Technology

“Quick phrases” is a new feature currently under development for Google Assistant that could one day let you skip having to say “Hey, Google” for common phrases like “What time is it?” or “Turn the lights on,” 9to5Google reports. The feature is yet to be officially announced, and it’s unclear when it might launch or exactly which devices might support it. The feature emerged back in April under the codename “Guacamole.” At the time it was called “Voice shortcuts,” and its capabilities seemed limited to silencing alarms and timers, or responding to incoming phone calls. But the new menu discovered by 9to5Google shows a much broader range of tasks, or “salsas” as Google is nicknaming them. These salsas include the ability to ask about the weather, skip songs, or set alarms and timers in addi...

It comes as no surprise that riding rockets to space can be a dangerous endeavor. Billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson have recently decided that space would be their next conquest, igniting the billionaire space race. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space vehicle is supposedly more unique than his competitors SpaceX and Blue Origin. While they use traditional, vertical launch rockets, Virgin Galactic uses a piloted, winged rocket ship. While Branson became the first billionaire to fly to space, he did not chase this feat without challenges and life-threatening dangers. Branson along with four other passengers flew to space on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo space plane VSS Unity. One minute into the flight, the VSS Unity flashed a warning light that indicated that ...

In its plan to advance cargo and passenger air transportation options, NASA has begun running test flights of air taxis. The space agency teamed up with electric aircraft company Joby Aviation to design and test the taxis, launching the debut partnership of its expansive Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign when the first flights took off yesterday from a base in California. During these test flights, NASA will be on the lookout for “information about how the vehicle moves, how the vehicle sounds, and how the vehicle communicates with controllers” in various scenarios planned out by Joby Aviation, per NASA’s press release. It will utilize over 50 microphones to gauge the acoustics of the air taxi throughout its flights. Data from the tests will additionally serve to establish base...

Facebook is adding fantasy sports-like prediction games that will let users guess what’s going to happen in sports, TV shows, and pop culture. The new games, called Facebook Fantasy Games, are rolling out first on the iOS and Android apps for users in the US and Canada. The first game available is Pick & Play Sports, a daily sports prediction game it made in partnership with Whistle Sports. (It was already available in the iOS app for me, so it might be for you, too.) In the “upcoming months,” Facebook plans to release additional games for TV shows like The Bachelorette and Survivor, sports leagues like Major League Baseball, and one made with BuzzFeed. Games will have public leaderboards, but you can also make your own public or private leagues if you want to compete with smaller grou...

ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox have secured a victory in their legal fight against Locast, a nonprofit that re-streams their local broadcast stations at little to no cost, much to the consternation of those networks. Locast is a service that makes local broadcasts free — kind of, we’ll get to that — to those who may be unwilling to pony up for cable or live TV streaming services, or just don’t want to hook up an antenna in their living room. Those four networks are already broadcast over-the-air for free; Locast then uses a legal exemption in copyright law to re-transmit their broadcasts and put them online for people to more easily access. Locast doesn’t technically charge for its service, but it does ask for donations that start around $5 per month. Essentially, users can use Locast to bypass tr...

While vocal app developers accused Apple last week of spinning a lawsuit settlement into an App Store change that was barely a change at all, the company appears to be making a true, if small concession today: Apple says it will let developers of “reader” apps (think Netflix, Spotify, and Amazon’s Kindle app) directly link their customers to their own sign-up website, where they could potentially skirt Apple’s in-app payment system (and its 30 percent cut) entirely, in those cases where they haven’t already. In a press release, Apple claims that the move will close an investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), and that it’ll only apply to those sorts of “reader” apps right now — a category that was originally designed by Apple to placate companies like Netflix and Hulu by all...

2021 has been a big year for lossless music now that Apple has gone in on the higher-quality streaming and Amazon is no longer charging an added premium for it. But one of the main challenges confronting lossless audio is how to play it wirelessly (at full fidelity) on wireless headphones and earbuds. Qualcomm thinks it has found a solution with the new aptX Lossless, which is part of the company’s Snapdragon Sound program announced earlier this year. With aptX Lossless (which is technically an extension of aptX Adaptive), Qualcomm says it’ll be able to stream CD-quality, 16-bit / 44.1kHz lossless audio over Bluetooth. The first devices to feature the new technology are expected to be available in early 2022. Snapdragon Sound leans on the whole hardware chain for optimal performance — so b...

Crossing city streets filled with SUV drivers in a hurry is tricky for any pedestrian, but what about a robot that’s less than two feet tall? Starship Technologies is flooding college towns with autonomous electric delivery bots that trundle goods to your location in their locked storage compartment. While the safety of human pedestrians around large vehicles with autonomous capabilities is still being debated, this time, the roles were reversed. As shown in a video posted to TikTok by rach,ipsa, even a couple of lights plus cameras, radar, ultrasonic sensors, and neural networks weren’t enough for this robot to avoid getting clipped by a Ford Escape. In the robot’s defense, it appears to have had the right of way. This video was captured at the University of Kentucky, one of the four scho...

Richard Branson’s July flight to the edge of space is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration for veering out of its designated airspace mid-flight, the FAA said on Wednesday after a report from The New Yorker. The mission’s two pilots were alerted to yellow and red light warnings mid-flight that, according to sources in The New Yorker, should’ve prompted them to abort the mission. The flight continued and ultimately landed safely. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo spaceplane air-launched from its carrier aircraft on July 11th carrying founder Branson and three company employees over the firm’s New Mexico spaceport, Spaceport America. The rocket plane soared 53.5 miles high, skimming the edge of space for a few minutes of weightlessness before free-gliding back to a runway,...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the upcoming Tesla Roadster “should ship in 2023” in a tweet on Wednesday. He blamed the ongoing supply chain shortages for the long timeline. “2021 has been the year of super crazy supply chain shortages, so it wouldn’t matter if we had 17 new products, as none would ship,” Musk said. 2021 has been the year of super crazy supply chain shortages, so it wouldn’t matter if we had 17 new products, as none would ship. Assuming 2022 is not mega drama, new Roadster should ship in 2023. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 1, 2021 Elon Musk first announced the $200,000 second-generation Roadster at a splashy event in November 2017, promising that the base model could go from 0 to 60 in a staggering 1.9 seconds. He also said that the Roadster would have a 200kWh battery ...

Apple is rolling out a new feature that allows users to upload their driver’s license and state IDs to the Apple Wallet. Arizona and Georgia will be the first states to have access to the feature, followed by Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma and Utah. The Wallet app is available on the iPhone and Apple Watch, and adding a license or ID to the app will work the same as linking a credit card. Users tap the + icon and will be directed to scan the license or ID card. They’ll also be instructed to take a selfie that will be sent to the state department for verification and will have to record head movements, like those required in the authentication process of setting up Face ID. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will be among the first to accept licenses and IDs i...

Texas is one step closer to enacting a law that would make it more difficult for social media companies to moderate political content. Both Texas’ House and Senate approved the bill earlier this week, sending it to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. The bill would make it unlawful for social media companies with more than 50 million users, like Facebook and Twitter, to censor users and content based on political views or geographic location. This includes moderation actions like banning, deplatforming, or demonetizing users and removing posts. The bill initially failed in a special session earlier this year The bill initially failed in a special session earlier this year when Democrats fled the state to stall the passage of controversial partisan bills, including measures to ban abortions once a fet...