Technology

This evening, SpaceX launched another rocket from Florida, but this vehicle took a very different kind of path than most flights from the East Coast. Rather than head eastward after launch as most Florida missions do, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket headed south after liftoff, skirting over Florida’s southeast coast and heading over Cuba. That’s because this mission was headed to what is known as a polar orbit — a path that runs mostly north-to-south over the Earth’s poles. It’s a type of mission you don’t normally see taking place from Florida. In fact, this will be the first time since 1969 that a rocket taking off from Florida heads southward. Up until now, most polar launches in the US have taken place from the southern coast of California. That way, the rockets fly over open ocean when they ...

After the sad news of Chadwick Boseman’s death, I planned a marathon of his movies this weekend. We’re still definitely planning to re-watch 42 and Get on Up, but so far we can’t stop watching Black Panther. Boseman is just so magnetic as T’Challa and everything about the movie is as stunning on the sixth or seventh watch as it was the first time— the acting, the cinematography, the music, the costumes, and of course the script— all amazing. If you have not seen it (honestly, why?) you should absolutely remedy that as soon as possible. In addition to four other trailers to check out this week, a bonus: [embedded content] Black Panther That’s the original Black Panther trailer from 2017. The movie went on to earn a Best Picture nomination and three Oscar wins, and grossed more than $1 billi...

ABC will show the 2018 movie Black Panther without commercials on Sunday night, followed by an ABC News special “Chadwick Boseman: A Tribute for a King.” The Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, said in a statement that the special will “celebrate Boseman’s storied life, legacy and career,” and will “shine a light on the medical condition he privately battled.” Boseman died of colon cancer Friday at age 43, and according to a statement from his family, was first diagnosed with the disease in 2016. Tonight, ABC will celebrate the legacy of Chadwick Boseman with a special presentation of Marvel Studios’ Black Panther followed by the ABC News Special: Chadwick Boseman – A Tribute for a King. It all starts tonight at 8/7c on ABC. pic.twitter.com/LjtN9bTwzx — Disney (@Disney) August 30, 2020 ...

A Sunday tweet from Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) showing a video of activist Ady Barkan got a “manipulated media” label from Twitter. Barkan has ALS and speaks through voice assistance. In the video, a conversation between Barkan and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Barkan asks “But do we agree that we can redirect some of the funding?” The version Scalise tweeted edits in the words “for police,” to the end of the question, words which Barkan says in a different context earlier in the video. A Twitter spokesperson confirmed in an email to The Verge that the tweet was labeled “based on our Synthetic and Manipulated Media policy.” The video was first noticed by Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel. In the original video, Barkan asks Biden about what he thinks could be done about polic...

Cloudflare was suffering an outage Sunday morning that appeared to be affecting multiple websites. The outage began early Sunday, and according to Cloudflare’s status page, it was seeing “an increased level of HTTP 5xx class errors,” such as 522 and 503, which indicates an issue with the server. In a later update Cloudflare said it had “identified an issue with a transit provider” as the cause of the issue, and that it was working on a fix. The outage was affecting all data centers that use the transit provider. Cloudflare is aware of network related issues caused by a third-party transit provider incident. We are working to mitigate the problem. Please follow the status page here: https://t.co/9DSYq0HIa7 — Cloudflare Help (@CloudflareHelp) August 30, 2020 Cloudflare’s services are meant t...

Tesla is pushing a software update that will let its vehicles’ Autopilot system detect speed limit signs using their cameras, Elektrek reported. When the camera detects a speed limit sign, it will be displayed on the driver visualization in the car and used to set a speed limit warning, according to the software release notes. The latest software update also adds to its traffic light and stop sign control features, and will sound a chime when your Tesla is sitting at a stoplight that turns green. It’s only intended as a notification so it’s up to the driver to decide whether and when to actually move the car forward. In April, Tesla rolled out a software update in beta for its newer cars to allow them to see and respond to stop signs and traffic lights at some intersections. The “Traffic L...

Plans for a TikTok sale may have a new obstacle, with China implementing new rules on AI technology exports, The New York Times reported. The new export control rules, which focus on technology the Chinese government considers sensitive, could mean that TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, might need a license before it can sell TikTok to an American company. The updated regulations prohibit exporting technology including text analysis, voice recognition, and content suggestions without a license from the Chinese government. According to The Wall Street Journal, a Chinese government official told state-run Xinhua News Agency that ByteDance should “seriously and cautiously” consider halting talks for a sale of TikTok. Microsoft has been the front runner in talks to acquire TikT...

French game publisher Ubisoft is apologizing to fans after a video showing the opening sequence for Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad showed images of a raised black fist, which critics said was “insensitive” and appeared to connect the Black Lives Matter movement to a fictional terrorist organization in the game. The game’s opening sequence shows UMBRA, an anarchist group which the narrator explains is taking “advantage of escalating civil unrest” to “generate more chaos and weaken governments.” The black raised fist image was associated with UMBRA. [embedded content] After the video was uploaded, several fans criticized how the imagery, including the fist, appeared to cast the Black Lives Matter movement as a terrorist group. One Twitter user who is a senior programmer at Massive Entertainment, a...

Update August 29th, 8:15AM ET: At just 3 seconds to liftoff, the Delta IV Heavy aborted the launch, just after the engines initially ignited and then shut off quickly. ULA says “an unexpected condition” prompted the abort. ULA’s CEO, Tory Bruno, noted the vehicle is in good shape, but the company will take at least a week to review all the data and try again. Original Story: In the very early morning hours on Saturday, the United Launch Alliance is set to launch its most powerful rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, lofting a classified spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. The mission could be the first of three back-to-back launches out of the Cape, too, with SpaceX set to launch two missions shortly afterward. Such a cluster of missions is a rare event for the Florida sp...

Transforming classic video game consoles into on-the-go gadget gaming goodness is practically a time-honored tradition — I remember writing about Bacteria’s bulbous portable Nintendo 64 a decade ago. But @GingerOfMods new “Wii Boy Color” (via NintendoLife) is so clean, so compact, I just have to share it with you. OK, it’s a little bit thicker than an actual Game Boy Color if you count the rear triggers. But it’s remarkably close — and when have you had a Game Boy that can play Nintendo Wii and GameCube games on the go? And let me restate that this isn’t some overclocked Android smartphone running an emulator. There’s an actual Nintendo Wii motherboard inside this 3D-printed case — cut down to fit — plus his own custom circuitboards, a 3.5-inch 480p IPS display from a car backup camera, a ...

It’s a mildly annoying problem: when you’re reading the snippet of a news article on Facebook and you click through to read the full article, even if you’re subscribed to the news publication, you hit its paywall and have to manually log in. Facebook says it’s now testing a feature that will help reduce how often you have to log in to news sites, allowing paying news subscribers to link their Facebook accounts to their subscriptions. The goal, according to Facebook, is to “provide a better news consumption experience on Facebook,” and allowing publishers to “deepen their relationships with subscribers.” Here’s how it works: Facebook identifies a subscriber from one of its publisher partners, and the subscriber is invited to link their subscription account to their Facebook account. Next ti...

More than 180,000 people have died because of COVID-19 in the United States. And this week, the agency tasked with fighting the worst pandemic in a century recommended surrender. Earlier this week, the US Centers for Disease Control updated its COVID-19 advice to recommend fewer people get tested for the virus. The agency’s previous advice urged tests for “all close contacts” of infected people, stressing the importance of contacts being “quickly identified and tested.” Now, it says people without symptoms “do not necessarily need a test,” even if they were directly exposed or attended a large gathering in a viral hotspot. It makes exceptions for “vulnerable individuals” and adds a vague instruction to follow local health officials — who, under normal circumstances, would look to the CDC f...