Technology

Apple is getting into the “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) business with its new Pay Later service built into Apple Pay and Apple Wallet. While Apple bills the service as “designed with users’ financial health in mind,” BNPL is a practice that has come under scrutiny by government regulators as something that could potentially harm customers. Apple’s Pay Later service, which has been in the works since at least last year, lets users make a purchase with Apple Pay and then pay it back in four equal installments over the course of six weeks. There’s no interest on these installments, but it remains unclear if Apple will charge a late fee, and if so, how much it will cost. On the surface, BNPL services seem harmless, as some come with no interest and allow for an easy way to pay back a big purchas...

Apple is getting into the “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) business with its new Pay Later service built into Apple Pay and Apple Wallet. While Apple bills the service as “designed with users’ financial health in mind,” BNPL is a practice that has come under scrutiny by government regulators as something that could potentially harm customers. Apple’s Pay Later service, which has been in the works since at least last year, lets users make a purchase with Apple Pay and then pay it back in four equal installments over the course of six weeks. There’s no interest on these installments, but it remains unclear if Apple will charge a late fee, and if so, how much it will cost. On the surface, BNPL services seem harmless, as some come with no interest and allow for an easy way to pay back a big purchas...

NASA’s new powerful space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, got pelted by a larger than expected micrometeoroid at the end of May, causing some detectable damage to one of the spacecraft’s 18 primary mirror segments. The impact means that the mission team will have to correct for the distortion created by the strike, but NASA says that the telescope is “still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements.” NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, is the agency’s incredibly powerful next-generation space telescope, designed to look into the farthest reaches of the Universe and see back in time to the stars and galaxies that formed just after the Big Bang. It cost NASA nearly $10 billion to build and more than two decades to complete. But, on Christmas Day 2021, t...

NASA’s new powerful space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, got pelted by a larger than expected micrometeoroid at the end of May, causing some detectable damage to one of the spacecraft’s 18 primary mirror segments. The impact means that the mission team will have to correct for the distortion created by the strike, but NASA says that the telescope is “still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements.” NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, is the agency’s incredibly powerful next-generation space telescope, designed to look into the farthest reaches of the Universe and see back in time to the stars and galaxies that formed just after the Big Bang. It cost NASA nearly $10 billion to build and more than two decades to complete. But, on Christmas Day 2021, t...

NASA’s new powerful space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, got pelted by a larger than expected micrometeoroid at the end of May, causing some detectable damage to one of the spacecraft’s 18 primary mirror segments. The impact means that the mission team will have to correct for the distortion created by the strike, but NASA says that the telescope is “still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements.” NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, is the agency’s incredibly powerful next-generation space telescope, designed to look into the farthest reaches of the Universe and see back in time to the stars and galaxies that formed just after the Big Bang. It cost NASA nearly $10 billion to build and more than two decades to complete. But, on Christmas Day 2021, t...

Slashing e-waste was a major driver in European Union lawmakers’ proposal yesterday to mandate a universal charger for mobile phones and other devices. But there are still a lot of other factors that have to come together for the measure to make a meaningful difference in the world’s e-waste problem. Piled together, unused and discarded chargers add up to about 11,000 metric tons of e-waste in Europe annually, according to the European Parliament. They’re hoping to shrink that pile by eliminating the need for different chargers for different devices — so in just a couple years, most new mobile phones will likely need to come with a USB-C charging port to be sold in the EU. Making the switch to USB-C will ultimately help consumers save up to 250 million euros a year “on unnecessary charger ...

Slashing e-waste was a major driver in European Union lawmakers’ proposal yesterday to mandate a universal charger for mobile phones and other devices. But there are still a lot of other factors that have to come together for the measure to make a meaningful difference in the world’s e-waste problem. Piled together, unused and discarded chargers add up to about 11,000 metric tons of e-waste in Europe annually, according to the European Parliament. They’re hoping to shrink that pile by eliminating the need for different chargers for different devices — so in just a couple years, most new mobile phones will likely need to come with a USB-C charging port to be sold in the EU. Making the switch to USB-C will ultimately help consumers save up to 250 million euros a year “on unnecessary charger ...

Slashing e-waste was a major driver in European Union lawmakers’ proposal yesterday to mandate a universal charger for mobile phones and other devices. But there are still a lot of other factors that have to come together for the measure to make a meaningful difference in the world’s e-waste problem. Piled together, unused and discarded chargers add up to about 11,000 metric tons of e-waste in Europe annually, according to the European Parliament. They’re hoping to shrink that pile by eliminating the need for different chargers for different devices — so in just a couple years, most new mobile phones will likely need to come with a USB-C charging port to be sold in the EU. Making the switch to USB-C will ultimately help consumers save up to 250 million euros a year “on unnecessary charger ...

After Tom Henderson of tryhardguides.com published an article reporting the existence of a new Hideo Kojima game in development under the title Overdose, he says Kojima Productions made contact, requesting he take it down (via Kotaku). Henderson declined. In conversation with Kotaku, Henderson said that the request came with an offer to work with him when they can share more, presumably once the game is ready to be officially announced. Henderson’s report goes on to highlight details of the leaked footage he received from the game that apparently features Death Stranding actress Margaret Qualley. Henderson describes Qualley, who played the bespectacled Mama in Death Stranding, running through a dark hallway with a flashlight. There’s a jump scare, then the screen cuts to text that says “GA...

After Tom Henderson of tryhardguides.com published an article reporting the existence of a new Hideo Kojima game in development under the title Overdose, he says Kojima Productions made contact, requesting he take it down (via Kotaku). Henderson declined. In conversation with Kotaku, Henderson said that the request came with an offer to work with him when they can share more, presumably once the game is ready to be officially announced. Henderson’s report goes on to highlight details of the leaked footage he received from the game that apparently features Death Stranding actress Margaret Qualley. Henderson describes Qualley, who played the bespectacled Mama in Death Stranding, running through a dark hallway with a flashlight. There’s a jump scare, then the screen cuts to text that says “GA...

Another executive change is hitting Meta after the recently announced departures of COO Sheryl Sandberg and head of AI Jerome Pesenti. David Mortenson, the company’s top engineering leader responsible for its data centers and core infrastructure, is stepping down from his role, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge. Santosh Janardhan, one of his direct reports and a current VP of engineering, will assume the role later this month. A spokesperson for Meta, Jon Carvill, confirmed the change. “I’m incredibly proud of everything we’ve achieved over the past two years I’ve been supporting Infra,” says Mortenson in the memo, adding that the company “survived the biggest capacity crunch in the company’s history (at least in the past decade)” — likely a reference to supply chain cons...

Image: Kojima Productions After Tom Henderson of tryhardguides.com published an article reporting the existence of a new Hideo Kojima game in development under the title Overdose, he says Kojima Productions made contact, requesting he take it down (via Kotaku). Henderson declined. In conversation with Kotaku, Henderson said that the request came with an offer to work with him when they can share more, presumably once the game is ready to be officially announced. Henderson’s report goes on to highlight details of the leaked footage he received from the game that apparently features Death Stranding actress Margaret Qualley. Henderson describes Qualley, who played the bespectacled Mama in Death Stranding, running through a dark hallway with a flashlight. There’s a… Continue reading&hell...