LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 31, 2023--

The UK and Welsh government have banned the app from staff phones over security concerns.

Meta has proposed a monthly fee for European users to access its social networks without advertising.

Amazon will pay more than $30 million to settle alleged privacy violations involving its voice assistant Alexa and its doorbell camera Ring

Ludwig is organizing World's Greatest Gamer event where big names in the industry will take part

John Warnock worked at Xerox before founding a company in 1982 with his colleague, Charles Geschke

The UK plans to expand its definition of what counts as climate aid in order to meet its

The universe appears to be speaking to us, after a centuries old “echo” from a supermassive black hole was detected by scientists. The black hole located inside the Milky Way became active around 200 years ago and produced a sound that is now being studied. The research was published in Nature and focuses on the black hole named Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) found 26,000 light-years away from Earth. The noise was triggered when the object consumed gas and dust, with particles moving into the event horizon. The findings could teach us more about the activity of supermassive black holes, which continue to intrigue and confound scientists. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Author of the research Dr Frederic Marin of Strasbourg University said: “It reveals the past awakening of this gigantic object – which is four million times more massive than the Sun. “Our work presents the missing piece of evidence that X-rays from the giant molecular clouds are due to reflection of an intense, yet short-lived flare produced at or nearby Sagittarius A*. These results can further constrain the past activity of the galactic centre.” By their very nature, black holes are difficult to study as they absorb light around them, and these new findings offer insight into a fascinating part of space. Dr Marin said: “To get an idea of the increase in intensity of the X-ray emission when the black hole emerged from its quiescent state, it is as if a single glow-worm hidden in a forest suddenly became as bright as the Sun. “These findings explain why galactic molecular clouds near Sgr A* are shining more brightly than usual. It is because they are reflecting the X-rays emitted by Sgr A* 200 years ago.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

OSAKA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 19, 2023--

The Geminids meteor shower began in a “violent catastrophe”, scientists have found. Every winter, the world is delighted by the meteor shower, which brings some of the most intense display of ‘shooting stars’. But that spectacle has been rivalled by its mystery. The Geminids are unusual in that most meteor showers are created when a comet leaves behind a tail of ice and dust – but the Geminids come from an asteroid, which do not usually leave behind a tail. Asteroids are chunks of rock and metal flying around in space. The Geminids appear to originate with one called 3200 Phaethon, which for an unexplained reason is affected by the Sun and leaves behind a stream across the night sky. “What’s really weird is that we know that 3200 Phaethon is an asteroid, but as it flies by the Sun, it seems to have some kind of temperature-driven activity,” said Jamey Szalay, research scholar at the Princeton University space physics laboratory and co-author on the paper. “Most asteroids don’t do that.” Attempts to solve that mystery have struggled in part because the meteor shower has only been observed from Earth. Now, however, researchers using Nasa’s Parker Solar Probe have been better able to examine the the Geminids. They suggest that a violent, catastrophic event gave rise to the meteor shower. That could have been a high-speed collision with another object in space, for instance, or a gaseous explosion. Some researchers have previously suggested that 3200 Phaethon might really be a comet, and that it lost its snow to leave behind just a rocky core that looks like an asteroid. But the new study makes clear that the origins of the meteor shower are much more dramatic than that. In an attempt to understand the meteor shower, researchers simulated three possible formation scenarios and then compared them with models based on observations from the Parker Solar Probe. That included a less violent scenario, a more violent one, and another that was in line with a comet. When they compared those scenarios with the actual observations, they found that the violent one was the most similar. That suggests that it was the result a collision or similar dramatic event. Researchers still do not know for sure what happened. But the new study helps narrow down the possibilities – as well as shedding more light on such events in space. The findings are published in a new article, ‘Formation, Structure, and Detectability of the Geminids Meteoroid Stream’, published in Planetary Science. Read More Watch live as astronauts step out of ISS for latest spacewalk Major finding boosts hope for finding alien life in our solar system Astronomers find rare planet circling two stars like Star Wars’s Tatooine

Apple has held its biggest event of the year, announcing four new iPhones and two new Apple Watches. The livestreamed event saw no mention of Macs, Apple TVs or iPads. But some products were even more rejected than that: being discontinued during the event, or after it. That includes the smaller iPhones, all leather accessories and some products with the Lightning connector that was removed from the new phones. Here’s everything that was discontinued during the event. iPhone Mini In 2020, Apple released a phone that was incredibly exciting to some: a smaller model, at 5.4-inches, which it referred to as the iPhone 12 Mini. A year later came its predecessor, the iPhone 13 Mini. Some people may have liked them a lot – but not enough people did. Last year, Apple didn’t announce a follow-up model in the iPhone 14 range, and instead launched the iPhone 14 Plus. But the iPhone 13 Mini stuck around in the line-up, until the iPhone 15 event. Now it is gone, and it doesn’t look like anything is replacing it. Other iPhones have also been removed from the line-up: the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, and the iPhone 12. They all have direct replacements, however, in the form of the previous year’s model. Lightning accessories Perhaps the biggest news for the new iPhones was the switch away from the Lightning cable, used for more than a decade, and its replacement with USB-C. Apple had initially resisted the switch, but after the European Union forced it to change, it relented and presented it as a selling point during the event. That switch, however, means that some Lightning accessories have been removed. That includes, for instance, the MagSafe charging pack that Apple released with the iPhone 12, presumably because it had a Lightning connector at the bottom. It is unclear whether they will be coming back, with a USB-C port or any other changes. But they are no longer on the store. (Some Lightning accessories are still here, however, for now. The mouse and keyboard that comes with the iMac still plugs in that way, for instance.) And lightning AirPods The AirPods have also been moved to USB-C, and so the old ones have left the market. Apple presented this as a straightforward upgrade during its event – though after the fact it has emerged that the new AirPods are actually new in other ways, with support for lossless audio and better dust protection. The silent switch The switch has been on the side of the phone in some form since the very first iPhone. And now it is gone, at least in the Pro line-up. Instead, Apple has swapped it for the “action button”. That can still be used for muting – and by default it is set that way – but it can be changed to do other actions, too. The switch is still around in the normal, cheaper iPhone 15 and 15 Plus. But given that those tend to get many of the innovations from the previous years’ model, expect it to be removed fully in next year’s iPhones. Leather accessories Apple focused on sustainability a lot during its event. And the star announcement of that focus was the removal of leather from Apple’s line-up. It will make no new accessories out of the material, it said – though some will still be available, they are being phased out. Apple said that was because of their environmental impact, not mentioning ethical concerns. Instead, Apple has launched a range of new Apple Watch straps and iPhone cases in a new material, named FineWoven. It says that it will do the same job but with “significantly lower emissions”. Read More The iPhone has gone all grown-up. Here’s why we should be grateful Why Apple getting rid of lightning cable iPhone charger is a big deal France bans Apple iPhone 12 sales due to ‘too high radiation’ Here’s the brand new Apple Watch Apple to stop using leather in all new products Apple is changing the plug on the bottom of your iPhone

As Greenpeace activists continued to occupy a deep sea mining research ship in the Pacific Ocean, the mining