Sunday, October 31, 2021

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Juno probe provides the first 3D view of Jupiter's atmosphere

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 02:06 PM PDT

NASA's Juno probe has provided a better, deeper look at Jupiter's atmosphere. Researchers have produced the first 3D view of Jupiter's atmospheric layers, illustrating how its turbulent clouds and storms work in greater detail than before. Most notably, it's clearer how cyclones and anticyclones behave. They're much taller than expected, with the Great Red Spot (an anticyclone) running 200 miles deep. They're either warmer or colder at the top depending on their spin, too.

Juno helped fill out the data using a microwave radiometer that offered a peek below the clouds' surfaces. For the Great Red Spot, the team complemented the radiometer data with the gravity signatures from two close passes. The radiometer info also showed Earth-like circulation cells in northern and souther hemispheres, not to mention ocean-like changes in microwave light.

There are still mysteries left, such as the atmospheric mass of the Great Red Spot. With that said, the 3D imagery is already producing a more cohesive picture of how jovian planets like Jupiter behave. It might not take much more effort to solve more of Jupiter's mysteries.

Apple quietly discontinues the 21.5-inch iMac

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 12:50 PM PDT

You'll have to go large if you want an Intel-powered Mac desktop. 9to5Macreports Apple has quietly discontinued the 21.5-inch iMac about half a year after introducing the M1 model. The company had been selling a lone dual-core model for $1,099 through a relatively hard-to-find page, but YouTube Tech God noticed that it disappeared sometime on October 29th.

We've asked Apple for comment on the move. The company has a long history of keeping legacy Macs around for a while before silently dropping them, but it seldom elaborates on those decisions. A notable exception came in March this year, when Apple confirmed it was winding down iMac Pro sales.

This won't thrill educational customers that may still want the 21.5-inch iMac for its relatively low price, small size and legacy ports. You'll have to buy at least a 27-inch iMac or a $1,099 legacy Mac mini if you're not ready to leap to Apple Silicon. This does signal Apple's confidence in its processors, though — it clearly believes its mainstream desktop customers are ready to make the switch.

NASA delays SpaceX Crew-3 launch to November 3rd

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 10:56 AM PDT

You'll have to wait a little bit longer to watch SpaceX's third crewed NASA mission. NASA has delayed the launch of Crew-3 from early on Halloween to 1:10AM Eastern on November 3rd. The agency pinned the setback on "unfavorable" weather. There probably won't be another delay, though, as officials are predicting an 80 percent chance of good weather for the new date. Live overage of the launch on NASA's channel will start November 2nd at 8:45PM.

Crew-3 will bring NASA astronauts Raja Chari (the mission commander), Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron to the International Space Station alongside the ESA's Matthias Maurer. They're expected to dock at 11PM Eastern on November 3rd and will stay until late April 2022.

Crewed SpaceX flights are still relatively rare. Crew-1 launched in November 2020, while Crew-2 didn't lift off until April 2021. Crew-3 and the recent all-civilian Inspiration4 mission are steps toward making these occupied flights relatively routine — ideally, they'll soon be as uneventful as SpaceX's other flights.

Roblox says its extra-long outage can't be blamed on Chipotle

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 10:16 AM PDT

It hasn't been a good weekend for Roblox players. The Vergenotes that the gaming platform has been down since 7PM Eastern on October 28th (nearly two days as of this writing), with no resolution in sight. It's not clear what prompted the failure beyond an "internal system issue," but Roblox Corporation stressed that it wasn't due to a Chipotle promo that launched just half an hour earlier. This wasn't linked to "any specific experiences or partnerships," Roblox explained.

The promo offers a total $1 million in free Chipotle burritos to players as part of a Halloween event. That could prompt a spike in activity on Roblox, but it's not likely to disrupt a game with over 40 million daily users.

The outage certainly won't help the platform, though. Over half of Roblox players are pre-teens, and its surge during the early pandemic helped fuel high-profile concerts and platform-exclusive games. Failures like this could easily anger kids (and their families) that spend much of their time in Roblox's virtual universe. While the downtime likely won't hurt the platform's long-term reputation, the company clearly can't afford many incidents like this.

2021 MacBook Pro teardown reveals easy-to-remove batteries

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 09:30 AM PDT

Apple may have given us a glimpse of what the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros' insides look like, but it had a surprise waiting for the folks at iFixit nonetheless. The iFixit team said removing batteries from recent MacBook Pros required "infinite patience, a bottle of isopropyl alcohol, and an optional bottle of human-friendly alcohol." They expected the same from this generation of laptops but were pleasantly surprised by the presence of pull tabs instead when they tore down the new MacBook Pros.

The outer battery cells have noticeable pull tabs that you can, well, pull to detach them from their adhesive underneath. Even the central battery cells have pull tabs — they're just harder to find inside the laptop chassis beneath the trackpad. iFixit was able able to confirm that the laptops will recognize and work with battery replacements just fine.

In addition, most of the laptops' ports, except for the SD card reader and the HDMI port, are modular. That means they can be easily and cheaply replaced if they suddenly break or malfunction. Conversely, the laptops' keyboard will still be hard to replace, but hey, at least the days of Apple's butterfly keyboard are now over. You can watch iFixit's teardown process in the video below, and it also has more photos of the laptops insides on its website if you want to have a better look at their components. iFixit also took apart Apple's $19 polishing cloth, in case you're wondering what makes it more expensive that its typical counterparts.

Patreon may let you reward creators with crypto

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 09:13 AM PDT

Patreon doesn't let creators offer crypto coins for the sake of profit, but that might change before long. TechCrunchreports Patreon executives Jack Conte and Julian Gutman said at The Information's latest summit that the company was "evaluating" the use of crypto, including a previously hinted-at possibility of allowing "creator coins" that fans can buy to show support. You could invest in creators and reap rewards if they hit the big time, or access special content reserved for coin owners.

Conte wouldn't say if Patreon had staff devoted to crypto projects, but did say the company was "thinking about it." The company had discussed the possibility of allowing creator coins during an online September discussion, but it was sidelined as the company grappled with the implications of Mastercard's tougher adult content standards.

Gutman added that Patreon was "interested" in studying the potential benefits of NFTs and related technologies for creators looking to sustain a business. NFTs have boosted the value of digital art, sometimes leading to sales worth millions, but there are also widespread concerns about the highly speculative nature of the market and the blockchain-based technology's environmental impact.

It wouldn't be surprising if Patreon embraced coins, NFTs or both. Patreon has fared well despite early pandemic jitters and raised $90 million just a year ago, but there's little doubt the service is trying to court as many creators as possible. A new stance on crypto might entice content producers who currently have to go elsewhere if they want to dabble in the technology.

ICYMI: Apple’s new MacBook Pros have (nearly) everything you’d want

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 09:00 AM PDT

This week, we tested out new flagship smartphones, high-powered laptops and much-improved earbuds. Devindra Hardawar reviewed the latest 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros and reports back that they provide almost everything one could want out of a powerful laptop. Billy Steele spent time listening to the third-generation AirPods and concluded they sound much better than the previous version. And Cherlynn Low used Google's Pixel 6 and 6 Pro and found that the camera-heavy handsets have a lot more to offer, including a great starting price.

The new MacBook Pros have a ton of power (and ports)

Apple MacBook 14- and 16-inch (2021)
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Devindra Hardawar says the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros are precisely what media professionals have been waiting for: speedy M1 Pro and Max processors, a comfortable keyboard, serious battery life and great speakers. They also feature most of the crucial ports MacBooks have been missing for years, including (finally!) an SD card reader, though the laptops are thicker and heavier as a result. And of course, all that comes with a high starting price of $1,999.

Devindra was particularly impressed by the Liquid Retina XDR displays, which come close to 4K resolutions, and have mini-LED backlighting to produce up to 1,600 nits of brightness. He was also pleased to find support for 120Hz refresh rates, and by the benchmark testing in which both MacBook Pros blew away competing Windows PCs. However, while the laptops were able to speedily convert a 4K video clip to 1080p, Devindra doesn't think they'd make the best gaming machines — trying to load Borderlands 3 produced an unplayable mess. Overall though, he says these computers have practically everything one, especially a creative professional, would want in a powerful notebook — as long as you can stomach the price tag.

The third-gen Airpods have a better fit and more features

Apple AirPods 3rd-Gen (2021)
Billy Steele/Engadget

Apple's latest AirPods have been almost completely redesigned from the previous version; the buds themselves have a new look, courtesy of the contoured shape which reduces weight and features a tapered silhouette and an angle to increase comfort. Billy Steele says the company's efforts to build better AirPods have paid off: the new buds are more comfortable and and have much better audio quality, with bigger and more immersive sound that remained open and airy. That's thanks to a custom driver paired with a high-dynamic-range amplifier, as well as the new H1 chip and the inward facing mic. Billy says these changes made the AirPods something he actively wanted to listen to music with.

The new AirPods also have an IPX4 rating so they'll survive sweaty workouts or small splashes. They can also detect skin which, combined with the built-in accelerometer, makes for more accurate pausing and extends battery life. The new chip means you can listen to tracks in Dolby Atmos on Apple Music, and the spatial audio is available with dynamic head tracking to change the position of the audio when you turn your head. However, the latest AirPods still lack active noise cancellation and Transparency mode as these features are still reserved for the pricier AirPods Pro. While Billy acknowledges that these earbuds aren't for everyone, he says they continue to offer Apple users features that are well integrated with iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Google's Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are excellent phones with great prices 

Google Pixel 6 and 6 Pro
David Imel for Engadget

Cherlynn Low says the newest Google phones — the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro — are the most intriguing phones that the company has made in years. Featuring the first Google mobile processor, Tensor, the two handsets also have improved camera hardware, lovely OLED screens, speedy refresh rates (120Hz for the 6 Pro, 90Hz for the 6), and decent speakers. Cherlynn says the best feature is the surprisingly low starting price — only $599 — which makes some of the drawbacks more forgivable.

One of the issues she had with the phones was the laggy under-screen fingerprint sensor, which requires the display to be on before it unlocked — a process that she says doesn't need to have two steps. She was more impressed by the new voice keyboard, which did an excellent job of transcribing speech, and the additional camera features. The sensors are sharper and bigger with larger pixels, producing bright, clean photos — and special camera features, like Magic Eraser and Face Unblur, give users a lot of control over their photos. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro excelled in our battery tests, too, lasting 20.5 hours and 17 hours, respectively. Overall, Cherlynn calls the handsets a superb return to form, showing off Google's strengths in the software and photography departments.

Apple's worst shipping delay is for a $19 polishing cloth

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 07:10 AM PDT

You'd think global supply shortages would hit Apple's tech products the hardest, but that's apparently not the case. As The New York Timesreports, Apple's most backordered new release is its $19 Polishing Cloth. Order the microfiber cloth from the company store as of this writing and you'll wait 10 to 12 weeks — in other words, you won't get your Apple-branded polishing experience until January 2022 at the earliest. You could buy a new MacBook Pro and wait another two months to (officially) wipe smudges off the screen. 

It's not clear what prompted the backlog, but it might be sheer popularity. An anonymous Apple official talking to The Times said the company wasn't surprised by high demand, and that the cloth was both specially designed (it was originally meant for the nano-texture glass on the Pro Display XDR) and particularly effective.

It's no secret that you can find far, far less expensive alternatives if you're cleaning a regular screen. Amazon is selling a six-pack of MagicFiber cloths for $9, and even the pricer options tend to offer better value. However, the shortfall illustrates both the cachet of the official product and the sheer range of supply constraints affecting tech, sometimes in unexpected ways. If you can't even count on getting a polishing cloth in a timely fashion, you know the industry is struggling with broad supply issues.

Meta is acquiring the maker of VR workout app 'Supernatural'

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 05:39 AM PDT

Facebook made it pretty clear that it's focusing on the metaverse when it rebranded itself as Meta, and its latest acquisition is part of that effort. Jason Rubin, the company's VP of Metaverse Content has revealed that Meta is acquiring Within, the creator of immersive virtual reality workout app Supernatural for Oculus Quest headsets. A rep for Within previously described Supernatural to Engadget as "part Beat Saber, part Dance Dance Revolution, part Guitar Hero with your whole body.

In a separate announcement (via TechCrunch), Within CEO Chris Milk and Head of fitness Leanne Pedante said that its coaches, choreographers and managers will continue being part of the team. They'll work on VR fitness experiences for Supernatural independently under Meta's Reality Labs. While Within will have to answer to its new parent company going forward, Milk's and Pedante's statement says the the acquisition will give them access to more resources, including more music, more features and more social experiences.

In Supernatural, you'll have to hit colored orbs flying at you from its various VR environments using your controllers. The balls will shatter if you hit them with enough force, but they'll only float away if you don't — you'll get scored at the end based on how you do. Supernatural has a 30-day free trial period, after which it'll cost you $19 a month for continued access. 
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