It's one thing to produce nanoscale devices, but it's another to study and improve on them — they're so small they can't reflect enough light to get a good look. A breakthrough might make that possible, however. UC Riverside researchers have built technology that squeezes tungsten lamp light into a 6-nanometer spot at the end of a silver nanowire. That lets scientists produce color imaging at an "unprecedented" level, rather than having to settle for molecular vibrations.

The developers modified an existing "superfocusing" tool (already used to measure vibrations) to detect signals across the entire visible spectrum. Light travels in a flashlight-like conical path. When the nanowire's tip passes over an object, the system records that item's influence on the beam shape and color (including through a spectrometer). With two pieces of specrtra for every 6nm pixel, the team can create color photos of carbon nanotubes that would otherwise appear gray.

This ability to compress light is notable by itself, but the inventors see it playing an important role in nanotechnology. Semiconductor producers could develop more uniform nanomaterials that find their way into chips and other densely-packed devices. The squeezed light could also improve humanity's understanding of nanoelectronics, quantum optics and other scientific fields where this resolution hasn't been available.

It's now that much easier to use Arturia's softsynths on your brand new MacBook. Arturia has released a free V Collection 8.2 update that adds native support to the (currently discounted) suite for Macs with M1 processors. That should improve performance, as you might guess, but it could also help with battery life if you need to play unplugged.

Other speed updates are in store. The update boosts the performance of 4K interfaces through a new framework, and presets from the V Collection factory libraries now load up to twice as quickly. You'll also find ODDSound MTS-ESP microtuning compatibility for the Clavinet V, DX7 V, Piano V and Stage-73 V.

This might be an important update if you use softsynths for music-making. Arturia has a reputation for virtual instruments that are both meticulous and relatively accessible. This both makes V Collection more viable on M1 Macs and gives you more incentive to rely on digital synths instead of hunting down their costlier real-world counterparts.

American regulators might soon offer much more insight into the legality of cryptocurrency deals. Bloombergreports the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) have shared a roadmap of their crypto priorities for 2022, and they're primarily focused on "greater clarity" around the legal status of transactions. This might include everything from stablecoin releases through to loan collateral and the presence of crypto on company balance sheets.

The three agencies also hope to study how they can apply bank capital and liquidity standards to US bank organizations. The roadmap isn't locked in place — the organizations said they might tackle other issues as the marketplace changes.

The outline follows a wave of crypto policy "sprints" that helped decide the regulatory priorities for the year ahead. The Reserve, FDIC and OCC aimed for common ground that included pinpointing risks and determining the usefulness of existing rules.

This roadmap might not lead to a concrete strategy. There's also no guarantee this will work in crypto holders' favor. US regulatory bodies have historically erred on the side of caution, and it won't be shocking if cryptocurrency users have to scale back or even stop certain activities to stay on the right side of the law.

Don't panic that Star Trek: Discovery vanished from Netflix in many countries right before season 4 arrived — you might have a stopgap solution, depending on where you live. ViacomCBS has revealed that Discovery's latest season will be available on the company's free Pluto TV service in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK starting November 26th. New episodes will be available each Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 9PM local time. There will be a simulcast on the Star Trek channel in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

If you'd rather have more permanent copies, people in France, Germany, Russia, South Korea and the UK can also buy the fourth season from "participating digital platforms" starting on the 26th. If Paramount+ is already available in a country, such as Australia, many Latin American countries and Scandinavian nations, you'll have to sign up but can get 50 percent off the first three months with the code STARTREK.

This still leaves former Netflix viewers a step behind their Paramount+ counterparts, but they at least won't have to wait until 2022 to follow Michael Burnham's latest exploits. And ViacomCBS wins regardless — this might spike Pluto TV membership, even if only some users stick around once Paramount+ is available in their regions.

The US is taking extra steps to prevent China's military from claiming quantum computing dominance. The Commerce Department has added eight technology producers to its Entity List to prevent them from supporting the Chinese military's quantum computing efforts. Officials are concerned the entities could feed "emerging" US tech that could aid with breaking encryption, producing 'unbreakable' encryption and developing anti-stealth or anti-submarine systems.

The list focuses on a mix of companies and researchers, including QuantumCTek and the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale. The US also added three affiliates of Corad Technology Limited, a Chinese firm on the list since 2019, although it wasn't clear that quantum computing was involved — it was also accused of backing Iran's military and space programs as well as North Korea "front companies."

The broader Entity List update included 27 organizations and people, including 13 in Pakistan accused of backing the country's "unsafeguarded" nuclear or ballistic missile programs.

This is unlikely to put a stop to China's military uses of quantum computing when the country may need to research and develop much of the technology in-house. The expanded blocklist might slow things down, however, by limiting China's access to American processors and other equipment that could fast-track development. Consider this a stumbling block that gives the US a better chance of taking or maintaining the lead.

Apple said it would keep notifying victims in its fight against state-sponsored spyware, and now it's clear just what happens if you're one of those targets. MacRumorsnotes that Apple has detailed how it alerts users when it believes they've been targeted by state-sponsored attackers. You'll get both email and iMessage notifications to the addresses and phone numbers associated with your Apple ID. If you visit appleid.apple.com, you'll also see a prominent "threat notification" message indicating what happened and when.

The company stressed these notifications will never ask you to click links, download content or share login details like passwords and verification codes. It instead asked users to visit the Apple ID website to verify warnings. Apple also pointed users to a Consumer Reports list of emergency resources if you don't get the notification but are still reasonably confident you're under attack, whether from state actors or harassers.

These kinds of notifications aren't new. Google, for instance, has been notifying potential victims for years. Apple's explanation is relevant in light of worries about spyware from NSO Group and others, however, and may be crucial if you're an activist, journalist or other critic who could easily face attacks from oppressive governments.

You don't have to settle for pre-made WhatsApp stickers (or use a third-party tool) if you're sitting at your computer. The Vergereports WhatsApp has introduced a custom sticker creator for its web client and, within a week, desktop apps. Choose to attach a sticker and you can upload a custom image for editing. You can add emoji or text, crop pictures, cut out backgrounds and even slap existing WhatsApp stickers on top.

This tool won't help much if you mostly chat on mobile, where apps already exist to produce WhatsApp stickers. It might help if you frequently message people from your desk, though, and it could be particularly useful if you're either a digital artist (and likely have creative tools on your computer) or prefer to edit images with a mouse instead of your fingers.

T-Mobile is once again on the hook for a 911 outage. The carrier has agreed to pay $19.5 million to settle an FCC investigation of a 12-hour service outage in June 2020 that led to 911 call failures. While the FCC didn't know exactly how many emergency calls were affected due to some overlapping issues, it recorded tens of thousands of issues.

Over 23,000 calls suffered a "complete" failure, the FCC said, while a similar amount didn't include location data. Roughly another 20,000 didn't include callback info. The outage began when a leased fiber link in the T-Mobile network went awry, and a single-location routing flaw magnified the crisis. T-Mobile also had problems remotely accessing the fiber link.

This isn't the first time T-Mobile has dealt with a 911 outage. It settled to the tune of $17.5 million over failures in 2014.

We've asked T-Mobile for comment. The FCC said the carrier responded to outage-related questions in a "timely" fashion, however, so this wasn't a hotly disputed issue. Not that the company was likely to fight a settlement that won't significantly impact its finances. And like it or not, this won't do much to help people who couldn't get full help in a moment of crisis.

Russia is getting serious with demands that foreign tech companies set up shop within its borders. Reuterssays the country's telecom regulator Roskomnadzor has called on 13 foreign and mostly American companies to launch official Russian presences by 2022 so they can comply with a law that took effect July 1st. The list includes familiar tech names like Apple, Google, Meta (Facebook), Telegram, TikTok and Twitter.

The law demands local offices for "internet companies" with over 500,000 daily users. Some of the companies already have offices, though, and it's unclear just what constitutes an official presence. Those deemed violating the law could be subject to either complete bans or limits on their ads, data gathering and money transfers.

As you might have guessed, the concern is that Russia might use the law to wield more control over those companies and their content. Russia has clashed with Apple multiple times, for instance, including a fine for allegedly abusing App Store dominance — this law might give officials more leverage. The move might also help Russia pressure companies into censoring content the government deems objectionable, such as social media posts backing the political opposition to Putin's regime.

The announcement makes a tricky situation that much more difficult. Russia is a significant market some companies can't always afford to lose but honoring the request could also mean enabling censorship and other rights abuses. Companies may soon have to make decisions that are painful regardless of the outcome.

The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum hasn't been open much since the pandemic started, but it's already poised to shut its doors again — if for more positive reasons. The Washington Postreports the Smithsonian is closing its flagship National Mall building for at least six months of renovations starting March 28th, 2022. The move will maintain the "continued safety" of visitors while the museum finishes work on its first new west wing galleries.

The closure is part of the first phase of a seven-year renovation poised to cost over $1 billion. The Smithsonian is staggering closures to keep at least some physical museum spaces open during that period, including the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia (which will remain open). Some parts of the collection have relocated to other relevant museums in the meantime, such as the Museum of African American History and Culture, the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of the American Indian.

The wait could be worthwhile. Eight west wing exhibits should launch when the main museum reopens, including "One World Connected" (shown above) and spaces touching on the Wright brothers, planetary exploration and the Moon.

Some parts of the renovation are still far from completion. The museum will start "deinstallation" of the east wing in March and won't complete its upgrade until sometime in 2025. If you can live with those limitations, though, the Air and Space Museum may soon be more relevant and engaging than in the past — even if you've visited relatively recently.