Tom McKay, Author at Gizmodo

China Blocks WeChat Features Ahead of 19th National Congress

In the lead up to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China this month—a major changing of the guard which will see widespread retirements among senior leaders—the country’s censors have been cracking down on everything from an unnerving sex doll-sharing company to even milquetoast criticism of the government in the media. Now,…

Privacy & Security Tom McKay

Scott Pruitt’s EPA Says Maybe More Radiation Exposure Wouldn’t Be So Harmful

Donald Trump’s appointment of former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as chief of the Environmental Protection Agency this year drew eyebrows, because Pruitt had made his career as a longstanding legal opponent of the EPA and a prominent climate change skeptic. Since he’s been put in charge of the agency, Pruitt has allegedly made plans…

Health Tom McKay

Hey, Maybe Don’t Fly Drones Where Firefighters Are Trying to Save Lives

It’s understandable that UAV enthusiasts might be tempted to grab amazing footage of ongoing disasters like the northern California wildfires—providing a unique perspective of a climate change-fueled catastrophe which has now killed at least 41 people, burned down thousands of buildings and laid waste to hundreds of thousands of acres of land. But with over…

Gadgets Tom McKay

GAO Will Investigate FCC’s Sketchy Claim That a Cyberattack Broke Its Comment System

The Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog agency that provides investigative support to legislators, will look into the Federal Communications Commission and its chief Ajit Pai’s dubiously supported claims that a cyberattack took down the FCC’s public commenting system earlier this year. In May, the FCC claimed that downtime on its Electronic Comment Filing System,…

Privacy & Security Tom McKay

Cops in Dubai Are Getting Real, Very Dangerous Looking Hoverbikes

Police in Dubai may soon have access to functional hoverbikes, according to AutoBlog, which reported that Dubai Police had unveiled the new technology in conjunction with Russian company Hoversurf at the Gulf Information Technology Exposition last week. Per Autoblog, the Scorpion hoverbike is capable of flying approximately 16 feet (five meters) in the air, moving…

Sploid Tom McKay

OnePlus Admits It Was Snooping on OxygenOS Users, Says It Will Tweak Data Collection Program

Earlier this month, software engineer Christopher Moore discovered that Shenzen, China-based phone manufacturer OnePlus was secretly collecting a trove of data about users without their consent and communicating it to company servers. Moore had routed his OnePlus 2’s internet traffic through security tool OWASP ZAP for a holiday hack challenge, but noticed his device was…

Privacy & Security Tom McKay

China’s Tiangong-1 Space Station Will Crash to Earth in the Next Few Months

China’s 8.5-ton Tiangong-1 space station, originally launched in 2011, has seen its orbit rapidly decay and is now expected to hit the Earth in the next few months, the Guardian reported. Chinese officials told the UN in 2016 they had lost the ability to correct the station’s altitude and expected it to plummet to the…

Space & Spaceflight Tom McKay

Here Is a Pretty Excellent Video of a Fidget Spinner Spinning in Space

Look: If we’re being honest, fidget spinners are pretty played out at this point. Or at least they are … on Earth. It turns out that fidget spinners remain extremely cool if you have access to a massive spacecraft and a low-gravity environment. NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, who is stationed on the International Space Station,…

Sploid Tom McKay

Northern California Wildfires Death Toll Rises to 38

The 15 separate wildfires ravaging northern California over the past week have now claimed 38 lives, the L.A. Times reported on Saturday, and scorched an astonishing 220,000 acres. Per the Times, the fires are not expected to go down anytime soon, with Cal Fire spokeswoman Jaime Williams telling the paper firefighters are facing “red flag…

Climate Change Tom McKay

Equifax’s Website Redirected People to Malware Thanks to a Compromised, Years-Old Plugin

Credit-reporting agency Equifax, which has been embroiled in a richly-deserved sea of anger after losing the sensitive personal and financial info of at least 145 million people to hackers, found itself in yet another hole this week after its website began redirecting users to malware. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported the latest problems…

Privacy & Security Tom McKay

Twitter Says It Will Finally Do Something About Those Hordes of Nazis

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted on Friday that the company’s minimalist approach to moderation was not working, saying the site is committed to taking a “more aggressive stance in our rules and how to enforce them” in the wake of numerous high-profile public relations nightmares. “We see voices being silenced on Twitter every day,” Dorsey…

Tech News Tom McKay

We Do Not Recommend Making a Sword With Thermite, But Hey

Thermite, a mixture of powdered iron oxides and aluminum, can be burned to produce temperatures it would be hard to argue are truly safe outside of a meticulously controlled environment (over 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit / 2,200 degrees Celsius). It’s used for a variety of purposes, from metal cutting and welding to military incendiaries. It can…

Sploid Tom McKay

Court Severely Restricts DOJ Warrant for Records of 1.3 Million Who Visited Trump Protest Site

A Washington, D.C. court sent a stinging rebuke to the Department of Justice this week, telling authorities they could not issue a blanket demand for troves of information on visitors to an anti-Donald Trump website before the election. The DOJ sought a massive warrant for data from web hosting provider DreamHost on roughly 1.3 million…

Privacy & Security Tom McKay

Amazon: What If Teens Could Spend All Your Money

Retail giant Amazon plans to give children aged 13-17 the ability to log into their own accounts under parental supervision, CNN Money reported on Tuesday. Teen accounts will be linked to parents’ main accounts, and will feature the ability to “either pre-approve each order via text or email (the default), set a spending limit for…

Commerce Tom McKay

Mensa, an Association of Ostensible Geniuses, Takes Donald Trump’s Bait

The ongoing feud between President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reached absolutely bizarre, reality-bending levels this week, with Trump responding to reports Tillerson had called him a “moron” by suggesting that they could “compare IQ tests … I can tell you who is going to win.” This juicy little distraction was apparently…

Tech News Tom McKay

A Touch Panel Bug Turned a Google Home Mini Into a Creepy Surveillance Device

The Google Home Mini fits most of the features of the tech giant’s popular Home smart speakers into a $50, four-inch-wide package, except for the larger, $130 version’s better acoustics. But it is still very, very good at listening. As many as 4,000 Google Home Minis handed out at Made By Google press and pop-up…

Tech News Tom McKay

Twitter Backs Down, Allows Rep. Marsha Blackburn to Promote ‘Baby Body Parts’ Video

Twitter has ended a standoff with Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn one day after taking down advertisements containing her Senate campaign announcement video, in which she bragged about fighting “the sale of baby body parts.” In a statement to Gizmodo, a Twitter spokesperson explained the original call was made on the basis of its advertising moderation…

Tech News Tom McKay

Microsoft Confirms Investigation Into Whether Russians Bought Pre-Election Ads Through Bing

The sprawling inquiry into the extent of Russian attempts to purchase ads on the US internet before the 2016 federal elections has expanded to yet another digital giant, with Microsoft confirming that it has launched an internal investigation into whether it sold such advertisements via its Bing search engine. In a statement, a Microsoft spokesman…

Privacy & Security Tom McKay

Mark Zuckerberg Took a Tour of Hurricane-Ravaged Puerto Rico in ‘Magical’ VR

On Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promoted the social media giant’s new Facebook Spaces app, which allows users to remotely cast cartoon avatars of themselves walking around locations in the real world, by taking a “magical” tour of Puerto Rico. Specifically, Zuckerberg toured parts of the commonwealth still devastated from Hurricane Maria—which has left the…

Social Media Tom McKay

The New BlackBerry Motion Ditches the Keyboard

BlackBerry put an end to its long-simmering hardware misery and stopped designing new phones in 2016, opting to move entirely into the software sector. Yet the actual BlackBerry brand continues to shuffle along in the form of a partnership with Chinese company TCL, which earlier this year released the BlackBerry KeyOne, a moderately successful throwback…

Gadgets Tom McKay

Tom McKay

China Blocks WeChat Features Ahead of 19th National Congress

Scott Pruitt’s EPA Says Maybe More Radiation Exposure Wouldn’t Be So Harmful

Hey, Maybe Don’t Fly Drones Where Firefighters Are Trying to Save Lives

GAO Will Investigate FCC’s Sketchy Claim That a Cyberattack Broke Its Comment System

Cops in Dubai Are Getting Real, Very Dangerous Looking Hoverbikes

OnePlus Admits It Was Snooping on OxygenOS Users, Says It Will Tweak Data Collection Program

China’s Tiangong-1 Space Station Will Crash to Earth in the Next Few Months

Here Is a Pretty Excellent Video of a Fidget Spinner Spinning in Space

Northern California Wildfires Death Toll Rises to 38

Equifax’s Website Redirected People to Malware Thanks to a Compromised, Years-Old Plugin

Twitter Says It Will Finally Do Something About Those Hordes of Nazis

We Do Not Recommend Making a Sword With Thermite, But Hey

Court Severely Restricts DOJ Warrant for Records of 1.3 Million Who Visited Trump Protest Site

Amazon: What If Teens Could Spend All Your Money

Mensa, an Association of Ostensible Geniuses, Takes Donald Trump’s Bait

A Touch Panel Bug Turned a Google Home Mini Into a Creepy Surveillance Device

Twitter Backs Down, Allows Rep. Marsha Blackburn to Promote ‘Baby Body Parts’ Video

Microsoft Confirms Investigation Into Whether Russians Bought Pre-Election Ads Through Bing

Mark Zuckerberg Took a Tour of Hurricane-Ravaged Puerto Rico in ‘Magical’ VR

The New BlackBerry Motion Ditches the Keyboard

Startup Successfully Ignites World’s First Fusion Rocket

Shokz OpenDots One Earbuds Hit Their Lowest Price Yet Across All Color Options, Including the New Ones

INIU Portable Power Bank Is Small in Size and Smaller in Price for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale (45W, 10,000mAh)

Humans Were Already Dog People 16,000 Years Ago, DNA Suggests

California Regulator Says Tesla’s ‘Robotaxis’ Are More Like a Limo in the Eyes of the Law

Dyson Airwrap Falls to an All-Time Low in Amazon’s Spring Sale, Lowering the Barrier for This Premium Multi-Styler

The ‘Tales from ’85’ Trailer Wants You Back in ‘Stranger Things’ Already

Forget Ray-Ban Meta, XREAL 1S AR/XR Virtual Screen Smart Glasses Drop to Record Low on Amazon

Pixel Buds Pro 2 Hit Record Low as Google Continues Its Clearance-Like Price Cuts Following Smartphone Deals

DJI Now Has a Cheaper 360 Drone Than Insta360, but the U.S. Won’t Get It

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

Apple Studio Display XDR Review: It Looks So Good, I Wish It Were an iMac

RayNeo Air 4 Pro Review: My Eyes Love These Video Glasses, but My Nose Disagrees