Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
It’s a basic fact of reality that we interact differently over the web than we do IRL. But let’s imagine, for a moment, that we did interact with each other face-to-face the way we do online. Chaos would surely ensue—but in some instances, it’d be pretty funny to watch. For instance, what if we wished…
Phytoplankton may be microscopic, but that doesn’t mean we can’t see them. Just look up: These little critters are brightening up cloudy days around the world. That’s according to research published Friday in the open-access journal Science Advances, which highlights the surprisingly large role microbes in the Southern Ocean play in cloud formation. Tiny phytoplankton…
With the launch of Windows 10 upon us, Microsoft is making good on its promise from earlier this year: Windows 10 users can now stream gameplay footage from Xbox One. Which is awesome, and it might finally convince me to buy a new Xbox. As we already learned, the game streaming function will only work…
Dozens of charred, abandoned cars made for a surreal landscape after a massive wildfire swept across a major Southern California freeway yesterday afternoon. Early this morning officials confirmed that five drones flying over the scene hindered firefighters’ response and caused the fire to jump the freeway. According to an early morning report by NBC LA,…
The more of Pluto’s surface we see, the more interesting landscapes it offers us to explore. Here’s a closer look at the landforms revealed so far, and what types of processes might have created them. This beautiful animation of hitching a ride on New Horizons as it soared over Tombaugh Regio, the massive heart of…
While drones were busy mucking up rescue fire rescue efforts across the I-15 freeway last night, they were helping to save lives elsewhere. Yesterday, the very first FAA-approved drone delivery dropped much-needed medical supplies to a rural popup hospital in southwest Virginia. Wise County, Virginia’s Remote Area Hospital opens every summer to treat hundreds of…
It’s Friday, and the end of a looong week of peering into the far reaches of our solar system and being astounded by what we found. But as much as we love Pluto, we don’t need to gaze billions of miles away to see incredible sights. We’ve got them right here on Earth. These stunning…
A giant wildfire currently spreading through Southern California’s Cajon Pass is burning cars on the freeway in what the San Bernardino County Fire Department is calling a “multi-casualty incident.” But the firefighters also issued a report that due to a drone seen flying in the area, they couldn’t get their helicopters to the scene right…
This week was alllll about Pluto for Giz and space nerds everywhere. As it should be! Though, nearly just as hyped as the New Horizons flyby was… Amazon’s “Prime Day,” which, unlike Pluto, turned out to be a giant let down. All that and more in this week’s story highlights! Everything We’re Learning About Pluto…
The perfect warm weather drink is an elusive unicorn. Light and tasty? Refreshing and boozy? It’s hard to achieve all of these things in a single glass. Luckily, I have the answer. It’s time to give your summer cocktails a makeover with the zany fruit-essence flavors of LaCroix sparkling water. Welcome to Gizmodo’s Happy Hour.…
If you could survive the long, cold trip to Pluto, this is how you would see the dwarf planet and its largest moon Charon with your own eyes. The New Horizons spacecraft took a final pair of colour photographs of Pluto and its largest moon before its closest approach. The images were taken separately, then…
Oh, hello there! It’s the weekend, just in the nick of time. I’m not gonna lie, guys — it’s been a weird week here. I went from highs (Breakfast at Pluto at the Natural History Museum with livestreaming Mission Control and Neil deGrasse Tyson) to…whatever’s happening around these parts today. So I’m gonna go chainsmoke…
Pour one out for home cleaning startup Homejoy, one of the first big casualties of the brewing fight between workers and “gig economy” apps like Uber and Taskrabbit. Homejoy is shutting down, and it’s due to lawsuits filed by workers who wanted to be treated like employees instead of contractors. Google has already picked apart…
Reddit’s new chief alien, Steve Huffman, announced a vaguely worded set of new content guidelines yesterday afternoon. The general takeaway? Bad stuff is bad and should be banned. The subtext? If Steve Huffman says stuff isn’t bad—like racism—it’ll be tolerated. Come again? Case in point: Coontown. This racist Subreddit celebrated yesterday when Huffman quite boldly…
President Obama just created three new National Monuments, protecting over 1 million acres of land in California, Nevada and Texas for the enjoyment of the American people. Where are they, why were they protected and how can you use them? Let’s take a detailed look at each. This latest round of National Monuments take the…
Rhino horn is more precious than gold on the black market, and our insatiable demand for the stuff has driven rhinos to the brink of extinction. Now a Seattle-based startup has a radical plan to save these incredible animals: Using synthetic biology to manufacture rhino horns in the lab. The biotech company Pembient says it…
Until the early 1970s, if problems with penile blood flow or nerve function meant a guy couldn’t get it up, his choices for treatment were pretty limited, and certainly did not mimic nature. There were external props that could be strapped to a flaccid penis. There were a few implantable props that made the penis…
Right now you can download and install a leaked version of Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant for Android. Suffice it to say, I am whelmed. With the launch of Windows 10 at the end of this month, we’ve been expecting a beta of Cortana on Android, and it seems like this is the real deal. We…
Life can take its toll, that much is certain, but the same technology contributing to the stress of modern day living—namely the web and the smartphone—can also provide some sweet relief when required. In honor of the upcoming weekend we present a few of our favorite apps and sites for chilling out. Noisli Noisli is…
This animated flyover of the Norgay mountains and Sputnik plains on Pluto are based on the freshly-delivered close-approach images from the New Horizons flyby. See features just a single kilometre big as you experience what it would be like to hitch a ride on the spacecraft as it skimmed past the dwarf planet. This flyby…
