Category: Technology

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft is about to crash into the asteroid Dimorphos, and you’ll have plenty of options to follow along as it happens. The space agency is livestreaming coverage of the DART collision starting at 6PM Eastern, and you can tune into either a full presentation or a dedicated stream from the craft’s DRACO (Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical Navigation) instrument. That last feed will show one image per second up to the moment of impact. The vehicle is expected to smash into Dimorphos at about 7:14PM, although its distance from Earth will delay the footage you see.

You aren’t tied to official sources, either. The Virtual Telescope Project will host its own stream starting at 6:30PM ET. It’s teaming up with two South African observatories to provide an Earth-bound view of the collision. The Didymos asteroid system (where Dimorphos is a moonlet) will just be a dot, but you should see it flare up after DART makes contact.

DART will gauge the viability of using spacecraft to deflect asteroids, comets and other objects that might otherwise strike Earth. If all goes well, it will show that NASA can use autonomous vehicles as defensive systems and confirm the results using ground telescopes. Dimorphos is an ideal candidate due to both its relative proximity and the lack of threats — NASA won’t inadvertently create the very calamity it’s trying to avoid.

This won’t be the only mission headed to the Didymos system, either. The European Space Agency expects its Hera mission to reach Didymos by 2026, when it will study DART’s effects on Dimorphos. If there are any questions left after tonight’s one-way flight, they should be answered within a few years.

 

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, next year’s iPhone could introduce a change to Apple’s naming convention. It could call its largest and most expensive device in 2023 the iPhone 15 Ultra instead of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Gurman expects the iPhone 15 to feature USB-C, among other “bigger changes” – which he didn’t elaborate on at this point.

Interestingly, Gurman thinks Apple might not hold another event this fall. He says the company will announce new Mac mini, MacBook Pro and iPad Pro models before the end of the year, but that they’ll likely be iterative and land without the Apple event fanfare.

– Mat Smith

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In ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader was voiced by an AI so James Earl Jones could retire

Respeecher recreated the actor’s voice as it was in 1977.

James Earl Jones has said goodbye to Darth Vader. At 91, the actor recently told Disney he was “looking into winding down this particular character.” That forced the company to ask itself how do you even replace Jones? The answer Disney eventually settled on, with the actor’s consent, involved an AI program. Respeecher can use archival recordings and a “proprietary AI algorithm” to create new dialogue featuring the voices of “performers from long ago.”

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‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’ debuts December 25th on Netflix

Meanwhile, season three of ‘The Witcher’ arrives next summer.

The Witcher: Blood Origin, a prequel to Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy novel series, will debut on December 25th. Set thousands of years before the story of the Witcher Geralt and Ciri, Blood Origin will center on the moment in the Witcher universe when humans, elves and monsters all come to inhabit the fantasy world of the series. Actress Michelle Yeoh stars as Scian, the elven protagonist. Originally slated to run six episodes, Blood Origin will instead be four episodes long.

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‘Oxenfree II: Lost Signals’ is delayed until 2023

Night School Studio needs more time to make the sequel ‘truly special.’

The sequel to 2016’s Oxenfree won’t arrive until next year, the developer announced on Saturday. “To make Oxenfree II truly special and add more localizations, we’re moving our release window to 2023,” the studio posted on Twitter. News of the delay came shortly after Netflix announced subscribers could download the original game for free. Yes, more than six years after its PC debut, Netflix is making Oxenfree available freely to those with a subscription to its streaming service.

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UK police arrest alleged ‘GTA VI’ hacker

The 17-year-old may also have been responsible for an Uber cybersecurity incident.

Police in the UK have arrested a 17-year-old suspected hacker, with reports connecting it to the Rockstar Games hack that led to a major Grand Theft Auto VI leak. The individual may have been involved with an intrusion on Uber as well. The arrest is the result of an investigation involving the City of London Police, the UK’s National Cyber Crime Unit and the FBI. According to reports, he was arrested earlier this year for hacking Microsoft and NVIDIA.

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Amazon will hold a Prime Early Access Sale on October 11th and 12th

The holiday shopping season will begin earlier than ever this year.

Amazon plans to hold a second sales event this fall, exclusively for Prime members. The second Prime Day of the year, dubbed Prime Early Access Sale, will be on October 11th and 12th in the US, UK, Canada and 12 other countries, following the same two-day format as the original event. That said, we don’t know what sort of discounts this event will include. There will probably be a Kindle or two, though.

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Watch the trailer for NieR: Automata’s spinoff anime

It arrives this January.

Square Enix’s genre-twisting RPG, NieR Automata was a cult hit in 2017. Now, an anime adaptation is almost here. Titled NieR: Automata Version 1.1a, it will debut in January 2023. NieR creator Yoko Taro shared the release window, adding that the anime’s story would differ from its source material.

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Audacity is best known as a free app to do quick audio edits and record audio, but the latest update makes it more viable as a full on production tool, parent Muse Group has announced. Version 3.2 now supports non-destructive editing, real-time effects and enhanced VST3 support, along with user interface improvements and faster audio sharing via a new service, audio.com.

The most welcome addition is non-destructive audio capabilities that allow creators to adjust effects without the changes being permanently baked into the audio file. It also supports real-time playback of effects and crossfades as you adjust them, allowing for more accurate edits while listening to audio. That compares to previous versions, which required that you render the effect before you could hear it.

The company has completely rewritten the code base for VST plugins to improve stability and reliability, while adding improved support for VST3. It also addressed concerns about what we’ve called its “ugly and a bit archaic” user interface. And it now offers a “clearer and more consistent set of visuals” in the top bar for editing, with a new “Audio Setup” option that makes it easier to change input, mic and output settings. 

Finally, the new audio.com site lets you easily share audio files by sending a link rather than the entire file. You can share files either publicly or privately, or use your account for cloud storage. (Muse Group recently updated its privacy policy, promising it wouldn’t sell any of the “very limited” data it collects from users.) The new version of the app is now available as a free download. 

 

TikTok isn’t just facing financial penalties in the US over claimed child privacy breaches. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has warned TikTok that it might face a £27 million (about $29.2 million) fine after the watchdog determined that the social network may have broken data protection law by “failing to protect” kids’ privacy between May 2018 and July 2020. The company may have handled the data of children under 13 without parental consent, processed “special category” data (such as ethnicity, sexual orientation or health) without a legal foundation and didn’t offer necessary information to users in a “concise, transparent and easily understood” fashion.

ICO began investigating TikTok in February 2019, soon after the US’ Federal Trade Commission fined the social media heavyweight $5.7 million over reported child privacy infringements. At the time, the UK overseer was concerned about both TikTok’s “completely open” direct messaging as well as its transparency tools. Sexual predators were found messaging users as young as eight years old, and it was relatively easy for kids to bypass the app’s age gate.

The office stressed that these were preliminary findings, and that there was no definitive conclusion that TikTok broke the law or will pay a fine. ICO added it would “carefully consider” TikTok’s stance before making a final decision. We’ve asked the company for comment, and will let you know if we hear back.

There’s mounting pressure on TikTok to protect kids. In the US, members of Congress and state attorneys general are grilling TikTok over possible harms to child users, including attempts to keep them riveted to using the app. A UK fine might not be the end of the company’s troubles, at least until politicians and regulators are satisfied it’s keeping young people safe.

 

Following a request by South Korean prosecutors, Interpol has placed Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon on a “red notice” list, TechCrunch has reported. That will create a request for law enforcement agencies around the world to arrest Kwon following his blockchain company’s collapse that took $40 billion from investors with it. 

After Korean authorities issued an arrest warrant for Kwon last week, he tweeted that he was “not on the run” or “anything similar.” However, prosecutors said that they believed Kwon left Korea to “evade investigation” as he told them through his lawyers that he didn’t intend to appear before questioning. “He is clearly on the run as his family members and the company’s key finance people also left for the same country [Singapore] at the same time,” they said.

Kwon and other Terraform Labs’ employees are under investigation for financial fraud and tax evasion following the collapse of its stablecoins, TerraUSD and Luna. The investors, many of whom lost their life savings following the collapse, filed complaints accusing him of running a Ponzi scheme. The crash of the Luna token also played a roll in the collapse of the crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. 

 

If you have your eye on Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch 5 but were waiting for a deal, one has already arrived. Amazon’s Woot portal is selling the 40mm model in several colors (Grey, Pink Gold and Silver) for $250, a savings of $30 or 11 percent off the regular price. 

Buy Galaxy Watch 5 at Woot – $250

The Galaxy Watch 5 scored a solid 85 in our Engadget review, and we once again called it “the best non-Apple smartwatch.” Samsung was focused more on perfecting it over the Watch 4, adding extra battery life (a runtime of up to 80 hours), greater durability with Sapphire Crystal glass and an inactive temperature sensor. 

Otherwise, it carries the same design and features as before, which is a good thing. Powered by a responsive 5-nanometer Exynos processor and running Wear OS, it uses Samsung’s bezel-based navigation with a touch-sensitive ring framing the screen. That gives you access to numerous apps, along with sleep-tracking and coaching plus health and activity tracking. You can get your body composition reading using the body-impedance analysis tool, take ECG scans, reply to messages, control music playback and more. 

The lightly curved underside keeps the sensors in contact with your wrist, and it’s rated IP68, 5ATM and MIL-STD-810H for durability (water, dust and pressure resistance). The main downside is that battery life is considerably lower with the always-on display compared to the Apple Watch 7. Still, it’s the best Android smartwatch available and it’s rare to see a discount on such a new device. Bear in mind that sales from Woot are time limited and have a different return policy from parent Amazon.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

 

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has formed a new office designed to help marginalized communities deal with the extra burdens of pollution and climate change, Reuters has reported. The Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights will be staffed by 200 EPA employees located in the agency’s Washington head office and 10 regional bureaus. 

“The establishment of a new office dedicated to advancing environmental justice and civil rights at EPA will ensure the lived experiences of underserved communities are central to our decision-making while supporting community-driven solutions,” said US Vice President Kamala Harris.

One of the primary jobs of the new office will be to oversea the distribution of $3 billion in environmental justice grants created by the passage the of Inflation Reduction Act, as part of a $60 billion investment in environmental justice. It’ll also check that other EPA programs hew to President Biden’s Justice40 initiative designed to ensure that 40 percent of certain government investments flow to disadvantaged communities. Finally, it’ll help communities access grants, enforce civil rights laws and resolve environmental conflicts.

The new office was launched at an event in Warren County, North Carolina, the site of 1982 protests over toxic waste dumping in the region. The resulting civil disobedience actions and arrests failed to stop the 22-acre dump, but gave birth to the modern environmental justice movement. The 40th anniversary of the protests was commemorated by participants last week. 

 

After weeks of rumors, Amazon has officially announced that it plans to hold a second sales event this fall exclusively for Prime members. The second Prime Day of the year, dubbed “Prime Early Access Sale,” will be held on October 11th and 12th in the US, UK, Canada and 12 other countries, following the same two-day format as the original event.

Amazon Prime Day has historically been an annual event in which Prime members have access to thousands of sales from the online retailer. It’s been not only a way for Amazon to increase sales during the summer months, but also helps the company to drum up more subscribers for Prime. This year’s Prime Day on July 12th and 13th brought a plethora of discounts on things like household essentials, clothing, electronics and more, and most of them were reserved for Prime members. However, like years past, there were select sales available to anyone on Prime Day as well.

Since Amazon has not had a second Prime Day in one year before, it’s hard to anticipate what this new sales event will bring. Since it’ll be held in the middle of October, we expect it to unofficially mark the start of the holiday shopping season for Amazon. It’s also possible that the discounts available to Prime members only during this sales event may not come back around for everyone until Black Friday or Cyber Monday. That may encourage some shoppers to stock up on holiday gifts as early as they can snag them on sale.

Engadget will cover all of the best tech deals we can find during this second sales event, held in 15 countries including the US, Canada, the UK, much of Europe, and Turkey. If you plan on taking advantage of those sales, be sure to check Engadget for more information leading up to the event, and follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and sign up for our Engadget Deals newsletter so you never miss the latest news.

 

Next year’s iPhone could introduce a change to Apple’s naming convention. According to Bloombergreporter Mark Gurman, the company could call its largest and most expensive device in 2023 the iPhone 15 Ultra instead of the iPhone 15 Pro Max as you would expect given its recent track record. The shift would reportedly coincide with the most significant redesign of the iPhone since Apple released the iPhone 12 in 2019. Gurman expects the iPhone 15 to feature USB-C, among other “bigger changes.”

Apple’s smartphone line has seen a couple of branding tweaks over the years. In the early days of the iPhone, when the company released a substantial update every two years, iterative models carried an “S” designation. Since 2019 and the diversification of the line to include separate mainstream and premium variants, the company has employed “Pro” and “Pro Max” designations to market its most advanced phones. Moreover, earlier this year saw the return of the Plus branding, which Apple had not used since 2017. Dropping Pro Max in favor of Ultra would make a lot of sense since the Apple Watch line now includes an Ultra model.

The iPhone 15 rumor mill has already produced a few interesting predictions. Gurman previously reported that Apple was testing USB-C iPhones ahead of the European Union implementing a law requiring all new smartphones made after 2024 to feature the port. More recently, display analyst Ross Young said the entire iPhone 15 line would feature the iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island display cutout.

Looking to the more immediate future, Gurman also wrote today that Apple might not hold another event this fall. He says the company plans to announce new Mac mini, MacBook Pro and iPad Pro models before the end of the year. However, as those will be primarily iterative updates to existing devices, Gurman suggests Apple is “more likely” to share the existence of those products with the world through a series of press releases.

 

The anime adaptation of NieR: Automata will be released early next year.The remake is now known as NieR: Automata Version 1.1a will make its debut in January 2023.Yoko Taro, the creator of NieR, revealed the release date over the weekend at Aniplex Online Fest (via Gizmodo), while also revealing that the anime’s story would differ from the source material.The two will, at the very least, be based on the same premise.The story begins with a destroyed Earth and a proxy war involving human-made androids.”Nier: Automata was a story we created for a game, so copying it would not make an interesting story for an anime,” Taro explained during the panel.

A-1 Pictures, best known for its work on series such as Erased, From the New World, and Your Lie in April, is producing the film, with Taro and Ryouji Masuyama co-writing the script.Masuyama has previously worked on Gurren Lagann and Evangelion: 2.You Can (But Not) Advance.”I’m the one going around breaking things for [A-1 Pictures], so if anyone is unhappy [with the anime’s story], it’s probably my fault,” Taro warned fans.

The panellists made no mention of distribution outside of Japan.However, because Sony owns both Aniplex and Crunchyroll, there’s a good chance the streaming service will get simulcast rights.It will be interesting to see if the anime revives interest in NieR: Automata in the same way that the recent Netflix release of Edgerunners did for Cyberpunk 2077.Commercially, Automata outperformed publisher Square Enix’s expectations, but the company has yet to announce a proper sequel-though a mobile spinoff and remaster of the original NieR were released last year.