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DirecTV satellite is at risk of explosion due to battery issues
DirecTV has one month to remove a satellite from geostationary orbit, so it doesn't take other satellites down with it if it ends up exploding. The AT&T-owned TV service fears that its Spaceway-1 satellite (a Boeing 702HP model) might explode due to battery issues that started manifesting in December. According to SpaceNews, DirecTV explained in an FCC filing dated January 19th that an anomaly caused "significant and irreversible thermal damage" to the satellite's batteries.
UN calls for investigation into alleged Saudi hacking of Jeff Bezos
The United Nations is joining the chorus of those concerned about allegations Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved in hacking Jeff Bezos' phone. UN experts have issued a statement calling for an "immediate investigation" into claims the Crown Prince's account was used for a WhatsApp hack as well as his reported "continuous, multi-year, direct and personal" role in efforts to target opponents. These allegations are particularly "relevant" in light of looks into the Saudi royal's role in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the UN experts said.
Radeon RX 5600 XT review: AMD's 1080p king
While AMD's RX Radeon 5700 and 5700 XT GPUs are solid options for gamers looking for great 1,440p performance, there's still a gap between those cards and the entry-level RX 5500. Enter the Radeon RX 5600 XT, AMD's middle of the road option for its new 7-nanometer RDNA architecture. It has one goal: deliver the best 1080p performance possible under $300. That might sound archaic when so many people are chasing the dream of native 4K, but AMD is positioning the 5600 XT more realistically as an ideal upgrade for gamers with older mid-range GPUs. (According to Steam's stats, its top three video cards -- the NVIDIA GTX 1050, 1050 Ti and 1060 -- are used by 35 percent of players.)
Star Trek-inspired medical bed could make X-rays more affordable
X-ray scans are unavailable for most people on Earth (two thirds of them, according to 2012 WHO data), in part due to the sheer cost of the machines themselves. The superheated filament in conventional X-ray machines requires so much energy and heat that it costs millions of dollars just to keep the patient safe. Nanox might just have a way to make these scans widely available, though. It's introducing the Nanox.Arc, an X-ray machine that looks like a Star Trek biobed and promises to lower the cost to low five-digit figures.
Scientists created living robots out of stem cells
Scientists have created a new life form that's something between a frog and a robot. Using stem cells scraped from frog embryos, researchers from the University of Vermont (UVM) and Tufts University assembled "xenobots." The millimeter-wide blobs act like living, self-healing robots. They can walk, swim and work cooperatively. Refined, they could be used inside the human body to reprogram tumors, deliver drugs or scrape plaque out of arteries.
Apple might be developing a 'Pro Mode' to speed up Macbooks
Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro was a return to form for the company, especially when it came to portable power. (We did call it the "ultimate MacBook," after all.) Now, Apple might be developing another way to speed up its notebooks: a new "Pro Mode" that users can manually turn on and off. As 9to5Mac reports, the new mode is referenced in the Catalina 10.15.3 beta build, though it doesn't appear as a working feature just yet.
Samsung's clamshell foldable phone may be called the Galaxy Z Flip
Samsung may not be particularly attached to the Galaxy Fold name. Historically reliable leaker Ice Universe has claimed that Samsung's reported clamshell foldable phone will be called the Galaxy Z Flip, not Fold 2, Bloom or other rumored names. We'd take the claims with a small grain of salt when there isn't much corroborating evidence (Ice acknowledged that the logo is a mockup), it would make sense given the nature of the device -- it's a flip phone that folds in the Z axis, after all.
The most expensive new Mac Pro configuration costs $52,599
If you've been waiting to get the best Mac money can buy, well, today's the day. Apple's new Mac Pro is on sale, and it starts at an eye-popping $5,999. That's a lot of cash for the average user, but maybe not so much if you make your living on how fast your computer is. The Mac Pro is highly customizable, though, and Apple is letting potential buyers upgrade it to a ludicrous level. What do I mean by "ludicrous," you may ask? Well, the top-of-the-line Mac Pro costs $52,599. That's not a typo.
NASA unveils 'the most powerful rocket ever built'
NASA's Space Launch System, or SLS, aims to carry astronauts to the moon in 2024 as part of the Artemis project. This weekend at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine gave the public its first up-close look at the system, which he described as "the most powerful rocket ever built."
Microsoft may be building a disc-less next-gen Xbox after all
Just when it seemed Microsoft's plans for Project Scarlett, its next-generation Xbox console, were getting simpler, there's a new wrinkle to the narrative. According to Kotaku's Jason Schreier, Microsoft is working on a more affordable, disc-less version of the device codenamed "Lockhart."
Motorola's bezel-free One Hyper has a 32-megapixel pop-up selfie camera
Lenovo-owned Motorola has unveiled the One Hyper, an ambitious mid-range phone with a near bezel-free display and some pretty nice camera features. It packs a 32-megapixel, pop-up front camera that delivers as much resolution as you'd ever need for selfie shots and retracts automatically if you drop the phone. It also features a rear 64-megapixel camera that delivers either high resolution or low-light sensitivity when you enable the Night Vision mode and Quad Pixel tech.
iPad Pro and MacBook Pro could switch to mini LED displays in late 2020
Never mind Apple expanding the use of OLED in its devices -- it may go one step further with its future hardware. Well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (who has a reputation for largely accurate Apple predictions) believes that Apple will start using mini LED displays in its devices in late 2020, starting with updated versions of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (what, no love for the 11-inch model?) and the 16-inch MacBook Pro. There will eventually be four to six products in Apple's lineup using mini LED, Kuo claimed, but there will be a gradual transition.
Intel is losing against AMD
When AMD launched its third-generation Zen 2 Ryzen processors earlier this year, Intel had to be sweating. Its rival had developed an all-new architecture with improvements to clock speed, core count and instructions per clock and promised performance that matched -- and even beat -- Intel's CPUs. Then, along came AMD's mainstream 12-core and 16-core Ryzen 9 3900x and 3950X CPUs, which doubled the thread count of competing i9-9900 series chips. That threatened not only Intel's gaming market but muscled in on its workstation territory. To compete, Intel was forced to launch the Cascade Lake i9-10980X at $999 -- half the price of the previous 9980XE model. Unfortunately for Intel, the 3950X still keeps pace with the i9-10980X in most tests, despite costing just $750. Reviews are now in for AMD's latest 32-core 3970X and 24-core 3960X Threadripper processors, and it's more bad news for Intel. Those high-end desktop (HEDT) chips perform better for both video and 3D rendering than Intel's latest i9-10980X CPU. Furthermore, they've even made many of Intel's high-end workstation Xeon CPUs obsolete. And the kicker is that AMD has yet to release the 64-core, Threadripper 3990X. Intel still has a lead in gaming, but only just, and given AMD's progress and recent Zen 3 announcements, is any market safe? Let's explore the state of this rivalry and how Intel might counterpunch.
Elon Musk tells Ford VP 'bring it on' in F-150 vs. Cybertruck battle (update)
At the unveiling of Tesla's Cybertruck, Elon Musk showed off a video of the low-polygon-count pickup defeating an F-150 in a tug of war. Since then, many have complained it wasn't a good comparison, since the presumably AWD Cybertruck appeared to face off against a lower-spec RWD Ford with nothing in the bed to help its tires get grip, and took off first.
Huawei's answer to the iPad Pro is the 10.8-inch MatePad Pro
Huawei has unveiled the 10.8-inch MatePad Pro, an iPad Pro-like tablet that we saw earlier via a leak. While it does bear a strong resemblance to Apple's 11-inch iPad Pro, the MatePro has even slimmer 4.9mm bezels made possible by an 8-megapixel hole-punch front camera, according to Engadget Chinese. It's also got a slightly higher-resolution 2,560 x 1,600 display that can output a very bright 540 nits while supporting the DCI-P3 color gamut.
SpaceX's first Starship pops its top during a 'pressure test' in Texas
SpaceX has already moved on to manufacturing its next generation of 'Mk3' Starship frames, but the original model Elon Musk stood in front of two months ago popped open during an apparent "pressure test" at the company's Boca Chica, TX site. According to site watchers like LabPadre, the top flew some 500 feet in the air as cryofluid sprayed everywhere. In slow-motion, it appears that fluid started bursting from the sides first.
Human patient put in suspended animation for the first time
Scientists (and sci-fi fans) have been talking about suspended animation for years. The idea that the functions of the human body can somehow be put on "pause" while life-saving medical procedures are performed (or a person is sent into space, a la Alien) has long seemed untenable -- until now. According to New Scientist, doctors have successfully placed humans in suspended animation for the first time, in a trial that could have an enormous influence on the future of emergency room surgery.
This 'Jedi: Fallen Order' lightsaber is also a motion controller
Twitch streamer and DIY gaming accessory buff Dylan "Rudeism" Beck, who created a hilarious Untitled Goose Game "controller," is at it again with the new Star Wars title Jedi: Fallen Order. He built a motion-controlled lightsaber and a force glove that make the game look more fun and sporty, according to his Twitch videos and a post on Reddit.
Ford’s Mustang Mach-E straddles the world of EVs, SUVs and muscle cars
The Mustang is the official muscle car of the United States. The keyword here is car and that's why it's odd that Ford decided to call its new electric vehicle the Mustang Mach-E, when it's clearly not a car. It's a crossover with hints of Mustang design. While the name is perplexing, it's not difficult to understand why the Mach-E, with a range of up to 300 miles, took the most iconic name in the automaker's lineup. It'll help it sell.
'Star Wars' and 'The Mandalorian' make Disney+ worth it
Disney+ has a ton of things to watch based on its vast library alone, but if you're interested in something that's actually original, your options are pretty slim. Just like Apple TV+, most of the new content on Disney+, like The World According to Jeff Goldblum, is watchable but not exactly exceptional. That's not the case for The Mandalorian though. It's the first live-action Star Wars show, and it brings with it all of the action, wonder and visual splendor you've come to expect from the films. That's not the only new bit of Star Wars goodness either: there's also a surprise 4K remaster of the entire Skywalker saga with Dolby Vision and Atmos. And yes, that includes the original trilogy (albeit with the Special Edition CG tweaks and yet another Han/Greedo scene change). If you were on the fence about subscribing to Disney+, these new Star Wars releases are more than enough reason to check it out.
