Astronomers at Caltech have made an interesting discovery using the Caltech Zwicky Transient Facility or ZTF. ZTF is a survey camera that is based at the Palomar observatory. What the researchers have discovered is a new asteroid, dubbed 2020 AV2, that orbits entirely within the orbit of Venus. The scientist say the only way the asteroid will ever get out of its orbit is if it is flung out via a gravitational encounter with Mercury or Venus.

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The dream of a truly free as in speech, open source smartphone running Linux has never truly died. It just took on various forms and suffered numerous setbacks along the way. Last year, however, it seemed that the dream is finally close to becoming reality, with both the Purism Librem 5 and the PINE64 PinePhone declaring shipping dates. The Librem 5 had a rocky head start and now it's the PinePhone BraveHeart edition's turn to try convincing the world that a Linux phone for consumers is not such a bad idea after all.

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The Pixel 4 may have been a dud rather than a bang when it came to hardware but, as with other Pixels before it, Google has more or less made up for it in terms of software. In addition to the usual AI-based camera tricks, the Pixel 4 flaunted a few features that, technically speaking, is part of the general Android 10 release. That includes Live Captions, which is now available on all Pixel phones except, of course, the now unsupported OG Pixel.

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Apple buys smaller tech companies from time to time, as its own PR would reply to inquiries. It's no that often, however, that you hear of such an acquisition causing a different company direct problems. That's exactly the strange situation behind Apple's reported purchase of Seattle-based startup Xnor.ai which is apparently the real reason why Wyze is losing a key feature of its smart security cameras.

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The audio equipment industry has experienced a dramatic change in the past few years. Especially thanks to smartphones, there has been a greater focus on wireless audio streaming which did catch a few companies a bit off-guard. Consumer buying habits have also changed over the course of the years, with more and more people becoming more comfortable buying things online rather than walking into physical stores. It is at least only for the latter reason that Bose is closing up almost half of its shops around the world and not because it's losing its market share.

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Having a Google account can open up doors to not just Google's own services but third-parties that use its single sign-on feature as well. That makes it even more tempting for hackers to compromise such an account and potentially pilfer critical and even risky personal information. Google's Advanced Protection Program aims to harden Google accounts from such attempts and it is now making it dead easy to set up one as long as you have an Android phone or even an iPhone.

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OnePlus' much-publicized philosophy is to never give its customers a subpar or expensive experience exchange for new, fancy features that won't benefit anyone. The company has stuck to that except when it doesn't, like when it did remove the headphone jack just in time for it to launch its own wireless earbuds. It still hasn't yielded ground to wireless charging, at least not yet, and it seems that the latest trend it is saying no to is foldable phones.

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Notifications are the bane of mobile life and numerous tools and articles have been made to help people get them under control. Many apps and mobile platforms themselves actually have functionality to turn off or at least dial down such notifications but the mere inertia needed to configure them has, unsurprisingly, turned many away. Now Google is taking matters into its own hands by removing one of the Play Store's update-related notifications though the end result might still be debatable.

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Epic Games released a major update for Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 1 today, adding in a new weapon upgrade ability and more. Following the update are new discoveries shared by data miners, including evidence of an upcoming Limited Time Mode (LTM) that will be called 'Search and Destroy.' The LTM will be involved in a new series of challenges that unlock new rewards.

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Google is one company that doesn't shy away from killing off products, whether or not people have become dependent on them. Sometimes, like with the case of Google+, the impact may not have been so severe. Other times, it sends users into a riot, like with Inbox by Gmail, Chrome Apps sit somewhere in between but, as always, Google's word is pretty much final and users will have to bid farewell to these apps as early as June this year.

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A load of Fitbit customers just received a new feature that works with the hardware they already own: blood oxygen monitoring. The feature was added at the software level, meaning it can now be accessed and used within the Fitbit mobile app. Blood oxygen monitoring is available on Fitbit wearables that have a built-in heart rate monitor.

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Porsche has a pair of new sports cars likely to go down well with purists, and if you enjoy rowing your own gears and the sound of a naturally-aspirated boxer engine, you may fit that category nicely. The Porsche 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 and 2021 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 each check off a number of performance options as standard, which should make for some fun on - and off - the track.

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