NASA selects new class of astronauts for future exploration

The next astronaut to break Peggy Whitson’s spacewalk record could be in the group NASA just announced. The 22nd class of spacewalkers consists of 13 individuals hailing from all over the US. They include nuclear, mechanical and aerospace engineers, antarctic-exploring biologists, test pilots, Navy SEAL medics, Army and Marine helicopter pilots, NASA JPL scientists and SpaceX employees.

“You represent the pinnacle of American excellence.” – Acting Administrator Lightfoot on #NewAstronauts Watch: https://t.co/mzKW5uDsTi pic.twitter.com/W0pVmPjtCr

— NASA (@NASA) June 7, 2017

The potential astronauts were chosen from 18,300 applications — twice as many as the previous record — whose only requirements were a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field, three or more years in a related field (or a thousand hours of flight time in a jet aircraft) and the ability to pass NASA’s physical. The candidates will spend two years training, simulating spacewalks in deep pools, learning to fly NASA test craft and taking a host of scientific and expeditionary courses before they will be considered for official missions. These may include trips to the ISS, the moon or to other planets in an Orion capsule atop NASA’s Space Launch System — all wearing the next generation of space suits and protective gear.

As NASA’s FAQ notes, this will be the 22nd class of astronauts since the first batch was recruited in 1959 for the Mercury project that put the first American and second human, Alan Shepard, into space. Other milestone classes include the eighth in 1978 that included the first female, African American and Asian American astronauts, and the 21st class in 2013, which was the first to achieve a 50/50 gender ratio. Future groups might get a headstart if more programs like Lockheed Martin’s Generation Beyond start preparing tomorrow’s astronauts in middle school.

Source: NASA

Airbnb guides you through the check-in process

If you’ve ever stayed at an Airbnb home, you know that your initial visit can be a challenge: how do you get in? Hosts can send you instructions, but a message might not tell you everything you need to know. Airbnb just offered a more elegant solution, however. It’s launching a tool that lets hosts give you a step-by-step photographic guide to checking in. If you need to use a specific entrance or remember a passcode, you’ll know just what to do. The guides are available offline, too, so you’re not stuck if you’re in a foreign country without internet access.

The guides are rolling out throughout June.

It’s a simple addition, but it could be vital in the long run to both hosts and guests. You might be more likely to stay at Airbnb homes in the future if you have a seamless check-in — good first impressions matter. And for hosts, a ready-made guide could save a lot time repeating and clarifying instructions. It might even encourage more hosts to sign up, as they won’t have to fret so much about guests using the wrong door or asking for help at odd hours. Ultimately, Airbnb could feel more like a hotel and less like an informal agreement to crash at someone else’s place.

Source: Airbnb Newsroom

Google tests air traffic control system that manages lots of drones

If you’ve been scratching your head at the FAA’s extensive efforts to regulate your personal (or company) drone use, consider the chaos when they start filling the skies. That’s why the agency partnered with NASA for a series of nationwide tests to explore potential systems that could track and manage a wide range of drones simultaneously. Google parent company Alphabet’s Project Wing tried out its own UAV air traffic control platform yesterday, a system that might one day guide a massive volume of airborne drones to keep them from crashing into buildings, people or each other.

Unsurprisingly, Project Wing’s UTM (UAS Air Traffic Management) leans heavily on other Google products like Maps, Earth and Street View to navigate drones around obstacles and plan routes. During yesterday’s tests, UTM managed flight paths for multiple UAVs simultaneously, according to the group’s blog post. The platform automatically adjusted the routes of three Wing drones on simulated package delivery duty around several airborne Intel and DJI UAVs.

In the future, platforms like UTM will need to plan routes in real-time for a volume of drones, detour them around FAA-mandated no-fly zones (like forest fires) and notify human operators of unexpected deviations. Google plans to have UTM leverage the company’s cloud computing infrastructure to handle all these flight paths and adjust them in fractions of a second. It’ll probably be some time before a system like UTM is fully capable of managing regional or national drone traffic, but tests like these are promising displays for a future where we’ll need a quick-thinking computer megabrain to track and automatically moderate a sky full of UAVs.

Via: Recode

Source: Project Wing

Uber fires executive who obtained rape victim’s medical records

Uber’s problems with corporate culture aren’t over just because it fired 20 people. Both the New York Times and Recode have learned that the ridesharing company has fired Asia-Pacific president Eric Alexander (shown above) after word got out that he obtained the medical records of a woman raped by her Uber driver in New Delhi, India. Uber would only confirm that Alexander is no longer an employee, but it’s more than a little unusual for a transportation exec to get sensitive information relating to a criminal case. And if the sources are accurate, the reasons behind the move are equally strange.

Both news outlets understand that Alexander, CEO Travis Kalanick and senior business VP Emil Michael weren’t sure that the rape claim was completely authentic. Alexander shared the files with the group, which raised the possibility that Ola (Uber’s chief competitor in India) staged the incident to tarnish its rival. The exec reportedly carried the records for a year until other Uber leaders obtained the report and destroyed Alexander’s copy. It’s not known if there are any remaining copies floating around the company’s offices.

There’s no word on whether or not Alexander obtained the victim’s details legally. We’ve asked the area’s police if they can comment and will let you know if they can share anything. Whether or not he did, the revelation and its aftermath underscore Uber’s frequent slowness in dealing with questionable behavior among its higher-ups. While Uber did take multiple steps to improve passenger safety in India, it didn’t address Alexander until word of his activities was about to go public — as much as the firm is doing to reevaluate itself, it’s not at the point where it proactively deals with bad actors among its ranks.

Source: Recode, New York Times

Facebook’s new maps will help responders during natural disasters

When natural disasters hit, the role of a site like Facebook switches from a fun social networking platform to a tool that can be used to save lives. Fully aware of the role it plays in natural disasters, Facebook has today announced that it will be using its software to lend emergency services a helping hand.

In order to achieve this, Facebook has created three different types of maps to help authorities track down survivors after a natural disaster. The first of the three uses Facebook’s existing tech to create a location density map. After anonymizing the data, it will show relief organizations where people were located before, during and after a disaster hits. With traditional communication networks often rendered useless by natural disasters, Facebook is hoping that this information will help the relevant organizations see which areas have been the worst affected by a catastrophe.

The second is a movement map, tracking patterns of people’s movement between cities and neighborhoods over set time periods. This would help the authorities choose where to deploy resources and could even potentially help them control traffic in congested areas.

The third and final map the social networking company is implementing is one based on its existing Safety Check tool. The idea is that by sharing the areas that people feel safe enough to check in at, organizations can then clearly see where they should be focusing their relief efforts.

So far, Facebook has confirmed that UNICEF, the Red Cross and the World Food Programme will be the only organizations with access to the data. The company does saw that in time, they intend to share the data with other organizations and even relevant governments. As you’d expect, Facebook has been keen to stress that it will only share information with those who it feels can be trusted with users’ privacy.

Source: Facebook Newsroom

2017 Apple Design Award Winners Announced: Severed, Things 3, Mushroom 11, Enlight and More

Each year, Apple chooses a selection of exceptional apps and games that are given the company’s coveted Apple Design Award to honor design and innovation.

The 2017 design winners include popular titles like Severed, Enlight, Things 3, and Old Man’s Journey.

Games:

– Mushroom 11 [Direct Link]
– Splitter Critters [Direct Link]
– Old Man’s Journey [Direct Link]
– Severed [Direct Link]
– Blackbox [Direct Link]

Apps:

– Kitchen Stories [Direct Link]
– Airmail 3 [Direct Link]
– Lake [Direct Link]
– Things 3 [Direct Link]
– Elk Currency Converter [Direct Link]
– Enlight [Direct Link]
– Bear [Direct Link]

For more details on the games that were announced as Apple Design Award winners, including reviews, check out our sister site TouchArcade.

2016 Apple Design Award winners included Lara Croft Go, Frame.io, Chameleon Run, Auxy Music Creation, Streaks, Complete Anatomy, INKS, Zova, Ulysses Mobile, and djay Pro.
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iMac and MacBook Early Reviews: Iterative Updates With Welcome Performance Boosts

At the WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple announced a collection of hardware refreshes for the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and iMac, which users are already able to order on Apple.com. Across the line of Macs, Apple added faster Kaby Lake processors, faster SSD options, made a Fusion Drive standard in the iMac, introduced more maximum RAM in the iMac, and improved GPUs.

Now, the company has allowed members of the press to test out both the MacBook and iMac refreshes to see how the computers stack up in comparison to the previous generation, as well as to Apple’s competition. Below we’ll round up opinions on the MacBook, 21.5-inch iMac, and 27-inch iMac. As many sites noted, first impressions and reviews for the all-new iMac Pro aren’t expected to arrive until later in the year, ahead of the computer’s December launch.

12-inch MacBook

Apple sent reviewers the base 1.2GHz Core m3 model ($1,299) of the new 12-inch MacBook, and CNET came away largely impressed by the slightly beefed up machine. The site noted that the biggest and most welcome addition was found in the new and improved keyboard with a second generation butterfly mechanism, which has been adopted from the same keyboard on the MacBook Pro line from last year.

Now the 12-inch MacBook has adopted that improved second-gen butterfly mechanism from the Pro line. Even using it in just a few initial typing sessions, I can totally tell the difference — there’s a click and spring to the keyboard that was lacking before. As someone who has typed hundreds of thousands of words across both previous generations of the 12-inch MacBook, I’m very pleasantly surprised by how good this keyboard feels.

Otherwise, CNET liked the default Intel Core m3 CPU in the MacBook, which remains fine for activities like web browsing and streaming video but still lacks any sort of power needed for heavy multitasking or high-end video editing. Upgraded configurations of the MacBook are available with 1.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 ($1,599) and dual-core Core i7 ($1,749), along with available RAM bumps from 8GB to 16GB ($200), but Apple has kept review units focused on the base tier. All versions retain the MacBook’s slim 2.03lb body and Retina display.

Image via CNET
Both The Verge and CNET noted that power users will remain disappointed with the MacBook, which still only has one USB-C port. But for everyday tasks and low-power activities, anyone who can get over the port and power limitations should still find a lot of usage out of the 12-inch MacBook in its third generation.

The Verge:

The big question a lot of people are asking is whether the little MacBook is finally over that power hump that’s kept users from switching over to it. I sadly cannot answer that for you, but my hunch is that the basic calculus isn’t going to change. If you need speed, get a MacBook Pro or a Windows PC or maybe even a MacBook Air.

CNET:

The improved keyboard and the faster CPU options feel like a real step forward, although the system is still not quite as updated as we’d like.

You’re still stuck with the same not-great 480p webcam, and there’s just that single USB-C port for all your power and connectivity needs, which will be a deal-breaker for many. But if you can work with those limitations, this is the best version of the 12-inch MacBook yet.

21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac

For the refreshed iMacs, Apple sent out the top-of-the-line 4K stock configuration of the 21.5-inch iMac, with a 3.4GHz Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 4GB Radeon Pro 560 GPU ($1,499). Engadget noted the slight speed advantage over previous generation iMacs when launching apps like Slack and Chrome, and called the inclusion of Apple’s Fusion Drive “both overdue and still not enough,” particularly on iMacs with 4K and 5K Retina displays.

Additionally, Engadget appreciated the ultra-bright 500 nits display, two Thunderbolt 3 ports (which support USB-C), and Magic Keyboard with number pad (a $30 cost addition in the configuration screen). Otherwise, the site noted that users can expect the same aluminum design on the refreshed iMacs, and categorized the 21.5-inch iMac, particularly the lower-end configuration ($1,099), as a sweet spot for mainstream users who require a reliable machine.

Really, it’s only mainstream consumers and creative types with more-limited needs (or means) who can safely buy an all-in-one now. But for their purposes, I have no doubt that the iMac offers more generous specs than before for the money.

The Verge tested the new 27-inch iMac with an Intel Core i7 4.2 GHz chip, 500GB of SSD storage, and 16GB of RAM ($2,899), and said that the difference between previous generation iMacs — in regards to editing 4K video and large photo files — was “instantly evident.”

The Verge wished that the iMac’s screen was slightly less reflective
To put the high-end iMac through its paces, the site described an editing test that used Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017 with previews on max render quality, no external SSD drive support, with After Effects and Lightroom open at the same time, as well as about 15 Safari tabs. After all of this, The Verge still described the editing process as a “joy” and that it was “flawless.”

That said, editing photos on this computer was a joy. The processing speed and accurate colors also helped, making it a fun experience. Seeing the changes happen almost instantaneously helped accelerate the editing process, but it also just made me experiment with photos more, which for a creative type does make a difference. It’s worth nothing I haven’t calibrated the monitor and have used the default color space “iMac,” which I’m assuming most of you will use anyway, and you won’t regret it.

Mashable tested out the lower-specced 27-inch iMac model with an Intel Core i5 3.4 GHz chip and 8GB of DDR4 RAM ($1,799), and appreciated the richer colors and added brightness of the new display, stating that on the screen, “images move a giant step closer to reality.” One design difference Mashable noted was a change to the Shift key on the new Magic Keyboard with number pad, which led to a few accidental single quote key presses. Still, small gripes like that didn’t hurt the site’s overall opinion of the computer.

What matters is day-to-day performance on critical tasks in demanding apps like Photoshop, AutoCAD, and Strata 3D. Based on the numbers I saw and even my minute-to-minute experiences with the 27-inch iMac, I’d say it will handle all those jobs with ease.

I did a bunch of other, more mundane tasks on the system, like Safari browsing, email, photo manipulation, and uploading. There were no issues and everything worked as it did before.

With the first batch of iMac, MacBook, and MacBook Pro orders expected to arrive as soon as later this week or early next week, more opinions on the newly refreshed computers should be shared online in the coming days. For more impressions on Apple’s just-announced products, check out a roundup of opinions regarding Apple’s new smart speaker HomePod.

Related Roundups: iMac, MacBook
Buyer’s Guide: iMac (Buy Now), MacBook (Buy Now)
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2017 MacBook Pro is Up to 20% Faster Than Last Year’s Model in Benchmarks

Apple this week refreshed its MacBook Pro lineup with Intel’s seventh-generation Kaby Lake processors, and early benchmarks for the notebooks suggest the 2017 models are up to 20 percent faster than the equivalent 2016 models equipped with Intel’s sixth-generation Skylake processors.

Specifically, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro configured with a 2.9GHz Core i7 processor has average single-core and multi-core scores of 4,632 and 15,747 respectively based on nearly a dozen Geekbench 4 results so far.

By comparison, last year’s 15-inch MacBook Pro configured with a sixth-generation 2.7GHz Core i7 processor, which was the equivalent high-end stock configuration, has average single-core and multi-core scores of 4,098 and 13,155 respectively based on over 4,800 Geekbench 4 results.

On a model-vs-model basis, the benchmark results suggest the 2017 MacBook Pro with a 2.9GHz processor is up to 13 percent faster in single-core performance, and up to 19.7 percent faster in multi-core performance, than the equivalent 2016 MacBook Pro model. Its price remains unchanged at $2,799.

There’s only one Geekbench result for the new 15-inch MacBook Pro’s base configuration with a 2.8GHz Core i7 processor, but the benchmarks suggest that model is up to 9.5 percent faster than the equivalent 2016 MacBook Pro equipped with a sixth-generation 2.6GHz Core i7 processor.

There are no Geekbench results yet for the new 15-inch MacBook Pro’s highest-end built-to-order configuration with a seventh-generation 3.1GHz Core i7 processor, so its performance cannot be compared to the equivalent built-to-order 2016 MacBook Pro with a sixth-generation 2.9GHz Core i7 processor.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Tags: Geekbench, benchmarks, Kaby Lake
Buyer’s Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now)
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Samsung Bixby speaker: Rumors and news

Why it matters to you

A Bixby-powered smart home speaker would go head to head with Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple’s upcoming HomePod.

Not to be outdone by Apple’s Siri-powered HomePod, Samsung is reportedly developing an AI-equipped smart speaker of its own. According to the Korea Herald, the Seoul, Korea-based electronics giant’s upcoming, unannounced device will tap Bixby, Samsung’s omniscient digital assistant, to respond to questions and commands with voice.

Here’s everything we know so far.

Design

Details are scarce right now, but Patently Apple points to a Samsung patent awarded in March as the groundwork for the company’s smart speaker. It shows an “audio device” with a narrow base stand, a tripod, and what appears to a rectangular display not dissimilar to Amazon’s Echo Show.

At the very least, a Bixby-powered Samsung speaker could go blow for blow with Amazon’s Echo lineup and Google’s eponymous Home speaker. The current iteration of Bixby can respond to questions about the weather, upcoming meetings, sports scores, and movie showtimes, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Eventually, it will perform actions like rotating misaligned photos, Samsung says, and play videos on nearby televisions.

Specs

Samsung’s Bixby speaker could support media casting, like Apple’s AirPlay and Google’s Cast on Google Home. Already, Samsung’s Smart View app for iOS and Android lets you beam content from providers like YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and your phone’s local media; and channels from TV Plus, Samsung’s Fandango-powered streaming channels.

But a built-in touchscreen and camera are well within the realm of possibility, given Bixby’s other strengths.

When Samsung launched Bixby last year, it emphasized the assistant’s ability to collate information in a single, convenient stream. Bixby Home on the Galaxy S8 shows upcoming reminders and social media updates, and supports third-party services like CNN, Spotify, Flipboard, Facebook Foursquare, and Twitter. Eventually, Samsung says it’ll be able to learn your routine and update to reflect how you use your phone throughout the day.

Samsung’s Bixby speaker will likely support reminders, too, much like Bixby on the Galaxy S8. They’re built into the Galaxy S8’s native apps, and let you attach media like videos, websites, photos, and messages. You can set a specific time you’d like to see a reminder, or even a specific location. When the conditions are met, the reminder will appear in the form of a notification you can dismiss, snooze, or check off.

And if Samsung’s Bixby speaker is equipped with a camera, it might be able to distinguish between the physical objects in front of it, like Amazon’s upcoming Echo Show. It recognizes four distinct categories, including places, text, images, and retail products, and serves up relevant suggestions to the object at hand. If you hold a bag of Twizzlers up to the Galaxy S8’s camera, for instance, it will show similar candy from one of the supported online stores.

Release date, pricing, and availability

According to the Korea Herald report, Samsung’s Bixby-powered speaker could arrive as soon as this fall, and potentially launch alongside the Galaxy Note 8.

The price remains a mystery, but Samsung’s speaker might be in line with the Echo Show. Amazon’s touchscreen- and camera-touting smart home device starts at $330.

Hackers use Britney Spears’ Instagram to hide instructions for trojan attack

Why it matters to you

Hacking techniques are becoming more sophisticated, and this example shows the lengths people will go to in an attempt to cover their tracks.

Hacking groups are always working on new ways to perpetrate attacks, and now there’s evidence that a Russian outfit known as Turla has figured out a new way to use Instagram to carry out its activities. Earlier this week, a report was published that suggests that Britney Spears’ account on the photo-sharing service was used as a staging area for a Trojan attack.

The information published by antivirus developer Eset revolves around a Firefox browser extension, according to a report from Ars Technica. The extension purported to offer enhanced security, but in fact served to give the hackers a method of seizing control over an infected system.

A bit.ly URL directed the extension toward its command and control server, but the address was not actually present in its source code. Instead, it was hidden away in a seemingly random comment on one of Spears’ Instagram posts.

The extension would pore over each photo’s comments, computing a custom hash value for each string of text. When it found the comment the hash that matched with the stipulated value of 183, it ran a regular expression on the comment to translate it into the URL.

Eset researchers managed to discover a bit.ly URL hidden in this manner, which linked to a domain that has been used by Turla in the past.

The URL in question only received a small number of visits around the time when the Instagram post was published, which can be interpreted either as a sign that the malware is still being put through its paces, or that the attack was highly targeted.

Firefox developers are apparently in the process of tweaking the browser so that the current implementation of this attack won’t work in the future — however, it’s to be expected that the hackers will amend their techniques to keep this method in play.