Though some are quick to assume that if a home has been on the market for more than a week or two, something has to be wrong with it—especially if its listing price drops—that’s not necessarily the case.
Source: LifeHacker – The Best Day to Browse Discounted Real Estate Listings
“American billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates has pledged to use 5.4% of his net worth to finance Africa’s health and agriculture sectors,” reports Quartz, “which he believes anchor the continent’s progress.”
Since landing in Nairobi on Nov.15, Gates has visited both rural and urban parts of the country, including primary healthcare centers, medical and agricultural research institutes, and smallholder farms to understand “what approaches are making an impact, and what obstacles remain.”
His tour culminated in a town hall meeting with hundreds of students at the University of Nairobi on Nov. 17 where he announced $7 billion funding to help Africa fight diseases and boost agricultural capacity in the next four years.
“The big global challenges we face are persistent. But we have to remember, so are the people solving them,” said Gates. He added that his foundation will keep finding solutions to improving the two sectors “and the systems to get them out of the labs and to the people who need them.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Bill Gates Pledges 5% of His Wealth to Africa’s Health and Agriculture
The Orion crew vehicle is exceeding expectations on its way to the Moon. NASA provided an update on Artemis 1 following the mission’s successful launch early Wednesday morning. “Orion has been performing great so far,” Vehicle Integration Manager Jim Geffre said during a press briefing NASA held on Friday. “All of the systems are exceeding expectations from a performance standpoint.”
Artemis 1 seeks to confirm the crew vehicle can safely carry human astronauts to Earth’s natural satellite. The journey marks Orion’s first trip beyond our planet’s orbit. In 2014, the spacecraft completed a two-orbit test flight around Earth. A successful flight would pave the way for a manned mission to the Moon and eventually NASA’s first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.
.@NASA_Orion is performing extremely well and is now more than halfway to the Moon. Since launch, we’ve tested the optical navigation system and performed external inspections to assess the Orion’s condition. Latest updates on #Artemis I are available at https://t.co/gqViM3Tl9Q. pic.twitter.com/aKdvGuDAhs
— Jim Free (@JimFree) November 19, 2022
The agency expects Artemis 1 to reach the Moon on November 21st. At that point, the spacecraft will perform the first of four main engine burns NASA has planned for the mission. At times, Orion will fly little more than 81 miles (130 kilometers) above the lunar surface. “We will be passing over some of the Apollo landing sites,” Flight Director Jeff Radigan said. Four days later, NASA plans to conduct a second burn to put Orion in a distant orbit around the Moon before finally setting the spacecraft on a return trajectory toward the Earth. If all goes according to plan, Orion will land in the Pacific Ocean on December 11th.
Orion’s early successes are a welcome development after the troubles NASA encountered with its Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket. The space agency was forced to delay the launch of Artemis 1 multiple times due to engine problems, hydrogen fuel leaks and hurricane-force winds. Early Wednesday morning, it appeared that the agency would be forced to delay the mission again after the SLS ground team discovered a leak in one of the fuel lines on the rocket’s launch tower. However, after NASA personnel tightened some bolts, the SLS lifted off, creating a dazzling nighttime display.
Source: Engadget – NASA’s Orion spacecraft on track to begin Moon flyby on November 21st
Apple Stickies is a small utility that lets users keep notes, lists and pictures in sticky notes on the desktop.
Source: LXer – Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Apple Stickies
The first real information rollout for Indiana Jones 5 has begun ahead of the untitled film’s June 2023 release. What’s intended to be the for real sendoff for Harrison Ford’s treasure hunter has some new faces showing up, including Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen. It didn’t take long for folks to suspect that …
Source: Gizmodo – Meet Mads Mikkelsen’s NASA Nazi for Indiana Jones 5
The Browser Company’s Chromium-based Arc browser “isn’t perfect, and it takes some getting used to,” writes the Verge. “But it’s full of big new ideas about how we should interact with the web — and it’s right about most of them.”
Arc wants to be the web’s operating system. So it built a bunch of tools that make it easier to control apps and content, turned tabs and bookmarks into something more like an app launcher, and built a few platform-wide apps of its own. The app is much more opinionated and much more complicated than your average browser with its row of same-y tabs at the top of the screen. Another way to think about it is that Arc treats the web the way TikTok treats video: not as a fixed thing for you to consume but as a set of endlessly remixable components for you to pull apart, play with, and use to create something of your own. Want something to look better or have an idea for what to do with it? Go for it.
This is a fun moment in the web browser industry. After more than a decade of total Chrome dominance, users are looking elsewhere for more features, more privacy, and better UI. Vivaldi has some really clever features; SigmaOS is also betting on browsers as operating systems; Brave has smart ideas about privacy; even Edge and Firefox are getting better fast. But Arc is the biggest swing of them all: an attempt to not just improve the browser but reinvent it entirely….
Right now, Arc is only available for the Mac, but the company has said it’s also working on Windows and mobile versions, both due next year. It’s still in a waitlisted beta and is still very much a beta app, with some basic features missing, other features still in flux, and a few deeply annoying bugs. But Arc’s big ideas are the right ones. I don’t know if The Browser Company is poised to take on giants and win the next generation of the browser wars, but I’d bet that the future of browsers looks a lot like Arc….
In a way, Arc is more like ChromeOS than Chrome. It tries to expand the browser to become the only app you need because, in a world where all your apps are web apps and all your files are URLs, who really needs more than a browser?
The article describes Arc as a power user tool with vertical sidebar combining bookmarks, tabs, and apps. (And sets of these can apparently be combined into different “spaces”.) These are enhanced with a hefty set of keyboard shortcuts (including tab searching), along with built-in media controls for Twitch/Spotify/Google Meet (as well as a picture-in-picture mode). BR.
Arc even has a shareable, collaborative whiteboard app “Easel”. And it also offers powerful features like the ability to rewrite how your browser displays any site’s CSS. (“I have one that removes the Trending sidebar from Twitter and another that cleans up my Gmail page.”)
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – ‘The Arc Browser is the Chrome Replacement I’ve Been Waiting For’
It’s almost Thanksgiving here in the U.S., and early Black Friday deals continue to hit the web. Today we have a bunch of interesting offerings from Lenovo, HP, Dell, and more for some fantastic gaming laptop deals…
First, we have the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3, 2022 edition pictured at the top of the page. This laptop houses an NVIDIA GeForce
Source: Hot Hardware – Best Black Friday Gaming Laptop Deals Are Ready To Frag Out Now Up To 33% Off
“Dear internet service providers of America: We’re onto your tricks,” writes Washington Post technology columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler:
Last year, I encouraged Washington Post readers to participate in a major nationwide study of ISPs by uploading a copy of their monthly bills to Fight for Fair Internet, a project of Consumer Reports and other partners. Some 22,000 Americans did, and the results released Thursday reveal the many ways internet and cable companies get away with jacking up our bills.
For you and me, the study of big and small ISPs alike offers a clearer view of their worst behaviors — and how to fight back. The most important cost-saving lesson: Calling up and threatening to quit your internet service works. It’s super annoying, I know, but Verizon (for example) applied discounts to 58 percent of the bills people submitted, with an astounding monthly median discount of $40.
The study’s spotlight on ISP tricks, including bogus fees, data caps and wildly inconsistent pricing, also is fresh evidence that in many parts of the United States, there just isn’t a competitive market for internet service. Who would put up with it if there were? About 200 million people live in parts of the country with only one or two choices for reliable, fast internet, according to a 2021 report from the White House.
The report identified the U.S. internet providers charging the highest equipment rental fees (Wave Broadband) and the highest data-cap fees (Cox Communications), as well as the ones with the lowest and highest monthly service fees. But in addition, Consumer Reports notes that “Download speeds routinely fail to match the advertised ‘up to’ speeds of several ISPs. This was especially true of consumers paying for ‘premium’ plans purporting to offer download speeds of between 940 and 1,200 Mbps, who in fact experienced median speeds of between 360 and 373 Mbps.”
The Washington Post highlights one case “Where you might pay more for less: AT&T”
On volunteer bills, AT&T’s median pricing across different speed plans was all over the map. People getting:
12 mbps paid $63.
45 mbps paid $80.
100 mbps paid $60.
1000 mbps paid $80.
Why should people who aren’t even getting minimum broadband speeds (25 mbps) be paying more than people getting zippy service? ISPs can and will charge whatever they can get away with in your neighborhood.
“The charges on those bills may reflect older plans that we no longer sell,” said AT&T spokesman Jim Kimberly. “Customers with older plans can check on our website or call in to see if a lower cost offer is available to them for faster speeds and switch service.”
That’s another lesson for all of us: It’s always worth checking to see if there’s a new deal available. Unlike the cellphone carriers, ISPs rarely proactively switch consumers into cheaper or better plans.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Nationwide Study of US ISPs Finds Slower-than-Advertised Downloads and Inconsistent Pricing
Google Maps is making it easier to find Grandma’s house this Thanksgiving, and all of the stores for your out-of-town Black Friday shopping spree. If you happen to be in select cities, you can use a new AI visual search experience as well.
Many love to travel during the holidays. Sometimes this means visiting cities you are not familiar
Source: Hot Hardware – Google Maps Live View Feature Helps Get You Home For The Holidays With AR
Google paid Activision Blizzard approximately $360 million to prevent the troubled publisher from competing directly against the Play Store. The deal was one among at least 24 agreements the search giant signed as part of its Project Hug initiative, according to court documents seen by Reuters.
The financial details of Project Hug – later known as the Apps and Games Velocity Program – are at the center of the ongoing antitrust lawsuit between Epic Games and Google. In 2021, the studio alleged Google had spent millions of dollars in incentives to keep big app developers on the Play Store. This week, a newly unredacted version of Epic’s complaint was made public, providing previously unknown details about the scope of the Apps and Games Velocity Program.
According to the court documents, Google also signed deals with Nintendo, Ubisoft and Riot Games. In the case of Riot, Google paid about $30 million to “stop” the League of Legends studio from pushing forward with its own “in-house ‘app store’ efforts,” Epic alleges. Riot Games did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment.
The lawsuit alleges Google knew signing with Activision would prompt the publisher to “abandon its plans to launch a competing app store,” a claim Activision disputes. “Google never asked us, pressured us, or made us agree not to compete with Google Play,” an Activision spokesperson told Reuters. “Epic’s allegations are nonsense.”
Google did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. The company previously said it was “looking forward to setting the record straight” on Epic’s “inaccurate” claims.
“The program on which Epic and Match base their claims simply provides incentives for developers to give benefits and early access to Google Play users when they release new or updated content; it does not prevent developers from creating competing app stores, as they allege,” Google told Engadget in October after Epic and Match filed a motion to bring additional charges against the company. “In fact, the program is proof that Google Play competes fairly with numerous rivals for developers, who have a number of choices for operating systems and app stores.”
Source: Engadget – Epic lawsuit claims Google paid Activision Blizzard 0 million to prevent Play Store rival
There’ve been so many superhero movies that have come out since 1998 that nearly every one of them has someone go to their defense. Think of whatever’s considered the worst MCU movie, or the worst movie in the X-Men or Spider-Man franchises, and you can probably name someone who would tell you that those entries are…
Source: Gizmodo – Who the Hell Was Whedon’s Justice League For?
OnLogic just unveiled the Factor 200 Series which is built around the Raspberry Pi CM4. The new Factor is very similar to the Factor 201 released earlier this year, except that this version also includes a 2.7” capacitive touchscreen plus analog I/Os (DIO & AIO). As its predecessor, the Factor 202 is powered by the […]
Source: LXer – OnLogic expands Raspberry Pi-powered industrial computing devices
The Guardian notes that “While leap seconds pass by unnoticed for most people, they can cause problems for a range of systems that require an exact, uninterrupted flow of time, such as satellite navigation, software, telecommunication, trade and even space travel.”
So now Nature magazine reports that “The practice of adding ‘leap seconds’ to official clocks to keep them in sync with Earth’s rotation will be put on hold from 2035, the world’s foremost metrology body has decided.”
The decision was made by representatives from governments worldwide at the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) outside Paris on 18 November. It means that from 2035, or possibly earlier, astronomical time (known as UT1) will be allowed to diverge by more than one second from coordinated universal time (UTC), which is based on the steady tick of atomic clocks. Since 1972, whenever the two time systems have drifted apart by more than 0.9 seconds, a leap second has been added….
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, and Google are among the tech companies that have called for leap seconds to be scrapped. The CGPM — which also oversees the international system of units (SI) — has proposed that no leap second should be added for at least a century, allowing UT1 and UTC to slide out of sync by about 1 minute. But it plans to consult with other international organizations and decide by 2026 on what upper limit, if any, to put on how much they be allowed to diverge….
Although in the long term Earth’s rotation slows due to the pull of the Moon, a speed-up since 2020 has also made the issue more pressing, because for the first time, a leap second might need to be removed, rather than added. UTC has only ever had to slow a beat to wait for Earth, not skip ahead to catch up with it. “It’s kind of being described as a Y2K issue, because it’s just something that we’ve never had to deal with,” said Elizabeth Donley, who leads the Time and Frequency division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in Boulder, Colorado.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – The World Votes to Stop Adding ‘Leap Seconds’ to Official Clocks
GIMP 2.99.14 is out this weekend as the latest development release on the way toward the elusive GIMP 3.0…
Source: Phoronix – GIMP 2.99.14 Released As Another Step Toward GIMP 3.0
While you may have a big list of gifts to get for others over the next couple of weeks, now is a good time to pick up things for yourself as well. There’s arguably no better time of the year to pick up expensive gadgets like robot vacuums since most of them will be on sale. Wellbots is kicking things off early this year in the smart home space by discounting both the iRobot j7 and j7+ vacuums, bringing them down to $349 and $599, respectively, when you use the codes ENG250 and ENG200 at checkout.
Buy Roomba j7 at Wellbots – $349Buy Roomba j7+ at Wellbots – $599
These are essentially the same robot vacuum, but the “plus” variant comes with a clean base. If you’re unfamiliar, clean bases are basically garbage cans attached to the robot’s charging base, and the vacuum will automatically empty its bin into the base after each job. If vacuuming is one of your least favorite chores, getting a robo-vac with a clean base makes it so you only have to interact with your cleaning robot once a month or so when you need to change out the base’s bag.
The Roomba j7 series came out last year and it features upgraded AI-driven computer vision that gives it improved obstacle avoidance. It’ll maneuver its way around chairs, table legs and more with ease, plus that enhanced technology should help it avoid an instances of a robo-vac’s worst enemy: pet poop. The j7 earned a spot in our best robot vacuum guide for its solid obstacle avoidance, plus its strong suction power, accurate home mapping and the ease of use of its companion app. iRobot’s mobile app will be easy for even novices to learn, and it lets you set cleaning schedules, remotely control the vacuum and more from anywhere.
In this sale, the $600 Roomba j7+ is the same price as the j7 usually is without the clean base, which makes the higher-end configuration even more compelling. However, if you’re on a tighter budget, you can skip the clean base and get all of the same cleaning technology for only $350.
Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.
Source: Engadget – iRobot’s Roomba j7 robot vacuum is cheaper than ever ahead of Black Friday
For the first time, America’s Food and Drug Administration has “approved a treatment that can delay the onset of Type 1 diabetes,” reports ABC News:
Teplizumab, a monoclonal antibody that will be marketed under the brand name Tzield from pharmaceutical companies ProventionBio and Sanofi, is administered through intravenous infusion. The injection was shown in clinical trials to delay onset of insulin-dependent Type 1 diabetes for patients with autoantibody markers of early risk by over two years, with hopes for some that it can delay onset even longer…. Tzield was approved to delay the onset of stage 3 Type 1 diabetes in adults and children ages 8 and up who currently have stage 2 Type 1 diabetes.
The medication is thought to slow down the body’s attack on its own insulin-producing cells and thus give people more time before they become dependent on pharmaceutical insulin. Tzield is not suitable for people with insulin-dependent Type 1 diabetes, people who are pre-Type 2 diabetics or those with type 2 diabetes. “This approval is a watershed moment for the treatment and prevention of type 1 diabetes,” said Dr. Mark S. Anderson, director of the University of California San Francisco Diabetes Center. “Until now, the only real therapy for patients has been a lifetime of insulin replacement. This new therapy targets and helps to halt the autoimmune process that leads to the loss of insulin….”
Studies have shown that 75% of people with these diagnostic markers usually become insulin-dependent within five years and nearly 100% at some point in their lifetime.
ABC News also shares this quote from Dr. John Sharretts, director of the Division of Diabetes, Lipid Disorders, and Obesity in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “The drug’s potential to delay clinical diagnosis of type 1 diabetes may provide patients with months to years without the burdens of disease.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – FDA Approves a Treatment that Delays Onset of Type 1 Diabetes
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has managed to catapult several actors to stardom, and Chris Hemsworth is one of its best poster boys. Previously best known for playing Kirk’s dad in the opening minutes of Star Trek’s 2009 reboot, the first Thor movie from 2011 supercharged his career like a bolt of lightning, to the…
Source: Gizmodo – Chris Hemsworth’s Taking an Acting Break, and Maybe a Permanent Thor Break
Playing in the NFL is tough and many players leave because of career-ending injuries or bad seasons. But after seven years in the league, Las Vegas Raiders linebacker Blake Martinez has retired mid-season for a different reason: He’s making enough money selling Pokémon cards—recently selling a very rare card for…
Source: Kotaku – NFL Linebacker Retires After Selling Rare Pokémon Card For Over 0,000
Tesla has issued a recall for 29,348 Model X vehicles, because their airbag might deploy incorrectly in some situations. This recall affects 2021 to 2023 Model X cars manufactured for customers in the US. According to the recall notice (PDF) published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the restraint control module calibration on those specific vehicles could cause the frontal passenger airbag to deploy “in an unintended configuration during certain low-speed collision events.”
While the notice didn’t illustrate the airbag’s “unintended configuration,” it said that it would result in noncompliance of the law when a child around three to six years old is seating in the front passenger seat without a seatbelt and out of position. Reuters notes Tesla’s shares fell by 3 percent after the recall was published, leading to its lowest in nearly two years, but it’s worth noting that the company says it’s not aware of any “warranty claims, field reports, crashes, injuries, or deaths related to this condition.”
Earlier this month, Tesla also recalled 40,168 Model S and Model X vehicles over a software defect that could potentially cut power steering assistance due to potholes and other bumps on the road. And in September, it issued a recall for over a million vehicles because their window automatic reversal system could malfunction and pinch the driver or passenger.
Like those other recalls, though, owners don’t have to turn their vehicles in or go anywhere for a fix at all. The issue can be fixed by an over-the-air firmware update, which the automaker will roll out to all affected vehicles.
Source: Engadget – Tesla recalls 30,000 Model X cars due to faulty airbag behavior
When it comes to smart locks, August’s 4th-gen WiFi model is one of our favorites. The device typically costs $230, but you can snag it for a solid discount ahead of Black Friday. Use the code ENGLOCK when you check out at Wellbots, and you’ll get $55 off. That means you’ll get the August WiFi smart lock for $174. While that’s not the best deal we’ve seen for the product, it’s still a good price.
Buy August WiFi smart lock (4th-gen) at Wellbots – $174
We gave the smart lock, which is available in black or silver, a score of 80 in our review. We liked the fact that it’s easy to install (it should fit over most existing deadbolts) and that it won’t take up too much real estate on your door. It’s slimmer than previous versions. Another big plus is that it’s WiFi-connected and doesn’t require a bridge to operate it. On the downside, the smart lock only works with 2.4GHz WiFi networks, so you’ll need to make sure your router is set up for that.
You’ll be able to lock and unlock the door remotely, which could come in handy if a friend is stopping by to check on your home and water the plants while you’re on vacation. There’s the option to provide folks with timed-entry keys, meaning that they’ll be able to enter a home on their own without having to wait for the resident to unlock the door manually. Because the August smart lock fits over an existing deadbolt, you’ll still be able to use your same physical keys to open your door — so don’t worry too much about the power going out when you’re away from home.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Source: Engadget – August’s WiFi smart lock is off ahead of Black Friday