Monday, June 6, 2022

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Watch Apple’s WWDC 2022 keynote here at 1PM ET

Posted: 06 Jun 2022 09:00 AM PDT

It's that time once again. Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off today. As ever, the proceedings will commence with a keynote that will contain the majority of the biggest news. Apple has invited a small number of guests to attend the keynote at Apple Park, though most folks will need to tune in virtually. The event starts at 1PM ET and you can watch it below.

You'll get your first proper look at features coming to iOS 16, iPadOS 16, watchOS 9, tvOS 16 and the next macOS. The updates should arrive later this year, though you can try the new OS versions early if you're willing to install the various developer betas.

We have an inkling of what to expect from WWDC thanks to a melange of reports and leaks. Health, Messages, notifications and the lock screen are all said to be in line for updates on iOS 16 and iPadOS 16. Improved multitasking is believed to be on the way to iPad, while it's expected that iOS will gain support for always-on displays ahead of that feature coming to some of the next-gen iPhones.

There are also rumblings that Apple will announce a refreshed MacBook Air running on an M2 processor. In any case, we won't need to wait long to find out what Apple has in store.

Axon halts plans to make a drone equipped with a Taser

Posted: 06 Jun 2022 08:49 AM PDT

Axon has paused work on a project to build drones equipped with its Tasers. A majority of its artificial intelligence ethics board quit after the plan was announced last week.

Nine of the 12 members said in a resignation letter that, just a few weeks ago, the board voted 8-4 to recommend that Axon shouldn't move forward with a pilot study for a Taser-equipped drone concept. "In that limited conception, the Taser-equipped drone was to be used only in situations in which it might avoid a police officer using a firearm, thereby potentially saving a life," the nine board members wrote. They noted Axon might decline to follow that recommendation and were working on a report regarding measures the company should have in place were it to move forward.

The nine individuals said they were blindsided by an announcement from the company last Thursday — nine days after 19 elementary school students and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas — about starting development of such a drone. It had an aim of "incapacitating an active shooter in less than 60 seconds." Axon said it "asked the board to re-engage and consider issuing further guidance and feedback on this capability."

Axon CEO Rick Smith suggested the drones could be deployed as a measure to prevent mass shootings. As Reuters notes, he envisioned drones being stationed in school hallways and having the ability to enter rooms through vents. The drone system, which Axon suggested might be ready as soon as 2024, would have cost schools around $1,000 per year.

The system would have tapped into security camera feeds to detect active shooter events using both human monitoring and artificial intelligence. While a human operator would have made the final decision on whether to fire a Taser, Axon planned to develop "targeting algorithms" to help them with "properly and safely aiming the device."

"This type of surveillance undoubtedly will harm communities of color and others who are overpoliced, and likely well beyond that," the resigning board members wrote. "The Taser-equipped drone also has no realistic chance of solving the mass shooting problem Axon now is prescribing it for, only distracting society from real solutions to a tragic problem. We all feel the desperate need to do something to address our epidemic of mass shootings. But Axon's proposal to elevate a tech-and-policing response when there are far less harmful alternatives, is not the solution."

Those board members said that before Axon made its announcement, they urged it to "pull back" on the plans. "But the company charged ahead in a way that struck many of us as trading on the tragedy of the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings," they wrote. "Significantly for us, it bypassed Axon's commitment to consult with the company's own AI Ethics Board."

Smith said that the goal of the announcement was to start a conversation about the use of drones equipped with Tasers as a possible solution. "I acknowledge that our passion for finding new solutions to stop mass shootings led us to move quickly," Smith said in a statement. "However, in light of feedback, we are pausing work on this project and refocusing to further engage with key constituencies to fully explore the best path forward."

The AI ethics board has had previous success in convincing Axon to change course. In 2019, the company said it wouldn't use facial recognition in its police body cameras after the board expressed concern about the plan.

LastPass no longer requires a password to access your vault

Posted: 06 Jun 2022 08:25 AM PDT

Just because you use a password manager doesn't mean you want to enter passwords every time you check that manager... and now, you don't have to. LastPass has launched an option to access your vault using a passwordless sign-in — it's the first password manager with this feature, the company claims. Grant permission through the LastPass Authenticator mobile app and you can update account info on the web without entering your master password.

The approach relies on FIDO-compliant password-free technology. The feature is available to both personal and business users. LastPass is also promising options beyond the Authenticator app in the future, such as relying on biometric scans or hardware security keys.

It may seem odd to rely on a phone app to check passwords on your PC, and LastPass already takes care of some headaches through its browser extension. Still, this promises to take more of the pain out of password managers. It might also convince you to use a stronger password for your vault knowing that you'll only rarely need to type it in.

Elon Musk threatens to back out of Twitter deal over bot estimates

Posted: 06 Jun 2022 07:11 AM PDT

Elon Musk still isn't happy with Twitter's stance on bots and other fake accounts. As Bloombergreports, Musk has amended an SEC filing to claim Twitter is committing a "material breach" of merger terms by allegedly refusing to disclose enough information about bot spam and fake account data. The social network's offer to provide additional info on its testing methods for bogus accounts is both inadequate and an attempt to "obfuscate and confuse" the situation, the Tesla chief said. In other words, he's concerned Twitter is trying to hide the true scope of its bot problem.

Musk reportedly needs the data to both prepare for the Twitter acquisition and to improve his financing of the deal, according to the filing. He also maintained that he neither needs to explain his reasoning for the data nor agree to new conditions to access any info.

We've asked Twitter for comment. The company has routinely claimed that bots and fake accounts represent less than five percent of daily users, but hasn't shared significantly more detail. Musk put his purchase "temporarily on hold" in mid-May as he sought to confirm that figure.

This isn't the only obstacle Musk's bid faces. Regulators in the European Union, for instance, have warned that the entrepreneur will still have to obey local content rules regardless of his desire to loosen Twitter's policies. If Musk and Twitter remain at odds over bot data, however, the $44 billion purchase could fall apart before it's even finalized.

Xbox and Bethesda will host a second games showcase on June 14th

Posted: 06 Jun 2022 07:02 AM PDT

This weekend's Xbox and Bethesda showcase won't include all the news that's fit to stream. Like it did last June, Microsoft will run a second event, which will include more trailers, discussions with developers and in-depth looks at some of the games featured in the main Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase.

Xbox Games Showcase Extended will take place on June 14th at 1PM ET. It will run for around 90 minutes and will be available in English, Latin America Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German and French, and with live audio descriptions and American Sign Language. Support for more languages will be added later. You'll be able to watch on YouTube, Twitch, Twitter and Facebook.

Last year's Xbox Games Showcase Extended offered additional details on the likes of Forza Horizon 5, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2,Microsoft Flight Simulator and some third-party games. We also learned about the return of Xbox Design Lab to help players customize their controllers.

The primary showcase is set for June 12 at 1PM ET. It'll be on the same channels, as well as TikTok, Steam and Bilibili. Microsoft says the event will be available in 33 languages overall, though some may not be available until next week if the translations aren't finished in time. English audio descriptions and ASL will help more fans enjoy the show.

Xbox notes it will stream the showcase in 1080p at 60 fps. A 4K version will be available on YouTube afterward. Meanwhile, Engadget will have coverage of all the biggest news from both events.

The best gifts for new dads

Posted: 06 Jun 2022 06:15 AM PDT

It's hard to be a new parent even during the most idyllic times. So what can you do to help? How about gifting a new dad something to make their lives a bit easier. Maybe they just need a breather from the hellstorm of diapers and sleep training. Or perhaps they want a better way to distract their screaming spawn. Here are a few options to consider.

10.2-inch iPad

10.2-inch iPad
Apple

Apple's entry-level iPad is one of the most useful devices for any new parent. It can be your child's gateway to video chatting with their grandparents (and with the new Center Stage cameras, they'll always be in frame), or a life-saving distraction during long car rides. It could be a new dad's way to catch up on their favorite show while stuck dealing with mealtime. Or it could be a way for growing kids to read interactive stories and play games. The iPad can be whatever you want it to be. And paired with a decent case, it can be durable enough to survive life with tiny humans. (And if it does break, at least it's far cheaper to replace than an iPad Air, or a typical laptop.)

Buy 10.2-inch iPad at Amazon - $329

Jabra Elite 85t earbuds

Jabra Elite 85t earbuds sitting on a few books.
Engadget

There's no question that we love Jabra's lineup of wireless earbuds. The Elite 85t delivers solid active noise canceling, a slim and light design, and excellent sound. And best of all, they cost around $200 and you can often find them for around $150. No matter which smartphone you have, the 85t are an excellent way to catch up on podcasts while trying to rock a baby to sleep. And they'll be even more useful during the rare bit of downtime for new parents. They're perfect for rocking out to your favorite tunes, or pair them to your TV or set-top box to enjoy late-night movies without making much noise.

Buy Jabra Elite 85t at Amazon - $200

SmartNoggin Nogginstik

The SmartNoggin Nogginstick baby toy.
SmartNoggin

This relatively cheap rattle is deceptively useful. It has a light-up face to keep babies interested, multiple textures for them to explore, and a mirror on the bottom for them to learn their own faces. It was a secret weapon during my child's first-year tantrums, so much so that I've gifted it to every new parent I know. It's not high tech at all, but it's a reminder that they're called classics for a reason.

Buy Nogginstik at Amazon - $24

Sonos Roam

A white Sonos Roam speaker sitting on an outdoor ledge.
Engadget

Sonos' most portable speaker is an excellent choice for new parents, especially if they've already bought into the Sonos ecosystem. It's small enough to throw in a bag, giving new parents a way to play some tunes during a picnic. It relies on Bluetooth, so pretty much any device can connect to it. But the best part is that it also works over Wi-Fi with an existing Sonos setup. So if you start playing some songs on your larger Sonos speakers, you can easily pipe that over to the Roam and bring it to your backyard. And since it's from a brand that's known for excellent sound quality, you can expect everything to be much richer than other cheap Bluetooth speakers.

Buy Roam at Sonos - $179

Apple Watch Series 7

Apple Watch Series 7
Apple

The Apple Watch is great for working out — but it can also be a handy tool for new parents. It's a simple way to keep tabs on texts and other notifications when your hands are full with a baby or baby-related ephemera. It lets you start and stop podcasts when you can't reach your phone. And — here's the kicker — it's also a perfect way to distract youngins and de-escalate shouting matches. It turns out, having a tiny screen on your wrist that can display photos is pretty useful! And it's also a relatively safe device for babies to fiddle with, thanks to its touchscreen. (Of course, you can take your pick of any competing smartwatch for Android users, but we'd recommend Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4.)

Buy Apple Watch Series 7 at Amazon - $399Buy Galaxy Watch 4 at Amazon - $250

GoPro Hero10 Black

GoPro Hero10 Black
GoPro

Action cameras are great for vacations and high-impact sports, but they can be just as useful for new parents. It's the sort of thing you can strap onto a hat when you go out for a light hike with a little one, or just leave it running in your backyard to capture their first steps. Sure, we've all got smartphone cameras, but it's tough to leave those running for extended periods, and they're still a bit distracting if you're dealing with a child. A camera like the Hero10 Black, on the other hand, is something you can just set, forget and discover little video treasures later.

Buy Hero10 Black at Amazon - $500

Theragun Mini

Someone using the Theragun Mini on their elbow.
Theragun

Keeping up with a new baby can lead to aches and pains in muscles that dad never knew he had. The Theragun Mini can give him the opportunity to get a massage without leaving the house. While there are much bigger and more powerful Theragun machines, the Mini is a good size for beginners and those who want to take its muscle relief power wherever they go. It has a single button that dad can use to change the massage gun's speed and its ergonomic design makes it easy to reach different parts of the body. And arguably the best part is its 150-minute battery life — while that might not seem like a long time, it truly is when you consider the fact that you don't need to use it for more than a few minutes each day to feel the results. With that schedule, dad could use the Theragun Mini every day for a month or more before needing to recharge it.

Buy Mini at Theragun - $199

Comixology

Promotional images for the Comixology service.
Comixology

It's hard to keep up with comics when kids are around, but Comixology makes it easy to catch up on your favorite releases. If you know a comic nerd who's eager to see what the X-Men are up to, or who just wants to catch up on long-running graphic novel series, it's worth sending them an Amazon gift card that they can use with Comixology. It's particularly useful for anyone who has an iPad or a decent Android tablet. Not surprisingly, bright and portable screens are one of the best ways to appreciate comic art!

Buy Amazon gift cards for Comixology

Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Game controller

Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Game controller
Fisher Price

A perfect gift for any gamer dads in your life, the Laugh and Learn Controller is basically a baby-proofed version of a modern gamepad. There's a joystick, directional pad, and array of buttons for kids to fiddle with. But like any good distracting toy, it also lights up and makes sounds to keep them entertained. It's not exactly complex, but it's inexpensive and effective. That's particularly true for parents of little ones who always gravitate to their expensive console controllers.

Buy Laugh and Learn Controller at Amazon - $10

Greens Steel insulated tumbler

Greens Steel Beast insulated tumbler
Greens Steel

Coffee, tea or another caffeinated beverage is an essential for many new dads and Greens Steel's insulated tumblers can keep their drink of choice hot or cold for hours. While we all appreciate that luxury, it's especially important for parents who often find themselves sipping tepid coffee hours after they brewed their first cup because they got distracted with kid duties. These tumblers are made of 18/8 food grade steel and they have a double wall vacuum that maintains temperatures for up to 12 hours. And regardless of which size you get (20-, 30- or 40-ounce) they all fit into standard-sized cup holders, so dad can bring his drink with him when he runs out for an emergency diaper restock.

Buy Greens Steel tumbler at Amazon - $29

Google's Pixel 6 Pro is $100 off at Amazon right now

Posted: 06 Jun 2022 05:51 AM PDT

While we know the Google Pixel 7 is on the horizon, that knowledge isn't going to help you if you're in need of a new smartphone immediately. But Amazon has a new sale on the Pixel 6 Pro 5G that may be just what you're looking for. You can pick up the flagship smartphone from the online retailer for $799 right now, or $100 off its normal price. That's the cheapest we've seen the smartphone, making it a good time to get all of the latest features a Google phone has to offer before the Pixel 7 comes out.

Buy Pixel 6 Pro at Amazon - $799

The Pixel 6 Pro earned a score of 91 from us and we consider it to be one of the best Android phones you can get. Its two-toned design with the horizontal camera bar may be polarizing, but it's also striking and pretty slick. The 6 Pro has a 6.7-inch, 120Hz display that will automatically adjust refresh rates depending on what you're doing. It also has an under-display fingerprint sensor that, while a tad slow, provides an extra layer of security. The 6 Pro runs on Google's Tensor Processing Unit and we found it to provide excellent performance overall. Along with its strong performance, you can expect an equally strong battery life from the handset. We managed to get over 17 hours of use before needing to power up again.

One of the stand-out features of Google's Pixel smartphones is the camera array, and that remains the case for the Pixel 6 Pro. It has a 50-megapixel main sensor, a 12MP wide-angle lens and a 48MP telephoto shooter with a 4X optical zoom. These cameras work together to take lovely photos that are on-par with those taken by the iPhone 13 Pro's camera array. Android 12 also brings a number of handy photography features including Magic Eraser, Face Unblur, Long Exposure and more.

Yes, you could save even more money and opt for the Google Pixel 6, but you'd be forging the 6 Pro's 120Hz screen, telephoto camera and ultra wideband chip in the process. If you've had your eye on a Pixel phone for some time, now's a good opportunity to pick up the best model available right now for less.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Etsy introduces purchase protection measures for both buyers and sellers

Posted: 06 Jun 2022 05:30 AM PDT

Online marketplace Etsy has unveiled a new purchase protection program designed to safeguard both buyers and sellers. Right now, you have limited options if something else goes wrong with a purchase — usually, Etsy will send you back to the seller and let you work out problems with them. Starting August 1st, though, buyers will get full refunds on purchases if they "don't match the item description, arrive damaged, or never arrive," Etsy wrote. 

On the seller side, Etsy plans to invest at least $25 million per year to cover refunds for sellers on orders up to $250 for issues out of their control. "This program will help buyers feel more confident when they shop from businesses on Etsy, while we invest directly in our sellers to provide them an important layer of assurance," said Etsy CEO Raina Moskowitz in a statement. 

Angry Etsy sellers recently went on strike over fee hikes and slow support response times. The company defended the increases by saying it would put the extra money back into the business rather than boosting profits. On top of the $25 million in purchase protection, it recently announced $50 million in spending to improve customer support. It promised to use that money to expand its team, improve live chat support and reduce response times.

"Etsy's Purchase Protection program will complement our broad efforts to improve customer support, increase trust signals across the user experience, and maintain the integrity of our marketplace as a destination for unique and special items," said Moskowitz. Whether sellers will be convinced remains to be seen, however. 

The Morning After: NASA gears up for another Artemis test

Posted: 06 Jun 2022 04:15 AM PDT

There's plenty riding on NASA's next-generation Space Launch System, the modern-day rocket that will carry the Artemis missions. But after delaying its most recent test to make urgent repairs to the fuel system, the SLS is once again ready for another milestone. Today, the craft is on its way over to Launch Pad 39B to prepare for its "wet" dress rehearsal (so they fuel it, even if they have no intention of launching) later this month.

That test will take the rocket all the way to the countdown procedure while fully fuelled, giving engineers plenty of new data ahead of a planned real-world launch. If that all goes to plan, we could be a few months away from sending an uncrewed vehicle into orbit around the Moon. Give it a couple more years, and we'll hopefully send a crew beyond Earth's gravity for the first time since 1972.

— Dan Cooper

The biggest stories you might have missed

'Diablo Immortal' is unplayable on some Samsung phones with Exynos chipsets

This is not an out-of-season April Fools' joke.

Promotional image.
Blizzard / NetEase

The Diablo Immortal reviews all said pretty much the same thing: There's a good game hidden beneath all of that loot-box crud. Unfortunately, if you were using a Samsung phone with one of the company's own Exynos chipsets, the game feels a lot more broken than that. It appears as if the title isn't working well with that silicon, making the title almost unplayable. A Blizzard spokesperson said the company is exploring the problem and may block downloads of the title to some affected phones while they scramble for a fix.

Continue Reading.

NASA probably won't need Russia to send more astronauts to the ISS

Now SpaceX is its best friend (for now).

Image of a SpaceX crew capsule docking with the ISS.
NASA

NASA has purchased an extra raft of crewed missions from SpaceX to ensure the International Space Station retains its full personnel complement until 2030. The five trips are enough to provide an "uninterrupted" US presence on the station until its planned retirement date. Not only will it help give NASA options during its launch program, it'll also cover any gaps made by Boeing's yet-to-be-certified Starliner vehicle, which isn't due to fly until next year. If nothing else, that's some egg on the face of the aerospace giant, which has lost ground to its upstart rival in the spaceflight world for some time now.

Continue Reading.

Apple's 2022 MacBook Air reportedly won't come in a selection of iMac-like colors

No Orange MacBook Air for you.

It's the week of Apple's big developer event, which means we're likely to get a whole host of new hardware and software announcements as part of the main show. But if you were hoping the next-generation MacBook Air would have the same bunch of color options as the new iMac, prepare for disappointment. Those in the know claim an updated M1 MacBook Air will only sell in four hues: space gray, silver, blue and gold. That said, it's hard to know what the company will announce given the factory closures caused by China's fresh round of COVID-19 lockdowns.

Continue Reading.

China's Shenzhou-14 mission arrives at Tiangong space station for final construction

The country's homegrown space station is getting a big push toward completion.

Astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou-14 mission have successfully arrived on the nation's Tiangong space station. The crew of three will spend the next six months on the station to make a significant stride toward completing its setup. Next month, the country will launch a lab module to expand the station's footprint, with a second unit going up in October, and astronauts will conduct several EVAs to get everything connected and ready. If successful, the nation expects Tiangong to be fully operational by the end of the year.

Continue Reading.

Automotive giant Stellantis pleads guilty to diesel emissions fraud

It paid a $300 million fine.

Stellantis, parent company of Fiat Chrysler and PSA Group, has pleaded guilty to charges of criminal conspiracy after covering the extent of its diesel emissions. The automotive giant was accused of violating the Clean Air Act, misleading regulators around tailpipe emissions and installing defeat devices to cheat government tests. As part of the settlement, the company must submit compliance reports to the Justice Department for three years. Meanwhile, three of its employees are awaiting criminal charges. Given the outsize impact that tailpipe emissions have both on people's health and the climate, and that the company's net profit was reportedly nearly $15.2 billion in 2021, the penalty seems like something of a bargain.

Continue Reading.

Sony and Honda want to make their EV partnership a standalone business

Posted: 06 Jun 2022 03:25 AM PDT

Sony and Honda recently announced plans to build EVs together, with Honda focusing on the manufacturing and Sony creating the mobility service platform. Now, it looks like the companies plan to make it a separate business. "We shared the view that it is better to make the joint venture independent, in the long run, rather than putting it under Sony or Honda," Sony President and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida told Nikkei. 

Yoshida didn't provide more details, but did say it's a "possibility" that the companies may sell a stake in the joint venture or have an initial public offering. "I hope to be able to talk a little about it at some point in the near future," he added. 

The companies announced the joint venture back in March. Sony said it aimed to "fill the world with emotion through the power of creativity and technology," likely via high-tech interiors and fancy entertainment systems. It added that it wants to create a mobility system "centered around safety, entertainment and adaptability."

Last year, Honda announced plans to shift its entire vehicle lineup to EVs and fuel-cell vehicles by 2040. As part of that, it's going to invest $40 billion and launch 30 new EVs by 2030. It's not yet clear how the Sony tie-up fits into those plans, but Honda is far behind rivals — its only true EV sold in the west is the niche, Europe-only Honda E.

Sony apparently believes that other tech companies like Apple may soon be jumping into the fray, and that EVs will become more connected much like gaming consoles or the company's Aibo robot dog. "Mobility is becoming more of a service," he said. "We want to contribute to the evolution of mobility by providing the basis with network functions." 

Google's Nest cameras and smart doorbells fall to all-time lows at Amazon

Posted: 06 Jun 2022 01:46 AM PDT

It's a good time for a home security update, as a bunch of Nest products are on sale at Amazon and Adorama for the lowest prices we've seen. The easy-to-install Nest Doorbell (Battery) and Nest Cam Outdoor have particularly steep discounts of $50, letting you grab them for just $130 each. 

Buy Google Nest Cameras and Doorbells at Amazon

The Nest Doorbell (Battery) is a popular item because it's much easier to install than any wired doorbells. As with the cameras, it will send you alerts when you have a visitor and you can chat with them through your phone and the built-in speaker and microphone. Google's "intelligent alerts" can tell the difference between a visitor, a package being delivered, an animal sighting and more, so you can see if a situation requires your immediate attention. If the regular $180 price has made you pause, it's now on sale for $130, the lowest price we've seen to date.

Both the Nest Cam Indoor and Outdoor record video at 1080p and send alerts to your phone when they detect motion. They also have built-in microphones and speakers so you can hear what's happening and speak to anyone on the other end of the camera. However, the Nest Cam indoor is designed to blend in to your home, with a range of colors, built-in stand, wall mount and hinge. It's currently on sale for $80 or $20 off the regular price.

Meanwhile, you can pick up the Nest Cam Outdoor for just $129, or $51 off the regular $180 price. That model obviously has a weatherproof design so that you can install it outside your home, along with expanded Night Vision to better spot outdoor intruders. It also packs an internal battery that lets you set it up without the need for an AC plug, providing up to seven months of battery life before a recharge depending on usage. 

Google's Nest Cameras and smart doorbells fall to all-time lows at Amazon
Engadget

To make best use of the cameras and doorbell, you need to be able to see and hear anyone at the other end. A good way to do that is using the Nest Hub smart displays, which can also control your smart home devices, provide entertainment and more. Luckily, the Nest Hub 2nd Generation is on sale for $60 at Adorama, for a savings of $40. Finally, you can pick up the larger Nest Hub Max with a 10-inch touchscreen and built-In Google Assistant at $179 for a savings of $50, or 22 percent off. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

China’s Shenzhou-14 mission arrives at Tiangong space station for final construction

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 03:19 PM PDT

China's Shenzhou-14 mission has successfully docked with the country's Tiangong space station on Sunday. According to CNN, the three-person crew of the spacecraft arrived at the Tianhe "Harmony of the Heavens" crew module at 5:42PM local time after launching from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert earlier in the day. The arrival marks the start of a six-month stay at the station for the mission's astronauts that will see China attempt to make significant progress toward the completion of Tiangong.

The country hopes to finish building the station by the end of the year. Next month, it will launch the first of two lab modules that will expand Tiangong's capabilities, with the latter to follow in October. The modules will allow Chinese astronauts to conduct microgravity and life science research. After the country completed its first-ever tandem spacewalk last year, the Shenzhou-14 crew will conduct multiple EVAs to prepare the station for expansion. Among the three astronauts is Liu Yang, the first Chinese woman to make it to space nearly a decade ago during the country's Shenzhou-9 mission.

Once complete, the entire t-shaped structure will be about a fifth of the size of the International Space Station, with long-term accommodation for three astronauts. According to Reuters, China is exploring the possibility of allowing commercial space flights to visit Tiangong. It has also invited international space agencies to visit the station. The successful launch of Shenzhou-14 caps off a busy week in space travel, with NASA preparing to begin testing its next-generation SLS rocket again and Blue Origin successfully completing its fifth crewed flight on Saturday.

‘Diablo Immortal’ is unplayable on some Samsung phones with Exynos chipsets

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 02:09 PM PDT

Nearly four years after it first announced the game, Blizzard released Diablo Immortal on Android, iOS and PC earlier this week. And shortly after the game made its way to mobile one day early, players with Samsung phones took to Reddit and other community forums to complain about technical issues. On some devices with the company's own in-house Exynos chipsets, Diablo Immortal is unplayable, with one of the most prominent issues being textures not loading properly.

"We are exploring the issues people are experiencing with some Samsung Galaxy specific devices that use Exynos chipsets," a Blizzard spokesperson said in a Reddit comment spotted by SamMobile. "For now, we may disable downloads for this set of devices while we work to address this. Apologies on this and we will be working on getting a fix up and ready as soon as possible."

Among the list of affected handsets include older devices like the Galaxy S10, Note 10 and A51 5G, but people with models as recent as the Galaxy S22 have also complained of texture issues. If you own a Qualcomm-equipped version of one of those phones, you can download and play the game without issue. You can check what chipset your phone features by navigating to the "About Phone" section of Android's system settings. 

'I Am Groot' heads to Disney+ on August 10th

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 01:14 PM PDT

Marvel's I Am Groot Disney+ animated series will arrive on August 10th. Marvel Studios announced the release date on Sunday in a poster the company shared on Twitter. The announcement means Marvel fans will have more than one series to watch this summer, with She-Hulk: Attorney at Law premiering a week after I Am Groot.

If it wasn't clear from the poster, which features Baby Groot resting his cute head on the front of Star-Lord's iconic Sony TPS-L2 Walkman, the series takes place after 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy. While Disney has yet to share many details on the series, we do know that Vin Diesel will return to voice Groot in his latest misadventures. With Sunday's announcement, there's a good chance we could see Disney share the show's first trailer soon. Groot will also appear in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which is due later this year, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 next year.

NASA’s Artemis 1 moon rocket heads back to the launch pad tonight

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 12:00 PM PDT

Weeks after NASA decided to postpone testing of its next-generation Space Launch System to make repairs to the rocket, it's ready to try again. Starting at 12:01AM on June 6th, technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will begin rolling out the spacecraft from the facility's Vehicle Assembly Building. It will take approximately eight to 12 hours for NASA to transport Artemis 1 along the four-mile road to Launch Pad 39B, with the agency planning to livestream part of the event on YouTube.

As Space.com notes, the overnight rollout is a concession toward utility. Moving the vehicle at night means NASA can avoid subjecting it to the worst of Flordia's hot and humid daytime weather. Once Artemis 1 is back at Pad 39B, NASA plans to restart the rocket's "wet dress rehearsal" on June 19th. The test is designed to replicate the countdown procedure it will undergo when the Artemis 1 mission hopefully gets underway later this year. 

Following an initial attempt on April 1st, NASA attempted to complete a modified version of the trial on April 14th, but that was cut short after technicians discovered a hydrogen leak in the SLS mobile launch tower. NASA eventually decided to roll the rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building to fix the issues that had come up in its previous test attempts and give a critical gaseous nitrogen supplier time to complete capacity upgrades.

Provided there aren't further setbacks, the June 19th fueling trial will take about 48 hours to complete. If all goes according to plan, the earliest Artemis 1 could get underway is on July 26th, though it's among dozens of potential launch dates NASA has plotted out between now and the end of 2022, with more dates available next year.

Automotive giant Stellantis pleads guilty to diesel emissions fraud

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 10:14 AM PDT

As expected, Stellantis, the parent company of Dodge and Jeep, has pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy charges related to its efforts to conceal the amount of pollution produced by its diesel engines. The world's fifth-largest automaker agreed this week to pay $300 million in penalties to end a multi-year investigation by the US Justice Department, Reutersreported on Friday.

Federal prosecutors accused Stellantis of violating the Clean Air Act, alleging the automaker attempted to deceive US regulators by selling vehicles it knew did not meet national emissions standards. The Justice Department said Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which merged with Peugeot parent company PSA to form Stellantis in 2021, installed illegal software designed to cheat government emissions tests.

According to the agency, the company "purposely" programmed its cars to produce fewer emissions during testing than under normal circumstances. The settlement covers approximately 100,000 vehicles sold in the US between 2014 and 2016, including SUVs and pickup trucks produced by the automaker for its Jeep and Ram brands.

In addition to paying a fine, Stellantis has agreed to submit Clean Air Act compliance reports to the Justice Department as part of a three-year probation period. Additionally, three Stellantis employees are awaiting trial for criminal charges related to the case. The deal comes five years after Volkswagen famously pleaded guilty to its own emissions scandal. "Dieselgate" saw the German automaker eventually pay more than $20 billion in fines and legal settlements.

Fortnite’s latest season features Darth Vader and rideable wildlife

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 08:41 AM PDT

With summer quickly approaching, Fortnite's newest season kicked off on Sunday. After Epic Games fundamentally changed how people could play the game in recent months, season three sees Fortnite return to its comfort zone. To start, Ballers, the hamster ball-like vehicles Epic Games retired in Season X, are back with a few functionality tweaks. They can now traverse over water and a battery limits how far they can travel. If that's not your style, season three introduces rideable boars and wolves, both of which allow you to continue shooting while riding them.

Epic Games has made a few tweaks to Fortnite's island. A new location called Reality Falls features bouncy mushrooms, purple trees and loot-filed caves. It's also home to the Reality Tree, which will release seed pods players can plant. The resulting sapling will stay in the same place between matches. Caring for your tree will reward you with special loot. Among the new weapons Epic is adding this season include the Designated Marksman Rifle, which, as the name suggests, is most effective at long range.

As always, there's also a new battle pass to purchase, promising a Darth Vader skin to go alongside the recently released Obi-Wan cosmetic. That's not all as far as Disney properties are concerned. Later in the season, Epic will give players the chance to earn an Indiana Jones skin. You'll have about three months to earn everything the battle pass has to offer.

Hitting the Books: Newton's alchemical dalliances make him no less of a scientist

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 07:00 AM PDT

The modern world as we know it simply would not exist if not for the mind of Sir Isaac Newton. His synthesis of differential calculus and pioneering research on the nature of gravity and light are bedrocks of the scientific method. However in his later years, Newton's interests were admittedly drawn towards a decidedly non-scientific subject, alchemy. Does that investigation invalidate Newton's earlier achievement, asks theoretical physicist and philosopher, Carlo Rovelli in the excerpt below. His new book of correspondence and musings, There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important than Kindness: And Other Thoughts on Physics, Philosophy and the World, Rovelli explores themes spanning from science to history to politics and philosophy.  

There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness
Riverhead Books

From THERE ARE PLACES IN THE WORLD WHERE RULES ARE LESS IMPORTANT THAN KINDNESS: And Other Thoughts on Physics, Philosophy and the World by Carlo Rovelli published on May 10, 2022 by Riverhead, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2022 Carlo Rovelli.

In 1936 Sotheby's puts up for auction a collection of unpublished writings by Sir Isaac Newton. The price is low, £9,000; not much when compared to the £140,000 raised that season from the sale of a Rubens and a Rembrandt. Among the buyers is John Maynard Keynes, the famous economist, who was a great admirer of Newton. Keynes soon realizes that a substantial part of the manuscript writings deal with a subject that few would have expected Newton to be interested in. Namely: alchemy. Keynes sets out to acquire all of Newton's unpublished writings on the subject, and soon realizes further that alchemy was not something that the great scientist was marginally or briefly curious about: his interest in it lasted throughout his life. "Newton was not the first of the Age of Reason," Keynes concludes, "he was the last of the magicians." 

In 1946 Keynes donated his unpublished Newtoniana to the University of Cambridge. The strangeness of Newton in alchemical guise, seemingly so at odds with the traditional image of him as the father of science, has caused the majority of historians to give the subject a wide berth. Only recently has interest in his passion for alchemy grown. Today a substantial amount of Newton's alchemical texts have been put online by researchers at Indiana University and are now accessible to everyone. Their existence still has the capacity to provoke discussion, and to cast a confusing light over his legacy. 

Newton is central to modern science. He occupies this preeminent place because of his exceptional scientific results: mechanics, the theory of universal gravity, optics, the discovery that white light is a mixture of colors, differential calculus. Even today, engineers, physicists, astronomers and chemists work with equations written by him, and use concepts that he first introduced. But even more important than all this, Newton was the founder of the very method of seeking knowledge that today we call modern science. He built upon the work and ideas of others — Descartes, Galileo, Kepler, etc — extending a tradition that goes back to antiquity; but it is in his books that what we now call the scientific method found its modern form, immediately producing a mass of exceptional results. It is no exaggeration to think of Newton as the father of modern science. So, what on earth does alchemy have to do with any of this? 

There are those who have seen in these anomalous alchemical activities evidence of mental infirmity brought on by premature aging. There are others who have served their own ends by attempting to enlist the great Englishman among critics of the limitations of scientific rationality. 

I think things are much simpler than this. 

The key lies in the fact that Newton never published anything on alchemy. The papers that show his interest in the subject are extensive, but they are all unpublished. This lack of publication has been interpreted as a consequence of the fact that alchemy had been illegal in England since as early as the fourteenth century. But the law prohibiting alchemy was lifted in 1689. And besides, if Newton had been so worried about going against laws and conventions, he would not have been Newton. There are those who have portrayed him as some kind of demonic figure attempting to glean extraordinary and ultimate knowledge that he wanted to keep exclusively for himself, to enhance his own power. But Newton really had made extraordinary discoveries, and had not sought to keep those to himself: he published them in his great books, including the Principia, with the equations of mechanics still used today by engineers to build airplanes and edifices. Newton was renowned and extremely well respected during his adult life; he was president of the Royal Society the world's leading scientific body. The intellectual world was hungry for his results. Why did he not publish anything based on all those alchemical activities?

The answer is very simple, and I believe that it dispels the whole enigma: he never published anything because he never arrived at any results that he found convincing. Today it is easy to rely on the well-digested historical judgment that alchemy had theoretical and empirical foundations that were far too weak. It wasn't quite so easy to reach this conclusion in the seventeenth century. Alchemy was widely practiced and studied by many, and Newton genuinely tried to understand whether it contained a valid form of knowledge. If he had found in alchemy something that could have withstood the method of rational and empirical investigation that he himself was promoting, there can be no doubt that Newton would have published his results. If he had succeeded in extracting from the disorganized morass of the alchemical world something that could have become science, then we would surely have inherited a book by Newton on the subject, just as we have books by him on optics, mechanics and universal gravity. He did not manage to do this, and so he published nothing.

Was it a vain hope in the first place? Was it a project that should have been discarded even before it began? On the contrary: many of the key problems posed by alchemy, and quite a few of the methods it developed, in particular with reference to the transformation of one chemical substance into another, are precisely the problems that would soon give rise to the new discipline of chemistry. Newton does not manage to take the critical step between alchemy and chemistry. That would be down to scientists of the next generation, such as Lavoisier, to achieve. 

The texts put online by Indiana University show this clearly. It is true that the language used is typically alchemical: metaphors and allusions, veiled phrases and strange symbols. But many of the procedures described are nothing more than simple chemical processes. For example, he describes the production of "oil of vitriol" (sulfuric acid), aqua fortis (nitric acid) and "spirit of salt" (hydrochloric acid). By following Newton's instructions, it is possible to synthesize these substances. The very name that Newton used to refer to his attempts at doing so is a suggestive one: "chymistry." Late, post-­Renaissance alchemy strongly insisted on the experimental verification of ideas. It was already beginning to face in the direction of modern chemistry. Newton understands that somewhere within the confused miasma of alchemical recipes there is a modern science (in the "Newtonian" sense) hidden, and he tries to encourage its emergence. He spends a great deal of time immersed in it, but he doesn't succeed in finding the thread that will untie the bundle, and so publishes nothing.

Alchemy was not Newton's only strange pursuit and passion. There is another one that emerges from his papers that is perhaps even more intriguing: Newton put enormous effort into reconstructing biblical chronology, attempting to assign precise dates to events written about in the holy book. Once again, from the evidence of his papers, the results were not great: the father of science estimates that the beginning of the world happened just a few thousand years ago. Why did Newton lose himself in this pursuit?

History is an ancient subject. Born in Miletus with Hecataeus, it is already fully grown with Herodotus and Thucydides. There is a continuity between the work of historians of today and those of antiquity: principally in that critical spirit that is necessary when gathering and evaluating the traces of the past. (The book of Hecataeus begins thus: "I write things that seem to me to be true. For the tales of the Greeks are many and laugh‑ able as they seem to me.") But contemporary historiography has a quantitative aspect linked to the crucial effort to establish the precise dates of past events. Furthermore, the critical work of a modern historian must take into account all the sources, evaluating their reliability and weighing the relevance of information furnished. The most plausible reconstruction emerges from this practice of evaluation and of weighted integration of the sources. Well, this quantitative way of writing history begins with Newton's work on biblical chronology. In this case too, Newton is on the track of something profoundly modern: to find a method for the rational reconstruction of the dating of ancient history based on the multiple, incomplete and variably reliable sources that we have at our disposal. Newton is the first to introduce concepts and methods that will later become important, but he did not arrive at results that were sufficiently satisfactory, and once again he publishes nothing on the subject. 

In both cases we are not dealing with something that should cause us to deviate from our traditional view of the rationalistic Newton. On the contrary, the great scientist is struggling with real scientific problems. There is no trace of a Newton who would confuse good science with magic, or with untested tradition or authority. The reverse is true; he is the prescient modern scientist who confronts new areas of scientific inquiry clear-sighted, publishing when he succeeds in arriving at clear and important results, and not publishing when he does not arrive at such results. He was brilliant, the most brilliant—but he also had his limits, like everyone else.

I think that the genius of Newton lay precisely in his being aware of these limits: the limits of what he did not know. And this is the basis of the science that he helped to give birth to.
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