Tech News Roundup for May 25, 2021
Here are a few of the tech stories I’ve found interesting over the last few days.
Facebook Launches “News Innovation Test” in Canada
Facebook looks to be trying to get ahead of any potential laws coming to Canada that are similar to recent laws in Australia that are forcing tech giants to pay media companies for news. The company is launching a test in Canada with several small, mostly online based news publications that looks to be a pilot project that can demonstrate how Facebook would pay for access to news from outside sources on its platform. We’ll see what the Canadian government thinks about a platform like this.
Tim Cook Faces Tough Questions From Judge as Epic vs. Apple Trial Wraps
Closing arguments were held in the Epic vs. Apple trial on Monday, but last Friday Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stand, and faced several direct, tough questions from the Judge in the case. Reporting says that this was the first time the Judge seemed to tip her hand on what her opinions have been on the case, grilling Tim Cook on Apple’s App Store fees.
We likely won’t have a ruling on this trial for several months, but at least it seemed to go out with a bang.
Chinese Rover Successfully Lands on Mars
A couple weeks ago China became the second country to successfully land a rover on the surface of Mars, and now that rover has successfully rolled off the landing craft onto the Martian soil. While smaller less capable than the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers operated by the United States, it is still a huge accomplishment for the Chinese Space Agency
Virgin Galactic Completes Suborbital Flight
After years of delays and one failed attempt, Virgin Galactic has finally reached its goal of a successful suborbital flight. The VSS Unity was released from its carrier aircraft and managed to escape Earth’s atmosphere, with the two pilots experiencing weightlessness for about two minutes. While this was not an orbital flight, where the spacecraft circles the Earth, a suborbital flight is a great first step for Virgin Galactic as it attempts to create a spaceflight business using a method never used before. Instead of a traditional rocket, the Virgin Galactic spacecraft are carried to a high altitude under the wing of an airplane, in this case a modified Boeing 747-400. From there, it is released, and ignites its own engine to get to space. A successful test flight paves the way for more tests, and the goal of air launched spacecraft being a viable alternative to traditional rockets.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/22/22448928/virgin-galactic-spaceplane-vss-unity-space-branson
Kia Announces EV6 for North America
Kia has teken the wraps off the EV6, its first mass market electric vehicle for the North American Market. The EV6 features up to 482km of range, and charging that can reach a maximum of 350kW, which is even faster than Tesla’s V3 supercharger, with a 250kW maximum. The EV6 will compete with the Tesla Model Y. There is no information on pricing yet, but I expect it to be lower than Tesla, and competitive with other EV’s on the market.
Our EV future is coming faster than anyone thought even 5 years ago.
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/kia-ev6-reveal-us-specs/
Google’s Mysterious Fuchsia OS is Here
This one will get into the weeds a bit, so bear with me. Google has been working on something called Fuchsia OS for several years now. Fuchsia is a new operating system from google, completely different from Android or Chrome OS. As said, Google has been working on Fuchsia for years, but no one knew what exactly it was destined for. We now know the first product that Fuchsia will come to, and it is surprisingly an existing product.
Google will begin rolling out an update to the original Google Nest Hub smart display that will replace the “Cast OS” that has populated all of Google’s smart displays with Fuchsia OS. Google says that users will not even notice the difference, as the UI and features will be identical to the current capabilities of the Nest Hub.
I think Google is using the first generation Nest Hub as a testbed, to get some real analytics data on how well Fuchsia works in the real world, before rolling out the product to more products. What that looks like is unclear. Will Fuchsia eventually replace Chrome OS or Android? I would say that it’s not likely, but we really don’t know what the plans are.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/google-launches-its-third-major-operating-system-fuchsia/
Apple Releases iOS and iPad OS 14.6
Apple released iOS and iPad OS 14.6 this week. The main “improvements” are the new Apple Podcasts subscriptions feature, which allows for premium, paid podcasts exclusive to the Apple Podcasts app. This may be bad for the podcast ecosystem, but it remains to be seen how much uptake there is. iOS 14.6 also prepares iOS for the arrival of the Apple Music Lossless format, which will bring higher quality music streaming for Apple Music subscribers at no additional charge when it launches in June. Otherwise there are the usual vague “security and performance improvements”
https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/news/download-ios-14-6-iphone/