You know about Qi charging, the open wireless charging standard that charges up your phone when you lay it on a special charge pad. But wait until you meet Qi2. It’s faster at charging your phone, and its use of magnets will allow Android phones and iPhones to live in relative harmony, at least regarding accessories.
Source: Gizmodo – Qi2’s Wireless Charging Debut Hopefully Means MagSafe Chargers Will Come to Android
YouTube is licensing out the voices and styles of popular artists with its first set of AI music experiments, announced Google in a blog post Thursday. Dream Track will allow creators to make short, AI-generated songs, using the voices of artists like Charlie Puth, T-Pain, and John Legend.
Source: Gizmodo – YouTube Now Sells the AI Soul of Your Favorite Musician
Analogue has just relaunched the Pocket in some new, charming colors. It brought back the OG colors of the Game Boy Advance and Pocket to its new Classic Limited Edition consoles. These colors are blue, green, indigo, spice orange, pink, red, silver, and yellow.
Source: Gizmodo – The new Analogue Pockets Might be One of the Cutest Holiday Releases
It’s a sad day for fans of Netflix’ Shadow and Bone. The series adaptation of Leigh Bardugo’s fantasy novels—which was developed by Arrival’s Eric Heisserer and gobbled up by passionate viewers—will not return for a third season. This cancellation was just one of many announced by Netflix today.
Source: Gizmodo – Netflix Has Cancelled Shadow and Bone
With an FAA launch license in hand, SpaceX is set for the second test flight of a fully integrated Starship rocket. Success or failure, it’s guaranteed to be a visual spectacle. Here’s how you’ll be able to take in the action.
Source: Gizmodo – How to Watch the Second Test Flight of SpaceX’s Starship Megarocket
Marvel Studios might have found its next leading man in a very familiar face: Pedro Pascal has reportedly joined Fantastic Four as Reed Richards.
Source: Gizmodo – Pedro Pascal Could Be Marvel’s Mr. Fantastic
For astronauts living aboard the International Space Station (ISS), space germs are bad news. The confined environment, plus a weakened immunity system, and more aggressive bacteria, means that catching a cold in space is way worse than on Earth. In order to help stop the spread of viruses in space, Boeing developed…
Source: Gizmodo – ISS Astronauts Are Testing a New Surface Coating to Fight Space Germs
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized its environmental assessment of SpaceX’s new water deluge system, concluding that it’s no more dangerous than a seasonal rain shower. With that assessment out of the way, and with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also satisfied with its own evaluation, the…
Source: Gizmodo – SpaceX Granted FAA Permission for Second Starship Test Flight
Good news, iPhone users. A year after introducing the feature to its walled garden, Apple has extended free access to Emergency SOS via satellite to the iPhone 14/14 Pro for another year. As previously expected, you get three years of Emergency SOS via satellite services instead of two.
Source: Gizmodo – Apple Gives iPhone 14 Users an Extra Year of Emergency SOS Via Satellite
Microsoft will now make its own chips to power Azure, Copilot, and ChatGPT, CEO Satya Nadella announced at the Microsoft Ignite conference Wednesday. The Maia 100 can be used to train AI models and will start rolling out into Azure data centers early next year, reducing the company’s reliance on Nvidia GPUs.
Source: Gizmodo – Begun, the AI Chip Wars Have
The current Warner Bros. Discovery regime is making headlines with its take-backsies on the James Gunn-produced Looney Tunes feature Coyote vs. Acme, which was briefly shelved before thankfully getting shopped around instead. As the WB strips away its legacy in its 100th year, head honcho David Zaslav is out…
Source: Gizmodo – Beloved Hollywood Genius David Zaslav Admits Writers Were Right 49 Days After Strike Ends
Meta made a quiet policy update last year allowing advertisers on Facebook and Instagram to say the 2020 election was rigged. It’s a change that mirrors shifts at Google and the rest of the tech industry. Silicon Valley has made one thing clear: you can’t use their ad systems to question the legitimacy of the American…
Source: Gizmodo – Big Tech Officially Accepts Blood Money to Promote the Big Lie
There are only a handful of trusted end-to-end encrypted email providers. Of those, Tuta (which has long been known as “Tutanota” but recently rebranded ) is one of the more well-known. This week, the company found itself on the defensive after being labeled a “front” for law enforcement and intelligence services. In…
Source: Gizmodo – Encrypted Email Service Tuta Denies It’s a ‘Honeypot’ for Five Eyes Intelligence
The evolution of MoviePass continues, with today’s announcement that the subscription movie theater service (which has quite the tumultuous past) will now offer a virtual card—hopefully making online ticket purchases easier, including at theaters offering increasingly popular premium formats like IMAX.
Source: Gizmodo – MoviePass Enters the Future, Announces a Virtual Card
With so many things in flux at Marvel Studios, there’s news that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton has departed the director’s chair of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. A move that leaves us speculating about the crossover film’s future, if anything.
Source: Gizmodo – Destin Daniel Cretton Departs Marvel’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty
The gamma-ray burst, affectionately dubbed ‘BOAT’ (Brightest of All Time), has been found to emit gamma-rays with energies reaching up to 13 teraelectronvolts, as revealed by a collaboration of scientists who have studied these emissions.
Source: Gizmodo – We Finally Know the True Power of BOAT—the Brightest Known Gamma-Ray Burst
The first trailer for Sony’s Madame Web movie weaves a very peculiar tale out of an even more peculiar choice for the studio’s next Spider-Man spinoff film. But part of that peculiarity is in the host of Marvel Comics characters the film wants to bring to the big screen—and we’ve got a quick rundown on who’s who if…
Source: Gizmodo – A Quick Guide to the Spider-Heroes and Villains in Madame Web’s Trailer
Amazon just released a questionable-looking robot for patrolling businesses. Taking a page out of Wall-E’s design, Amazon’s new Astro for Business looks almost comical.
Source: Gizmodo – I Cannot Take Amazon’s New Robot for Business Seriously
The world of fandom has not been the same since Loungefly took the pop culture product world by storm with its signature mini-backpacks.
Source: Gizmodo – Loungefly Celebrates 25 Years in Fandom This Holiday Season
