Technology

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin is fighting NASA’s decision to award SpaceX $2.9 billion to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024. NASA’s Human Landing System program, which funded development of three rival lunar lander prototypes (including Blue Origin’s), was expected to pick two of those landers in April. But NASA opted for just one — SpaceX’s Starship — because of short funding from Congress. Blue Origin’s 175-page protest, filed with the Government Accountability Office less than two weeks after SpaceX won the contract, accuses NASA of misjudging several parts of its proposal for Blue Moon, the lunar lander it’s developing with a “National Team” of established space and defense contractors: Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Draper. NASA announced its decision to pick SpaceX’...

President Biden issued an executive order today to create a new labor task force in support of worker organizing in the United States. The effort will be led by Vice President Kamala Harris. “Despite the importance of unions to our economy and democracy, and nearly 60 million workers today saying they would join a union if given the chance, American workers have faced increasing barriers to organizing and bargaining collectively with their employers,” the order reads. The task force, which includes a long list of cabinet members and policy advisers, will make recommendations on how the federal government can help workers organize and join unions. This could include helping contractors in industries that have been difficult to organize, such as the so-called gig economy, according to a Whit...

California is on track to regain its power to set tougher vehicle emissions standards than the rest of the US. The Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it’s reconsidering a Donald Trump-era edict that sought to strip California of that ability. The EPA plans to rescind the Trump decision altogether after a public comment period ends on July 6th, the Los Angeles Times reports. Last week, the Department of Transportation moved to repeal a related Trump-era rule that barred individual states from setting their own tailpipe standards. California has essentially set the tone for the country California has been able to set its own tailpipe standards since it was granted a waiver under the 1970 Clean Air Act. At the time, the Golden State was grappling with an air quality crisis t...

Apple now lets you add augmented-reality lasers, confetti, and more to your Clips videos, thanks to an update to the short-form video app. The feature, called AR Spaces, will let users with LIDAR-equipped Apple devices (so far, that’s the iPhone 12 Pros and iPad Pros from 2020 or later) add room-filling effects that can interact with walls and floors. (If you watched Apple’s April 20th event, you may have spotted a brief look at the update ahead of today’s release.) You can get an idea of what this will look like in action with this GIF taken from Apple’s demo video. The Prism and Dance Floor effects.Image: Apple Apple says that the AR Spaces effects should work with the other effects built in to Clips, such as the animated stickers and emoji, if you want to add even more to your videos. T...

Apple has begun rolling out iOS and iPadOS 14.5. The latest software update includes the new App Tracking Transparency feature, which lets users decide whether to allow apps to track their activity “across other companies’ apps and websites” for advertising purposes. A pop-up will now appear whenever apps are designed to share your activity in this way. Facebook has heavily criticized Apple over App Tracking Transparency, claiming that it presents “a false tradeoff between personalized ads and privacy.” The new option could have a detrimental impact on Facebook’s ad business. Apple made a video to explain App Tracking Transparency: [embedded content] Perhaps more important to day-to-day iPhone usage, iOS 14.5 also includes a very helpful and timely new trick: if you own an Apple Watch, you...

SiriusXM, a company still best known for its satellite radio stations, is acquiring podcaster Roman Mars’ company 99% Invisible Inc. for an undisclosed sum. Mars and his team will join the company under Stitcher, the podcasting company Sirius acquired last summer. Mars and the team will continue to host and produce the popular 99% Invisible show, as well as other shows like What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law. They’ll also create new shows under Stitcher with that programming being available across platforms, including Sirius’ own Stitcher, Pandora, and SiriusXM apps. In an interview with The New York Times, Mars said he wanted to escape growing “administrative duties” while also giving his staff more resources. Meanwhile, Megan Liberman, head of talk and entertainment programming at Sir...

Apple’s iOS 14.5 is out, and with it comes the ability to have your Apple Watch unlock your Face ID-protected phone if you happen to be wearing a mask. This will make it a lot easier to get through your day without having to enter your passcode each time you need to use your phone (because the Face ID can’t recognize you with that mask on). As long as your phone and watch are in close proximity, you will be able to unlock your iPhone just by turning on the screen. Once you’re officially running iOS 14.5 (and watchOS 7.4), it’s easy to enable the feature that lets you unlock your iPhone with your watch. Grid View <img src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fxP5bpfZ3hqtygkb5dDImgZDN2M=/250×250/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22284066/IMG_0729.jpg" alt="Go to Se...

YouTube is launching a series of COVID-19 vaccine public service announcements, calling it the “first chapter” of a partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine’s Vaccine Confidence Project. The ads will start running in the US today and roll out internationally in coming weeks, coinciding with local vaccine availability. YouTube posted a dozen 16-second videos on the company’s channel, as well as two 31-second clips (one in English, one in Spanish) and a longer compilation stringing them together. The messages encourage people to “get back to what you love” by getting the vaccine, offering reasons like “because birthday songs,” “because roller coasters,” “because wedding receptions,” and “because everything.” YouTube says they’ll run across its platform — as well ...

Facebook is making it easier to never leave its app. The company’s partnership with Spotify is coming to fruition today in the form of a miniplayer for the News Feed that’ll allow people to play music and podcasts from within Facebook. Audio content can be shared from Spotify to Facebook, and once on Facebook, listeners can press play and listen to it even as they scroll around. It’ll be available on both iOS and Android and in 27 markets, including the US, at first. More will follow in the coming months. Users will also see the miniplayer on shared videos that have music in the background. A play button will surface after the video finishes where people can play the song. Facebook listeners will hear the shared track, and once it ends, Spotify will continue to play music on shuffle, as it...

Microsoft’s first-gen Surface Headphones might not be the latest set of noise-canceling headphones, but they’re still a stellar value — especially today. They have good sound quality, USB-C charging, a comfy fit, and they can block out a considerable amount of noise. Today at Woot, you can get them new for just over $80. To get this price, you’ll need to download the Woot app (iOS, Android), then find the deal there. Doing that alone will save 15 percent on the price it’ll cost everyone else, which is $96. These headphones used to cost $250 (and most competitors cost more than that), so you’re getting a good deal either way. If you have Amazon Prime, you’ll get free shipping on this order. Microsoft Surface Headphones (first-gen) $96 $250 62% off Prices taken at time of publishing. The fir...

We’re several months into the next generation of console gaming with the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. And if you didn’t upgrade the TV that you’re playing on before buying a new console — first off, congrats on finding one — now is as good a time as any. The latest 2021 TV models from LG, Samsung, Sony, and other companies are now shipping, and many of them are optimized for HDMI 2.1 and gaming features like variable refresh rate (VRR), auto low latency mode (ALLM), and buttery-smooth 120Hz action. HDMI 2.1 was still experiencing early growing pains last year, with some TVs offering a mixed bag of features that omitted things like VRR or ALLM. But it seems like TV makers have done much better with their 2021 lineups. Our top picks for the best gaming TV for PS5 and best...

Venture capitalist Peter Thiel has put $10 million into a newly formed PAC backing a business partner’s Senate bid, as first reported by Politico. Formed on April 19th, the Saving Arizona PAC is taking aim at the state’s 2022 Senate race, which will see former astronaut Mark Kelly defending his seat for the Democrats. According to Politico, the PAC will support Thiel Capital executive Blake Masters in the Republican primary and general election, putting him at an immediate fundraising advantage in one of the most closely watched races of the cycle. Masters came to prominence as the co-author of Thiel’s popular book, Zero to One, and was hired shortly afterward as an executive at Thiel Capital. The book originated as Masters’ notes from a class Thiel taught at Stanford, published on Masters...