September 2021
- GitHub Copilot's Preview Is a Glimpse of How We'll All Code Soon
GitHub's Copilot technical preview pairs Codex with VS Code, nailing Python functions on the first try 43% of the time.
- Why You Still Can't Buy a Graphics Card at a Normal Price
AMD and Nvidia GPUs are still selling 70%+ above MSRP, and a new TSMC price hike means relief isn't coming soon.
- Meet the Crew Training for SpaceX's First All-Civilian Trip to Orbit
Four private citizens with no professional astronaut training are prepping for Inspiration4, a Crew Dragon mission launching mid-September.
- Howard University's Ransomware Wake-Up Call
A ransomware attack knocked Howard University's wifi offline for days, another sign campus IT is a soft target in the hybrid-learning era.
- Sony's PlayStation Showcase Is Finally Here — What I'm Watching For
Sony has a PlayStation Showcase set for September 9, and after a quiet summer the hype is real.
- A Third of All Sharks and Rays Are Now Staring Down Extinction
A new study finds roughly a third of sharks, rays and chimaeras are threatened with extinction, mostly from decades of overfishing.
- El Salvador Just Made Bitcoin Legal Tender. It Did Not Go Smoothly.
El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender today, with a rocky Chivo wallet rollout and a sharp price drop on launch day.
- Perseverance Finally Has a Rock in the Tube
NASA's Perseverance rover successfully cored and sealed its first Mars rock sample, a second-attempt success after an August failure.
- Sony's Showcase Was a Sequel Bonanza, and GTA V Slides Again
PlayStation's September Showcase brought Wolverine, Ragnarök, and Gran Turismo 7, plus timed exclusives and another GTA V delay.
- When a DDoS Attack Knocked Out New Zealand's Post Office and Banks
A distributed denial-of-service attack briefly took down NZ Post, several major banks, and government sites, exposing how fragile national digital infrastructure can be.
- Counting Down to the James Webb Space Telescope
Webb is on track to launch by year's end, and its risky journey to L2 makes it one of the most nerve-wracking missions NASA has ever attempted.
- The Smartwatch Wars Are About to Heat Up
With Apple's September 14 event days away, the Apple Watch Series 7 is set to face off against Fitbit's Sense and Versa 3 in a fast-growing category.
- Windows 11 Gets a Launch Date: October 5
Microsoft confirms Windows 11 begins rolling out October 5, 2021, with a redesigned Start menu, centered taskbar, and deeper Teams integration.
- Apple's iPhone 13 Lineup Bets on Refinement Over Revolution
Apple unveiled the iPhone 13 family and Apple Watch Series 7 today, leaning on the new A15 Bionic chip and ProMotion displays rather than a radical redesign.
- Four Civilians, Zero Astronauts, One Orbit: Inspiration4 Launches Tonight
SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission launches the first all-civilian crew to orbit, flying higher than the ISS with no professional astronauts aboard.
- The Facebook Files: What Frances Haugen's Leaked Documents Reveal
The Wall Street Journal's new Facebook Files series, drawn from tens of thousands of leaked internal pages, shows Facebook knew Instagram harms teen girls.
- iPhone 13 Preorders Are Live, and the Pro Models Are Already Slipping
Apple opened iPhone 13 preorders worldwide at 5am PDT, and popular Pro configurations reportedly sold out within their initial shipping windows.
- Inspiration4 Splashes Down: What a Private Crew in Orbit Actually Proved
Crew Dragon Resilience returned four private citizens to Earth after roughly three days in orbit, a milestone for non-government human spaceflight.
- Can AI Moderation Really Police a Platform the Size of Facebook?
The Facebook Files reporting reignites the debate over whether automated content moderation can catch harm at billion-post scale.
- iOS 15 Lands: Focus Mode, Live Text, and a FaceTime That Finally Gets Serious
Apple's iOS 15 rolled out today with Focus mode, Live Text, and big FaceTime upgrades — here's what actually matters.
- A Pig Kidney Just Worked Inside a Human Body
NYU Langone surgeons attached a genetically modified pig kidney to a human patient and watched it function like the real thing.
- Microsoft's Biggest Surface Refresh in Years
Microsoft unveiled the Surface Pro 8, Laptop Studio, Duo 2, Go 3, and Slim Pen 2 ahead of Windows 11's launch.
- One Ransomware Attack, Hundreds of Closed Bookstores
A ransomware hit on French SaaS provider TiteLive shows how one vendor breach can cascade across an entire retail sector.
- The iPhone 13 Is Officially Here, and the Camera Is the Story
iPhone 13 hits store shelves with sensor-shift stabilization, a smaller notch, and A15-driven battery gains, though Pro stock is tight.
- Lucy in the Sky With Trojans: NASA's Next Big Asteroid Mission
NASA is readying the Lucy spacecraft for an October launch on a 12-year journey to study Jupiter's mysterious Trojan asteroids.
- Brussels Wants Everyone on USB-C, and We Know Who That's Aimed At
The European Commission's push for a universal USB-C charging standard is a direct shot at Apple's Lightning port.
- Facebook Hits Pause on Instagram Kids
Facebook is pausing development of Instagram Kids after pressure from lawmakers, child-safety advocates, and 44 state attorneys general.
- Kena: Bridge of Spirits Proves You Don't Need a AAA Budget to Show Off the PS5
Ember Lab's debut game is a mid-sized, gorgeous action-adventure that makes the case for indie-scale ambition on next-gen hardware.
- South Africa's Justice Department Goes Dark After Ransomware Hit
A ransomware attack knocked South Africa's Department of Justice offline, forcing courts back to pen and paper.
- September's Space Firsts: Inspiration4, Perseverance, and a Month That Kept Delivering
A look back at a September packed with commercial spaceflight, Mars sample collection, and prep for the next big launches.