Monthly Archives: July 2022

Qualcomm launches Snapdragon Wear 5 Plus to give Wear OS 3 watches a boost

Screenshot: Qualcomm While Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear chips power the vast majority of current Wear OS watches, the platform itself has never really delivered. Thus far, Snapdragon Wear chips have been repurposed mobile processor designs built on outdated tech and are a big reason why Wear OS watches have been so lackluster. But today, Qualcomm is…

Two companies join SpaceX in the race to Mars, with a launch possible in 2024

Enlarge / Here is a preliminary design of a Mars lander to be built by Impulse Space. (credit: Impulse Space) Relativity Space has not launched a single rocket, and Impulse Space has never tested one of its thrusters in space. Nevertheless, on Tuesday, the two California-based companies declared their intention to launch an ambitious mission…

Beware of bad science reporting: No, we haven’t killed 90% of all plankton

Enlarge / Plankton are under real threat as our oceans warm and acidify, but they’re not all gone yet. (credit: tonaquatic/Getty Images) For the past few days, it has been hard to look at social media without coming across a scary-looking report from the Scottish newspaper The Sunday Post. “Scots team’s research finds Atlantic plankton…

Slack’s cheapest plan is getting a price hike, but there’s a silver lining

Slack has revealed it will raise the price of subscriptions for its popular collaboration platform for the first time. In a blog post, the company explained that pricing will increase across the globe for organizations on its Pro plan, starting September 01, 2022. Affected customers will see their monthly subscriptions rise in price from $8/£5.25…

VPN users not affected by new Netflix password sharing rules – for now

Following recent promises to crack down on account sharing, Netflix has finally launched its new password-sharing strategy – however, users connecting with one of the best Netflix VPN services seem to evade the provision – at least for now.  The new rules seem to suggest that Netflix has chosen to target households, rather than users….

Did Venom sow the seeds of Top Gun: Maverick’s success? Sony bosses say so

Sony Pictures head honchos Sanford Panitch and Josh Greenstein believe their studio deserves some credit for the stratospheric success of Top Gun: Maverick.  In a recent interview with Vulture, the pair claimed that Sony’s decision to release movies including Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Spider-Man: No Way Home exclusively in theaters during…