NASA has held its first public meeting on the long-awaited report into UFOs. Last year, this new study was launched to investigate reports of UAP (unexplained anomalous phenomena) and for the first time the space agency has made the latest findings public. There have been around 800 events collected over the past 27 years, the expert panel says, with some reports of unexplained metallic flying orbs - all within Earth’s airspace. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Dr Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the US Department of Defence’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) noted on the findings: “We see these all over the world, and we see these making very interesting apparent maneuvers,” he said. “While we are still looking at it, I don’t have any more data other than that. Being able to come to some conclusion is going to take time, until we can get better-resolved data on similar objects that we can then do a larger analysis on." The Pentagon now receives between 50 and 100 monthly reports, Dr Kirkpatrick added, referring to a statistic from the report. Most sightings have some kind of explanation such as commercial aircraft or military drones, though there are still 2 to 5 per cent of those events which “display signatures that could be anomalous." Public Meeting on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (Official NASA Broadcast) www.youtube.com About half of these include some kind of metallic looking orbs or round spheres that have been noticed by aircraft at high altitudes. However, is this is not enough evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life, says astrophysicist and chair of the study group, David Spergel. “To make the claim that we’ve seen something that is evidence of non-human intelligence, it would require extraordinary evidence,” he added. “And we have not seen that. I think that’s important to make clear.” Meanwhile, online harassment was also a topic at the meeting as trolls have been targeting NASA’s UAP study team which Dr Nicola Fox, NASA Science Mission Directorate associate administrator said is "hindering scientific progress." “It is really disheartening to hear of the harassment that our panelists have faced online all because they're studying this topic," she said. “Harassment only leads to further stigmatization of the UAP field significantly hindering scientific progress and discouraging others to study this important subject matter. Harassment also obstructs the public's right to knowledge." Watch the full public meeting on NASA's YouTube channel. 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.

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Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has warned the merger between Vodafone and Three is “dangerous” and risks giving a company with its roots in Communist Party-ruled China a more prominent place in the UK’s mobile network. The former work and pensions secretary and MP for Chingford and Woodford Green said the proposed deal raised serious questions about national security and competition within the UK telecommunications market. Vodafone and Three, both of which have millions of customers in the UK and Ireland, announced earlier this month that they were joining forces in a multibillion-pound deal they said would create one of Europe’s biggest 5G networks. “This is a dangerous deal, which it seems is yet another example of how the Communist Party is trying to create a Western dependency on China,” Sir Iain told The Independent. “Not only does it raise important questions about competition, but it poses risks to our communication networks and personal data.” Three is owned by CK Hutchison, a Hong Kong-listed conglomerate that has been accused of supporting repression in the former British territory, where thousands of residents fled after China’s implementation of a sweeping national security law used by authorities to crack down on dissent against the regime in Beijing. Sir Iain is among a number of cross-party MPs to raise concerns about the growing influence of China in the West, and in particular, telecoms companies who have their headquarters there and are operating in the UK. “The government still doesn’t seem to understand that Chinese companies can be mandated to hand over their data to Beijing at the drop of a hat,” Sir Iain said. “We should be really worried about that. I also think we need to be taking a closer look at who owns these companies, the links between them and the Chinese government and the origins of the money flowing through them.” Last autumn the government announced that Shenzen-based Huawei technology must be removed from the UK’s 5G public networks by the end of 2027, It followed advice from the National Cyber Security Centre and pressure from Washington, which banned equipment made by the company because it posed an “unacceptable risk” to US national security. In March, prime minister Rishi Sunak warned that China plans to “reshape the world” in plans that posed an era-defining challenge for the UK and its allies in the West but dismissed calls for Beijing to be categorised as a threat, something his predecessor Liz Truss pushed for. The union Unite, which has 1.4 million members, is also campaigning against the merger, which some analysts say could result in job losses and higher prices for consumers who are already being squeezed by the cost of living crisis. The deal has triggered an initial investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority and will be subject to approval under the new National Security and Investment Act. Gail Cartmail, Unite’s executive head of operations, said: “Instead of idly watching the CK Group cream profits from UK businesses, the government should ask if they are a suitable custodian of British assets.” Charlotte Nichols, the Labour MP for Wigan North who sits on the Department for Business and Trade sub-committee on national security, said: “Unite the Union has shared research with me that shows this merger would leave sensitive government contracts and the data of millions of UK consumers in the hands of Three, a company whose key leadership have supported repression in Hong Kong and worked hand-in-hand with the Chinese state for decades. “This will be dangerous deal for the UK and I fully support Unite’s campaign against it.” Other MPs – both Labour and Conservative – have tabled questions to government departments asking what security assessments ministers have made of the proposed merger deal. Both Three and Vodafone refused to comment but have previously dismissed concerns about security, saying that they work closely with security bureaus in what is a regulated industry. The Cabinet Office has said it welcomes foreign trade and investment “where it supports growth and jobs in the UK, meets our stringent legal and regulatory requirements, and does not compromise our national security. “However, we will not hesitate to use our powers to protect national security where we identify concerns.” Read More Vodafone and Three to merge in multibillion-pound deal Vodafone and Three merger: What the huge deal actually means for you Cleverly defends China visit plans and pledges to use UK’s global ‘influence’ Three and Vodafone are merging. Here’s what that means for your phone No one wants to take responsibility for No 10 ‘groper’ complaints, warns accuser Top Tories urge Rishi Sunak to use cabinet reshuffle to get a grip on warring party

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This autumn, Apple releases watchOS 10, the tenth-generation software for the Apple Watch, which went on sale in Spring 2015. In that time, there have been big developments in hardware, including the addition of an always-on display, Watches that connect direct to the mobile phone network, health advances like ECG, blood oxygen measurements, fall detection and more. And the software has been upgraded hugely, too, including new ways to interact with the Watch. Kevin Lynch, Apple’s Vice President of Technology, and Deidre Caldbeck, Director of Apple Watch Product Marketing, sat down exclusively with The Independent to talk about how things have changed. What’s been consistent over the years is that unlike many other devices, the all-day proximity means the Watch offers benefits without you interacting with it at all. Simply wearing it allows the Watch to monitor your heart rate and let you know if something’s amiss. In fact, the heart rate monitor was built into the first Apple Watch – at a time when few other wearables had such a sensor – for a more mundane task. Lynch explains, “We decided to focus on the heart in the early days, to get accurate calorimetry.” In other words, while most smart watches counted the calories you were burning through knowing your height and likely stride length, the Apple Watch was more precise because it took your exertions into account. “We built the sensor and showed you a way to view your heart rate. We didn’t really think that in itself was going to be compelling because you can measure your heart rate yourself just by putting your finger on your wrist and counting. But we found some people were looking at the heart rate and, when it looked weird, they talked to their doctor and found they discovered something about their health that they weren’t aware of. They started writing us letters about this – and we are still getting them today.” This led to Apple searching for ways to make the heart rate measurements more powerful. The Watch can now let you know if it spots your heart rate unexpected high or low, and led to sleep tracking and more recently monitoring overnight respiratory rate. This autumn will also see a focus on mental health as well as physical. The Watch already has meditation capabilities in the Mindfulness app but this will expand with a place to log emotions and daily moods. The Medications app will be able to send reminders if taking your medication hasn’t been logged on schedule. But Apple Watch has always reached beyond its health capabilities, major though those are. Lynch goes on, “Our question was also, how do we enable your Watch to be a key to the world?” This led to Apple Pay, so a double-tap on the side button lets you pay at a card reader, show a boarding pass, unlock a car or a hotel room and so on. Beyond that, Lynch says, “We look at how do we continue improving the experience, having the willingness to rethink and re-imagine, based on what our users are telling us.” That’s timely because this autumn there will be big changes in how the Watch will be used, even down to what individual buttons do. The new software sees the arrival of widgets on the Watch. Widgets are those highly useful items on a computer desktop or phone home screen that show updateable information. So, where the Fitness app on the iPhone shows a generic image, the Fitness widget tells you exactly how active you’ve been today, for instance. Or the widget for an app like the flight tracking app, Flighty, reminds you how many days until your next flight, or if it’s behind schedule. This is highly useful as previously most extra information on the Watch has been shown through complications, those little areas of some Watch faces that can show the date, today’s temperature, battery charge and so on. Those remain, but with watchOS 10, by turning the Digital Crown, a new stack of widgets scroll up on to the display. This means you can have a spare, simple Watch face but easy access to lots of stuff. Lynch explains, “We can show information with the Smart Stack. You can have a beautiful face like the Palette or Snoopy or whichever graphical face you’d like and have that extra information easily. Internally we called that ‘cake’, as in ‘have your cake and eat it too’.” The Snoopy and Woodstock Watch face, looks like it will be another highlight of watchOS 10, by the way. But this change means that the functions of the buttons have changed. Control Centre is the place where you turn your Watch to silent when you go to the theatre (you do remember to do this, don’t you?) or ping your iPhone when you can’t find it, for instance. It’s very useful and right now you invoke it by swiping up on the display, though this only works from the Watch’s home screen. With watchOS 10, you can’t do this any more, instead pressing the side button. The big benefit is it now works from any screen on the Watch, not just the home screen. But it’s a big change, which could be confusing for users. How carefully does Apple think about making these modifications? Caldbeck says, “It’s a big change but it’s worthwhile making and that is what comes into play when we make a decision like that. We think, how can we continue to evolve and improve the experience? And how can we take the things that you love about Apple Watch and make them better? “And sometimes it does mean we have to change something about the way you interact with the Watch to make it better. The side button is a really good example. We have tried different things with the side button, over the years. We originally had the friends circle so you could contact people close to you. And we know that Apple Pay is really compelling. But when you ask what are some of the other things that users need access to anytime, anywhere, that really that ends up being Control Centre.” Before you panic, this doesn’t mean that Apple Pay is about to change. As Lynch explains, “That is hardware-instrumented so it’s not only down to software. The double-press is wired at a low level physically and electronically so that you can’t fake it out. It means that no software can pretend that you’re trying to buy something, you have to have the double press to activate it at a low level. So, if we did want to change that, it would be quite extensive.” Apple is clearly careful when it comes to these changes. So, how do they come about? Lynch’s reply confirms the thoughtfulness. “Part of how we do this is we start with storytelling, until we get to a place where we think, wow, that would be really cool if the future was like that. Then we try it out. So, we’ll build prototypes, and carry them around ourselves. And it’s this stage, which we call ‘the carry’, where we live with the changes ourselves over time. Some of these things might initially feel strange but after a day or two you start feeling like, oh well, this is obvious now, it’s totally natural, and then people don’t want to go back. That’s when we know that we’ve got a good thing here.” Hardware and software are so thoroughly integrated, so I finally ask how many decisions come back to the battery. Lynch explains, “The way we look at power management comes at the beginning of each release and it’s a multi-year road map. We use the battery model as a fundamental element in talking about the features, we’re going to do. Everything we do has a power budget and we look to save power with other ideas to optimise power, so, we have some focused work each year to improve battery life from a software perspective, And then we invest some of those savings into new features that we are now able to do. “That’s combined with the hardware team working on battery, packaging, chemistry and all the electronics. The system on a chip from the silicon team continues to have improvements on power requirements. Part of how we did the always-on display was through the hardware, silicon and display teams working together and really was key to enabling it. “We have battery models that model average user activities. We call it ‘a day in the life’ and it represents the way many users use Apple Watch. We model the battery consumption we have quite ambitious targets each year. The battery life work is super obsessive.” The Apple Watch routinely lasts longer than a full day, of course. But battery anxiety is the malady of the twenty-first century, so it’s good to know Apple is serious about this. There’s plenty more to the new Watch software, from more advanced cycling workouts to automatically generated waypoints for hikers to NameDrop, where you tap your Watch on someone’s iPhone or Watch to transfer your contact details. The software will go on general release in the autumn, with a public beta version available next month. Read More Apple Watch 7 pre-order: How to buy the new smartwatch in the UK Apple introduces new version of Watch with complete redesign iPhone 13 - live: UK contract deals and prices for Apple, EE and O2 Apple seeks trademark of ‘actual apple’, Swiss fruit association says The new iPhone could have a major clue about Apple’s headset Man locked out of smart home for a week after he was accused of being racist

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ChatGPT is offline in a “major outage”. Anyone attempting to use the artificial intelligence system saw a warning that it was “at capacity right now”. The error page also includes a ChatGPT-written rap about the status of ChatGPT, which begins with the phrase “Yeah, yo, what’s up ChatGPT fam”. But on its status page, creators OpenAI said it was suffering a “major outage” that was being investigated urgently and had lasted for more than an hour. The latest update on that page indicated that engineers had “identified an issue” with the system and was working to fix it. The problems also affected OpenAI’s API service, which allows third-party services to connect to its AI systems. Both went down at the same time. It is the first major outage on the system for months. While it has seen some problems in recent weeks, they have been partial outages that have slowed or otherwise interfered with ChatGPT’s performance, rather than going fully offline. One of those difficulties came last night, when OpenAI said that both ChatGPT and its API had been suffering from a partial outage. The problems comes days after OpenAI held its first developer conference, on Monday, though there is no indication the two events are connected. At that conference, it announced a range of new features including a new tool it calls “GPTs”, which let people easily create their own custom versions of ChatGPT. During that same event, OpenAI announced that one hundred million people use ChatGPT each week. Some two million developers are also working on the platform, its chief executive Sam Altman said. ChatGPT became the fastest-growing app in history when it launched last November, as well as igniting worldwide excitement and panic over artificial intelligence. It saw 100 million users join in two months, a dramatic record that was later beaten by Meta’s Instagram Threads. Read More ChatGPT update allows anyone to make their own personalised AI assistant How Elon Musk’s ‘spicy’ Grok compares to ‘woke’ ChatGPT ChatGPT and other chatbots respond to emotions, report says