Cellular service is coming to New York’s subway tunnels. This week, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced it was embarking on a 10-year project to wire all 418 miles of underground track underneath the city with wireless connectivity. Transit Wireless will build the necessary infrastructure and foot the resulting $600 million bill as part of an ongoing public-private between the two organizations.
If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Transit Wireless operates the MTA’s existing underground WiFi network. It’s also a subsidiary of BAI Communications, a company that has completed similar projects in Toronto, Hong Kong and other parts of the world. The agreement will also see Transit Wireless wire all of the MTA's 191 aboveground stations and 21 Staten Island Railway stations with WiFi. The good news for New Yorkers and visitors is that work on the project won’t lead to additional subway service interruptions.
According to The New York Times, Transit Wireless plans to pay for the project through data collection and fiber-optic cable leases to carriers. The company will begin revenue sharing with the MTA once it recoups its initial investment. At first, the agency can look forward to a 20 percent cut before that amount increases to 40 percent in the 15th year after Transit Wireless earns its money back.
The MTA isn’t the only transit agency working to provide cellular service to its riders. Last year, Transport for London said the Underground would get full mobile access by 2024. Other cities such as Seoul and Paris have had similar systems in place for years.
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Actress Nichelle Nichols, best known for her role as Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series, has died. Nichols’ son Kyle Johnson shared the news on Sunday. “I regret to inform you that a great light in the firmament no longer shines for us as it has for so many years,” he wrote on Instagram. “Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.” Nichols was 89 when she passed away on Saturday, July 30th of natural causes.
To say Nichols was a trailblazer would be an understatement. She broke into Hollywood at a time when the opportunities for Black women were few and far between. In interviews years after The Original Series ended, Nichols said she had considered quitting the show during its first season to pursue a career on Broadway but had a change of heart after meeting Martin Luther King Jr. King, as a fan of the show and someone who saw Nichols as a role model, was apparently horrified to find out she wanted to leave and convinced her to stay with it.
We celebrate the life of Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek actor, trailblazer, and role model, who symbolized to so many what was possible. She partnered with us to recruit some of the first women and minority astronauts, and inspired generations to reach for the stars. pic.twitter.com/pmQaKDb5zw
Beyond starring in The Original Series and its film sequels as well as making memorable appearances in shows like Heroes and Futurama, Nichols spent decades working with NASA to help the space agency diversify its talent pool. She also famously attended the christening of the Space Shuttle Enterprise in 1976 alongside Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and much of the cast of The Original Series. In 2015, she also flew aboard NASA’s SOFIA telescope during an eight-hour flight where the observatory studied Mars and Saturn. She will be missed.
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After carrying the latest piece of the country’s Tiangong space station to orbit on July 24th, a Chinese Long March 5B rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere on Saturday, creating a dazzling (albeit somewhat unsettling) display as it crashed down in the Indian Ocean. A Twitter user named Nazri Sulaiman captured a 27-second clip of the rocket’s first stage breaking up in the skies above Kuching, Malaysia. Sulaiman and others initially confused the spacecraft with a meteor shower until astronomers correctly identified the debris as the remains of a Chinese rocket.
On Saturday afternoon, US Space Command confirmed the Long March 5B re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at 12:45PM ET. China said most of the debris burned up in re-entry over the Sulu Sea between the Philippines and Malaysia. Unlike many modern rockets, including the SpaceX Falcon 9, the Long March 5B can’t reignite its engine to complete a controlled atmospheric re-entry. That has led to worry about where the rocket would land every time China has launched one. On a test flight in 2020, remnants of a Long March 5B fell on villages in the Ivory Coast, leading to property damage.
Reentry looks to have been observed from Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysia. Debris would land downrange in northern Borneo, possbily Brunei. [corrected] https://t.co/sX6m1XMYoO
Following Saturday's re-entry, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson criticized China for lack of transparency. “The People’s Republic of China did not share specific trajectory information as their Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth,” he said on Twitter. “All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices, and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk, especially for heavy-lift vehicles, like the Long March 5B, which carry a significant risk of loss of life and property.”
China plans to employ the Long March 5B at least two more times. In October, the rocket will carry the third and final part of Tiangong to space. Next year, it will do the same with the country’s Xuntian space telescope.
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BMW is recalling 83 iX and i4 vehicles after investigating multiple battery fire incidents involving the two EVs. In an advisory spotted by Autoblog, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration warns owners of select iX xDrive 50, iX M60, i4 eDrive40 and i4 M50 vehicles not to drive their cars, charge them or park them inside.
After first investigating an overseas incident involving a 2022 i4 eDrive back in April, BMW found a manufacturing defect with select Samsung SDI battery cells in iX models produced between December 2nd, 2021 and June 30th, 2022, and i4 models built between November 22nd, 2021 and June 13th, 2022.
BMW has already notified dealers of the recall. The automaker will replace the batteries in affected vehicles free of charge. BMW adds it’s not aware of any accidents or injuries due to the battery defect. Affected owners can expect a notification letter by September 19th. You can also contact BMW support ahead of time for more information.
For those worried about a potential repeat of the situation Chevy Bolt owners went through with GM, it’s worth noting BMW sources batteries for its iX and i4 EVs from two manufacturers: CATL and Samsung SDI. By contrast, GM single-sourced the Bolt’s battery from LG Chem before it announced a worldwide recall in 2021.
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The national news cycle may have largely moved on from coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic — despite, as of this writing, infections being on the rise and more than 300 deaths tallied daily from the disease. But that certainly doesn't diminish the unprecedented international response effort and warp speed development of effective vaccines.
In The Messenger: Moderna, the Vaccine, and the Business Gamble That Changed the World, veteran Wall Street Journal reporter Peter Loftus takes readers through the harrowing days of 2020 as the virus raged across the globe and biotech startup Moderna raced to create a vaccine to halt the viral rampage. The excerpt below takes place in early 2021, as the company works to adapt its treatments to slow the surging Delta variant's spread.
Viruses of all types frequently change. They mutate as they jump from person to person. The coronavirus was no different. Throughout the pandemic, health officials tracked variants of the SARS CoV-2 virus first found in Wuhan, China, as those variants arose. None seemed a big concern, until one was flagged in the United Kingdom in December 2020, right as Moderna’s vaccine neared approval. This UK variant appeared to be as much as 70 percent more transmissible. It was given the name the Alpha variant.
Alpha reinforced the possibility that the virus could mutate enough to become resistant to vaccines and treatments that were designed to target the earlier, predominant strain. Or it could fizzle out. But variants would keep coming. Shortly after Alpha, researchers identified another variant circulating in South Africa. Beta.
In late December—just a few days after the United States authorized its vaccine — Moderna issued a statement that it was confident the vaccine would be effective at inducing the necessary immune response against variants. The original vaccine targeted the full length of the spike protein of the coronavirus, and the new variants appeared to have mutations in the spike protein that represented less than a 1 percent difference from the original.
“So, from what we’ve seen so far, the variants being described do not alter the ability of neutralizing antibodies elicited by vaccination to neutralize the virus,” Tal Zaks said during a virtual appearance at the all-important J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January 2021. “My definition of when to get worried is either when we see real clinical data that suggest that people who’ve either been sick or have been immunized are now getting infected at significant rates with the new variants.”
Even if the vaccine proved less effective against a new variant, Moderna could use its mRNA technology to quickly tweak the design of its Covid-19 vaccine, to better target a variant of the virus, Zaks said. After all, the company and its federal health partners had already demonstrated the year before how quickly they could design, manufacture, and test a new vaccine.
Still, Moderna needed to run a series of tests to see if its original vaccine offered the same high level of protection against variants as it showed in the big Phase 3 clinical trial.
Moderna collaborated again with researchers from NIAID including Barney Graham and Kizzmekia Corbett. They analyzed blood samples taken from eight people who were vaccinated with Moderna’s shot in the Phase 1 trial back in early 2020. They essentially mixed these blood samples with the coronavirus variants, engineered so they copied the mutations of the variants but couldn’t replicate and pose a threat to lab researchers. Researchers then analyzed whether the vaccine-induced antibodies present in the human blood samples could effectively neutralize the virus variants.
The results were mixed. They suggested the vaccine worked as well against the UK Alpha variant as against the original strain of the coronavirus. That was good news. Even if the UK variant spread more easily than the original virus, Moderna’s vaccine could probably mute its effects.
But the Beta variant first identified in South Africa seemed to pose a problem. The vaccine-induced antibodies had a significantly reduced neutralization effect on this strain in the lab tests. “Oh shit,” Bancel said when Stephen Hoge showed him the data. It wouldn’t be the last time. Moderna’s leaders saw the data on a Friday in late January 2021 and spent the weekend discussing it. They hoped that a modified, variant- targeted vaccine wouldn’t be needed, and that Moderna’s original vaccine would suffice, even if it had a reduced neutralizing effect. But Moderna didn’t want to be caught flat-footed if a variant-specific booster was needed.
They decided by the next Monday it was time to take action. They would develop a new version of the vaccine, one that more closely matched the mutations seen in the strain that circulated in South Africa, and which could potentially be given as a booster shot to better protect people who had gotten the original vaccine.
“It really highlights the fact that we need to continue to stay vigilant,” Moderna’s president, Stephen Hoge, said. “This virus is evolving, it’s changing its stripes. And we need to keep testing the new variants, and make sure the vaccine works against them.”
Moderna repeated the steps it took a year earlier: it quickly designed a new variant vaccine and manufactured an initial batch for human testing, shipping it to NIAID in late February, a year to the day after it had shipped the original batch of the original vaccine. The new batch was called mRNA-1273.351, appending the “351” because researchers initially called the variant seen in South Africa “B.1.351.”
“Moderna is going to keep chasing the variants until the pandemic is under control,” Bancel said that day.
Moderna also developed other plans to test. It would try a third dose of its original vaccine, given several months after the second dose, to see if that booster shot would protect against variants. It would also develop a combined vaccine that targeted both the original strain and the Beta strain.
Once again, volunteers stepped up to test these various approaches. Neal Browning, the Microsoft engineer who was the second person to get Moderna’s vaccine, showed up once again to volunteer. In the intervening year, he had gotten married, in a small outdoor ceremony to minimize Covid risk. Now he received a third dose of the Moderna vaccine. He felt tenderness at the injection site and a low-grade fever and chills, but the symptoms went away after several hours. He continued to visit the research site to give blood samples to be analyzed for immune responses.
By early May, Moderna had some answers. It gave booster shots — either the original vaccine or the Beta variant – targeting vaccine — to people about six to eight months after they had been vaccinated with two doses of the original vaccine. The company found that in the new analysis, both types of booster shots increased neutralizing antibodies against the Beta variant. And they increased antibodies against a related variant that had been detected in Brazil. But the newer version of the vaccine that targeted Beta induced a stronger immune response against the Beta variant than the booster shot of Moderna’s original vaccine.
At the time, Moderna’s plan was to continue testing the different booster approaches, with an eye toward possibly getting government approval to sell the booster shot that specifically targeted the Beta variant. But it didn’t seem particularly urgent. The existing mass vaccination campaign was making good progress at the time.
Then, with the virus on the retreat in the United States, scientists discovered a new variant driving an alarming surge in India. This variant had already jumped to other countries, including the United States. Initially, it was code-named B.1.617.2. It was even more contagious than the Alpha variant and there were fears that it could evade vaccines. This was the Delta variant.
The previous winter the hope provided by vaccines was juxtaposed with the deadliest virus surge in the United States. Again, in early summer 2021, the lifting of mask mandates and reopening of public life was bringing great hope and a sense of relief. And again, this would be juxtaposed with public-health officials sounding the alarm about the Delta variant. It could become the dominant strain of the virus in the United States, they said. The best way to stop its spread, officials said, was to get more people vaccinated, with any of the three vaccines available.
By mid-June, about 55 percent of the US adult population was fully vaccinated, which was good but still left many people exposed to the new Delta variant that spread much more easily than earlier strains. And there were clear geographic vulnerabilities. The Northeast United States had higher vaccination rates than the national average, particularly in some New England states, like Vermont with its 62 percent vaccination rate. But in the South the numbers were much lower in states like Alabama, where only 30 percent were fully vaccinated.
The high proportions of unvaccinated people in those places would serve as a breeding ground for Delta. And the more the variant spread, the more it could mutate into more variants.
By late July, the effects of an ill-fated combination — stubbornly low vaccination rates in some regions, the winding down of masking and distancing, and a rapidly spreading Delta strain—were clearer. Infections, hospitalizations, and deaths were climbing again, especially in open states like Florida, which suffered one of the highest rates of Covid-19 hospitalizations, and low-vaccinated states.
Doctors and nurses who thought they had put the worst of the pandemic behind them were once again scrambling to treat severely ill Covid-19 patients in intensive-care units. By the end of August, the United States was averaging about fifteen hundred Covid-19 deaths a day, versus fewer than two hundred in early July. Nearly all of the patients who ended up in the ICU were unvaccinated.
Some vaccinated people were beginning to test positive for Covid-19, too — commonly called “breakthrough” cases—and a few progressed to severe cases. The vaccines, after all, weren’t 100 percent effective in the clinical trials, either. A small percentage of vaccinated people in the studies got sick with Covid. But it was becoming clear that the vaccines weren’t entirely blocking transmission of the virus or stopping asymptomatic infections, as initially hoped.
Vaccinated people were better protected than unvaccinated people, even when Delta took over. In states like Massachusetts, less than 1 percent of fully vaccinated people in the state had tested positive for Covid-19 by the fall of 2021. Other analysis showed that people who weren’t fully vaccinated were nearly five times more likely to get infected, ten times more likely to be hospitalized and eleven times more likely to die from Covid than fully vaccinated people.
But Delta reminded people, or made them understand for the first time, that the vaccines weren’t bullet-proof. New indoor mask mandates were imposed, including at schools, where educators just weeks earlier had been eager for the first normal back-to-school season in two years. No vaccine was yet authorized for children under twelve (both Moderna and Pfizer were studying that population), raising concerns that Delta would spread rapidly among them as they gathered in classrooms.
By the end of the summer, people wondered if the pandemic would ever end. Some started talking about the coronavirus as endemic, not a pandemic.
And a big slice of America was still saying “No thanks” to the vaccine.
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If you missed the chance to buy the Apple TV 4K when it was $59 off a few weeks ago, now is your opportunity to purchase it at that price again. Amazon has discounted the 32GB model to $120, making it only $10 more than it was during Prime Day. That’s a compelling price for one of the best streaming devices you can buy.
Engadget senior editor Devindra Hardawar awarded the 2021 Apple TV 4K a score of 90. Highlights include a much improved Siri remote and a more powerful A12 Bionic chip. The latter allows the Apple TV 4K to output HDR video at up to 60 frames per second and deliver excellent gaming performance.
If you own a handful of other Apple devices, you’ll appreciate the Apple TV 4K’s support for AirPlay. The wireless protocol makes it easy to share video, photos and music from your iPhone, iPad or Mac to your TV. With SharePlay built-in, you can even participate in watch parties over FaceTime with friends and family. For those with AirPods, Apple updated the Apple TV 4K last fall to add support for spatial audio so you can enjoy a more immersive experience without buying an expensive sound setup.
The Apple TV 4K also supports all of the most popular streaming services, including Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu and more. One of the most significant drawbacks of Apple’s streaming device is its expensive price tag, but that's something the $59 discount helps address.
Contrary to what you may have heard in the past few days, Google says it’s not shutting down its Stadia gaming service. The company issued the statement after a rumor began circulating earlier this week that suggested it would sunset the platform later this year. “Stadia is not shutting down,” the official Stadia Twitter account told a concerned fan in a tweet spotted by PC Gamer. “Rest assured we’re always working on bringing more great games to the platform and Stadia Pro.”
— Killed by Google 🌻🇺🇦 (@killedbygoogle) July 28, 2022
Some Stadia fans were convinced Google would finally pull the plug on the service after Cody Ogden of Killed by Google fame, a Twitter account and blog that keeps track of the company’s constantly expanding graveyard, shared a post from a Facebook fan group. According to the message, an “old coworker and friend” told the poster Google had recently held a meeting to discuss Stadia’s future — or lack thereof. They claimed the company would shut down the platform by the end of the summer and would do so using the same strategy it employed with Google Play Music.
Old coworker of mine is now one of the social managers for Google. They had a pretty large seminar in California this past weekend, and long story short you now can play Wavetale at no additional cost on Stadia Pro until August 1: https://t.co/2O6P0Kd8Kdpic.twitter.com/Hjo0pvARKx
That even a thinly sourced rumor caused upheaval among the Stadia community isn’t surprising. The service has been on an extended deathwatch ever since Google shut down its first-party studios. The incident highlights the unhealthy parasocial relationships people can sometimes have with tech companies like Google. “Communities that are confident in their continued existence don’t respond like some of the things that have been hurled at me in public and in DMs the past couple days,” Ogden said after the dust settled. “If even the suggestion that a piece of technology could go away affects you so deeply that it brings you to threats, maybe you need to reevaluate your relationship with the tech?”
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Uber has launched a couple of features designed to improve the experience of and increase transparency for drivers. A few months ago, the ride-hailing giant started piloting a feature called "Upfront Fares" in a handful of cities. Now it's expanding its availability and rolling it out to most of the US over the coming months. When they get access to the features, drivers will see how much they'll earn and where they're going for a trip on the request screen before they accept the booking.
According to the Help page explaining how Upfront Fares work, Uber calculates the amount it shows using several factors, "including base fares, estimated trip length and duration, pickup distance and surge pricing." Uber will also show drivers the cross streets closest to the pick up and drop-off points to help them make a decision. In addition, Uber will also expand the availability of "Trip Radar," a feature that shows drivers a list of possible trips nearby, along with Upfront Fares. They'll still get individual trip requests, but now they can pick another booking that might suit them better.
Uber is positioning these new features as a way to support its drivers, but as Axios notes, the impact they may have on customers remains unclear. They could end up being misused and lead to the increase of rider and trip discrimination if drivers look at them as tools to avoid specific neighborhoods. That said, the features could also prevent canceled trips, because they allow drivers to make a conscious decision when accepting trips.
The company has also launched a new Uber Pro debit card that will enable drivers to earn cashbacks for getting gas at select stations. Back in March, Uber added a fuel surcharge to rides and deliveries, as well, to help drivers keep up with skyrocketing gas prices.
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GM doesn't want people buying some of its newer and most sought-after models, such as the GMC Hummer EV, to quickly sell them for a profit. The automaker is implementing several aggressive measures meant to discourage the practice, even if it ends up losing the company some customers. In a letter obtained by Corvette Blogger, Steve Carlisle, GM President for North America, told the GM Dealership team that the company is "limiting the transferability of certain warranties" if the vehicle being resold was purchased within the past 12 months. Further, GM will ban the seller from "placing future sold orders or reservations for certain high demand models (as identified by GM)."
Carlisle said the models affected by this new rule are the GMC Hummer EVs (SUT and SUV), the 23MY Cadillac Escalade-V and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06. GM has been struggling to keep up with the demand for its electric Hummer vehicles, and the company said it's because it was developed from scratch and was built on top of its new Ultium EV platform. According to a Wall Street Journal report earlier this month, GM has only been producing up to a dozen electric Hummers a day. A spokesperson told the publication that the company's output will increase sharply in the second half of the year, but the automaker has over 70,000 reservations for the vehicle, and some people may run out of patience and just purchase from a reseller.
"When vehicles are quickly resold, particularly by unauthorized dealers or other resellers that do not adhere to GM's standards, the customer experience suffers and GM's brands are damaged," Carlisle said, explaining the reason behind the automaker's decision. "These changes are being implemented to ensure an exemplary customer experience, to ensure our brands remain strong, and to help prioritize ownership by brand enthusiasts and loyal customers."
In addition to these particular measures, GM also recently announced that it's giving $5,000 in reward points to customers who keep their eighth-generation Corvette Z06 sports car for a year.
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With stories of hackers selling personal information in bulk on forums becoming more common, it can be stressful to send your device for repair. Yes, you could wipe your phone, but then you have to go through the hassle of restoring it afterward. Now, Samsung has introduced a solution for that issue in the form of a new function called "Repair Mode."
According to a Korean announcement first spotted by SamMobile, you can activate the new mode under "Battery and Device Care" in Settings. Samsung didn't explain the technology behind the feature, but when activated, it will hide your personal information, photos, messages and linked accounts. Only the device's pre-installed apps will be visible to the technician. To regain access to your data, you simply have to disable Repair Mode and use pattern or fingerprint recognition to authenticate your identity.
Seeing as Samsung has yet to announce the feature outside Korea, it's most likely safe to say that it's only available in the company's home country at the moment. Further, it's only available on the Galaxy S21 series phones for now. However, the company says it will roll out Repair Mode to other models — and hopefully to other regions — in the future.
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Warzel dives into questions about DALL-E 2 in his newsletter for The Atlantic, many of which have been voiced by others. Those include what it could mean for the future of art and the potential commercial ambitions of OpenAI, the company that created it.
Before Meta's dismal earnings report this week, there was news of how CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to revitalize the company as it focuses on the metaverse.
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Kenya's National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), a government agency that aims to eradicate ethnic or racial discrimination among the country's 45 tribes, has given Facebook seven days to tackle hate speech related to next month's election on its platform. If the social media fails to do so, it faces suspension in the country. The agency's warning comes shortly after international NGO Global Witness and legal non-profit Foxglove released a report detailing how Facebook approved ads written to instigate ethnic violence in both English and Swahili.
The organizations joined forces to conduct a study testing Facebook's ability to detect hate speech and calls for ethnic-based violence ahead of the Kenyan elections. As Global Witness explained in its report, the country's politics are polarized and ethnically driven — after the 2007 elections, for instance, 1,300 people were killed and hundreds of thousands more had to flee their homes. A lot more people use social media today compared to 2007, and over 20 percent of the Kenyan population is on Facebook, where hate speech and misinformation are major issues.
The groups decided not to publish the exact ads they submitted for the test because they were highly offensive, but they used real-life examples of hate speech commonly used in Kenya. They include comparisons of specific tribal groups to animals and calls for their members' rape, slaughter and beheading. "Much to our surprise and concern," Global Witness reported, "all hate speech examples in both [English and Swahili] were approved." The NCIC said the NGOs' report corroborates its own findings.
After the organizations asked Facebook for a comment regarding what it had discovered and hence made it aware of the study, Meta published a post that details how it is preparing for Kenya's election. In it, the company said it has built a more advanced content detection technology and has hired dedicated teams of Swahili speakers to help it "remove harmful content quickly and at scale." To see if Facebook truly has implemented changes that has improved its detection system, the organizations resubmitted its test ads. They were approved yet again.
In a statement sent to both Global Witness and Gizmodo, Meta said it has taken "extensive steps" to "catch hate speech and inflammatory content in Kenya" and that the company is "intensifying these efforts ahead of the election." It also said, however, that there will be instances where it misses things " as both machines and people make mistakes."
Global Witness said its study's findings follow a similar pattern it previously uncovered in Myanmar, where Facebook played a role in enabling calls for ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims. It also follows a similar pattern the organization unearthed in Ethiopia wherein bad actors used the Facebook to incite violence. The organizations and Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen are now calling on Facebook to implement the "Break the Glass” package of emergency measures it took after the January 6th, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. They's also asking the social network to suspend paid digital advertisements in Kenya until the end of the elections on August 9th.
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Last month, Instagram started testing a full-screen display for photos and videos. And we didn’t like it. Now, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says the test will be wound down over the next couple of weeks. “For the new feed designs, people are frustrated, and the usage data isn’t great,” Mosseri said to Platformer.
He added: “When you discover something in your field that you didn't follow before, there should be a high bar — it should just be great,” he said. “You should be delighted to see it. And I don't think that’s happening enough right now."
Instagram brought in the full-screen feed and larger number of recommended posts to compete with TikTok and to contend with the pivot from photos to videos. The time spent by people watching Reels grew by 30 percent last quarter, and Mosseri said users' gradual embrace of video was happening, regardless of Instagram’s own movements.
In an earnings call on Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said around 15 percent of the posts people see on Facebook (and even more on Instagram) are recommended by algorithms. Zuckerberg expects the volume of recommended posts to double over the next year or so.
It was so impressed with Ingenuity, NASA’s making two more space helicopters.
NASA has altered the Mars Sample Return Program meant to bring back the rock samples the Perseverance rover has been drilling and collecting from the Jezero crater. Instead of sending a rover to the red planet like originally planned, the program will use Perseverance itself and send over two helicopters. The Earth Return Orbiter and Sample Retrieval Lander will take off in fall 2027 and summer 2028. Their journey to and from the red planet will take years, so the samples aren't expected to arrive on Earth until 2033.
The feature is in beta but will likely be available to all soon.
The PlayStation 5now supports 1440p, at least for gamers with access to its beta software. While the console has supported 1080p and 4K output from the start, 1440p support is still a much-requested feature by players who use monitors instead of TVs. However, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), which rolled out for the console in April, is only available for 1080p and 2160p. VRR gives the screen the ability to sync its refresh rate with the game for a smoother experience. It's not quite clear why it's not available for 1440p output.
Automakers might just get the EV tax credit extension they've been hoping for. Senators Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin may have agreed on an Inflation Reduction Act that would replace the 200,000-unit cap on federal EV tax credits with a system that would restore those perks for GM, Tesla and Toyota. According to Bloomberg sources, the new approach is a compromise that would switch to price- and income-based limits, drop union manufacturing requirements and even offer credits for used EVs.
Google’s latest Pixel Buds are its best yet, due mostly to the company finally checking a missing box: active noise cancellation. They do cost more, however, but the sound quality impresses, and there’s a host of handy features, like hands-free access to Assistant. There are a few shortcomings, but they remain Google’s best buds yet. Read on for our full verdict.
After Meta's revenue shrank for the first time in its history, the company has reportedly told publishers it will no longer pay for content to run in Facebook's News Tab, according to Axios. "Most people do not come to Facebook for news, and as a business it doesn't make sense to over-invest in areas that don't align with user preferences," a spokesperson said in a statement.
Facebook spent around $105 million on such deals, paying $20 million to The New York Times, $10 million to The Wall Street Journal and $3 million to CNN, according to Axios. Facebook struck the deals back in 2019 as it boosted its investment in news and even hired journalists to direct traffic to the news tab.
Facebook also promised to pay partner sites including The Guardian and The Economist for news in the UK when it launched the News Tab there late in 2020. Shortly after that, it signed a deal with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp to pay for content in Australia, after the Australian Parliament passed a law requiring Facebook and Google to do so.
Along with Google, Facebook has taken criticism for drawing ad dollars away from dedicated news sites. That has contributed to the failure of a quarter of US news sites over the last 15 years, according to Poynter, with the professional journalism vacuum often been filled by false or misleading news on Facebook.
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Twitter's $3 subscription now costs $5 a month. The social network has sent out an email notifying existing subscribers that Twitter Blue has raised its prices for new members, but as early adopters, the monthly amount they're paying will remain the same until October. In the email posted by social media consultant Matt Navarra and first spotted by The Verge, the company said early adopters will also be notified at least 30 days before the new monthly price takes effect for their accounts.
The company didn't elaborate on the reason behind the price increase and only said in the email that it will help Twitter build new features subscribers have been asking for, improve upon the ones it already has and sustain its mission of supporting journalism. It also said that it's currently creating a "more frictionless reading experience" and launching new experimental features in Twitter Blue Labs for those who choose to stick around even with the higher subscription price.
Twitter launched its subscription service in the US back in November, unlocking additional features for the website's most dedicated users. Some of its features can be very useful, including the ability to Undo tweets, which is the closest thing to an "edit" button at the moment. It also allows members to browse news without ads and gives them access to the latest features the website is testing.
In its second quarter earnings report for 2022, Twitter said it has seen a sharp rise in the number of regular users on the website. The bad news was that it didn't translate to more money for the company. It posted a net loss of $270 million, which it blamed on the economic downturn and the uncertainty surrounding Elon Musk's takeover. If you'll recall, Musk offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion back in April and the social network quickly accepted, but they've been at odds since then. In July, Twitter sued Elon Musk for attempting to back out of the acquisition, and now the two parties are going to face off in an expedited, five-day trial beginning in October.
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NASA has altered the Mars Sample Return Program meant to bring back the rock samples the Perseverance rover has been drilling and collecting from the Jezero crater in a big way. Instead of sending the Sample Fetch Rover to the red planet like originally planned, the program will make use of Perseverance itself and send over two helicopters based on the Ingenuity for backup.
NASA and the ESA have been working together on the Sample Return Program over the past few years. The original plan was to send over the ESA-made Sample Fetch Rover to retrieve the samples and drive them back to a rocket, which will fly them up to be snatched by the Earth Return Orbiter. As The New York Times notes, though, the rover's design became too big until it could no longer fit in one lander with the return rocket. NASA would have to use one lander for each of them.
But why do that when there are other, more affordable options? The Sample Return Lander isn't scheduled to arrive on Mars until 2030, but NASA is confident that Perseverance will still be operational by then — after all, the Curiosity rover is still up and running almost 11 years after it launched. Under their renewed plan, the Perseverance will drive up to the lander to deliver 30 rock samples that will be loaded onto the rocket.
If anything goes wrong with Perseverance before then, though, the lander would settle closer to the rover and then the backup helicopters will fly over to retrieve the samples. While the helicopters are modeled after the Ingenuity, they'll have small wheels at the bottom. These will allow them to drive up to the samples that are sealed inside tubes and pick them up from the ground where the rover has dropped them.
The Ingenuity helicopter completed its first test flight on Mars in April 2021. NASA wasn't expecting much from the helicopter, which was just supposed to prove that flight on Mars is possible. It was also only supposed to fly a handful of times during a one-month technology demonstration, but it has accomplished 29 successful flights so far, with more on the way. Ingenuity's success has given NASA another means to retrieve the precious samples Perseverance has been collecting.
Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for NASA's science directorate, said during the press conference announcing the new Sample Return Program plans:
"We reached our decision based on new studies and recent achievements at Mars that allowed us to consider options that, frankly, weren’t available to us one year ago or before."
The Earth Return Orbiter and Sample Retrieval Lander will take off in the fall of 2027 and the summer of 2028, respectively. Their journey to and from the red planet will take years, so the samples aren't expected to arrive on Earth until 2033.
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Ghosting can hurt, for sure. When someone suddenly cuts off contact, doesn’t show up at a date or just unmatches on one of those many dating apps, it sucks. One Filipino lawmaker is trying to make it stop, which could be a tall order. Arnolfo Teves Jr., a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, said ghosting was "a form of emotional cruelty and should be punished as an emotional offense."
The bill — yes there’s proposed legislation — doesn't offer specific penalties, but Teves suggested in an interview that community service might work. The bill tries to define a dating relationship as one where the parties live together without being married or are "romantically involved over time and on a continuing basis."
Teves said neither casual acquaintances nor “ordinary socialization” constitutes a dating relationship. But those are likely the connections that ghost the most. The bill doesn’t account for blocking someone without explanation if they're being creepy or threatening, which can often be the case. (Why am I coming across as a regular ghoster / ghostee?) Silently ditching a conversation is usually easier than being honest, sadly. It’s not cool, but I’m not sure it’s truly a criminal offense.
Google Photos is getting a significant update that has the distinction of first arriving on Chromebooks. Your photo and video library will get a new movie editor and video editing features this fall as part of a Chrome OS update. You’ll be able to make videos similar to the highlight clips the app already automatically makes, and select a theme, people or pets you want to feature in it; from there, Google Photos will pull together a movie using video clips and images from your library. Google isn’t saying yet if these video editing features will come to the mobile apps for iOS and Android, but Google Photos has usually had feature parity regardless of platform.
Generative Artificial Intelligences (GAIs) are systems that create pieces of work to equal the old masters in technique, if not in intent. But there’s a problem: These systems are trained on existing material, often using content pulled from the internet, from us.
DALL-E 2, Open AI’s system for creating “realistic images and art from a description in natural language” is the current star of GAIs. A user could enter the phrase “teddy bears shopping for groceries in the style of Ukiyo-e,” and the model will produce pictures in that style, often to a pretty high standard. But this all prompts several questions on ownership, data biases and the law of art. Engadget’s Daniel Cooper explores the future of AI-generated images.
Projectors have come a long way from the clunky, dim models of the past. The latest models are brighter, sharper, more discreet and easier to install than ever. There are a lot of different types of projectors, though, ranging from ultra short throw to portable to long throw. There are also a lot of technical terms, so it’s the perfect topic for our latest Engadget guide, which explains everything you need to know.
Overall user figures grew to 433 million, but the company lost $197 million in the quarter.
The music streaming company hasn’t yet felt the effects of a looming global recession. Unlike Netflix, which had to report a fall in its overall customer base, Spotify has seen both free and paying accounts grow. It now has 433 million users, up from the 422 million reported at the end of the first quarter. Of those, 188 million pay for Premium, a leap of six million from three months ago. Spotify’s plan to pivot toward cheaper forms of audio content, like podcasts and audiobooks, should help to keep new listeners streaming away.
You can also get a peek at your environment to avoid collisions.
Finally, some early details of PlayStation VR2's software experience, not just the hardware. Sony teased a few key features for its PS5 VR headset, including live streaming support. If you have a PS5 HD Camera, you can broadcast both gameplay and a view of yourself. As you might guess, that could be helpful for Twitch streamers and YouTubers. The company also explained how it will handle non-VR content, with a 1080p Cinematic Mode that displays the PS5 interface and conventional games on a virtual screen at refresh rates between 24Hz and 120Hz.
Logitech's Litra Glow is a glare-free soft light developed for streamers that flew off the shelves after it was first unveiled early this year. Now, it's on sale for the first time at Amazon for $50, or $10 off the regular $60 price — a significant 20 percent discount.
The Litra Glow is designed to be gentle on the eyes and safe for all-day streaming, while providing a "natural, radiant look across skin tones." It also promises cinematic color accuracy via Logitech's TrueSoft technology, while providing a soft, flattering light. Logitech also said at launch that it works well for people of different skin tones
It's ready to go out of the box thanks to five presets with different brightness levels and color temperatures, or you can use the G HUB software to create your own. As a bonus, any presets you create can be assigned to the G Keys on a Logitech G keyboard or mouse.
You can find other soft- and ring-style lights from Elgato and others, but most from any recognizable name brand are considerably more expensive. Now, with the discount on offer, it's a particularly sharp deal, especially considering Logitech's promised color accuracy.
Spotify’s second-quarter financial release shows the streaming giant hasn’t yet felt the dread hand of the looming global recession. Unlike Netflix, which had to report a fall in its overall customer base, Spotify has seen both free and paying accounts grow. It now has 433 million users, up from the 422 million reported at the end of the first quarter. 188 million of those are paying for Premium, a leap of six million from three months ago, while a further four million are signed up on an ad-supported basis.
Despite industry-wide fears that household budgets would cut entertainment costs to help free up much-needed cash, Spotify has dodged cost-cutting so far. The company said that while it was keeping an eye on the “uncertain” environment, it was “pleased with the resilience of [its] business.” That said, the company did spend big to help grow its user figures, with marketing campaigns designed to coax back users who let their subscriptions lapse, or who wanted to expand to a family plan.
That marketing spend helped blow a hole in the company’s finances, with Spotify posting a quarterly loss of €194 million ($197 million). The company is banking on sharp increases in revenue both for subscriptions and advertising to help balance those losses out. In addition, its plan to pivot toward cheaper forms of audio content, like podcasts and audiobooks, should see the volume of cash it pays to record labels fall to a more tolerable (for Spotify) level — even if recording artists continue to demonstrate that they’re being starved of an income by the piddling royalties paid out on a per-stream basis.
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Instagram's TikTok-like test feed is underwhelming, and a lot of people hate it. But it’s not going anywhere. Social network head Adam Mosseri posted a Twitter clip acknowledging the video-focused trial feed is "not yet good." He also said Instagram would invariably become more video-centric over time, as that was the content being shared on the network.
Mosseri also defended the rise of recommended posts in users' feeds. He said they were the "most effective and important" way for creators to grow their audiences. Users can pause all recommendations for a month, but is that a priority for creators, or the audience? It’s a bit of a chicken-or-egg situation.
The country will focus on building its own space outpost.
The head of Russia's space program says the country will withdraw from the International Space Station after 2024. It will instead focus on building its own space station as a successor to Mir. Russia, and its cosmonauts will remain on the ISS for at least the next two and a half years to fulfill obligations to partners. Earlier this month, NASA and Roscosmos signed an agreement to swap seats on flights to the ISS starting in September.
Logitech’s Aurora Collection is a line of "gender-inclusive" gaming accessories: a mouse, keyboard and headset. The devices are built around "comfort, approachability and playfulness," based on "feedback from women gamers across the community," the company said. There are some interesting features but at relatively high prices, indicative of a pink tax for products designed for women.
The city of Seville is trying something new to raise awareness of climate change. With oppressive heat waves becoming a fact of life in Europe and other parts of the world, the Spanish metropolis has begun naming them. The first one, Zoe, arrived this week, bringing with it expected daytime highs above 109 degrees Fahrenheit (or 43 degrees Celsius). It’s a system akin to ones organizations like the US National Hurricane Center have used for decades to raise awareness of impending tropical storms, tornadoes and hurricanes. The idea is that people are more likely to take a threat seriously and act accordingly when it's given a name.
The Saudi government has released image renders of what The Line could look like. The linear city was designed to only be 200 meters (656 feet) wide, but 500 meters (1,640 feet) tall and 170 kilometers (105 miles) long. It will house multiple communities encased in a glass facade running along the coast and will eventually accommodate up to nine million residents. The plans feature no roads or cars, and the city would run purely on renewable energy. The Line is part of Saudi's $500 billion Neom mega-city project, beset with controversy from the time it started. Around 20,000 people will be forced to relocate by its construction.
If you're one of the few people in the US who've yet to get an Instant Pot — or if you want another model to add to the one(s) you already have — this is your chance to grab one at a discount. Amazon is holding a one-day sale for the brand's products, including the 5.7-quart Instant Pot Vortex Air Fryer, which is currently listed on the website for 52 percent off. At $67, that's the lowest price we've seen on Amazon for the air fryer-oven combo that has an original retail price of $140. While Instant Pot Vortex is an air fryer, it also has one-touch controls for baking, roasting and reheating. You can also create customized programs for specific types of food, so you can cook wings, potatoes or even cinnamon buns with a single touch.
Instant Pot's 8-quart 9-in-1 Duo Plus model is also on sale, if you what you need is the brand's classic pressure cooker. It has dropped back to an all-time low of $80, or $70 less than its retail price. The Duo Plus has nine functions in one device and could act as a rice cooker, slow cooker, yogurt maker, steamer, sauté pan, food warmer, sous vide and sterilizer, in addition to being a pressure cooker. It has 15 customizable programs to make cooking ribs, cake, soup, among other types of food a lot easier, as well.
But if you're looking to get an air fryer and a pressure cooker on a limited budget, you can get the Instant Pot Duo Crisp instead. It has nine functionalities that include air frying and pressure cooking — plus, it lets you easily switch between lids especially designed for each function. The Duo Crisp is currently on sale for $100, which $50 off its retail price. You'll find a few more models to choose from on the deals homepage. Some of them aren't selling for their all-time low prices at the moment, but Instant Pots are always a great pick-up on a deal.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
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A federal court has ruled that Uber does not need to provide wheelchair-accessible service in every US market, ABC News has reported. The company's decision to provide such a service only in certain cities was not in violation of federal law and would be overly burdensome, said Chief Judge Richard Seeborg of the federal San Francisco Court.
Two users of motorized wheelchairs in New Orleans and Jackson, Mississippi sued Uber over the lack of accessible services in those cities. Since Uber couldn't accommodate non-foldable wheelchairs, they claimed that it was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that prohibits businesses from discriminating against people based on their disabilities. They further argued that Uber has a "deep-rooted accessibility problem," treating it as an "afterthought." The trial for the case lasted nearly five years.
Uber said in its defense that it would be too expensive to offer wheelchair service in every city if it needed to contract with providers of wheelchair-accessible vehicles. Judge Seeborg agreed, saying that the plaintiffs gave "scant evidence" that Uber could do so cost-effectively and that wait times would still be "significant" if it did. "The anticipated cost here is too high for the limited service that would result, making the proposed modification unreasonable," he said.
The judge did reject Uber's argument that it didn't need to provide wheelchair-accessible services everywhere because it has done so in some cities, noting that the ADA looks at each modification for reasonableness.
Uber does accommodate wheelchair users in other cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. New Orleans considered mandating the service, but Uber lobbied against those efforts, according to the court records. "We welcome the outcome and are proud of our efforts to improve accessibility for all users, including through Uber WAV,” said an Uber spokesperson in a statement.
Noting that the decision arrived on the eve of the anniversary of the ADA's passage into law, lead plaintiff Scott Crawford decried the ruling. "Uber made no sincere attempt to provide accessible service, but instead claimed it was too burdensome," he said. "This could have been economically resolved years ago.'
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Sometimes the headline says it all: A chess-playing robot accidentally broke the finger of its seven-year-old opponent during an exhibition match in Moscow. The child apparently moved his piece too soon, and the robot grabbed his finger and squeezed it, resulting in a fracture.
A video shows the robot grabbing the boy's finger and holding it for several seconds before a group of people come to free him.
The boy competed the next day, finishing the tournament. His parents, however, have reportedly contacted the public prosecutor's office. Russian chess official Sergey Smagin downplayed the incident, calling it "a coincidence" and saying the machine was "absolutely safe." Which I’m not sure is true.
The initial line-up of GaNPrime devices: 5 products and a power bank.
Anker has revealed its third-generation gallium nitride (GaN) chargers, barely a year after the previous batch. The company is branding the new line-up of power bricks and portable chargers as GaNPrime. Anker said it worked with several partners to create products that last longer and are more sustainable. It claims GaNPrime is the "most intelligent, most powerful and greenest multi-device charging system ever created."
Its foundries will add 'significant capacity' for MediaTek in North America and Europe.
Intel and MediaTek have formed a strategic partnership to build chips. The aim is to ensure MediaTek has a "more balanced, resilient supply chain," with added capacity in the US and Europe. It looks like Intel won’t be building chips for smartphones but for less glamorous devices used in industrial computing, medical devices and internet-of-things applications.
NFL+ gives you access to live football streams and ad-free library content through the NFL App and the web, starting at $40 per year or $5 per month. Spend $80 per year or $10 per month on NFL+ Premium and you also get ad-free match replays. There are some catches, however. While you'll have live audio for every game regardless of device, live video is only available for live local and primetime games on phones and tablets — you can't use this to watch a playoff run on your TV.
To celebrate its 10-year anniversary, Google is… unveiling a new logo. No, no free games or trials, but you can get extra points if you’re signed into the app store’s rewards program. Which apparently exists.
Funko, which is best known for its Pop vinyl figurines, is about to venture into new territory. It's making video games with the help of developer 10:10 Games. The studio is led by Jon Burton, the founder of Traveller's Tales and TT Games. Funko says its first game will have "major third-party studio integration," which probably shouldn't be a big shock given the high-profile licensing deals.
Meta is putting its considerable weight behind the tech industry's push to do away with the leap second. In a post on the company's engineering blog, Meta production engineer Oleg Obleukhov and research scientist Ahmad Byagowi talked about how a leap second can wreak havoc on a network, along with the solution Meta implements to prevent outages and any issues it could cause.
The leap second was introduced back in 1972 as a way to adjust Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and make up for the difference between the International Atomic Time (TAI), which is measured by atomic clocks, and imprecise observed solar time (UT1). They sometimes don't match due to irregularities and slowdown in the Earth's rotation caused by various climate-induced and geological events, such as the melting and refreezing of ice caps on the tallest mountains.
As Obleukhov and Byagowi note, the offset a leap second creates can cause issues all over the industry. In 2012, for instance, it took Reddit out for 40 minutes when the time change confused its servers and locked up its CPUs. A time leap added in 2017 also affected Cloudflare's DNS service.
To prevent unwanted outages, Meta and other tech companies, such as Google and Amazon, use a technique called "smearing." These companies "smear" a leap second by slowing down or speeding up the clock throughout a number of hours. Meta smears a leap second throughout 17 hours, while Google uses a 24-hour smear technique that lasts from noon to noon and encourages everyone to follow suit. That way, a leap second doesn't create any weird time stamps that could throw networks off.
But Meta isn't advocating for the adoption of its smearing technique — its new post's purpose is to lend its voice to the movement that's calling for the leap second's retirement. The body responsible for deciding whether to adjust UTC, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, has added 27 leap seconds since 1972. Meta believes that's enough adjustment for the next millennium.
The company's post comes over a year before the fate of the leap second is decided. Back in 2015, the International Telecommunications Union discussed the leap second at its World Radiocommunication Conference and came to the conclusion that further studies are needed to figure out the impact of dumping it. The union is expected to examine the studies' results and to consider the proposal to retire the leap second at its next conference in 2023.
Meta said in its post:
"Leap second events have caused issues across the industry and continue to present many risks. As an industry, we bump into problems whenever a leap second is introduced. And because it’s such a rare event, it devastates the community every time it happens. With a growing demand for clock precision across all industries, the leap second is now causing more damage than good, resulting in disturbances and outages."
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After hiking US Prime prices earlier this year, Amazon is doing the same across Europe. According to emails received by Engadget staffers and a Reuters report, it's raising the cost of Prime in the UK from £79 to £95, in France from €49 to €69.90, in Spain and Italy from €36 to €49.90, and Germany from €69 to €89.90.
Those increases are the first in several years and quite significant, ranging from 20 percent in the UK to 43 percent in France. Amazon cited "increased inflation and operating costs" along with faster delivery and more streaming content to justify the rises. "We will continue to focus on making Prime even more valuable for members" via faster deliveries, more streaming content and more, the company's UK branch wrote in an email.
Last quarter, Amazon lost money for the first time since 2015 due to slowing growth and higher costs, following a huge boom during the pandemic. The company also took a hit due to its investment in electric pickup truck maker Rivian. It vowed to increase productivity during its last earnings report, but is facing a federal probe over the required pace of work and other potential warehouse hazards.
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