One of the mission experiments aboard the InSight Lander that scientists worked to deploy on Mars was the heat probe known as the "mole" developed by the German Aerospace Center. The heat probe has been unable to gain the friction it needs to dig into the Martian soil. While the overall InSight mission has been granted an extension, the mole has ended its portion of the mission.
In the same way the French Renaissance ignited the artistic and cultural movement between the 15th and 17th century, Renault’s 5 prototype is ushering the brand’s Nouvelle Vague (or New Wave) era by transitioning from a dedicated car builder into an all-in-one technology company.
Honda has announced that the redesigned Ridgeline pickup will land at Honda dealerships starting on February 2. For 2021, the Ridgeline has an all-new exterior that looks more rugged and truck-like than past models. While the exterior is completely redone, the truck still comes with a standard V-6 engine, fully independent suspension, and standard torque-vectoring all-wheel drive.
Belkin has unveiled new accessories in the audio and charging segments, including its Soundform Audio and Boostcharge mobile power accessories. The earbuds add new device location features that leverage Apple's Find My network, and the charger adds to the line of MagSafe compatible products. The first product is the Soundform Freedom True Wireless Earbuds.
NASA has analyzed the Earth's global average surface temperature during 2020 and found that the year tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record. NASA says the planet's long-term warming trend continued with 2020s global average temperature 1.84 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the baseline 1951 through 1980 mean. NASA says that 2020 edged out 2016 by a tiny amount within the margin of error for the analysis, effectively tying 2020 and 2016 for the warmest year on record.
Kia is reinventing its brand strategy and corporate mission with a literal bang. Most recently, Kia presented its new logo to the world by commissioning a world-beating fireworks display, an innocuous message of the brand’s promise in solidifying its presence in the ever-changing automotive industry.
NASA has announced that the Orion spacecraft used for the Artemis I mission has completed its time in the Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building. The spaceship was hoisted from the stand in that building where it was outfitted with components, and systems were tested to ensure it was mission ready. With assembly complete, the spacecraft has been moved to the NASA Exploration Ground Systems team responsible for processing the Orion spacecraft for its launch later this year.
It has been less than two years since Apple retired the venerable iTunes, both the brand and the app. But while Apple itself has already moved on with its separate apps, those on Windows are still living in the past with an old version of iTunes. That, however, may soon be a thing of the past, too, if these rumors of Apple Music and Apple Podcasts coming to Windows have meat to them.
Samsung doesn't always have the best naming conventions, especially when it suddenly skips a number for no apparent reason. At the virtual IFA 2020 event last year, it announced its Galaxy Book Flex 5G, boasting of a few firsts for any Samsung laptop. That was followed by silence, at least until now. On the heels of its Galaxy S21 event, Samsung is finally making that 2-in-1 convertible available, at least in the UK and under a bumped up Galaxy Book Flex2 5G name.
Although Steam has become the de facto game store and community platform on PCs, almost every major publisher has its own little island to speak of. Actually predating even Steam, Blizzard's (now Activision Blizzard) Battle.net has always been the go-to for fans of Diablo, WarCraft, and, more recently, Overwatch. Despite its heavy use, the Internet portal turned Desktop app hasn't seen much action in terms of design. The latest update doesn't exactly overhaul Battle.net but it does finally let it catch up to its peers.
Every music and audio provider naturally wants to be anywhere it would be safe to listen. Cars are definitely one of those places, especially compared to watching videos or even looking at notifications. Thanks to automotive infotainment platforms like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, it's almost too easy for these services to become available to drivers and passengers. Spotify, however, might be cooking up something a tad different but its "Car Thing" might end up looking more like a weird abomination than something like a Spotify for Cars.
Samsung just announced the Galaxy Buds Pro that is the company's take on the AirPods Pro. It might, however, still have a lot of ground to cover to catch up, especially when it comes to support from content providers and streaming services. Apple's AirPods Pro and AirPods Max already have a few of those popular services supporting their Spatial Audio feature and now it seems that Netflix will finally be catching up soon.