All posts
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Venus Phosphine Debate Begins
Days after the ALMA/JCMT phosphine announcement, astronomers are already pushing back on the data analysis behind it.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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+.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.