SpaceX launches and lands two rockets in a single weekend

SpaceX’s technical problems that caused an explosion last September seem well behind it, as it pulled off the rare feat of launching two rockets this weekend. On Friday, the Falcon 9 lofted a Bulgarian communications satellite into orbit from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, landing the recycled first stage at sea. On Sunday, it pulled off the trick again, sending ten Iridium-2 satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Once again, it brought the first stage safely back to drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” despite visibly rough weather and rolling seas.

Sped up version of today’s rocket landing on the Droneship Just Read the Instructions (guess it did)

A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Jun 25, 2017 at 2:41pm PDT

The landing was impressively free of drama, despite the fact that you can see the barge pitching and whitecaps breaking against it. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that the drone ship had to be repositioned due to “extreme weather” and warned that launch and landing “will be tight” (see the full video, below).

Musk pointed out new titanium grid fins used to aerodynamically maneuver the Falcon 9’s first stage for the Iridium launch. Clearly visible in the landing video, they’re made of “a single piece of cast and cut titanium … [and] can take reentry heat with no shielding,” he tweeted.

Flying with larger & significantly upgraded hypersonic grid fins. Single piece cast & cut titanium. Can take reentry heat with no shielding. https://t.co/SmyCCQRt2F

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 25, 2017

Iridium might be best remembered as the company behind a failed space internet and cellphone calling scheme. In 2007, it rebooted the network as “Iridium Next” with an 81-satellite constellation, 75 of which will be launched by SpaceX. The aim is to “provide services for aviation, maritime, internet of things, terrestrial and government organizations,” says SpaceX.

The two launches are the closest together yet for SpaceX. The launch of the Bulgarian satellite and recovery of the first stage marked just the second time SpaceX has used (and recovered) a recycled first stage. Interestingly, the same rocket launched the first batch of 10 Iridium satellites in its virgin debut.

All of that is a good sign for SpaceX, which wants to really amp up the pace of rocket launches. Key to reducing time and cost are the first stage recoveries, and so far, SpaceX has done those successfully 13 times, including eight at sea. The last time a landing failed was a year ago, but that was already a risky attempt following a high-orbit satellite launch. Soon, SpaceX plans to launch rockets every two weeks, a blistering pace that may make the still-amazing spectacle old hat.

Source: SpaceX

Australia to Push for Greater Powers on Encrypted Messaging at ‘Five eyes’ Meeting

Australia is set to push for greater international powers to thwart the use of encrypted messaging services by terrorists and criminals, according to reports on Sunday (via Reuters).

The topic will be addressed this week at a meeting of officials from the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing network, which includes the U.S., the U.K, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Australia claimed the increasing use of strong encryption on smartphones and other devices was hindering law enforcement’s capacity to gather and act on intelligence, and said it wants tech companies to do much more to give intelligence and law enforcement agencies access to encrypted communications.

Security experts and privacy groups regularly argue that any such methods would simply weaken overall security for everyone.

“I will raise the need to address ongoing challenges posed by terrorists and criminals using encryption,” Australian Attorney General Senator Brandis said in a joint statement.

“These discussions will focus on the need to cooperate with service providers to ensure reasonable assistance is provided to law enforcement and security agencies.”

The announcement followed the U.K. government’s recent statement of intent to pressure technology companies to do more to put an end to the “safe spaces” that the internet offers extremists. The country has also called for measures to “regulate cyberspace”, following terror attacks in the country.

In related news, a leaked draft technical paper prepared by the U.K. government states that technology companies would be required to remove encryption from private communications and provide the raw data “in an intelligible form” without “electronic protection”. However, it’s not clear if the Conservatives still intend to pursue these powers after recent elections left the party with a minority government and a diminished mandate.

Last year Apple refused requests from the FBI to break the security of its mobile software, following the recovery of an iPhone used by the San Bernardino shooter. Apple argued the FBI’s request would set a “dangerous precedent” with serious implications for the future of smartphone encryption. The dispute ended after the government found an alternate way to access the data on the iPhone through the help of professional hackers.

Last week, the European Union published draft proposals that would enforce end-to-end encryption on all digital communications and forbid backdoors that enable law enforcement to access private message data. If ratified, the law would put it at odds with both the U.S. and U.K. intelligence communities.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: security, Australia, privacy, Encryption
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First Run of ‘Assembled in India’ iPhone SE Models Appear in Bangalore

The first iPhone SE devices that have been made in India are beginning to circulate around Bangalore, according to a report today by The Indian Express. The site noted that it’s still hard to come by an iPhone SE with “Assembled in India” on its back, because Apple has kicked off its Indian iPhone production with just a small trial run of limited units.

Image via The Indian Express
The India-made iPhone SE models are mostly appearing in Bangalore, which is expected since that’s where Apple’s assembly plant is located. Apple officially began assembling iPhones in India in the middle of May, with sources predicting that retail outlets would get the first shipments over the next few weeks.

The handsets have been assembled by Apple supplier Wistron, and Apple’s plans for local production of iPhone devices began as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” initiative last year. This past weekend, PM Nodi met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and a collection of other tech CEOs to discuss the Indian government’s attempts to improve the country’s business climate and convince American-based companies to extend manufacturing into India.

Unfortunately, the iPhone SE hasn’t seen a price reduction yet in the country, despite Apple’s local manufacturing goals finally being realized after so long, which the company hopes will eventually lead to lower-priced devices. The Bangalore-made iPhone SE models are said to be “priced the same as other models manufactured in China,” and it’s unclear when such a price reduction might come to the iPhone SE models made and sold in India.

Related Roundup: iPhone SE
Tag: India
Buyer’s Guide: iPhone SE (Caution)
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Get free DisneyLife subscription with Tesco Mobile this summer

Tesco Mobile is making your kids’ journeys better this summer, with DisneyLife subscriptions coming for free as part of its pay-monthly, pay-as-you-go and SIM deals.

DisneyLife is Disney’s own streaming service, with unrestricted access to movies, TV shows, apps, music and books available as part of a monthly membership fee. However, Tesco Mobile is giving away three months’ worth (valued at almost £15) to all customers signing up for a new price plan or PAYG deal.

It is also available to all Tesco Mobile customers upgrading their existing contract.

The offer is available to 3 September 2017, so is designed to give you a little more for your money in the summer months.

• What is DisneyLife and why will it give Netflix and Amazon Prime sleepless nights?

Kids (and adults) can use the service on supported devices – including iOS and Android phones and tablets, Amazon Fire tablets and boxes, and Android TV boxes and sets. Content can be streamed over Wi-Fi and downloaded to watch offline. Up to 10 devices can be registered and up to four of them can be used to stream DisneyLife content at the same time.

If you want to carry on with DisneyLife after your free three months, the service will take the next subscription payment from your registered bank or card.

Tesco Mobile also has a few deals on mobile devices for the summer, including the Moto C with 500MB of data, 250 minutes of talktime, 5000 texts and a free pair of Pulse Max headphones for just £8.50 a month.

More Google Pixel 2 details emerge, Pixel 2 XL to sport 5.99-inch OLED display

More details surrounding the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL have leaked to XDA-Developers by a “source familiar with the matter that spent time with at least one of the phones”. The details suggest the two devices, currently codenamed Taimen and Walleye, will come with 5.99-inch and 4.97-inch screens.

• Google Pixel 2: What’s the story so far?

This confirms that Taimen will be the larger of the two devices, something that was alluded to a couple of weeks ago, when it was suggested Google will only be releasing two devices, not three. It was rumoured that LG would be responsible for making the Taimen phone, while HTC would handle the Walleye.

XDA-Developers has since learned that the Taimen will come with a 1440p OLED panel provided by LG Display, which could explain the reference to LG in the Android Issue Tracker. It’s highly likely that HTC will once again manufacture the Pixel 2 and 2 XL after S2 and M2 codenames were found in the HTC U11’s system files.

XDA’s source says the Taimen/Pixel 2 XL will have a 5.99-inch display and much smaller bezels than on the previous Pixel XL, meaning it could have a similar form-factor than its predecessor. Being a flagship device it will almost certainly run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, and should come with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

The two-tone glass and metal finish on the rear panel is expected to make a return, but XDA says the glass section at the top won’t house the fingerprint scanner anymore. However it doesn’t say where it will be moved to.

The Walleye device meanwhile will be the smaller device, with a 4.97-inch full HD display. Design-wise it’s not expected to shift too much from last year’s Pixel, so will sport similar-sized bezels. It too will get the Snapdragon 835 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.

XDA is confident of its source’s credibility, and features such as the Snapdragon 835 processor are a given, so we have some faith in these rumours. But as with any rumour, it should be taken with a pinch of salt for now. 

Mohu’s latest indoor antenna has a 65-mile range

Mohu has something new for all of the cord-cutters out there. The company has upgraded its indoor Leaf antenna and the new version delivers a 65-mile reception range. That’s up from the 50-mile range of the previous model. Mohu says that its SignaLift technology puts the Leaf Glide more on par with outdoor antennas. The Leaf Glide is also a little bit bigger at 21.5 inches by 11.5 inches, allowing it to pick up lower frequency bands.

Mohu’s Leaf antennas are super thin, multi-directional indoor versions that you can use to pick up free over-the-air TV channels. The company announced earlier this year that it’s also launching a wireless version of its indoor antenna soon. Mohu began producing the thin Leaf antenna line in 2011 and they claim to have saved customers more than $300 million in cable fees.

Mohu’s antennas don’t require an additional subscription service and the Leaf Glide is available only through Mohu or Amazon. It costs $90.

Netflix remains ruthless as ‘Girlboss’ cut after one season

Netflix never talks audience numbers with its shows, but there’s one sure way to know when one is doing poorly. The streaming company cancelled Girlboss, the third series over the last month to get canned. The show was unpopular with critics from the start, with just a 32 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes — a rarity for a Netflix comedy. Though the premise about a “broke anarchist” who develops a successful company was promising, the main character (loosely based on Nasty Girl founder Sophia Amoruso), “was not very likeable,” Deadline said.

Netflix recently cancelled The Get Down and Sense8 after just one and two seasons, respectively. Unlike Girlboss, however, both of those were incredibly expensive to produce, especially The Get Down, which reportedly cost Netflix $120 million for just one season. At the same time, the latter show reportedly drew just a fifth the audience of Orange is the New Black.

Girlboss, however, appears to have just fared poorly from the start. Netflix has generally done well with comedy, with shows like Master of None and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt generally receiving critical raves. However, the premise of a “genius asshole,” could only work “if it showed some semblance of self-awareness,” said IndieWire, noting that it wastes a fine performance by lead actor Britt Robertson.

Netflix is less willing to tolerate a show with rough edges than before. “Relative to what you spent, are people watching it?” Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos asked earlier this month. For Girlboss, it appears that not nearly enough were.

Via: AV Club

Source: Deadline

Bug-zapping laser will only kill bad insects

There are good insects, and then there are bad bugs. And the folks at Seattle-based Intellectual Ventures Lab (IVL) have been working on a device that will only kill pests and leave the others unharmed. It’s called the Photonic Fence, and has been in development as early as 2009, but according to a Wired report, it’s recently been “installed on a US Department of Agriculture site in the state for its first real-world test.” If all goes well, IVL plans to market the Fence to farmers who need to protect their crops from pests.

Using cameras and other optics, the Photonic Fence scans for pests within 100 metres, looking at each bug’s “form, velocity, acceleration and wing-beat frequency.” When a target has been recognized as being from the kill list, the Fence will shoot it with the laser, and the insect will be dead within 25 milliseconds. According to the company, the device can kill up to 20 insects per second, and can cover areas of up to 30 metres wide and 3 metres high — creating the so-called Fence in its name.

It’s not yet clear when the trial began nor when the results are expected, although the test was slated to start this summer. There’s still a ways to go before the Photonic Fence becomes available to individual farmers (nor corporations), not to mention us regular folks who want a good bug zapper for our balconies or porches. Still, pending the test results, it shouldn’t be too long before we can keep our plants and living areas safe from harmful pests.

Source: Wired

Turn your Chromebook into a killer workstation with the best Android apps on Chrome OS

Google opened up its Chrome OS platform a while back, bringing its massive Android ecosystem to the ultra-light operating system. That means you can install Android apps on your Chromebook, that light, little thing running on a modified version of the Chrome browser. That’s over 2.5 million apps! With that in mind, we went ahead and sorted through the Google Play store for the best Chrome OS Android apps currently available.

Netflix

There’s not really any app list on the internet right now that would be complete without Netflix. Without it, how would you procrastinate, how would you fill your evenings, how would you chill? Exactly. The Netflix app for Chrome OS is every bit as capable as the Netflix app on every other platform, and if you’ve ever used it on an Android device, it should be pretty familiar. Just sign into your account (or your old roommate’s account you still have access to) and pick up where you left off — presumably watching some of the best movies on the service.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

YouTube

Okay, maybe you could still procrastinate without Netflix. But good luck putting off those deadlines without YouTube, right? The site has everything, from viral videos to movies, and now you can easily browse on your Chromebook. The Chrome OS app is ultimately a carbon-copy of the Android version — it’s pretty much the same as the YouTube web app, but a little cleaner. Don’t worry, your subscriptions and weird faves are right where you left them.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

Google Photos

If you have an Android phone, you probably already enjoy Google Photos, particularly after a recent redesign. The Google Photos app also works pretty well on Chrome OS. It’s a great place to browse for old photos you had no idea your phone backed up — and subsequently delete them. All of them. Yeah, especially those ones. You can also edit photos, organize them into albums, and apply the usual assortment of filters.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

Spotify

No more firing up Spotify in your browser, nope, now you an download the dedicated Android app for the full Spotify experience. It features the same functionality, but now you can free up a browser tab and keep listening to all the Tay Swift you can handle. That’s right, she’s on Spotify now — so you can cancel your secret Apple Music subscription.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

Slack

Now you can run Slack from your Chromebook’s desktop rather than trying to keep up with your co-workers in a browser tab that will inevitably get closed by accident. It runs a little better from the app than it does in a browser tab anyway — even if you can’t blame missed messages on your browser anymore.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

Outlook

Outlook, everyone’s favorite productivity app, provides a fully-featured experience that you just don’t get when its tethered to a flimsy browser tab. Now you can get all those important notifications, meeting invites, and calendar alerts that you’d been missing out on.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

SignEasy

All right, this one’s nothing exciting but if you’ve ever tried to digitally sign something in a browser, it’s a very welcome change. SignEasy allows you to sign, initial, and submit important documents and keep a detailed record of them right there in the app.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

Kindle

Fire up the Kindle reader in a browser. Go ahead, we’ll wait. Not a great reading experience is it? Well, now you can just open the Kindle Android app and actually enjoy reading that digital copy of War & Peace you’ve been chipping away at for years. Or, you know, read literally anything else.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

Infinite Painter

Paint, infinitely. Seriously, this app will let you paint forever and ever. Most other painting apps do that too, but it’s nice to have options now that your Chromebook can run Android apps — and legit digital art suites. Infinite Painter includes a set of customizable brushes, and editing tools to create or add-on to existing works, and since it’s optimized for Android, it’s not going to make your poor Chromebook struggle to keep up.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

Autodesk Sketchbook

You can’t discuss digital media creation tools without mentioning at least one Autodesk app. Sketchbook combines a vast array of digital brushes, pencils, and other tools to round out a remarkably full-featured Android app. It’s not as responsive as a pencil and paper, but with the right Chromebook — and the right stylus — it comes pretty close.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

ArtCanvas

Designed more for painting than sketching, Art Canvas offers a multi-layer painting experience filled to the brim with professional-grade tools and palette options. It even goes so far as to emulate oil and watercolor paints, so your work looks vibrant and lifelike.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

Adobe Photoshop Express

If you found any decent photos in your Google Photos backlog, you might want to put them into Adobe Photoshop Express to touch things up a bit before posting it to Instagram. It’s not as robust as a full-on desktop version of Photoshop, but the basics are here — color adjustments, cropping, and of course filters. So many filters.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

Duolingo

Duolingo for Android also runs very well on Chrome OS, so you can finally polish up those Spanish skills with the help of a nagging little owl who will message you every day until you cave and re-learn your verbs again. It’s for your own good, the little owl will say, relentlessly prodding you day and night.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

Asphalt 8

Chromebooks aren’t exactly known for their gaming prowess, and Asphalt 8 isn’t going to knock your socks off with its visuals, but it runs well and it’s about as visually stunning as Chromebook gaming is going to get in the near future.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

Sacred Legends

Something like Sacred Legends is a bit less demanding, but still runs well on Chrome OS. Here, you take on the role of an adventurer fighting — what else — an ancient evil come to take over the world. Not the most original premise, but when it comes to Chromebook gaming, you take what you can get.

Download now for:

Chrome OS

Ex-NASA scientist calls Goop’s ‘healing stickers’ a load of BS

You’re probably used to ignoring all those overpriced New Age-y therapies and miracle cures Gwyneth Paltrow’s website Goop tends to promote. Remember that time when it suggested inserting jade eggs into the vagina to “increase chi?” No? Well, you can’t make this stuff up. One of its latest recommendations, wearable stickers by a company called “Body Vibes,” is pretty hard to turn a blind eye to, though, because its creators claimed that it uses NASA technology. Goop wrote that the body stickers are capable of rebalancing “the energy frequency in our bodies,” since they’re made of the “same conductive carbon material NASA uses to line spacesuits” to “monitor an astronaut’s vitals during wear.” Except, as a NASA rep told Gizmodo, that’s not true — at all.

Here’s the meat of Goop’s writeup for your reading pleasure:

“Human bodies operate at an ideal energetic frequency, but everyday stresses and anxiety can throw off our internal balance, depleting our energy reserves and weakening our immune systems. Body Vibes stickers (made with the same conductive carbon material NASA uses to line space suits so they can monitor an astronaut’s vitals during wear) come pre-programmed to an ideal frequency, allowing them to target imbalances.”

Spacesuits have complex structures and are made of several layers of various materials like nylon, spandex, Kevlar and a number of other synthetic fabrics. They do not, however, use any conductive carbon material lining to monitor an astronaut’s vitals or any other purpose, the spokesperson said. Former NASA human research division chief Mark Shelhamer backed what the agency’s rep said and added that the product is “a load of BS.” The ex-NASA scientist didn’t pull any punches: “not only is the whole premise like snake oil,” he said, “the logic doesn’t even hold up.”

Despite the criticism, Body Vibes wouldn’t explain the research and development behind the product, as it’s apparently confidential. The company at least apologized for the “communication error,” though it insisted that the stickers, which will set you back $120 for a pack of 24 (of course), work as advertised:

“We apologize to NASA, Goop, our customers and our fans for this communication error. We never intended to mislead anyone. We have learned that our engineer was misinformed by a distributor about the material in question, which was purchased for its unique specifications. We regret not doing our due diligence before including the distributor’s information in the story of our product. However, the origins of the material do not anyway impact the efficacy of our product. Body Vibes remains committed to offering a holistic lifestyle tool and we stand by the quality and effectiveness of our product.”

I guess the lesson here is, you can sell products with the most outrageous promises, but you can’t drop NASA’s name and expect to get away unscathed.

Via: Washington Post

Source: Gizmodo