June 2020
- Vivo's X50 Pro Puts a Camera Gimbal Inside a Phone
Vivo launched the X50 series in China with the X50 Pro's built-in micro-gimbal stabilization, a hardware answer to shaky-phone-video woes.
- A Weird Spin: 200,000 Galaxies Show a Directional Bias Nobody Expected
Astronomers surveying over 200,000 spiral galaxies found a roughly 2% asymmetry in clockwise vs counterclockwise rotation across the sky.
- Android 11 Beta 1 arrives quietly, minus the show Google had planned
Google shipped Android 11 Beta 1 for Pixel devices today, having scrapped its planned launch event to make space for coverage of the George Floyd protests.
- Google's Pixel 4a Launch Slips Into Limbo
Google pushes back the Pixel 4a's expected June 3 unveiling with no new date, leaving budget phone shoppers waiting.
- SpaceX Sends Up Another 60 Starlink Satellites, Sticks the Landing (Again)
A Falcon 9 launched 60 more Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral and landed its booster on a droneship, continuing SpaceX's rapid constellation buildout.
- How Lockdown Reshaped Developer Collaboration Tools
Remote-first tools like Zoom, Slack, and Live Share have become the backbone of software teams navigating a world without offices.
- Are Foldable Phones Ready for Prime Time Yet?
A look at where foldables stand after Samsung's Z Flip and Motorola's Razr reboot, and why most people should probably still wait.
- IBM Walks Away From Facial Recognition
IBM's CEO told Congress the company will stop selling general-purpose facial recognition software, citing surveillance and racial profiling risks.
- Xbox Confirms Its Next Big Showcase Slips to July
Microsoft says its next Xbox Series X event lands in July, letting Sony's PS5 reveal own June's news cycle.
- Comet NEOWISE is quietly becoming one to watch
C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) is brightening ahead of its July 3 perihelion and could be the best Northern Hemisphere comet since Hale-Bopp.
- Sony Finally Shows Us the PS5, and It's a Weird-Looking Beast
Sony's delayed 'Future of Gaming' showcase revealed the PS5's design and 26 games, including Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
- OpenAI Puts GPT-3 Behind an API, Not an Open Door
OpenAI is letting developers apply for API access to GPT-3, its 175-billion-parameter language model, without releasing the weights.
- SpaceX Ties a Starlink Launch to a Rideshare Twist
SpaceX's ninth Starlink batch shared its Falcon 9 ride with Planet's Earth-imaging satellites, spotlighting a growing rideshare side business.
- GitHub Says Goodbye to 'Master' as the Default Branch Name
GitHub will make 'main' the default branch name for new repos, part of a wider industry move away from slavery-linked terminology.
- AMD Teases 'Big Navi' as Nvidia Preps Ampere for a Second-Half Showdown
Lisa Su reaffirms AMD's high-end RDNA2 'Big Navi' GPU is coming in 2020, setting up a collision with Nvidia's next-gen Ampere cards.
- Proxima b Is Real: Our Nearest Neighboring Planet Gets Confirmed
ESPRESSO data from ESO's VLT confirms Proxima b, an Earth-sized planet orbiting the closest star to the Sun.
- Fortnite's Splashdown Update Floods the Chapter 2 Map
Epic Games launches Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 3 today, submerging much of the island and adding boats, sharks, and swimming.
- Zoom Reverses Course, Will Encrypt Free Calls Too
Zoom says free users will get end-to-end encryption after all, with phone verification required and beta testing starting in July.
- XENON1T Sees a Mystery Bump in Its Hunt for Dark Matter
Physicists at Gran Sasso report 53 unexplained low-energy events, teasing solar axions or tritium contamination as possible causes.
- The Next Wave of Flagship Phone Chips Is Already Warming Up
A faster Snapdragon 865 refresh and a wider spread of 5G-capable chips look set to reshape flagship and mid-range phones later in 2020.
- A Solstice Stargazing Guide for Summer 2020
Short nights, a brightening comet, and two giant planets nearing opposition make this the best week of the year to look up.
- Apple Is Putting Its Own Chips in the Mac
At WWDC 2020, Apple confirmed the Mac will move from Intel to its own ARM-based Apple Silicon, starting this year.
- Microsoft Pulls the Plug on Mixer, Hands Streamers to Facebook Gaming
Microsoft is shutting down Mixer and pushing its streamers and viewers toward a new partnership with Facebook Gaming.
- Starship SN5 Rolls Out to the Pad in Boca Chica
SpaceX's Starship SN5 prototype heads to the test stand, about a month after SN4 was destroyed in a static-fire explosion.
- TypeScript Is Quietly Eating JavaScript
Static typing keeps climbing developer surveys as Angular, React, and Vue projects default to TypeScript to catch bugs before production.
- Astronauts Step Outside to Swap Batteries on the ISS
Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken conducted a spacewalk to replace nickel-hydrogen batteries with newer lithium-ion units on the ISS truss.
- Sizing Up the Next-Gen Console Fight So Far
Comparing what's public about PS5 and Xbox Series X two weeks after Sony's reveal, with Microsoft's own showcase still a month out.
- The GPT-3 Hype Cycle Kicks Into Gear
Two weeks into OpenAI's GPT-3 API waitlist, demos are flooding timelines and the AGI debate is back with a vengeance.
- India Pulls the Plug on TikTok and 58 Other Chinese Apps
India banned TikTok, UC Browser, WeChat, Helo and 55 other Chinese apps tonight, citing national security in the wake of the Galwan Valley clash.
- SpaceX Closes June With a Space Force Launch and a Starship Tank Test
SpaceX launched its first Space Force mission with a GPS III satellite while Starship SN5 passed a cryo proof test in Texas.