Being a fan of both wearables and Android is tough. Apple has clearly seen huge success with the Apple Watch, but it only integrates with the iPhone. On the Google side of the fence, we have Wear OS. Samsung recently hopped back on the Wear OS bandwagon with a new version of Google’s software, but other device makers are stuck with the old version. Case in point, Fossil running the old version of Wear, with price tags on par with the . With Samsung’s return to Wear OS, Google finally has reason to pay attention to its wearable platform.
When Sony launched its revised PlayStation 5, one thing users picked up on is that the new system is 11.6 ounces (330g) lighter than its predecessor. This is nearly a pound of weight. Enthusiast investigations have found where Sony managed to trim nearly 3/4 of a pound off the system, given that the chassis is identical. The new PS5 uses a significantly smaller heatsink. This, potentially combined with a redesigned fan, is leading to systems that run hotter than previously. The YouTuber who broke this news, , opened both versions of the console and measured the air outflow temperature, which has increased by 3-5 degrees Celsius.
(Photo: David Cardinal)None have been best-sellers, but Google continues to turn out an interesting series of smartphones that appeal to Android purists — especially budget-conscious ones. Although I’ve been very happy with my Pixel 4a, particularly given its $350 price, I couldn’t resist taking the plunge on a $450 Pixel 5a 5G. After my first week with the phone, I’m really pleased. That said, if you took it away and made me go back to the 4a, the ultra-wide camera might be the only specific thing I’d immediately miss. Here’s what I’ve experienced so far. Speedy, Full-Featured, 5G Phone for Under $500
SpaceX’s Dragon approaching the ISS following a previous launch. (Photo: SpaceX)A SpaceX ship just finished making its way to outer space with an eclectic collection of fresh fruit, equipment, and Girl Scout experiments. Over the weekend, the company used its own Falcon 9 rocket to send a Dragon cargo ship from the Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station, where it will stay until the end of September, to CBS News. At 3:14 a.m. on Sunday, a set of nine 1D Merlin main engines in Falcon’s first stage launched the Dragon atop 1.7 million pounds of thrust. The first stage then detached, returned to the lower atmosphere, and landed safely on SpaceX’s new autonomous droneship (dubbed “A Shortfall of Gravitas”) at sea.
Update 1:33 PM: An earlier version of this story focused entirely on the fact that Microsoft will allow older hardware to install Windows 11 unofficially, even if the company neither recommends nor supports it. Since this story was written, Microsoft has released new information that points to a substantial loophole within that loophole. This meaningfully changes our opinion of the original scenario and this article has been rewritten to reflect that change. On Friday, two Windows 11 news stories broke. First, Microsoft it was standing mostly firm on its PC hardware requirements for Windows 10. Second, The Verge broke news that Windows 11 would be perfectly installable on older systems that Microsoft has deigned not to support, including some machines that met its TPM requirements and supported the necessary features in-hardware, but that the company left off the list anyway.
(Photo: Yara International)Sustainable and autonomous shipping methods are getting much, much bigger. The first-ever crewless electric cargo ship, called the Yara Birkeland, is set to embark on its first voyage in Norway by the end of 2021. Its manufacturer, , hopes to use the ship to replace 40,000 truck journeys per year. Yara originally planned on setting the Birkeland on its maiden voyage in 2020 after three years of development, but thanks to the pandemic, the company was forced to postpone the trip. In November, Yara finally received the ship from the Norwegian shipyard where it had been stored and resumed testing and preparation.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A Tesla owner in Orlando early on Saturday morning. The cruiser was on the side of the road, lights flashing while the officer helped the driver of a stranded Mercedes. According to the Tesla driver, her car was in Autopilot mode, but it failed to see the police vehicle and ended up hitting both the cruiser and the Mercedes. An investigation is underway, but this doesn’t look great as Tesla about this very issue. Tesla rolled out Autopilot to Model S owners in 2014, and the feature has since become a major selling point of its vehicles.
Arduino has many applications, and it’s a rewarding way for coders to apply their skills and create their own machines. The open source platform allows users to build Arduino boards, which can sense and react to inputs, such as light on a light sensor, button presses, or even digital messages like tweets. Reactions include activating a motor, turning on a light, or publishing something online – like a reaction tweet. Arduino is an interesting and engaging pursuit, and it’s easy to learn the basics. Right now, you can get for the reduced price of $39.99, a significant reduction of 98 percent off the full ordinary purchase price of $2,600.
It has been a long, long road, but NASA has now . This follow-up to Hubble has been in some phase of development since the late 1990s, and the cost has ballooned to $10 billion, but we’re mere months away from the culmination. NASA is packing the telescope up, and its next stop is French Guiana, where it will leave Earth behind forever. The Hubble Telescope has had an incredible run, but even with constant monitoring and hardware redundancy, the instrument doesn’t have much time left. The last Hubble servicing mission took place in 2009, and problems are becoming more frequent, like just a few months ago when the observatory went offline due to a power supply failure.
