Posts Tagged: after
Boeing’s Starliner safely returns to Earth after second test flight
Boeing's Starliner has returned to Earth safely after docking with the International Space Station for the first time. The six-day Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 mission came to an end when the spacecraft landed at the US Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. It's the first American capsule to touch down on land instead of in the ocean. Starliner undocked from the ISS at 2:36PM ET and by 6:05PM, it was firing its thrusters to drop out of orbit.
See #Starliner undock from @Space_Station. pic.twitter.com/nYkQW9bqRk
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) May 25, 2022
The uncrewed Starliner, which took over 800 pounds of equipment to the ISS (including a Kerbal Space Program plush toy), brought back over 600 pounds of cargo. Among the returned items were reusable Nitrogen Oxygen Recharge System tanks, which are used to provide air to those on the ISS. They'll be refilled and taken back to the space station later.
Touchdown, #Starliner! pic.twitter.com/5MJUoAYhqg
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) May 25, 2022
The spacecraft's first test flight took place in 2019. While it reached orbit, an automation system issue prevented thrusters from firing, meaning Starliner was unable to dock with the ISS. An attempt at a second test flight last year was scrapped because of a propulsion system valve problem, which led to a nine-month delay. In the interim, SpaceX conducted more crewed trips to the ISS than previously planned.
After assessing the data from this flight, Boeing will be able to start planning crewed flights that will take astronauts to the space station and bring them back to Earth. The New York Times says NASA will announce the astronauts who'll be flying on Starliner this summer, and the mission could take place before the year ends.
Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, Boeing Commercial Crew Program, said:
"We have had an excellent flight test of a complex system that we expected to learn from along the way and we have With the completion of OFT-2, we will incorporate lessons learned and continue working to prepare for the crewed flight test and NASA certification. Thank you to the NASA and Boeing teammates who have put so much of themselves into Starliner."
Mariella Moon contributed to this story.
The Morning After: Our favorite small kitchen gadgets
As we wrap up our Cooking Week on Engadget, my purchase of a milk frother is just one part of the Engadget team’s surprisingly broad selection of essential small kitchen gadgets — big spenders can scroll down to Breville’s bonkers induction cooker.
But back to me: Nespresso’s Barista Recipe Maker heats and froths your milk (or milk alternative) simply to upgrade your espressos or moka coffees into flat whites, cappuccinos and more. I’ve owned mine for a couple of years, and I love how easy it is to clean. The spin mechanism is magnet-based, too, so it’s less likely to break and should last plenty of summers filled with iced macchiatos.
We’re also cheerleading digital scales, a not-so-digital Microplane and some other coffee-making upgrades. For all the other kitchen-centric stories this week, you can find them here.
— Mat Smith
The biggest stories you might have missed
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How the new PlayStation Plus stacks up against Xbox Game Pass
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Epic Game Store sale includes huge discounts for ‘Final Fantasy 7’ and ‘Far Cry’
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AIAIAI Studio Wireless+: Finally, low-latency headphones for music producers
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Framework brings 12th Generation Intel Core chips to its modular laptop
Engadget’s Cooking Week
The villain in Reddit’s GameStop investor saga is shutting down
Melvin Capital couldn’t survive the meme stock wars.
Melvin Capital, the hedge fund considered the nemesis of the meme stock affair encompassing GameStop, Blackberry and several others, is shutting down. Investors were told the “appropriate next step” after steep losses was to liquidate assets and return cash to investors. Its public bet against GameStop and other struggling companies made it one of the largest victims of a GameStop-centric investing spree by people coordinating across Reddit and social networks. As a result, the fund reported a 53 percent loss in January 2021.
Roku teams up for its first outdoor TV
The 55-inch Element Roku TV is coming to Walmart.com for $ 1,300.
Roku has joined forces with Element to create a 55-inch outdoor TV, the companies announced. The Element Roku TV looks nigh-on identical to Element’s existing 55-inch Patio TV, just with a different OS. It offers a good but not spectacular 700 nits of brightness, along with 4K streaming and HDR. More importantly, though, it has tempered anti-glare glass to combat reflections and IP55 weather protection.
Tesla Autopilot under investigation following crash that killed three people
US safety regulators are now probing more than 30 incidents.
Another Federal probe into Tesla’s Autopilot system is underway. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is looking into more than 30 incidents involving Tesla’s Autopilot.
This follows an accident with a Model S, which occurred on May 12th in Newport Beach’s Mariners Mile strip. The EV reportedly struck a curb and ran into construction equipment, killing all three occupants. Three construction workers were also sent to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police declined to say whether Tesla’s Autopilot was involved.
HP’s premium laptop revamp includes more OLED displays and new CPUs
Most Envy and Spectre notebooks are getting refreshed specs and features
HP is bringing upgrades and updates across practically all of its premium notebooks, including clamshells and 2-in-1s. The two stars of the updated Envy line are the Envy x360 13.3-inch and the Envy 16-inch. There are OLED display options for both, and all of the new Envy laptops are also getting upgraded 5-megapixel webcams with head tracking and beamforming mics to help you look and sound your best during video calls. You even get native handwriting recognition and a hidden magnetic stylus mount on the side of the system.
Breville’s PolyScience Control Freak is a pricey yet precise induction cooktop
Also, it’s $ 1,500.
Whether it’s a single burner or a full cooktop, induction tops heat faster than regular stovetops and offer more precise temperature control. Yes, yes, you can get a standalone burner for under $ 100, but there’s also Breville’s PolyScience Control Freak: a $ 1,500 induction device that reaches exact temps quickly and holds them there. The burner has a temperature range of 86 to 482 degrees Fahrenheit (30 to 250 Celsius). This gives you the option of everything from low-heat slow cooking to high-temp searing. We had to try it.
The current-gen version of ‘The Witcher 3’ is now slated to arrive in late 2022
After many delays on what is a pretty old game.
The long-awaited PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt once again has a release window. The new edition, which is also coming to PC, is expected to arrive in the last three months of the year, according to CD Projekt Red. It will be a free upgrade if you own the respective last-gen version on PC, PS4 or Xbox One.
After Musk’s Twitter takeover, an open-source alternative is ‘exploding’
We may not yet know exactly what Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter means for the platform, but one Twitter alternative is already booming as a result of the news. Mastodon, the open-source social media service which bills itself as the “largest decentralized social network on the internet,” has been "exploding" since Musk's acquisition, according to its founder.
News of Twitter's buyout has rattled Twitter employees and users, as Musk has indicated he plans to take a much more hands-off approach to content moderation. As is often the case when Twitter makes a controversial change, some users have threatened to leave the platform, while critics have pushed #RIPTWITTER to trend.
In this case, at least some disgruntled users are apparently turning to Mastodon as a potential alternative. Hours after the Twitter acquisition was announced, Mastodon said it saw “an influx of approx. 41,287 users.” Of those, about 30,000 were new users, Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko wrote in a blog post.
“Funnily enough one of the reasons I started looking into the decentralized social media space in 2016, which ultimately led me to go on to create Mastodon, were rumours that Twitter, the platform I’d been a daily user of for years at that point, might get sold to another controversial billionaire,” he wrote. “Among, of course, other reasons such as all the terrible product decisions Twitter had been making at that time. And now, it has finally come to pass, and for the same reasons masses of people are coming to Mastodon.”
We're observing an influx of approx. 41,287 users to the #Mastodon network today
— Mastodon (@joinmastodon) April 26, 2022
Mastodon’s official iOS and Android apps are also seeing an uptick in users, according to data provided by analytics firm Sensor Tower. The apps have been downloaded roughly 5,000 times “or nearly 10% of its lifetime total” downloads since Monday, according to the firm. The app is currently ranked No. 32 on the App Store charts for social media apps.
It’s not the first time Mastodon has benefited from issues at Twitter. The company was briefly popular in 2017, following outrage over Twitter’s decision to remove user handles from the character limit for @-replies (back when Twitter changed its product so infrequently even mundane changes were fodder for mass outrage). Mastodon saw another uptick in 2019, when users in India were angry over moderation policies.
While Mastodon has been in the spotlight as a potentially viable Twitter alternative in the past, it has yet to reach the mainstream. But its current popularity comes at a moment when Twitter is also exploring how it could become an open-sourced protocol — much like Mastodon.
Unlike Twitter, Mastodon is not a single, centralized service. Though the interface looks similar to Twitter — it has a 500-character limit but otherwise will be mostly recognizable to Twitter users — it runs on an open-source protocol. Groups of users are free to create and maintain their own “instances” with their own rules around membership, moderation and other key policies. Users are also able to take their followers with them between instances.
Mastodon operates its own instances, mastodon.social and mastodon.online, but those are apparently overloaded, according to Rochko, who suggests that new users sign up via the official apps and join other communities on the service. And, because it’s open source, Mastodon makes its code available on GitHub, an idea Musk has also endorsed with regards to Twitter’s algorithms.
But all that also comes with extra complexity for new users who may not easily understand Mastodon’s unique structure or how it works. But those who stick around long enough may see some significant new features. Rochko said that end-to-end encrypted messaging is in the works, as well as “an exciting groups functionality.”
NASA rolls back SLS Moon rocket for repairs after multiple failed fueling tests
After multiple attempts to complete a critical fueling test of its next-generation Space Launch System, NASA has decided to finish the rocket’s “wet dress rehearsal” at a later date. On late Saturday evening, the agency announced it would move the SLS off from its launch pad and back to the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building to give one of its gaseous nitrogen suppliers time to complete a critical upgrade. Nitrogen supply issues had delayed two previous countdown rehearsals, according to Space News.
NASA will also use the opportunity to replace a faulty helium check valve and repair a minor hydrogen leak technicians found in one of the “umbilical” fuel lines running from the rocket’s mobile launch tower. “During that time, the agency will also review schedules and options to demonstrate propellant loading operations ahead of launch,” NASA said. It promised to share more information about the decision, as well as its plans moving forward, during a press conference scheduled for April 18th.
Since April 1st, NASA has tried three times to complete a “wet dress rehearsal” of the Artemis 1 Moon mission. The test is designed to replicate the countdown procedure the SLS will undergo when the mission hopefully gets underway later this year. NASA most recently attempted to complete a modified version of the test on April 14th, but that trial was cut short after it discovered the aforementioned hydrogen leak in the rocket’s mobile launch tower. Initially, the agency left the door open for another attempt as early as April 21st but then had a change of mind.
The delay may have a domino effect on the timeline for the Artemis 1 Moon mission. NASA has yet to set a date for the flight, and won’t do so until the SLS wet dress rehearsal is complete. Despite all the issues NASA has run into with its next-generation rocket, the agency remains confident it will fly. "There's no doubt in my mind that we will finish this test campaign, and we will listen to the hardware, and the data will lead us to the next step," said Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson on Friday. "And we will take the appropriate steps, and we will launch this vehicle.”
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is ready for calibration after chilling out
The James Webb Space Telescope is one step closer to probing the depths of the universe. On Wednesday, NASA announced that it was ready to start taking test images and aligning the optics of the JWST after the telescope’s instrumentation reached its final operating temperature of minus 448 degrees Fahrenheit (or minus 267 degrees Celsius) partway through last week.
Cool news! Webb’s MIRI instrument recently passed through its critical “pinch point” and cooled to just a few kelvins above absolute zero, which is the coldest you can go: https://t.co/jjE7xTal0O
Wondering why MIRI is extremely chill? Thread ❄️ pic.twitter.com/a9l7lcZ645
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) April 13, 2022
The JWST has been gradually cooling down ever since its successful December 25th launch, but the telescope took a major step forward on that front when it deployed its massive 70-foot sunshield at the start of the year. That component allowed JWST’s systems, including its critical Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), to drop to a temperature of approximately minus 298 degrees Fahrenheit (or about minus 183 degrees Celsius).
Getting the JWST to its final operating temperature required NASA and the European Space Agency to activate the telescope’s electric “cryocooler.” That in itself involved passing a technical hurdle dubbed the “pinch point,” or the stage at which the James Webb’s instruments went from minus 433 degrees Fahrenheit to minus 448 Fahrenheit.
“The MIRI cooler team has poured a lot of hard work into developing the procedure for the pinch point,” said Analyn Schneider, MIRI project manager for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “The team was both excited and nervous going into the critical activity. In the end, it was a textbook execution of the procedure, and the cooler performance is even better than expected.”
Part of the reason the James Webb needs to be so cold before it can begin its mission is so that its electronics generate the least amount of infrared light possible and are thereby less likely to interfere with its instruments when astronomers turn them toward distant cosmic bodies. The cold temperatures are also required to avoid something called “dark current,” an electrical force that’s generated when the atoms in the telescope’s detectors vibrate. That movement can create false signals that make it more difficult for the telescope to get an accurate picture of a celestial body.
The Morning After: Google and iFixit collaborate on parts to help you repair Pixel phones
Google is the latest phone maker to join Apple and Samsung in giving you resources to fix phones yourself. It’s partnering with the tinkerer of all tinkerers, iFixit, to provide official parts for Pixel phones later this year. Notably, the initiative will cover models ranging from the Pixel 2 (from 2017) through to the Pixel 6 Pro and beyond. According to the announcement, you’ll get access to a "full range" of components, like batteries, cameras and displays, whether you buy them individually or with iFixit’s own Fix Kit tools.
It’s shaping up to be an interesting year for people willing to repair their own phones. We still haven’t had a chance to see how Apple’s iPhone repair proposal will fare in real life — how hard is it going to be? — but Google is being smart by pairing with, arguably, the go-to people for those willing to take their phone’s life into their own hands.
— Mat Smith
The biggest stories you might have missed
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Apple Watch Series 7 models drop to $ 330, plus the rest of the weekend's best tech deals
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'Dancing with the Stars' will be the first live TV show on Disney+
Hummer EV first drive
An enormous electric super truck
The Hummer has always been ostentatious. So it’s no surprise the Hummer EV is not only large but also heavy, and really not all that efficient as an EV. But what it lacks in miles per kilowatt, it makes up for in over-the-top fun.
Roberto Baldwin got to drive the larger-than-life SUV, and it proved to be a capable off-roader that showcases GM’s Ultium platform. It is still, at its core, a Hummer.
iOS 16 could include upgraded health tracking features
But don't expect an UI redesign.
The next major update of iOS could include “significant enhancements,” according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman anticipates iOS 16 will include an update to notifications and an assortment of new health-tracking features.
Gurman added that the Apple Watch’s watchOS 9 may include upgrades to its activity and health-tracking features, but stopped short of sharing specifics. Boo.
‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’ has the best opening weekend for a video game movie
Breaking the record set by… the first Sonic movie.
With a $ 71 million debut at the domestic box office, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has set a new record for the US film debut of a video game adaptation, beating the previous high watermark set by its predecessor in 2020. The sequel made $ 57 million during its opening weekend, and Paramount now plans to expand this success into a cinematic universe. What have you done?
Police got confused trying to pull over an autonomous Cruise vehicle
‘Step outside the vehicle, please.’
Since February, GM’s Cruise self-driving unit has offered public taxi rides across San Francisco. And so far, the service hasn’t had many issues. A video from April 2nd showed San Francisco police attempting to pull over a driverless Cruise vehicle in the city’s Richmond District, only for the car to temporarily take off.
Watch the first trailer for ‘Kingdom Hearts IV’
Disney, Final Fantasy and a kinda-Tokyo.
During an event celebrating the franchise’s 20th anniversary, we got our first proper glimpse at the next Kingdom Hearts game. Kingdom Hearts IV marks the return of Sora after 2019’s Kingdom Hearts III seemingly concluded the story arc that began with the original game in 2002. The trailer showed Sora waking up in a city called Quadratum, a Tokyo-inspired city rendered in a semi-realistic way, marking a major artistic shift for the series. The city is soon attacked by a towering monster and the story-centric opening scenes seamlessly transition to gameplay… and fighting.
The Morning After: Elon Musk is now Twitter’s largest shareholder
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey might not like what’s become of the internet. But the internet doesn’t stop moving. Elon Musk now owns part of Twitter, after purchasing $ 2.89 billion in stock, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing spotted by CNBC. The purchase follows recent criticism by Musk over the social media site's free speech policies. Musk loves tweeting, so it makes sense beyond those criticisms. His tweets have even set off SEC lawsuits.
Musk is now the platform's largest shareholder, and he’s already inquiring into an edit button.
— Mat Smith
The biggest stories you might have missed
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UN report: We have three years to curb emissions to avoid climate catastrophe
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Alphabet's Wing will begin drone deliveries in Dallas-Fort Worth on April 7th
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Hertz will order up to 65,000 Polestar EVs for its rental fleet
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Amazon's planned worker chat app would reportedly ban words like 'union'
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Google's Pixel 6 April update arrives with camera and charging fixes
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Irreverent RPG 'Nobody Saves the World' comes to PS4, PS5 and Switch on April 14th
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Trump's Truth Social reportedly lost two critical executives
LG's 2021 C1 OLED TVs are up to 32 percent off right now
No, not my TV!
The worst thing about buying something new, cutting-edge and kinda pricey is when it’s no longer new, cutting-edge and, well, on sale. So my awesome LG C1 OLED has just had substantial price cuts from the 48-inch model through to the 65-inch option. Sigh. Still, they’re great TVs with some notable specs for gamers, like 120Hz refresh rates and support for variable refresh rates.
A Monkey Island sequel is incoming
From creator Ron Gilbert.
One of the best video game series of all time is making a return in 2022 with some of its key original creatives on board. Return to Monkey Island is "a game by Ron Gilbert," who conceived the point-and-click comedy-adventure saga in the late '80s.
Gilbert wrote and directed the original game, The Secret of Monkey Island. He was director, programmer and designer on the sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge.
The UK plans to issue an official NFT
The government is moving to embrace stablecoins.
The UK government's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has announced the Royal Mint will issue an official NFT sometime this summer.
Yeah. I’m British and I winced too.
The DeLorean EV will be unveiled on August 18th
Italdesign helped shape the concept car.
After years of teasing, the DeLorean Motor Company announced it’ll unveil an all-electric vehicle on August 18th, promising to share its official name at the same time. Details on the concept car are scant. The automaker is working with Italdesign, best known for its work with Volkswagen, to design the upcoming car.
Samsung's 2022 TV lineup has something for everyone
Including its first new OLED TV in a decade.
The centerpiece of Samsung’s new TV family is the new QN900B, the centerpiece of the company’s Neo QLED 8K family. For 2022, Samsung has added 14-bit HDR mapping (up from 12-bit mapping on last year’s models) to improve picture detail in both bright and dark scenes. When combined with that massive 7,680 x 4,320 resolution, according to Sam Rutherford, the TV looks seriously sharp.
Twitter ditches its tabbed timeline mere days after rolling it out
Just days after introducing a feature that made an algorithmically-generated feed the default for iOS users, Twitter is changing things back to the way they were before. “We heard you,” the company said. “Some of you always want to see latest tweets first. We’ve switched the timeline back and removed the tabbed experience for now while we explore other options.”
We heard you –– some of you always want to see latest Tweets first. We've switched the timeline back and removed the tabbed experience for now while we explore other options. https://t.co/euVcPr9ij6
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 14, 2022
If didn’t follow the controversy Twitter created for itself, it all started last year when the company began testing a new tabbed interface for switching between its algorithmically-generated “Home” feed and reverse-chronolgical “Latest” feed. On March 10th, the company began rolling out the feature to iOS, promising it would come to its Android app and web client soon after. But what many people found, and ended up complaining about, was that the feature would default their feed to the algorithmic one every time they opened the app.
This isn’t the first time an internet company has rolled back a feature, but it shows that many people still want a chronological feed and dislike it when companies try to take that functionality away from them. When it comes to Twitter, there’s a case to be made that many people come to the platform to get first-hand accounts and information when there’s breaking news. So making that version of the website difficult to access isn’t doing anyone any favors.
Patient dies two months after groundbreaking pig heart transplant
David Bennett, the first human to successfully undergo a heart transplant involving a genetically modified pig heart, has died, according to The New York Times. He was 57. It’s unclear if his body rejected the organ doctors implanted in January. “There was no obvious cause identified at the time of his death,” a spokesperson for the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the hospital that performed the procedure, told the outlet. Physicians plan to carry out a full evaluation before publishing their findings in a peer-reviewed journal.
When Bennett’s transplant was first announced, doctors treated the news with cautious optimism. And for a time, it looked like that feeling was warranted. Not only did Bennett’s body not immediately reject the organ, but he was also able to take part in physical therapy and spend time with his family. And while he was never discharged from the hospital, he did survive two months with the genetically modified organ beating in place of his human heart.
Even if doctors determine the cause of death was organ rejection, that’s no small milestone. Stephanie Fae Beauclair, one of the most famous patients to undergo a xenotransplantation procedure, survived for 21 days before her body rejected her adopted baboon heart. Part of the reason doctors were hopeful the procedure would work is that there’s a dire organ shortage in the US and many others parts of the world. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, about 17 Americans die every day waiting for an organ transplant.
Fitbit recalls Ionic smartwatch after several burn reports
Fitbit will issue you a refund of $ 299 after the receipt of Ionic smartwatch. It will also provide you a discount code for 40% off select Fitbit devices.
Wearables | Digital Trends
Microsoft opened Activision acquisition talks three days after CEO harassment report
When Microsoft announced it would spend $ 68.7 billion to buy Activision Blizzard to bolster its Xbox gaming division, the news came as a surprise to many. For months, the troubled publisher had been in headlines stemming from the workplace sexual harassment lawsuit filed by California’s fair employment agency in July. The bad press hit a fever pitch on November 16th after The Wall Street Journal published a report that asserted Activision CEO Bobby Kotick had not only known about many of the incidents of sexual harassment that had occured at the company but had also acted to protect those who were responsible for the abuse.
Days after that article came out, Xbox chief Phil Spencer reportedly told employees he was “distributed and deeply troubled by the horrific events and actions” that allegedly took place at Activision Blizzard and that Microsoft would re-evaluate its relationship with the publisher. It’s one day after that email that Spencer called Kotick to start the process that would end with Microsoft announcing plans to buy Activision Blizzard some two months later, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing first spotted by CNBC.
Starting on page 31 of the document, Microsoft devotes nearly 10 pages detailing the timeline of its talks with Activision. According to the filing, Spencer told Kotick during their November 19th phone call that “Microsoft was interested in discussing strategic opportunities” between the two companies and asked if he had time to talk to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the following day. That Saturday, November 20th, Nadella made it clear Microsoft hoped to purchase the publisher, stating the company was “interested in exploring a strategic combination with Activision Blizzard.”
It turns out the quick pace at which the talks moved was mainly due to all the other companies interested in buying up Activision Blizzard after its stock dived in November. At least four other companies contacted the publisher about a possible acquisition. None of them are named in the SEC filing. However, one notably wanted to just buy Blizzard. Activision didn’t move forward with that option because the company’s board of directors deemed the sale would have been too difficult to pull off.
The document also details the terms of the purchase agreement. If the deal doesn’t go through due to antitrust complications, Microsoft has agreed to pay Activision Blizzard a termination fee of up $ 3 billion. A few years ago, that’s a possibility Microsoft probably wouldn’t have had to worry about too much, but 2022 finds the company in a very different regulatory environment. At the start of the month, NVIDIA abandoned a $ 40 billion bid to buy ARM after the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the purchase. President Biden appointed Lina Khan, the Commission’s current chair, to the position on the strength of her experience in antitrust law. When the NVIDIA-ARM deal fell through, the agency specifically noted it was "significant" because it "represents the first abandonment of a litigated vertical merger in many years."
The Morning After: Tech that helps with those New Year’s resolutions
Welcome to the new year. How are those resolutions coming along? (Don't worry, we can help.)
Contrary to my expectations, CES 2022 is still happening. However, the organizers have announced that the tech show will be cut short by a day, as COVID-19 cases continue to surge. It’s also kind of started early, with some big announcements from Samsung already, including putting NFTs into its TVs, and an upgraded eco TV remote that sips on your WiFi waves for energy.
Expect a week of hardware announcements, even if chances to play with and assess these new devices are a little limited without attendance in person.
-Mat Smith
Alienware's Concept Nyx is like a Plex server for your PC games
But will it appeal to anyone beyond PC gaming fanatics?
Alienware’s newest concept can be boiled down to a gaming server that runs on your home network. You could conceivably run two games at once on your television, as Engadget saw during a recent demo in NYC. Since all of the rendering and network processing is happening in your home, Nyx would also be a lower latency experience than traditional cloud gaming.
This is a shiatsu hand massager for gamers
A hand warmer setting may help you get good.
To help soothe their weary mitts, Japanese company Bauhutte has created a hand massager for gamers. The device works on either hand and has a 15-layer airbag for each finger and a shiatsu plate for the palm. There are two main options: a Shiatsu mode for the entire hand, and one that focuses on stretching fingers.
The next AirPods Pro might support lossless audio
You might have an easier time finding your case, too.
Now that the third-generation AirPods offer some of the same features as the AirPods Pro, how will Apple’s higher-end wireless earbuds stand out? Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims Apple is launching its second-generation Pro earbuds in the fall with support for Apple Lossless (ALAC) audio. Kuo expects the updated headphones will offer a "new form factor design" and that the new buds will supposedly include a charging case that can make sounds, much like AirTags, to help find it behind your couch cushions.
Samsung’s latest remote turns router radio waves into energy
The 2022 Eco Remote has a white option to match Samsung's lifestyle TVs.
Samsung has revamped the solar-charging remote it debuted at last year’s CES. Along with using light to top up the battery, Samsung says the latest Eco Remote can convert routers' radio waves into energy to stay fully charged. There's still a solar panel on the rear of the remote, which is also made with recycled materials.
Twitter bans Marjorie Taylor Greene's personal account
Due to repeatedly spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
Twitter has banned Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's personal account after a fifth "strike" for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. A fifth strike means it’s a permanent ban.
In the past year, she claimed in July that COVID-19 wasn't dangerous unless you were over 65 or obese, and in August said vaccines were "failing" against the new coronavirus' Delta variant. Both statements were untrue. The posts respectively led to 12-hour and one-week suspensions. Her official account is still active as of this writing because it hasn't run afoul of Twitter's rules. Beyond that, she may have to wait around for TRUTH Social to finally launch.
The biggest news stories you might have missed
The tech industry's accessibility report card for 2021
Netflix will be required to stream 20 state TV channels in Russia
Samsung's 2022 QLED TVs include the first 144Hz 4K and 8K sets
Tech that can help you stick to your New Year's resolutions
And the biggest losers in tech in 2021 are..
Samsung is putting NFTs in its smart TVs
Samsung isn’t launching a new Exynos chip on November 19 after all
Samsung isn’t launching a new Exynos chip on November 19 as previously assumed, the company clarified in response to speculation.
Android | Digital Trends
Instagram back up after second major outage of the week
Just a few days after a global Facebook outage, Instagram went down for over two hours due to a different technical issue.
Mobile | Digital Trends
Facebook is coming back online after hours-long outage
Facebook services are slowly coming back online after one of the biggest outages in recent memory. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger’s apps appear to be working again, though some of the websites are loading more slowly than usual.
As of 6:05pm ET Monday, the "Facebook for Business Status" page was still showing "major disruptions," to the social network's core services. But that was still an improvement from earlier in the day when the website was offline entirely.
"To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we're sorry," Facebook wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. The company confirmed its services "are coming back online now." In a post on Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg also apologized for the services going down.
Zuckerberg didn’t elaborate on the cause of the lengthy outage. In an earlier tweet, the company’s outgoing Chief Technology Officer, Michael Schroepfer, cited “networking issues.”
To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we're sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us.
— Facebook (@Facebook) October 4, 2021
The outage lasted more than six hours, taking down Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Oculus. It also wreaked havoc on the company internally, with employees reportedly unable to access emails, Workplace and other tools. The New York Timesreported that employees were also physically locked out of offices as workers’ badges stopped working.
It also shaved billions of dollars off of Zuckerberg’s personal net worth as Facebook’s stock tanked, Bloomberg reported. Elsewhere, the company is still reeling from the fallout of a whistleblower who has accused the company of prioritizing “profits over safety.” The whistleblower was The Wall Street Journal’s primary source for several articles that details how Instagram is harmful to teens and the company’s controversial “cross check” program that allows high profile users to break its rules.
Security reporter Brian Krebs reported the outage was linked to issues with Facebook's BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) records, which prevented the company's services from being accessible. He later added it was "a routine BGP update gone wrong." DNS provider Cloudflare also cited BGP as the likely culprit, writing in a blog post that it was "as if someone had 'pulled the cables' from their data centers all at once and disconnected them from the Internet."
Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Fan Edition might be canceled after all
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Apple puts another manufacturer on probation after India factory riot
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After Math: Apple debuts devices running on its own silicon
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GM recalls 68,000 Chevy Bolt EVs after reports of battery fires
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GitHub takes down YouTube video download tools after an RIAA notice
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The Morning After: NASA looks at LTE for lunar missions
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Twitter updates its ‘Hacked Materials’ policy after NY Post controversy
In response to a New York Post article this week about Hunter Biden that used emails of dubious sourcing, Twitter blocked links to it, eventually citing the company’s existing policies around hacked materials. These policies have come under scrutiny…
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The Morning After: The iPhone 12 has 5G, new sizes and MagSafe charging
The combined might of Apple (iPhone launch day) and Amazon (Prime Day) made for a hectic 24 hours in tech. But purchasing advice aside (there’s some of that below), I want to focus on Apple’s showcase from the afternoon. iPhones have 5G and have simu…
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The Morning After: We reviewed Google’s new Nest Audio smart speaker
It’s finally time for Apple to unveil this year’s new iPhones. Invitations have gone out for the “Hi, Speed” event on Tuesday, October 13th at 1PM ET where we expect to see Apple introduce its first new devices with 5G and the A14 Bionic chipset. Ch…
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The Morning After: Google unveiled new Pixels, Chromecast and more
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NBC’s Peacock is finally live on Roku after tense negotiations
When NBC Universal's streaming service Peacock launched on July 15th, it was available to just about every bit of streaming hardware out there — except Roku devices. That changes today. After prolonged negotiations, and even a bit of public acrimony…
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The Morning After: AI-generated video plays out fake Wimbledon matchups
If you’re trying to make sense of the current climate for Big Tech, then Dan Cooper has some advice: look to the past. Specifically, he’s ready to rehash Microsoft’s antitrust battle over Internet Explorer in the late 90s, and infer what that means f…
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After Fortnite is removed from Apple and Google’s app stores, an Epic lawsuit is launched
It was a relatively slow week in the tech world until Epic Games came along with its Mega Drop 20% discount that passed along the saving on V-Bucks and real-money offers to players that chose to pay via Epic Direct payments. Those who chose to pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay were left to […]
Come comment on this article: After Fortnite is removed from Apple and Google’s app stores, an Epic lawsuit is launched
A ‘GoldenEye 007’ fan remake is dead after a cease and desist demand
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The Morning After: Apple started the public beta for watchOS 7
If you wanted a Microsoft Hololens but thought that headset was just too big, then maybe the Nreal Light glasses are for you. They advertise mixed reality tech in a much smaller package, and mostly deliver on it. They’re more stylish than Google Glas…
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The Morning After: Trump threatens to ‘ban’ TikTok
We didn’t even have to wait until August to find out who was behind that massive Twitter breach on July 15th. Florida authorities arrested a Tampa teenager as he and two others were charged with a litany of felonies in the attack that hijacked numero…
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SpaceX pulls off its first double fairing catch after a Falcon 9 launch
Part of the SpaceX mission has been to create reusable rockets that make spaceflight cheaper, and it has become routine to see the company’s booster rockets return safely to Earth. With today’s launch SpaceX set a new milestone by catching both halve…
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The Morning After: Twitter hackers took over accounts for Elon, Obama and Apple
Twitter’s bad day started with a weird tweet from Elon Musk (not that unusual) and probably peaked when Barack Obama’s account suddenly posted a scam message begging for Bitcoin. Someone at Twitter decided to prevent all verified accounts from tweeti…
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Some iPhone 11 models display a green tint after unlocking
A number of iPhone users are seeing a strange green tint on their devices’ displays for a few seconds after unlocking, and it’s still unclear what’s causing the phenomenon. Based on the complaints posted on Reddit and the MacRumors forum, the most af…
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Zuckerberg says he will ‘review’ policies after employee backlash
Mark Zuckerberg shared a seven-part plan following widespread criticism from employees over his handling of Donald Trump’s Facebook posts last week. The update comes after a week of increasingly vocal dissent from within the company. In the note, Zuc…
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The Morning After: Texas Instruments makes it harder to cheat on its calculators
Graphing calculators have clung on to school lives despite us all carrying around smartphones that are several magnitudes more powerful. (Let’s not even get into wearables.) In a bid to reduce cheating in exam settings, Texas Instruments is pulling s…
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The Morning After: A look at Dyson’s canceled electric car
The hopes and dreams of companies don’t always come true. The Nintendo PlayStation, that undersea electric railway, sometimes things just don’t work out. It’s always intriguing to see how far companies take research and prototypes before canning thei…
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After a huge change of heart, the US will allow US companies to work with Huawei on 5G standards
The US and Huawei have had an insane saga of trade bans, negotiations, and legal proceedings this past year. It’s been one of the most widely reported feuds ever between two entities, and at this point you have to assume there’s just too much bad blood to really work anything out. Except now it turns […]
Come comment on this article: After a huge change of heart, the US will allow US companies to work with Huawei on 5G standards
NASCAR driver fired after using a racial slur while streaming
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After a year on the Epic Store, ‘Journey’ is heading to Steam
More than eight years after it first came out on the PlayStation 3, almost five years after its PlayStation 4 rerelease and about one year after coming out on PC, Journey is finally making its way to Steam. The game’s PC publisher, Annapurna Interact…
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Instacart workers go on strike after rejecting mild concessions
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The Morning After: What you actually need to play Stadia games in 4K
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The Morning After: ‘Call of Duty: Warzone’ joins the free battle royale trend
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SETI@Home ends its crowdsourced search for alien life after 21 years
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Huawei sues Verizon after patent talks break down
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The Morning After: MoviePass is bankrupt, and the Model Y ships in March
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The Morning After: Vine is back, but now it’s Byte
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The Morning After: PewDiePie is taking a break from YouTube in 2020
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