The Morning After: Debris from China's largest rocket crashes into Indian Ocean
And Elon Musk, the 'Dogefather'.
Elon Musk cannot leave DogeCoin alone. After Musk hosted last week’s Saturday Night Live, the price of Dogecoin crashed by just under a third at the start of the show, bouncing back a little before falling even more later. Robinhood warned of delays — a good sign that trading was particularly … vigorous.
The self-described Dogefather called the virtual currency a “hustle” at one point during SNL’s Weekend Update (while playing a character, for the record), and it could be the case that some long-time Dogecoin holders would want to pull out investments anyway, when interest had piqued during a nationwide TV show.
Even if cryptocurrency — and DogeCoin — remains a high-risk investment, serious business transactions are going down, and the latest involves, surprise, Musk’s SpaceX.
It and Canadian engineering company Geometric Energy Corporation will launch its DOGE-1 cubesat to the Moon in the first quarter of 2022. As the name implies, it's funded entirely by Dogecoin.
— Mat Smith
Chinese rocket debris falls into the Indian Ocean
US officials have criticized the uncontrolled reentry.
China's large Long March 5b rocket has fallen to Earth, mostly as expected. Chinese media reported that debris from the uncontrolled reentry splashed into the Indian Ocean just west of the Maldives at 10:24PM ET. It's unclear if anything hit land, but harm to people or property was unlikely, given the location.
US officials blasted China for its handling of the reentry. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson accused China of "failing to meet responsible standards" for space debris. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin echoed the statement. China’s state-backed press treated American concerns as "hype." Continue reading.
It's already possible to hack an AirTag
The security risks are small, but there's a lot of potential for enthusiasts.
Security researcher Thomas Roth has cracked the microcontroller for Apple's new item tracker, dumping its firmware and discovering you can reflash it for your own purposes. Roth could modify the NFC web address (the one that appears when you tap an AirTag) to his personal site. The practical security threat to users is likely small, as an attacker would have to get your existing AirTag, modify it and place it so an unsuspecting victim would find it and want to tap it. And that's all presuming that Apple doesn't have a way to block modified AirTags in the future. Continue reading.
Only 4 percent of US iPhone users have agreed to app tracking after iOS 14.5
Facebook won't be thrilled if this trend continues.
Flurry Analytics has determined that just 4 percent of American iPhone users running the new software opted in to app tracking in the first 12 days after it arrived. That opt-in rate climbed to 12 percent worldwide, but it's still clear that most people are turning down the requests when they receive prompts.
The study was a comprehensive one: It followed about 2.5 million daily active users in the US, and 5.3 million worldwide. Facebook's concerns about iOS 14.5 might have been justified. Continue reading.
Zoom gets special access to your iPad's camera
It's meant to help with multitasking, but other apps can't use it.
Wondering why you can multitask during a Zoom video call on your iPad when you can't with other apps? Zoom isn't being sneaky — it's just taking advantage of a good relationship. As 9to5Mac reports, developer Jeremy Provost has learned that Zoom has special permission from Apple to use the iPad's camera during Split View multitasking. This isn't to say Apple reserves every special feature for itself. As 9to5Mac notes, the M1 iPad Pro's Center Stage camera panning feature will be available to third-party apps in the future. Continue reading.
But wait, there’s more...
Apple may switch to its own 5G iPhone chips by 2023
Clubhouse starts beta testing its Android app in the US
Impossible Burgers are coming to US schools
Zuckerberg explains why an Oculus Quest 'Pro' is necessary
How Sony paved the way for modern music production
