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The New Horizons probe buzzes the most distant object ever encountered first thing tomorrow – TechCrunch

Published

4 years ago

January 1, 2019

Four billion miles from Earth, the New Horizons probe that recently sent such lovely pictures of Pluto is drawing near to the most distant object mankind has ever come close to: Ultima Thule, a mysterious rock deep in the Kuiper belt. The historic rendezvous takes place early tomorrow morning.

This is an encounter nearly 30 years in the making, if you count back to the mission’s beginnings in 1989, but it’s also been some 13 years since launch — the timing and nature of which was calculated to give the probe this opportunity after it had completed its primary mission.

New Horizons arrived at Pluto in the summer of 2015, and in its fleeting passage took thousands of photos and readings that scientists are still poring over. It taught us many things about the distant dwarf planet, but by the time it took its extraordinary parting shots of Pluto’s atmosphere, the team was already thinking about its next destination.

Given the craft’s extreme speed and the incredibly distant setting for its first mission, the options for what to investigate were limited — if you can call the billions of objects floating in the Kuiper Belt “limited.”

In fact the next destination had been chosen during a search undertaken in concert with the Hubble Space Telescope team back in 2014. Ground-based reconnaissance wasn’t exact enough, and the New Horizons had to convince Hubble’s operators basically to dedicate to their cause two weeks of the satellite’s time on short notice. After an initial rejection and “some high-stakes backroom maneuvering,” as Principal Investigator Alan Stern describes it in his book about the mission, the team made it happen, and Hubble data identified several potential targets.

Ultima Thule as first detected by New Horizons’ LORRI imager.

2014 MU69 is a rock of unknown (but probably weird) shape about 20 miles across, floating in the belt about a billion miles from Pluto. But soon it would be known by another name.

“Ultima Thule,” Stern told me in an interview onstage at Disrupt SF in September. “This is an ancient building block of planets like Pluto, formed 4 billion years ago; it’s been out there in this deep freeze, almost in absolute zero the whole time. It’s a time capsule.”

At the time, he and the team had just gotten visual confirmation of the target, though nothing more than a twinkle in the distance. He was leaving immediately after our talk to go run flyby simulations with the team.

“I’m super excited,” he told me. “That will be the most distant exploration of any world in the history of not just spaceflight, but in the history of human exploration. I don’t think anybody will top that for a long time.”

The Voyagers are the farthest human-made objects, sure, but they’ve been flying through empty space for decades. New Horizons is out here meeting strange objects in an asteroid belt. Good luck putting together another mission like that in less than a few decades.

In the time I’ve taken to write this post, New Horizons has gone from almost exactly 600,000 kilometers away from Ultima Thule to less than 538,000 (and by this you shall know my velocity) — so it’ll be there quite soon. Just about 10 hours out, making it very early morning Eastern time on New Year’s Day.

Even then, however, that’s just when New Horizons will actually encounter the object — we won’t know until the signal it sends at the speed of light arrives here on Earth 12 hours later. Pluto is far!

The first data back will confirm the telemetry and basic success of the flyby. It will also begin sending images back as soon as possible, and while it’s possible that we’ll have fabulous pictures of the object by the afternoon, it depends a great deal on how things go during the encounter. At the latest we’ll see some by the next day; media briefings are planned for January 2 and 3 for this purpose.

Once those images start flowing in, though, they may be even better in a way than those we got of Pluto. If all goes well, they’ll be capturing photos at a resolution of 35 meters per pixel, more than twice as good as the 70-80 m/px we got of Pluto. Note that these will only come later, after some basic shots confirming the flyby went as planned and allowing the team to better sort through the raw data coming in.

“You should know that that these stretch-goal observations are risky,” wrote Stern in a post on the mission’s page, “requiring us to know exactly where both Ultima and New Horizons are as they pass one another at over 32,000 mph in the darkness of the Kuiper Belt… But with risk comes reward, and we would rather try than not try to get these, and that is what we will do.”

NASA public relations and other staff are still affected by the federal shutdown, but the New Horizons team will be covering the signal acquisition and first data live anyway; follow the mission on Twitter or check in to the NASA Live stream tomorrow morning at 7 AM Pacific time for the whole program. The schedule and lots of links can be found here.

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Gadgets

Apple rolls out iOS 16.4 and macOS Ventura 13.3 with new emoji and features

Published

2 hours ago

March 27, 2023

Francisco Peguero

Enlarge / The 2021, 24-inch iMac with Apple’s M1.

Samuel Axon

Apple released new updates for most of its software platforms today, including macOS Ventura 13.3, iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, tvOS 16.4, and watchOS 9.4.

These are all feature updates, meaning they actually add new functionality in addition to fixing bugs or addressing security vulnerabilities.

iOS and iPadOS 16.4 add a number of minor features. The headliner is (of course) 21 new emojis, like new heart colors, additional animals, and a shaking head. Beyond that, though, Apple says you’ll see improved voice isolation on phone calls, support for notifications from web apps that have been added to your phone’s home screen, new ways to weed out duplicates in your Photos library, and a number of bug fixes.

As far as accessibility goes, iOS and iPadOS can now automatically dim the screen when a video with flashing lights is playing, and VoiceOver is now supported in the maps found inside the Weather app.

tvOS 16.4 has only one listed change: the flashing lights protection feature we just mentioned for iOS and iPadOS.

On the Apple Watch side, watchOS 9.4 is mostly about bringing features to new regions. Cycle Tracking is now supported in Moldova and Ukraine, and AFib history has made it to those two regions as well, plus Colombia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Then there’s the other big one: macOS Ventura 13.3. It includes several of the same features as iOS 16.4, including the new emoji, Photos duplicate album, and accessibility features. It also adds a “move background” feature in Apple’s visual note-taking app Freeform, which “isolates the subject in your image.” There are also some macOS-specific bug fixes, and you’ll find expanded language support for the keyboard.

iOS 16.4 release notes

This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:

21 new emoji including animals, hand gestures, and objects are now available in emoji keyboard

Notifications for web apps added to the Home Screen

Voice Isolation for cellular calls prioritizes your voice and blocks out ambient noise around you

Duplicates album in Photos expands support to detect duplicate photos and videos in an iCloud Shared Photo Library

VoiceOver support for maps in the Weather app

Accessibility setting to automatically dim video when flashes of light or strobe effects are detected

Fixes an issue where Ask to Buy requests from children may fail to appear on the parent’s device

Addresses issues where Matter-compatible thermostats could become unresponsive when paired to Apple Home

Crash Detection optimizations on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models

macOS Ventura 13.3 release notes

This update includes new emoji along with other enhancements, bug fixes, and security updates for your Mac.

21 new emoji including animals, hand gestures, and objects are now available in emoji keyboard

Remove background option in Freeform automatically isolates the subject in your image

Photos duplicates album expands support to detect duplicate photos and videos in an iCloud Shared Photo Library

Transliteration support for Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu keyboards

New keyboard layouts for Choctaw, Chickasaw, Akan, Hausa, and Yoruba

Accessibility setting to automatically dim video when flashes of light or strobe effects are detected

VoiceOver support for maps in the Weather app

Resolves an issue where Trackpad gestures may occasionally stop responding

Fixes an issue where Ask to Buy requests from children may fail to appear on the parent’s device

Addresses an issue where VoiceOver may be unresponsive after using Finder

Gadgets

Dealmaster: 1-day-only Nintendo Switch, Microsoft 365 deals; plus PS5 and AirTags

Published

3 hours ago

March 27, 2023

Francisco Peguero

Enlarge / The new OLED Switch above its predecessor.

Sam Machkovech

Kicking off the week, we have a couple of today-only sales, including a rare discount on Nintendo’s Switch OLED and a free $50 Amazon gift card deal on Microsoft’s 365 Family office software. There are also price cuts on the PS5 God of War Ragnarök bundle and Apple’s four-pack of AirTags.

Nintendo Switch OLED for $310 ($350)

Nintendo’s Switch OLED is the best Switch console that money can buy. In our review, we praised the larger, upgraded display’s completely blacked-out pixels and infinite contrast ratio whether gaming before bed or during the day. We also appreciated the bigger, sturdier hinge, ethernet-toting dock, and 64GB standard storage, as opposed to 32GB on other Switch models.

We still think the Switch Lite is an unbeatable deal in portable gaming for $200, but for those among us who like the best of the best, the Switch OLED is the ultimate portable gaming device. With today’s one-day-only $40 discount, it’s a bit more affordable now, too. Samsung’s 256 GB microSD Evo Select is also on sale for $20, which pairs well with the Switch for game storage.

PS5 God of War Ragnarök bundle for $510 ($560)

There’s not a lot we can say about the powerful, at times elusive PS5 that hasn’t already been said. Games load quickly thanks to built-in NVMe storage; it also includes an innovative controller; and the cooling fans are quieter and more efficient than on the PS4. The new DualSense controller also combines haptics and audio for a truly unique and immersive gaming experience, while also offering headset-free chat with a built-in speaker. As more legacy games migrate to PS5 and newer titles emerge, the value of PS5 only grows, making it a more enticing upgrade for PS4 owners since its launch. The God of War Ragnarök bundle is $50 off, which is the lowest we’ve seen for this bundle.

AirTags are the best way to find your lost stuff, if you're an iPhone user. — Enlarge / AirTags are the best way to find your lost stuff, if you’re an iPhone user.

Samuel Axon

Apple AirTags four-pack for $90 ($100)

AirTags are arguably the most capable item trackers on the market. The main reason for that is the theoretically endless range. Essentially, wherever there’s an iPhone or capable iDevice, there’s hope to find your lost item. The more devices in the area the better, so AirTags are ideal for densely to moderately populated areas. Without iDevices in the vicinity, they won’t do much for you, so they may not be the best pick if you’re more concerned with losing something on a mountain hike or romp through the forest. This deal gives you four AirTag trackers at a $10 discount from their typical price.

Enlarge / Microsoft 365 encompasses Teams, OneDrive, and the suite of productivity apps formerly known as Office. The Family version also offers 1TB of cloud storage per user.

Microsoft

Microsoft 365 Family office suite and $50 Amazon gift card for $100 ($150)

Work applications and deployments for Microsoft’s suite aside, if you and your family prefer creating and editing documents offline but also value vast online storage amounts, then this deal on Microsoft 365 Family is just for you. Today only, the gold standard of office software is on sale for $100 right now on Amazon with a free $50 Amazon gift card. That gives you six installations of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Skype, and Teams, along with six separate 1TB cloud storage spaces on OneDrive, and a $50 Amazon gift card. If you’re already a subscriber, you can stack years and pocket a nice $50 bonus.

Gadgets

Google is killing most of Fitbit’s social features today

Published

4 hours ago

March 27, 2023

Francisco Peguero

Enlarge / Fitbit’s now-dead Challenges feature.

Today’s the day for Google’s biggest change yet to Fitbit: It’s shutting down some more features. As Google announced in February, the popular fitness gamification features, Fitbit “Challenges” and “Adventures,” are being shut down today. Google is also removing the “Open Group” social networking feature.

Getting motivated to work out is tough for some people, so Fitbit’s software included a few ways to gamify fitness to keep people interested. Challenges were introduced in 2014 as a way to share and compare your step counts with friends, hopefully motivating both of you to get more exercise. The feature came with badges that could be earned for specific tasks and trophies for winning a battle. Adventures were announced in 2017 as location-specific challenges that highlighted local places that were good for exercise and hiking, like national parks and landmarks. You could tackle these areas solo at your own pace or participate in multiplayer “Adventure Races” where you could track your hiking speed or progress against other Fitbit users. This seems like something that would only get better with Google Maps integration. Oh, well.

Adventures, Challenges, and all player-earned trophies and badges are going away today. The Fitbit community on Reddit has been furious over the feature removals, with the most popular post of the past year being a call to cancel your Fitbit Premium subscription over the changes. On Twitter, Fitbit tried celebrating the company’s birthday yesterday, but nearly all the replies were about the feature shutdown and what other services people should switch to. Several users have confirmed today that the features are dead.

Enlarge / Adventures would have people battle it out in real-life hiking locations.

Fitbit

Google announced it would be acquiring Fitbit in 2019, and at the time, it described the deal by saying, “We see an opportunity to invest even more in Wear OS as well as introduce Made by Google wearable devices into the market.” Google’s blog post did not make any mention of continuing to produce or support Fitbit’s existing products and services, and rather than some kind of promise to supercharge Fitbit with Google technology, the blog post made it sound like Fitbit would be stripped for parts.

So far, we haven’t seen anything from Google to dissuade us from the initial impression that Fitbit will be slowly killed. Google announced plans to shut down the Fitbit account system sometime this year and move existing users to Google accounts. Google killed Fitbit’s PC and Mac syncing last year, so it’s no longer possible to load music onto the wearables. Fitbit Studio, a browser-based SDK for developing Fitbit apps, was given an April 20 shutdown date last month. Fitbit’s latest product launch, the Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4, brought big feature regressions compared to the old models. They were stripped of the Fitbit app store, Google Assistant, Wi-Fi support, and music controls.

The only non-shutdown action we’ve seen Google do with Fitbit is rush a half-baked Fitbit app out the door exclusively for the Pixel Watch. That Fitbit app is both worse than a real Fitbit and worse than Wear OS’ previous Google Fit app, before Google stripped out the advanced weight training options in 2020. There’s also Fitbit Premium on the Pixel Watch, a $10-a-month subscription service that enables some sleep-tracking features and new statistics. Is this the future of Fitbit? Some software? An app that replaces Google Fit? It’s still hard to say. Whatever Google’s plans for the future are, we can’t imagine that stripping all the key social features away from the existing community will earn it many repeat customers.