The James Webb Space Telescope's sightseeing tour just provided a fresh look at one of the most recognizable interstellar objects. Researchers have captured their most detailed image yet of the Pillars of Creation, a star-forming nursery in the Eagle Nebula roughly 6,500 light-years away. The near-infrared picture shows even more detail than Hubble's 2014 snapshot, with an abundance of stars (particularly newborns) in view — there isn't even a galaxy within sight.
The new stars are the bright red points of light in the scene and are estimated to be 'just' a few hundred thousand years old. The red glow of the pillars, not to mention the wavy lines at some edges, are the result of jets and bow shocks that energize hydrogen and push it outward. You don't see galaxies as the gas and dust of the Milky Way's interstellar medium blocks more distant objects in such a dense area.
Hubble first imaged the Pillars of Creation in 1995 (see below), but the technology at the time revealed only a fraction of the stars in the region. The 2014 re-do provided considerably more detail, but the visible light snapshot still left the pillars relatively opaque and hid some of the forming stars. The James Webb observation is, in essence, a more complete representation of the nursery's activity.
This enhanced capture isn't just meant for show. Scientists hope to revise their star formation models thanks to Webb's more accurate data for stars, gas and dust. That could improve humanity's understanding of early star life and, in turn, the universe at large.
Hubble Space Telescope images of the Pillars of Creation from 1995 (left) and 2014 (right).
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Apple isn't just facing unionization efforts among its retail workers. The New York Timesreports about 150 store staff went on strike for an hour Tuesday after negotiations for better pay and working conditions hit an impasse. On Wednesday, they refused to provide a mix of services that included repairing AirPods and managing deliveries.
The striking employees showed support for unions and called for a range of improvements, including the higher income and schedules with two consecutive days off. Apple had offered staff a higher minimum wage of $27.64 AUD (about $17.35 US) in talks with unions, but the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association union called that a "real wage cut" that didn't account for inflation. That group wants a $31 AUD ($19.53 US) wage roughly equivalent to what American workers get. It's also difficult to have weekends with the current scheduling, the workers said.
As in the US, there are allegations Apple is using anti-union tactics. The Association claims Apple interfered with labor organizers trying to survey employees ahead of negotiations. Apple has supposedly tried to rush a vote on the deal.
Apple has denied rushing the vote, and said part-time workers could specify four or more days of availability. They also get schedules two weeks in advance. In a statement to The Times, the iPhone maker maintains that it's "among the highest-paying" companies in Australia and has made "many" improvements to its benefits.
The strike and task refusals were spurred in part by labor action in the US. There, workers at an increasing number of Apple stores have tried to join unions with varying success. Team members at a Towson, Maryland store managed to unionize, but reports surfaced that Apple was supposedly withholding benefits while negotiations with the union took place. At many stores, the company has apparently pushed anti-union talking points that suggested formal representation could make things worse. There's no certainty American employees will strike like their Australian counterparts, but it's evident that the outcry is getting louder.
Nearly half of the world’s roughly 7,000 known languages four in ten of them exist without an accompanying written component. These unwritten languages pose a unique problem for modern machine learning translation systems, as they typically need to convert verbal speech to written words before translating to the new language and reverting the text back to speech, but one that Meta has reportedly addressed with its latest open-source language AI advancement.
As part of Meta’s Universal Speech Translator (UST) program which is working to develop real-time speech-to-speech translation so that Metaverse denizens can more easily interact (read: sexually harass one another). As part of this project, Meta researchers looked at Hokkien, an unwritten language spoken throughout Asia’s diaspora and one of Taiwan’s official languages.
Machine learning translation systems typically require extensive labelable examples of the language, both written and spoken, to train on — precisely what unwritten languages like Hokkien don’t have. To get around that, “we used speech-to-unit translation (S2UT) to convert input speech to a sequence of acoustic units directly in the path previously pioneered by Meta,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained in a Wednesday blog post. “Then, we generated waveforms from the units. In addition, UnitY was adopted for a two-pass decoding mechanism where the first-pass decoder generates text in a related language (Mandarin), and the second-pass decoder creates units.”
“We leveraged Mandarin as an intermediate language to build pseudo-labels, where we first translated English (or Hokkien) speech to Mandarin text, and we then translated to Hokkien (or English) and added it to training data,” he continued. Currently, the system allows for someone who speaks Hokkien to converse with someone who speaks English, albeit stiltedly. The model can only translate one full sentence at a time but Zuckerberg is confident that the technique can eventually be applied to more languages and will improve to the point of offering real-time translation.
In addition to the models and training data that Meta is already open-sourcing from this project, the company is also releasing a first-of-its-kind speech-to-speech translation benchmarking system based on a Hokkien speech corpus called Taiwanese Across Taiwan, as well as “the speech matrix, a large corpus of speech-to-speech translations mined with Meta’s innovative data mining technique called LASER,” Zuckerberg announced. This system will empower researchers to create speech-to-speech translation (S2ST) systems of their own.
Don't worry if you missed out on initial discounts for the Apple Watch Series 8 — they're back. Amazon is once again selling the 41mm GPS smartwatch at the all-time low price of $349 that you saw during the Prime Day Early Access sale. The deal only applies to this smaller case size and rules out cellular models, but you'll have your choice of colors.
The Apple Watch Series 8 is a slight step up from the Series 7, but that's not necessarily a bad thing at this price. The new wristwear adds crash detection that could prove useful in an emergency, while temperature monitoring can help track ovulation cycles if you're trying to conceive. The features we liked from Series 7 are still intact, including an excellent always-on display, brisk performance (including charging) and a robust operating system.
That does mean some hitches remain. Apple's sleep tracking is relatively limited even with watchOS 9. And while the new low-power mode can stretch battery life, you'll likely still want to charge every day. And if you don't need the always-on screen or advanced health tracking, the Apple Watch SE offers much of the core experience for less. When the price difference is down to $100, however, the Series 8 is considerably easier to justify.
SpaceX has revealed the official details of its Starlink satellite internet service for aviation, and it promises to deliver speeds of up to 350 Mbps for each airplane. Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian admitted earlier this year that the airline conducted "exploratory tests" of Starlink's internet technology for its planes. Hawaiian Airlines also announced that it will start deploying Starlink internet with "select" aircraft in 2023 around the same time. Shortly after that and after launching Starlink for RVs, the Federal Communications Commission authorized the company to provide satellite internet services to vehicles.
Starlink Aviation, according to the company's FAQ page, will be available worldwide, as long as the plane equipped with its Aero Terminals has an unobstructed view of the sky. The service's satellites are moving in Low Earth Orbit, so there's almost always one or a few overhead. SpaceX says that means passengers will have consistent access to the internet, whether the plane is over land or water and even while it's taxiing or landing.
If Starlink Aviation can truly deliver on SpaceX's promises, that would make it a lot faster than other satellite options that only offer speeds of up to 100 Mbps per plane at most. The company claims the service will allow passengers to do things they couldn't do so mid-flight, such as making video calls, playing online games and using VPN.
The service will initially be available for select airplanes, but the company plans on developing support for more airframes in the future. SpaceX intends to start deliveries for the Starlink Aviation Aero Terminal kits in 2023, so the first airlines to offer the service as an in-flight WiFi option will likely announce it in the coming months.
There were rumors of an M2 iPad Pro, but they were just the start of Apple’s announcements yesterday. The company dropped a bunch of new hardware, but let's start with its most powerful new tablet. The iPad Pro ($799), powered by its M2 chip, offers up to 15 percent faster performance than the M1, according to Apple. It also gets WiFi 6E support and a new "hover" experience for Apple Pencil. With a second-gen Apple Pencil, the iPad Pro will detect the peripheral when it's up to 12mm away from the display. Hovering above the display, you’ll be able to preview any mark you want to make before you actually apply it. When you place the Apple Pencil near the Scribble app, text fields will expand automatically. The updated Pro arrives on October 26th.
The new entry-level iPad got a major redesign, including USB-C charging and a landscape camera. The new model borrows the thin bezel of higher-end models and embeds the fingerprint reader built into the sleep/wake button. No more home button here. It’s more expensive, however: The redesigned iPad starts at $449 for the 64GB WiFi model. It also launches on October 26th. Alongside these new models, after a slight delay, Apple has also revealed that iPadOS 16 lands on October 24th.
Rounding out the barrage of Apple announcements, there’s a new $129 Apple TV 4K model. It has an A15 chip, 64GB of storage and HDR10+ support, with a 128GB Apple TV 4K option adding gigabit Ethernet. Both new Apple TVs also support WiFi 6. We’ve got all the pre-order details here.
– Mat Smith
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We've seen rollable phone concepts from companies like Oppo and TCL, and LG was even working on a commercial rollable smartphone until it quit making mobile devices last year. Now, Lenovo is showing off a laptop with a rollout display, while its mobile division, Motorola, has a roll-out smartphone — and they look like some of the more practical efforts yet. The phone starts out at a very pocketable 4 inches high, but with the click of a button, the OLED panel extends to a more normal, in 2022, 6.5 inches.
We’ve not seen a rollable laptop until now. The prototype starts with a typical landscape display and then rolls into a square, making it better for documents or vertical TikTok-style videos.
So you'd better hurry up and boot your ex from your account.
The next phase of Netflix's months-long crackdown on password sharing – which itself follows the company's first quarterly subscriber loss in a decade – is soon upon us. The company announced during its quarterly earnings call on Tuesday that beginning in early 2023, it will charge customers an added monthly fee to people who share their login credentials. The news comes as Netflix attempts to return to growth after losing subscribers earlier in the year. With help from Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and the latest season of Stranger Things, the company was able to add more than 2.4 million subscribers in its third quarter. Netflix has not yet announced pricing, though if it follows the pilot program, it could work out to around $3 to $4 per month.
The luxury British manufacturer has unveiled its first ground-up EV, the Spectre coupe. The "spiritual successor" to the Phantom looks much like its stately gas-powered counterparts but promises an even quieter and smoother ride. Although it’s still finalizing specifications, the company expects the all-wheel drive machine to make a 0-60MPH dash in 4.4 seconds and achieve an EPA range of 260 miles. Not particularly notable, but this isn’t about numbers. This is about luxury.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regulator has ordered Meta to sell Giphy after it lost its battle at the Competition Appeal Tribunal. The authority reviewed the decision in July after the tribunal sided with Meta on one issue (sharing sensitive third-party information). But it found the deal could still hurt competition by limiting rivals' access to Giphy’s library of GIFs, requiring unfavorable terms and reducing digital advertising choices. Meta bought Giphy in May 2020 at an unofficially estimated price of $400 million.
Lyft now lets driver's search, reserve and pay for a parking spot on its app, The San Francisco Chronicle has reported. It has partnered with parking company SpotHero to offer the service, promising "guaranteed parking, quick-find locations and transparent pricing."
The company will offer the service in "select locations," including San Francisco, but Lyft didn't list any other regions — but SpotHero is available in 300 US and Canadian cities in 47 states/provinces. All Lyft says in its FAQ is that you need to "tap the steering wheel icon in your app to see if parking is available near you."
Lyft
To use the feature, you'll need to add your vehicle license plate and other details. If you tap the parking icon, it shows the locations of various spots on a map, including the closest one. From there you just hit the "Reserve Now" button, and you'll see the final price before you tap "Reserve and Pay." It then shows the details, including your car license plate, facility info and more.
It's an odd tie-up, as using Lyft means you don't need to worry about parking. Still, a lot of people have Lyft on their phones, so it's more convenient than downloading yet another app. At the same time, it's likely a big boost to SpotHero and a new source of revenue for Lyft.
All Mac users can now take DuckDuckGo's browser and its built-in privacy protections for a spin. The company first gave us a glimpse of its desktop web browser in December last year before launching it as a closed beta in April. Now, the beta browser is finally open to the public and can be downloaded — clicking this link will automatically load its DMG file — from DuckDuckGo's website. The company has also bundled the browser with new features, some of which were requested by testers who've been using it over the past few months. One new feature is the Duck Player, a YouTube player that prevents the website from serving the viewer targeted ads.
While YouTube will still register a user's views, the videos they watch will not add any information to their advertising profile. The company says that had prevented most ads from showing up in videos during testing, but any ad that does pop up for viewers will not be personalized. Another new feature is integration with Bitwarden, an open-source password manager, on top of DuckDuckGo's own manager and support for 1Password's autofill feature.
When it's switched on, DuckDuckGo's Email Protection can shield the user's inbox with email tracker blocking. The company has also upgraded its Cookie Consent Pop-Up Manager to be able to block more cookies on more websites. Other features that were added after testers requested them include the bookmarks bar, pinned tabs and a way to view locally stored browsing history.
We tried out the browser for Mac and found it easy and quick to import passwords and bookmarks from other browsers like Chrome. It loaded quickly, as well, and the Fire Button that can instantly clear browsing data with one click is easily accessible at the top right corner of the app. Those who try it out and find themselves wanting to see features that aren't available for the browser yet can simply click at the ellipsis (...) menu next to the URL box to send the company their feedback.
To note, DuckDuckGo hasn't forgotten its Windows users. Its Windows browser is still in early friends and family beta, though the company is planning to make it available to more people through a private waitlist beta launch in the coming months.
Compact Synchronous Buck Controller with Wide Input Voltage Range Designed for Industrial Equipment
STMicroelectronics has launched the new synchronous buck controller L3751 that comes with compact dimensions and serves different applications from industrial equipment to battery-powered light electric vehicles. With an input voltage range from 6V to 75V, this 3.5mm x 4.5mm controller is also suited to use in telecom and networking equipment that features commonly used 24V and 48V buses.
Ikea has teamed up with Kodiak Robotics, a company that's working on self-driving technology for long-haul trucking, to test driverless deliveries from its warehouses. Since August this year, an autonomous heavy-duty Kodiak truck has been delivering furniture from an Ikea distribution center near Houston to a retail store near Dallas every single day. While the truck has a backup driver behind the wheel who's in charge of picking up the loaded trailer and of overseeing the delivery, the truck runs autonomously over long stretches of highway during its 300-mile, one-way journey.
With this partnership, Ikea is hoping to have a better grasp of how autonomous deliveries can make long-haul trips safer and could lead to better working conditions for truck drivers. While Kodiak's trucks aren't electric, it's worth noting that a previous study by the UC San Diego (PDF) using another company's vehicles show that autonomous trucks are around 10 percent more efficient than their traditional counterparts. According to Forbes, the two companies agreed to a three-month pilot program, but if it all goes well, they could sign a multi-year deal that would cater to a number of Ikea stores and warehouses.
The Swedish home furniture brand also embraced other types of technological advances over the past few months. In June, it launched a new AI-powered app that can scan rooms using LIDAR so that it can create 3D replicas you can design with Ikea furniture. It also made EV owners feel more welcome by signing a deal to install Electrify America's fast chargers in more than 25 of its stores in the US.
