macOS Tahoe brings a lot of exciting updates to the Mac, like a supercharged Spotlight, Liquid Glass design, and three brand new apps. One of my personal macOS Tahoe favorites: Control Center is getting a lot of great upgrades. Here’s what’s new.
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A satellite tracking global methane pollution has gone dark, imperiling a mission that garnered enormous support from Jeff Bezos and other big names in tech.
Methane is the primary ingredient of so-called “natural gas” that is even more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to its ability to heat the planet. The powerful greenhouse gas routinely escapes from oil and gas wells, pipelines, and other fossil fuel infrastructure without anyone seeing or reporting it. MethaneSat was meant to spot such leaks from space in an effort to hold industry accountable for reducing those emissions.
But since June 20th, mission operations haven’t been able to contact MethaneSat. The satellite has lost power and is “likely not recoverable,” according to an update shared today by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund that developed MethaneSat.
The satellite has lost power and is “likely not recoverable”
The satellite cost $88 million to build and launch, and the effort received a $100 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund. It launched in March of last year from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rather than a Blue Origin rocket. The launch marked the first government-funded space mission by New Zealand’s Space Agency, which supported mission operations control and an atmospheric science program.
Before MethaneSat, EDF had to take methane readings on the ground and by aircraft to measure gas leaks. That painstaking work was revelatory; it found that US methane emissions were actually 60 percent higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimates between 2012 and 2018.
Taking readings from space, MethaneSat was supposed to be able to survey an area in about 20 seconds that would have taken an aircraft 2 hours. Orbiting Earth in 95 minutes, it would cover oil and gas fields accounting for more than 80 percent of global production.
Google also partnered with EDF to track methane emissions. With a similar strategy to the way Google Maps identifies sidewalks and street signs in satellite imagery, the company started training AI to spot well pads, pump jacks, storage tanks, and other fossil fuel infrastructure.
EDF says it’s still working to process data MethaneSat has been able to gather since launching, which it hopes can be used to limit methane pollution.
Let me try to read your mind. You’re thinking of getting a new TV, yes, a 4K model with some sort of smart TV operating system that can provide instant access to your favorite streaming apps. Well then. With Prime Day underway, several TV models, as well as streaming devices and soundbars, are on sale. Some of them are much cheaper than we’ve seen before, while others are matching low prices that we haven’t seen in a while. Either way, it’s nothing but good deals below.
We aim to pair you with an excellent home theater upgrade or two that’ll make you so happy that you won’t be searching for this article come next year’s Prime Day. Scroll down for the best deals on affordable TVs, high-end OLED models, and discounted sound systems and streaming gadgets.
Anker has released a new wireless car charger that provides more flexibility for positioning your smartphone when compared to windshield and vent mounts. Its new Anker Nano Wireless Car Charger attaches to a variety of flat surfaces using an adhesive mount and features a flat flexible arm (that looks like a long tongue) that supports a magnetic wireless charger you can use to fine tune the angle and position of your device.
The charger isn’t yet listed on Anker’s website in the US (you can find it on the UK version of Anker’s site) but is now available for purchase through Amazon for $59.99.
Anker says the charger’s adhesive mount can be securely attached to many surfaces including faux leather, real leather, plastic, wood, metal, and even suede, so it should be compatible with most vehicle dashboards. The company just suggests leaving the mount stuck to a surface in your car for a full 48 hours without any load to ensure it’s securely adhered.
The arm, which Anker describes as being made with a “flexible memory alloy,” attaches to the mount on one end using velcro so it can be easily removed, and to the detachable wireless charging puck on the other using a ball mount. The arm can bend up to 180 degrees up and down and securely hold its position letting you find the most comfortable viewing angle and height for an attached device.
The charging puck is Qi2-certified and delivers up to 15W of power to a smartphone that supports wireless charging. But since the Anker Nano Wireless Car Charger lacks any kind of clamping mechanism it can only be used with smartphones that support a magnetic connection such as MagSafe iPhones or Android devices that are Qi2 compatible.
While the charger can power up a smartphone without a wire, you’ll still need to connect it to a power source in your vehicle like a USB port or a 120W auxiliary outlet using an included adapter.
OpenAI has officially closed its nearly $6.5 billion acquisition of io, the hardware startup co-founded by famed former Apple designer Jony Ive, the company announced Wednesday. But it was careful to only refer to the startup as io Products Inc.
The blog post initially announcing the acquisition was also scrubbed from OpenAI’s website due to a trademark lawsuit from Iyo, the hearing device startup spun out of Google’s moonshot factory.
Now it’s back up, with a new note: “We’re thrilled to share that the io Products, Inc. team has officially merged with OpenAI. Jony Ive and LoveFrom remain independent and have assumed deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI.”
OpenAI originally announced the deal and plans to create dedicated AI hardware, with a video on social media featuring its CEO, Sam Altman, and Ive. That video has been scrubbed from its website and social media channels due to the lawsuit and has not returned. “The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco,” the blog post states.
There's no denying annual smartphone releases have settled into a routine—flat glass slabs with slightly faster processors and better cameras. Foldable phones buck the trend, but these products come with plenty of drawbacks. They're big and heavy, and even with all that bulk, the battery life and cameras can be lacking.
Samsung's new Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 don't right all the wrongs, but they mark the most significant year-to-year upgrade since the company began making foldables. The new phones are thinner and lighter, particularly in the case of the Z Fold 7, which is even lighter than the Galaxy S25 Ultra. You will pay handsomely for Samsung's new foldable flagship, but it's also releasing a new budget FE version of its flip phone as well.
Samsung has been making foldable phones longer than anyone, but the changes from one generation to the next have been minimal. Its seventh-generation foldables make the biggest leap yet, responding to a new spate of thinner foldables from Google, Oppo, and others. That's really the biggest innovation for the Galaxy Z Fold 7—it's slimmer and a bit wider.
© Samsung
The AI search startup on Wednesday unveiled Comet, a new browser that leans into voice, text, and app integrations to reimagine how people interact with the web. The launch comes just two weeks following reports that Apple was in talks to […]
The post Perplexity launches Comet, an AI-powered browser to take on Google and Microsoft first appeared on Tech Startups.
Last month, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo indicated that a cheaper model of Apple Vision Pro wasn’t due until late 2027. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has now corroborated that timeline in a new report that says the device, codenamed N100, will be both “lighter and cheaper”.
However, the device’s design has not yet been finalized. Work on the project is apparently expected to be finished in 2026, with a ramp up to a public launch in 2027.
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Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports today that Apple is nearing a release of the first update to the Apple Vision Pro hardware. The new model will feature an M4 chip, offering a significant performance upgrade compared to the M2 chip found in the original Vision Pro.
Perhaps more importantly, the new Vision Pro will apparently include a redesigned strap. This will make the headset more comfortable to wear for longer periods of time.
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