Technology

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has officially given Boeing the authorization to place 147 satellites into orbit for its broadband internet constellation. This feat places Boeing in direct competition with SpaceX, Amazon and OneWeb who have also announced that they are building their own broadband structures. According to reports, Boeing first proposed the constellation back in 2017, however it has taken about four years for the FCC to finalize the technicalities and confirm the plan surrounding the satellite build. Boeing is planning to launch the satellites 640 miles from Earth as it circles the planet. 15 of the satellites will be at higher altitudes between 17,000 and 27,500 miles. Boeing will have to comply with FCC’s requirements to launch half of its satellites by 2027 a...

Uber is preparing to relaunch its carpooling service as a way to combat price increases, officials said in a call with investors. Uber Pool was shuttered in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and remained so even as vaccines became widely available and customers returned to the app. But that could soon change, according to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who hinted that a new shared rides product could be released soon. Along with its rival Lyft, Uber has been struggling to recover from the pandemic, as drivers fled the platform, wait times increased, and the cost of rides soared. “We are launching an Uber shared pool product,” Khosrowshahi said. “We have been investing for years in a high-capacity product, which is looking more and more attractive as it relates to a unit economic...

Apple’s new iPhone 13 lineup might pack a lot of new features, but they now have a major restriction that makes it much harder for independent repair shops to replace broken screens. If you try to swap the screen, Face ID just won’t work — that is, unless you know how to microsolder and can successfully move a tiny microcontroller from the original screen to a new one, as detailed in an article from iFixit. The change makes a very common replacement much more difficult for independent repair shops that may rely on screen repairs as a significant part of their business. Authorized Apple shops apparently don’t run into the problem, as they have access to software that “can make an iPhone 13 accept a new screen with a few clicks,” according to iFixit. But many indie shops aren’t part of Apple...

High-end Italian brake manufacturer Brembo announced in October its plan to release Sensify, an AI-enhanced braking system that promises both “driving pleasure and total safety” when it rolls out via an unnamed manufacturer in 2024. Going beyond anti-lock brakes, traction, and stability control, it replaces hydraulic controls with electronic ones for design flexibility and, potentially, more precise control. Incorporating AI into vehicles isn’t new, as algorithms control playlists, maps, driver assistance, and even “self-driving” to various degrees. AI-based brake systems, however, are enough to raise eyebrows about how exactly they will work or enhance safety. “They’re only as good as the training data you have” “As you start to deal with artificial intelligence and neural networks, they’...

Today let’s talk about how two of the world’s most important social networks settled an ancient grudge, and what it tells us about the prospects for a more open internet as tech giants work to build a metaverse. On Wednesday, Instagram delivered an announcement nine years in the making. Since 2012, Instagram photos shared to Twitter have appeared only as plain text links. From now on, Instagram links will include a preview of the image — just as they did before Instagram sold to Facebook, and competitive pressures and professional rivalries combined to worsen our collective user experience. “They said it would never happen,” Instagram tweeted Wednesday. And indeed, this reversal was one that few saw coming. The path to peace involved wine, pizza, and backyard dealmaking — but to really app...

New York City‘s incoming mayor Eric Adams has pledged to take his first three paychecks in Bitcoin as a show of support for the digital coin. Adams, who was elected this week, wrote on Twitter that when he officially takes office on January 1, he will accept his first three checks in Bitcoin. “NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries!” he wrote. In New York we always go big, so I’m going to take my first THREE paychecks in Bitcoin when I become mayor. NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait! — Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) November 4, 2021 Adams, who will be replacing current NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, was responding to a tweet from Miami Mayor Fran...

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced that it is investigating a scam involving a Squid Game-inspired digital coin called SQUID, which stole millions from its investors. Last week, a cryptocurrency based on the popular Netflix K-drama surfaced on decentralized exchange platform PancakeSwap. According to Binance, the coin quickly gained traction among users who assumed the coin was linked to the series. Despite red flags noted by some users, the coin quickly shot up in value before its developers liquidated and ran off with the accumulated funds. Binance said that its security team has since launched an investigation into the matter “as a way to show our support for the wider crypto community.” Steps the platform is taking include working to identify and blacklist crypto addresses a...

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled against Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company in its bid to win a NASA space contract worth $2.9 billion USD. Blue Origin filed an appeal in August against NASA’s decision to award rival aerospace company, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, with a major lunar exploration contract. Part of the space agency’s Artemis program, the winning company will get to develop the first commercial human lander that will eventually land two humans on the moon. NASA is planning an uncrewed test launch in preparation for this trip in February 2022. On Thursday, Judge Richard A. Herling ruled against Blue Origin’s appeal. In a tweet announcing the outcome, Bezos said he respected the decision. “Not the decision we wanted, but we respect the court’s judgment, and w...

Apple is reportedly planning to begin ending mask requirements for customers at some of its US retail stores as early as Friday (via Bloomberg). The company told employees about the change in an internal memo on Thursday, Bloomberg reported, saying the decision was based on a decline in coronavirus cases and a rise in vaccination rates. Like many companies with multiple locations, Apple has changed its masking requirements for customers more than once since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic last year. In March 2020, the company closed most of its retail stores as the virus spread. It began reopening some US stores in May 2020, with many offering only curbside service and not allowing customers inside. Most stores that did open to customers conducted temperature checks and required ...

GoPro says the global chip and other supply chain shortages won’t affect its holiday sales this year, meaning the action camera company is poised to finish one of its best years in recent memory in strong fashion. “Despite supply chain constraints that are affecting many industries, we have successfully partnered with our suppliers to produce inventory to support our fourth-quarter revenue expectations,” CEO Nick Woodman said while discussing the company’s third-quarter financial results on Thursday. “GoPro.com and our retail partners will be stocked and ready for shoppers this holiday season.” That’s especially good news for GoPro’s bottom line because the new Hero10 Black is selling incredibly well despite the higher $499 price tag. GoPro said Thursday that 98 percent of the roughly 800,...

Taika Waititi is set to co-write and direct an adaptation of The Incal, the sci-fi graphic novel from writer Alejandro Jodorowsky with art by Jean Giraud, better known as Moebius, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter. Jodorowsky’s name has been a popular one in Hollywood recently due to the release of the latest incarnation of Dune earlier this year. Jodorowsky was famously working on a surreal and bizarre adaptation of the novel (alongside Moebius and H.R. Giger), but unfortunately was never able to get any major studios to take the risk on his idea. The journey of that process has since been the subject of its own documentary, Jodorowsky’s Dune. The Incal is also just the first work in a series of connected comics that Jodorowsky wrote (referred to as the Jodoverse), which c...