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Select self-service checkouts at supermarkets in the UK will “very soon” be equipped with cameras and facial recognition software, according to the Telegraph. They’ll reportedly use tech from British startup Yoti to determine if a shopper is old enough to buy alcohol and cigarettes without forcing them to “register their identity in advance.” As stands,…
Entrepreneurs and physicists are pursuing a new kind of computer—one based on the physics of the subatomic particles—that promises to revolutionize various fields. Presumably, such a quantum computer should offer some advantage over the classical computers we already use, right? The trouble is, it’s unclear what tasks quantum computers can definitively perform better than regular…
When Apple launched its new iPhones back in September, the company did a good job of fleshing out its handset lineup with the iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR. But still, it felt like new iPhones and Apple Watches were only part of the equation. So to round out the rest of its 2018 gadget…
Students at Shenandoah University in Virginia recently opened a time capsule from the ancient, mysterious world of 1993. What did they find inside? Bizarre contraptions like a so-called “cassette tape.” The time capsule was buried by the class of 1993 at the small, private university in Winchester, Virginia. The time capsule was marked with a…
A cheap, $10 BBQ lighter is an easy and safe way to light a candle. But if you demand maximized convenience for every aspect of your life, the Lumos Candle will automatically light its own wick for you, its creators say, with a simple push of a button. It’s technology for technology’s sake, and the…
I’m not going to say the PC is dying, that would be ridiculous. But over the last 10 years, there are certain segments of the computer market that have been declining, like tablets, netbooks, and depending on how you look at it, the traditional clamshell laptop. In the meantime, there’s been a new generation of…
Somewhere in the heart of Facebook HQ, a shadowy team toils behind the closed doors of what would appear to be an average conference room. This is Facebook’s War Room, and it’s the thin line standing between us and chaos. Gizmodo did not visit the War Room, but early Thursday morning, almost simultaneously, bleary-eyed journalists…
On October 2, Saudi citizen, U.S. resident, and journalist in self-imposed exile Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, reportedly wary of the potential consequences of entering a facility controlled by a dictatorial government he frequently criticized. He is now presumed dead at the hands of Saudi personnel, who Turkish officials speaking under the…
Amid ongoing drama over MoviePass’ consistent flailing and cutbacks on its once unlimited monthly movie-going subscription under financial pressure, it appears things just got even more complicated for the beleaguered e-ticketing startup. MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics, Inc. is now under investigation for allegedly misleading its investors about its financial health, a claim…
A group of advertisers suing social-media giant Facebook in California over bungled video metrics now alleges in court filings that the platform failed to disclose data errors in a manner that could “[rise] to the level of fraud and may warrant punitive damages,” according to Ars Technica. The case, LLE One LLC et al. v.…
Week one of San Francisco’s year-long electric scooter pilot program is reportedly already creating problems, both with the way they’re being operated and seemingly by the sheer fact that they now (legally) exist on its streets. Problems with the e-scooters just days into the program include illegal parking, devices left astray, and riders on sidewalks,…
Mark Zuckerberg’s forehead is likely a little more moist than usual this afternoon. On Wednesday, several major public funds issued a statement backing a push to remove the Facebook founder from his position as chairman of the board. Amid countless scandals and a steadily dropping stock price, the effort would be all but certain to…
A former Equifax manager who tried to profit off the company’s horrendous 2017 data breach with a little insider trading will spend eight months on home confinement, forfeit his ill-gotten gains, and pay an additional $50,000 in fines. Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu pleaded guilty in July to purchasing put options in Equifax stock ahead of the…
Two years ago, researchers from the University of Wollongong in Australia shook the science world by claiming to have discovered 3.7 billion-year-old fossils in a rock formation in Greenland, a finding that pushed back the origin of life on Earth by 200 million years. New research is now casting doubt on this discovery, with scientists…
When the European Union’s GDPR privacy protections went into effect in May, the pressure to give Americans the same tools to view their data was high. On Wednesday, Apple fulfilled its promise to offer a data download service for its users the U.S., and now you can find out what Apple’s got on you with…
An ultra-conservative group representing one of the nation’s largest Tea Party coalitions left exposed dozens of internal documents and call lists containing the names and phone numbers of some 527,000 supporters. Discovered online by security researchers late last month, the cache of files contain a broad range of internal strategic documents, call scripts, and other…
To make its policing of bad actors a little more obvious, Twitter is instituting new policies that should help users hide offensive content and see what happens after a tweet gets reported. Scheduled to roll out over the next week or so, Twitter’s new guidelines state that after a tweet has been deemed to be…
Facing ongoing employee organization within its grocery subsidiary, Amazon distributed a 45-minute union-busting training video to Whole Foods managers last month, the contents of which were first reported by Gizmodo. Now, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are demanding answers from the company about the video, which they say “directs and encourages potentially illegal interference…
The Trump administration just announced plans to withdraw from a treaty that oversees global postage rates. The 144-year-old Universal Postal Union (UPU) treaty makes it possible for companies from China and elsewhere to ship small packages directly to consumers in the United States at very low rates, often lower than what American companies could offer.…
The UK’s advertising watchdog chastised Spotify today for releasing an “unduly distressing” ad that, it argues, improperly targeted children. The ad shows young people listening to Camila Cabello’s song “Havana,” which in turn wakes up some scary looking dolls that go on to terrorize them. The Spotify pre-roll ad appeared on YouTube in June, according…
