Technology

Samsung has announced the Exynos W920, a new processor designed for smartwatches and other wearables. The company says it’s the world’s first wearable-specific chip to be built on a 5nm process, helping improve performance and efficiency. The Exynos 920 has two Cortex-A55 cores and a Mali-G68 GPU. (For context, Qualcomm’s high-end Snapdragon 888 has four Cortex-A55 cores that are used for low-power tasks.) Samsung is claiming 20 percent better CPU performance and ten times better GPU performance than its previous wearable chip. The W920 also includes a Cortex-M55 processor that’s dedicated to driving an always-on display, further reducing power consumption. We likely won’t have to wait too long to see this chip used in a commercial device. Samsung explicitly says that the Exynos W920 “supp...

Private aerospace company Rocket Lab announced on Friday that it plans to launch a NASA-funded commercial moon mission from New Zealand at the end of this year. The CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) mission will be the company’s first launch to the moon and will aid NASA’s Artemis program, which plans to send the first woman and person-of-color to the moon and establish a long-term presence there. The launch, originally slated for earlier this year, is set to take place from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand “to support a Q4 launch window.” “CAPSTONE is a 55-pound satellite created by Advanced Space that will serve as the first spacecraft to test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit,” the company said in a press release, adding...

A new report released on Monday by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that unprecedented changes in the Earth’s climate are intensifying and likely irreversible. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres described the report’s findings as a “code red for humanity”and called for urgent action. “Scientists are observing changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system,” the report states. “Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion — such as continued sea level rise — are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years.” The wide-reaching report linked observable climate phenomena, including inc...

Twitch’s suspensions are about to get a little clearer for streamers: starting on Monday, the company announced that it will include the name and date of the content that violated platform rules when it issues a ban. It’s not quite a clear and simple explanation of what precisely a streamer might have done to get a suspension — Twitch doesn’t seem to be willing to provide that level of detail on any violations of its policies — but it could potentially help streamers figure out what they did wrong and what to avoid in the future. ️ As of today, enforcement notifications sent to suspended users will include the name of the content and the date of the violation to ensure they have better clarity about what content is being actioned on. pic.twitter.com/aAnrdEZoyi — Twitch Support (@Twi...

Roku is putting much of its massive Quibi content haul to work beginning Friday. On August 13th, nearly two dozen Roku Originals will debut on the Roku Channel. Many have not previously premiered elsewhere, including a Josh Groban-hosted series called Eye Candy that’s based on the Japanese show Sokkuri Sweets, cleaning competition show Squeaky Clean, the second season of pay-it-forward series Thanks a Million, and 10-part docuseries What Happens in Hollywood about power dynamics in the entertainment industry. Additionally, Emmy-nominated Quibi comedy the Mapleworth Murders will also debut on the service this week. The full list of 23 Roku Originals hitting the service on Friday include: &Music The Andy Cohen Diaries Benedict Men Elba vs. Block Eye Candy Fierce Queens Floored Gone Menta...

The official announcement that “the new Lamborghini Countach is coming” aims directly at anyone who had a picture of the iconic sports car on their wall as a kid. With a body covered in angles and show-stopping gull-wing doors, it was the perfect dream car for anyone who didn’t have a driver’s license or plans to back out of a parking space. Lamborghini Countach teaserImage: Lamborghini And now the Countach is back, or at least it will be at some point in the future. On its website and in a teaser video, Lamborghini says “the future is our legacy” — whatever that means. While we’re not anticipating a full EV from Lamborghini until after 2025, Roadshow points out leaks revealing that this revived model will include a hybrid powertrain. While the official image shows a sleek shape draped in ...

Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, a noted superfan of Bitcoin, claimed on Monday that the cryptocurrency will eventually unite the world. Yes, really. On Monday afternoon, an amendment to the Senate’s infrastructure package that would have expanded the government’s involvement in cryptocurrency was blocked. Shortly after that, Dorsey tweeted that “#Bitcoin will unite a deeply divided country. (and eventually: world).” Dorsey didn’t specify which country, but given that he’s been tweeting a lot about the amendment since it failed, it seems likely he’s talking about the US. He hasn’t yet explained further. This isn’t the first time Dorsey has touted Bitcoin as a vague solution to big problems. At a Bitcoin conference in July, he said that “my hope is that [Bitcoin] creates world peace.” He...

While it’s not yet possible for humans to permanently live on Mars, NASA is offering four qualified individuals the opportunity to experience a cosmic simulation. In a yearlong mission at its Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, NASA will bring four crew members together in a 1700-square-foot habitat 3D printed by ICON that simulates the Martian surface in a project called Mars Dune Alpha. In addition to the sheer rigor of living in a confined space and the lack of material comforts, crew members will be presented with challenges such as “resource limitations, equipment failure, communication delays and other environmental stressors,” the space agency said. NASA is currently recruiting individuals for the mission based on the same standard criteria for the astronauts it would typic...

Anticipation is building for Samsung‘s Galaxy Unpacked event, where the brand is expected to reveal its newest products and innovations. In advance of the August 11 presentation — which will take place virtually —  Samsung is providing excitement-inducing teasers that have conversations on Reddit and Twitter lighting up. Known as the place for the company to unveil some of its most notable mobile devices and industry leading advancements, Samsung is inviting fans to be among the first to access the new products from Unpacked by registering at the brand’s website. While the actual details of Galaxy Unpacked 2021 are kept tightly under wraps, there are a few confirmed tidbits that have already fueled conversation around the live-streamed event. For starters, it will take place online at...

Gigabyte has been the victim of a cyberattack, which was reportedly the work of a ransomware outfit called RansomEXX. According to The Record, the attack didn’t have an impact on any of the company’s production systems, but it did affect some internal servers. Currently, some parts of Gigabyte’s website, including its support section, are down, giving customers issues when trying to access warranty repair information and updates. The hackers who claim to have carried out the attack are reportedly threatening to release data from the company, including confidential documents from Intel, AMD, and American Megatrends. Gigabyte is mainly known for its PC components such as motherboards and graphics cards, but it also has a line of laptops and peripherals like gaming monitors, which are often b...

On an earnings call today, Dish Network execs said that its Las Vegas 5G wireless service is in the final phase of construction and will launch in beta by the end of September. That keeps it just in line with the Q3 deployment goal it gave earlier this year. The beta launch is an important first step toward its commitment to covering 70 percent of the US population by June 2023, a target that’s looking more ambitious by the day as the company continues to lose wireless customers. It lost 161,000 subscribers in Q1 of this year, and it just reported a net loss of 201,000 wireless subscribers in Q2. The company stands to lose even more of its remaining 8.9 million wireless subscribers as T-Mobile has unveiled a generous promotion aimed at the very customers it was required to sell to Dish as ...