Alyse Stanley, Author at Gizmodo

TikTok Chalks Up Another Military Ban

Apparently taking a page from the Army’s playbook, the U.S. Navy recently announced that it considers TikTok a “cybersecurity threat” and has banned the popular short-form video app, once a controversial staple of the military’s recruitment strategy, from all government-issued mobile devices. That’s according to a Navy bulletin issued earlier this week, per a Reuters…

Tech News Alyse Stanley Dec 22 '19

Twitter Warns Millions of Android App Users to Update Immediately

If endlessly scrolling through Twitter on your phone is part of your daily ritual, you’re going to want to update the app as soon as you can if you’re an Android user. This week, Twitter confirmed a vulnerability in its Android app that could let hackers see your “nonpublic account information” and commandeer your account…

Privacy & Security Alyse Stanley Dec 22 '19

ICE Granted Access to Data on Migrant Children as Part of Deportation Initiative

As part of a push to bolster deportation efforts, the Trump administration took steps this month to blur the lines between ICE and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), an agency responsible for unaccompanied migrant children, according to six current and former administration officials who spoke with the Washington Post. Led by Stephen Miller, the…

Tech News Alyse Stanley Dec 20 '19

Netflix Autoplays the Murder of Kittens to Angry Subscribers

At a time when its seat as top U.S. streaming service has never been more precarious, the fact that Netflix would decide now to push out a docuseries about a creep who tortures and murders kittens among other horrifying acts is . . . a choice. But one I can at least wrap my head…

Internet Alyse Stanley Dec 20 '19

Need a Lyft? Too bad, Dick Assman

And before you ask: Yes, that’s a real name. It seems Lyft took its content moderation duties a little too seriously Thursday when its algorithm began flagging certain users’ names—you know, the kind that might earn a giggle on the school playground like “Cummings” or “Dick”—as inappropriate. These users received alerts from the ridesharing company…

Transportation Alyse Stanley Dec 19 '19

Ring Camera Hacks, Viral Fakes, and Decade Highlights: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

December always goes by too fast in my opinion. One moment, it’s the first and I have all the time in the world to scope out Christmas presents, and the next moment I’m in a mad dash to slap a bow and some wrapping paper on whatever last-minute gift I managed to grab that morning…

Tech News Alyse Stanley Dec 15 '19

UN Climate Summit Ends With a Whimper

The longest global climate conference in its 25-year history came to an end Sunday after negotiations ran nearly two days over its initial deadline. Unfortunately, talks in Madrid went about as well as they do every year at the United Nation’s (UN) historically ineffective summit: There was a lot of finger-pointing, not a lot of…

Climate Change Alyse Stanley Dec 15 '19

How The Hell Did This K-Pop Star Manage to Lose 33 Pairs of AirPods?

Thirty-three pairs of AirPods. I’ll say it again: Thirty-three. Pairs. Of AirPods. That’s 66 of the little white buggers, more than $5,000 worth of earbuds just sprinkled around the globe. No doubt already sprouting Apple trees by now. This weekend, K-pop rapper and BTS star Kim Namjoon revealed in a live-streamed Q&A with fans that…

Tech News Alyse Stanley Dec 15 '19

Feds Break Up Illegal Streaming Network That Dwarfs Netflix and Hulu Libraries

Two of the minds behind the nation’s largest pirate streaming services, iStreamItAll and Jetflicks, have pleaded guilty to criminal copyright infringement charges, federal officials said Friday. Now we all can rest easier knowing there are a few less bad actors getting one over on multi-billion-dollar giants like Netflix and Disney. A federal grand jury indicted…

Tech News Alyse Stanley Dec 14 '19

UN Climate Summit Continues Spinning Its Wheels Into the Weekend, and Protestors Aren’t Having It

The UN’s climate summit in Madrid—dubbed COP25 in UN jargon—continued into the weekend as countries remained deadlocked on divisive environmental issues, chief of which is how to handle a part of the Paris Agreement known as Article 6 that’s focused on carbon markets. After overrunning its initial deadline Friday, the conference is continuing into the…

Climate Change Alyse Stanley Dec 14 '19

Google Reveals Its Top Searches of the Year And, Yes, It’s Mostly Memes

The Game of Thrones Starbucks cup debacle. Watching Notre Dame go up in flames. The moment the world fell in love with Baby Yoda. Going through Google’s top searches of the year feels like flipping through a scrapbook of the internet’s collective obsessions. Released this week, the company’s annual “Year in Search” gives a snapshot…

Tech News Alyse Stanley Dec 14 '19

Google’s Covered A Whopping 10 Million Miles in Street View Imagery

Google and its armada of camera-rigged Steet View cars and other devices have been photographing the globe piece by piece for well over a decade now, and all that footage adds up to some pretty staggering tallies: more than 10 million miles of Street View imagery and 36 million square miles of Google Earth imagery,…

Tech News Alyse Stanley Dec 13 '19

Stranger Breaks Into Ring Camera, Terrorizes 8-Year-Old In Latest Creepy Ring Hack

A hacker broke into one Mississippi family’s Ring security camera and used its speaker function to scare their 8-year-old daughter, local CNN affiliate WMC reported this week. This incident marks the latest in a recent series of reported Ring hacks wherein strangers terrorize users through their devices, and demonstrates reason number 1,467 why you might want…

Gadgets Alyse Stanley Dec 13 '19

We Know the Name of the Next Xbox and It’s Series-ous

Microsoft’s next-generation gaming console is called Xbox Series X, the company announced during an onstage unveiling at this year’s Game Awards Thursday. It’s slated for a holiday 2020 release, unsurprisingly corresponding with competitor Sony’s release date for its Playstation 5. The console—previously known by its codename, Project Scarlett—looks more like a PC tower than something…

Tech News Alyse Stanley Dec 12 '19

WeWork’s Reviewing 100 Leases to See Where It Can Bail

In its latest attempt to bail out its sinking ship of a company, WeWork is examining roughly 100 of its leases worldwide, which could unravel 10-15 percent of its global presence, CNBC reported Thursday. The company confirmed the news after an earlier report by the Information. While WeWork hasn’t announced exactly what it plans to…

Tech News Alyse Stanley Dec 12 '19

Reddit Uncovers Russian Interference Campaign Ahead of Pivotal UK Election

Fears of Russian interference ahead of a heated U.K. election were all but confirmed this week with a Reddit post. In a post Friday, Reddit announced that its internal investigation found evidence that an account purportedly linked to Russian disinformation campaign was behind last month’s leak of contentious US-UK trade documents on the platform. “We…

Politics Alyse Stanley Dec 8 '19

You Can Order Apple’s Mac Pro and Its Killer Display This Week

Apple’s much-anticipated beast of a machine, the Mac Pro, and its corresponding badass new display, the Pro Display XDR, will be available to order on December 10, per a promo the company emailed to customers. Spotted by Twitter user Marques Brownlee, the announcement doesn’t offer any other details about how Apple plans to roll out…

Tech News Alyse Stanley Dec 8 '19

Google’s Finally Ditching Support for Its Explorer Edition of Glass

Google Glass will soon receive the final nail in its coffin—as a consumer-marketed product, that is. The company announced this week it’s rolling out one final update to its Glass Explorer Edition. But don’t worry: The wearable’s more industry-focused yet still equally dorky-looking brethren, the Enterprise Edition, will continue receiving support. And so the Google…

Tech News Alyse Stanley Dec 8 '19

When Discord’s Down, All Hell Breaks Loose

Google’s suite of cloud computing services were hit with some technical difficulties most of the day Saturday that caused connectivity problems on at least one of the services dependent on it: Discord, a chat and voice platform geared towards gamers (don’t worry, it’s back up now). Now, if you don’t use Discord, you likely didn’t…

Tech News Alyse Stanley Dec 7 '19

Amazon Drags Its Sorry Ass to NYC Anyway, No Tax Dollars Required

After all the histrionics over Amazon ditching plans to build its HQ2 facility in Long Island City, Amazon’s still set on worming its way into the Big Apple because it simply cannot take a hint when it’s not wanted. This week, the online retail giant signed a lease for 335,000 square feet of office space…

Commerce Alyse Stanley Dec 7 '19

Alyse Stanley

TikTok Chalks Up Another Military Ban

Twitter Warns Millions of Android App Users to Update Immediately

ICE Granted Access to Data on Migrant Children as Part of Deportation Initiative

Netflix Autoplays the Murder of Kittens to Angry Subscribers

Need a Lyft? Too bad, Dick Assman

Ring Camera Hacks, Viral Fakes, and Decade Highlights: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

UN Climate Summit Ends With a Whimper

How The Hell Did This K-Pop Star Manage to Lose 33 Pairs of AirPods?

Feds Break Up Illegal Streaming Network That Dwarfs Netflix and Hulu Libraries

UN Climate Summit Continues Spinning Its Wheels Into the Weekend, and Protestors Aren’t Having It

Google Reveals Its Top Searches of the Year And, Yes, It’s Mostly Memes

Google’s Covered A Whopping 10 Million Miles in Street View Imagery

Stranger Breaks Into Ring Camera, Terrorizes 8-Year-Old In Latest Creepy Ring Hack

We Know the Name of the Next Xbox and It’s Series-ous

WeWork’s Reviewing 100 Leases to See Where It Can Bail

Reddit Uncovers Russian Interference Campaign Ahead of Pivotal UK Election

You Can Order Apple’s Mac Pro and Its Killer Display This Week

Google’s Finally Ditching Support for Its Explorer Edition of Glass

When Discord’s Down, All Hell Breaks Loose

Amazon Drags Its Sorry Ass to NYC Anyway, No Tax Dollars Required

This Anker Power Station Powers 10 Devices at Once and Amazon Just Cut It by Nearly 50%

Apple Doesn’t Tax Beats, the Iconic Pill Speaker Is 5X Cheaper Than AirPods Max

HP Dumps Its Pavilion Laptop at 50% Off and Throws in Lifetime Office 365 and a 500GB External Drive for Free

Skip Apple’s Website, Amazon Has the Same Anker MagSafe Battery for Almost Half the Price

Forget Sonos, Amazon Sells This Fire TV Soundbar for the Price of a No-Name Speaker

Dyson Clears Spring Stock on Its Iconic V8, Now Priced Like a No-Name Vacuum on Amazon

Forget Paying iPhone Prices, the Google Pixel 10a Does Everything for Half the Cost

‘The Boys’ Got Even More Meta With Its ‘Supernatural’ Reunion

The ‘Sekiro’ Anime Will Hit Theaters…in Japan

Europe May Soon Get a Non-U.S. Alternative to Unreal Engine

JBL Live 780NC Review: Solid Wireless Headphones You Can Live Without

Acer’s Swift 16 AI (2026) Gets a Lot Right, But I Can’t Get Past the Trackpad

Samsung Galaxy A57 5G Review: Not Worth It at Full Price

Logitech G G512 X Review: The Tasting Menu of a Pro Gaming Keyboard

Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone Review: AI Can’t Save This Robot Vacuum

The Best Tech Gifts for Mother’s Day 2026

Asus’ Dual-Display Gaming Laptop Will Ruin Your Single-Screen Lifestyle

Steam Controller Review: Trackpads Change Everything for PC Gaming

Soundcore Space 2 Review: A Shockingly Stellar Value for Budget ANC Wireless Headphones

Anker’s UV Printer Can Handle Almost Anything… If You Know What You’re Doing