AWS today opened its re:Invent conference with a surprise announcement: the company is bringing the Mac mini to its cloud. These new EC2 Mac instances, as AWS calls them, are now available in preview. They won’t come cheap, though. The target audience here — and the only one AWS is targeting for now — is […]
Refining precious metals is not as simple as polishing rocks that have been dug out of the ground. Often, complex chemical processes are needed to process the materials properly or in high quantities, but these processes leave behind considerable waste. Often, there are valuable metals left over in these wastes, …read more
We’d all love to make the trip home this year for the holidays, but the reality is, that’s probably not in the cards for millions right now. But with encouraging signs that a COVID-19 vaccine in early 2021 may be the light at the end of our dark and dreary 2020 tunnel, it isn’t too early to start thinking about all those trips you’ve spent months planning. — Read the rest
Nintendo has released a new firmware update for the Switch, and for once it actually adds some features to the consoleâs barebones OS.
The biggest one is a new way to share screenshots and videos directly to your smartphone by scanning a QR code. The process is a little awkward, but it definitely beats the previous method of uploading everything to Twitter or Facebook first.
Ten years ago, a community came together around a definition of open source hardware to be clear about what it means to share designs for physical things, and doing so in a way that allows others to make, modify, distribute or use those things. This definition has been managed by the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA). In this episode, I talk with Alicia Gibb, Executive Director of OSHWA and board president, Michael Weinberg about the growth of open source hardware, its certification process and the role of open source hardware in the maker response to COVID-19.
“I think one of the amazing things at the time when we had spun up so quickly was pulling together that energy, that drive, that determination to solve this one single problem.”
Developers have now made it possible to emulate PS2 games on the Xbox Series X and S using the RetroArch emulator â something that the PlayStation 5, a successor to the PS2, canât.
Thanks to the Xbox Series X / S consolesâ âDeveloper Mode,â the emulation software can be added as a Universal Windows Application (UWA), allowing users to download a retail version of the emulation software directly to their console without tricky workarounds, so players donât have to wait for a re-release to play an older favorite.
While RetroArch is able to emulate several different consoles, the compatibility for running PS2 games using the PCSX2 core is particularly notable because of how limited Sonyâs PlayStation 5 is when it comes to backwards…
With the release of watchOS 7, Apple at last turned the Apple Watch into the GPS-based kid tracker parents have wanted, albeit at a price point that requires careful consideration. As someone in the target demographic for such a device — a parent of a “tween” who’s allowed to freely roam the neighborhood (but not […]
In the “Using Heroku to Quickly Build a Multi-Tenant SaaS Product” article, I documented the foundation for a new SaaS solution that I am building (initially for my sister-in-law) â utilizing the Heroku ecosystem. Using Heroku allowed me to deploy the app quickly, without having to worry about infrastructure, DevOps, scalability when the app gets popular, etc. The “Integrating Twilio Into My SaaS Solution In Heroku” publication provided an example of how easy it is to create a Twilio instance and integrate the solution into my Fitness-based SaaS solution. This current journey has resulted in a feature set that both trainers and their clients have been able to enjoy.
This article is going to focus on invoicing clients for services that have been performed and will utilize messaging solutions within the Heroku ecosystem. The goals of the invoice process are as follows:
New Xbox Series X dynamic backgrounds. | Image: Microsoft
Microsoft is starting to roll out the November update for the Xbox Series X, Series S, and Xbox One consoles today. The software update is the first dashboard update for Microsoftâs next-gen consoles, and it includes more dynamic backgrounds that are exclusive to the Xbox Series X and Series S.
The update adds six new dynamic background designs, including ones that are clear nods to older Xbox consoles. Each can be selected from the settings panel of the Xbox dashboard, and Microsoft says itâs working on additional styles, colors, and designs for future console updates.
Image: MicrosoftThe new dynamic backgrounds.
Alongside the updated dynamic backgrounds, the Xbox Series X and S are getting a new tag that…
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has been on a roll this year with cool new hardware: thereâs the upgraded Raspberry Pi 4; the new Raspberry Pi camera; and my personal favorite: the Raspberry Pi 400, a keyboard thatâs actually a fully self-contained computer. Its latest product is a little more humble: a $5 fan and heatsink set thatâs designed to keep your Raspberry Pi 4 cool, even for the most demanding overclockers.
Fan cases for a Raspberry Pi arenât exactly new, but thereâs something particularly charming to me about the official model, like the satisfying way it clips onto the existing âofficialâ Raspberry Pi 4 case or the bespoke heatsink thatâs perfectly sized for the mini-computerâs processor.
I bought this Black+Decker Dustbuster cordless vacuum in 2015, and it’s the best I’ve owned. All the other cordless vacs I’ve owned had batteries that conked out after a year or less, but the battery in this one is still working. — Read the rest
[3DprintedLife] sure does hate bread crust. Not the upper portion of homemade bread, mind you — just that nasty stuff around the edges of store-bought loaves. Several dozen hours of CAD later, [3DprintedLife] had themselves a crust-cutting robot that also chops vegetables.
This De-Cruster 9000 is essentially a 2-axis robotic …read more
In line with bad things happening in 2020, Disney has digitally removed a lone crew member who accidentally appeared in the background of a recent Mandalorian episode.
The crew member, who the internet lovingly dubbed âJeans Guy,â appeared at the 18:54 mark in season 2, episode 4. Back flat against the wall, the crew member was not in the shot for very long, but they made an impact on Star Wars fans everywhere. People even made mock designs for action figures based on the crew member! You canât buy that kind of love. The Verge has reached out to Disney about the digital erasure.
Upon revisiting the scene, however, the crew member is nowhere to be found, something I was worried would happen. The beauty of digital editing technology is…
Weâre just about two weeks away from launching TC Sessions: Space 2020, our first focused foray into early-stage space startups and the essential satellite industries that support them. Buy your pass and join us on December 16 â 17 for two days packed with all the right stuff, including untapped opportunity. Still looking for a […]
Today is the final day of the Green Days Sale. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to save 25% on annual Extra Crunch membership. You can claim the deal here. Extra Crunch helps you spot technology trends and opportunities, build better startups, get ahead at your job and stay connected to a growing community of founders, […]
There are angry ladies all over Yankee Candle’s site reporting that none of the candles they just got had any smell at all. I wonder if they’re feeling a little hot and nothing has much taste for the last couple days too.
Wasps are threatening airplane safety at Australia’s Brisbane Airport. The keyhole wasps have identified an airplane’s “pitot tube,” an externally-mounted sensor that measures airspeed, as an ideal location to make a nest of mud and grass. “We realized that this wasn’t just an inconvenience, that you just had to clean these things out and swat the wasps away,” says Eco Logical Australia researcher Alan House. — Read the rest