Places and Things

SpaceX's historic launch attempt succeeds on its second attempt A new era of American spaceflight began Saturday as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket broke through Earth’s upper atmosphere carrying veteran astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley atop a pillar of flame. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/spacex-nasa-iss-crewed-mission-launch-success-192904084.html

Supreme Court votes 5-4 to let Gov. Newsom restrict attendance at religious services With a deciding vote from Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court late Friday allowed Gov. Gavin Newsom to restrict attendance at religious services in California to 25% of the capacity of a house of worship because of the coronavirus. Continue Reading . . . https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Supreme-Court-votes-5-4-to-let-Gov-Newsom-15304978.php

Twitter isn’t a government, but it’s the best one we’ve got This week, Twitter found the courage to finally deal with its most toxic user: the president of the United States. After giving one of Trump’s untrustworthy tweets a modest reality check, the president exploded in a tantrum. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/21274482/twitter-trump-censored-tweet-government-moderation

Donald Trump’s executive order is ‘plainly illegal,’ says co-author of Section 230 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is calling Donald Trump’s proposed executive order “plainly illegal” in a new statement on Thursday. The draft executive order would pare back platform liability protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a bill Wyden coauthored in 1996 with Sen. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/28/21273495/donald-trump-section-230-ron-wyden-author-bill-twitter-facebook-law-speech

FCC commissioner says Trump’s Section 230 plan ‘does not work’ There’s a growing divide at the Federal Communications Commission over a proposed executive order by the Trump administration to regulate speech on social media platforms. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/28/21273324/fcc-donald-trump-social-media-executive-order-twitter-label-misinformation

5 More Things Nobody Tells You About Photography Anyone who sticks with photography long enough will learn certain lessons on their own that they believe could have easily been bestowed upon them by a more experienced photographer. Continue Reading . . . https://www.lightstalking.com/more-nobody-tells-you/

Windows 10 May 2020 Update now available with built-in Linux kernel and Cortana updates Microsoft is releasing its Windows 10 May 2020 Update today. It’s the latest “major” update to Windows 10, and its big features include the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 and Cortana updates. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/27/21271655/microsoft-windows-10-may-2020-update-download-available

Ways to Use Lightroom to Find Photos Worth Revisiting I don’t have to tell you these are abnormal times. Like many others in every profession, photographers are experiencing a huge decrease in business due to stay-at-home and social distancing restrictions. Continue Reading . . . https://digital-photography-school.com/?p=190965

Twitter labels Trump tweets as ‘potentially misleading’ for the first time On Tuesday, Twitter labeled two tweets from President Donald Trump making false statements about mail-in voting as “potentially misleading.” It’s the first time the platform has fact-checked the president. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/26/21271207/twitter-donald-trump-fact-check-mail-in-voting-coronavirus-pandemic-california

BlizzCon 2020 is canceled Blizzard Entertainment will not host its annual BlizzCon event this year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The event is usually held later in the year, with BlizzCon 2019 kicking off on November 1st and concluding on November 2nd. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/26/21271059/blizzcon-2020-canceled-blizzard-entertainment

What Are the Health Benefits of Yerba Mate? Mate is a traditional South American beverage drink that is brewed from the leaves and stems of the yerba mate plant, a tree that belongs to the holly family. It’s widely consumed in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil, where the mate tree is indigenous. Continue Reading . . . https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-are-the-health-benefits-of-yerba-mate/

15 photography projects to help you stay sane while you’re stuck at home What can you do when you’re stuck at home and there’s only so much Netflix you can handle? Engaging in creative hobbies like photography can help make sure you don’t sacrifice your mental health for your physical health. Continue Reading . . . https://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/15-photography-projects-to-help-you-stay-sane-while-youre-stuck-at-home/

Trump threatens to move Republican convention from North Carolina if capacity reduced President Trump threatened in a series of Monday tweets to move this summer's Republican National Convention from Charlotte if North Carolina's Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, doesn't allow the event to be held at full capacity. Continue Reading . . . https://www.axios.com/trump-tweets-move-republican-convention-north-carolina-3db42d62-e303-47f9-88f0-b3f1f6f24af3.html

District judge rules FBI needs a warrant to access your lock screen When police arrested a suspect named Joseph Sam in Washington state last year, an officer hit a button on the man’s phone to bring up its lock screen. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/judge-rules-fbi-needs-warrant-lock-screen-181623412.html

Researchers squeeze 44.2 Tbps through existing fiber optic cables Today’s cable and fiber optic internet connections are good enough -- at least where they’re available. Home users can browse the web, stream videos and play online games, and companies can keep business moving. But as content becomes more complex, the world will need faster speeds. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/44-tbps-internet-connection-154034760.html

Netflix will start canceling long-dormant subscriptions Netflix viewership is way up while most of us are sheltering in place, but it turns out there are hundreds of thousands of subscribers who haven’t actually used their accounts in forever. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/netflix-inactive-account-cancel-171624244.html

Facebook says it will permanently shift tens of thousands of jobs to remote work In a move that illustrates how swiftly the COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping the global economy, Facebook said today that it would eventually begin allowing most of its employees to request a permanent change in their jobs to let them work remotely. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/facebook/2020/5/21/21265699/facebook-remote-work-shift-workforce-permanent-covid-19-mark-zuckerberg-interview

Civilization VI is now free on the Epic Games Store Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is available free on the Epic Games Store, meaning you can now claim a free copy that’s yours to keep. The offer is available until 11AM ET on May 28th, so you have one week to take advantage. You can grab the game over on its store page. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/21/21266361/civilization-6-free-epic-games-store-gta-5

New Artificial Eye Mimics a Retina’s Natural Curve The human eye is a sophisticated instrument: images enter through a curved lens at the front of the sphere and pass through its gooey, vitreous liquid before reaching the light-sensitive retina—which relays the signal to the optic nerve that carries the picture to the brain. Continue Reading . . . https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-artificial-eye-mimics-a-retinas-natural-curve/

Nikon Rumors The Belgian photo store PCH received this Nikon D850 DSLR camera made out of... chocolate (it's actually a D810): Nikon D850 live panel discussion at B&H today at 6:00 pm EST. Continue Reading . . . https://nikonrumors.com/

Google Fi is rolling out eSIM support on iOS for existing customers Google is rolling out the ability to use Google Fi via eSIM for existing customers of the cellular service on iOS, assuming their iPhone supports it (via 9to5Google). Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/19/21264122/google-fi-esim-support-ios-current-existing-customers

COVID-19 Could Permanently Transform Transportation COVID-19 has left city squares abandoned and our streets empty. Unemployment in the United States has already topped 15 percent, and the European Union’s economy is projected to shrink by more than 7 percent in 2020. Continue Reading . . . https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/covid-19-could-permanently-transform-transportation/

Photoshop for iPad gets Curves and Apple Pencil pressure settings When Adobe launched Photoshop for the iPad late last year, users were less than impressed with its limited features – to say the tablet version of the software was a pared back take on the desktop standard was something of an understatement. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/photoshop-for-i-pad-gets-curves-and-apple-pencil-pressure-settings-130038940.html

Apple is reportedly buying older TV shows to take on Netflix and Amazon When Apple TV+ launched last year its MO was very much original content. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/apple-tv-buys-up-older-film-and-tv-show-rights-to-take-on-netflix-123514393.html

Adobe promises big speed boosts to video encoding, thanks to new GPU acceleration Adobe is releasing a new update to Premiere Pro this week that includes hardware acceleration for Nvidia GPUs. The 14. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/18/21262371/adobe-premiere-pro-gpu-hardware-acceleration-support-video-encoding

Comcast is launching 5G plans for Xfinity Mobile customers Comcast is introducing new data plans for its Xfinity Mobile customers that add free 5G service, the company announced on Monday. 5G access will be included on Xfinity’s new unlimited and gig-based plans, and existing customers will have the option to opt in to a 5G plan. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/18/21262142/comcast-5g-xfinity-mobile-plans

Microsoft Confirms Serious New Windows 10 Security Problem, Says Go Buy A New PC Last week, Intel confirmed the existence of a new security vulnerability in the deployment of Thunderbolt ports, enabling an attacker with physical access to a PC to modify the port’s controller firmware, disabling its security. Continue Reading . . . https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/05/17/microsoft-confirms-serious-new-windows-10-security-problem-says-go-buy-a-new-pc/

What Happened When I Switched From Macs to Windows My household growing up was a PC household. We all used Windows computers every day. I stayed with Microsoft throughout my college and grad-school years too. It was what I knew, and it worked. Then, in 2008, I was producing a video series, and it suddenly fell on me to start editing. Continue Reading . . . https://www.wired.com/story/rant-switching-from-mac-to-windows/

Comcast has handed out one million cord-cutting Xfinity Flex boxes When Comcast launched its Xfinity Flex streaming box for broadband-only subscribers last year, it seemed a bit silly to pay $5 per month when you could just use a Chromecast-type device instead. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/comcast-flex-cord-cutting-1-million-users-101500273.html

This is how quickly coronavirus can spread An experiment in Japan conducted by broadcaster NHK and a team of medical experts shows how quickly and easily Covid-19 can spread. CNN's Anna Coren reports. #Covid-19 #CNN #News Continue Reading . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOvENoZMmK4&feature=share

OnePlus’ 8 Pro has an accidental X-ray vision filter that sees through plastic and clothes Well, here’s a camera trick we’ve not seen in a smartphone before: X-ray vision. Or, at least, something that looks very much like it. It’s a feature of the new OnePlus 8 Pro, which seems to use the phone’s infrared sensors to see through a small subset of black materials. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/15/21259723/oneplus-8-pro-x-ray-vision-infrared-filter-see-through-plastic

Apple chip-maker TSMC is building a $12 billion plant in Arizona Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which manufactures processors and other chips for Apple, AMD and many other firms, has confirmed that it will build a $12 billion chip fab plant in Arizona. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/tsmc-12-billion-chip-plant-arizona-083518143.html

Video shows how quickly coronavirus can spread An experiment in Japan conducted by broadcaster NHK and a team of medical experts shows how quickly and easily Covid-19 can spread. CNN's Anna Coren reports. Continue Reading . . . https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2020/05/14/japan-video-coronavirus-spread-coren-pkg-intl-ldn-vpx.cnn

Peacock's first streaming originals include a 'Brave New World' series Also on the launch lineup are David Schwimmer-starring sitcom Intelligence, Cleopatra in Space and a Where's Waldo? show. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/peacock-streaming-originals-brave-new-world-intelligence-185130181.html

Animal Crossing is home to 2020’s hottest late-night talk show Gary Whitta is seated behind a thick wooden desk, hair perfectly coiffed, wearing a suit and a smile that curls upward like a macaroni noodle. He’s halfway through introducing his next guest, Greg Miller, when a beachball-sized head bobs into view. Whitta starts to yell. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/14/21257183/animal-talking-new-horizons-elijah-wood-danny-trejo-gary-whitta-late-night-show

NVIDIA's newest AI supercomputer joins the fight against COVID-19 NVIDIA is bringing its AI expertise to bear in the fight against COVID-19, the company announced during its GTC 2020 keynote on Thursday. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/nvidia-gtc-2020-ai-health-covid-19-130031390.html

Nvidia’s first Ampere GPU is designed for data centers and AI, not your PC Nvidia is unveiling its next-generation Ampere GPU architecture today. The first GPU to use Ampere will be Nvidia’s new A100, built for scientific computing, cloud graphics, and data analytics. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/14/21258419/nvidia-ampere-gpu-ai-data-centers-specs-a100-dgx-supercomputer

Hackers demand $21 million ransom from lawyer to the stars A group of cybercriminals is demanding a $21 million ransom from a New York-based law firm representing megastars like Lady Gaga, Madonna and Elton John, according to The New York Post. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/hackers-21-million-ransom-celebrity-lawyer-064511797.html

The New Mutants has a new August 2020 release date The New Mutants, a movie that feels like it’s never going to actually come out, has a new release date: August 28th. Like Mulan and Black Widow, The New Mutants was delayed because of the global pandemic, which saw movie theaters around the world shut down. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/13/21257473/new-mutants-release-date-august-2020-disney-fox-xmen-tenet-mulan-black-widow

Slack’s new iPhone app hits the App Store ahead of official launch Slack announced a redesigned iPhone app with a new navigation bar at the bottom of the app in update notes today. However, it seems the redesign is still rolling out, even if you’ve updated to the latest version of the app — myself and another Verge colleague don’t have it yet, for example. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/11/21255213/slack-iphone-app-redesign-bottom-navigation-bar-android

Google’s Nest Aware revamp is here to simplify your subscription Google’s new Nest Aware pricing model is rolling out starting this week, the company announced today. The new model means that a single subscription now covers all of your Nest devices, rather than asking you to pay on a per-device basis. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/12/21255962/google-nest-aware-subscription-model-change-single-fee-all-devices-event-recording

Shanghai Disneyland reopens with mandatory face masks and social distancing Mickey Mouse has returned to Disneyland: capitalism is healing. After shutting its parks and resorts worldwide in March, Disney is starting to restart what is a core part of its business. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/11/21254283/disneyland-shanghai-reopens-safety-measures-coronavirus

DJI Mavic Air 2 begins arriving 2 days early The DJI Mavic Air 2 is officially supposed to be released on the 11th of May in the United States. Users on the DJI Reddit have shared that they have already received their DJI Mavic Air 2s, two days before the official launch date. Continue Reading . . . https://dronedj.com/2020/05/09/dji-mavic-air-2s-begin-arrive-early-customers/

Is it safe to use an old Android phone? With flagship phones like the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and iPhone 11 Pro costing over $1,000, it's more tempting than ever to pick up a bargain, refurbished phone. Continue Reading . . . https://www.cnet.com/news/is-it-safe-to-use-an-old-android-phone/

Why You Should Be Adding Salt to Your Coffee Coffee is so versatile. That’s what I love about it. You can drink it black, with a dash of milk, a bit of half and half or with creamer. Add sugar or don’t. Nothing really dulls that basic coffee flavour that’s so powerful and robust. Continue Reading . . . https://www.littlecoffeeplace.com/salt-in-coffee

Apple launches ‘Apple Books for Authors’ website as guided resource to publication and more for Mac and Windows Apple has released a neat new rich resource today to help writers publish their content on its Apple Books platform. The new website walks through writing, publishing, marketing, and looking at analytics with Apple Books and since it’s web-based works with both Mac and Windows. Continue Reading . . . https://9to5mac.com/2020/05/08/apple-books-for-authors-guided-resource-publication-mac-windows/

Google Duo will soon let you make group calls in Chrome Google’s Duo video chat app will soon let you make group video calls on the web, the search company announced today. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/8/21252128/google-duo-group-calls-chrome-family-mode-masks-filters-android-ios

iFixit’s Magic Keyboard X-rays confirm the death of the butterfly keyboard switches iFixit hasn’t been able to do its traditional teardown of Apple’s new Magic Keyboard yet (citing “social distancing and teardown schedules”), but the company has done the next best thing for anyone looking to see what makes the new $350 keyboard accessory tick: provided X-rays of the insides Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2020/5/7/21250856/ifixit-magic-keyboard-x-rays-apple-ipad-inside-parts-switches

Watch today's Xbox Series X event in just 15 minutes Don’t have time to watch all of the first Xbox Series X gameplay stream? We’ve got you covered with a 15-minute video that packs in everything you need to know (well, see). Along with the first look at Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in action, the stream included several game announcements. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/xbox-series-x-gameplay-stream-supercut-192733576.html

Google Lens can now copy and paste handwritten notes to your computer Google has added a very useful feature to Google Lens, its multipurpose object recognition tool. You can now copy and paste handwritten notes from your phone to your computer with Lens, though it only works if your handwriting is neat enough. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/7/21250556/google-lens-copy-paste-handwritten-notes-computer-phone-ios-android