Technology

NASA won’t be making its 2024 lunar landing deadline, the space agency has announced. It blamed not being able to make the original dates set for its Artemis program, which it had declared in 2019 during the Trump administration, on the pandemic and a recent lawsuit filed by Jeff Bezos‘ Blue Origin regarding NASA’s lunar landing contract. NASA is now aiming to launch its Artemis II mission, in which astronauts will go around the Moon without actually landing on it, before May 2024. Meanwhile, it will take at least until 2025 to enact Artemis III, a crewed landing on the surface of the Moon. “It’s clear to me the agency will need to make serious changes,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said about the upcoming missions, according to CNET. He went on to say that NASA had “lost seven months in...

Apple has announced that Johnson & Johnson’s current CEO, Alex Gorsky, will join its board of directors. Gorsky’s move to Apple’s leadership team (he’ll step down from his role at J&J in January) comes at a time when the company is focusing even more on health and how it can make data more accessible to users and their doctors. In the press release announcing Gorsky’s role at Apple, Tim Cook calls him “a visionary in healthcare” who has a “passion for technology.” Apple hasn’t kept its ambitions in health a secret — the Apple Watch is largely seen as a fitness device, and its users can contribute data to various studies. Recent updates to iOS and watchOS have brought new health features that make it easier to share medical records with doctors or family members. With Gorsky on the ...

Public skin image datasets that are used to train algorithms to detect skin problems don’t include enough information about skin tone, according to a new analysis. And within the datasets where skin tone information is available, only a very small number of images are of darker skin — so algorithms built using these datasets might not be as accurate for people who aren’t white. The study, published today in The Lancet Digital Health, examined 21 freely accessible datasets of images of skin conditions. Combined, they contained over 100,000 images. Just over 1,400 of those images had information attached about the ethnicity of the patient, and only 2,236 had information about skin color. This lack of data limits researchers’ ability to spot biases in algorithms trained on the images. And suc...

Netflix has revealed five key cast members for its upcoming show based on the hugely popular manga and anime franchise One Piece. The cast, announced Tuesday, will play characters in the Straw Hats crew, the central group of the series. The currently announced cast stars: Iñaki Godoy as Luffy Mackenyu as Zoro Emily Rudd as Nami Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp Taz Skylar as Sanji welcome to the Straw Hats ☠️⛵️ #onepiece pic.twitter.com/s3UvjkShbL — Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) November 9, 2021 Netflix also shared a note from One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda about the development of the series, which reportedly will have 10 episodes. Unfortunately, Oda doesn’t say much about what you can expect from the show, and as for when it might be released, he alludes vaguely ...

Meta, the new name for the parent company that oversees Facebook and Instagram, suddenly wants to be less creepy. According to a post on the Meta for Business blog, the company is blocking advertisers from using detailed ad targeting options that show ads based on your engagement in “sensitive” areas including race or ethnicity, religious views, political beliefs, sexual orientation, health, and a whole lot more. “We’ve heard concerns from experts that targeting options like these could be used in ways that lead to negative experiences for people in underrepresented groups,” Graham Mudd, Meta’s vice president for marketing and ads writes in the post. Meta emphasizes that detailed targeting options aren’t actually based on your physical characteristics or personal choices. Rather, they’re w...

Twitter has officially launched its subscription service Twitter Blue in the United States and New Zealand across iOS, Android and web. The social media giant has been testing the service with users in Australia and Canada since June, but Tuesday marks the feature’s debut for U.S. users. Twitter Blue, which is available for a monthly price of $2.99 USD, includes a multitude of special features including the ability to undo a tweet, customize the Twitter app icon, access to ad-free articles from 300 U.S.-based publications and more. And now for some completely not personal news… Twitter Blue is now available in the US and New Zealand ?? Read all about it here: https://t.co/qYU9g6oLww and check out the ? below for what you really need to know. — Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) November 9, 2021...

Netflix just brought its new gaming service to all subscribers on Android, but now it has officially come to iOS. The service gives users access to a limited selection of mobile games without ads or in-app purchases. A tweet from Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman confirms that the five launch games are already available as individual downloads from the App Store. These include Stranger Things: 1984, Stranger Things 3: The Game, Shooting Hoops, Teeter (Up), and Card Blast. The just-announced game Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story — which will cost $10 on Switch and PC — will be free to Netflix subscribers. Netflix Games is coming to iOS! Starting tomorrow, you can access Netflix Games through the Netflix app on any mobile device, anywhere in the world. pic.twitter.com/LoHYFi4xBX — Netf...

Netflix is getting into video games Contributors: Verge Staff Netflix is making a big push into video games. The company first dabbled in games with interactive titles like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and a Carmen Sandiego game, but in 2021, it made gaming a much bigger priority. Netflix hired a former EA exec in July to lead its gaming efforts and, in November, let people play a selection of mobile games for free as part of their subscriptions. We’ll be watching Netflix’s gaming efforts closely, and you can read our coverage right here.

Samsung has announced its next-generation RAM tech made for mobile devices, which it says can be used in future smartphones but also in servers, cars, and “the metaverse.” While Samsung’s press release doesn’t mention how its new LPDDR5X RAM chips could help people enter the “digital reality,” the tech should help make devices run faster and last longer. Putting the buzzwords like metaverse, AI, and 5G aside, Samsung is promising some real improvements to speed and power usage: it says its next-gen RAM will have 1.3-times faster processing speeds versus the previous-gen LPDDR5, will be capable of higher densities (up to 64GB per chip), and will use 20 percent less power than the last generation. Some of these improvements, according to Samsung, can be chalked up to the new 14nm process it’...

Earbuds have been the listening choice of many for ages, and sales of wireless earbuds took off when Apple removed the headphone jack of the iPhone 7 and released AirPods. Since then, seemingly every brand under the sun, and even some resurrected from the depths, have released true wireless earbuds. Some are small and cheap. Some are big and expensive. Some have one-size-fits-most hard plastic designs. Some have user-replaceable rubber tips that accommodate different size ears. But one thing that unites all earbuds is that, eventually, they get disgustingly gross, with a buildup of earwax and debris that can hinder sound quality and reduce overall volume output. As a result, you should take the time to clean them once in a while. Here we go over some of the various ways you can clean your ...

Wyze, the brand that’s known for its budget-friendly line of smart home products, has just introduced a new affordable security device to its ecosystem: the Wyze Floodlight Cam. Photo by Wyze The wired Wyze Floodlight Cam sits at a price of $84.99 (plus $14.99 for shipping), which is quite a bit lower when compared to other floodlight cams in the same range. Ring’s Floodlight Cam Wired Plus, for example, sells for $179.99. On the higher end of the scale, the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera costs $249.99, and the same goes for the feature-filled Ring Floodlight Cam Pro. In terms of specs, it actually surpasses its direct competitor — the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus — and it’s also almost $100 less. The Wyze Floodlight Cam comes with three passive infrared (PIR) sensors, providing 270 degree...

Apple CEO Tim Cook has confirmed that he has invested his personal money in cryptocurrency during a discussion today at the New York Times’ Dealbook conference. “I think it’s reasonable to own it as part of a diversified portfolio,” the CEO said during a conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin. “I’m not giving anyone investment advice, by the way,” he quickly followed up, without specifying which specific cryptocurrencies he has invested in. “I’ve been interested in it for a while. I’ve been researching it and so forth … I think it’s interesting,” the CEO continued. Although Cook confirmed his own investment in cryptocurrency, he was a lot more guarded about Apple’s plans as a company. He ruled out investing the company’s cash balance in cryptocurrency, and he said that Apple has no pla...