Places and Things

AirTag review: They work great—maybe a little too great Apple's AirTag is not a revolutionary new product. Rather, it's a significant refinement of an idea that, up until now, has been fairly niche. It works very, very well, but it works so well it seems to undermine Apple's attempts to focus its products on privacy and security. Continue Reading . . . https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/airtag-review-a-neat-product-at-odds-with-apples-pro-privacy-messaging/

Nature at its craziest: Trillions of cicadas about to emerge COLUMBIA, Md. (AP) — Sifting through a shovel load of dirt in a suburban backyard, Michael Raupp and Paula Shrewsbury find their quarry: a cicada nymph. And then another. And another. And four more. Continue Reading . . . https://apnews.com/article/brood-x-cicadas-emerging-c8b67952ac321c8bbbfb62af48efebf0

New climate goals are going to need a lot more minerals The world isn’t mining enough minerals to reach a future that runs on clean energy, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel are the building blocks for clean energy economies. Continue Reading . . . https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/5/22421081/critical-minerals-climate-change-goals-clean-energy

PS5 reportedly has the same CMOS battery failure issue as the PS4 Sony’s PS5 appears to have the same CMOS battery issue found in the PS4, which stops players accessing digital games in the event of a failure. Continue Reading . . . https://www.nme.com/news/ps5-confirmed-to-have-cmos-battery-failure-issue-2922693

Disney's REAL lightsaber looks insane! Here's how it may work Disney released video of a working lightsaber that will be part of the entertainment at the Star Wars-themed hotel, Galactic Starcruiser. Bridget Carey explains how the company likely pulled off this feat of engineering. 0:00 Lightsaber! 0:23 Galactic Starcruiser 0:41 Flashback 1:15 "Real" lightsab Continue Reading . . . https://youtube.com/watch?v=HDgr01OT0h4&feature=share

HomePod Mini Supports the New Thread Protocol That Could Transform the Smart Home Besides the A5 chip, backlit touch surface, support for stereo speaker setups, Ultra Wideband capability and $100 price tag, there’s something else about the new HomePod Mini that you might not have noticed: support for a little-known smart home protocol called Thread. Continue Reading . . . https://gizmodo.com/homepod-mini-supports-the-new-thread-protocol-that-coul-1845389973

Sony to integrate Discord chat into PlayStation PlayStation users could soon have another way of communicating with each other. Sony recently announced that it was partnering with Discord and that it will be integrating the service into the PlayStation Network early next year. Continue Reading . . . https://www.engadget.com/playstation-discord-integration-181459496.html