Ars Technica
- As NASA increasingly relies on commercial space, there are some troubling signs
Thursday - 11/21/2024 - 07:00 AMWhen it comes to space policy, a hallmark of the first Trump administration was its embrace of private companies. NASA sought to build fewer expensive things and buy more lower-cost services.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Qubit that makes most errors obvious now available to customers
Wednesday - 11/20/2024 - 03:58 PMWe're nearing the end of the year, and there are typically a flood of announcements regarding quantum computers around now, in part because some companies want to live up to promised schedules.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Comcast to ditch cable TV networks in partial spinoff of NBCUniversal assets
Wednesday - 11/20/2024 - 12:21 PMComcast today announced plans to spin off NBCUniversal cable TV networks such as USA, CNBC, and MSNBC into a new publicly traded company. Comcast is trying to complete the spinoff in one year, effectively unwinding part of the NBCUniversal acquisition it completed in 2011.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Microsoft pushes full-screen ads for Copilot+ PCs on Windows 10 users
Wednesday - 11/20/2024 - 01:45 PMWindows 10's free, guaranteed security updates stop in October 2025, less than a year from now. Windows 10 users with supported PCs have been offered the Windows 11 upgrade plenty of times before.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- A year after ditching waitlist, Starlink says it is “sold out” in parts of US
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 05:11 PMThe Starlink waitlist is back in certain parts of the US, including several large cities on the West Coast and in Texas. The Starlink availability map says the service is sold out in and around Seattle; Spokane, Washington; Portland, Oregon; San Diego; Sacramento, California; and Austin, Texas.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- SpaceX will try some new tricks on Starship’s sixth test flight
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 10:56 AMThe sixth flight of SpaceX's giant Starship rocket, set for takeoff on Tuesday from South Texas, will test the vehicle's limits in new ways.
Most importantly, SpaceX will attempt to briefly reignite one of Starship's six Raptor engines in space.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - “Windows 365 Link” is Microsoft’s $349 thin client for Windows in the cloud
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 12:29 PMMicrosoft is announcing some new hardware today, but it’s a bit different from a typical Surface device. The Windows 365 Link, which launches in April for $349, is a mini desktop PC that exists exclusively to connect to the Windows 365 cloud service rather than running Windows locally.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Cable companies and Trump’s FCC chair agree: Data caps are good for you
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 01:35 PMThe Federal Communications Commission's plan to investigate and potentially regulate data caps is all but dead now, after President-elect Donald Trump's announcement that he will promote Commissioner Brendan Carr to the chairmanship role.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Niantic uses Pokémon Go player data to build AI navigation system
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 03:34 PMLast week, Niantic announced plans to create an AI model for navigating the physical world using scans collected from players of its mobile games, such as Pokémon Go, and from users of its Scaniverse app, reports 404 Media.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Can going to a haunted house boost the immune system?
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 08:55 AMSpooky season has come and gone, but those Halloween revelers who took in a haunted house during the season might just have boosted their immune systems by doing so, according to a new paper published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
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- Google stops letting sites like Forbes rule search for “Best CBD Gummies“
Wednesday - 11/20/2024 - 02:47 PM"Updating our site reputation abuse policy" is how Google, in almost wondrously opaque fashion, announced yesterday that big changes have come to some big websites, especially those that rely on their domain authority to promote lucrative third-party product recommendations.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Cracking the recipe for perfect plant-based eggs
Wednesday - 11/20/2024 - 10:20 AMAn egg is an amazing thing, culinarily speaking: delicious, nutritious, and versatile. Americans eat nearly 100 billion of them every year, almost 300 per person. But eggs, while greener than other animal food sources, have a bigger environmental footprint than almost any plant food—and industrial egg production raises significant animal welfare issues.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - SpaceX just got exactly what it wanted from the FAA for Texas Starship launches
Wednesday - 11/20/2024 - 12:52 PMA day after SpaceX launched its Starship rocket for the sixth time, the company received good news from the Federal Aviation Administration regarding future launch operations from its Starbase facility in South Texas.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Study: Why Aztec “death whistles” sound like human screams
Wednesday - 11/20/2024 - 02:37 PMArchaeologists have discovered numerous ceramic or clay whistles at Aztec sites, dubbed "death whistles" because of their distinctive skull shapes. A new paper published in the journal Communications Psychology examines the acoustical elements of the unique shrieking sounds produced by those whistles, as well as how human listeners are emotionally affected by the sounds.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Emergent gravity may be a dead idea, but it’s not a bad one
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 10:19 AMEmergent gravity is a bold idea.
It claims that the force of gravity is a mere illusion, more akin to friction or heat—a property that emerges from some deeper physical interaction.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Report: DOJ wants to force Google Chrome sale, Android de-bundling
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 11:12 AMPreferred by 61 percent of Internet users, Google's Chrome browser plays too big a role in maintaining the tech giant's search monopoly, the US Department of Justice has reportedly decided.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 arrives with a “full digital twin” of Earth
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 01:04 PMMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2024 is out today (Xbox/PC, Steam), and it packs in a whole lot of simulation. It's hard to imagine topping the 2020 version, which contained the entire world, at scale, 3D modeled and able to be flown over.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Apple TV+ spent $20B on original content. If only people actually watched.
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 02:14 PMIn the streaming world, Apple has a reputation for quality, thanks to its Apple TV hardware and Apple TV+ streaming service. The latter is best associated with original shows and movies surrounded by award buzz and critical acclaim.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Musi fans refuse to update iPhones until Apple unblocks controversial app
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 04:24 PM"Who up missing Musi?" a Reddit user posted in a community shocked by the free music streaming app's sudden removal from Apple's App Store in September.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Trust in scientists hasn’t recovered from COVID. Some humility could help.
Monday - 11/18/2024 - 04:52 PMScientists could win back trust lost during the COVID-19 pandemic if they just showed a little intellectual humility, according to a study published Monday in Nature Human Behavior.
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- Horrifying medical device malfunction: Abdominal implant erupts from leg
Thursday - 11/21/2024 - 07:30 AMOn May 7, 2011, Georgia resident Tonya Brand noticed a pain on the inside of her right thigh. As the pain grew worse in the 4- to 5-inch area of her leg, she headed to a hospital.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Minecraft Movie trailer explores the origins of Steve
Wednesday - 11/20/2024 - 11:25 AMJack Black stars as Steve in A Minecraft Movie.
The
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Fitness app Strava is tightening third-party access to user data
Wednesday - 11/20/2024 - 12:35 PMThe Strava app is one of the most popular ways for cyclists, runners, hikers, and other distance sports enthusiasts to track their performance and grab some bragging rights. Because most athletic types will have the app installed already—and because it's hard or impossible to run two tracking apps at once—many apps use Strava's API as a go-between for workout data.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - The key moment came 38 minutes after Starship roared off the launch pad
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 11:57 PMSpaceX launched its sixth Starship rocket Tuesday, proving for the first time that the stainless steel ship can maneuver in space and paving the way for an even larger, upgraded vehicle slated to debut on the next test flight.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - The 2025 GMC Sierra EV Denali brings big power at a bigger cost
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 10:00 AMGMC provided flights from Albany, New York, to San Francisco and accommodation so Ars could test the 2025 Sierra EV. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.
Electric trucks aren't exactly blowing up the sales charts right now.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Novo Nordisk sells hit weight-loss drug in China—at fraction of US price
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 12:10 PMPatients in China will be able to purchase the blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy for 1,400 yuan, or about $193, just a fraction of the US list price of $1,349, according to media reports.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Scientist behind superconductivity claims ousted
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 12:46 PMUniversity of Rochester physicist Ranga Dias made headlines with his controversial claims of high-temperature superconductivity—and made headlines again when the two papers reporting the breakthroughs were later retracted under suspicion of scientific misconduct, although Dias denied any wrongdoing.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Automatic braking systems save lives. Now they’ll need to work at 62 mph.
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 02:45 PMThe world is full of feel-bad news. Here’s something to feel good about: Automatic emergency braking is one of the great car safety-tech success stories.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Microsoft and Atom Computing combine for quantum error correction demo
Tuesday - 11/19/2024 - 04:00 PMIn September, Microsoft made an unusual combination of announcements. It demonstrated progress with quantum error correction, something that will be needed for the technology to move much beyond the interesting demo phase, using hardware from a quantum computing startup called Quantinuum.
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - The ISS has been leaking air for 5 years, and engineers still don’t know why
Monday - 11/18/2024 - 05:19 PMOfficials from NASA and Russia’s space agency don’t see eye to eye on the causes and risks of small but persistent air leaks on the International Space Station.
That was the word from the new chair of NASA's International Space Station Advisory Committee last week.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share