June 2021
- Perseverance Starts Its First Real Science Campaign on Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover has wrapped its post-landing checkout and begun hunting for signs of ancient life on the floor of Jezero Crater.
- Ransomware Just Took Down a Big Chunk of North America's Meat Supply
A ransomware attack on meat giant JBS shut plants across the US, Canada, and Australia, days after Colonial Pipeline showed critical infrastructure is fair game.
- Nvidia's RTX 3080 Ti Lands as Computex Turns Into a Chip-Shortage Confessional
Nvidia launched the $1,199 RTX 3080 Ti at Computex while AMD teased 3D V-Cache and every vendor admitted the shortage isn't ending soon.
- SpaceX Sends CRS-22 Dragon to the ISS, and the Launch Cadence Keeps Climbing
SpaceX's uncrewed Cargo Dragon lifted off for the ISS carrying new solar arrays, part of a packed June launch schedule.
- Stack Overflow Just Sold for $1.8 Billion — and It Says a Lot About Who Runs Software Now
Prosus is acquiring Stack Overflow for $1.8 billion, a striking sign of how much value the industry now places on developer-first platforms.
- NASA Is Finally Going Back to Venus
NASA picked two new Discovery Program missions, VERITAS and DAVINCI+, to head to Venus by roughly 2030.
- WWDC 2021: iOS 15, macOS Monterey, and the Quiet Return of Focus
Apple's WWDC keynote unveiled iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15, with Live Text and Focus mode standing out.
- Jeff Bezos Is Putting Himself on the Rocket
Bezos announced he'll fly on Blue Origin's first crewed New Shepard launch July 20, with his brother Mark and an auctioned fourth seat.
- The Budget 5G Phone Wars Have Officially Arrived
OnePlus, Poco, and iQOO are all shipping sub-$350 5G phones this week, and it says a lot about how fast 5G silicon is trickling downmarket.
- El Salvador Just Made Bitcoin Legal Tender. Now What?
El Salvador's Legislative Assembly voted to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, a world first that raises real questions about volatility and infrastructure.
- The RTX 3070 Ti Is Here, and Good Luck Finding One at $599
Nvidia's RTX 3070 Ti launched at a $599 MSRP, but the ongoing chip shortage and mining demand mean real prices are far higher.
- Ingenuity Isn't a Demo Anymore — It's Perseverance's Scout
Mars helicopter Ingenuity's seventh flight marks its shift from tech demo to an operational aerial scout guiding the Perseverance rover's route.
- E3 2021 Kicks Off Fully Digital, and the Reveals Are Coming Fast
Microsoft, Ubisoft, and Nintendo open E3 2021 with Halo Infinite multiplayer, Far Cry 6, Metroid Dread, and a Breath of the Wild sequel tease.
- Hubble Goes Dark: Inside the Payload Computer Failure
Hubble's payload computer stopped responding on June 13, halting science operations while NASA engineers chase down the fault.
- Internet Explorer's 25-Year Run Finally Ends
Microsoft retired IE 11 support across most Microsoft 365 apps today, closing out a 25-year chapter and pushing stragglers toward Edge.
- E3 2021 Wrap-Up: What Actually Stuck With Me
A look back at E3 2021's standout reveals, from Breath of the Wild 2 to Halo Infinite's free-to-play multiplayer.
- A Busy Day in Orbit: GPS III and Shenzhou 12 Launch Hours Apart
SpaceX launched a GPS III satellite for the Space Force while China sent three astronauts to its new Tianhe space station core.
- FireEye Splits Itself in Two, Sells the Products Business to Private Equity
FireEye is selling its products division to Symphony Technology Group while keeping Mandiant, a deal that lands right as ransomware attacks dominate headlines.
- Six Months In, the Chip Shortage Still Owns Your Wish List
AMD, Intel, and Nvidia all say silicon supply won't normalize soon, and PS5s and RTX 30-series cards remain nearly impossible to buy at MSRP.
- Two New Woolly Flying Squirrel Species Just Turned Up in the Himalayas
Genetic and morphological work has split the woolly flying squirrel into three species, a reminder of how much biodiversity is still undocumented.
- The App Store's Fate Is Now in a Judge's Hands
Closing arguments in Epic v. Apple wrapped last month, and developers are stuck in limbo waiting on a ruling that could reshape app-store economics.
- AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution Just Went Live, and It's Open to Everyone
AMD launched FSR today, an open-source upscaling tech that boosts frame rates and works across GPUs, not just its own RDNA cards.
- Astronomers Just Named the Largest Comet Ever Found
Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein, spotted in archival survey data, dwarfs any comet we've catalogued and is still 29 AU out.
- Windows 11 Is Here, and Microsoft Is Betting on a Fresh Coat of Paint
Microsoft officially unveiled Windows 11 today, with a redesigned interface, Android app support, and stricter hardware requirements slated for Holiday 2021.
- The Budget Phone Wars Just Had a Very Loud Week
Samsung, Xiaomi, and Realme all crammed new sub-$300 phones into the same week, and the fight for that price bracket is getting fierce.
- China's Shenzhou 12 Crew Is Settling Into Its New Space Home
Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo are into their first days aboard Tianhe, on what's set to be China's longest crewed mission yet.
- The Rumor Mill Around GitHub's AI Pair Programmer Is In Overdrive
Developers are swapping screenshots of a mysterious GitHub tool that autocompletes whole functions from a comment, and OpenAI's Codex looks like the engine.
- Scalper Bots Are Still Winning the GPU and Console War
Bots keep flipping PS5s and RTX 30-series cards at double MSRP, and retailers' queue systems aren't fixing it.
- GitHub Copilot Wants to Finish Your Sentences
GitHub and OpenAI launched Copilot, a Codex-powered AI pair programmer that suggests code as you type, starting as a free VS Code preview.
- SpaceX Closes Out June With an 88-Satellite Rideshare and a Homecoming Landing
Transporter-2 launched 88 satellites and stuck SpaceX's first onshore booster landing of 2021, capping an eventful month.