Rosetta will crash into its comet and die on September 30th

Farewell, young spacecraft. The European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe has been surveying Comet 67P (or Churyumov-Gerasimenko) for the past 12 years, and on September 30th it will crash into the space rock and end its mission. Rosetta is nearing the orbit of Jupiter, which means it’s running short on solar power and bandwidth required to downlink necessary data.

We knew this day was coming. In 2011, Rosetta was placed in hibernation mode for 31 months as it traveled to the most distant part of its journey, but in 2014, the ESA discarded attempting another, even longer, hibernation. The probe is currently riding alongside the comet, whose maximum distance from the sun, 850 million km, is farther than Rosetta has ever traveled before. The spacecraft lacks sufficient power to guarantee its heaters would be warm enough to ensure its survival.

On its way down, Rosetta will be able to take once-in-a-lifetime measurements, including high-resolution imaging and other close-up data, the ESA says. Most recently, Rosetta discovered the amino acid glycine, a crucial building block of life, in the dust surrounding Comet 67P.

“We’re trying to squeeze as many observations in as possible before we run out of solar power,” ESA Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor says. “September 30th will mark the end of spacecraft operations, but the beginning of the phase where the full focus of the teams will be on science. That is what the Rosetta mission was launched for and we have years of work ahead of us, thoroughly analyzing its data.”

Rosetta follows its companion probe, Philae, onto the comet’s surface. Philae successfully touched down on Comet 67P in 2014, a first for humankind. After a rough landing, Philae collected important information about the comet’s surface and structure, including its potential to support life. The European ground crew routinely lost contact with Philae after its landing, and German space agency DLR officially ended communication attempts with the probe in February of this year.

Landing Rosetta will be tricky, with the first changes to its trajectory coming in August. Scientists are still figuring out the best location to set down Rosetta, but the descent is planned to hit just 50 cm/s, about half of Philae’s landing speed.

“Planning this phase is in fact far more complex than it was for Philae’s landing,” ESA Rosetta spacecraft operations manager Sylvain Lodiot says. “The last six weeks will be particularly challenging as we fly eccentric orbits around the comet — in many ways this will be even riskier than the final descent itself.”

Source: ESA

Dark Space Gray iPhone 7 Conceptualized in New Renderings

Following rumors suggesting Apple’s iPhone 7 will be available in a much darker Space Gray color that’s close to, but not quite black, designer Martin Hajek has created renderings exploring what such a device might look like.

Using the iPhone 7 design rumors pointing towards a larger camera, no headphone jack, and relocated antenna bands, Hajek has created an iPhone 7 rendering in a deep shade of gray that’s close to the color of the Space Black Apple Watch.

In Hajek’s concept, the iPhone 7 is a much darker shade of gray than the Space Gray iPhone 6s, appearing even darker than the black and slate iPhone 5.

Over the years, Apple has used several different shades of Space Gray, Black, and Slate across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch product lines, with some shades that are much darker than others. Apple’s most recent products, the iPhone 6s and the iPad Pro, feature a light shade of Space Gray, and a darker Space Gray could differentiate the iPhone 7 from earlier devices.

Rumors of a darker Space Gray or Space Black iPhone 7 first surfaced earlier this week, when Japanese site Mac Otakara clarified that a rumor suggesting a deep blue iPhone 7 was in the works was mistaken. The site, which reported the deep blue color in early June, said its source had misidentified a darker space gray for a shade of blue.

Apple is expected to introduce the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in September with an iPhone 6s-style design, no headphone jack, an A10 processor, a better camera (larger sensor for the iPhone 7 and dual-lens for the iPhone 7 Plus), and faster LTE and Wi-Fi. Unconfirmed possible features include a flush home button, improved water resistance, and a thinner body.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: Concepts
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Apple in Talks to Acquire Jay Z’s Streaming Music Service Tidal

Apple is in talks to acquire rapper Jay Z’s streaming music service Tidal, reports The Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the matter.” The talks are said to be exploratory and “may not result in a deal,” but Apple is considering the purchase to bolster its Apple Music service.

A Tidal spokesman told The Wall Street Journal that Tidal executives had not held talks with Apple, and the terms of the deal are unknown.

Tidal, which launched in 2014 and was acquired by Jay Z in January of 2015 before a March 2015 re-launch, is a subscription-based music service that advertises high-quality lossless audio and high-definition music videos. Tidal offers two tiers of service, a standard premium option for $9.99 per month and HiFi for $19.99 per month. Tidal has 4.2 million paying subscribers, and as of March, 45 percent of those subscribers paid extra for the hi-fidelity tier.

Positioned as one of Apple Music’s major competitors, Tidal has clashed with Apple in the past. In February, Apple was in talks to exclusively debut Kanye West’s album “The Life of Pablo,” but West pulled out of talks and opted to debut his album on Tidal.

Tidal’s strong connection to artists like Kanye West, Beyonce, and Madonna is one of the reasons Apple is mulling an acquisition. Apple has made a major push into both exclusive and original content with Apple Music, luring artists like Taylor Swift, the Weeknd, Eminem, and more into offering up Apple Music exclusives.

Today is the one-year anniversary of Apple Music, which first debuted in 110 countries on June 30, 2015. As of June 2016, Apple Music has more than 15 million paying subscribers.

Tag: Tidal
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Tesla under investigation after first Autopilot-related death

The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) is investigating a collision that occurred when a Tesla Model S in Autopilot mode crashed into a tractor trailer resulting in the death of the driver. This is the first fatality linked to the automaker’s vehicles while in the semi-autonomous driving mode.

According to Tesla, the Model S was traveling down a divided highway when a tractor trailer crossed perpendicular to the path of the car. Neither the driver nor Autopilot applied the brakes. The automaker believes that the combination of a white trailer and brightly lit sky may have made the trailer difficult to see.

Because of the height of the trailer, the windshield of the car struck the truck’s container as the vehicle passed under it. Tesla believes that its “advanced crash safety system” would have prevented any serious injury if the front of the Model S had the hit truck itself.

Tesla’s Autopilot mode is still in beta and the automaker reminds drivers that they need to keep their hands on the wheel and continue to pay attention to the road and be prepared to take control of the vehicle.

The collision occurred on May 7 in Williston, Florida. Tesla informed the NHTSA about the incident which has in turn opened a preliminary investigation.

In a statement Tesla said, “the customer who died in this crash had a loving family and we are beyond saddened by their loss. He was a friend to Tesla and the broader EV community, a person who spent his life focused on innovation and the promise of technology and who believed strongly in Tesla’s mission. We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends.”

Via: Bloomberg

Source: Tesla

How to keep your phone looking good inside a case

I know it’s not always a popular position, but I love me a good case.

A quality phone case adds grip, style, and color; it protects my handset even as it shows off the craftsmanship of the device. And a good case doesn’t necessarily mean shelling out for an Otterbox or a Trident. A good case is a case that offers the right mix of protection, comfort, grip, and style for the user’s situation. Regardless which case you own, be it a Spigen Neo Hybrid case, a Cruzerlite Bugdroid TPU case, or something in between, I’ve got news for you:

Most of you are using your case wrong.

You buy a shiny, new phone that’s worth a good bit of money. You want to protect said shiny new phone, so you buy it a case. That case is supposed to help defend it against drops, dings, and dirt, right? Well, not quite.

Unless you’ve got a LifeProof or other case made to keep out EVERYTHING (water, dust, sand, poltergeists, etc), your phone probably still has just enough wiggle room to allow gunk to slip in between the case and your phone. Since the debris can’t easily escape, that sand or dust is just gonna rub, scratch and otherwise shift about in its confined quarters until you take the case off and liberate it.

Problem is, most people don’t regularly take their case off. That bit of sand from your beach vacation last year might still be there, scratching wee little tick marks on the back of your fancy phone as it waits for freedom. So, after two years, the case finally comes off, but lo and behold, your once pristine phone is now scratched, scuffed, and maybe even stained by the case that was supposed to be protecting it.

See this? This is what happens when you don’t take your case off often enough. This is also why a lot of people think cases are worthless: because they put a case on their phone and the phone was still scratched to hell while they had it. That isn’t (completely) your case’s fault — it’s yours, too.

We all want to properly care for our precious, precious phones, so that they last longer, look better, and will hopefully fetch more when we inevitably sell them and buy a new one. Here are a few tips for keeping your case from wrecking your phone.

• Take your phone out of the case regularly. If you’re someone who spends a lot of time outdoors, keep your phone in a purse/bag with a lot of other stuff, or you just want to be careful, take your case off once a week to clean it. If you’re using a case that’s hard to take on and off (which should hopefully get less dirt in it), then do it once a month. If you’re lazy/forgetful, do it every time you get your oil changed.
• Use a microfiber cloth to clean it. If your phone’s dirty, you might have an urge to use an alcoholic or Lysol wipe on your phone. STOP. They can eat away at the oleophobic coating on your screen. Don’t even use a paper towel if you can help it, you should use a microfiber cloth to gently wipe off smudges and specks. Use the hem of your shirt in a pinch, and if you have tough gunk or sticky stuff on it, put just a little water on the cloth (not on the phone, on the cloth), and gently work out the spots.

• Use Q-Tips to clean ports and seams. While sometimes you might also need to bust out a toothpick to dig out harder to reach grime, always start with a Q-Tip and remember that if you dig too hard, you could scratch or pop something. Like your microphone. Which would be bad.
• Wash your case. While we wouldn’t recommend washing your phone, you can wash most cases with a light dish soap solution. Considering how many places we set down our phones (dirty counters, public bathrooms, etc), you should consider washing your case once in a while and then letting it air-dry for a few hours before putting it back on your phone. While you can get most water off the surface of the case, letting it air-dry will allow more time for any water that might’ve seeped into the softer, squishier parts of your case to see themselves out, and it’ll give you plenty of time to…
• Let your phone breathe. After cleaning your phone and your case, just give your phone a little time away from its confines. Let it breathe. If you’re cleaning it at night, just let it sit out overnight before re-assembling its case in the morning. (Whether or not it spends its nude night on a cushy pillow/throne is entirely up to you.)

It can also help to switch cases every now and again to prevent the colors or patterns of a particular case from slowly rubbing into the phone, especially white phones. However if you’ve just got your one signature case, you shouldn’t run into too many problems so long as you take good care of both the case and the phone.

Just as there are several things you can do right while taking care of your phone, there are some that you can do wrong. Improperly cleaning your phone could destroy the oleophobic coating, blow out your microphones, or break the phone.

• Don’t use compressed air or vacuums to clean out the mic holes. Even if you’re in the middle of salvaging a phone that took a dive into the pool, be careful using the vacuum to suck out moisture as it can damage the microphones and other components.
• Don’t use harsh cleaners or higher-proof alcohol solutions on the screen. While stubborn, tacky gunk may build up on the trim and around the screen, please don’t use cleaning solutions like Windex or rubbing alcohol trying to remove it. Use small amounts of water on cotton swabs, tissues, or microfiber cloths and good old-fashioned elbow grease to work it off the screen. If you need to use isoprophyl alcohol, water it down first and use sparingly. You can also use very tiny portions of stronger cleaners on the back of the phone depending on the material.
• Don’t spray your phone with water or any cleaning agent. Always spray any cleaning liquids (usually water) on your cloth rather than on the device itself. You do not want it getting into the speaker grills, microphones, or any other ports, and you wouldn’t want excess seeping into your phone.

If you germaphobes really want to kill the bacteria on your phone, don’t reach for the Clorox or Lysol. Invest in a UV smartphone sterilizer, where you can leave your phone to charge overnight as UV lights kill bacteria on the device. It’s not something most of us need, but if you do, that’s an option.

So, how do you keep your phone clean? Just rub it on your sleeve, or do you have a fastidious cleaning process to keep your phone in like-new condition? Share your cleaning habits in the comments below, and tell us how well your case keeps your phone safe and clean!

Google working to bring VR to Chrome on Android

A new report says that Google is putting in virtual reality features in the Android version of its Chrome browser, which could enable VR experiences to be seen by a much larger audience.

Road to VR reports:

The latest builds of Google Chrome Beta and Google Chrome Dev on Android bring two important new features for making this a reality. Chrome Beta now contains a WebVR setting which enables enhanced VR device compatibility with VR websites built against WebVR standards. Chrome Dev (one extra step back in development from Beta) now contains a ‘VR Shell’ setting which Google’s Chromium Evangelist François Beaufort says “enable[s] a browser shell for VR” which “allows users to browse the web while using Cardboard or Daydream-ready viewers.” Both options are available in the browser’s Flags page, accessed by entering chrome://flags in the URL bar.

The article adds that Google is also working to add support for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headset to Chrome on the desktop.

Understanding Telus’s new Premium Plus financing plan

Spend more to save some money with Telus’s new Premium Plus financing option.

Last week, Telus launched a new plan under the Premium Plus name.

At a time when many U.S. carriers are all-in on financing options, Telus’s new Premium Plus plan is a hybrid system, providing customers a considerable subsidy in exchange for a two-year contract, along with flexibility in choosing to spend around $10 per month more on a plan in order to spend less for the phone upon purchase.

What is Premium Plus?

Premium Plus is the name of a new type of financing option offered by Telus, the second-largest carrier in Canada. It allows customers, new or existing, to add a small amount of money to their plans per month in exchange for paying less for the phone at the register.

How does it work?

It’s actually quite simple. Telus’s ordinary Your Choice share plans are priced based on the type of phone you buy: a premium smartphone, like a Galaxy S7; a smartphone, like a Moto X Play or other low-cost Android phones; and BYOD, where you bring your own device.

Premium Plus is interesting because it lives alongside the phone’s subsidy, and is completely optional.

When you buy a premium smartphone, Telus subsidizes the cost by as much as $600, which allows you to buy it for considerably less than its retail price, in exchange for signing a two-year service plan. A Galaxy S7, for example, costs $900 when purchased outright, but $250 up front with a two-year plan, making the subsidy $650.

But $250 is still a lot of money to spend when you’re also signing up for an expensive plan, so Telus decided to add the option of allowing customers to tack on an additional $10 per month to that two-year plan in order to lower the up front cost even further — in this case to $50.

So Telus is increasing the subsidy?

No. What it is doing is allowing you, the customer, to finance the cost of the phone over two years, by adding an additional $10 or so to your monthly bill. This is a system that Telus’s flanker brand, Koodo, has had for some time.

Premium Plus is interesting because it lives alongside the phone’s subsidy, and is completely optional. It allows you to buy a $900 Galaxy S7 for $50 up front.

Is Premium Plus only available for certain phones?

Yes, the Premium Plus model only works for phones that are already heavily subsidized, and fall under Telus’s Premium Smartphone category. Devices that cost around $500 outright don’t need Premium Plus because Telus is already subsidizing the vast majority of the phone’s cost in exchange for a two-year service plan.

Tell me: Is Premium Plus a good deal?

Well, it’s an interest-free loan, so yes. Telus isn’t charging interest on the additional discount, it is just breaking a portion of the phone’s unsubsidized cost into manageable monthly payments that are tacked onto the end of your monthly bill.

Is it a good deal? Well, it’s an interest-free loan, so yes.

There doesn’t appear to be a “downside,” per se. It’s a matter of figuring out whether you can stomach an extra $10 per month on your bill versus paying more for a phone at the time of purchase.

Which phones are compatible with Premium Plus

According to Telus, any phone in its Premium Smartphone category is compatible. Specifically, that includes:

• iPhone 6s / 6s Plus / 6 / 6 Plus / SE
• Galaxy S7 / S7 edge / S6 / Note 5 / S6 edge
• LG G5
• BlackBerry Priv

So should I go for it?

That’s totally up to you, but like I said, there doesn’t appear to be a catch or inherent downside to the deal. It’s just a response to the weak Canadian Dollar, which has caused the price of handsets to rise.

Got a question about Telus Premium Plus plans or anything else to do with the Canadian market? Let us know in the comments!

Google Maps shows its rainbow side with Toronto Pride Parade details

Google has announced that it will be showing its rainbow colors in support of Toronto Pride this Sunday, July 3rd.

As part of Google Maps’ support for Pride in 16 cities around the world, Toronto’s Pride Parade will highlight the route, as well as traffic information around the area, this coming Saturday. According to Google, it is a part of the company’s “mandate to bring temporal events to life and provide people with the most up-to-date, accurate, and useful information, so they can make the best decision on where to go.”

As you can see, the parade route will be highlighted in Pride’s traditional rainbow hues, and traffic be diverted around the busy areas until the chaos has cleared on Sunday around 5pm. The specialized routing will begin showing up to people in the Toronto area on Saturday, July 2nd.