Gadgets & Tech – Spoken Edition

With the novel coronavirus outbreak continuing to spread in America, gig economy titans are facing increasing scrutiny for their lackluster directives to a workforce that can’t always afford to take a sick day.

Even with tablets featuring full-color high-res LCD screens available for less than $100, ereaders, with their black and white electronic paper displays, are more popular than ever because they’re as easy on the eyes as real printed paper. So if you stare at a computer all day, maybe it’s time to consider an E Ink monitor for at least one of your displays. That’s how the Waveshare EINK-DISP-103 is designed to be used: as a 10.

The real trouble with handheld devices isn’t their limited battery life, or how fragile they can be, it’s the physical exertion required to hold them in your hands for hours on end. Thanko realizes we’re not all bodybuilders or gym rats, and so the Japanese company has come up with what might be the least portable way to comfortably enjoy all your portable gadgets.

Apple has finally given users a clear answer as to whether it’s safe to use disinfectant on its products, and it turns out it’s perfectly fine to use 70 percent isopropyl alcohol wipes or Clorox disinfecting wipes to clean your phone. Last week, Gizmodo reached out to several leading gadget manufacturers and asked whether it was safe to use alcohol to disinfect their products.

On Friday, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent a warning letter to televangelist Jim Bakker’s “ Jim Bakker S how” for advertising a product misleadingly peddled as a coronavirus cure.

The Russian robotics company Promobot—makers of the touchscreen coronavirus robot—piqued horrified curiosity at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show with an animatronic Terminator-era Arnold Schwarzenegger. Rat king in form, robot slave in function, Promobot promises that “‘Arnold Schwarzenegger’ will meet your guests, turn on the light and turn the kettle on.

House Republicans were warned by a public health expert in a closed-door briefing last week that most Americans will eventually be exposed to the novel coronavirus, according to a new report from the Daily Beast. The news comes as President Donald Trump continues to downplay the danger from the virus and public health officials grow increasingly concerned about the United States healthcare system’s ability to deal with a large number of future patients.

The saga of Pablo Escobar-branded folding phones continues. When the Pablo Escobar Fold 1 and Fold 2 launched, every phone nerd could tell that these phones were blatant, suspiciously priced rebrands of other foldable smartphones. Namely, the Royole FlexPai and the Samsung Galaxy Fold. Well, now YouTubers have gotten their hands on the Fold 2 to find...it’s a Galaxy Fold with a gold sticker on it. Are we surprised? Not in the slightest.

Facebook is already responsible (at least in part) for one of the biggest and most poorly named smartphone flops ever: the HTC First. But in a new book about the inner workings of Facebook, author Steven Levy reveals the social media giant had an even wilder prototype device that never saw the light of day.

Castlevania games are mostly remembered as popular titles for Nintendo’s classic 8- and 16-bit consoles. And while a version was created for the Sega Genesis, one of the most memorable and beautiful Castlevania games was actually released for the original PlayStation—and 23 years later, it’s now available on iOS and Android.