Новости за 08.01.2022

NASA is one large step closer to putting the James Webb Space Telescope into service. The agency has successfully deployed the JWST's signature gold-coated primary mirror, completing all major deployments for the instrument. The mission crew still has to align the telescope's optics by moving the primary mirror's segments (a months-long process), but it's a strong sign the $10 billion device is in good shape.

Ford is swamped with F-150 Lightning orders, and it's taking special steps to make sure the electric pickup truck reaches honest-to-goodness buyers. Roadshowreports Ford is now giving dealerships the option to ban customers from reselling the Lightning for up to a year after purchase. As the (since-pulled) document on the F-150 Gen 14 forums revealed, the dealer could "seek injunctive relief" to block the ownership transfer or even demand payment for "all value" generated from the sale.

Scott Pilgrim appears ready for a comeback, and not just in video games. The Hollywood Reporter has learned Netflix and Universal's UCP (the unit behind The Umbrella Academy) are developing a Scott Pilgrim anime series. It's not clear how close this will hew to the original graphic novels, but creator Bryan Lee O'Malley and 2010 movie director Edgar Wright will be executive producers.

Radar might soon find its way into more personal technology than Google's phones and smart speakers. 9to5Googlenotes Google, Ford and four other partners have published specs for a Ripple standard that could bring small radar to more devices in a "privacy-respecting" fashion. The framework, hosted by the Consumer Technology Association, theoretically lets any device maker use small-scale radar for tasks ranging from existing uses like touch-free gesture control and health monitoring through to... Читать дальше...

Spin, the e-scooter-sharing startup Ford acquired back in 2018, is shifting its focus in its quest to profitability and is exiting nearly all open permit markets globally as a result. In a post by company CEO Ben Bear, he said Spin has started winding down its operations in a few markets in the US, as well as in the entirety of Germany and Portugal. The company will also shut down its operations in Spain, which could happen sometime in February 22nd.

You can now use your phone to bet on sports if you live in New York. CNBCreports the state has legalized mobile sports betting as of January 8th. Multiple companies are already taking bets as of 9AM Eastern, including DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars Sportsbook and Rush Street Interactive. Five other companies (including BetMGM and WynnBet) have licenses, but haven't yet cleared the legal requirements.

The US digital-contact-tracing debacle

Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic

Unless you live in a few specific states, you likely never got the chance to use the contact tracing system that was the result of an unprecedented collaboration between Apple and Google. As it turns out, there are a few reasons the technology never took off in the US, from privacy concerns among the general public to the inability of the federal government to deviate from its vaccine-or-bust strategy. 

The Athletic set out to destroy newspapers. Читать дальше...

When AT&T's and Verizon's C-band 5G services go live on January 19th, they'll be implementing buffer zones around 50 airports in the US to reduce to risk of flight disruption. The Federal Aviation Administration has released a list (PDF) of the 50 airports it chose, which include major passenger hubs such as Chicago O'Hare International, Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles Int'l. As The Wall Street Journal notes, it also includes airports in foggy and cloudy locations like Seattle-Tacoma International... Читать дальше...

PayPal has been expanding its cryptocurrency business since it opened trading to all users in 2020. It allowed US customers to check out with cryptocurrency and increased its crypto buy limit over the past year. In the future, it might also offer a stablecoin of its own. Jose Fernandez da Ponte, SVP of crypto and digital currencies at PayPal, has confirmed to Bloomberg that the online payment provider is "exploring a stablecoin." He also said that the company will work closely with relevant regulators... Читать дальше...

Tesla's "full self-driving" (FSD) feature has had something of a rocky history, to put things generously. It's been implicated in multiple crashes, seemingly persistent software bugs and a cavalcade of scrutiny from a panoply of regulatorybodies. Also, it's about to cost more money. 

Turning Red, Pixar’s latest feature film, will premiere exclusively on Disney+, the studio announced on Friday. It follows Soul and Luca as the third Pixar movie to skip a theatrical release. Disney had planned to debut Turning Red in theaters, but likely due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases across the US and much of the world, that won’t happen. What hasn’t changed is the release date: the film will still debut on March 11th as originally planned.

Amazon, the second-largest employer in the US, announced today that it would be slashing its paid leave policies for workers forced to quarantine in half. The policy, instituted in March of 2020, previously provided for up to 14 days of paid leave; the new policy covers one week, or up to 40 hours.

A new playable character with an aggressive mobility-based kit isn’t the only potentially game-changing tweak coming to Valorant with the shooter’s Episode Four update on January 11th. Once the patch is live, new players will need to reach account level 20 before they can queue for competitive games. Previously, you only had to win 10 unranked matches before you could take part in competitive matchmaking.