E-Technology

Photo: Boris Roessler/picture alliance (Getty Images)John Barnett, a former quality control engineer at Boeing who—just last week—testified against the company as part of a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit, has been found dead, the BBC reports.How Isolation Plays a Role in Space ExplorationBarnett, 62, who previously worked for Boeing for three decades and retired from the company

Donald Trump took to Truth Social in the early morning hours of Tuesday to opine on the state of his race to win back the White House this November. And while that’s not unusual, Trump decision to coin a new nickname for himself certainly is. The new name? Honest Don, if you can believe it.Trump

Image: TohoGodzilla is a titan of moviemaking, but now he’s toppled his loftiest goal yet: award season. Just announced at the 2024 Academy Awards, Godzilla Minus One—io9’s favorite movie of 2023—has won the Oscar for best VFX.Reservation Dogs | First FandomsThe movie overcame strong competition from the likes of Disney—with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

Poor ThingsImage: SearchlightAfter enduring the pandemic and a pair of industry-stopping strikes, Hollywood seemed extra jazzed about celebrating itself at this year’s Oscars. While there weren’t a ton of genre movies on the ballot—truly, last year’s Everything Everywhere All at Once sweep still feels rather validating—a few did find their way to the podium.What Should

Image: NintendoIf you’ve been thinking to yourself, “I need some new Legos to put on my shelf,” the company’s got you covered. Along with its newly revealed set for Batman: The Animated Series, a new array of sets for its Super Mario line are in the works. Mario Kart Live But With Hot Wheels!As part

Image: HBOThis past January, HBO canceled Our Flag Means Death after the show’s second season premiered (and wrapped) in October. As with most cancled shows, a fan campaign emerged to try and get HBO to renew the show, while creator David Jenkins said he’d try his best to shop the show around somewhere else that’d

Sam Altman will return to OpenAI’s Board of Directors, the exclusive group with ultimate control over the ChatGPT developer, first reported by The Information on Friday. The decision comes just over four months after the board mysteriously fired Altman, causing more than 700 OpenAI employees to revolt and threaten to leave the company.I Gave Sam

UFOs are back in the news this week with the release of a long-awaited Pentagon report that was designed to address public interest in the topic. What Should Fans Take Away from Imaginary?UFOs (or, rather, UAP, as they’re now known), were injected back into public consciousness last year thanks largely to a former high-ranking intelligence

It’s one of the oldest debates in the character’s 85-year history: should Batman kill people in his quest to safeguard Gotham City? Although time and time again Batman’s darkness has pushed and pulled the character to pretty rough precipices, at least one defining creator continues to be steadfastly be on the side of Bat-murder: Zack

Photo: NOAH BERGER / AFP (Getty Images)Google’s new Bay View building, the first campus built by the search giant, was touted as a green, technologically advanced “canvas of creating new ways to be together” when it opened in 2022. However, employees working in the Mountain View, California building wish one of those “ways to be

Veterinary scientists seem to have unraveled a mystery about why certain dogs simply can’t ever get enough to eat. In research out this week, they found evidence that a common mutation in Labrador retrievers causes them to experience greater hunger than usual while also reducing their metabolic rate, both of which make the dogs predisposed

There is no iPhone 16 yet; it will not be until later this year. But people have their wishlists because when there’s talk of a possible update to their daily carry on the horizon, it inspires them to think of where they’d want to spend their money.Is USB-C Finally Coming To iPhone?About a month ago

Elon Musk met with Donald Trump in Florida this past Sunday, according to a new report from the New York Times. And while it’s not clear what the two men discussed, news of the meeting comes as Musk has ratcheted up his rhetoric against illegal immigration and Trump looks for new sources of cash.The Elon

Superman has found its latest Perry White. Rebecca Ferguson is teaming up with Chris Pratt for Timur Bekmambetov’s new sci-fi movie. Get a look at Fallout’s retro world in three new posts. Plus, what’s coming on the next episode of Halo. To me, my spoilers!Are Fans Tired of Marvel and DC? Superhero Fatigue at NYCC

Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $69,170 Tuesday morning, according to CoinMarketCap, breaching the previous all-time high of $68,990 in November 2021. The price then plummeted under $65,000 soon after reaching its peak. The Biggest Crypto Heists of 2022…So FarEthereum, which currently sits at $3,815, has also been steadily climbing, though it still has a

Freelance comic book writers and artists have accused publisher Scout Comics of not paying them for their work, in some cases not doing so (or communicating with them) for a year or more. How Dave Bautista Raised His Game For Dune: Part TwoIt all started when Jarred Luján, co-creator of the 2023 one-shot All the

Mark Dodson, a voice actor best known as Mogwai in the 1984 film Gremlins, passed away on Saturday at 64 years old. News of his death was announced by his talent agency Stellar Appearances on Facebook. According to this publication, his daughter Ciara said he died in his sleep from a heart attack while attending Horror

Image: Warner Bros.It’s March, and we’ve got our first big movie for 2024 in Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Dune: Part Two. Even as its release date shifted around a few times, there’s been a palpable excitement in the air for the second half of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel, and that was before

Image: Naughty Dog/PlayStation2020’s The Last of Us Part II is a revenge story built around two sides: that of Ellie (as played in the show by Bella Ramsey) and newcomer Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). Both women have their own respective supporting casts, and the HBO adaptation has mainly cast the folks in Ellie’s social circle like

If you’ve ever wanted a movie about werewolves that also comes with some social commentary wrapped inside, your needs could possibly be sated in the near future with an upcoming movie.Prepping the Sandworm Scenes in Dune: Part TwoPer Deadline, filmmaker Jonahtan Libeseman—best known for Battle: LA and the 2014 live-action Ninja Turtles film—is drawing attention

We live in a golden age of Star Wars prequel renaissance. The biggest stories right now all go back to the age of the prequel trilogy, its stars—some of them at least— are returning left and right. Arguably the most important character in the galaxy right now, Ahsoka Tano, was born from Clone Wars’ own

Have you seen that croissant made in the shape of a dinosaur that’s gone viral in recent days on sites like Reddit and X? It’s incredibly cute. But we regret to inform you this “Croissantosaurus” was made using generative AI. In fact, if you track down where this pastry was first posted, you’ll find an

After almost 15 years of development hell, the third Tron movie is finally in production. Star Jared Leto made the news official by dropping the first image of his character, Ares, for the 2025 release called Tron: Ares.Prepping the Sandworm Scenes in Dune: Part TwoThe image is striking and, if you’re a Tron fan, very

Facebook plans to “deprecate” its News tab for users in the United States and Australia by April, according to an announcement published Thursday night. What does that mean? As best we can tell, it means Facebook doesn’t want anyone to use the platform for news anymore and will be killing its dedicated News tab. Meta’s

Have you seen a photo on social media recently that appears to show a man in 1980s-style clothes smoking a cigarette in McDonald’s? The image has gone viral, racking up over 21 million views at the time of this writing. But it’s completely fake. The image was made using generative AI.ChatGPT’s Creator Buddies Up to

Journalist Kara Swisher’s long-anticipated memoir Burn Book hit the shelves today. Apparently, a long list of other writers have also been hard at work writing about her experience as well. On the day after her book launch, Amazon is flooded with AI-generated Swisher biographies, complete with cover art from beyond the uncanny valley. Top 5

Photo: Jesse Grant (Getty Images)The secret’s out of the bag for Mean Girls musical star and original voice of Disney’s Moana, Auli’i Cravalho. After much speculation among fans, the actress confirmed she will be reprising the role that launched her into stardom for Moana 2. Deadline had the exclusive on the Moana 2 casting news.

Image: Xiaomi / Samsung / Tecno / TCLIf you like vaporware and looking at phones and gadgets you’ll never own, then Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) is the trade show for you. This week’s annual menagerie revealed new devices like the TCL Nxtpaper 14 and a working model of Motorola’s rolling phone display. Other brands—namely

Image: Wizards of the CoastThis is shaping up to be a huge year for Magic: The Gathering, and over the weekend Wizards of the Coast took to Chicago for MagicCon, revealing a look at a ton of new cards on the horizon—including big crossovers like Fallout and Assassin’s Creed, and brand new worlds in the

When Star Wars first arrived in the world—back when it was just the original trilogy, mountains of toys, and one peculiar holiday special—fans knew where things stood. The Jedi were the good guys; Darth Vader and his pals were the baddies. But in the decades since, things have gotten a lot murkier across both sides

Image: UniversalLast year’s Fast X came and went with a more muted fanfare than we typically get form the long-running franchise. In the months since its release, Universal’s been relatively mum on the series’ next installment, Fast XI, but leading man Vin Diesel is reaffirming that the film will be a definitive end for the

Elon Musk has shared a new video on Saturday featuring Optimus, the robot Tesla has been working on since 2021. But anyone who tries to watch the video will immediately notice something weird. The clip of Optimus is so low quality and pixelated that it looks like it was shot on a flip-phone from two

Image: Hyperion BooksEven before the Disney+ series released this past December, the Percy Jackson universe seemed primed to expand with movie trilogy for the Kane Chronicles books over at Netflix. But four years after that reveal, author Rick Riordan has revealed the streamer won’t be going forward with that endeavor.Dave Bautista Opens Up About His

It seems almost too comical to be true, but this is the world we live in. One year after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon that ignited a national frenzy, the military has spotted another balloon in American skies.Dave Bautista Opens Up About His Relationship With Denis VilleneuveOfficials are tracking a high-altitude balloon

Photo: Sabina Graves/GizmodoTo celebrate the upcoming digital, Blu-ray, and DVD release of Poor Things, io9 attended a party inspired by the Emma Stone-starring film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. The cinematic soiree was delightfully twisted, just like the parties Stone’s Fraken-creation Bella Baxter enjoys—complete with immersive actors portraying her role. The mini-gala, held in Los Angeles

Intuitive Machines’ private lander stumbled on its way down to the lunar surface and is possibly leaning over on a rock on the Moon. The vehicle is still operational and flight engineers are working to gather more data on its less than ideal position, the company said.China’s Plan to Land Astronauts on the MoonOdysseus landed

Wireless customers with AT&T, Cricket Wireless, T-Mobile, and Verizon all reported outages across the country this morning. And just like clockwork, some folks online pounced on the disruption as evidence of a global conspiracy. Dave Bautista Opens Up About His Relationship With Denis VilleneuveAlex Jones, arguably America’s most popular conspiracy theorist, believes the telecom outage

Earlier in the week, My Dad the Bounty Hunter creator Patrick Harpin and Yuhki Demers, a visual artist on Sony Animation’s Spider-Verse films, revealed their concept art for an animated Batman Beyond movie they’re trying to get made. They’re both fully aware nothing might come of this, and talks are still happening. But it didn’t

Samsung’s Galaxy AI features are coming to more Galaxy devices. Image: SamsungGreat news for those of you holding out on trading up for a Galaxy S24 Ultra. Samsung has announced that its Galaxy AI features are coming to more smartphones. That means Circle to Search, Live Translation, Instant Slow-Mo, and Generative Edit are coming to

Will Stancil, a man who’s made a name for himself online as a feisty defender of President Joe Biden and Democratic policies, announced Wednesday that he’s running for a seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives. But Stancil says social media platforms like X, formerly known as Twitter, aren’t going to be a very important

File photo of people walking past an Apple flagship store in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, Feb 20, 2024.Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing (Getty Images)Two men in Maryland who sent thousands of counterfeit iPhones to Apple for repairs to get authentic replacement iPhones in return were found guilty by a federal jury on Tuesday, according to an announcement

Photo: Borja B. Hojas (Getty Images)The Creator and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story filmmaker Gareth Edwards has entered the dino arena. The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed Edwards as the next helmer in the Jurassic World franchise. Steven Spielberg is set to produce through Amblin Entertainment, along with Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley on board through

La LloronaImage: ShudderThere are plenty of ghostly comedies out there—including a new Ghostbusters movie arriving next month—but for this list, and in honor of The Others’ recent arrival on Shudder, we’re singling out ghost movies that are actually scary. Not all ghosts are friendly, after all!The Others sometimes gets unfairly tabbed as a Sixth Sense

Image: RSVLTSSpring break is on the horizon and with the upcoming releases of Deadpool and Wolverine as well as Godzilla x Kong, online fandom clothier RSVLTS has you covered. Its latest Deadpool and Godzilla-inspired collections have dropped online and are quickly selling out. With their signature short sleeve button-ups and polo gear, get ready for convention and

The CW’s Arrowverse was once the talk of the superhero town, and arguably DC’s more successful live-action venture in the 2010s. But in recent years, the network’s superhero outings have all been shuttered, with Superman & Lois standing as the last Arrowverse hurrah for one more season. Sean Gunn on Working With His BrotherIn a

Image: Sony/Columbia PicturesOnce Star Wars: The Force Awakens brought back Luke, Han, and Leia to massive box office success, legacy sequels really started working overtime to keep the original (and available) franchise stars around when possible. Ghostbusters: Afterlife brought back the still-living Ghostbusters from the original two movies, and they’re back again alongside an also-returning

Donald Trump made an appearance at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia on Saturday to announce a new website that sells Trump-branded sneakers for as much as $400. But if you take a close look at the fine print, this isn’t part of Trump’s effort to become president again. It’s purely a way for Trump to make

Image: Francois G. Durand/Getty Images (Getty Images)There’ve been a lot of versions of Dracula running around in pop culture. Within the past decade, he’s been on a boat, ran a hotel, and been incredibly depressed after his wife was murdered, and we eat it up (almost) every time. Folks love themselves some Drac, and you

A new video game popped up online on Friday, swiftly capturing the web’s attention. The game’s name? “Epstein.” Notably, it’s set on an island. If you progress far enough into the gameplay, you end up fighting Mini-Bosses, including characters dubbed “Clintin,” “Havking,” and “Minwell,” before facing off against the titular bad guy. Making the Freddy

Adaptations can be tricky, particularly when the source material is animated. More often than not, they’re reviled upon reveal, because they often feel like they’re going through the motions or twisting the original thing into something it’s not. It can be a dismal prospect to see something you grew up with lose its identity, and

Image: LegoBring home the magic of Walt Disney’s first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in Lego form. The new collectible set will be available on March 4 online, and in select Lego stores and retailers. The set recreates the story of Snow White as she wishes for a new life, meets seven

A new video showcases the VFX of Godzilla Minus One.Gif: TohoYou don’t have to know much about filmmaking to be impressed by the visual effects of Godzilla Minus One. The movie stars a giant monster, so even if you don’t know practical from digital, you can marvel at the fact Godzilla looks so good and

This month, Apple released its first truly anticipated product in years, the Apple Vision Pro. It’s a groundbreaking device, with some of the best hardware specs and the most impressive performance of any commercial headset ever released. It’s also a $3,500 toy, one that an untold number of people seem to regret taking home. If

Frozen Suite at the Disneyland Hotel: ParisImage: Disneyland ParisFrom Stranger Things to Barbie, Disney fairytales, and a Halloweentown of your own—various creative destinations have undertaken the task of transporting guests into their own movie moments. This includes the pink-on-pink mid-century vibes at Palm Springs’ Trixie Motel, and the themed rooms at Disney Parks’ Disneyland Hotel in Paris

From the moment I heard about tech billionaires’ weird plans to create a bustling new city in the heart of California’s Solano County, I was preoccupied with one basic question: Who is actually going to run this thing? Denis Villeneuve Had a Blast Building the Dune LegoLibertarian dreams of creating a new community from scratch

Lonely on Valentine’s Day? AI can help. At least, that’s what a number of companies hawking “romantic” chatbots will tell you. But as your robot love story unfolds, there’s a tradeoff you may not realize you’re making. According to a new study from Mozilla’s *Privacy Not Included project, AI girlfriends and boyfriends harvest shockingly personal

Photo: Charley Gallay (Getty Images)Isabela Merced’s resume is already stacked, but the star of underrated gem Dora the Explorer and The Lost City of Gold is just getting started. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the young actress—who’s soon to enter Sony’s live-action Marvel universe as Anya Corazon (whose spider-sona is Araña) in Madame

Welcome back to the Connected States, the project that involves me living in a van for a year, driving around and telling stories. After going live last week I was absolutely overwhelmed by the positive response. I received so many tips, well-wishes, and offers of help that I haven’t been able to respond to them

In 1996, when Twister was released, “climate change” didn’t quite carry the very real, very doom-laden weight that it does now. These days, dangerously freaky weather grabs alarmingly regular headlines, so the time feels ripe for an update—and here comes Twisters to bring us killer tornados aplenty.Rainn Wilson’s First Fandoms: Star Trek And D&DNote that

Image: ParamountJohn Krasinski and Paramount aren’t just bringing sound-seeking aliens to the theater this year. In May, the actor is directing (and writing) his first kiddie movie, the Ryan Reynolds-starring IF, which came to the Super Bowl with a new trailer on hand.What Inspired Bobby Moynihan to Write a Children’s BookThe upcoming film, cheekily introduced

Image: Sony Animation/MarvelSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse did a lot of things right, and one of them was its music. That movie had a really good original soundtrack, and its obvious standout is Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower.” Releasing a few months before the film came out helped a lot, and it’s one of those

Flying from Tokyo, Japan back to the U.S. to get to the Super Bowl and watch her boyfriend Travis Kelce play was very important to pop superstar Taylor Swift—so important that she apparently had a second private jet on standby.What to Watch For: Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” What to Watch For: Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” vinyl salesThe

A striking set of gigantic sunspots, first spotted from Mars and now designated AR3576, is currently facing Earth, capturing the attention of astronomers, space enthusiasts, and concerned space weather forecasters.Hurricanes and Climate | Extreme EarthThe cluster, nicknamed the “Martian sunspots,” was first discovered by NASA’s Perseverance rover using its MastCam in the final week of

There’s a new Apple image editor, if you know where to look. The iPhone kings teamed up with researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara to build a tool that lets you edit photos and images with text-based instructions. It doesn’t have an official release, but the researchers are hosting a demo you

A UK-based nuclear fusion collaboration just produced a record amount of energy, a refreshing dose of good news in humankind’s quest for cleaner energy sources. The Joint European Torus facility, or JET, produced just over 69 megajoules of heat.The Animal Kingdom Imagines a World of Humans Turning Into AnimalsA brief distillation of nuclear fusion: It

It’s natural to feel a bit of regret when you miss a loved one’s birthday. Here at Gizmodo, we’re saying happy belated 30th birthday to Yahoo, the website that most of us haven’t logged into since we got real jobs after the Great Recession. Even though Yahoo is a shell of what it once was

Image: Pocket BooksWe were fans of Wayward Pines, the post-apocalyptic Fox series adapted from the Blake Crouch novels a few years back. Now there’s another Crouch adaptation on the way, taking on his parallel-universe novel Dark Matter; last week, he tweeted out the above teaser and wrote “I wrote the book. I wrote the show.

Image: Warner Bros.The Oscars are quickly approaching and the anticipation to see if Ryan Gosling will perform “I’m Just Ken” from the Barbie movie continues to build. Recently Gosling politely declined an invite from Clive Davis to perform it at a Grammys gala, so the film’s music producer Mark Ronson tapped Lainey Wilson to sing

Photo: NASAIt was forty years ago this week that two NASA astronauts embarked into uncharted orbital waters, becoming the first to perform a spacewalk without the benefit of a tether. These thrilling photos remind us of this extraordinary moment in spaceflight history.Over the decades, hundreds of astronauts have bravely ventured outside their spacecraft to work

Ready to see your favorite team’s field goal fail from up close? This year’s Super Bowl LVIII is adding a swathe of new tech to the proceedings, but first up on the list is a set of all-new “doink” cams centered on the uprights of Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium. CBS, which is in charge of

Last year, Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise put a fresh coat of (pleasingly gory) paint on the much-loved cult horror franchise. Now, there are rumblings anew for the 43-year-old series: a film from emerging horror star Sébastien Vaniček, whose Infested thrilled audiences at Fantastic Fest last year and will stream on Shudder later in 2024.

Aarish Syed was the first person in New York City to walk out of the Fifth Avenue Apple Store with a Vision Pro in tow. It’s fine to walk around with one still in the box, but Apple doesn’t want you to wear one on the go.Photo: Michael M. SantiagoApple would prefer that newfound owners

Dune: Part Two is a little over a month away, and fans are still hoping there’s more films to come. Director Denis Villeneuve’s been quite about his desires to adapt the book’s immediate sequel, Dune Messiah. And while those plans haven’t changed, it sounds like he’ll step back from the series before giving that one

Image: Naughty Dog/PlayStationThe Last of Us is one of PlayStation’s biggest properties, and its odds of continuing have grown with each remaster and its currently ongoing HBO adaptation. Unsurprisingly, a third game is planned to come out at some point—just don’t expect it within the next few years. Thanks, Last of Us. Thanks a Lot.

With Avatar: The Last Airbender premeiring later in the month, Netflix has gradually started to pull back the curtain on its adaptation of the 2005 cartoon. The show was never going to be a complete one-to-one of the original, but it does feel like some of the additions and tweaks to the show—like tampering down

Image: Marvel StudiosThe upcoming Deadpool 3 unexpectedly has a lot riding on it. Not only is it going to serve as the first example of how mutants and more R-rated characters will interact with the MCU, it’s also got to appease those excited by the return of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Unfortunately, it’s also got another

Image: NeonFilmmaker Osgood Perkins (Gretel & Hansel) teams up with Neon for Longlegs, which has created hype using creepy teases of the horror thriller to lead up to its first trailer. The film stars Maika Monroe (It Follows) as an FBI agent tracking down a serial killer played by Nicolas Cage (Dream Scenario) whose crimes

Photo: Hanna Borysenko (Shutterstock)A pigeon that was suspected of being a Chinese secret agent has been cleared of wrongdoing and released following a period of months-long captivity. Yes, you read that right and, no, I am not fucking with you.Alex Winter on Innovative Horror Movies The bird in question was apparently picked up by law

Some of the best moments in both Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 are the cross-medium crossovers. In Spider-Verse, the game’s Spider-Man briefly appears in Miguel O’Hara’s world. In Spider-Man 2, there’s a brief reference to Miguel and the movie’s multiverse too. Considering both projects were made independently, that there’s any crossover at

io9 is proud to present fiction from LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE. Once a month, we feature a story from LIGHTSPEED’s current issue. This month’s selection is “A Sojourn in the Fifth City” by P H Lee. You can read the story below or listen to the podcast on LIGHTSPEED’s website. Enjoy!The Painted Skeletons of ÇatalhöyükA Sojourn in

In 2018, Mark Zuckerberg waltzed into the halls of Congress for the most high-profile moment of his career. He was pale and glass-eyed, his tie wrapped loosely around his neck, and his hair cropped high and thin in a bizarre homage to Augustus Caesar. His speech was practiced and robotic, and while his performance made

The Walt Disney Company faced a legal defeat today after its lawsuit alleging retaliation was dismissed in a Florida court. The claim focused on the state’s violation of the company’s First Amendment rights for standing against Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill, a homophobic law that endangers the human rights of LGBTQIA+ communities and

For a while, #DeleteFacebook would trend every couple of months on social media. Countless people were fed up with Facebook’s endless parade of scandals, they claimed, and this time they were finally pulling the plug. Some people did, but Facebook’s user base continues to grow years later. Now Amazon is experiencing a similarly performative phenomenon.

During Kurt Russell’s acting retrospective for GQ, the famed actor gave his thoughts on the ever-constant debate of which survivor is the Thing at the end of John Carpenter’s The Thing. During the shoot, what would be shown of the divisive ending was a matter of contention even for Carpenter himself, who now swears he’s

There’s a glimmer of hope if you’re looking for last-ditch strategies to save your child from the halls of stupidity. A study published this week in the journal Frontiers of Psychology found that good ol’ cursive handwriting seems better at promoting learning than typing, and if we want to pump smarter kids out of our

Screenshot: :PixarFor anyone who ever wondered where Andy’s mom might’ve gotten Buzz and Woody in Toy Story—it turns out one particular San Francisco toy shop sparked the imaginations of Pixar creatives. Now, after 86 years in business, it’s closing its doors.What Exactly is the New Movie, Lightyear?Jeffrey’s Toys, located in downtown SF, was a valuable

Image: Nico Delort & Suzanna Collins/ScholasticSuzanne Collins’ first Hunger Games novel released in 2008, and went onto become a massive franchise. In the wake of last year’s successful prequel film, Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Scholastic is building upon that momentum by bringing the first book to life again with an illustrated

Image: Disney/LucasfilmStar Wars: Ahsoka didn’t just pick up on threads from Star Wars Rebels, it also developed some new plotlines for its returning cast. Chief among them, Rebels character Sabine Wren ended up being Ahsoka’s apprentice and discovered she had Force powers, making her a Jedi Mandalorian—and the first of her kind, in the eyes

Image: LionsgateNext week’s Saturn Awards are going to honor Keanu Reeves at its event, with a special honor named after his John Wick co-star, Lance Reddick.Hallmarks of an Action Scene with John Wick Director Chad StahelskiThis year’s ceremony won’t just be dedicated to the late actor, it’s also the start of the Lance Reddick Legacy

Stephen King’s The Shining was heavily inspired by his time at Colorado’s Stanley Hotel. In the past, it’s taken advantage of the 1977 novel’s success—the 1997 TV miniseries used it as a filming location, and King’s hotel room 217 is now advertised with his name. But if that’s not enough, Blumhouse is now giving the

Earlier in io9’s 2024 Sundance Film Festival coverage, we reviewed In a Violent Nature, one of the most unconventional slasher movies ever made. That theme continues with Handling the Undead—a most unusual zombie movie, and one that offers proof (yet again) that the genre still has the ability to innovate.Does Mali Elfman Believe in Ghosts?

The Taylor Swift AI porn debacle seems to be snowballing into a full-blown national emergency and now the White House is involved. Yes, our nation’s executive branch weighed in on Taylor’s fake nudes on Friday, with the top WH spokesperson claiming that the government is concerned about the whole thing but isn’t quite sure what

Apple is granting more access to its manicured walled garden to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Union (EU). In a press release, the company announced a heaping of forthcoming iOS, Safari, and the App Store changes, including support for apps from third-party app stores and the ability to set a

Screenshot: Universal PicturesThe excitement over Dune: Part Two’s March 1 arrival is building—so much so that other movies are trying to capitalize on it. Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is returning to theaters accompanied by a special tease of Denis Villeneuve’s sequel—but first, David Lynch’s take on Dune will be getting its due.Spoilers of the Week April

Photo: NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP (Getty Images)In the summer of 2022, 18-year-old Aditya Verma was boarding a flight to Spain at London’s Gatwick Airport when he sent a message to his friend on Snapchat: “On my way to blow up the plane (I’m a member of the Taliban).” As you might expect, the message was a joke.

“Two tickets to Dune Part Two please.”Image: Warner Bros.Christopher Nolan is currently having the biggest year of an already incredible career and he’s about to rewind it back in time. Apparently, he asked Warner Bros. if it would re-release his troubled 2020 film Tenet in theaters as a way to build hype for Dune: Part

BMW has signed a first-of-its-kind deal to put “humanoid” robots to work at one of its factories. The robots, which are designed to be more operationally flexible than traditional industrial robots, will supposedly assist the luxury car manufacturer with various parts of the manufacturing process.Warning! Microsoft Wants ChatGPT to Control Robots NextThe robots in question

Godzilla Minus One roared its way to an Oscar nomination today.Image: TohoWhen your landmark film gets a surprise, history-making Oscar nomination, there’s cause for celebration. And that’s exactly what the team behind Godzilla Minus One did earlier today when the film was nominated for Best Visual Effects.Reservation Dogs | First FandomsThe nod, which puts it

The Hugo Awards are no stranger to controversy. In recent years, the annual celebration of sci-fi and fantasy authors in media including novels, short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting (among others) has come under fire for a questionable sponsorship (defense contractor Raytheon Technologies), an anti-diversity movement that interfered with nominations (remember the Sad Puppies?), and

Although it took a long time for Paramount to return the favor, Star Trek Online has long done a great job of bringing in material from the more recent shows into its own imagining of at 25th-century era for boldly going. But its latest drop might be one of its most fun.Playing Raffi Throughout Star

Just a few months ago, actor Melissa Barrera was fired from Scream 7 over her pro-Palestinian stance in the Israel-Hamas conflict. The shockwave of that firing has basically upended that franchise in various ways, while Barrera herself has been focused on doing promo for her next film, the upcoming horror musical Your Monster. Hulu’s Hellraiser

Image: NeonA new year means new movies to watch in theaters or at home. And while we’ve got an idea of the bigger franchise tentpoles, some films are building up their presence the old-fashioned way: with some pretty effective marketing that sells you on the movie’s vibe first and foremost. Alex Winter on His Character

Scientists scrutinizing the fine dust covering the Moon have identified a handful of boulders on the lunar surface that they believe may be covered with uniquely magnetized dust.Moon Knight Gives Us HopeThe team used artificial intelligence to review around a million images of the lunar surface, all taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The AI

Longtime horror alum Greg Nicotero, of The Walking Dead and Creepshow fame, has found his next project to tackle: a TV adaptation of Robert McCammon’s Swan Song. Alex Winter on His Character in Destroy All Neighbors Per Deadline, Nicotero will executive produce the upcoming series through his production company Monster Agency. He’ll also be tapped

Welcome to AI This Week, Gizmodo’s weekly deep dive on what’s been happening in artificial intelligence.Why is Everyone Suing AI Companies? | Future TechFor months, I’ve been harping on a particular point, which is that artificial intelligence tools—as they’re currently being deployed—are mostly good at one thing: Replacing human employees. The “AI revolution” has mostly

A cult animated short with over 92 million views made a dark darling out of Hazbin Hotel, and its popularity inspired a legion of fans to raise a little hell so it could get picked up to series. It’s now a Prime Video animated (and very adult) musical comedy, and io9 got a chance to

The arrival of Steamboat Willie—and with it, the first steps of Mickey Mouse himself—into the public domain at the start of 2024 has been a milestone that, in just under three weeks, already seen a bevy of horrifying riffs and a look ahead to what other stalwarts of culture will join him next. At Warner

The legacy of invention and technology that comes out of Disney Imagineering is some of the closest we’ll get to a sci-fi future. And two of Disney Parks’ most recent incredible projects come from Lanny Smoot, a Disney legend who has already patented over 100 inventions, 74 of which are at Disney Imagineering—including Madame Leota’s

Smartphones, AI, and rings, oh my! Samsung is at it again, coming out with its latest Samsung Galaxy S24 series phone with a list of long-expected features, a new titanium frame on the $1,300 Ultra edition, and a whole smattering of artificial intelligence surrounding every feature for its latest flagship phone. Oh, and apparently, the

Photo: Florence Ion / GizmodoJust Tuesday, we reported on Apple trying to circumvent the import ban by dropping the blood-oxygen monitoring sensor on it. Until the new watches without the sensor were out, the ban was temporarily lifted, allowing Apple to start selling again. CNBC just reported that the Cupertino company has again been banned

If you had to guess which Marvel character would be the first to publicly acknowledge whether or not their show is returning to Disney+, of course, it would be She-Hulk. The self-aware, fourth-wall-breaking heroine played by Tatiana Maslany is one of several characters introduced on the streamer whose fate has yet to be acknowledged. But

Writer-director Takashi Yamazaki brought a friend to the premiere of Godzilla Minus One November 10, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.Photo: Stewart Cook/Getty Images for Toho Co. (Getty Images)Let’s give it up for Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki, whose red carpet appearances have featured his star in fashionably iconic ways. Yamazaki has taken to X

Screenshot: ParamountNot every conflict goes the way of Star Trek’s heroes—Pyrrhic victories, momentary defeats, escapes from scrapes that leave them bloody-nosed. But every once in a while we get to see, over the years, moments where the technological and strategic might of Starfleet is truly laid low: highlighting just how dire the stakes have gotten

Image: BoxLunchFans of Dexter’s Laboratory and Adventure Time can get a hit of animated nostalgia from the late ‘90s to the early aughts with this BoxLunch fashion collection. The fandom gear goods store just dropped a Cartoon Network line that features popular shows from those eras. Familiar toon faces adorn shirts, cozy pajama pants, accessories

Image: NetflixIf you were someone who liked Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy of movies in 2021, good news: R.L. Stine says another film is on the way. IMDb Changes Rating System After Little Mermaid Review-Bombed | Future TechOn Twitter, Stine revealed a new installment was set to start production pretty soon. This new movie will be

Image: Marvel StudiosThe MCU started with Robert Downey Jr.’s career-defining turn as Iron Man all the way back in 2008. Over the next 11 years, Downey would reprise the role for numerous sequels and team-ups, and now that he’s had some distance from the whole shebang, he thinks his Marvel tenure was intentionally overlooked. How

A full month from now, Madame Web will be making its way into theaters. Like Venom and Morbius before it, the film is Sony’s bid at making a universe of interconnected Spider-Man movies that don’t feature the hero in question. And in another universe, we’d have one of those movies playing out in theaters this

Image: NBCIt’s been a full month since NBC’s pretty solid Quantum Leap revival went on a midseason break to account for the holidays. But it won’t be too long a wait before the show returns: per Deadline, the remaining episodes of season two will begin airing on Tuesday, January 30.Ernie Hudson | First FandomsFor its

Did The Rise of Skywalker and rampant speculation over just which Skywalker is rising, who a Skywalker is, and why they’re rising break some brains over at Lucasfilm? Almost every bit of Star Wars on the small screen we’ve gotten since (and planned for the big one) is a character title, named for an individual

Shandong-based Orienspace pulled off its first-ever launch, breaking the record for the largest payload capacity on a commercial rocket for China’s growing space industry.Would Peter Capaldi Return to Doctor Who?The Chinese company launched the Gravity-1 rocket on Thursday at 12:30 a.m. ET from a mobile platform in the Yellow Sea, producing massive plumes above the

eBay agreed to pay out a $3 million fine—the maximum criminal penalty—over a twisted scandal that saw top executives and other employees stalking a couple in Massachusetts who published a newsletter that criticized the company. The harassment campaign included online threats, sending employees to surveil the couple’s home, and mailing them disturbing objects—including live spiders

Taking over the mantle from John Williams can be an intimidating task for anyone stepping into the role of composer within the Star Wars universe. After all, Star Wars wouldn’t be Star Wars without its iconic themes. But for Ryan Shore, who’s recently composed for a number of legacy franchises including Scooby-Doo, it was an

Image: Disney+To coincide with the release of Echo, Disney+ has rolled out its own take on the correct order to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s shows and movies. It includes shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, holdovers from the Netflix slate of once loosely related universes. They officially enter the fold, with Echo tying the

A legal battle over how death row prisoners in Alabama can be killed has reached a critical point. On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that the state can proceed with its planned execution of inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith using nitrogen gas. The execution is scheduled for later this month and would be the first ever

Echo, the latest show from Marvel Studios, debuts on streaming tonight. It’s the first Marvel show to not only drop all of its episodes simultaneously, but also to premiere both on Disney+ and on Hulu, which is happening for a few reasons. One, it’s TV-MA, meaning it’s aimed at a more mature audience. Two, it’s

SEC Chairman Gary GenslerPhoto: Nathan Howard/Bloomberg (Getty Images)The Security and Exchange Commission’s X account was hacked on Tuesday afternoon, sending an untrue tweet that the Bitcoin ETF was approved. Chairman Gary Gensler quickly tweeted from his personal account that the tweet was false and the result of a hack. In the following 15 minutes, the

I’m a sucker for a 2-in-1, and doubly so if it’s featuring the two operating systems I rely on daily. Lenovo has announced its laptop lineup for the year in tandem with CES 2024. The upcoming refreshes include updates to its gaming and work laptops and the ThinkBook series, including the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5

Say it with me, “The Claw.” What does that name evoke? Saturday morning cartoons? Timeless Pixar classics? PC maker MSI hopes you’ll start to instead think about gaming, as it’s the latest company to offer up its version of a Steam Deck, and this one indeed shares quite a few similarities to Valve’s original handheld

Nearly five years ago, acclaimed filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola talked about his plans to finally create a movie he’s had cooking in his head since the ‘80s. He even tried to make it during the early 2000s, but 9/11 made that impossible, since he felt it would be in bad taste. But twenty years later

Photo: Florence Ion / GizmodoEvery year I attend CES, I often regret leaving something behind. The thing is, I’m not a heavy packer; I’ve been at this work travel game long enough that I figured out how to fit a week’s worth of clothing, amenities, and comforts in a suitcase that fits in the overhead

CES 2024 kicks off next week, and tech companies worldwide will showcase all upcoming tech products for this year and beyond. There is already a ton of coming out of news coming out of the event, and the show floor doors haven’t even opened yet. But don’t worry; we are here to keep up to

Why am I getting emotional?Screenshot: Dua RashidAfter around 30 years of existence, WordPad is finally saying goodbye. In the Windows 11 Build 26020 Insider Preview’s Canary Channel, Microsoft announced that WordPad will not be auto-installed after installing the new OS build and will officially be removed in the future update. It clarified that the text

On Monday, January 8, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur is scheduled for its inaugural flight, a mission that will send a wide range of payloads to the Moon. Although not as advanced as SpaceX’s rockets, this expendable rocket boasts features that could make it a cornerstone vehicle in the industry.Will You Click Windows’ New Copilot

Screenshot: Marvel/Disney+Of all the weird moments and choices in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the Illuminati scene might be the one that most made us wonder “wait… what just happened?” Patrick Stewart, Professor X himself, brought the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Sam Raimi’s 2022 sequel, but filming his cameo sounds

To celebrate Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary last year, the BBC made a huge, unprecedented move: for the first time, almost the entirety of Doctor Who, from episodes from 1963 all the way up to the then-airing anniversary specials, would be made available to stream in the UK in one place, on the BBC’s own streaming

Photo: Jeff Spicer (Getty Images)Somehow toxic fandom has returned and at the mere mention of Star Wars and women, no less. Nonsensical virulent misogynistic notions abound as Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy and the director of the studios’ upcoming Rey film Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy have found themselves in the crosshairs of troll pundits and anti-woke platformers over women

What happens when a company loses a bunch of user data? Typically, they apologize and sheepishly beg for forgiveness. Not so with 23andMe. The popular genomics company, which suffered a pretty terrible data breach last year, has instead opted to tell pissed off customers that they probably should’ve picked a better password if they didn’t

Gif: SamsungAfter the dopamine hit of CES 2024 wears off, we’ll need something else to carry us through the first month of the new year. Fortunately, we’ll have Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked to look forward to. The company has officially announced its next flagship smartphone series will be revealed on Wednesday, Jan. 17, at the SAP Center

Image: AMCWhat you’ve heard is true: The Walking Dead alum Steven Yeun is no longer in the cast for Marvel’s upcoming Thunderbolts movie.’We’re Gonna Drop a Bomb’ | David Harbour on ThunderboltsThe un-casting was officially confirmed via the Hollywood Reporter. Though an official reason wasn’t given, it’s worth pointing out that Thunderbolts had been heavily

Mickey Mouse is finally in the hands of the public, to do whatever they want with him. Well, in part. After Disney infamously helped delay the moment, today is the day Steamboat Willie, the first Disney animated short to star Mickey and Minnie Mouse, become public domain. But what does that mean? Simultaneously a lot and

Star Wars can often feel culturally ubiquitous, but sometimes even the people operating in its space find themselves inside a world they have little experience with (as they should: Star Wars thrives on the perspectives of many, and that includes people unfamiliar with it!). But for Eman Esfandi, going back and acquiring that knowledge made

HBO’s House of the Dragon is keeping the Game of Thrones train going along, but it’s not the only spinoff for the fantasy series in the works. In a newly released blog looking back on 2023, author George R.R. Martin revealed he and HBO have a number of animated series in unofficial development—as in, they

Image: Studio MAPPA/Toho AnimationJujutsu Kaisen wrapped up earlier this week after a long and fairly grim season. You won’t be surprised to learn that it’s got another season in the works, once again courtesy of MAPPA.Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Has Infectious Good EnergyFollowing the finale for season two, MAPPA put out a teaser video teasing a

Whatever else you can say about X, previously known as Twitter, it’s never really boring. The 17-year-old social media site that we’ve stuck around with always has something going on; in the best cases, it can be either funny or so odd that you can’t help but laugh.Even Twitter Can’t Kill Twitter | Letter From

Image: Marvel StudiosToday marks the season two finale for Marvel’s What If…?. I haven’t watched it yet, but by several accounts, it sounds like this has been a pretty solid season with a standout episode that focuses on the Mohawk woman Kahhori. Ahead of this season’s premiere, Marvel Studios revealed a third season was in

Image: Warner Bros./DC ComicsBefore and particularly after the movie starring Halle Berry, it appears to be a rule that you don’t have Catwoman in a live-action movie without Batman getting top billing. But that wasn’t always the case—back in 2018, we learned the thief very nearly got her own spinoff film where she would’ve been

Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi games are firmly embedded in the years before the original trilogy, and keep the focus on a core cast of wholly new heroes and villains. It’s what made Star Wars Jedi: Survivor from earlier this year so excellent: the games take advantage of that relative freedom from the timeline and offer

The title Bloody New Year feels overly obvious: surely, this is yet another holiday-focused slasher movie in which shrieking teens get picked off one by one. And while there’s a bit of that, this 1987 British release—also known as Horror Hotel and the far more spoiler-y Time Warp Terror—is also far, far weirder than you’d

Image: Warner Bros.We snickered at the concept when we first heard about Wonka, and we scratched our heads once we saw the trailers—especially the parts revealing Hugh Grant’s Ooompa-Loompa character. But one should never doubt the power of chocolate… or a singing, dancing, Timothée Chalamet, because Wonka is a hit.Spoilers of the Week: July 29thDirected

What were you doing on November 8, 2023? I couldn’t say for myself, but I can tell you what NASA’s Curiosity rover was doing: sitting still on its 4,002nd day on Mars, taking snapshots of the Martian surface.Let’s Eat a Chocolate Xbox ControllerNow, mission team members at Jet Propulsion Laboratory have stitched together two series

NASA’s curious Jupiter probe is getting chummier with the planet’s most erratic moon, Io. The Juno spacecraft will carry out the closest encounter any mission has had with the volcanic moon in over 20 years, collecting valuable clues about its mysterious activity.Let’s Eat a Chocolate Xbox ControllerJuno will make its flyby of Io on Saturday

On Christmas Day, a big GTA 5 leak revealed that Rockstar Games had some single-player DLC planned for the open-world crime sim. Though none of them were released, what was uncovered by online sleuths is interesting all the same.How Invincible’s Omni-Man Joined Mortal Kombat 1Read More: 18-Year Old GTA 6 Hacker Sentenced To Life In

Following a successful liftoff, Firefly’s Alpha rocket seems to have misplaced its payload due to a second stage anomaly.First Full-Color Images From Webb Space TelescopeThe small rocket launched on Friday, December 22, at 12:32 p.m. ET from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The mission, called “Fly the Lightning,” was carrying a satellite developed

The last major ad-free streaming service is going away. Starting Jan. 29th, Amazon users will start seeing advertisements appear on movies and TV shows for Prime Video, according to an email sent to subscribers on Tuesday. To keep Prime Video ad-free, you’ll need to pay an additional $3 a month, on top of the $139

Image: BBCIt’s Christmas, and that can only mean one thing we’ve been waiting simultaneously six years and also just three weeks for: Doctor Who is back for a festive treat, and it’s bringing a new Doctor and companion, and a whole new era, along for the ride. Need somewhere to talk about everything that just

Image: Top from left: Sleep No More, Muppet, PlayStation, Peloton, Syfy; bottom from left: AMC, Vicky Leta, Studio Ghibli, Lucasfilm, Sabina GravesThere have been so many words written about the expanse of genre here at io9, and 2023 was a wildcard of a year for entertainment (including Marvel Studios, Star Wars, DC Studios, and Max)

Image: Warner Bros./NetflixIt’s Christmas weekend, and Hollywood still has gifts to give. This weekend saw the release of two big sci-fi epics, both of which are unified by their connection to filmmaker Zack Snyder, who previously spearheaded the DC Extended Universe.Spoilers of the Week: July 29thIn the first corner, we’ve got Netflix’s Rebel Moon. Directed

Earlier this year, Disney filed a lawsuit against Florida governor Ron DeSantis and the state’s other elected officials. The corporation apparently isn’t done hitting the state quite yet, as it’s now suing Florida again while also facing a lawsuit from one of its recent actors.Biggest Questions After Watching the Original WillowAs far as the former’s concerned

Ever since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, Disney has struggled with getting more Star Wars movies off the ground. In the years since, Lucasfilm has had a nasty habit of announcing things for the series and then not making them, if they ever actually existed at all. And it all dates back to December

Almost every DC Comics movie released in the last five or six years has done so with baggage attached that can’t help but talked about. In many cases, said baggage helps inform why the film is what it is, but in other cases, it gets in the way of what makes an individual film rise

Do you know what moments these refer to?Image: IFC, WB, Marvel, SonyA moment can make a movie. You’re sitting there, you’re watching something, it’s fine, and then boom: a scene or shot happens, and instantly something you thought was just okay becomes amazing. That’s the level we were aiming for in the annual rundown of

This year has been jam-packed with new Star Wars, with three new seasons of TV in Bad Batch, The Mandalorian, and Ahsoka, and oodles of books and comics that saw us revisit legends or the High Republic. Even as we await its return to the big screen, Star Wars remains ever-present—but one new story in

Image: Midjourney V6Midjourney released an upgraded version of its AI image-generating service, Midjourney V6, on Thursday. The update is a significant improvement that has truly wowed users with its shockingly realistic photos and attention to detail. It may not be here for long, so here’s how to get V6 working now.ChatGPT’s Creator Buddies Up to

When Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury ended earlier this year, it did so by taking a step forward in the franchise’s history that few other series had the chance to make explicit in their own prior examinations of queer love. But after parent company Bandai pushed back on what was, in the show

Image: Hot ToysIf you thought it’d be Hasbro who first got its hands on Ahsoka’s trooper repurposing, think again: Hot Toys is giving us our first actual look at Thrawn and the Great Mothers’ unholy matrimony of Imperial Remnant and Nightsister witchery in action figure form… although there stands a good chance anything Hasbro has

Photo: Geza Farkas (Shutterstock)Amazon is done making an ass of itself, and making snacks out of ass, as the digital marketplace will no longer sell edible donkey meat in California. The online retailer will not allow Californians to buy hundreds of donkey-based snacks listed on the platform as part of a settlement, according to Wired.

Image: Andrew LiszewskiMaster & Dynamic’s already-premium $599 luxury headphones, MW75, are about to get a very brainy upgrade. They’re about to get brain tech embedded in them.With AI Advertising, Nothing is Real | AI UnlockedMaster and Dynamic is collaborating with Neurable, a company focused on integrating neuroscience into everyday products. Their goal is to enable

This story is part of our new Future of Gaming series, a three-site look at gaming’s most pioneering technologies, players, and makers.“Apple and gaming.” For decades, you’d be laughed at trying to use those two words together in a sentence. You might think that one of the world’s biggest PC brands would also be one

Image: HasbroHasbro’s Haslab series—a crowdfunding drop line that lets the toymaker make some truly wild toys it could never feasibly release to the mass market, should enough collectors actually want them—is meant to be a one and done thing. The campaign starts, and if it hits its goals, when it ends pretty much all that’s

Snoops says, “buy me now.”Photo: Florence Ion / GizmodoSanta’s elves better hurry up and ship those new Apple Watches. Starting Dec. 21, the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 will no longer be available for sale. Christmas Eve is the last day to buy one at the brick-and-mortar Apple retail store.Hands-On With Meta Quest

RIP to these characters and more.Image: Warner Bros., Disney, NetflixLight a candle for those fictional characters we lost in 2023. Characters we’ve come to know either over the years, or maybe even over just a few short hours of a movie or TV show. But these characters left an impression on us meaning, as 2023

Space is hard, as the cliché reminds us, and that was plenty clear this week, as several groups ran into trouble: NASA with its aging Voyager 1 spacecraft, AstroForge with a struggling debut mission to prove asteroid mining can work, and a few missing-in-action satellites from a recent SpaceX launch. Back on Earth, doctors issued

Japanese actor Kenpachiro Satsuma died earlier today, according to a translated post from Matomedane, from what’s said to be interstitial pneumonia. The 76-year-old actor is best known for portraying various monsters during Godzilla’s Heisei era, including the lead monster himself.Turtle Power with Melissa Navia | First FandomsSatsuma was born May 27, 1947 under the name

For a year, a rogue tomato was missing in action on board the International Space Station (ISS), sparking rumors that an astronaut may have eaten it during a moment of weakness. It turns out that there were actually two missing tomatoes, not just one, found squished in a tiny ziplock bag, and they’re looking a

From casting to the cutting room, One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda collaborated closely with the team behind Netflix’s live-action series adaptation of his beloved tale every step of the way.Netflix Passwords, ChatGPT Can’t Detect AI, and No More CoTweets | Editor Picksio9 recently chatted with series editor Eric Litman (Agents of SHIELD) about how the

Good news, everyone! Scientists discovered additional evidence suggesting the potential habitability of a peculiar icy moon orbiting Saturn, one of the planet’s 146 moons.Google’s AI Isn’t a Gimmick, It’s the Future | AI UnlockedAlthough tiny, Enceladus is one of the most likely places in the solar system to host life. Over the years of research

When Rebel Moon releases in theaters this week (and on Netflix next week) it’ll mark the end of a 10-year journey. A journey that began with a 2013 rumor that director Zack Snyder was working on some kind of Star Wars movie. That rumor, it turns out, was not true. At the time, Snyder had

Threads finally launched for European users Thursday roughly five months after the X competitor rolled out in the United States. The rookie social media platform also received some fact-checking filters that might put advertisers’ minds at ease. Meanwhile, Americans received AI-generated backgrounds for Instagram Stories. With all this gift-giving, it seems Zuck has a naughty

Screenshot: AmazonThe end is nigh, and Good Omens is preparing for it again. Having evolved from a limited series exploring the story of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s beloved novel into its own magical continuation of ideas from the pair left unpublished, now Good Omens is ready to call time on Amazon… and on the

Photo: Florence Ion / GizmodoIf you give me access to your location, I am the person who will check on you constantly and bring it up the next time I see you. “So,” I’ll start casually, “what were you doing in the city last week?” Then you’ll ask me how I knew you were down

Image: LegoAlthough the X-Men have been returning to the world of Lego in fits and starts recently—a few characters in the Marvel minifigures line here, a giant Wolverine fist there—2014 was the last time Marvel’s mutants actually got to star in a more traditional Lego set. That’s now changing… but it’s not an entirely joyous

Image: Walt Disney PicturesThe House of Mouse celebrated its centennial in 2023 through monumental film and television releases and Disney Parks experiences, while dealing with real-world repercussions during historic writers and actors’ strikes. And then, of course, there was the whole ongoing skirmish with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.Disney100 was one for the books with incredible

There are plenty of things to like about the latest iOS 17.2 update. For one, iPhone 15 Pro users are getting telephoto camera improvements and can finally use the titanium-shelled hardware to shoot spatial videos for the Vision Pro. There’s also a new Action button shortcut for real-time translation. But the most helpful bit of

Image: Wizards of the CoastA few months ago Wizards’ latest Magic: Universes Beyond release celebrated 60 years of Doctor Who in style, with decks filled with cards from every era of the show… except its then-upcoming present. That’s all changing very soon, thankfully.Today Wizards of the Coast revealed the latest addition to its Secret Lair

23andMe admitted it lost 6.9 million users’ DNA in a hack, after initially reporting only 14,000 users were affected. If you’ve used 23andMe, there’s basically a coin-flip chance that your data was exposed. The company, however, updated its terms of service last week to change the ways customers can take legal action against it.’Even AI

Up to release, Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s newest film The Boy & the Heron has had a lot of discussion centering around what it’s potentially meant to be. Is it actually Miyazaki’s for real, final film? Was it really the best idea to not really promote it or even give any idea as to what it’s

Is Rock Band back? Well, kinda, maybe, eventually. Epic Games revealed the new Fortnite experience Fortnite Festival, a new update that lets players take their persona out of the battle royale and stuff a guitar or pair of drumsticks in their hands in rhythm game action familiar to any old Guitar Hero fans.Zillow Says You’ll

Image: NetflixWith the Hollywood strikes now having wrapped in full, productions are able to start back up again. Stranger Things, according to Deadline, is set to get back to work in early January.Zillow Says You’ll Buy Your Next House With… AI? | AI UnlockedSources speaking to the outlet claims the show will get back into

Image: Random House WorldsThe prequel trilogy of Star Wars films (and similar material set in the same time period) introduced audiences to plenty of new Jedi, with one of the most striking being Samuel L. Jackson’s Mace Windu. Though he’s one of the most important players of that era, he hasn’t always gotten a chance

A Quiet PlaceImage: ParamountIf you want a Star Trek or Transformers fix, Paramount+ is your go-to. But once you’ve landed on the streamer, you’ll find plenty of sci-fi options beyond just those big franchises. Here are 10 sci-fi tales to get keep you going after you’ve finished watching Bumblebee or binging Strange New Worlds.Yes, we

Image: Scott Olson / Staff (Getty Images)We have officially reached that stage in AI popularity, where it’s no surprise that it could change the way we interact with our phones. We just saw that happening with the Google Pixel 8 Pro with the recently revealed Gemini AI model. Of course, Apple had to catch up, too. Apple

Panera Bread is once again being blamed for causing someone’s death with its highly caffeinated “Charged Lemonade” energy drink. The family of 46-year-old Dennis Brown has filed a wrongful death suit against the chain this week, alleging that Brown’s heart-related death in early October was caused by the drink. It’s the second such claim made

Elon Musk’s snarky, anti-woke chatbot, Grok, started rolling out to X Premium Plus users on Thursday. X users who paid $16 a month, or $22 via the app, for a blue checkmark started receiving the added feature of getting roasted by xAI’s premiere generative AI chatbot.Zillow Says You’ll Buy Your Next House With… AI? |

Darren Lynn Bousman has directed four Saw movies—parts 2-4, and the Chris Rock-starring Spiral—and while his latest, The Cello, has some gruesome elements, it’s a big departure for the filmmaker in many ways. Ahead of the film’s release December 8, io9 got a chance to ask him more.Zillow Says You’ll Buy Your Next House With…

Astrobiologists suspect there could be alien life just out of reach in our solar system, in oceans hidden beneath icy crusts on moons circling Jupiter and Saturn. But unlike the surface of Mars, which can be explored by rovers and landers, these mysterious oceans are currently inaccessible to us. In an effort to change that

Marvel Studios is not reacting well, at all, to having its first real box office bomb in 15 years. After years of unprecedented success, including four of the 10 highest-grossing films of all time, the studio’s latest release, The Marvels, is on the opposite end of the spectrum. After about a month in release, the

Screenshot: Rockstar GamesTuesday was the scheduled day for the reveal of Grand Theft Auto VI, but someone got their hands on the trailer early. Not long after the leak showed up online, developer Rockstar Games pulled the trigger and the official trailer went live Monday evening. Only a game like the return of Grand Theft

Image: Disney ParksSeason of the Force at Disneyland is returning to Disney Parks next year—and a beloved Star Wars ride will likely be getting an upgrade as part of the Star Wars attraction and experiences takeover, which annually brings new overlays, Lucasfilm merch, and galactic-themed foods. “Even AI Rappers are Harassed by Police” | AI