E-Technology

People take pictures of the newly unveiled all-electric battery-powered Tesla’s Cybertruck with shattered windows after a failed resistance test on November 21, 2019.Photo: Frederic J. Brown / AFP (Getty Images)By now Tesla fans are well aware that the company, and its CEO Elon Musk, aren’t very good at meeting targets and timelines. It therefore comes…

Still from Disney’s EnchantedImage: DisneyThe Enchanted sequel is coming! Disenchanted is set to be released in 2022. Disney confirmed the movie will be available to stream on Disney+. Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Idina Menzel, and director Adam Shankman are returning for the sequel.The director spoke with Usmagazine to relay his excitement about the…

Photo: Lionel Bonaventure / AFP (Getty Images)It’s been nearly an entire year since we started talking about how Google Hangouts was officially set to disappear. Since then, it seems like we’ve been repeating the same thing every few months, only for Hangouts to stubbornly persist living. If apps could talk, Hangouts would probably declare, “what…

Dwayne Johnson in Jungle CruiseImage: Disney+There was a moment in time we all thought Dwayne “The Rock Johnson” would join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After the first Avengers film, Marvel was looking to snag anyone with heavy star power. No one knows what roles he and Kevin Feige threw around. Whatever they talked about never…

A view of the Olympic rings flag during the Men’s Javelin Throw Qualification on day twelve of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on August 04, 2021Photo: Matthias Hangs (Getty Images)Recently, we finally got to see an Olympics that everyone can get behind. At these Games, there was no pandemic, no blistering heat, and no threat…

Flames rise from a fire spreading around Kapandriti, a town on the outskirts of Athens, Greece, on August 5, 2021.Photo: Louisa Gouliamaki (Getty Images)Flames tore through residential areas and threatened historic sites as wildfires burned across Greece for a fifth day on Saturday, a scene so apocalyptic that one local official described it as “a…

Cast of Netflix show Stranger ThingsImage: NetflixStranger Things creators/showrunner duo Matt and Ross Duffer always envisioned their supernatural horror show would have at least five seasons. While the two haven’t confirmed if season five is the last, the show’s executive producer Shawn Levy is on the record saying they do have an endgame plan in…

Luis Guzman in NarcosImage: NetflixComedian Luis Guzman is Gomez Addams in the Netflix Addams Family spin-off series, Wednesday.According to Variety, Wednesday has received an eight-episode order at the streaming service. Al Gough and Miles Millar will act as the executive producers and showrunners of the series. Tim Burton is also on board as executive producer…

Graphic: Federal Communications CommissionThe Federal Communications Commission has finally released an up-to-date mobile broadband coverage map, giving consumers a long-needed tool to find out what kind of cellular coverage they can expect in any given area across the U.S. The interactive tool shows 4G LTE broadband data and voice mobile coverage of four of the…

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in Jungle CruiseImage: DisneyWith a $90 million dollar opening weekend, Jungle Cruise has set the standard for the theme park ride to movie pipeline.Producers of the film John Fox, and John Davis, spoke with Forbes to discuss how they transformed Jungle Cruise into a theater-ready story for the whole family.…

Photo: Carl Court / Staff (Getty Images)Apple’s new tool to suss out potential child abuse in iPhone photos is already sparking controversy. On Friday, just one day after it was announced, Will Cathcart, the head of Facebook’s messaging app, WhatsApp, said that the company would decline to adopt the software on the grounds that it…

Photo: Noah Berger (AP)The West is currently facing its worst megadrought in at least 1,200 years. This has caused multiple states to impose water restrictions, and it doesn’t look like things are going to get better any time soon. Lake Mead’s water supply, which provides water to Arizona, Nevada, and part of Mexico, is currently…

Image: Hasbro, Sideshow Collectibles, LegoWelcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s regular round up of the latest and greatest things in toys. We’re still preparing for the holiday festivities even as we sweat our way through a scorching summer, but we’ve also got a perfect Power Rangers meets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover, some tempting…

The Doctor’s time in the TARDIS isn’t over quite yet, but we’re still feeling nostalgic.Image: BBCLast week brought the sad news that time’s up for the TARDIS’s latest owner: Jodie Whittaker is exiting Doctor Who at the end of 2022, leaving alongside showrunner Chris Chibnall. But in true Doctor Who manner, now that we’ve already…

Medical professionals have become some of the most important individuals in society during the pandemic, working countless hours to save the lives of covid-19 patients and encouraging the public to get vaccinated. However, it appears that even the medical community isn’t immune to the vaccine misinformation plaguing the internet. A new CNBC report has found…

Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)So much is revealed when court documents are officially unsealed, and in the case of Epic Games’ antitrust complaint against Google, we now know that Google considered buying the Fortnite maker outright “squelch this threat.” Google also apparently attempted to convince Epic Games not to limit Fortnite to sideloading on Android…

While the upcoming Pixel 5a looks to feature a similar design to last year’s Pixel 4a 5G (pictured above), new leaks suggest its internal specs are closer to those of the standard Pixel 5. Photo: Sam RutherfordAfter not making an appearance earlier this summer as previously expected, new leaks have now revealed a bunch of…

Image: DisneyThough he’s hard at work on a DC film spinoff with Peacemaker, James Gunn also has ideas for a TV spinoff of Guardians of the Galaxy. Jordan Peele talks a bit about Nia DaCosta’s Candyman. Legends of Tomorrow. is about to hit a bit milestone. Plus updates from Riverdale, Stargirl, and more. Spoilers are…

2001 claymation? Come on now.Screenshot: YouTube/DustOver the past few weeks, you may have noticed an uptick in io9 posts featuring short claymation scenes recreating iconic moments from famous sci-fi movies. We shared Star Trek II and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and now we’ve reached the grand finale. Not one, not two, but three all-time sci-fi classics:…

Vials containing doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine are viewed at a clinic targeting minority community members at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church on April 9, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. Photo: Mario Tama (Getty Images)U.S. health officials are reportedly getting close to issuing a verdict on the immediate need for booster vaccines against covid-19. This…

Photo: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / Contributor (Getty Images)Figuring out how to watch the Olympics should have been a breeze. NBCUniversal—which holds the universal broadcast rights for the Summer and Winter Games through 2032—showed up locked and loaded with its brand new streaming platform, Peacock, which it had touted on its website as “the place to flock for…

Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)Last month, the e-cigarette giant Juul bought out an entire issue of a major scientific journal, which dedicated a month’s coverage to pro-vaping studies that were funded solely by the company. And now, two senators want two of the biggest federal agencies to investigate. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal have cosigned…

A spade coin produced at the ancient mint. Image: H. Zhao et al., 2021/AntiquityArchaeologists in China have discovered a foundry that dates back to between 640 and 550 BCE. In addition to tools, ornaments, and spare parts, the foundry produced standardized coins, making it the oldest known mint in the archaeological record.They don’t look like…

A crop of the new poster for Blade Runner: Black Lotus.Image: Crunchyroll“Los Angeles 2032. A young woman wakes up with no memories, and possessing deadly skills. The only clues to her mystery are a locked data device and a tattoo of a black lotus. Putting together the pieces, she must hunt down the people responsible…

Photo: Ethan Miller (Getty Images)In June, Peloton pushed out its Tread Lock feature, which automatically shut down inactive treadmills and required a 4-digit passcode. The update was part of Peloton’s promised safety measures following a voluntary recall of its treadmills (one due to injury reports, the other due to display issues). There was just one…

Disney’s “Real Life” Star Wars lightsaber.Gif: Disney ImagineeringNext year, Disney will reveal the most authentic-looking real-world Star Wars lightsaber yet, and a new video just revealed our best look to date. Earlier this year, buzz began that Disney was working on what fans quickly called a “real-life lightsaber.” Not because it had a kyber crystal…

In a future where humanity has abandoned its home planet—or perhaps gone entirely extinct, as bits of atomic-bomb imagery suggest—robots rule, but it’s a lonely and strange existence. They’re drawn to things that remind them of the past, like libraries and TV sets, but also feel more primal urges, like the instinct to fight.A Vimeo…

Photo: David Ramos (Getty Images)Kai Kazmirek of Team Germany puts an ice pack on his head during the Men’s Decathlon Shot Put on day twelve of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 04, 2021 in Tokyo, JapanI think we can all agree that the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo are cursed. They…

Scream (aka Scream 5) is apparently going to take some “risks.” Joe Manganiello gives some more details on Moonhaven. Plus, updates from all the Ws: Westworld, What We Do in the Shadows, What If, and more. Spoilers away!The BatmanJeffrey Wright described his experience on The Batman as “gothic” and “sleuthful” in a new interview with…

Image: HeatworksThere’s not a whole lot innovation happening in kitchen appliances these days (unless you count wifi connectivity, voice assistant integration, or the addition of an unnecessary screen). That’s why Heatworks’ Tetra countertop dishwasher that doesn’t require any plumbing connections was so exciting when it was first announced… back in 2018. Three years later, you…

Peggy spotting something she wants to obliterate.Screenshot: Disney+/MarvelIn each episode of What If, different characters from the MCU and Marvel’s comics are spotlighted in self-contained stories that reimagine them as distinctly different versions of themselves than we’re used to seeing on either the big or small screens. What if, the show asks, T’Challa was abducted…

Lens flare strikes again.Photo: Caitlin McGarry/GizmodoSmartphone photography has improved by leaps and bounds over the years, but if there’s one thing that’s annoyingly remained, it’s that damn green dot that randomly pops up in certain photos. However, there’s some good news for iPhone users. It appears that the latest iOS 15 beta has quietly added…

Screenshot: Adult SwimHenry Bonsu’s Lazor Wulf, an off-kilter animated series about a talking wolf armed with a laser gun, was one of Adult Swim’s most refreshing shows. It switched up the usual late-night cartoon bloc by spotlighting a bevy of Black talent and creativity. Though the show met its untimely end earlier this year after just…

Imitations of physical Bitcoin tokens and currency, photo taken in Istanbul.Photo: Ozan Kose / AFP (Getty Images)The cryptocurrency lobby won some major concessions in the $1 trillion infrastructure bill just approved on a bipartisan basis in the Senate, the New York Times reported on Monday, but are still pressing for more.The Senate agreement doesn’t change…

Frontier Airlines initially suspended a flight crew for failing to follow “proper policies” by duct-taping a hostile passenger to his seat, but it appears to have now walked back the disciplinary measures after social media users and the flight attendants’ union judged the crew’s actions to be quite reasonable.According to ABC 6, a 22-year-old Norwalk,…

A tower of giraffes in Botswana in 2010.Photo: Cameron Spencer (Getty Images)Giraffes are way more socially competent than we give them credit for, a team of scientists from the University of Bristol say. They’re calling for an updated understanding of the incredibly tall artiodactyls.Giraffes have the unfortunate circumstance of sharing the African savanna with elephants,…

If anyone knows sci-fi adventure, it’s Zoe Saldana.Photo: ParamountZoe Saldana has starred in some of the biggest, most successful films in history. Next up, she’ll try to make more history by teaming up with the hugely successful anime brand Crunchyroll to create a franchise of her own. It’s called Dark Star Squadron and a provided…

Photo: Mark Lennihan (AP)If you follow tech news, you may have been wondering to yourself—what the hell is a metaverse? That’s fair. But if you are wondering what the metaverse is, please, do not go to Jim Cramer for answers.You probably know Jim Cramer as the Chipotle-loving man on CNBC who yells about stocks and…

Jedi Luke is here and ready to go.Photo: Hot ToysIn 2015, fans walked into Star Wars: The Force Awakens with many questions—and near the top of the list was “What’s up with Luke Skywalker?” Fans would only get hints in that film, and have to wait two more years to find out his fate in…

There’s a cheaper version of YouTube Premium being tested overseas, and it’s really enticing. Photo: Florence Ion / GizmodoYouTube Premium is a solid option if you want to pay to skip through its often harrowing advertising. But it’s about $12 a month on top of a whole host of other subscription services you’re probably already…

People line up to pay in a supermarket on August 2, 2021 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.Photo: Getty Images (Getty Images)At least seven new cases of covid-19 has been detected over the past two days in Wuhan, China prompting city officials to declare that everyone in the city will be tested for coronavirus. Again.The new…

Photo: Jeff Pachoud (Getty Images)It finally happened. After 27 years, millions of dollars and a few lucrative book deals between them, Bill and Melinda Gates finalized their divorce on Monday, marking the end of one of the most wholesome power couples of our time—or at least, formerly wholesome. Ever since the two announced their impending…

Screenshot: SonyWhile the first trailer for Venom: Let There Be Carnage laid out the basic beats of the upcoming Sony sequel and teased a bloody showdown between its two titular symbiotes, it’s been unclear how Cletus Kaasady and Eddie Brock’s lives would become entangled on the big screen. In addition to establishing somewhat semi-vampiric origins…

Image: KlipschFirst announced earlier this year at CES 2021, Klipsch is finally ready to roll out its new T5 II True Wireless ANC earbuds, which bring active noise cancellation to one of the best-sounding pairs of wireless earbuds currently available. But that’s not the only upgrade: The new T5 II will also incorporate Bragi’s AI…

Outside of military and aerospace applications, there’s not yet a lot of practical uses for the incredibly black paints created in research labs, unless you consider recreating the slapstick comedy of a Looney Tunes cartoon in real life an important application. But there’s no denying these non-reflective paints look impressive, and if you’re a calligraphy…

The Shazam sequel may be welcoming back another familiar face. Fantasy author Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children will be coming to a theater near you sometime in the future. New clips from The Suicide Squad plus updates from Rick and Morty, Schimagadoon, and more. Spoilers, hooooooo!The MenuTHR reports Nicholas Hoult will star alongside Anya Taylor Joy…

Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig in Cowboys & AliensImage: Universal/DreamworksJon Favreau directs an all-star cast of actors in the 2011 film Cowboys & Aliens including, Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano, and many others. It had everything to be a summer blockbuster franchise, but that didn’t happen. At the cost of…

Rosa Salazar in Brand New Cherry FlavorImage: NetflixNetflix dropped the official trailer for the supernatural horror limited series Brand New Cherry Flavor which premieres on the streamer August 13. The show is inspired by a novel of the same name by Todd Grimson and stars Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place),…

The crew from BorderlandsImage: 2K GamesEli Roth (Hostel) directs the Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) Borderlands script with a stacked cast of actors including Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Cate Blanchett, Gina Gershon, and Edgar Ramirez.While talking with CinemaBlend about Jungle Cruise, Edgar Ramirez did provide some information about his work on the Borderlands film.…

Black Adam concept artImage: Warner Brothers.Production has wrapped on DC’s Black Adam movie, and it’s about damn time we get to see Dwayne Johnson as the titular anti-hero. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (with whom Hiram Garcia and Johnson worked on Jungle Cruise) and written by Rory Haines, Black Adam is the main Antagonist of superhero…

Jaws promotional imageImage: Universal PicturesBruce is the new musical from the Seattle Repertory Theater based on Jaws’ screenwriter Carl Gottlieb’s memoir The Jaws Log.Bruce is about 26-year old director Steven Spielberg who sets out to adapt the best-selling novel, Jaws. Deadline reports, the show features music by Richard Oberacker and lyrics by Oberacker and Robert…

Photo: Ed Jones (Getty Images)This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance on masking for those fully vaccinated against covid-19, recommending that people living in areas of high transmission once again don masks while inside public spaces. The move came after the CDC obtained new data concerning the Delta variant, the…

Knights of SidoniaImage: FunimationDemon Slayer: Mugen Train movie was a huge box office hit for the entertainment company and streaming service Funimation. Riding high on the success of that, the company is set to release another animated film, Knights of Sidonia: Love Woven in the Stars, based on the manga from Tsutomu Nihei.You may be…

Alicia Vikander in Tomb RaiderImage: Warner Bros. PicturesOscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander opens up about the status of Tomb Raider 2.When the sequel to the 2018 film was announced last fall, Vikander told Entertainment Weekly, “The plan was for us to start making one this year, of course, due to the [pandemic] situation, that’s now very different.…

Photo: Adam Berry (Getty Images)As if there weren’t enough services with a “+” in their name, here’s another for your list: Pearson+, the wannabe Netflix for college textbooks. Pearson recently unveiled Pearson+, a desktop and mobile app that will offer digital textbooks from the company’s catalogue via a two-tiered subscription model. The $9.99 per month…

Photo: Johannes Eisele / AFP (Getty Images)Apple has yanked Unjected, an app that bills itself as “a safe space for the unvaccinated to come together uncensored through business, friendship, or love,” from the App Store. The company said that Unjected violated its covid-19 policies and tried to get around the App Store review process, which…

Image: Hasbro, Lego, BlitzwayWelcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s regular round-up of the coolest toys we’ve seen on the internet this week. We’ve got Lego heading back to The Mandalorian, old favorites heading back to Ghostbusters, some very pretty Uno cards, and Hasbro taking another crack at the “build-your-own lightsaber” toy. Check it out!Image: LegoLego…

Photo: Octavio Jones/Getty (Getty Images)In response to renewed concerns about the ongoing covid-19 pandemic and the spread of the delta variant, Disney is taking a major step to ensure that all of its U.S. employees are guarded against the virus.Disney’s new mandate comes just after the studio lambasted actress Scarlet Johansson for her lawsuit against…

Designer Jemma Swatek, who created the brand Lykke Wullf, went to college for environmental studies but later pivoted to fashion design. Now, though, she finds herself considering her environment constantly while making clothes.“When it comes to designing, I definitely consider the weather, the climate,” she said. “I live in LA. It’s been getting hotter and…

Photo: Robyn Beck / AFP (Getty Images)Considering the amount of poisonous substances in this world, which can range from mundane things like nail polish to unlikely things like house plants, it’s pretty important to be able to call Poison Control if you’re exposed to something potentially toxic. Unfortunately, if you’re a Google Fi user, that…

A crop of A Lesson in Vengeance’s cover.Image: Delacorte PressIt’s a known fact that we here at io9 are quite fond of stories set at spooky boarding schools, so we’re very excited to be sharing an exclusive excerpt from Victoria Lee’s witchy new boarding school-set novel A Lesson in Vengeance, which blends queer themes with Gothic…

I mean… c’monPhoto: HANNIBAL HANSCHKE/AFP (Getty Images)Apple CEO Tim Cook is not known for losing his cool. He’s had stern words for Facebook, and people trying to make a TV show based on Gawker for Apple TV+, but generally speaking? Cook comes off as a genial, if surprisingly swole, gent—your wholesome tech grandpa. At least,…

Footage Gizmodo writer Tom McKay accidentally recorded of himself while sitting at his desktop computer in his office.Screenshot: Tom McKay / GizmodoIt’s happened to all of us: You’ve been browsing your hard drive and found hundreds of gigabytes of lengthy video files of the inside of your office, apparently filmed without your awareness. Dozens or…

Hello darkness, my old friend.Image: Earth Wind MapExtreme heat is blanketing a huge portion of the country, save those in the Great Lakes and New England (you lucky, lucky bastards). A staggering 81 million are living in areas under some form of heat warning from the National Weather Service.The latest heat wave is, in some…

Photo: Jenny Kane (AP)Americans are used to hearing about what a great country they live in—how lucky they are to have been born in, or to have immigrated to, the United States. “American exceptionalism”—a phrase, funnily enough, coined by Joseph Stalin—is an idea that, on the whole, is still embedded in the country’s collective identity.…

A streaming series based on Waterworld is currently in the works. Photo: UniversalIt may end up taking 30 years—but Waterworld could finally get the sequel it so desperately wanted. Collider reports that a streaming TV show take on the infamous 1995 Kevin Costner film is now in the works, which would pick up the story…

Image: ASRockWe’re in the midst of a pandemic and a global chip crunch, but that isn’t stopping AMD from releasing yet another new GPU. The $380 RX 6600 XT is here, and it’s now the most affordable member of AMD’s current 6000-series GPU lineup. While its specs aren’t quite as eye-popping as some of its…

Who’s next?Image: Marvel Studios, Paramount, BBC, MGM, and LucasfilmJodie Whittaker is Doctor no more. Well, she’s actually very Doctor for the next year and a half, but with today’s shock announcement that both she and current showrunner Chris Chibnall will be departing Doctor Who by the end of 2022, we’ve come to the time-honored tradition…

Photo: Sam RutherfordIf you’re an owner of an older Kindle e-reader, your device may soon lose support for an important feature: internet access. In advance of this change, Amazon has begun sending emails out to older Kindle owners informing them about the situation. The issue is that because a number of wireless carriers are beginning…

Ladies and Ghouls, the mansion has new guests…Image: Disney ParksMoonhaven’s cast continues to grow. Issa Rae and J.J. Abrams are working on an adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Fledgling for HBO. Plus, new pictures from Day of the Dead and Legends of Tomorrow’s return, and what’s next for American Horror Stories. Spoilers get!Haunted MansionTHR reports Tiffany…

Goodbye, Doctor.Image: BBCThe BBC has announced that current Doctor Jodie Whittaker as well as showrunner Chris Chibnall, will depart Doctor Who in 2022. The duo will, after the upcoming season 13, will say farewell with three special episodes to air throughout next year.“In 2017 I opened my glorious gift box of size 13 shoes. I could…

Dead sheep are on a road near the center of the town of Cuglieri on July 26, 2021.Photo: Valentina Sinis/AFP (Getty Images)What had been a rich Mediterranean landscape of maquis, ancient olive trees, and ruby vineyards is now a charred skeletal tangle clinging to hills above the pristine Sardinian sea.The road to the village of…

Something’s awake in the woods… and hungry.Image: Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora, and Tamra Bonvillain/Boom StudiosWe’ve been enamored with Once and Future’s modern twist on Arthurian fantasy ever since it kicked off and gave us a sweeping tale of magic, terror, and shitty nationalists being thwarted by grandmas with machine guns. But now the series is…

As part of a slew of ongoing efforts to make Instagram less of a cesspool of awful content for awful people, the company announced a slew of new changes for accounts belonging to the teen and tweenage set meant to keep them safer on the platform. First off, Instagram says it will now switch the…

A penis snake, or Typhlonectes natans, pulled from a Miami canal. Image: Noah MuellerDNA analysis confirms that an eel-like creature pulled from a Florida canal two years ago is a caecilian, otherwise known as the “penis snake.” The same canal has since yielded several other specimens, leading to concerns that the non-native amphibian has taken…

Astrophysicists have detected light coming from the far side of a black hole, using telescopes to see physics predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity but not yet directly observed. The new findings affirmed ideas about how black holes warp light.A team of researchers recently inspected the coronal flares produced by the supermassive blackhole I…

Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)A former eBay security manager has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after helping to orchestrate a batshit insane plot to terrorize a Massachusetts couple who occasionally criticized the company in their newsletter.Philip Cooke, 56, is the first of seven former high-level eBay employees to be sentenced in connection to…

Hobbit bros, through thick and thin.Image: New Line/Warner Bros.Although Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings saga makes many tweaks in bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s world to the big screen, it is by and large a faithful adaptation. But pressure from the studio in one weird way would’ve taken it down a very different path: a bit…

This year’s refreshed iPad Pros have powerful new processors that separate them from the predecessors, but they also have an underrated new video-calling feature that frees you from your desk.The 11-inch and 12.9-inch M1 iPad Pros have an upgraded 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens with 122-degree field of view, and that new lens enables a trick called…

“Brace yourselves. The Men from Online are coming.”Screenshot: NetflixMasters of the Universe: Revelation received critical acclaim ahead of its launch on Netflix late last week, but the animated continuation of Eternia’s finest has been faced with review-bombing and anger on social media thanks to a bad-faith interpretation of what the show’s doing that showrunner Kevin…

Photo: Ethan Miller (Getty Images)A whistleblower who leaked top secret information about America’s drone warfare program has been sentenced to 45 months in federal prison.Daniel Hale, 33, who formerly worked as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Air Force, pled guilty in March to retaining and transmitting national defense information. He was sentenced in U.S.…

The truth is out there.Screenshot: FXThat’s obviously a bold claim to make about American Horror Story, a series known for marketing each new season as creepily and, often, cryptically as possible. (That campaign for AHS: Cult involving holes—so many holes—must’ve awakened countless latent cases of trypophobia.) But with this new teaser for Double Feature, which…

Photo: Sam RutherfordSamsung’s been making gaming monitors for years now, but execs in the company’s display division say last year’s Odyssey G9 was its first flagship gaming monitor. Now there’s a new Odyssey in town, and from what we’ve seen so far, it handily claims the gaming monitor crown.The new Odyssey Neo G9 is the same…

Photo: Sean Gallup (Getty Images)If you own an iPad, iPhone, or a Mac, you should definitely go update your device right now. Why? Because there are brand new patches out and you don’t want to get hacked.Earlier today, Apple unexpectedly released iOS 14.7.1 and iPadOS 14.7.1, the latest updates for the company’s phones and tablets.…

Image: Master & DynamicEvery few years, Master & Dynamic gives us another excellent reason to splurge on wireless earbuds. The MW08s that debuted earlier this year were no exception, but for $300 they lacked a popular feature that is being included with the new Master & Dynamic MW08 Sport: wireless charging.On top of incredible battery life,…

People eat outside during the lunch hour at a restaurant on 14th Street NW in Washington, D.C.Photo: Drew Angere (Getty Images)The U.S. covid-19 vaccination rate is currently 49.71%, ranked 22nd in the world, down from 18th place just last week. But which individual states are doing the best?We’ve compiled a list of vaccination rates for…

Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)For one 32-year-old woman, the covid-19 pandemic was a red herring for lung problems so serious they landed her in the hospital twice over three months. In a recent case report, doctors detail how the woman, originally suspected of having covid-19, actually turned out to have EVALI, a rare condition linked…

Screenshot: Shoshana Wodinsky (Gizmodo)In spite of Apple’s infamously draconian review process for apps trying to snag one of the coveted slots in its App Store, every once in a while an app finds some sneaky way to slide through. That’s the case for Doxcy, an app that billed itself as a simple dice-rolling game, while…

Photo: Josh Edelson (Getty Images)The Dixie Fire is raging out of control in Northern California’s Plumas and Butte counties. After merging with a smaller blaze known as the Fly Fire over the weekend, its flames continued to spread, devastating nearly 200,000 acres as of Monday morning. It’s now the largest fire in California and is…

Pikachu and Mewtwo facing off.Screenshot: Warner Bros.Detective Pikachu, a detective, almost certainly saw this one coming.Variety reports that Lucifer co-showrunner Joe Henderson is writing and executive producing a live-action Pokémon series for Netflix that will be somewhat similar to, but distinct from, Warner Bros.’ adaptation of Detective Pikachu. Currently, there are no details about whether…

Ellen Burstyn is returning to The Exorcist. Yes. We’re shocked too.Photo: Warner Bros.One of the scariest, most influential horror franchises of all-time is making a mega blockbuster comeback. The New York Times reports that David Gordon Green (the new Halloween films) will write and direct a reboot/sequel in which Hamilton’s Leslie Odom Jr. plays the…

Frankenstein’s monster (Alex Hill) roams suburbia in this season two scene from Shudder’s Creepshow.Image: Josh Stringer/ShudderCreepshow’s excellent second season arrived earlier this year, offering proof positive that the well-received first season of the horror anthology—based on the George A. Romero-Stephen King cult movie collaborations—was no fluke. With season three on the way soon, San Diego…

Ash is on the hunt in Blade Runner 2029: Reunion.Image: Titan ComicsTitan Comics’ Andrew Sumner, David Leach, Mike Johnson, Kate Perkins, Fernando Dagnino, and Mellow Brown got together at San Diego Comic-Con @ Home to discuss the future of the Blade Runner comics.The 12 issue series of Blade Runner 2019 —written by Michael Green and…

Drizzt Do’Urden and his companion Guenhwyvar go Dragon hunting.Image: Magali Villeneuve/Wizards of the CoastThis week saw the release of a Magic crossover literally decades in the making: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, the collectible card game’s first major crossover with its gaming sibling Dungeons & Dragons. But the long road to what might feel like…

For all the anime fans at San Diego Comic-Con 2021 @ Home, Crunchyroll rolled out a lengthy industry panel. Host Tim Lyu shared tons of information about exciting new anime series coming to the Crunchyroll.com site—known for hosting popular titles like Naruto, One Piece, My Hero Academia, and Tokyo Revengers—in the next few months. No…

The Doctor’s ready. Are you?Screenshot: BBCIt feels like it’s been a lifetime since the Doctor fought off a Dalek invasion of Earth (again) on New Year’s Day, but, thank Gallifrey—err, what’s left of it at the minute—because Doctor Who is finally ready to give us a glimpse of its next adventures.Just revealed at the BBC’s…

New Shepard lifts off from Launch Site One in West Texas with four humans on board. (July 20, 2021)Photo: Blue OriginThe award for “Best Small Talk on a Flight to Space” goes to Oliver Daemen, the 18-year-old from the Netherlands who was part of Blue Origin’s inaugural crewed flight to space earlier this week. On…

Blade Runner: Black Lotus is coming.Image: Adult Swim/CrunchyrollSometime between the events of Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 comes Black Lotus. The brand new Blade Runner anime debuts this fall on Adult Swim and Crunchyroll and the first trailer for the series debuted at San Diego Comic-Con @ Home 2021.Black Lotus will follow a brand…

Graphic: Elena Scotti (Photos: Getty Images)When quarry workers dislodged a skullcap and a bunch of bones from a cave near Düsseldorf in 1856, little did anyone realize the remains would reveal an entirely new branch on the tree of life, that of the genus Homo and its many constituents, including Homo neanderthalensis, to which those…

Photo: David Ramos (Getty Images)As with all things, the internet has its high points, such as adorable cats, and its low points, or spammers, trolls, and people who share abusive content. Many of us avoid these individuals, though it’s easier to do on some platforms than on others. Here’s some good news: If you’re having…

Photo: Noah Berger (AP)Aside from climate change and drought, the most famous culprit of California’s wildfires is likely Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), which admitted this week that its equipment at least partly sparked the still-raging Dixie Fire, which has now burned over 103,900 acres. Finally, the company has decided to bury 10,000 miles of…

Photo: Al Drago-Pool (Getty Images)For the past few years, we’ve seen companies like Facebook either endlessly shrug off the misinformation problems on their platforms or issue half-assed fixes meant to keep them in check. Now, they might have a little more motivation. On Thursday, two lawmakers introduced new legislation meant to strip back these platform’s…

Screenshot: Lucas Ropek/Huffington PostA flood of hardcore porn popped up on websites across the internet Thursday, infiltrating the likes of popular news sites like the Washington Post, New York magazine, Huffington Post, and other web pages.The incident occurred sometime around mid-afternoon, when people reading serious news stories in serious media outlets suddenly found themselves staring…

Drizzt’s next adventure will open his eyes—and ours—to a wider, more nuanced view of the Drow.Screenshot: Wizards of the CoastFor years, Dungeons & Dragons has trafficked in the idea of specific racial traits assigned to its many species—a player picks a race, and they have specialized strengths, weaknesses, moralities, and ideologies. Some of those histories…

Image: OnePlusOnePlus has been making wireless earbuds for the last few years, but now it feels like the company might be finally ready to compete with the big brands with the announcement of the new OnePlus Buds Pro. Sporting a design that looks a lot like wireless earbuds made by a certain fruit company—but with…

Michaela Cole at an event in 2019. She’s about to join Black Panther 2.Photo: Theo Wargo (Getty Images)Very little is known about the plot of upcoming sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It’s once again written and directed by Ryan Coogler, is filming now, and huge aspects of it had to be reworked after the tragic passing…

Photo: MARK FELIX / Contributor (Getty Images)At least two years after it would have been politically prudent to do so, Facebook moved to block content under the #VaccinesKill hashtag on Wednesday. Searches for posts that would have normally appeared under the hashtag now redirect to a “keeping our community safe” banner, alongside a message alerting…

A section of the cover art from The Occult World of Sabrina.Image: Archie ComicsSabrina Spellman is back, in more ways than one. Not only is Archie Comics coming out with a new issue of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina after a four-year absence, but creator and showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is launching a second comic book series…

Photo: Steve Jennings (Getty Images)Pavel Durov, CEO and co-founder of chat platform Telegram, is the latest person to be swept up in the ongoing scandal involving the NSO Group.The Guardian reports that Durov’s number was recently identified in a leaked list of some 50,000 cell phone records that researchers say represent “potential surveillance targets” of…

Yo Joe! Snake Eyes (Henry Golding) and Scarlett (Samara Weaving) in Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins.Photo: ParamountAfter 2013’s G.I. Joe Retaliation, all of your favorite Joe and Cobra toys got put back in a box. Eight years later, just a few are coming back out in the hopes that when the rest follow, it’ll be…

Verizon will make its Android Messages app the default in 2022, though its own Messages app will also get RCS implementation. Photo: Florence Ion / GizmodoStarting next year, Verizon will make Android Messages the default texting app on all its Android devices.Verizon announced it’s joining the ranks of its competitors, AT&T and T-Mobile, in prioritizing…

Henry Golding and Andrew Koji in Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins.Photo: ParamountIn the mythology of G.I. Joe, the link between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow is dense and complex. The two fought together, trained together, and became as close as brothers—only to eventually turn into bitter rivals. That relationship carries over not just into the…

Photo: JACK GUEZ / AFP (Getty Images)If you’ve been watching the news this week you may have heard something about the NSO Group, an Israeli spyware firm that currently stands accused of helping bad actors to hack journalists, politicians, and human rights activists throughout the world.You’d be forgiven for not knowing a ton about NSO—especially…

The Venmo logo as shown on a smartphone screen in March 2018.Photo: Patrick Semansky / File (Getty Images)Venmo is discontinuing its longtime policy of telling every stranger on the fucking planet who new users are sending money to and why for no reason whatsoever, according to Bloomberg.The mobile payment app has since its inception had…

Photo: Jessica Hill (AP)President Joe Biden has selected attorney and frequent critic of Google parent company Alphabet to lead the United States Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, the White House announced Tuesday. If approved, Kanter would join the Biden administration’s robust legal team that’s poised to combat Silicon Valley’s enormous market power.As head of the…

Jeff Bezos, the richest man on Earth, will head into suborbital space on Tuesday. He’ll be the second billionaire to take such a journey this month, getting narrowly beat out by Richard Branson, who recently took an hour-long rocket trip to the edge of space. Next year, Elon Musk—who has traded the world’s-richest title with…

The Bootleg Fire sends a cloud climbing into the sky.Photo: John Hendricks (AP)The West’s nightmare summer continues to grow worse. The Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon is the largest in the U.S. and has now overrun more than 300,000 acres. Yet as the fire rages out of control, more dire news is on the horizon:…

The Robinhood logo displayed on a mobile phone.Photo: Olivier Douliery / AFP (Getty Images)Robinhood, the wildly popular stock-trading app that’s made it easy to throw fistfuls of money at meme stocks while also occasionally locking those users out of trades on a whim, is ready to cash in big time.According to an updated prospectus on…

Image: GoogleSince the release of Chromecast with Google TV, Google has been updating Android TV with a number of the fancier features available on its streaming TV dongle, and this week Google is bringing improved ways to suggest new content and save them for later. The first update to Android TV is the addition of…

Looks like Rangers are back on the menu! And tacos, too.Image: HasbroPower Rangers’ monsters of the week served up some of the wildest, weirdest villain designs a kid could find on ‘90s TV. While we remember the Biggest of Bads, there are few original MMPR baddies that are burned into fans’ minds—like Pudgy Pig—so it…

The baby dolls of Ultra City SmithsImage: AMC+The new trailer for Ultra City Smiths has hit the internet! The half-hour series was created by Steve Conrad (Patriot), who also serves as showrunner. Seth Green’s Stoopid Buddy Stoodios (Robot Chicken) will act as one of the show’s many producers.Ultra City Smiths has an interesting premise as…

Cover art by Damian DuffyImage: Abrams ComicartsZola director Janicza Bravo will direct and serve as executive producer on the FX pilot for Kindred—an adaptation of the novel written by prolific science-fiction writer Octavia E. Butler.According to Deadline, the project originates from Watchmen writers Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Courtney Lee-Mitchell, in collaboration with Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures.…

Photo: Ina Fassbender / AFP (Getty Images)Amazon has gotten Fakespot, a popular service on the web that works to identify fake reviews on the e-commerce platform, kicked off the Apple App Store. The incident has pitted two of the biggest giants in the tech industry against a small company, and Fakespot is crying foul. As…

In this May 2000 file photograph, sheep graze at the base of Ben Nevis in Scotland. Photo: Lisa Marie Pane (AP)A few years ago, instead of leading my best friend and I through a lovely and picturesque Spanish mountain trail, Google Maps took us to an isolated field with some cows. While I learned then…

Scarlett Johannson in Black Widow Image: Marvel EntertainmentTo get an in depth analysis of the film as a whole, read Germain Lussier’s review for Black Widow. Now on with it.Image: io9Black Widow is at it’s best when it feels smaller.Before the Red Guardian (played by David Harbour) prison break, Black Widow feels like a spy…

Photo: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP (Getty Images)A recent paper that suggested masks may be dangerous for kids to wear has now been retracted. It’s the second pandemic-related study written by the lead author to be pulled from publication in less than a month, following the retraction of another paper claiming to show that covid-19 vaccines would kill…

The old days of Walking Dead season 1.Image: AMCFrank Darabont, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind The Shawshank Redemption, was a key figure in bringing The Walking Dead to AMC way back in 2010. A few years later though, the showrunner and executive producer realized he wasn’t be compensated properly for his stake in the show, and…

Cecily Strong as Melissa Gimble and Keegan-Michael Key as Josh Skinner.Image: AppleBetween WandaVision and Kevin Can F*ck Himself, shows revolving around warped pocket realities have been having quite the moment in 2021. It seems like a moment that Apple TV+’s new musical series Schmigadoon—from co-creators Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, and director Barry Sonnenfeld—very much…

Photo: JOSH EDELSON/AFP (Getty Images)Two California men have been indicted in connection with an apparent plot to attack the state’s Democratic Party headquarters, located in Sacramento, the Justice Department said Friday. The men also discussed attacks at other locations throughout the state that they “associated with Democrats,” including the headquarters of both Facebook and Twitter,…

While I have not considered myself part of the Youth for quite a few years now, I did not yet feel like I was an Old—until today, when I found out that Dictionary.com had added the word “yeet” to its repertoire. Even Microsoft Word doesn’t know what “yeet” means, as it keeps correcting it to…

We did it, guys! We convinced my editors to let me review the new Tamagotchi!Photo: Florence Ion – GizmodoWhen I tell a person that one of my hobbies is playing with and collecting Tamagotchi, their first response is usually something incredulous like, “Those are still around?” It drives me bonkers, because it feels like an…

Bull sharks are coastal creatures, but at least two of the animals were able to make it as far inland as St. Louis by swimming up the Mississippi River, according to a team of researchers who looked at the shark’s fossil record and reported sightings over the years.The research duo—Ryan Shell, a paleontologist at the…

Yumiko wearing Commonwealth armor.Screenshot: AMCIn The Walking Dead’s 10th season, the series’ core cast of survivors made their first contact with some of the humans still thriving within the Commonwealth. It’s a mysterious settlement that exists in Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore’s comics series, and a major location for lead character Rick Grimes.The new trailer…

Once the update rolls out to your iOS device, you’ll see an option pop up that lets you delete the last 15 minutes of your search activity.Photo: Caitlin McGarry / GizmodoIn its never-ending quest to convince users that it has privacy top of mind, Google is rolling out a quick auto-delete control to scrub the…

An ominous scene from Howling Village.Image: DreadFilmmaker Takashi Shimizu is probably best-known for creating the Ju-On: The Grudge franchise back in the early 2000s; it became a sensation in Japan and was one of the top titles, along with The Ring, to emerge from that era’s Asian horror boom. Shimizu brought extra authenticity to the 2004…

Hera Syndulla as she appeared on Star Wars: The Bad Batch.Image: LucasfilmMaybe the greatest pilot in Star Wars history just got her own origin story and we were ecstatic to speak with the actress behind the character. On this past week’s episode of Disney+ and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Bad Batch, the action took place…

Screenshot: Culper PrecisionWe’ve learned the hard way that certain toxic mixtures trigger such foreseeable harm that they should never have made it past the drawing board. Medical advice and Lysol. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Facebook. Cops and surveillance toys. In that vein, today we learn what happens when LEGO bricks merge with Glocks: Lawyers come…

Amazon can connect us and deliver diapers when we need them, but do they really need to sell a kid on a smartwatch? Photo: Florence Ion/GizmodoAmazon is in every part of our lives. Many of us use its Echo speakers and its Ring security cameras. It’s our online shopping destination for stocking on household essentials…

Blake (Nora Arnezeder) returns to a home planet she’s never known. Image: Saban FilmsAn astronaut whose people have long since abandoned Earth returns to a home she’s never known, determined to find a solution to their fertility issues. What she finds is that the devastated planet they left behind might be humanity’s only hope—but ensuring…

An embryologist adjusting a microplate containing embryos.Image: Mark Schiefelbein (AP)An expert committee says heritable genome editing of humans is still too risky and that the World Health Organization should take on a leading role when it comes to regulating this emerging biotechnology.The new guidelines, announced on Monday, took two years for the expert advisory committee…

A helicopter taking in the sights over the DMZ.Image: Ricardo BurchielliIn Ava DuVernay’s upcoming live-action adaptation of Vertigo’s DMZ for HBO Max, a war-torn Manhattan becomes one of the last remaining “safe” zones in the middle of a civil war that’s devastated the United States of America. But life for those located on the titular…

Fuel holding tanks are seen at Colonial Pipeline’s Linden Junction Tank Farm on May 10, 2021 in Woodbridge, New Jersey. Photo: Michael M. Santiago (Getty Images)Over the past several months, it’s become hard to ignore the fact that the digital lives we’ve all built for ourselves appear to be completely and utterly vulnerable to cybercriminals…

Photo: Chris McGrath (Getty Images)Wheat farmers across the country are facing lower yields as 98% of the country’s wheat crop is in areas experiencing drought.In the Northern Plains, the Department of Agriculture said Monday that farmers were projected to harvest their smallest crop of spring wheat—crops planted in the spring and harvested in the autumn—in…

Kathryn Hahn (as WandaVision fan favorite Agatha Harkness) is among the Marvel nominees at this year’s Emmy Awards.Photo: DisneyTurns out, it was Agatha all along! WandaVision has secured almost two dozen nominations at this year’s Emmy Awards, including Best Limited Series, making it one of the biggest shows of the year. However, what may be even…

Photo: City of Burnsville, MinnesotaIt’s a common story: A family gets a goldfish, but then their kid tires of it—maybe soccer, guitar lessons, or schoolwork start taking priority. The family wants to get rid of the fish but doesn’t want to hurt it, so they release it into a local waterway or flush it down…

Photo: Jack Guez (Getty Images)Employees warned Kaseya’s higher-ups for years about critical security flaws in its software but their concerns were brushed off, former workers told Bloomberg. Several staffers quit in frustration or were fired after repeatedly sounding the alarm about failings in the IT firm’s cybersecurity practices. Now, Kaseya is at the center of…

Illustration: Benjamin Currie/GizmodoNot every conspiracy theory is de facto bad. Vast forces really are colluding against us, with varying degrees of intent. It is when these forces are misidentified—when blame is pinned on people equally helpless, or people who are totally made up—that things can spin out of control. The events of January 6th are…

An unopened copy of Super Mario 64 sold for $1.56 million on Sunday, breaking the world record for most expensive video game auction, according to Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. The previous record was held by The Legend of Zelda, when an unopened copy of the game for the original Nintendo sold for $870,000 last Friday.Super Mario…

The modern medicine cabinet is filled with all sorts of things, from pain relievers and birth control pills to antibiotics and bandages. And if your medicine cabinet is like mine, it’s also packed with tons of useless stuff—like mystery creams, expired prescriptions, and a disturbing number of ambiguous pills.No doubt, medicine cabinets can be a…

Maxxed out on Funko figures? Run out of shelf space for elaborate Lego models? If you’re on the hunt for your next collecting obsession, Basic Fun!’s Tiny TV Classics aren’t just detailed miniature recreations of televisions from the past 60 years; each little set actually works, playing short clips from movies and TV shows that…

Visitors walk along sand dunes at sunset inside Death Valley National Park on June 17, 2021, in Inyo County, California.Photo: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP (Getty Images)There’s one thing that many Americans can affirm right now: It’s freaking hot. In case you still had any doubts, Death Valley, California—the hottest, driest, and lowest place in…

Photo: Alex Wong (Getty Images)For those of us who don’t have a Samsung TV or mobile device, like yours truly, the offerings of the company’s TV Plus streaming service have been a mystery—until now. It turns out that Samsung launched a web version of its free, ad-supported TV Plus a few months back, but just…

Taika Waititi on set of Thor: RagnarokImage: Marvel EntertainmentTaika Waititi is a Hollywood golden boy. He’s riding high on his Oscar win for his film Jojo Rabbit and on to his following projects, Soccer film Next Goal Wins and Thor: Love and Thunder.In an interview with Empire, Waititi commented on his next Thor film by…

Photo: Mario Tama (Getty Images)A raging wildfire in Oregon has doubled in size to 120 squares miles (roughly 311 square kilometers) within 24 hours and now threatens vital transmission lines that carry power to California’s already beleaguered energy grid, the Associated Press reports. It’s one of dozens of blazes scorching the West Coast amid a…

Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP (Getty Images)WhatsApp apparently wants to give users a bit more control over the photos and videos they share on the messaging app. The company recently unveiled a new feature to iOS and Android beta testers that allows them to send disappearing messages. As reported in WABetaInfo, WhatsApp released the “View…

Photo: Greg Baker (Getty Images)Chinese regulators on Friday ordered mobile stores to take down 25 more apps operated by the ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, saying that the apps violated local laws regarding the collection and use of personal user data.After ordering stores to delist Didi’s main app in China last weekend, the Cyberspace Administration of…

Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP (Getty Images)In light of ongoing ransomware attacks originating from Russia, President Joe Biden made a phone call to Vladimir Putin on Friday, stressing that Russia should crack down on cybercriminals operating within its borders, while adding that the U.S. will take “any necessary action” to defend itself against future attacks.Whether it’s the…

The cover of Something Is Killing the Children #1.Image: Boom StudiosThese days it’s all about franchises and brand recognition, and Netflix just picked up a comic book series that’s building both of those things. The streamer is in talks for a series adaptation of Boom Studios’ horror comic Something Is Killing the Children by James…

Photo: Alastair Pike (Getty Images)Now when Twitter rejects your request for that coveted blue checkmark, it’ll be personal. The social media platform announced on Friday plans to provide users with a more thorough explanation of why they failed to meet its verification requirements, as opposed to just firing off generic rejection emails.“We’ve heard your feedback…

Photo: Denis Charlet (Getty Images)The Federal Trade Commission is launching a probe into Amazon’s nearly $8.5 billion bid to acquire MGM Studios, the Information reported Friday.The FTC, newly led by vocal Amazon critic Lina Khan, will focus its investigation on “the larger implications of the deal for Amazon’s market power,” two people familiar with the…

A doctor pointing to PET scans of people’s brains.Photo: Matt York (AP)The Food and Drug Administration is altering its recent and controversial approval of a new drug for Alzheimer’s disease. The agency is now recommending that the drug, called Aduhelm and developed by Biogen, only be given to people in the earliest stages of the…

Dead.Photo: DiamondAnother year, another San Diego Comic-Con spent sitting on your couch like Thor and Korg. But also like Thor and Korg, that couch experience can still be entertaining. Companies that would ordinarily be releasing exclusive merchandise in San Diego, California during the in-person event are doing so anyway—except now you can get them online.…

Moderna vaccines are prepared for application at a United States military vaccination center at Camp Foster on April 28, 2021 in Ginowan, JapanPhoto: Carl Court (Getty Images)Vaccines based on mRNA, first used for covid-19, may soon protect people from the influenza virus as well. This week, Moderna announced the start of a phase I/II trial…

Photo: Joel Saget (Getty Images)Pfizer is looking to fast-track approval for a third booster dose of its covid-19 vaccine and will request emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in August, Pfizer research head Mikael Dolsten said in a Thursday interview with Bloomberg.Initial data from human studies has been promising, he said, showing…

Get ready to go on a Miyazaki adventure you’ve never seen before.Image: GKidsBefore Hayao Miyazaki became a renowned director in the world of animated films, his start as an animation director on TV gave the world many delights, from his early work on Lupin III—which paved the way for his theatrical directorial debut—to classics like…

A job advertisement posted outside a store in Annapolis, Maryland in May 2021.Photo: Jim Watson / AFP (Getty Images)AI-powered job interview software may be just as bullshit as you suspect, according to tests run by the MIT Technology Review’s “In Machines We Trust” podcast that found two companies’ software gave good marks to someone responding…

Look at that stupid face, “just asking questions.” Screenshot: Amazon Prime VideoDying to know what’s been going out with those pesky Boys? Why read a recap when you can check out good ol’ fashioned American propaganda! The Boys has launched a new digital series designed to bridge the gap between the superhero series’ seasons two and…

Some 80,000 light-years away, a group of black holes is slowly becoming the only show in town, according to a team of astronomers that recently modeled a globular cluster called Palomar 5. The cluster, which has streams of stars issuing from two arms on either side of it, will eventually be solely constituted by black…

Things are progressing slowly for San Diego Comic-Con.Photo: Jerod Harris (Getty Images)Comic-Con International: San Diego is coming up in a few short weeks, and that you may not have realized that seems significant. For years, San Diego Comic-Con (as it’s colloquially known) has been the crown jewel of the pop culture calendar: four days in…

Supporters of US President Donald Trump fight with riot police outside the Capitol building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.Photo: Roberto Schmidt (Getty Images)Hardly a week had passed since a violent mob of Americans had laid siege to their own capital on Jan. 6 in a brutish but futile attempt to reverse the course…

Image: NintendoToday, in a surprise move from the house of Mario, Nintendo has just announced that the new Nintendo Switch (OLED model) will be arriving this fall on October 8.Previously, when Nintendo didn’t say anything about a new Switch at E3, a lot of people (including myself) thought that meant Nintendo wouldn’t release its long-rumored…

Given the rising popularity of noise-canceling headphones, it’s clear that consumers are looking for more ways to make the world around them a little bit quieter. It’s why many laptops now feature fan-less designs, and why Uline, a company known for its shipping materials, has gone to the trouble of engineering packing tape that barely…

Richard Donner (center) at The Goonies’ 25th-anniversary celebration with (from left): Joe Pantoliano, Jeff Cohen, Lupe Ontiveros, Ke Huy Quan, Robert Davi, and Corey Feldman.Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez (Getty Images)The filmmaker behind Superman, The Goonies, and other modern classics left behind a huge legacy following his passing. Now, several of the people who’ve continued bringing…

An image of Ingenuity’s shadow taken by the helicopter on July 5, 2021.Image: NASA/JPL-CaltechThe Ingenuity helicopter has stuck the landing of its most difficult flight yet, the craft’s ninth. The helicopter took a high-speed sojourn over rough terrain.NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced the flight’s success this morning in a tweet. The helicopter’s chief pilot, Håvard…

Toss a coin to your Georgiou.Photo: Paramount+It’s Michelle Yeoh’s world, we’re just living in it. Netflix has confirmed that the Star Trek: Discovery actress has been cast in one of the lead roles for The Witcher’s limited prequel series, The Witcher: Blood Origin, playing an elf whose dangerous quest may change the Continent as we…

Photo: Greg Baker / AFP (Getty Images)China on Sunday ordered app stores to remove ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing from their listings, citing serious violations of laws around the collection and use of personal user data.The announcement was made by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s cyberspace regulator, which on Friday announced that it was…

Photo: Drew Angerer (Getty Images)Now anyone can tap into the secret sauce behind ByteDance’s globally successful TikTok app—for a price. The China-based company quietly launched a new BytePlus division back in June focused on selling TikTok’s artificial intelligence technology, including the popular recommendation algorithm behind its ForYou feed, to businesses worldwide, the Financial Times reported…

Addams Family Character PosterImage: MGMThe Addams Family 2 character posters are here! From the looks of it, the entire family is on vacation.In addition to the characters, the voice actors are on display as well. The cast is super stacked with A-list stars like Oscar Isaac (Gomez Addams), Nick Kroll (Uncle Fester), Charlize Theron (Morticia…

Photo: Chandan Khanna / AFP (Getty Images)Officials are rushing to demolish what remains of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside on Sunday before Tropical Storm Elsa reaches Florida in the coming days, which could complicate the response and rescue efforts in the area. At the moment, the demolition is scheduled to take place…

Gif: Mark Zuckerberg (Instagram) / GizmodoI saw this, so now you have to see it too. It may look like one of those deepfake videos, but I swear to you: It’s the real deal. While other people were out roasting hot dogs or watching fireworks on Sunday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg choose to celebrate the…

Get ready for a saga unlike anything Star Wars has seen before.Screenshot: LucasfilmStar Wars is so vast and all-encompassing as a franchise, that the galaxy far, far away can play host to so many different styles and genres of storytelling. But while western animation is certainly no stranger to Star Wars, now creatives from Japan…

It’s no secret for creators that using pre-recorded music in their content can be a hassle—it can even get your content lawfully taken down from whatever platform it’s on. Riot Games, developer of the popular League of Legends, is aware of this as well, and came up with a solution: a copyright-free album of relaxing,…

Screenshot: California Highway PatrolSomebody got the bright idea to slap a Starlink satellite dish on the hood of their car, and now they’re paying the price. On Friday, a California Highway Patrol officer ticketed a motorist driving a Toyota Prius that had what appears to be a Starlink antenna attached to its hood, according to…

Photo: PorscheLuxury sports automaker Porsche is recalling roughly 43,000 of its Taycan electric cars worldwide over a bug that causes a sudden loss of power, the company said Friday. To fix the issue, you’ll have to take your car to a repair center since an over-the-air software update apparently isn’t possible in this case.“A workshop…

Photo: Robyn Beck / AFP (Getty Images)Bird, the scooter and bike sharing company, is launching a pilot focused on offering accessible mobility vehicles for people with disabilities to rent in New York City this summer. In a recent news announcement, Bird said it had partnered with Scootaround, a leading scooter and wheelchair rental company, to…

The Xi Gundam takes flight.Screenshot: Sunrise/NetflixNetflix just brought Gundam fans something they’ve been waiting over a year to see: Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway, the long-delayed latest film in the beloved mecha franchise. But if you’re looking to dive in to see what the fuss behind Gundam is for the first time, you might want want…

The Ku Maloob Zapp offshore oil complex in the Gulf of Mexico, one of Pemex’s most productive facilities, is shown in this 2010 photo. Photo: Alfredo Estrella (Getty Images)As a record-breaking heat wave scorches the Pacific Northwest, down south in the Gulf of Mexico the ocean literally caught on fire Friday. Just another totally normal…

Image: Lego, Hasbro, and FunkoWelcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s regular round up of all the latest and greatest toy news—but there’s a twist this week, as Spider-Man: No Way Home has sneakily swung onto the scene and introduced us to a first look at the movie through its action figures, Funkos, and Lego sets!…

Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)The Federal Trade Commission has filed charges against Broadcom over allegations that the chip maker monopolized the market for semiconductor components, the agency announced Friday.According to the commission’s complaint, Broadcom entered into long-term exclusivity and loyalty agreements with both original equipment manufacturers and service providers to prevent them from buying chips…

Photo: ROB ENGELAAR/ANP/AFP (Getty Images)A ransomware attack on international IT firm Kaseya appears to have infected hundreds of smaller sized businesses that rely on the company’s product, including many based in the U.S.On Friday, Kaseya disclosed that it had been the victim of a “potential attack,” implying that hackers were somehow targeting users of its…

Last week, we got a glimpse at what the rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 4 might look like. This week, Android Headlines leaked what it claims are renders for the flagship Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. But, looking at the design itself, perhaps Samsung is going a little too classic.The design isn’t that different from Samsung’s Galaxy…

A woman entering a vaccination clinic at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center Thursday, June 3, 2021, in Bellingham, WashingtonPhoto: Elaine Thompson (AP)New research published this week is the latest to indicate that vaccinated people have much less to fear from covid-19. The study found that even in the rare cases when people given mRNA vaccines…

Photo: Kevin Hagen (Getty Images)Today, the Trump crew flies closer to that social media platform in the sky. Gaze upon GETTR, the “marketplace of ideas,” possibly the news cycle’s next black hole, and possibly the target of the next greatest cyberattack of all time.As Fox News confirmed today, longtime Trump spokesperson and adviser Jason Miller—not…

Philips Hue may soon have more, brighter bulbs to pair with the rest of its smart lighting lineup. Photo: Florence Ion/GizmodoDo you think your Philips Hue bulbs could be a little brighter? Well, you’re in for some good news. A leak from HueBlog points to improvements on the horizon for the Hue lineup of smart…

Get ready to dungeon-delve before Magic’s next major set.Image: Wizards of the CoastTo accompany every new major Magic: The Gathering set, the Magic website usually serves a series of short stories in the run-up to release to get fans ready for the setting and story arc being introduced through the new cards’ art and flavor.…

Illustration: Elena Scotti (Photos: Getty Images, PixelSquid; Graphic: Angelica Alzona)A smart home that responds to your every command and automates mundane tasks is a tantalizing dream. But the reality is that given the current limitations of technology, competing standards, and devices that quickly become obsolete, trying to make that dream a reality today just isn’t…

Image: AppleMost people are perfectly fine waiting until September for the annual upgrades to iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. But for the impatient few among us, you can actually test out Apple’s next-generation software for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch starting today by downloading the public betas if iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8.As…

Photo: Caitlin McGarry/GizmodoIf iOS 14 was a visual overhaul that gave you full control over how your iPhone looks, iOS 15 is a logistical one that gives you full control over how your iPhone behaves, which in turn will change how you use it.Let me back up: Many of us feel like our phones have…

Team Frank? Or Team Lily?Photo: DisneyTwo trailers, two stars, two completely different feels, one movie. That’s what you’re getting today for Disney’s Jungle Cruise, which opens in theaters, and on Disney+ with Premier Access, July 30. The film stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt and, much as they were when the film was still scheduled…

Photo: Victoria Song/GizmodoWhen Apple previewed the features coming to watchOS 8, the next-gen software upgrade seemed iterative—great for overall performance, but perhaps lacking in terms of direction. This was especially true after watchOS 7, which turned the Apple Watch into a vital tool for navigating pandemic life. However, after living with the watchOS 8 developer…