Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Amazon is still struggling to get its automated grocery store, Amazon Go, to function right. Who knew it would be so hard to build a brick-and-mortar store with sensors and gadgets instead of cashiers? But in a recent test of the company’s experimental Seattle store, some of Jeff Bezos’ employees got a little weird. They…
The $1,000 iPhone X has the best tech Apple could put in a phone. It let the company remove Touch ID and replace it with a 3D sensor that shoots out thousands of little infrared dots so you can unlock your phone with your face. It’s also the tech behind Apple’s Animoji, the iMessage app…
The Earth, the Sun, Andromeda galaxy, they’ve all been around for as long as you can remember and as long as humanity has been around. So when a new light suddenly shows up in the distance, it’s a weird occurrence. But a newly detected explosion could be one of the weirdest—and it’s not the only…
Last month Nvidia revealed its work on using competing neural networks to generate random, but convincing, photos of non-existent celebrities. A website called MakeGirlsMoe does almost the same thing, but instead of celebs, it churns out never-ending headshots of anime characters. https://gizmodo.com/watching-this-neural-network-render-truly-photorealisti-1819957128 Nvidia’s photo-realistic celebrities require a bit of graphical horsepower to generate, but if…
Google isn’t the only company creating useful apps for the web. There are plenty of great online resources not made in Mountain view, provided you know where to look. Here are 12 of our favorite online apps and websites that are worth collecting in your browser’s bookmarks, ready to go at a moment’s notice, to…
Twitter has not exactly survived the last few months with a sterling reputation, in between continued controversy over its failure to adequately address rampant harassment, allegations it sold political ads to Russian foreign agents, and most recently news it had verified the account of neo-Nazi Charlottesville organizer Jason Kessler. Then there’s Twitter’s, uh, presidential problem,…
Over the course of the past week, Republican candidate Roy Moore’s already contentious campaign to win the Alabama senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Session went full garbage fire over allegations he molested children decades ago. Moore refused to back down, endorsing a Twitter-fueled conspiracy theory the Washington Post paid women to fabricate the…
Late last month, Equifax secured control over 138 domains mimicking a website that the company launched in September in the wake of its massive data breach. Subject to a cybersquatting complaint, the domains were originally purchased through GoDaddy by a Hong Kong company called China Capital Investment Limited. Even now, the domains redirect to placeholder…
On Tuesday, two anonymous women filed a lawsuit against Uber on behalf of individuals who have experienced “rape, sexual assault, physical violence, and gender-motivated harassment” by Uber drivers. The lawsuit states that both women were sexually assaulted by their Uber drivers, and accuses Uber of creating a system that fails at both preventing and handling…
Russia’s Ministry of Defense released startling visual proof this morning that the United States military is assisting ISIS. The only problem with Russia’s claims? The photographic “evidence” actually came from a video game. Russia’s MoD posted the claims on Facebook and Twitter, saying that the images showed the US had “categorically refused to carry out…
Your typical New York timelapse follows the city as it progresses from the sunlit day, to the twinkling windows of skyscrapers at night, and right on through until morning when the sun rises back into the sky. But filmmaker Julian Tryba throws that timeline out the window, with this bizarre timelapse of the Big Apple…
Lovers of wasteful coffee and conservative news can sleep easy tonight, because Sean Hannity just resolved the explosive conflict between his fans and Keurig. Hannity said in a blog post that he “accept[s] the apology of the Keurig CEO” and will be giving away 500 Keurig machines “as a thank you for always standing by…
Having just weathered a news cycle that saw Hollywood execs attacking the movie review aggregation service for allegedly hurting box office receipts, Rotten Tomatoes has chosen a strange time withhold the score for this week’s Justice League. But that’s just what it’s doing—and no one is going to be happy. https://gizmodo.com/hollywoods-movies-suck-and-it-doesnt-want-you-to-know-1802743542 On Tuesday, Rotten Tomatoes…
When people fantasize about being ninjas, they’re not day-dreaming about sneaking up on their enemies; it’s all about the sword play. The Slow Mo Guys are no exception, and realized that playing around with a katana sword would result in some spectacular slo-mo footage. It takes a few harrowing practice swings to get the sword…
Jeffrey T. Richelson wrote over a dozen books about national security, nuclear weapons, and agencies like the CIA and KGB—books that were often the product of incredible new revelations obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Richelson, a legend to FOIA advocates and anyone else with an interest in national security, died this past…
The email arrived in my personal inbox, mysteriously and poorly titled: “Heidi ‘s christening.” I was not sure who Heidi was, but after noting it came from my mother’s rarely used email address, I assumed it was a relation I’d heard mentioned in weekly phone calls. I clicked and there was a single image about…
When Susan Fowler rocked Uber’s world with a meticulous account of the company’s sexual harassment and gender discrimination issues, the ride-sharing service turned to its only female board member to help clean up its culture (and its image). Arianna Huffington was perfectly poised to position herself as the feminist savior who would advocate for Uber’s…
A security report out Tuesdays sheds new light on the lucrative business of unlocking and reselling stolen iPhones, a multi-million dollar criminal enterprise spanning the globe. The tools used by shadowy hackers involved in this black market trade were detailed in TrendMicro’s latest research. Today, stolen or lost iPhones are typically locked down by theirs…
On Monday, a California state appeals court handed down its decision in a pivotal lawsuit that could have significant effects on Yelp’s business and anonymous speech online in general. The court determined that Yelp will have to turn over documents that could identify an anonymous user who is accused of defaming an accountant in a…
The venture capital world is dominated by men—and for companies led by women, especially companies creating products FOR women, pitching to these male investors can be a demoralizing experience. Women sitting on billion-dollar ideas aren’t taken seriously simply because the people writing the checks don’t understand their experience. Gizmodo spoke with three of these women…
