Thanks to some unforeseen issues, Tuesday’s tech roundup is coming on a Wednesday, featuring news only up until Tuesday, and is probably lacking a lot of the important things because I wasn’t able to get this done on Tuesday. Don’t ask too many questions.
Virgin Galactic Successfully Flies Four People to the Edge of Space
On Saturday Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo successfully reached the edge of space, with the four people on board feeling weightlessness for about 3 minutes. This included the first paying customer, as well as Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Galactic. This paves the way for more space tourism flights by Virgin Galactic. Over 600 people have already signed up for these sub-orbital flights at a price of about $250,000 USD each.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/11/22572374/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-space-unity
Apple Launches MagSafe Battery Pack for iPhone 12
Apple has released a new MagSafe battery for the iPhone 12 series. Attaching to the magnets on the back of an iPhone, the MagSafe Battery will charge an iPhone at 5W and should provide about 80% of a battery charge to an iPhone 12. At $120 it is a very expensive option, but a pretty slick first party option if you must have something with the Apple logo. If you’re ok slumming it with a cable to plug in, much more capable batteries can be found for a third of the price.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/07/13/apple-quietly-launches-new-magsafe-battery-pack-iphone-12-series/
Google Slashes Stadia Revenue Cut in an Attempt to Attract Developers
Google has announced a significant cut in the share it takes on game sales in its Stadia game streaming service. The company will now take 15% of all sales up to $3 Million USD until 2023. This likely won’t do much to tempt larger developers to the service, but could entice some smaller and/or indie game developers to port games to Stadia. I’m not sure if this will have any significant impact, but more revenue for developers is always a good thing.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/13/22575619/google-stadia-revenue-share-developers-games-summit
Tag Heuer Announces $2200 USD Mario Themed Wear OS Smartwatch For Some Reason
Tag Heuer has a new $2200 smartwatch, limited to 2000 models produced worldwide. It features the version of WearOS that is about to be replaced by the new Wear platform, which makes it obsolete as it launches. The watch is officially licensed by Nintendo and features Mario theming in both the hardware and software.
I have no idea why this exists.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/13/22575007/tag-heuer-super-mario-connected-wearos-smartwatch
YouTube Shorts Rolls Out to 100 More Countries
If you’ve seen your YouTube app update to remove the Explore tab and replace it with Shorts, that’s because YouTube has launched Shorts in over 100 countries. YouTube Shorts are YouTubes attempt to copy Instagram Reels, because every social media app copies everything every other social media app does.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/07/13/youtube-shorts-rolls-out-globally-to-more-than-100-countries/