Gizmodo

Science fiction is a genre that’s full of storylines, plot devices, and techno-jargon that would be considered ridiculous in the real world. But these tropes are effective, so we keep using them. Over and over again. That might sound like a bad thing—relying on tried-and-true sci-fi tropes instead of creating…Read more...

What’s that zipping across the Sumida River in Tokyo, Japan? Behold, the zipper boat.Read more...

On Thursday, CyberScoop first reported that Bryan S. Ware, one of the most important figures in command at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) had stepped down with plans to work in the private sector. Now, it seems there might be more to the story.Read more...

The Apple TV app that allows users to access Apple originals through TV+ arrived in the PlayStation Store just ahead of the launch of Sony’s next-generation PS5 console, which hit stores today.Read more...

NASA and SpaceX are targeting this Saturday for the launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station, in what is expected to be the first of many regularly scheduled crew flights to space from U.S. soil. Here’s what you need to know about this historic mission and how you’ll be able to watch.

Fans of DIY computing love the Raspberry Pi. This single-board computer has gone through multiple iterations and is now almost as powerful as some cheaper desktop machines. But one thing always stood in the way when it came to getting a RaspPi up and running: you had to bring your own monitor, keyboard, and mouse or…Read more...

We’ve written about the hacker/security researcher who goes by GreenTheOnly on Twitter before, as he has done a lot of digging into the data stored in modern cars, with a focus on Teslas. As a result, occasionally salvage yards will send him black boxes and memory modules from cars, which is how he acquired this video…Read more...

The Trump administration has found yet another way to slow-release malignant stupidity into our future world.

This week has been especially busy when it comes to new silicon, because almost immediately after MediaTek announced a number of new chips for phones and Chromebooks, Apple followed up with its big M1 chip. Now Samsung has announce its first chip designed using a 5-nanometer process: the Exynos 1080.Read more...

The next major update for macOS is here, and Big Sur brings with it a bunch of new features as well as a significant revamp on the visual side. These are 11 of the most significant upgrades that enable you to do more with your Mac, once you’ve downloaded and installed the 2020 update.

Scientists in Canada say they’ve found a new way to treat potentially life-threatening alcohol intoxication—by helping people literally breathe out the alcohol in their system. Their device, which is designed to allow people to hyperventilate safely, was found to speed up the clearance of alcohol from healthy…Read more...

I don’t claim to be the arbiter of fashion. For Pete’s sake, I currently run in smart sneakers that resemble Flaming Hot Cheetos that took a bath in pink highlighter fluid. But friends, I’ve found a shoe crime that is beyond mere phrases like ‘hideous’ and ‘this is why we can’t have nice things.’ Behold, Balenciaga’s…Read more...

The Campari Group recently experienced a ransomware attack that allegedly shut down the company’s servers. The malware, created by the RagnarLocker gang, essentially locked corporate servers and allowed the hackers to exfiltrate “2 terabytes” of data, according to the hackers.Read more...

Yesterday we saw the launch of BMW’s electric iX sport utility, a strong hint at the future of Munich’s next-gen EV design. The other half of BMW, the company’s motorrad division, also launched a near-production concept to point at future design: the Definition CE 04. Aside from its silly name, this totally rad…Read more...

Sonos One (Two-Pack) | $380 | AmazonRead more...

Svalbard, Norway, is home to the world’s doomsday seed vault because it’s so cold. But the climate crisis is changing that calculation.Read more...

Instagram’s about to look a little bit different. As of today, the platform’s overhauling its home screen to give Reels and its shopping feature some coveted (and permanent!) space in the app’s navigation bar. When you open the app today, you might notice Reels replacing the shortcut to create a post and the new…Read more...

On Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced increased social distancing for my home state of New York as covid-19 infections explode all over the country. We have a long way to go before this is over. But that’s not stopping the masters of the universe from mapping out the new world to come. A new research report…Read more...

Millie Bobby Brown has joined a new fantasy adventure at Netflix. Lionsgate has nabbed a new ‘80s-inspired slasher in Video Nasty. Jason Blum gives us our occasional “yes, Spawn’s still happening” update. Plus, the CW’s run of Swamp Thing continues. Spoilers away!

We get it. Picking a router is hard! Do you even need a gaming router? Won’t your ISP-supplied, non-branded modem/router combo obelisk suffice? Probably not! Do you need to blow $700 on one that looks like Kylo Ren’s Command Shuttle? I mean, it’s pretty sweet, but no. So, we went ahead and got together 6 of the best…Read more...

Lenovo Tab M8 | $59 | WalmartRead more...

There are a lot of music streaming services out there, but chances are you probably fall into one of three camps: Spotify, Apple Music, or Pandora. A few months ago, Sonos tossed its hat into the ring, launching a free streaming radio service called Sonos Radio. Today, it’s expanding that service in the U.S. and UK…Read more...

Responding to demands from consumers for “an Alexa, but make it talk even more,” Amazon announced on Wednesday that its latest digital assistant model will be able to infer a user’s “latent goals,” and will use those to pose follow-up questions to users.Read more...

YouTube appeared to be having technical issues on a global scale on Wednesday night, leaving scores of users (ahem) temporarily unable to stream their rainy night blogging music.Read more...

Google rolled out Chrome version 86.0.4240.198 on Wednesday in response to two zero-day vulnerabilities discovered in the wild—the fourth and fifth security flaws discovered in the browser in the last three weeks alone.Read more...

If you’ve been enjoying the luxury of unlimited premium file storage with Google Photos, I have some unfortunate news.

San Francisco is banning the use of natural gas in any new buildings, requiring them to rely on the electric grid instead. That makes it the second-largest city yet to ban new natural gas hookups. Hell yeah.Read more...

It’s not exactly a secret that Elon Musk, billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, self-proclaimed Thai pedophilia expert, and designer of death race trucks, doesn’t give a flying fuck what other people think about his actions.Read more...

The Xbox Series X is so hot right now, and I don’t mean figuratively. I mean literally. Some people are claiming that their new Xboxes are catching on fire, but there’s a lot of skepticism over whether these claims are true. As our sister site Kotaku reports, this could be an elaborate hoax.

Batman: The Animated Series, and, hell, the entire DC Animated Universe of shows spearheaded by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, are so beloved that in all my years doing Worst Episode Ever I never touched them. After all, I figured even the worst B: TAS episode would probably still be miles above most of the crap I usually…Read more...

Until now, Nanoleaf has been best known for those fancy RGB-lit triangles, squares, and hexagons that show up in the background of seemingly every YouTuber’s videos. But starting this week, Nanoleaf is entering the world of mainstream smart lighting with its affordable Essentials Line.Read more...

Working from home, it’s relatively easy to minimize my potential exposure to the covid-19 virus—at least until I have to leave the safety of my suburban fortress of solitude every week to buy groceries. Even with safety precautions in place and a mask on my face it’s still an incredibly stressful experience, which is…Read more...

Roku support for AirPlay 2 and HomeKit is finally arriving on select 4K devices, with support coming to 4K TVs running Roku’s OS in the coming days.Read more...

Facebook and Google aren’t lifting their political ad bans soon, most likely not until Donald Trump sorts out a coup timeline concedes.Read more...

On Tuesday, President-elect Joe Biden announced his administration’s transition team, including the list of agency review team members that will help his White House “hit the ground running on Day One.” It also, by all indications, includes a deeper bench of big tech figures than any transition team prior.

An extensive survey of deep waters off the coast of Australia has resulted in a trove of bigfin squid sightings. And by trove, we mean the detection of five individuals—these deep-sea creatures are exceptionally rare, so any new observations are quite valuable to scientists.

Hand a modern controller to someone who hasn’t gamed since the days of the original Atari console and they’ll be immediately overwhelmed by its complexity. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, controllers featured a joystick and a single button, and if you’re looking for the most authentic way to play retro games, you can…Read more...

For his new film Freaky, co-writer and director Christopher Landon knew only one person could play the lead role of a psycho killer who swaps bodies with a teenage girl. That person was Vince Vaughn.Read more...

There are few things in this wretched world more glorious than a perfectly smoked brisket. That’s doubly true when traveling to Texas for the real thing—or, hell, even going to a restaurant—is either impossible or could possibly kill you. Thanks to the proliferation of home-smoking tech, however, we meat lovers have…Read more...

Are New Zealanders the most enviable people in the world? First, they virtually eliminated the spread of covid-19 over the summer, and now their big election scandal is over the bird of the year.Read more...

The full contents of the first “murder hornet” nest discovered in the U.S. have been revealed, and they’re unsurprisingly terrifying. On Tuesday, Washington state officials announced they found over 500 Asian giant hornets in the nest, including dozens of not-yet-fertile queens that were primed to mate, wait out the…Read more...

There’s a lot of folks worried about the ethics and future of AI and robotics. Apparently, you can count Pope Francis among them.Read more...

Three men have been banned from Yellowstone National Park for boiling chicken in the park’s hot springs. That’s because it’s against the law to approach the springs, but really boiling is not a good way to prepare chicken at all and should be considered a crime on its own.

Lucasfilm’s bold new transmedia initiative, Star Wars: The High Republic, promises to give us a look back into the galaxy, far, far away at the peak of the Jedi Order’s luminescence. Champions of an expansionist Republic, masters of the Force, they are a vision for the galaxy. But how heavy does that image hang on its…Read more...

Sonos Five High-Fidelity Speaker | $400 | Best Buy

Last week, I kindly asked then-Tropical Storm Eta to go away because it was clearly drunk. It did not listen.

If you’re not wearing a mask in public or properly practising social distancing to prioritize your comfort and convenience over everyone else’s health and well-being, you not only deserve to be called out but also reminded of your social responsibilities with a gentle 4.5-volt zap courtesy of this Covid-19 cattle prod.Read more...

Angela Bassett will return for the next two Missions Impossible. Freakazoid is back...on Teen Titans Go!? HBO has canceled its Stephen King adaptation The Outsider, but there’s hope it might live. Plus, get a look at Pennyworth’s return, and there’s good news for The Umbrella Academy. Spoilers now!Read more...

Need to send a message to a friend 50 miles away? Today, you’ve got plenty of options—whether it’s SMS, email, tweet, Facebook message, Zoom video chat, or the old-fashioned telephone. But back in the 1930s, the choices were much more limited. You could use the phone or write a letter or send a telegram. And that was…Read more...

After months of rumors and speculation, Apple has finally revealed the specs of its in-house custom ARM processor that will power future Macs—well, at least most of the important ones, like core count and number of transistors. Unfortunately, those specs don’t paint a complete picture of how the M1's performance will…Read more...