We all cried and whined when we discovered Apple’s Face ID system wasn’t compatible with face masks. And while the company introduced a few workarounds, it’s now ready for the real deal: Face ID that works with a mask on*. You might ask why there’s an asterisk sign? It’s not a typo. It’s there because this new system will only work with iPhone 12 and above. BOOOOOOO! Apple’s reasoning behind this is that the feature requires “advancements in the TrueDepth camera system.” And apparently, the pleb
Let’s face it: wrapping your head around EV charging infrastructure can be confusing. And actually waiting while your car gets filled with juice? No thanks. But what if you didn’t have to charge your vehicle at all? What if there was another way? And what if that way was battery swap stations? Way back in 2013, Tesla proposed the idea of a 90-second battery swap shop. Two years later, Tesla quit the effort. It switched its strategy, focused on the Supercharger network, and declared that battery
“Holy sharks, Batman, it’s periodic!” I exclaimed on Slack. It was the first lockdown of 2021 in Perth, and we were all working from home. And when astronomers look for something to distract themselves from looming existential dread, there’s nothing better than a new cosmic mystery. In 2020, I gave an undergraduate student, Tyrone O’Doherty, a fun project: look for radio sources that are changing in a large radio survey I’m leading. By the end of the year, he’d found a particularly unusual sourc
In recent weeks, a web-based word puzzle called Wordle has become a popular daily distraction. Suddenly, millions of people are focused on their vocabulary of five-letter words, and are newly aware of concepts like letter frequency and letter position as they strategize about the best opening words and faster solutions. For these people, Wordle is captivating. Previous research can help us understand how our brains respond to word games, and why we love them. Wordle is a single-player puzzle tha
Let me start by clarifying the headline: I know Windows tablets exist. I’m one of the rare nerds who’s been using 2-in-1 PCs as my primary device for over a decade. I’ve been on the tablet train before the Microsoft Surface even existed, back when 2-in-1’s were just called tablet PCs. And yet, after all this time, tablet PCs have been never been great at being, you know, tablets. Usually, it’s not been for the lack of decent hardware — manufacturers have been able to put out devices with good de
It seems like just yesterday the dinosaurs were frolicking about the canyons of Pangaea, living their last few oblivious moments before an asteroid changed everything. You don’t really notice it while it’s happening, but 65 million years goes by pretty fast. At least it does in the grand scheme of things. The universe has been around some 14 billion-or-so years according to the Big Bang Theory. In that context, 65 million years is just a few flakes of sand in a giant hourglass. And that makes it
The development and expansion of the EV charging software ecosystem is a critical component to the mainstream adoption of electric vehicles. However, the industry has become complex and fragmented, with multiple isolated solutions and inconsistent technology standards. This slows and threatens the adoption of EVs. In response, PIONIX has developed a project called EVerest, an open-source software stack designed to establish a common base layer for a unified EV charging ecosystem. EVerest has ga
Neil Young has given Spotify an ultimatum: remove the Joe Rogan Experience podcast or Neil Young walks. In a letter to his management team and label, the 79-year-old rocker lambasted Spotify for spreading Rogan’s misinformation about COVID vaccinations. “I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” said Young to his management team and record label. “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” Young is the first high-profile artist to condemn Spotif
It’s hard to escape the hype of the metaverse even if you can’t experience much of it. Last year, both Microsoft and Meta (rebranded from Facebook), demoed their virtual worlds of the future. In the videos depicting these dreamlike spaces — where you could work with your colleagues or hang out and play games — I had a burning question about the avatars representing users: WHERE ARE THEIR LEGS? Hit the play button in Satya Nadella’s tweet below to watch a clip of Microsoft’s metaverse demo: The m
Last year, the UK became the first country to regulate the use of autonomous vehicles at slow speeds on motorways. Specifically, this means vehicles with automated lane-keeping systems (ALKS), able to control steering and speed within a designated lane. But the government’s expecting that automated driving systems (ADS) will soon develop to a point when an AV will be able to drive itself without a human paying attention to the road — as is now the case. And, naturally, this has profound legal co