Technology

Today, NASA announced that two private companies — Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace — will develop the next-generation spacesuits that future astronauts will wear to conduct spacewalks and eventually traverse the surface of the Moon. It’s a bold new direction for spacesuit development at NASA, with the agency handing the job over to the private sector after years of struggling to develop a new suit of its own. These new spacesuits will play a critical role in NASA’s Artemis program, the agency’s flagship initiative to send humans back to the lunar surface. Currently, NASA is aiming to land the first Artemis astronauts on the Moon by 2025 — a one-year delay from the 2024 deadline originally set by the Trump administration. When the astronauts do land, NASA wants them to be equipped with pr...

When, not if, Sheryl Sandberg leaves Meta has been one of the most speculated questions among current and former employees over the past few years. Even still, the news Wednesday that she will soon leave her position as the social media giant’s number-two executive sent shockwaves throughout the company and the rest of Silicon Valley. In her own words, there are two big factors in Sandberg’s decision to leave now: the fact that Meta’s executive team has been built up to make way for her departure, and that, as the leader of the “Lean In” movement, she wants to focus more on philanthropy and women’s rights. “There’s no perfect time,” she told me during a brief phone interview Wednesday afternoon. “It is a job that’s been an honor and a privilege, but it’s not a job that leaves a lot of time...

The Busy Bistro Magic Puzzle Gifting a puzzle might sound a bit tame, but it can be an exciting one if it’s as uniquely detailed as The Busy Bistro Magic Puzzle. It’ll be a gift that puzzle lovers and newcomers alike should enjoy, especially given comes with two posters of the artwork, so you and your dad can work together to unlock the twist at the end of the 1,000-piece jigsaw. Price: $19.99 Amazon Hori Split Pad Pro If Nintendo’s own Joy-Con controllers for the Switch leave your hands feeling cramped, consider grabbing Hori’s Split Pad Pro as a replacement. Their ergonomic design makes the Nintendo Switch feel more like a traditional console controller while in handheld mode, with full-sized analog sticks, buttons, and triggers. They lack wireless functionality, ...

Fujifilm has revealed its new flagship model camera, the X-H2S. The camera joins the X-series lineup of its APS-C mirrorless cameras. The X-H2S is the follow-up to 2018’s X-H1, which was released over four years ago. While both cameras have a similar top LCD display, the 26-megapixel X-H2S features a fully pivoting display, a step up from its strictly tilting predecessor. The camera also contains Fujifilm’s new X-Processor image processor and the backside-illuminated APS-C sensor. This allows for a quicker readout rate, the time in which it takes to digitize a pixel. Since the X-H2S is made for both photo and videos, its autofocus tracking may prove handy to those using the camera to make content or shoot vlogs. Subject tracking with the help of AI allows for a continuous focus on a moving...

Twitter is pulling employees off of working on major consumer-facing features like audio Spaces, communities, and newsletters and instead plans to refocus their efforts on user growth and personalization, according to Bloomberg. The changes come as a pending buyout by Elon Musk is already casting a shadow on every move the company makes — and follows just weeks after Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced a pause on most hiring and fired both the company’s consumer product leader Kayvon Beykpour and the leader on the revenue side, Bruce Falck. Bloomberg’s report reveals some of the restructuring happening within Twitter under the direction of Jay Sullivan, the new head of product and interim head of revenue. In a statement to Bloomberg, a Twitter spokesperson said, “We are making some updates...

Everyone might be talking about the recent release of Sonos voice control or the Sonos Ray, but if Sonos’ entry-level soundbar doesn’t seem like a good fit, you can currently find discounts on a range of refurbished speakers in the Sonos catalog. Some of the current deal highlights include the Sonos Arc and Sonos Roam, which are available for $719 and $139, respectively. The Sonos Arc normally sells for $900 new, but this refurbished model is available for $719. The Arc soundbar is perfect for anyone who wants to improve their home audio setup and offers a number of quality of life features in addition to an excellent sound profile. Like other Sonos soundbars, the Arc is compatible with Apple’s AirPlay 2, supports Google Assistant and Alexa, and is compatible with a variety of audio format...

Former OpenSea product manager Nathaniel Chastain has been charged with wire fraud and money laundering in connection with an insider trading scheme. Chastain was arrested Wednesday morning in New York City and is expected to be presented in court later today. Chastain was publicly accused of insider trading in September and fired from his position at OpenSea — but today’s indictment marks the first criminal charges associated with the scheme. 45 token purchases on 11 different occasions While employed at OpenSea, Chastain was responsible for deciding which NFT collections would be featured on OpenSea’s front page, a distinction that typically made the collections skyrocket in value. The indictment describes a pattern of 45 token purchases on 11 different occasions. In each case, Chastain ...

Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Meta Platforms, announced in a post on Facebook that, after 14 years, she’s stepping down from her position as its second-ranking executive but will retain a seat on the board. Sandberg will leave her post in the fall after spending the next few months working with founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to transition her direct reports. In a separate Facebook post, Mark Zuckerberg called the change an “end of an era” and said that he doesn’t plan to replace Sandberg’s role in the company’s structure. This will further consolidate power of the company under his control, which he’s shared with Sandberg since she joined the company in 2008 to help its then-23-year-old CEO navigate the path to an IPO. More recently, Zuckerberg has rebranded the company ...

The next Pokémon adventure is launching on November 18th. Nintendo revealed the release date for Pokémon Violet and Scarlet, the next mainline entries in the series, through a new trailer today. The games were previously pegged to launch in the second half of 2022 for the Nintendo Switch. In addition to the release date, the trailer also shows off the new professors and some new pokémon, including a pair of legendaries, along with multiplayer support for up to four people. Violet and Scarlet were first announced in February and are the latest attempts to shift the series to a more open-world structure, following 2019’s Sword and Shield and this year’s prequel Arceus. Nintendo describes the new games as an adventure where players “can explore an open world where the various towns and cities...

A week ago today, an 18-year-old man walked into an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and committed the latest in our nation’s never-ending series of senseless murders. And in the aftermath of that horror — 19 children dead, two teachers dead, 18 more injured — attention once again turned to what role platforms might have played in enabling the violence. This question can feel both urgently necessary and also somehow beside the point. Necessary because people (often teenagers) are constantly being arrested after making threats on social media, and the Uvalde case shows once again why those threats must be taken more seriously. And yet it’s also clear that America’s gun violence problem will not be solved at the level of platform policy or enforcement. It can be solved only by making it h...

The new $279 Sonos Ray is the company’s most affordable soundbar yet, and it has two core purposes. The first, like any entry-level soundbar, is to free you from having to listen to your TV’s atrocious built-in speakers. But the Ray is also designed to be an enticing gateway into the Sonos’ multiroom audio platform. To hit a price point of under $300, Sonos removed many of the advanced features offered by its more expensive Beam and Arc soundbars. The Ray doesn’t support Dolby Atmos, and it lacks HDMI connectivity altogether. Instead, you hook it up to your TV using an optical audio cable. I’ve spent a few days testing the Ray, and it delivers impressive sound for such a compact soundbar. There’s a lot to like about its performance — both in terms of TV audio and music playback. Its forwar...