(Photo: Apple headset render via Antonio DeRosa)Apple seems to be getting close to the launch of its much-hyped AR/VR headset, as it’s reportedly settled on a name for the operating system. Noted Apple soothsayer Mark Gurman is reporting it’s going to be xrOS. This is shorthand for “extended reality,” as …
Read More »Pluto’s A Planet Again
Like many people, I grew up in a solar system of nine planets. It’s the same solar system we live in now, of course, but the definition of a “planet” changed in 2006 to exclude poor little Pluto and its frosty kin. That was before we’d even seen the little …
Read More »Calling Citizen Scientists
If you’ve ever wanted to help find an exoplanet, this is your chance. There’s a new open research initiative that invites participants to help identify exoplanets using simple visual pattern matching — and it’s open to anybody who wants to help. You don’t even have to own a telescope. The …
Read More »Google Duo audio calling now available worldwide
In March, Google announced it was beginning to roll out support for audio-only calling in its FaceTime and Whatsapp competitor, Duo, which had previously focused on video calls. Initially, support for audio calls was available in Brazil, but the feature is now live for all users worldwide, a Google engineer and …
Read More »T-Mobile’s Digits calling service is designed to make phone numbers device agnostic
T-Mobile’s pitch is simple, “We’re dragging the phone number into the internet age.” The actual functionality is a bit trickier, which is why the carrier looked to do a little bit of analyst handholding and a consumer Twitter QA (at 10:30AM PT today) ahead of launch. The underlying idea is to tie …
Read More »Signal app-maker rebuts criticism of dev direction by calling for more community help
Moxie Marlinspike, founder of Open Whisper Systems (OWS), the not-for-profit software group behind the respected Signal Protocol crypto (and the eponymous Signal secure messaging app) has responded to criticism of how the group is developing its projects by calling for more contributions from the community to broaden implementations of the protocol. “I …
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