September 2020
- ZTE's Axon 20 5G Hides Its Selfie Camera Under the Screen
ZTE launched the Axon 20 5G in China, billed as the first 5G phone with a true under-display selfie camera.
- Inside the GPT-3 API Gold Rush
OpenAI's invite-only GPT-3 API is quietly fueling a summer of wild demos, from code generators to chatbots to AI Dungeon.
- SpaceX Ships Another 60 Starlink Satellites While Starship SN6 Hops Again in Texas
SpaceX launched 60 more Starlink satellites and stuck the booster landing today, while the Starship SN6 prototype completed its second short test hop in Boca Chica.
- What We Know About Nvidia's Incoming RTX 30 Series
Nvidia's Ampere-based RTX 30 series promises double the performance-per-watt of Turing, with the $699 RTX 3080 leading the charge on September 17.
- .NET 5 Nears Launch: Microsoft's Plan to Unify .NET
With Preview 8 out and GA set for November 10, .NET 5 aims to merge .NET Framework, .NET Core, and Xamarin into one platform.
- Starlink's Growing Megaconstellation Has Astronomers Worried
With over 700 Starlink satellites in orbit, astronomers are pushing SpaceX for fixes as bright streaks threaten sky surveys.
- One Year of Foldables: Are They Still a Gimmick?
A year after the redesigned Galaxy Fold shipped, foldables are more real but still a small, pricey niche.
- Android 11 Lands on Pixel: Bubbles, One-Time Permissions, and Screen Recording
Google's Android 11 starts rolling out to Pixel phones today, bringing conversation bubbles, one-time app permissions, and native screen recording.
- Motorola Brings the Razr Back Again, This Time With 5G
Motorola's Razr 5G adds 5G, a bigger battery, and faster internals to the clamshell foldable, but keeps the $1,399 price tag.
- Huawei Hands Developers a Beta of HarmonyOS 2.0
Huawei opened a HarmonyOS 2.0 developer beta at HDC 2020, its clearest move yet toward a phone OS that doesn't depend on Android.
- Perseverance Is Quietly Cruising Toward Mars
Six weeks after launch, NASA's Perseverance rover is deep into its seven-month coast to Jezero Crater, targeting a February 18, 2021 landing.
- Deno at Four Months: A Serious Node.js Alternative?
Four months after its 1.0 release, developers are seriously weighing Deno's TypeScript support and permissions model against Node.js.
- Nvidia Wants to Own the Architecture Under Almost Every Phone on Earth
Nvidia announced a roughly $40 billion deal to buy Arm from SoftBank, pairing its AI computing muscle with the chip-design blueprint behind most smartphones.
- Phosphine in the Clouds of Venus: A Tentative Biosignature Just Dropped
A team led by Jane Greaves detected phosphine gas on Venus using JCMT and ALMA, a molecule normally tied to anaerobic life or industry.
- Apple's 'Time Flies' Event: New Watches, a Redesigned iPad Air, and a Fitness Subscription
Apple's September event skipped the iPhone entirely, focusing instead on Apple Watch Series 6, the budget SE, a new iPad Air, and Fitness+.
- Contact Tracing Goes Bluetooth: Inside the Exposure Notification API
Apple and Google's joint Exposure Notification API is now powering state and national COVID-19 apps, but adoption and privacy design remain hotly debated.
- PS5 and Xbox Series X: The Console War Finally Has Numbers
Sony's $499/$399 PS5 pricing and November 12 launch date close out weeks of speculation, setting up a direct clash with Microsoft's Series X/S.
- The Venus Phosphine Debate Begins
Days after the ALMA/JCMT phosphine announcement, astronomers are already pushing back on the data analysis behind it.
- The RTX 3080 Launched This Week. Good Luck Actually Buying One
Nvidia's $699 RTX 3080 promises huge performance gains, but bots and crashed storefronts meant almost nobody could check out at retail price.
- TikTok Gets a Corporate Life Raft, WeChat Gets a Judge on Its Side
ByteDance's Oracle-Walmart deal aims to keep TikTok alive in the US, while a federal judge halts the WeChat download ban.
- Microsoft Just Bought Bethesda's Parent Company for $7.5 Billion
Microsoft is acquiring ZeniMax Media, parent of Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5 billion, adding Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Doom to Xbox Game Studios.
- Microsoft Locks Up an Exclusive License to GPT-3
Microsoft has secured an exclusive license to OpenAI's GPT-3, gaining access to its source code while the public API stays open to others.
- Tesla's Battery Day: bigger cells, no cobalt, a $25k EV promise
Tesla unveiled new 4680 cells, a cobalt-free roadmap, a sub-2-second Plaid Model S, and a three-year plan for a $25,000 EV.
- Nvidia's RTX 3090 Arrives as the New 'BFGPU'
Nvidia's $1,499 RTX 3090 lands with 24GB of GDDR6X and 10,496 CUDA cores, aimed at 8K gaming and creative pros.
- Beyond the Demos: What GPT-3 Can (and Can't) Actually Do
A look at the flood of September GPT-3 demos and the growing debate over how much of it is real reasoning versus pattern matching.
- Starlink's Next Launch Is Stuck Waiting on the Weather, Again
SpaceX keeps pushing back its next Starlink batch as weather and recovery-ship conditions refuse to cooperate, even as the constellation tops 700 satellites.
- Fitbit Sense Brings ECG and Stress Sensing to Your Wrist
Fitbit's $329 Sense adds ECG, a first-of-its-kind EDA stress sensor, and skin temperature tracking, launching alongside Versa 3 and Inspire 2.
- Six Months In, the Remote-Work Tool Pile Just Keeps Growing
Zoom, Slack, and Teams usage is still far above pre-pandemic levels, and the feature wars between them are heating up.
- Starship Testing Continues as SpaceX Juggles Two Programs
SpaceX keeps pushing Starship prototype testing at Boca Chica even as a Starlink launch sits grounded by weather.
- Google Stops Chasing Flagships With the Pixel 5
Google's Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G trade top-tier chips for mid-range prices, betting that most buyers don't need a $1,000 phone.