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- Why NASA's Next Mars Rover Is Racing a Launch Window
Perseverance must launch in a narrow July 2020 window to reach Jezero Crater, where it will hunt for ancient microbial life and cache samples.
- OnePlus 8 Review Roundup: The Cheapest Way Into 5G
Reviews of the OnePlus 8 are in, and the consensus is that this is the most sensible way to buy a 5G flagship right now.
- Zoom Settles With New York Over Its Security Promises
NY Attorney General Letitia James reached an agreement with Zoom requiring mandatory passwords, better encryption, and other safeguards after a spring of Zoombombing.
- GitHub Satellite 2020: Codespaces, Discussions and npm join the family
GitHub's virtual Satellite conference brought cloud dev environments, community forums, and the npm registry closer to home.
- Betelgeuse's Great Dimming Looks Like a Starspot, Not a Supernova Countdown
New spectroscopy points to a giant cool starspot and a temperature drop behind Betelgeuse's historic dimming, not an imminent explosion.
- WWDC 2020 Goes Fully Digital — No Campus, No Line for Wristbands
Apple confirms WWDC 2020 will run entirely online from June 22-26, the first Worldwide Developers Conference without any in-person component.
- The 13-inch MacBook Pro Finally Gets the Magic Keyboard
Apple refreshes the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the scissor-switch Magic Keyboard, more storage, faster chips, and a 32GB memory option.
- How Zoom, Slack and GitHub Became Pandemic Lifelines
Lockdowns turned video calls, chat, and cloud dev tools into daily infrastructure almost overnight, and the numbers are staggering.
- PS5 vs Xbox Series X: What We Actually Know So Far
With E3 cancelled, Sony and Microsoft are set to reveal PS5 and Xbox Series X separately — here's what's confirmed and what's still a guess.
- Crew Dragon Demo-2: The Countdown to America's Return to Human Spaceflight
SpaceX and NASA are targeting May 27 to launch astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard Crew Dragon, the first crewed orbital flight from U.S. soil since 2011.
- Twitter's Usage Boom Meets an Ad Slowdown
Twitter's Q1 2020 mDAU jumped 24% YoY, but revenue rose just 3% as COVID-19 hit ad spending late in the quarter.
- OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro Finally Hit US Shelves
OnePlus's Snapdragon 865 flagships go on sale in the US today, starting at $699 and $899.
- Apple and Google Hand Developers the Exposure-Notification API
The first version of the joint Apple/Google COVID-19 exposure-notification API is now available to public health developers ahead of May's public rollout.
- With the Gym Closed, Your Wrist Is the New Trainer
As lockdowns keep gyms shuttered, interest in smartwatches and fitness bands is spiking as people look for ways to track workouts at home.
- Everyone's Cloud Migration Just Got a Deadline
Distributed teams are rushing to cloud infrastructure and remote-friendly CI/CD as office access disappears.
- Hubble Turns 30, and It's Still Not Done
The Hubble Space Telescope hit its 30th anniversary this week, and NASA/ESA marked it with a new image of a giant red nebula and its blue neighbor.
- The Second-Gen iPhone SE Is Apple's Bet That Specs Aren't Everything
Apple's new $399 iPhone SE packs the A13 Bionic into the iPhone 8 body, betting that power and price matter more than a modern design.
- Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 'Focal Fossa' Lands, and It's a Meaty Upgrade
Canonical's new LTS release ships WireGuard support, Kernel Self Protection, hardened Secure Boot, and FIDO passwordless login, with support through 2025.
- SpaceX Launches 60 More Starlink Satellites, Nails Another Landing
SpaceX's seventh Starlink batch flew on a Falcon 9 making its 84th flight, the most-flown active US rocket, with another clean droneship landing.
- GitHub Satellite Goes Fully Virtual, and the Speaker List Just Dropped
GitHub previewed its speaker lineup for Satellite 2020, the developer conference it's moving entirely online for May 6.
- Hubble Confirms Comet ATLAS Has Shattered Into Pieces
Hubble images from April 20 show Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) broken into at least three or four fragments, likely ending hopes for a great naked-eye comet.
- 'Zoom Fatigue' Becomes a UX Problem Software Makers Must Design For
Video calls have replaced in-person meetings, and the exhaustion they cause is now a design challenge, not just a personal one.
- Good Luck Finding a Switch Right Now
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has pushed Nintendo Switch demand so high that the console is sold out nearly everywhere in the US.
- NASA Sets May 27 Target for First Crewed Launch From US Soil Since 2011
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine announced a May 27 target for the SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission carrying astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS.
- AI Labs Turn Their Models Loose on the Coronavirus
DeepMind and academic groups are applying protein-folding and molecule-screening AI to speed up the search for COVID-19 treatments and vaccine targets.
- Smallsat Launchers Hit Turbulence as the Pandemic Slows the Range
COVID-19 safety measures are delaying smallsat and rideshare launches even as demand from Earth-observation and comms startups keeps climbing.
- OnePlus Goes Flagship-Only With the 8 and 8 Pro
OnePlus announced the 8 and 8 Pro today, both packing Snapdragon 865 and Adreno 650, with US sales opening April 29.
- Open Source Is Booming Right Now, and That's Not Only Good News
Lockdown has sent pull requests and new contributors surging on open-source projects, but maintainers warn review capacity isn't keeping pace.
- Everyone's Stuck at Home Building a Gaming PC, and 'Big Navi' Rumors Just Got Louder
Lockdown-driven demand for gaming PCs is colliding with a fresh wave of leaks about AMD's next flagship RDNA GPU.
- Comet ATLAS Is Falling Apart, Amateur Astronomer Shows
Amateur astronomer José de Queiroz photographed Comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS showing clear signs of fragmentation, likely ending hopes for a naked-eye 'great comet.'