Lockheed Martin hopes to turn your kids into astronauts
Lockheed Martin knows that its future spacecraft will only fly if there are enough people interested in flying them, so it’s trying something a bit unusual: it’s helping to raise the next wave of astronauts. It’s launching a Generation Beyond program that gives both parents and teachers the resources they need to get middle school kids (grades 6 through 8) excited about space-related science, engineering and math. The internet curriculum shows would-be spacefarers everything from the challenges of living in space (or on Mars) to the careers they can pursue in space exploration.
There’s also a pair of special initiatives for students. Classrooms will participate in a virtual field trip to Lockheed’s Spacecraft Operations Simulation Center on October 4th. There’s a challenge that will award cash prizes (up to $10,000) for students who produce videos explaining how they would design a Mars habitation module. Potential explorers have until December 15th to enter.
These kinds of education efforts are relatively common in the technology world. Apple even built an app just for teaching programming to kids. However, it’s more than a little rare in the spaceflight industry, where the career path tends to be both longer and less direct (numerous astronauts were previously military pilots, for instance). Lockheed is clearly willing to bet that an investment now will pay off decades down the road.
Source: Lockheed Martin (1), (2), PR Newswire
Bumble is adding paid features to help find your perfect match
Bumble, the dating app that’s previously dabbled in offering services beyond traditional swipe-based matching, is now offering a subscription model that offers three new features for just $9.99 a month.
Beeline, Rematch and Busybee are meant to boost your personal dating experience. Beeline will offer a queue of users who’ve already “liked” you while using the app. All you’ll need to do is match with them if you like what you see, which removes the requirement to swipe and takes away some of what could be viewed as ambivalence or frustration. It’s a lot easier to look at a premade list of suitors just for you and decide from there.
Rematch will keep expired matches for an additional 24 hours so you can return to them if you don’t grab their interest the first time. Busy Bee extends the 24-hour match window so you can have a little longer to match with someone else. Male users previously had this feature in the form of “extend,” and now both male and female users will be offered unlimited “extends” in the form of Busy Bee.
These additional options are available to augment Bumble users’ experience, and the company stresses that anyone who doesn’t opt to pay the $9.99 won’t be missing out on any features. In comparison, Tinder’s paid version is $9.99 a month as well for most users, so Bumble’s suite of options isn’t so far from the mark.
If you’re interested in trying them out, you can do so today.
Via: TechCrunch
‘Hamilton’ creator Miranda joins the fight against ticket bots
Hate that ticket bots robbed you of a chance to see that big concert or musical? So does Lin-Manuel Miranda. The Hamilton author is teaming up with Senator Charles Schumer to promote a proposed federal bill, the Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS Act, geddit?), that would fine bot users $16,000 for every ticket they sell. That’s far harsher than in Schumer’s own New York state, where a recently passed law tops out at a $1,000 total fine and no more than a year in prison. Miranda is coming aboard as proof that these bots can do real damage — scalpers made roughly $15.5 million from Hamilton alone, and jacked prices from $189 to as much as $2,000. It’d also start a task force that would detect these bootleggers.
As the star explained at a press conference, a bill like this is likely necessary. There’s “no disincentive” for bot owners right now, and it’s “not fair” to shut out the majority of people who can’t afford to pay outrageous rates to see a show. That’s especially true for a show like Hamilton, he says, since the bots are excluding the common Americans that the musical is trying to reach.
The celebrity move isn’t exactly subtle, but it could be important. While Schumer’s bill is bipartisan, he’s introducing it in September — right at the height of the presidential election frenzy. Miranda might just make the bill stand out amidst the noise and give it a better chance of becoming law.
Via: The Verge
Source: Charles Schumer
Apple Stores Offering Exclusive Jaybird Freedom Earbuds in Rose Gold and Space Gray
Starting this week, Logitech-owned Jaybird’s Freedom Wireless Bluetooth Headphones are available for purchase in two new exclusive colors from the Apple Online Store and Apple retail locations.
Designed to match Apple’s line of iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches, the two exclusive colors include a Space Gray and Rose Gold. The Space Gray Freedom earbuds feature Space Gray highlights on the remote and the earbuds themselves with a black cord and accents, while the Rose Gold earbuds feature a Rose Gold remote and earpieces with a white cord and accents.
Launched earlier this year, the Jaybird Freedom Wireless Bluetooth Headphones have previously been available directly from Jaybird and from third-party retailers in Carbon (black/gray), Gold (gold/white), Blaze (red/silver), and Ocean (blue/silver). The standard colors are not available from Apple Stores.
Jaybird has been designing Bluetooth earbuds since 2007 and the Freedom Wireless Bluetooth Headphones represent the culmination of years of design refinements. The earbuds are the smallest Jaybird has produced yet, thanks to a clever decision to move many of the audio components from the earbuds themselves to the remote control.
Jaybird’s earbuds are wireless and connect to devices over Bluetooth, so they’re able to work with iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, Macs, and more. They’ll be compatible with the upcoming iPhone 7, which rumors suggest will not have a headphone jack. We went hands-on with the Jaybird earbuds earlier this year and while we loved the comfort, the small size, and the battery life, the large remote was a little difficult to deal with.
The Rose Gold and the Space Gray Jaybird Freedom Wireless Bluetooth Headphones, priced at $199.95, are available starting today from the Apple Online Store and many Apple retail stores.
Tags: Apple retail, Jaybird
Discuss this article in our forums
Huawei P9 Plus video review
What you need to know about Huawei’s true 2016 flagship.
You’ve read our Huawei P9 review, but it turns out the P9 isn’t the top tier device for Huawei in 2016. There’s a bigger, badder P9 Plus available in parts of Europe and Asia, with a 5.5-inch screen, a heftier 3,400mAh battery, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. But there’s more to the P9 Plus than mere specs, as we’ll explore in our video review.
Check out the video below to find out why the Huawei P9 Plus isn’t just a good phone by the standards of the Chinese manufacturer — it’s actually a great handset all-round.
Report reveals identity of NSA and PRISM surveillance target
It’s been over three years since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden released a trove of documents detailing the extent to which the American government was able to spy on its citizens. A big part of those revelations was PRISM, a system that allowed the government to expediently request and collect data from a variety of huge internet companies including Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft and more. Today, a new report from The Intercept contains details on the first person to be identified as a target of PRISM.
Tony Fullman of New Zealand was targeted in 2012 by the NSA in cooperation with the New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB). The NSA was able to intercept his Facebook chats and Gmail messages and passed them along to the GCSB, which itself did not have the authority to monitor Fullman’s communications. Fullman was apparently targeted because New Zealand believed that he was planning an act of terrorism, but it turns out that intelligence was incorrect. That didn’t stop the New Zealand government from raiding his home and revoking his passport, however.
It appears that Fullman was on the country’s radar because of his involvement in a “thumbs up for democracy” campaign that was opposed to the authoritarian ruler of Fiji Frank Bainimarama. Between May and August 2012, the NSA kept tabs on Fullman’s communications with other Fiji pro-democracy activists. Fullman himself was born in Fiji before emigrating to New Zealand and eventually becoming a naturalized citizen. But he had spent a few years in Fiji again starting in 2009 before eventually moving to Australia in 2012.
A visit back to New Zealand in July 2012 appears to have kicked off the NSA and New Zealand’s surveillance of Fullman. While in New Zealand, he met with a number of members of the Fiji Movement for Freedom and Democracy, a meeting that caught the eye of the New Zealand government. The country tapped some phones and heard a conversation in which it believed that it heard of a plot to violently overthrow Fiji’s ruler Frank Bainimarama.
When he returned to Australia later that month, Fullman’s house was raided and his passport revoked. He took on legal counsel to fight the charges of planning a violent action to overthrow a government. And from July through August, his communications were monitored via PRISM; the NSA also went back and retrieved some of his communications from May of 2012.
However, the FBI’s surveillance revealed nothing, and neither Fullman nor any of the Fiji campaigners ever faced charges. But The Intercept spoke with Fullman and learned that he still gets pulled out of airport security lines frequently and he’s had trouble finding employment since news reports often link him to the supposed assassination plot. He was never notified by the government that his private communication was monitored by New Zealand with the help of the NSA, a move which might have been illegal.
“To be betrayed by your own country, it’s really hard,” Fullman told The Intercept. “It puts a sour taste in your mouth.” Fullman continues to live in Australia and doubts he’ll return to New Zealand after the treatment he went through. For more on his saga, the full report from The Intercept is well worth a read.
Source: The Intercept
Apple Seeds Sixth Beta of macOS Sierra to Developers
Apple today released the sixth beta of macOS Sierra, the newest operating system designed for the Mac, to developers. macOS Sierra beta 6 comes one week after the release of the fourth beta and two months after the software was first unveiled at Apple’s 2016 Worldwide Developers Conference.
Developers can download today’s beta update through the Apple Developer Center. It should also be available over-the-air shortly using the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.
macOS Sierra is a major update that brings Siri to the Mac for the first time, allowing users to conduct voice searches to quickly find files, look up information, and more. New Continuity features offer an “Auto Unlock” option for unlocking a Mac with an Apple Watch and a “Universal Clipboard” for copying text on one Apple device and pasting it on another.
Deeper iCloud integration allows files stored on the desktop or the Documents folder of a Mac to be accessed on all of a user’s devices, and Photos features deep learning algorithms for improved facial, object, and scene recognition. There’s also a Memories feature for displaying photo collections, and Messages has rich links, bigger emoji, and “Tapback” response options.
Apple Pay is coming to the web in macOS Sierra, with payments authenticated through an iPhone or Apple Watch, and new features like multiple tabs, Picture in Picture multitasking, optimized storage, and revamped emoji are also available.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
macOS Sierra is currently available to developers and public beta testers, and it will see a wider public release this fall. For full details on all of the new features included in macOS Sierra, make sure to check out our macOS Sierra roundup.
Related Roundup: macOS Sierra
Discuss this article in our forums
AIVAnet 