Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, has finally set a date for its New Shepard rocket’s first flight in more than a year, after a failure last September left it grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The company is targeting Monday, December 18 for liftoff from its West Texas facility. The launch window opens at 9:30AM ET.

New Shepard won’t be carrying a crew for this flight, but will have science and research payloads on board, plus 38,000 student postcards stamped “Flown to Space!” from the Club for the Future program. It’ll be livestreamed on Blue Origin’s website starting 20 minutes before takeoff.

Blue Origin’s reusable suborbital rocket has completed both crewed and payload missions in its past, including a flight with Bezos on board in 2021 that kicked off its entry into human spaceflight. Six of its 24 flights have had humans on board its crew capsule. On September 12, 2022, an uncrewed New Shepard experienced a failure after takeoff and crashed back to the ground. Before doing so, though, it was able to abort the capsule, which separated and made a safe parachute landing.

The FAA conducted an investigation into the incident and gave Blue Origin 21 corrective actions to complete before it could fly again. The cause of the issue was found to be the failure of an engine nozzle that overheated. The FAA closed its investigation at the end of September this year.

Apple says it has begun piloting a new App Store feature called “contingent pricing” that will help developers lure in customers with cheaper subscriptions based on their other purchases. The contingent pricing model will let developers offer discounts to customers who already have subscriptions to other services, be it those developers’ own apps or participating partners’. It’s starting with a select group of participants before rolling it out to more developers “in the coming months.”

“Contingent pricing for subscriptions on the App Store — a new feature that helps you attract and retain subscribers — lets you give customers a discounted subscription price as long as they’re actively subscribed to a different subscription,” Apple wrote in a post on the Apple Developer website. “It can be used for subscriptions from one developer or two different developers.” Per 9to5Mac, Apple further explained that these bundled discounts will be highly visible to customers both on the App Store and “in off-platform marketing channels” so they can easily find and get in on the perks. 

It comes at a time of ongoing scrutiny into Apple’s practices with its App Store and how it handles in-app purchases, which came to a head in Apple’s battle with Fortnite owner Epic Games. Just this fall, Apple asked the Supreme Court to reverse its previous ruling that required it to allow developers to circumvent its 30 percent transaction fee by supporting outside payment systems. But it's still looking for ways to get back in developers' good graces. The company says it will release more information on the new program next month.

Correction, December 17, 2023, 3:30PM ET: This story originally stated that contingent pricing allowed developers to offer cheaper plans than competitors. It actually only works between participating parties. We apologize for the error.

Apple says it has begun piloting a new App Store feature called “contingent pricing” that will help developers lure in customers with cheaper subscriptions based on their previous purchases. The contingent pricing model will let developers offer discounts to customers who already have subscriptions to other services, be it those developers’ own apps or their competitors’. It’s starting with a select group of participants before rolling it out to more developers “in the coming months.”

“Contingent pricing for subscriptions on the App Store — a new feature that helps you attract and retain subscribers — lets you give customers a discounted subscription price as long as they’re actively subscribed to a different subscription,” Apple wrote in a post on the Apple Developer website. “It can be used for subscriptions from one developer or two different developers.” Per 9to5Mac, Apple further explained that these competitive discounts will be highly visible to customers both on the App Store and “in off-platform marketing channels” so they can easily find and get in on the perks. 

It comes at a time of ongoing scrutiny into Apple’s practices with its App Store and how it handles in-app purchases, which came to a head in Apple’s battle with Fortnite owner Epic Games. Just this fall, Apple asked the Supreme Court to reverse its previous ruling that required it to allow developers to circumvent its 30 percent transaction fee by supporting outside payment systems. But it's still looking for ways to get back in developers' good graces. The company says it will release more information on the new program next month.

A proposed class action lawsuit has accused Apple of accepting a form of bribe from Visa and Mastercard to ensure their dominance over point-of-sale payment card services for Apple Pay transactions, according to Reuters. As a result, the lawsuit says merchants have been forced to pay higher fees.

The companies are being sued by beverage retailer Mirage Wine & Spirits in Illinois on behalf of “all merchants in the United States that accepted Apple Pay as a method of payment at the physical point-of-sale.” According to the complaint, Apple made an agreement with Visa and Mastercard that did away with any incentive for it to develop its own competing point-of-sale transaction payment network or allow other companies to make use of iPhone’s “tap to pay” NFC functionality with third-party wallet apps. On the iPhone, Apple’s own wallet app is the only option. All of this has led to inflated merchant fees, the suit argues.

“In exchange for agreeing not to compete with Visa and Mastercard in the Relevant Market, the two card networks offered Apple a very large and ongoing cash bribe,” the lawsuit states. This bribe came as a percentage of the two companies’ transaction fees for credit and debit card payments made with Apple Pay. “Even as Apple Pay was in its infancy, the Entrenched Networks and Apple understood that this bribe would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars per year.”

Apple has been accused of anti-competitive behavior with Apple Pay in the past for how it blocks third-party access to its contactless payment technology. But earlier this week, Reuters reported that Apple may open up NFC access in the EU to avoid a fine in a case that has been ongoing since 2020.

In an interview this fall following his return to Earth from the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio shared a little mission anecdote that had us gripped: after he’d harvested one of the first tomatoes grown in space and bagged it up for a presentation, the bag and its contents went missing. With no trace of the fruit, the other astronauts jokingly accused Rubio of eating it. Then, eight months later at the beginning of December, the lost tomato reappeared. A photo shared by NASA now shows there were actually two tomatoes in the rogue sample — and, all things considered, they don’t look half bad.

While a tomato left to rot on Earth isn’t a pleasant thing to come across, Rubio’s tomatoes just look a bit dried out. “Other than some discoloration, it had no visible microbial or fungal growth,” NASA wrote in a blog post.

NASA has for years been experimenting with ways to grow food on the ISS and studying how the space environment affects plant growth. The red dwarf tomatoes were grown as part of a program called the eXposed Root On-Orbit Test System, or XROOTS, which uses a combination of hydroponic and aeroponic techniques instead of soil. Rubio, who was on the ISS for a record-breaking 371 days before his return in September 2023, harvested a batch of the tomatoes in March to be sent back to Earth and examined for the VEG-05 study.

As for the sample Rubio hung onto, which he intended to show to schoolkids in an event a crewmember had planned, the astronaut said the tomatoes simply disappeared. “I was pretty confident that I Velcroed it where I was supposed to Velcro it, and then I came back and it was gone,” he said. Rubio said he spent “eight to 20 hours” looking for it, to no avail. Now that they’ve turned up (and since been thrown away), we’re just dying to know where they were hiding all that time. We've reached out to NASA and will update this story if we find out any more information.

Last week, Meta finally rolled out searchable tags for all users on Threads, its microblogging Instagram offshoot, and users are taking advantage of a design quirk for a bit of dumb fun. Threads’ “topic tags” are a lot like hashtags, but not entirely the same. For one, there’s no hash (#). They’re also able to contain spaces, meaning the tags can read like normal phrases rather than a bunch of words smashed together, as has long been the norm on Twitter/X and the like. Just like normal hashtags, though, they’ll be highlighted in blue and link out to other posts containing that tag.

It’s pretty basic stuff… which makes the effectiveness of the new prank feel all the more absurd. It goes like this: someone creates a Threads post, ideally with a lot of text, then slaps a “Show more” tag at the end, seemingly in the middle of a word or sentence. You, the unwitting victim, will then click “Show more” expecting to see the rest of the post, but — surprise! — it’ll instead direct you to the page for that tag. You might as well have been Rick Rolled. 

@freezydorito/Threads

I’ll admit it, I got got. Some users, bless their hearts, have even commented saying they fell for it multiple times, thinking it was a bug. The first instance can be traced back to Threads user @freezydorito, who according to their own bio and professional pages actually works for Meta. 

As simple as it is, the trick works so well because it perfectly duplicates a UI element we’re already so used to seeing. Should it be a dead giveaway that the text is a blue link? Not really, because that’s exactly how it’s always looked on X. Even on Facebook, the option to expand a post is presented as a gray “See more” link. It’s been a while since I last fell for something so silly online, because I generally trust nothing, and it momentarily threw me back to a much goofier time on the internet.

On Threads, my For You feed is already a cursed space filled with bad recommendations, and since I interacted with the “Show more” tag, I’ve now seen at least three dozen of these posts. I would say that this gag isn’t likely to survive beyond the week (fool me twice, et cetera), but my timeline is still peppered with new users posting things like “What is Threads?” every other day who are just ripe for the picking. Threads also just launched in Europe today, which means there will be plenty more unsuspecting users piling in. Let's see how long it takes for Meta to implement a tweak for this one.

Believe it or not, scientists have been using virtual reality setups to study brain activity in lab mice for years. In the past, this has been done by surrounding the mice with flat displays — a tactic that has obvious limitations for simulating a realistic environment. Now, in an attempt to create a more immersive experience, a team at Northwestern University actually developed tiny VR goggles that fit over a mouse’s face… and most of its body. This has allowed them to simulate overhead threats for the first time, and map the mice’s brain activity all the while.

The system, dubbed Miniature Rodent Stereo Illumination VR (or iMRSIV), isn’t strapped onto the mouse’s head like a VR headset for humans. Instead, the goggles are positioned at the front of a treadmill, surrounding the mouse’s entire field of view as it runs in place. “We designed and built a custom holder for the goggles,” said John Issa, the study’s co-first author. “The whole optical display — the screens and the lenses — go all the way around the mouse.”

Dom Pinke/ Northwestern University

In their tests, the researchers say the mice appeared to take to the new VR environment more quickly than they did with the past setups. To recreate the presence of overhead threats, like birds swooping in for a meal, the team projected expanding dark spots at the tops of the displays. The way they react to threats like this “is not a learned behavior; it’s an imprinted behavior,” said co-first author Dom Pinke. “It’s wired inside the mouse’s brain.”

With this method, the researchers were able to record both the mice’s outward physical responses, like freezing in place or speeding up, and their neural activity. In the future, they may flip the scenario and let the mice act as predators, to see what goes on as they hunt insects. A paper on the technique was published in the journal Neuron on Friday. 

Apple is planning some big hardware drops for early 2024, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. In the Power On newsletter, Gurman predicts the company will release the next generation of iPad Pro and iPad Air in March — each of which is expected to come in two sizes — and the new M3 MacBook Airs. The Mac Studio and Mac Pro will likely be much later to the M3 party; Gurman writes that Apple won’t have these ready for release until at least the end of 2024, and they could even slip into 2025.

With the release of its new iPads, Apple is planning to make clearer distinctions between the models so the choices are less confusing for consumers, according to Gurman. The iPad Pro is expected to get Apple’s new M3 chip, an OLED display and come in two sizes: 11 and 13 inches. Apple will also release a new Magic Keyboard just for the Pro, Gurman says. The iPad Air, on the other hand, will come in a 10.9-inch version and a new 12.9-inch option, and use the M2 chip. The changes should make the differences between the high-end, midrange and standard iPads more obvious so people can more easily decide what fits their needs.

As for the M3 MacBook Air, Gurman says it’ll also likely come in March, in the usual 13- and 15-inch configurations. At that time, Apple may also kill off the 2020 M1 MacBook Air. Its higher-end models, the Mac Studio and Mac Pro, will be last to get the M3 upgrade.

Apple’s third-generation AirPods are back down to their record-low Black Friday price. The discount on Amazon shaves $30 off the AirPods’ normal price of $170, making them just $140 right now. Given that this is the lowest we’ve seen these AirPods go for, they’re likely to sell out. Amazon is also running a deal on Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro, or the latest version of the Pro earbuds, which are down to $200. The 20 percent discount isn’t the lowest they’ve ever dropped, but it’s still $50 off the usual price and only $10 more than the all-time low.

The third-generation AirPods were released in 2021 and completely refreshed the design. Apple shortened the stem, making the regular buds look more like the AirPods Pro, and tweaked the fit to make them more comfortable to wear. They’re lighter and angled in a way that’s meant to better hug the ear and deliver sound more effectively. In our review, we gave the third-gen AirPods a score of 88.

Apple’s third-generation AirPods also brought durability improvements to the non-Pro model. These AirPods and the charging case are IPX4 rated for water and sweat resistance, which is especially helpful for anyone using them during workouts. They feature Apple’s H1 chip, offering Adaptive EQ — which Apple says “automatically tunes music to your ears” — and spatial audio for more immersive listening. The AirPods also support fast pairing, and automatic switching between Apple devices. There’s also easy, hands-free access to Siri using the “Hey Siri” command.

The third-gen AirPods also have better battery life than earlier models. On their own, the earbuds last about six hours before needing to be charged again, and up to 30 hours with the charging case. In Engadget’s tests, we found the AirPods’ battery could actually be pushed to seven hours. They offer quick charging too, with about an hour of battery life after just five minutes in the MagSafe case.

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Alex Jones is back on X five years after then-Twitter made the decision to permanently ban him and his show, Infowars, for violating the site’s policy on “abusive behavior.” Elon Musk — who last year said he wouldn’t unban Jones because of the conspiracy theorist’s insistence on calling the Sandy Hook massacre a hoax — created a poll on X over the weekend asking users to vote on whether Jones should be reinstated. 

The poll closed with a majority vote for “Yes.” As of Sunday, Jones’ personal account was once again active, and already retweeting Andrew Tate.

Jones is well known for pushing disturbing conspiracy theories, which in some cases have led to real world harm. He was sued by the families of Sandy Hook victims, who won close to $1.5 billion in legal judgments after testifying in court that they’d been harassed and sent death threats by his followers. But after Jones appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show on X last week, the conversation about his ban was reignited.

Responding to one user after the poll closed, Musk wrote, “I vehemently disagree with what he said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not? That is what it comes down to in the end. If the people vote him back on, this will be bad for X financially, but principles matter more than money.” The decision comes at a time when X is rapidly losing advertisers because of hate speech on the platform, some of which Musk himself has elevated. Walmart, Apple, IBM and Disney, among others, have recently pulled their ads from X.