AJ Dellinger, Author at Gizmodo

Astronaut Alan Bean, the Fourth Man to Walk on the Moon, Has Died at 86

Alan Bean, the fourth of just 12 people to walk on the moon and one of the first Americans to spend an extended period living on a space station, died Saturday at Houston Methodist Hospital. He was 86. “Alan was the strongest and kindest man I ever knew. He was the love of my life…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 26 '18

French Teens Arrested for Hacking Vevo, Defacing Despacito Music Video

Last month, a handful of extremely popular music videos on YouTube were defaced. Now two 18-year-old French citizens are in police custody and have been charged with crimes related to the hack of Vevo YouTube accounts. Per Variety, the teens were taken in by law enforcement officers in Paris. The 18-year-olds, identified as “Nassim B.”…

Privacy & Security AJ Dellinger May 26 '18

Tesla Agrees to Settle Class Action Suit Over ‘Essentially Unusable’ Autopilot Feature [Updated]

Telsa agreed this week to a settlement in a class action lawsuit filed against the company by buyers of Tesla vehicles who alleged the company semi-autonomous, assisted driving feature was “essentially unusable and demonstrably dangerous.” The terms of the agreement, which have yet to be approved by US District Judge Beth Labson Freeman, will require…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 26 '18

Trump Announces Plan to Save ZTE After His Administration Basically Killed It

President Donald Trump announced Friday a deal to save Chinese phone manufacturer ZTE despite opposition from lawmakers in both parties, marking the latest in a bizarre and basically incoherent stretch of policymaking from the current administration. In a short series of tweets fired off late Friday afternoon, Trump said that he will allow ZTE to…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 25 '18

Apple Will Start Disclosing App Takedown Requests From Governments

Apple dropped its bi-annual transparency report Friday and offered a new pledge to its customers going forward. Starting with its end of year report for 2018, the company will disclose government requests to remove apps from the App Store. Here’s the promise from Apple, filed under the header “Matters of note for future reports” at…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 25 '18

Ad Blocker Ghostery Celebrates GDPR Day by Revealing Hundreds of User Email Addresses

Ad-blocking tool Ghostery suffered from a pretty impressive, self-inflicted screwup Friday when the privacy-minded company accidentally CCed hundreds of its users in an email, revealing their addresses to all recipients. Fittingly, the inadvertent data exposure came in the form of an email updating Ghostery users about the company’s data collection policies. The ad blocker was…

Privacy & Security AJ Dellinger May 25 '18

Spotify Backtracks on Hateful Content Policy, But R. Kelly is Still Banned

Less than one month after instituting a new policy designed to punish artists for misconduct in their personal life, Spotify is partially walking back its “hateful content” rules that resulted in several artists being removed from the streaming service’s promoted playlists. R. Kelly will continue to be banned. Bloomberg reported that pushback from artists and…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 25 '18

Serial Swatter Indicted for Death of Gamer, Disruption of FCC Net Neutrality Vote

A California man who allegedly placed a hoax emergency call that resulted in the death of a Kansas man is also believed to be responsible for the fake bomb threat that disrupted the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to repeal net neutrality protections last December. The US Department of Justice announced Thursday that Tyler Barriss, a…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 25 '18

Facebook Wants a Social Security Number From Political Advertisers

Facebook already has more data on most people than it knows what to do with but the company announced Thursday that it will need a few more vital pieces of personal information from anyone hoping to place political ads on its platform, including a government-issued ID and social security number. In a blog post, Facebook…

Social Media AJ Dellinger May 24 '18

Essential Never Lived Up to Its Name, and Now It’s Reportedly for Sale

Just over one year into its endeavor to “inject passion back into smartphones,” Essential appears to be on its last legs. Bloomberg reported the smartphone manufacturer founded by Android creator Andy Rubin is exploring a sale and has scrapped plans to develop a second smartphone. According to the report, Essential already has one unnamed suitor…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 24 '18

Uber Says It’s Bringing Self-Driving Cars Back to Pittsburgh, Mayor Does a Spit Take

Following an announcement Wednesday that Uber will lay off about 300 employees and close up shop on its self-driving car testing operations in Arizona, the company revealed it would revive the program in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Uber apparently did not bother to run that idea by the mayor of the city, as he was completely blindsided…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 24 '18

Spotify Agrees to Fork Over $112 Million to Artists in Class Action Settlement

Spotify has faced a number of accusations regarding violations of copyright in recent years and this week saw one of those looming lawsuits put to bed. On Tuesday, a federal judge approved a $112 million settlement in a class action suit that accused Spotify of failing to adequately pay artists for the use of their…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 23 '18

Hello, You’ve Reached Gotham’s Reckoning. How May I Direct Your Call?

How many times has this happened to you? You’re trying to organize the destruction of a major metropolitan area and the overthrow of a system you view as irredeemably corrupt, but you keep having to step out of the office to take a call. That problem is no more thanks to Bloxvox, the voice muffling…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 23 '18

Yelp and TripAdvisor Team Up to Pile On Google Over Monopoly-Like Search Results

Google found itself in an uncomfortable position Sunday night, as 60 Minutes placed a magnifying glass on the company that accounts for 90 percent of all search traffic and asked if it is operating as a monopoly. Following the broadcast, Yelp and TripAdvisor announced a new initiative designed to restore more diverse local search results…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 20 '18

App That Allows Parents to Spy on Teens Leaked Thousands of Passwords

TeenSafe, a service used by parents to monitor the online behaviors and phone activity of their children, allowed tens of thousands of accounts to leak online after failing to properly secure their servers. According to a report from ZDNet, the so-called “secure” activity monitoring app left at least two of its servers hosted on Amazon’s…

Privacy & Security AJ Dellinger May 20 '18

Study: Tinder Users Aren’t Having More Casual Sex Than the Average Horny Person

If you’ve been holding off on joining Tinder because it carries the stigma of being an app for hookups, have no fear: a new study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences found no one on Tinder is actually having sex. Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) surveyed more than…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 20 '18

UK Hospital Fires Worker for Looking at Ed Sheeran’s Health Records

Workers at a National Health Service hospital in the United Kingdom were reprimanded for their role in an extremely narrow data breach that exposed the personal information of exactly one person: Ed Sheeran. According to the BBC, two medical staff workers at Ipswich Hospital in Suffolk, England accessed the health records of the famous singer…

Privacy & Security AJ Dellinger May 20 '18

Chemical Plant Explosion Near Houston Injures At Least 20

Nearly two dozen people were injured in an explosion and resulting fire that occurred at a chemical plant near Houston, Texas Saturday morning, according to KHOU-TV. The explosion at the Pasadena, Texas facility owned by Kuraray America—a plastic fabrication company—took place at around 10:43am local time when a valve malfunctioned due to an over-pressurization of…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 19 '18

T-Mobile Parent Company Hits Small Business With Cease and Desist Letter For Having a Pink Logo

Deutsche Telekom—a multi-billion telecommunications company that owns T-Mobile, another multi-billion telecommunications company—is getting ready to throw its weight around in order to prevent a small business in England from using a shade of pink in its logo. The BBC reported lawyers from the T-Mobile parent company opposed a trademark application made by Brighton-based technology company…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 19 '18

Stop Throwing Cellphone Batteries in the Trash, You’re Firebombing Garbage Trucks

It can be difficult to figure out what to do with your old electronics when you’re ready to move on from them, but here is one thing you should definitely not do: throw them in the trash. Discarded devices powered by lithium-ion batteries are basically fire bombs waiting to explode on unsuspecting sanitation workers. According…

Tech News AJ Dellinger May 19 '18

AJ Dellinger

Astronaut Alan Bean, the Fourth Man to Walk on the Moon, Has Died at 86

French Teens Arrested for Hacking Vevo, Defacing Despacito Music Video

Tesla Agrees to Settle Class Action Suit Over ‘Essentially Unusable’ Autopilot Feature [Updated]

Trump Announces Plan to Save ZTE After His Administration Basically Killed It

Apple Will Start Disclosing App Takedown Requests From Governments

Ad Blocker Ghostery Celebrates GDPR Day by Revealing Hundreds of User Email Addresses

Spotify Backtracks on Hateful Content Policy, But R. Kelly is Still Banned

Serial Swatter Indicted for Death of Gamer, Disruption of FCC Net Neutrality Vote

Facebook Wants a Social Security Number From Political Advertisers

Essential Never Lived Up to Its Name, and Now It’s Reportedly for Sale

Uber Says It’s Bringing Self-Driving Cars Back to Pittsburgh, Mayor Does a Spit Take

Spotify Agrees to Fork Over $112 Million to Artists in Class Action Settlement

Hello, You’ve Reached Gotham’s Reckoning. How May I Direct Your Call?

Yelp and TripAdvisor Team Up to Pile On Google Over Monopoly-Like Search Results

App That Allows Parents to Spy on Teens Leaked Thousands of Passwords

Study: Tinder Users Aren’t Having More Casual Sex Than the Average Horny Person

UK Hospital Fires Worker for Looking at Ed Sheeran’s Health Records

Chemical Plant Explosion Near Houston Injures At Least 20

T-Mobile Parent Company Hits Small Business With Cease and Desist Letter For Having a Pink Logo

Stop Throwing Cellphone Batteries in the Trash, You’re Firebombing Garbage Trucks

Contractor Admits They, Not Imaginary Antifa Vandals, Wrecked the Reflecting Pool

LinkedIn Gets ‘Browsergate’ Proposed Class Actions Thrown Out

A Metal Detectorist Just Discovered Finland’s Largest Hoard of Viking Age Silver—But Was It Plunder?

Samsung Does Tim Cook Dirty on His Way Out the Door

$218 Off NordVPN Brings It to $3.49 a Month With 3 Free Months

How Hoyeon Manifested Her Way Into ‘Hope’ as Its Badass Sci-Fi Heroine

Sony WH-1000XM4C Review: Still Kind of Goated

Is GTA VI Good or Bad for Miami Beach? The City Commission Is Tearing Itself Apart

Our Sun Might Actually Be a Planet Killer

Never Forget, AI Slop Is Polluting 9/11 History on the Internet as We Speak

Back to School: All the Accessories You Need to Replace Your Laptop With a Foldable Phone

Sony’s New $70 Wireless Headphones Have Me Rethinking Everything

LG Gram Pro 16-Inch (2026) Review: An Expensive Disappointment

Gizmodo’s Best of IFA 2026 Awards: See the Winners

The Best Laptops of 2026

Back to School: The Best Ways to Get Around Campus

The Best Wireless Earbuds of 2026

The Best Gadgets of August 2026

Roborock Qrevo 2 Pro Review: A Midrange Robovac That Will Eat Your Cables

Pebble Time 2 Review: The Most Joyful Smartwatch I’ve Ever Worn