Asty McAsteroidface? NASA wants the internet to help name a space rock

In 2015, after a more than eight year journey, the New Horizons spacecraft gave mankind its first flyby close-up of Pluto — but this pioneering probe is by no means finished faring the vacuum of space. Last summer, the craft received the green light to voyage even deeper into the Kuiper Belt, towards a drifting hunk (or potentially multiple drifting hunks of said space stuff) and NASA is asking us humans to come up with a fitting name for this alien land.

In other words, while your life may be fleeting and cosmically irrelevant, you now have the opportunity to be immortalized in the annals of human history by temporarily nicknaming this drifting hunk of space leftovers.

New Horizons was hurled into space with some extra hydrazine fuel onboard for a potential Kuiper belt objects (KBO) flyby from the get-go. And in 2014, NASA and the New Horizons team located three such KBOs all with possible flyby dates in late 2018 or in 2019. After much consideration, NASA finally set its target — and on January 1, 2019, the spacecraft will approach a small KBO (or potentially multiple KBOs) located more than four billion miles from our planet.

Currently, the object is known as (486958) 2014 MU69 or informally (presumably at cosmic cocktail parties) as MU69 for short. Unfortunately, the series of numbers and digits doesn’t really roll off the tongue — at all. That’s where us Earthlings come into the picture.

“New Horizons made history two years ago with the first close-up look at Pluto, and is now on course for the farthest planetary encounter in the history of spaceflight,” explained Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “We’re pleased to bring the public along on this exciting mission of discovery.”

The SETI Institute of Mountain View, California is hosting the campaign to name this KBO, and the website currently lists eight of the early frontrunners being considered. These preliminary nominations names include everything from, Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer in Norse mythology) to a fictional planet from the now defunct television series Babylon 5. (This nomination form can be found on the official New Horizons‘ site.)

Per the guidelines, NASA is “particularly interested in nicknames that are appropriate for the first exploration of a cold, distant, ancient world at the outer frontier of the solar system.” Seeing as NASA still doesn’t know exactly how many objects it will be naming, the team suggests proposing two ore more names.

It’s important to note that the contest will not be considering names with religious or political significance. So, unfortunately, while “Tronald Dump” might be a shoo-in for a cold, fringe, lifeless hunk of organic matter, NASA won’t be having any of it. Nominations and votes will be accepted until 3PM (EST) December 1 and the team will reveal their pick in January 2018. This name will later be submitted to the International Astronomical Union for the final stamp of approval.

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House Republicans pitch to abolish federal EV and PHEV tax credits

Nine years ago, President George W. Bush signed into law the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 (a division of Public Law 110-343), a bill designed to help incentivize the car-buying public to purchase an electric vehicle of some sort. That would mean either an all-electric vehicle (EV) like a Nissan LEAF, or a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), like a Chevrolet Volt.

The bill entitled EV and PHEV buyers to a tax credit of up to a $7,500. Now, Republicans in the House of Representatives are looking to abolish those federal tax credits, according to Automotive News. While this could spell the end of these major tax incentives meant to get more fuel-efficient vehicles on the road, it can also mean big trouble for automakers investing heavily in electric propulsion.

The proposition hasn’t passed yet, though Republicans want it to take effect at the end of the current tax year as part of a long laundry list of a major tax system overhaul, currently under arbitration. A summary of the suggested changes to the federal EV and PHEV tax credit came from the House Ways and Means Committee, the executive governing branch of the House responsible for adjusting tax policies.

This change to the EV and PHEV tax credit comes at a point where automakers across the world have already invested billions into the research and development of electric vehicles.

The tax credit does have an imposed limit where automakers can only offer the credit to the first 200,000 qualifying vehicles sold. So far, no automaker has come close to reaching this limit.

“The EV tax credit repeal would cede U.S. leadership in clean vehicles, putting our companies at a competitive disadvantage and threatening jobs while costing drivers more at the pump and increasing pollution,” Luke Tonachel, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Clean Vehicles and Fuels Project, said in a statement.

While more electric vehicles on the road could help reduce fossil fuel dependency and pollution in theory, public interest has yet to peak with many analysts citing a lack of variety and practicality challenges of EVs and PHEVs.

For instance, one of the pressing practicality issues is the time it takes to recharge an EV or PHEV, even with a new “fast charger.” It still takes a considerable amount of time versus filling up a gas tank in just a few minutes.

One company truly is at risk if this new tax reform passes: Tesla Motors. Currently, Tesla has a lot of eggs in the basket of its newly released Model 3 sedan — a more affordable alternative to the Model S flagship sedan and the Model X crossover. If the federal tax credit is abolished, that could seriously affect the “hundreds of thousands” of prospective customers for the Model 3, according to the company.

Tesla wouldn’t be the only automaker to be affected as Nissan Motor Co., General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and even Volkswagen AG all invested heavily in electric vehicle R&D over the past several years.

“There is no question that the elimination of the federal electric vehicle tax credit will impact the choices of prospective buyers and make the electric vehicle mandate in 10 states — about a third of the market — even more difficult to meet,” said Gloria Bergquist, spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, to which it also claims that its automakers offer more than 30 EVs in the U.S. market.

It will be interesting to see how this bill plays out as it is no small change. Abolishing the federal EV and PHEV tax credit is like pulling the rug out from under all the automakers currently striving to up their EV and PHEV efforts. At the same time however, the whole program is still under analysis with legislators questioning whether or not the original policy has had any meaningful on promoting EV and PHEV sales.

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• 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV first drive review

13 essential Nova Launcher tweaks you need to know

Getting the details right matters in a launcher, and no details are more important than your settings.

Nova Launcher is one of the best launchers on the market, with users praising its reliability, customizability, and its ease of use. And once you’ve gotten the hang of Nova Launcher, it is indeed quite easy to find your way around the launcher, but it’s no secret that Nova Settings can be a bit daunting to new and casual users. Never fear! We’ve searched every submenu and found our favorite settings and some of the best secrets hiding in Nova Settings.

Nova Launcher review: still king of the mountain

Desktop > Desktop grid > Subgrid positioning

Precision widget placement, brought to you by subgrid positioning.

Subgrid positioning is one of Nova Launcher’s aces, it sets it apart from most launchers on the market and opens up millions more configurations for users who need to get widget sizing and icon placement just perfect on their home screens. By enabling this toggle, you can set icons halfway between the normal grid placements, and you can resize widgets by half-grid steps as well, enabling things like 4×1.5 widgets.

Read more about subgrid positioning

Desktop > Search bar style

Nova Launcher’s search bar isn’t quite as versatile as Action Launcher’s Quickbar, but it’s still quite themable and customizable, letting you pick from several bar and logo styles as well as choosing and color and transparency.

You can then add the search bar as a widget, enable the persistent search bar at the top of desktop, or enable it in the dock (more on that in a bit)!

Desktop > Add icon to home screen

When we download new apps, some people want to add them to the home screen. The vast, vast majority of us, however, do not. Turn off this setting to end the annoyance of deleting new apps from your home screens.

Desktop > Advanced > Widget overlap

This somewhat hidden setting is quite useful for busy home screens, as it allows you to overlap widgets. It’s helpful if you want to place widgets with a lot of dead space in their margins or if you want to place icons at the edges of your widgets. It’s also useful for overlapping fourth-wall-breaking widgets for awesome mercenary themes.

Desktop > Lock desktop

If you’re prone to accidentally deleting things off your home screen, or frequently hand your phone off to young children who like to move things around, locking your desktop can keep things from getting moved, deleted or otherwise messed up.

App & widget drawers > Swipe to open

One of the more popular home screen features of late has been ditching an app drawer button and replacing it with a gesture. By activating swipe to open, you can swipe up on the dock to open the app drawer, and swipe down in the app drawer to return to the home screen, just as you can on the Pixel Launcher.

Dock > Searchbar in dock

Speaking of the Pixel Launcher, in the Pixel 2, the search bar has moved from the top of the home screen to the bottom, providing a buffer between the dock apps and the nav buttons and putting the search bar in a much more easily tapped location. This allows you to turn on a persistent dock search bar, either above or below the dock icons.

Look & feel > Adaptive icon style

Adaptive icons are here, and while it’s going to take a long, long time before they’re anywhere near perfect, it doesn’t mean that they’re not useful now, especially the way Nova Launcher handles them. Nova not only allows you to pick the shape of your adaptive icons, it can automatically tint the background layer for legacy icons, eliminating at least some of the white backers.

Getting rid of white adaptive icons

Look & feel > Dark icons

For most home screen themes, the standard white icons for the notification bar stand out and work quite well. However, if you’re going to be using a white or light-colored background, you can turn on this toggle to make the notification bar stand out more with dark grey icons. It’s not always needed, but for some wallpapers and themes it can make a world of difference.

Night mode

Night mode can automatically shift portions of the launcher from white or colored ‘day’ variants to darker ‘night’ colors, but did you know that Night mode has another cool feature? You can turn off all the toggles for the launcher-facing portions for Night mode to theme, set Night mode to always, and get a dark UI for Nova Settings. Hello, darkness, my old friend!

Gestures

Gestures are an important part of any launcher these days, and gesture controls in Nova Launcher can take the experience to new levels. Outside the swipe to open setting we mentioned above, this menu can set a dozen special shortcuts for certain actions and gestures, allowing you to access more apps quickly without cluttering your home screen.

Outside this section, however, there is one more important gesture to remember. If you long-press any app or folder on your desktop or dock and Edit it, you can add a swipe gesture, essentially doubling the capacity for every icon on your home screen. Cool, right?

Read more about gestures

Notification badges > Dynamic Badges

Notification dots in Android Oreo are kinda cool, maybe, but Nova does them one better with Dynamic Badges. Dynamic badges can stand out better than dots against a wide variety of themes, and they can provide more context than a dot by showing contact avatars and album art.

Dynamic Badges are better

Labs > Bypass system icon theme

Some phones have icon masks that add the same shape or color to the background to every single app. Some masks are good, and some masks are bad, but if you want to take the system mask off of your apps, Nova Launcher has an experimental feature that can help do this. It doesn’t always work, which is why it’s in Labs with the other not-completely-reliable features, but it’s worth a shot if you don’t want masks and don’t want to turn to icon packs quite yet.

What hidden features do you most enjoy in Nova Settings?

There’s lots to discover still waiting in Nova Settings, so what’s your favorite? I’m kinda partial to drawer groups, but most people just prefer the standard A-Z app drawer. Whatever your persuasion, tell us your favorite Nova Settings in the comments!

Questions?

Let us know in the comments below!

The Samsung Galaxy Gear S2 smart watch is a bargain for $105

It’s hard to beat this many features for such little money.

Daily Steals has a new Samsung Galaxy Gear S2 smart watch for $104.99 with code THRFTRS2. This price compares to $180 at other retailers like Amazon and B&H.

The Gear S2 has been discontinued and replaced with a newer model, the Gear S3, but that watch costs $300 on a normal day. We have broken down some of the big differences between the Gear S3 and the S2 and talk about which one you might prefer.

The Gear S2 got some heat when it was first released back in 2015, but a lot of the issues reviewers didn’t like back then have since been fixed. Three of the biggest ones were a lack of apps, a lack of iPhone support, and the price. The Tizen software the watch uses continues to get better and better with the release of more watches that use it, Samsung added iOS support long ago, and the problem with the price is fixed right here!

Features include:

• Send and receive texts, calendar notifications, news updates and more right on your wrist. Battery performance may vary depending on network conditions and configuration and device usage.
• With rotating bezel and unique circular interface, easily access your apps and notifications.
• With a circular design and stainless steel construction, the Gear S2 matches your style.
• Thousands of third party apps available.
• Interchangeable bands and hundreds of available watch faces. Please refer the User Manual before use. It doesn’t have speakers, hence use Level U bluetooth headphones to hear music

This watch comes with a one-year warranty.

See at Daily Steals

CrossOver on Chrome OS lets you run Windows apps on Chromebooks

Supported on Chromebooks running Android 5.0 or later with x86 processors.

Over the past year or so, Chrome OS has gone from an affordable computing solution for the classroom into something that’s also practical as a daily operating system for a lot of people. Chrome OS’s biggest limitation still remains with a lack of powerful desktop applications compared to the likes of Windows and macOS, but CrossOver on Chrome OS Beta is hoping to bridge that gap.

CrossOver on Chrome OS Beta was previously existing as an invitation-only application called CrossOver Android Technology Preview, but with the rebrand to CrossOver on Chrome OS Beta, anyone can now download the app to their Chromebook from the Google Play Store.

However, there is a slight catch.

In order to run CrossOver on Chrome OS Beta, you’ll need to be using a Chromebook with an x86 processor and running Android 5.0 Lollipop or later. A lot of current Chromebooks should meet these two requirements, but not all will (such as ARM-based models of the Samsung Chromebook Plus).

Once CrossOver on Chrome OS Beta is downloaded to your Chromebook, you’ll be able to search for and download more than 13,000 Windows applications that are compatible with the service. There are already a lot of big names here, such as Microsoft Office, Quicken, and Steam, and you can always try downloading other apps within CrossOver if they aren’t officially supported.

CrossOver on Chrome OS Beta is currently free to download for anyone that wants to give it a shot, but once the service does exit the beta stage, you’ll likely need to pay a fee in order to keep using it. Pricing and an ETA for the end of the beta have yet to be announced, but in the meantime, it can’t hurt to give this thing a whirl.

Chromebooks

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• Google Play is coming to Chromebooks
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• Join our Chromebook forums

The kid-friendly Amazon Fire 7 Kids Edition tablet is now down to $70

Hand your little miscreants their own tablet without sacrificing yours.

Is this deal for me?

Children love technology just as much as we do, but watching a kid play with an expensive tablet can be scary at times. Today only, you can stop worrying and pick up an Amazon Fire 7 Kids Edition tablet for just $69.99, the lowest price its ever been thanks to Amazon’s Deals of the Day. This saves you $20 off the average price.

This is a fully functional Amazon Fire 7 tablet housed in a kid-proof case (in your choice of blue, pink or yellow). It features a 7-inch display, 16GB internal storage and an eight-hour battery life. You’ll be able to purchase apps and games for your child and easily setup parental controls to keep them from charging your card while you’re not looking.

You can add a microSD card of up to 256GB for extra storage space. This 64GB one by Samsung is currently available for just $23.

Amazon includes a two-year worry-free guarantee so that if this device gets broken, you can have it replaced free of charge with no questions asked. A year of FreeTime Unlimited is also included with your purchase, which gives you and your child access to over 13,000 kid-friendly apps, books, movies, games and more for free.

For a limited time, you can also grab the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Edition for $89.99, which is its lowest price ever. That one features an 8-inch display with 32GB storage and a 12-hour battery life.

TL;DR

• What makes this deal worth considering? – The Amazon Fire 7 Kids Edition has never dropped this low in price before. You’re saving $20 off the average cost.
• Things to know before you buy! – The Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Edition is also on sale for $20 more! It features a slightly larger display and double the storage space.

See at Amazon

More from Thrifter:

• Do Kmart’s Black Friday Deals Measure Up?
• Black Friday prep begins now

For more great deals be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

Netflix’s first comic book is Mark Millar’s ‘The Magic Order’

When Netflix acquired Mark Millar’s comic book empire in August, many assumed the streaming service would just adapt his various works for the screen. That isn’t quite the case: Netflix announced today that it will publish The Magic Order as a comic book, with art handled by Olivier Coipel. Millar is on writing duties for the six-issue dark fantasy series. In a somewhat surprising move, the story will be available in print in addition to digital starting with the premiere issue next spring.

But, given that Netflix sells Blu-ray versions of its original shows, perhaps a physical edition of the book isn’t all that unexpected. This move into comics could be seen as a way to compete with Amazon as well. In 2014, Amazon bought Comixology, a Netflix-style service that offers all-you-can-read digital comics for $6 a month.

We’ve reached out to see if The Magic Order will be available on the service and will update this post should a response arrive.

Source: Netflix

Instagram’s Pinterest-like bookmarked posts hit the web

You’ve had the option to bookmark Instagram posts for nearly a year, but what good is that if you can’t revisit those favorites on your PC? Now you can… with a little luck. Instagram has started testing the ability to view your bookmarks on the web. If you’re part of the trial group (a few Engadget writers are), you can swing by your profile and click a Saved tab to revisit your favorites.

This is helpful in many circumstances, of course, but it’s arguably part of Instagram’s effort to court the Pinterest crowd. In both cases, there’s a real chance that you’re saving your favorite meals, outfits and gadgets so that you can return to them later. It only makes sense to have them on your computer, where it’s easier to browse and share your picks.

Source: The Verge

Intel and TNT will give NBA fans another VR streaming option

Intel has announced that it’s partnering with Turner Sports to broadcast select NBA on TNT matchups using its True VR technology. Fans will be able to watch 360-degree, 3D broadcasts on both Samsung GearVR and Google Daydream headsets via apps downloaded from the Oculus and Google Play stores. You’ll also be able to see more of its Matrix-like “volumetric” freeD video tech that can freeze highlights and spin around them in 360 degrees.

The True VR system uses custom stereoscope camera pods (shown above) and Intel’s own freeD technology. For Intel’s current NFL and MLB streams, you can select the camera angle you want at any given moment, or defer to the broadcast camera, which automatically picks the best angle for you. It’s not clear yet exactly how TNT and Intel will implement the NBA streams, though, nor whether they’ll broadcast entire games or just select portions.

If you were thinking that NextVR handles NBA virtual reality, you’re right, but it appears that Intel will handle marquee TNT games. NextVR is still a major NBA VR supplier, having recently announced that it will stream 27 games in VR during the 2017-18 season and all League Pass games in 2D from its NextVR Screening Room.

Unlike Intel’s relatively compact stereoscopic cameras, NextVR uses a custom rig made from $150,000 worth of high-end RED cinema cameras, producing quality that’s generally been lauded by critics. It’s hard to say how Intel’s NBA broadcasts will compare, since no games or highlights are up on its True VR app for GearVR yet. However, Intel’s NFL streams are inferior to NextVR’s NFL productions, from what I was able to see using both apps on a GearVR with a Samsung Galaxy S8.

Still, Intel will offer users a slightly different take on it by letting you control the camera angles and check out its wacky freeD tech. Intel and Turner will broadcast virtual reality NBA games in the second half of the season, starting with the All-Star game on February 18, 2018.

Source: Intel

Uber CEO tries to rewrite corporate culture amid backlash

Uber has been trying to recover from a long line of missteps and outright problems, with reports of sexual harassment, various lawsuits and investigations, reports of passenger tracking and a former CEO with plenty of issues of his own. The ride-sharing company’s new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, took to LinkedIn Tuesday with a Medium-style blog post that promises new company “cultural norms” aimed at regaining the trust of employees and the return of positive public opinion. The new norms were shared with Uber employees at an all-staff meeting, according to Recode.

Khosrowshahi believes that corporate culture needs to be “written from the bottom up.” The Uber CEO had employees submit 1,200 ideas for new cultural values for Uber, which were then voted upon more than 22,000 times. They company held more than 20 focus groups with employees across the globe to come up with the new norms, which Khosrowshahi says will evolve over time.

“Uber has always been a company that embraces change,” he wrote, “and going forward we’ll approach our culture in the same way. We certainly don’t expect these norms to change overnight, or every year, but we always want to take stock of who we are, who we want to be, and move accordingly.”

The new values include statements like “We build globally, we live locally,” “We celebrate differences,” “We do the right thing” and “We are customer obsessed.” The short list of values sound like pretty good ways to build a better Uber, though of course it’s all just words now. What will matter is how the company and its new CEO implement these new concepts in the years to come.

Source: Dara Khosrowshahi / LinkedIn