AJ Dellinger

Tech NewsBest of the Week

Policing Police Drones, Inheriting Facebook Messages, and Unexplained Sounds: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

We here at Gizmodo had a lot of questions this week, and we did our best to give you some answers because you’re probably wondering some of the same things. For instance, if you’ve ever asked yourself who is regulating police drones to keep them from being abused, the answer is, “Pretty much nobody is … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Trump ‘Hadn’t Thought’ About Asking Putin to Extradite Alleged Russian Hackers Until He Was Asked About It

President Donald Trump said he “hadn’t thought” to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to extradite the 12 Russian military officers indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by hacking the Democratic National Committee and stealing documents and emails that they later made public. It took the suggestion of … Continued

Tech News

Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks Booted From Twitter Following Mueller Indictments

On Saturday, Twitter gave the boot to two accounts—Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks—that were connected to the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee and subsequent leak of stolen documents from the breach. The suspension of the prominent accounts, reported by Axios, came after the US Department of Justice announced Friday that it had indicted 12 … Continued

Tech News

Corporations Are Lobbying to Keep Making Robocalls

The robocall problem is as bad as it has ever been, but if big corporations have their way, it just might get worse. The Washington Post reported this week that top businesses from the financial services and retail industry, among others, are lobbying the Trump administration to make it easier to send calls and texts … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Elon Musk Is Giving Money to a GOP PAC Because It Helps Elon Musk

Elon Musk—maker of a mini-sub that never got used, hypothetical savior of the Flint, Michigan water crisis, general over-promiser and under-deliverer—was one of the biggest donors to a political action committee with the primary goal of maintaining Republican control in the US House of Representatives. Federal filings spotted by Open Markets Institute’s Matthew Stoller and … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Venmo, the People Are Begging for a ‘Cancel Payment’ Button

We all make mistakes, but some are worse than others. Make a typo in a text message? No big deal. But if you accidentally tap the “0″ one too many times when entering a payment on Venmo or misspell the recipient’s username, well, then you have a problem on your hands—and not much recourse to … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Florida Man Jailed for Failing to Unlock His Phone

What started as a routine traffic stop has quickly escalated into a civil rights case in a Florida courtroom after a man was put behind bars this week for failing to unlock his phone. William Montanez was given 180 days in jail by a judge after he was asked to unlock two separate phones seized … Continued

io9Games

A One-Letter Typo Is (in Part) the Reason Aliens: Colonial Marines Sucked

When Aliens: Colonial Marines dropped in 2013, it has built up a ton of hype that made it seem as though the game would transport players into the terror-filled and action-packed Alien universe. Instead, they got an absolute mess of a game that, as it turns out, may have been just one letter away from … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

Looks Like Facebook Is Getting Serious About Making Its Own Chips

It’s been rumored for months that Facebook might be interested in building its own, in-house processing chips. Now it appears the social network company is really going for it. Bloomberg reported Friday that Facebook managed to snag one of Google’s top silicon engineering directors to head up its own efforts in the field. Shahriar Rabii, … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Some Senators Want to Know if Smart TVs Are Spying on Us

Two US senators have some suspicions about smart TVs, and they’re asking the Federal Trade Commission to look into the data collection practices employed by TV manufacturers to see if the internet-connected devices are quietly sucking up information from unwitting consumers. Democrats Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut signed on to a … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Russian Trolls Reportedly Made Twitter Accounts for Fake US Newspapers but Shared Real News Stories

In addition to flooding social media with false news stories, propaganda-spreading bots, and all sorts of online chicanery during the 2016 US presidential campaign, Russian trolls also reportedly attempted to erode Americans’ trust in local news by posing as city newspapers. According to NPR, operatives working for the Kremlin-linked troll farm known as the Internet … Continued

Tech NewsNews

There Is Now Just One Blockbuster Left in the US

The last two Blockbuster stores in Alaska are shutting their doors for good next week according to the Anchorage Daily News, which means there is just one remaining relic of the video rental giant still up and operating in the entire United States. The final Blockbuster storefront standing is located in Bend, Oregon. It outlasted … Continued

ScienceHealth

Honey Smacks Linked to Salmonella Outbreak Still on Store Shelves, FDA Says

Despite a massive recall of Honey Smacks last month, the US Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that some grocery stores and other retailers are still selling the cereal from a batch that has been linked to a salmonella outbreak across the United States. An estimated 1.3 million cases of Honey Smacks were taken off … Continued

EartherClimate Change

California Is Way Ahead of Schedule for Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The Environmental Protection Agency may still be headed up by person hellbent on destroying it despite Scott Pruitt’s ouster, but there’s some good news for the environment out in California. The most populous state in the nation hit its first target for cutting back on emissions four years ahead of schedule. The success story, borne … Continued

Tech NewsNews

‘Bitcoin Maven’ Jailed for Multi-Million Dollar Bitcoin-for-Cash Money Laundering Operation

Bitcoin has lost most of its (likely inflated) value in the last few months, but it still has plenty of value for law enforcement agencies looking for financial crimes to punish. The latest cryptocurrency criminal to get the book thrown at them is “Bitcoin Maven,” a 50-year-old woman who ran a bitcoin-for-cash exchange operation. The … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

Check Out the Fox News-Filled Schedule for Facebook’s ‘Trustworthy’ News Shows

Still reeling (at least in reputation, but certainly not in financial success) from the 2016 US presidential election, Facebook is launching its own slate of news shows produced and funded by the social network in partnership with “trustworthy” news organizations. The lineup, which launches next week, features a whole lot of Fox News. Not all … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Hackers Reportedly Stole 600 Gallons of Gas From Detroit Gas Station

Police in Detroit are looking for two suspects who allegedly managed to hack a gas pump and steal over 600 gallons of gasoline, valued at about $1,800. The theft took place in the middle of the day and went on for about 90 minutes, with the gas station attendant unable to thwart the hackers. The … Continued

Tech NewsApple

Want to Appear Rich? Buy an iPhone

It’s difficult (and generally not all that productive) to guess how wealthy someone is based on appearances. But if you really need a shorthand to figure out if someone is rich or not, a new study suggests all you need to do is see what kind of phone they own. If it’s an iPhone, odds … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Workout Data From Fitness App Used to Identify Government Spies and Military Personnel

In the latest incident of seemingly innocuous data sharing leading to potentially dangerous exposure, the popular fitness app and activity trackers Polar Flow has been revealing the location of military and government personnel working at sensitive locations, according to ZDNet. The report cites an investigation conducted by Dutch news site De Correspondent and Bellingcat, which … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Get Screwed by the MoviePass Outage? You Can Get Reimbursed for Buying Your Own Ticket

MoviePass, makers of an increasingly complicated and likely unsustainable movie ticket subscription service, experienced a significant outage Friday that left users out in the cold (or if you were in California and trying to find a place with air conditioning, in the heat). Now, MoviePass subscribers snubbed by the technical difficulties can get a refund. … Continued