The historic launch that would take NASA astronauts to the ISS from US soil has been cleared for launch next week despite the coronavirus pandemic and the departure of the agency’s human spaceflight lead. It’ll be the first time astronauts will take off from the US since NASA’s space shuttle program ended in 2011, when […]
The UK’s decision to allow Huawei gear in its 5G networks may be short-lived. Officials talking to the Financial Times say the UK government is planning to gradually phase out use of Huawei equipment in 5G networks, eliminating it entirely in 2023. Prime Minister Boris Johnson always had “serious concerns” about allowing Huawei’s involvement, and […]
Nvidia is best known for its graphics cards, but the company conducts some serious research into artificial intelligence, too. For its latest project, Nvidia researchers taught an AI system to recreate the game of Pac-Man simply by watching it being played. To celebrate Pac-Man’s 40th anniversary, the hardware maker fed a computer farm a whopping […]
Security researchers, hackers, and bloggers have had access to an early version of iOS 14 since “at least February,” according to Vice. There have already been many iOS 14 leaks over the past few months, and it seems possible the information came from this early version of the operating system. Current leaked features for iOS […]
Researchers from the universities of Monash, Swinburne and RMIT in Australia have successfully developed and tested an Internet connection based on a single optical chip that achieved a blistering fast transfer speed of 44.2 terabits per second (Tbps). What’s interesting about the research is that it was achieved over 75km of standard optical fiber using […]
WhatsApp’s latest beta version lets you add contacts by scanning their QR codes, WABetaInfo reports. The feature, which is available in beta on both iOS and Android, can be found in the app’s settings menu, where there are options to display your own code, as well as to scan other people’s. A QR code can […]
Microsoft’s Solitaire, which taught the world to use a mouse is turning 30 today. The game first came along with Windows 3.0, launched in 1990 with great fanfare, and is still played by 35 million people per month in 200 markets and 65 languages. Ask a group of veteran computer users about their earliest gameplay […]
Fitbit’s activity-tracking wearable devices are already being used by a number of academic institutions to determine if they might be able to contribute to the early detection of COVID-19 and the flu, and now Fitbit itself is launching its own dedicated Fitbit COVID-19 Study, which users can sign up for from within their Fitbit mobile […]
Netflix is trying to make it easier for people to cancel their service with a new automated prompt that will ask subscribers if they want to continue paying after a lengthy period of inactivity. If you signed up at least a year ago but haven’t watched anything, or you haven’t streamed something on the platform […]
T-Mobile’s offer of free mobile service for first responders for 10 years is now available, CEO Mike Sievert announced today. The program, officially called “Connecting Heroes,” provides free access to the company’s network over the next decade for members of state and local public and nonprofit law enforcement, fire, and EMS agencies. The offer of […]
The latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 13.5, is now available to download. With two new features that are a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic: changes to Face ID to make it easier to unlock your phone if you’re wearing a face mask and support for the first phase of Apple and […]
Google and Apple have launched their coronavirus contact-tracing system on smartphones around the world. This gives public health agencies, including the NHS, the option of building contact-tracing apps based on the companies’ technology. “This technology is in the hands of public health agencies across the world who will take the lead and we will continue […]
In the majority of Verizon’s 5G markets, uploads have so far remained on LTE and been unable to match the blistering download speeds of millimeter-wave. But that’s changing today. Verizon says that 5G uploads are now available in all 5G markets, so if you’re an early adopter and already have a 5G smartphone, you should […]
Twitter is testing a way to let you limit how many people can reply to your tweets. If you’re part of the test, when you compose a tweet, you’ll be able to select if you’ll allow replies from everyone, people you follow, or only people you @ mention. Twitter said in January that this feature […]
Verizon is releasing a new version of the 5G Galaxy S20 on June 4th, months after Verizon began selling the Samsung Galaxy S20+ and S20 Ultra, it’s adding the ‘entry’ S20 to its lineup. The phone now supports millimeter wave 5G, which Verizon currently uses for its Ultra Wideband (UW) service. The Galaxy S20 5G […]