October 2020
- Newegg Relaunches ABS as a Standalone Gaming-PC Brand
Newegg is repositioning its ABS label as a dedicated prebuilt gaming desktop brand, aiming at CyberPowerPC and iBuyPower right before the holidays.
- A Graphene Circuit That Wants to Turn Thermal Jitter Into Power
Researchers detail a graphene 'Brownian ratchet' circuit that taps atomic-scale thermal noise for tiny, always-on electric current.
- Python 3.9 Lands This Week: Dict Merges, Cleaner Type Hints, and a Farewell to 3.5
Python 3.9.0 ships October 5 with new dict merge operators and PEP 585 generics, right as 3.5 hits end-of-life.
- Apple Watch Series 6 vs. Fitbit Sense: The Blood-Oxygen Watch Wars
Apple's SpO2-equipped Watch Series 6 and Fitbit's stress-sensing Sense are fighting for the same wrist, with very different priorities.
- Python 3.9.0 Is Out, and the Dict Union Operator Is the Small Thing I'm Most Excited About
Python 3.9.0 lands with dict union operators, a new PEG parser, and PEP 585 generic collection types, as Python 3.5 hits end-of-life.
- Nobel Physics Prize Goes to Black Holes, and It's About Time
The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics honors Roger Penrose's math and Genzel/Ghez's discovery of the Milky Way's central monster.
- Microsoft Says Employees Can Work From Home Indefinitely
Microsoft confirms U.S. staff can go permanently remote with manager approval, one of Big Tech's most flexible pandemic-era policies yet.
- AMD's Ryzen 5000 Chips Just Made Zen 3 the Gaming Story of the Year
AMD unveiled four Zen 3 desktop CPUs claiming a 19% IPC gain and up to 26% faster gaming, all drop-in compatible with existing AM4 boards.
- The Nobel Committee Just Rewarded the Ultimate Editing Tool
Charpentier and Doudna win the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for CRISPR-Cas9, the first all-woman team to win a Nobel science prize.
- What Developers Are Building With GPT-3 (and Why the API Feels Complicated)
A look at the chatbots, code helpers, and writing tools developers are prototyping on GPT-3's private beta API, and the tension around Microsoft's exclusive license.
- 5G Phones in 2020: Hype vs. Reality
As 5G iPhones and Pixels hit preorder, the actual U.S. network experience still lags far behind the ads.
- Mars Sample Return Gets a Technical Green Light
An independent review board says NASA and ESA's plan to bring Mars rock cores back to Earth is technically ready to proceed.
- iPhone 12 Goes 5G: Apple's 'Hi, Speed' Event Recap
Apple's Hi, Speed event brought four new iPhone 12 models with 5G, A14 Bionic, and a revived MagSafe, plus a smaller HomePod mini.
- Ubisoft Connect Replaces Uplay, Just in Time for Valhalla
Ubisoft rebrands Uplay as Ubisoft Connect, unifying achievements and rewards across PC, console, and Stadia as it courts players away from Steam and Epic.
- Pixel 5 Goes on Sale, and Google Bets Against the Spec Sheet
Google's Pixel 5 launches today with a mid-range Snapdragon 765G instead of a flagship chip, wagering that battery life and price beat raw benchmarks.
- Physicists Just Clocked the Shortest Time Interval Ever Measured
German researchers measured 247 zeptoseconds for a photon to cross a hydrogen molecule, smashing the previous record for shortest directly measured time span.
- Why TypeScript Is Winning Over More Teams
TypeScript keeps climbing GitHub's language rankings as teams trade JavaScript flexibility for compile-time safety and better tooling.
- SpaceX Launches Another 60 Starlink Satellites, Nails a Droneship Landing
SpaceX's third Starlink launch in two weeks pushed the constellation toward 800 satellites and marked its 70th straight successful mission.
- The Console Countdown Is On, and So Is the Panic Buying
With PS5 and Xbox Series X/S launch dates weeks away, October has turned into a preorder scramble over price, stock, and silicon.
- OSIRIS-REx Touches Bennu, Grabs NASA's First Asteroid Sample
NASA's OSIRIS-REx briefly touched down on asteroid Bennu and fired nitrogen gas to collect a sample, the first U.S. asteroid retrieval mission.
- Nitro PDF Breach Exposes 70 Million Email Addresses
Nitro's PDF service disclosed a breach exposing over 70 million email addresses and document titles, now circulating on hacking forums.
- OSIRIS-REx Grabbed So Much of Bennu Its Sample Capsule Won't Fully Close
NASA says OSIRIS-REx collected so much asteroid material from Bennu that rocks are jamming its sample chamber door open.
- iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Hit Stores
Apple's iPhone 12 and 12 Pro go on sale alongside the new iPad Air, bringing 5G, all-OLED screens, and MagSafe to the lineup.
- RIAA's DMCA Takedown of youtube-dl Roils Developers
The RIAA got GitHub to pull youtube-dl overnight, and developers are calling it a bad-faith abuse of DMCA Section 1201.
- SpaceX Quietly Passes Its 100th Successful Flight
SpaceX's third Starlink launch of October marked mission number 100 across Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy since 2006.
- How Among Us Took Over 2020
A 2018 indie game about space imposters became October's biggest entertainment story, fueled by streamers and pandemic boredom.
- NASA Finds Water on the Sunlit Side of the Moon
SOFIA's airborne telescope confirmed molecular water in Clavius Crater, the first detection on a sunlit lunar surface rather than in shadowed polar craters.
- Is AI Actually Writing Code Yet?
A look at Kite, TabNine, and GPT-3's promise for autocomplete-style AI coding tools, and how far they really are from writing features unsupervised.
- The RTX 3070 Is Finally Here, and It's $499
Nvidia's RTX 3070 launches today at $499 after a two-week delay, the same day Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G hit the US.
- Red Ventures Officially Owns CNET Now, and That's a Big Deal
Red Ventures closed its roughly $500 million purchase of CNET Media Group from ViacomCBS, taking over CNET, GameSpot, Metacritic, TVGuide.com, and Chowhound.
- October 2020's Biggest Science Stories, In Review
A dense month for fundamental science: a double Nobel, NASA's first asteroid sample grab, and a new record for the shortest measured time.