The Apollo 11 space capsule is being prepped for another mission

Why it matters to you

It’s a great chance to see an important part of American space history up close.

Nearly 50 years after it traveled to the moon and back, the Apollo 11 command capsule is being prepped for another mission, though this time on terra firma.

The capsule, Columbia, is set to leave the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum for the first time in 46 years for a traveling exhibition called, “Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission.”

The capsule is an important part of U.S. space exploration history as it’s the only surviving section of the spacecraft that transported the first astronauts to the moon — and back again.

The cross-country exhibition will celebrate the approaching 50th anniversary of the historic moon landing, and promises to wow visitors with an array of exciting exhibits. In the Smithsonian’s own words:

Through original Apollo 11-flown objects, models, videos and interactives, visitors will learn about the historic journey of the Apollo 11 crew — Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. ‘Destination Moon’ will include an interactive 3-D tour, created from high-resolution scans of Columbia performed at the Smithsonian in spring 2016. The interactives will allow visitors to explore the entire craft including its intricate interior, an interior that has been inaccessible to the public until now.

The Apollo 11 spacecraft comprised three parts: The command module that held the astronauts and returned to Earth; the service module, which supported the command module with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen, and water; and the lunar module, nicknamed Eagle, that included a lower stage for getting Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon’s surface and an upper stage that took the astronauts back to lunar orbit so they could return to Columbia.

More: NASA announces the largest ever discovery of potentially habitable exoplanets

Columbia’s first stop on its two-year tour to celebrate the first moon landing in 1969 will be Houston’s Space Center on October 14, 2017. Visitors will have until March 18, 2018, to marvel at the capsule before it moves on to the Saint Louis Science Center from April 14, 2018, through September 3, 2018.

The following stop will be at the Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh, from September 29, 2018, through February 18, 2019. Finally, Seattle’s Museum of Flight will host the Apollo 11 command capsule from March 16, 2019, through September 2, 2019.
Once the road trip’s over, Columbia will return to Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, and take its place in a new exhibition that’s set to open in 2021.

HTC 10 is picking up the Nougat update in India

Nougat update is now available for the HTC 10 in India.

HTC rolled out the Nougat update to the HTC 10 back in November, with unlocked units in the U.S. receiving the update first. The company has since rolled out the update to customers in the UK at the end of last month, and is now making Android 7.0 Nougat available to Indian users.

@LlabTooFeR htc 10 update in india#htc #htc pic.twitter.com/BqzJvMlmtr

— aakash goyal (@aakashklg) February 23, 2017

The Nougat update comes in at 1.21GB, and increments the software version to 2.41.400.5. The changelog highlights system enhancements as well as the latest security patch, with the Nougat update also bringing a new multi-window mode, improvements to Doze, and much more.

If you’re rocking the HTC 10 in India, head to your phone’s settings to download the Nougat update.

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Huawei P10 shown off in new leak, EMUI 5.1 and 360-degree camera teased

Huawei P10 gets shows off once again ahead of its official debut.

Huawei confirmed last month that it would launch the P10 at Mobile World Congress. We saw the device break cover earlier this month, which showed off the blue, gold, and green color options it will be available in, and today we’re getting a look at the press renders of the Huawei P10 ahead of its official unveil.

Huawei P10. pic.twitter.com/7UNx2w5blW

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 22, 2017

The image shows off the Leica dual cameras at the back, as well as a power button coated in red and a home button up front. Current rumors suggest the Huawei P10 will feature a 5.2-inch Full HD display, the HiSilicon Kirin 960, USB-C, 4GB of RAM as standard along with 32GB and 64GB storage options, and Huawei is rumored to launch a model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage.

Huawei is also said to be working on a Huawei P10 Plus with a 5.5-inch dual curved display, which we’ll likely see later this week.

Huawei is also teasing a new build of its operating system, dubbed EMUI 5.1. It’s unclear what sort of improvements we’ll see in the latest version of the OS, but it is likely that both the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus will be the first devices to run EMUI 5.1 out of the box.

Alongside the new handsets, Huawei will showcase a 360-degree camera, called the Honor VR Camera. The camera add-on is made in partnership with Insta360, and supports 3K videos and “seamless livestreaming.” The camera connects over a phone’s USB port, and you’ll be able to control video and livestream settings through Insta360’s app. There wasn’t any mention of price, but with the camera set to be available globally, we’re likely to hear more at Huawei’s event.

Sony launches the ‘world’s fastest’ SD cards

Sony’s latest SD cards are designed for photographers shooting in 4K.

Sony’s upcoming SF-G series of SD cards will be the fastest in the world, according to the company. The SD cards will be debuting sometime in the month of March, and will be available in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB storage configurations. The cards feature read speeds of 300MB/s and write speeds of 299MB/s, which Sony says will come in handy not only for shooting 4K content, but also for transferring large amounts of data to a computer.

To that end, Sony is introducing a new memory card reader that interfaces over USB 3.1 Gen1, allowing you to quickly move data from the SD card to a computer. That said, if you’re relying on a mechanical hard drive, you’ll not be able to see those speeds on your computer.

While the cards are still based on the UHS-II interface, Sony is touting its unique firmware for the added performance boost, stating that its algorithm prevents the “decrease of data-writing speeds.” The SD cards are compatible with Sony’s file rescue software, and are waterproof, temperature resistant, shockproof and X-Ray proof.

No word on pricing yet, but with the cards aimed at enthusiast users, they’re likely to be priced higher than those currently available in the market.

MyKronoz ZeTime hybrid smartwatch combines analogue hands with digital watch face

Swiss smartwatch maker MyKronoz will use Mobile World Congress to unveil the world’s first hybrid smartwatch. The ZeTime will sport a digital TFT display to show digital watch faces, smartphone notifications and health data, but will have mechanical hands instead of digital ones.

• Best smartwatches to look forward to in 2017

It’s the first time this design method has been carried out, and MyKronoz says it’s thanks to a “groundbreaking” new technology which has allowed them to cut a hole in the middle of the digital screen.

The ZeTime doesn’t run on Android Wear, but instead uses its own proprietary operating system that lets it play nice with both iOS and Android devices. The user interface has been designed completely in-house.

It features a 3-axis accelerometer and a heart-rate sensor to measure activity and sleep, and is waterproof up to 30 metres. A range of interchangeable straps and digital faces – minus the hands – provide some personalisation options and the built-in rechargeable battery will power the mechanical hands for up to 30 days.

MyKronoz also says the hands will automatically adjust to different time zones if you travel to other countries. Everything is housed within a 44mm stainless steel case and control comes via either the 240 x 240 1.22in digital face or physical side-mounted crown.

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Boris Brault, CEO and founder of MyKronoz said: “ZeTime is the perfect hybrid smartwatch. It combines the best of both worlds: watch hands of an elegant traditional timepiece with a full color touchscreen that instantly shows incoming calls, smartphone notifications, real-time fitness activity, upcoming calendar events, daily reminders and much more, right from your wrist.”

The MyKronoz ZeTime will be available from September for $199.90.

Official Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus specs leak, 6.2in display confirmed. Exynos 9 processor expected.

While we haven’t seen any official images, we’ve had a pretty good idea of what the Samsung Galaxy S8 will look like for some time. What we haven’t had a clear idea on however, are the specs it will arrive with. Thankfully, Twitter tipster Evan Blass has been at it again, and managed to get his hands on what appears to be a legitimate list.

• Samsung Galaxy S8: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know
• Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know

It confirms the Galaxy S8 Plus will get a 6.2-inch Quad HD+ AMOLED display, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage with support for microSD card expansion. Note that this list just refers to the larger Plus model, we expect the regular S8 to come with a 5.8in screen instead.

Samsung Galaxy S8+ spec sheet. Impress your friends, confound your enemies…with knowledge. pic.twitter.com/lHrHge8BUa

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) 22 February 2017

There’s no mention of what processor will come fitted to the phone, but we’ve seen previous reports to suggest it will be the first device to come with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 835 processing chip as it has ‘first dibs’. However, Samsung itself has revealed details about its own, brand new Exynos 9 processor, the world’s first to use 10nm FinFET technology. Samsung says it has 27 per cent more performance and uses 40 per cent less power than the previous chip with 14nm technology.

Samsung may fit the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus with either processor, and it will be the market they’re sold in that determine which one. We won’t know for sure until the official unveiling.

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• Leaked drawings show Samsung Galaxy S8 with a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner

Blass’s leaked list also confirms 12-megapixel dual pixel rear and 8MP front-facing cameras, iris scanner for improved security, Samsung Pay, wireless charging and a bundled pair of earphones tuned by AKG.

It’s a comprehensive list, and while Evan Blass is right on most things, it should be taken with a slight pinch of salt until the official unveiling, which should be around the end of March.

How to get banned from Disney’s Club Penguin in under 30 seconds

How do you get banned from Disney’s tween-focused Club Penguin social network in under 30 seconds? Hacking. Tool-assisted speedruns have been around since the late ’90s, showing off inhuman feats in games like Doom and Super Mario Bros. 3. Folks in the speedrunning community are pretty okay with it too, so long as your runs are clearly labeled as such. YouTube user Kevin Y found a way to capitalize on the zeitgeist and has employed a few scripts to get an account banned from Club Penguin (for swearing in chat) in under 30 seconds — nine seconds faster than the current unassisted speedrun.

But, it could actually be done much more quickly. As Kevin writes in the comments on YouTube, if there were a way for him to bypass email activation, which is needed for chat and thus banning, he could’ve cut the time down to an expedient 20.1 seconds. If you want to try and best his time for yourself, Kevin has uploaded what you’ll need to GitHub. Be quick, though — Club Penguin shuts down March 29th.

Via: Polygon

Source: GitHub, Kevin Y (YouTube)

Samsung’s Galaxy S8+ reportedly has a 6.2-inch display

Phone leaker extraordinaire Evan “Evleaks” Blass is back with another doozy. The VentureBeat reporter has published a mostly full spec sheet for Samsung’s Galaxy S8+, an all but inevitable upgrade to last year’s Galaxy S7 Edge. We’re in rumor territory here, so take the following tidbits with a generous grain of salt. (Blass has a stellar track record, however.) The headline-grabbing component is a 6.2-inch display, which would dwarf even the (now sadly retired) Galaxy Note 7. That enormous, “Quad HD+” Super AMOLED panel should be helped by the phone’s chassis, however, which has been shown to have super-slim bezels in previous leaks.

Samsung Galaxy S8+ spec sheet. Impress your friends, confound your enemies…with knowledge. pic.twitter.com/lHrHge8BUa

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 22, 2017

The rest of the spec sheet contains few surprises. A 12-megapixel front-facing camera, coupled with an 8-megapixel selfie snapper? Makes sense. 4G LTE? Of course. An iris scanner? Yep, we’re used to that on Samsung phones. 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, coupled with a microSD card slot all feel pretty standard too. We’re curious to see if, and how Samsung really tries to differentiate from the competition. A slightly tweaked design, while welcome, might not be enough to repair its Note 7-rattled reputation.

Source: Evleaks (Twitter)

Tesla: Model 3 production is on track to start in July

Tesla’s final earnings report for 2016 is most notable for what it tells us to expect in the upcoming year. In a letter to shareholders (PDF), Elon Musk & Co. report that Model 3 production is on track to start in July, ramping up to full-scale production in September. As our friends at Autoblog note, that means the earliest pre-ordering customers could see their cars by the end of this year.

In the letter, Tesla also says it’s planning to double the number of Supercharger locations in North America, which should make those cross-country trips even easier. Another convenience-enhancing move that is the expansion of its mobile repair service, as it claims that more than 80 percent of repairs can be performed remotely at owner’s home or workplace. TechCrunch reports that on a call with investors, execs mentioned some customers in Asia have the opportunity to roll insurance and maintenance into the car’s purchase price. Tesla VP Jeff Evanson said: “It’s our vision in the future that we’ll be able to offer a single price for the car, maintenance and insurance in a really compelling offering for the consumer.”

Other items that came up included the departure of CFO Jason Wheeler, to be replaced by Deepak Ahuja, who was previously the CFO before leaving in 2015. Tesla also plans to produce 71 percent more cars (between 47,000 and 50,000) in the first half of 2017 as compared to the first half of 2016, and it will announce locations on Gigafactories 3, 4 and 5 later this year.

Source: Tesla Q4 2016 earnings (PDF)

Firefox adds the ability to snooze tabs on Test Pilot

It probably happens quite often: you come across an interesting piece, but you’re too busy to actually read it. While you can always bookmark a web page, Firefox’s latest Test Pilot experiment can help make sure you’ll see it again when you do have time for it. The experimental feature called SnoozeTabs dismisses any tab you want and asks you to set the time when you want it to reappear on your browser.

You simply need to click its icon and then choose from the options that appear in a pull-down menu: you can program the tab to reappear later that day, the next day, the weekend, next week or next month. But if you have a specific date and time in mind, you can manually put that in, as well. When the snooze time’s up, the tab will pop back into your browser and will even notify you of its presence.

The latest Test Pilot version also comes with Pulse, which sends the browser’s engineers your instant feedback on which sites work well and which don’t. We’re guess that’s a lot less exciting than SnoozeTab — either way, you can test both features as long as you have the Test Pilot add-on. It’s an extension for the stable version of Firefox, so you can play with upcoming features even if you don’t have the browser’s experimental builds.

Source: The Mozilla Blog