Vizio 86-inch Smart TV and 2.1 Soundbar Review: An Affordable Big Screen With a Few Big Tradeoffs

Even still, the $1,000 Vizio 86-inch Smart TV pushes the boundaries of size and capabilities. If budget TVs are all about tradeoffs, then this big boy has plenty. The V4K86C-0804 pairs better when you link it with one of the latest Vizio 2.1 soundbars. Photo: Artem Golub / Gizmodo Pros Cons The 86-incher is an interesting option at $1,000 MSRP for its mammoth size. There is the big VizioQuantum and Quantum Pro QLEDsgoing for at or less than Vizios 86-inch LED....

August 9, 2024 · 3 min · 601 words · Angela Jacobs

Warner Bros. Scrubs Cartoon Network Website, Erasing Years of History

Its latest indignity comes at the cost of Cartoon Networks online presence. Looking for episodes of your favorite Cartoon connection shows? The news comes after Warner recently announced plans to shutter its dedicated streaming service for classic animation, Boomerang. A screenshot of the Cartoon Network website via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, dated to August 7, 2024.© Internet Archive/Cartoon Network Want more io9 news? News from the future, delivered to your present....

August 9, 2024 · 1 min · 72 words · Angela Becker

An Abandoned Amusement Park Contains Multitudes in This Sci-Fi Short Story

io9 is proud to present fiction from LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE. Once a month, we feature a story from LIGHTSPEEDs current issue. The summer days were dwindling and the final year lay before us. © Lightspeed Buddy stood a good foot taller than me, and thicker in every way. With long brown hair and a simple face, we sometimes called him Conan, or Tarzan. We, being the jerks in his statistics class, or the jocks on the scatterball team....

August 8, 2024 · 6 min · 1226 words · Cody Collins

Analyst Predicts $20 Monthly Fee for Apple Intelligence

But AI is an expensive endeavor, and those costs have analysts running around in circles. Apple Intelligence is coming in piecesover the course of this and next year. Thats to make up for the enormous costs of deploying AI and crafting itsbrand-new data centers. Apple Intelligence is supposed to revolutionize iPhone, iPad, and Mac customers user their devices. So far, Apple hasn’t said whether it will ever make you pay extra for it....

August 8, 2024 · 1 min · 182 words · Tara Hardy

Apple Wants to Make the Mac Mini Even Smaller. Why?

The thing aboutmini PCsis… well its spelled out in the name. Theyre relatively small, small enough to lay comfortably on your desktop and stay out of the way. Those are slated for release this year. The current Mac Mini already sits comfortably on the foot of the Apple Studio Display.Image: Apple In spring of next year, well get MacBook Airs with M4. The footprint of the Mac Mini effectively hasnt changed since the days of Steve Jobs....

August 8, 2024 · 1 min · 212 words · Richard Smith

Beats Pill Review: A Bunch of Bells and Whistles Without the Apple Price Tag

Beats Pill Goes above and beyond in almost every department. Pros Cons Beats finally realized it used to make speakers, too. Beats Pill Review: Design Wouldnt be my top choice for a hiking trip. © Artem Golub Design-wise, it’s possible for you to tell Beats attempted to maximize portability on the Pill. Its also rated IP67 but sports a considerably more rugged look and an overall sturdier-looking body. Both speakers feature the lanyard, but Sony does it much better....

August 8, 2024 · 2 min · 242 words · Corey Lewis

Big Bubble of Plasma in Space Shoots Fast Radio Burst Toward Earth

Thus, the more recently analyzed burst practically seems local. They are brilliant in the truest sense, making them exciting sources of data for radio astronomers. FRB20201124A was scrutinized with the most sensitive radio telescope on Earth, the Very Large Array. An illustration of a magnetar surrounded by a nebula producing fast radio bursts.Illustration: NSF/AUI/NRAO/S. Dagnello The team determined that the FRB came from a bubble of plasma surrounding a dense object....

August 8, 2024 · 1 min · 141 words · Nancy Hernandez

Bird Deaths From Window Strikes Are Way Higher Than We Ever Imagined

The new death count is almost double some previous estimates. A 2015studyfound that collisions with buildings accounted for 599 million bird deaths per year in the United States. Wind turbines, in comparison, account for 570,000 bird deaths per year. Collisions with buildings is one of the leading anthropogenic causes of bird deaths.© Steven Pisano via Flickr A number of states and municipalities have enactedlawsrequiring buildings to be designed to be more bird-friendly....

August 8, 2024 · 1 min · 94 words · James Watkins

Chinese Rocket Breaks Apart in Orbit, Leaves Dangerous Trail of Debris in Space

This is obviously an ominous start, and a potential bad sign of things to come. This isnt the first time Chinas Long March 6A rocket has caused trouble in Earth orbit. The space junk came eerily close to SpaceXs Starlink satellites, but no damage was reported. A Long March 6A rocket carrying the satellite group blasts off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on August 6, 2024.Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images....

August 8, 2024 · 1 min · 121 words · Dr. Gary Johnson

Could Tim Walz Be the ‘Climate Vice President’ We Need?

Its not about banking political capital for the next election, Walzsaid last year. Its about burning political capital to improve lives. But Walzs reputation as an everyman and hisskill as a communicatormay have shielded him from thetypical anti-climate attacks. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaking at a rally in Liacouras Center at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, on August 6, 2024.Image: Shutterstock Thats been part of his hallmark. Its unlikely that Congress will pass another law like it in the short term....

August 8, 2024 · 1 min · 143 words · Eric Turner

Elon Musk Sued an Ad Group for F*cking Off Too Well, Now It’s ‘Discontinuing’ Operations

Business Insideroriginally reportedon the email, which stated that the organization would be discontinuing its activities. GARM is an initiative established by the World Federation of Advertisers in 2019, followingthe Christchurch massacre. While the organization may be shutting down, GARM and the WEF have denied that they broke antitrust laws. © Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Gizmodo reached out to both organizations for comment but did not hear back by time of publication....

August 8, 2024 · 1 min · 139 words · Mrs. Rachel Brown

Epic Drilling Mission Sets New Record With 4,160-Foot Mantle Core

This extreme depth is far greater than any previous attempts to drill into oceanic mantle rocks. In the study, the researchers acknowledged much more analysis on what they drilled needs to be done. Decades of ocean floor sampling by dredging have painted a rough mineralogical picture of mantle, he wrote. This is just a small portion of a very, very long core sample drilled out of the Atlantic Ocean seafloor.© Sarah Treadwell, Exp....

August 8, 2024 · 1 min · 120 words · Shannon Hunt

Games Workshop’sLord of the RingsMiniatures Game Will Get Models From the New Movie

Its an exciting time then for one of Games Workshops unsung, but fascinating, tabletop franchises. Want more io9 news? News from the future, delivered to your present. © Games Workshop

August 8, 2024 · 1 min · 30 words · Angela Brown