Tom McKay, Author at Gizmodo

Facebook Is an ‘Innovator in Privacy,’ Says Guy Who Runs Facebook

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is fond of suggesting that all the criticism of his globe-spanning social media empire comes from either the misinformed or the malicious. In fact, Facebook is really all about protecting the privacy of its users! That’s the line he took in a Wednesday interview with Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain, CNBC…

Social Media Tom McKay

Qualcomm Is Asking for Regulators to Impose an Import Ban on Some Models of iPhones

Chip manufacturer Qualcomm, which is locked in a bitter patent battle with tech giant Apple that has yet to go to trial, is asking U.S. trade officials to reverse a court ruling and impose a ban on imports of some iPhones, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Qualcomm originally brought case before the U.S. International Trade Commission…

Tech News Tom McKay

Amazon Reportedly Has Lord of the Rings Writers in a Locked Office With a Guard and Fingerprint Scanner

Amazon has a lot riding on its secretive, $250 million deal with The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate, publisher HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema to produce a streaming show in the franchise’s Middle-Earth setting, with expectations that the budget could cross one billion dollars. LOTR fans still don’t know an awful lot…

Commerce Tom McKay

House Dems Accuse Trump Admin of Trying to Export Nuclear Secrets to Saudi Arabia

Donald Trump’s administration rushed to reach a deal to provide Saudi Arabia and its despotic government with protected U.S. nuclear technology, despite numerous legal and ethical warnings that such a deal was ill-advised and possibly in violation of the law, Democrats in the House of Representatives alleged in a report on Tuesday. Per the New…

Privacy & Security Tom McKay

Tokyo Is Testing a New System to Detect ‘Guerilla’ Rain and Tornadoes Up to 30 Minutes in Advance

Officials in Tokyo are testing a new technology that utilizes weather radar and terrestrial digital radio waves to “quickly and precisely predict torrential rain and tornadoes” up to 20 to 30 minutes in advance, the Mainichi reported on Sunday. The new technology is being developed by “industry, government and academic bodies including the National Institute…

Earth Science Tom McKay

Report: More Than 300 Chemical Weapons Attacks in Syria, With Pro-Assad Forces Responsible for 98 Percent

Well over 300 chemical weapons attacks have occurred during the nearly eight years-long Syrian civil war, with President Bashar al-Assad’s government and its allies accounting for the vast majority of them, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing new research by the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI). The Berlin-based nonprofit wrote in its report that…

Tech News Tom McKay

England and Wales to Require Thousands of Criminals to Wear GPS Tracking Bracelets

Thousands of convicted criminals and others accused of crimes in England and Wales will be required to wear GPS-coordinate-tracking bracelets, replacing an older generation of electronic tags not capable of monitoring someone’s movement in real time, the BBC reported on Saturday. According to the BBC, around 60,000 people are already required to wear electronic tags…

Privacy & Security Tom McKay

Facebook Suspends Three Pages With Millions of Video Views, Saying They Need to Disclose Russia Ties

Facebook has suspended three video-centric pages run by Maffick Media, a company mostly owned by Ruptly, a subsidiary of the state-run RT (formerly Russia Today) network, CNN reported on Friday. According to CNN’s report, Facebook said it would reach out to the owners of the pages, who it said did not properly disclose where the…

Social Media Tom McKay

Samsung Gives Up on Blu-Ray, Will Not Release Any New Players in the US

Samsung has given up on Blu-ray—at least in the U.S., where it has given up on producing new models of Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray players, CNET reported on Friday. A prior report in Forbes suggested that Samsung was only planning on discontinuing the 4K players and would continue to release new 1080p devices, though the…

Gadgets Tom McKay

R.E.M. Copyright Complaint Gets Trump Tweet Axed by Twitter

Apparently even Donald Trump is not immune to copyright takedowns. On Friday, the president tweeted a mocking video playing R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” over Democrats’ reaction to the State of the Union—originally created by some dude using the pseudonym “Carpe Donktum” and best known for winning an Infowars meme contest. By early Saturday ET, CNBC reported,…

Tech News Tom McKay

It Sure Looks a Lot Like the Pro-Trump Brother of Jeff Bezos’s Girlfriend Helped Leak Those Sexts

CNN reported on Wednesday evening that “two people with knowledge of the matter” had confirmed that Michael Sanchez, the brother of the woman with whom Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had an affair, was the person who initially tipped off the National Enquirer to the secret romance and set off a firestorm. In January, the National…

Commerce Tom McKay

Report: Stolen Equifax Data Hasn’t Been Sold Online, Raising More Questions Than Answers

In 2017, consumer credit reporting agency Equifax suffered one of the largest data breaches in history, exposing extensive personal information on nearly 150 million Americans (and in countless thousands of additional cases, credit-card numbers and scans of driver’s licenses, social security cards, and other identity documents). Congressional investigators later found the incident was the result…

Privacy & Security Tom McKay

Report: Apple Is Trying to Get Newspapers to Fork Over Half of Revenue From Planned Subscription Service

Tech giant Apple, which is trying to pivot to services as sales of some of its electronics slow, is reportedly working to launch a subscription-based news service that would get readers past paywalls at a discounted rate and share the revenue with publishers. But according to a Tuesday report in the Wall Street Journal, many…

Tech News Tom McKay

Apple, Google Both Hosting Saudi Government App That Lets Men Track Women, Restrict Their Travel

Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store both continue to host a Saudi government app, Absher, that allows men in the country to track their female relatives’ movements and restrict their travel. According to the Washington Post, the Saudi Interior Ministry-designed app serves as an e-government and e-services portal, including functions like requesting a passport,…

Tech News Tom McKay

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: I Suck and the Problem Is the Whole Site

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, whose platform has become synonymous with yelling, trolling, and a less-than-stable president who uses it for incoherent rants and threats of nuclear annihilation, is in a tough spot: Many if not most of the criticisms of his site are accurate, and Dorsey’s tactic of choice when responding to them is usually…

Tech News Tom McKay

Tipster Crashes Abandoned Texas Home to Smoke Weed, Finds Caged Tiger Instead

A person who entered an abandoned house in Houston’s Harrisburg/Manchester neighborhood looking for a quiet place to toke found a tiger instead, KPRC-TV reported on Monday. According to KPRC, the anonymous tipster understandably believed they were hallucinating when they found the animal, a female that police said was shut in a tiny cage secured only…

Biology Tom McKay

LinkedIn Is Pivoting Harder Into Video

If you’re like me, you think of LinkedIn as the last place you want to spend time online. It’s chock full of spam, vaguely business-themed blog posts that range from the utterly interminable and insights no one asked for to bizarre rants, and UI decisions that seem designed to conjure up the feeling of a…

Tech News Tom McKay

You Can Now Buy the House Where Jeff Bezos Started Amazon, If You Really Have to Or Something

If you have ever, for some ungodly reason, desired to live in Jeff Bezos’s old house—well you can do that now, for the low, low price of just under $1.5 million. Per the Seattle Times, the three-bedroom, 1.75 bathroom residence on Northeast 28th Street in West Bellevue in the Seattle metropolitan area was also the…

Commerce Tom McKay

Jeff Bezos Nudes, Self-Aware Fish, and Brain Zapping: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

A good rule of thumb if you’re going to threaten to publish nude photos of the richest man on the planet unless he says you’re not working with the Saudi government is: Probably don’t do that! And if for some reason you are reckless enough to do that, you probably shouldn’t do so in writing!…

Tech News Tom McKay

Russian Authorities Declare State of Emergency After ‘Mass Invasion’ of Polar Bears in Remote Settlement

Russian authorities have declared a state of emergency in the remote, sparsely populated Novaya Zemlya islands in the Arctic Ocean, the BBC reported this weekend, after “dozens” of polar bears whose food sources are limited due to climate change started rooting through homes and other buildings near the settlement of Belushya Guba looking for something…

Earther Tom McKay

Tom McKay

Facebook Is an ‘Innovator in Privacy,’ Says Guy Who Runs Facebook

Qualcomm Is Asking for Regulators to Impose an Import Ban on Some Models of iPhones

Amazon Reportedly Has Lord of the Rings Writers in a Locked Office With a Guard and Fingerprint Scanner

House Dems Accuse Trump Admin of Trying to Export Nuclear Secrets to Saudi Arabia

Tokyo Is Testing a New System to Detect ‘Guerilla’ Rain and Tornadoes Up to 30 Minutes in Advance

Report: More Than 300 Chemical Weapons Attacks in Syria, With Pro-Assad Forces Responsible for 98 Percent

England and Wales to Require Thousands of Criminals to Wear GPS Tracking Bracelets

Facebook Suspends Three Pages With Millions of Video Views, Saying They Need to Disclose Russia Ties

Samsung Gives Up on Blu-Ray, Will Not Release Any New Players in the US

R.E.M. Copyright Complaint Gets Trump Tweet Axed by Twitter

It Sure Looks a Lot Like the Pro-Trump Brother of Jeff Bezos’s Girlfriend Helped Leak Those Sexts

Report: Stolen Equifax Data Hasn’t Been Sold Online, Raising More Questions Than Answers

Report: Apple Is Trying to Get Newspapers to Fork Over Half of Revenue From Planned Subscription Service

Apple, Google Both Hosting Saudi Government App That Lets Men Track Women, Restrict Their Travel

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: I Suck and the Problem Is the Whole Site

Tipster Crashes Abandoned Texas Home to Smoke Weed, Finds Caged Tiger Instead

LinkedIn Is Pivoting Harder Into Video

You Can Now Buy the House Where Jeff Bezos Started Amazon, If You Really Have to Or Something

Jeff Bezos Nudes, Self-Aware Fish, and Brain Zapping: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

Russian Authorities Declare State of Emergency After ‘Mass Invasion’ of Polar Bears in Remote Settlement

Don’t Get Too Attached to Any AI App

‘Paradise’ Writer Teases What’s Coming in Season 3 After That Huge Twist

Trump’s New White House App Is Mildly Concerning and Weird for a Lot of Reasons

Bloodsucking Ticks Can Survive Inside Your Home Longer Than You Might Think

The Best New Toys of March 2026

Judge Denies Liking LinkedIn Post Critical of Elon Musk But Reassigns His Cases Anyway

Amazon Slashes 50% Off Keurig K-Cup Pod Coffee Maker, Now a Budget Alternative to Breville and Nespresso Espresso Machines

Sun’s Latest Outburst Complicates Planned Launch of Artemis 2

Instagram Will Finally Let You Lurk to Your Heart’s Content—for a Price

Popular Sweetener Found in Protein Bars Tied to Stroke, Blood Clot Risk

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

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