: She was paid by the evangelical Christian right to disingenuously further their anti-abortion agenda.Read more...

If there’s one thing you can expect from 2020 it’s bad news and here’s some more of it. Ruby Rose is leaving the title role of Batwoman on the CW.Read more...

The covid-19 pandemic has forced a delay to an effort to protect vulnerable seabirds from large, invasive mice on an island in the South Atlantic Ocean. The suspension left a team of conservationists stranded in one of the most remote places on Earth, an ordeal that finally ended this week.

New research out this week suggests that feces can spread covid-19. The study found that infectious viral particles can survive in fecal matter taken from patients, but it’s still unknown how common a transmission path this might be.Read more...

When lockdowns in the U.S. were just starting and it was clear everyone would be stuck at home for the long haul, the Federal Communications Commission pushed carriers to sign its Keep Americans Connected Pledge—a promise that no one would get their internet or telephone service cut off due to an inability to pay.…Read more...

If you’re still searching for something productive to do with your free time, why not give streaming a shot? Whether you’re sharing gameplay for the world to see, performing a virtual concert (all the rage these days!), making educational content, or putting on your own cooking show, live streaming is a fun way to…Read more...

Forty years ago this week, The Empire Strikes Back hit theaters, and in the process took everything we knew and loved about Star Wars and blew it the hell up. It is a legacy that has made it one of the most revered, if not the most revered, entries in the saga. It is a legacy that is, in the most loving and equally…Read more...

As resolutions and file sizes continue to grow, it’s important for storage —especially removable storage—to keep up, and with the SD Association’s new SD 8.0 spec, memory cards have just gotten a massive bump to their top-end speed.

If you’re lucky enough to have some outdoor space where you live, setting up shop in the garden or backyard can make working from home more bearable. You can top up your daily dose of vitamin D, get closer to the natural (or urban) world around you, escape from the rest of the family, and get all your work done all at…Read more...

Apple finally seems to be caving to the Netflix model and reportedly plans to license older content to help build out its meager lineup of mostly okay originals.Read more...

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power has come to an end after five seasons, finishing on a high note that promises a bright future for Adora and her friends—as well as the woman who helped reinvent them. io9 sat down (virtually) with showrunner Noelle Stevenson for a chat about how she feels now that it’s all over.

The Mandalorian’s second season already has enough interesting things going on—babies yoda! sabers dark!—before it started heaping on the prospects of bringing back a few familiar faces...including the seeming, ominous return of Boba Fett. But a new report suggests things aren’t quite going to go the way many people…Read more...

The UK-based budget airliner EasyJet told investors earlier today that it’d suffered a “highly sophisticated” cyberattack that compromised the credit card details of more than two thousand customers—not to mention the itinerary info for millions more.Read more...

Archivists in Australia working on the digital restoration of an incomplete travelogue from 1935 discovered that it contains the last known footage of a Tasmanian tiger.Read more...

Lockdowns around the world are having a measurable effect on global greenhouse gas emissions. A new study out Tuesday found that daily emissions dropped by 17 percent in April 2020 compared to last year’s average levels. This is a sizable dip, but the findings offer a sobering reality check: Individual actions just…Read more...

It feels like the 1930s all over again. We’re facing an economic depression and there’s a push for New Deal-style policies to recover from it. And according to a new study, we’ve also dramatically increased the likelihood of seeing the kinds of record-breaking heat waves that caused the Dust Bowl.

Our first looks at Netflix’s riff on the distinctly very not funny reality of the U.S. government wanting to establish a military branch dedicated to Star Trek riffs and super-duper missiles leaned heavily into the absurdity of its premise. This latest trailer for Space Force goes beyond that to show the human…Read more...

Bad news, Strava fans. According to the company’s website, the popular cycling and running app is moving a few of its previously free features behind a paywall.Read more...

After some users expressed concerns that the OnePlus 8 Pro’s Photochrom camera filter could pose privacy issues, OnePlus announced that it will temporarily disable the filter while it figures out a way to address the situation.Read more...

People living in the year 2020 have plenty of options for talking over video chat: Skype, FaceTime, Facebook Portal, and perhaps the most popular video app of our pandemic era, Zoom. But none of them look nearly as cool as this idea published in a tech magazine from 1918, a time when radio broadcasting was in its…Read more...