NASA enlists SpaceX and Amazon to help develop next-gen space communications

NASA has pickedSpaceX, Amazon and four other American companies to develop the next generation of near-Earth space communication services meant to support its future missions. The agency started looking for partners under the Communication Services Project (CSP) in mid-2021, explaining that the use of commercially provided SATCOM will reduce costs and allow it to focus its efforts on deep space exploration and science missions.

“Adopting commercial SATCOM capabilities will empower missions to leverage private sector investment that far exceeds what government can do,” NASA wrote in the official project page. By using technology developed by commercial companies, the agency will have continued access to any innovation they incorporate into the system. At the moment, NASA relies on its Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system for near-Earth space communications. Many of its satellites were launched in the 80’s and 90’s, though, and it’s set to be decommissioned in the coming years. 

The funded agreements under NASA’s Communication Services Project has a combined value of $278.5 million, with SpaceX getting the highest cut. NASA expects the companies to match and exceed its contribution during the five-year development period. SpaceX, which proposed a “commercial optical low-Earth orbiting relay network for high-rate SATCOM services,” has been awarded $69.95 million. Amazon’s Project Kuiper is getting the second-highest cut and has been awarded $67 million, while Viasat Incorporated has been awarded $53.3 million. The other three awardees are Telesat US Services ($30.65 million), SES Government Solutions ($28.96 million) and Inmarsat Government Inc. ($28.6 million).

All the participants are expected to be able to conduct in-space demonstrations by 2025 and show that their technology is capable of “new high-rate and high-capacity two-way communications.” NASA will sign multiple long-term contracts with the companies that succeed in developing effective communication technologies for near-Earth operations by 2030.

The Obamas are reportedly leaving Spotify

Spotify is losing Barack and Michelle Obama after their partnership ends in October, according to Bloomberg. The former first couple’s exclusive podcast deal with the streaming giant is coming to an end, and they won’t be signing a new one. Their production company, Higher Ground, is reportedly seeking a partner that would allow it to produce several shows and release it on multiple platforms at the same time. Spotify typically seeks exclusivity from famous personalities in a bid to promote its platform, which is likely why (as Bloomberg reports) it declined to make an offer for a new contract. 

Higher Ground is in the midst of negotiating with several other potential partners, though, including Amazon’s Audible and iHeartMedia for a deal that’s expected to be worth tens of millions of dollars. The Obamas are each looking to appear in an eight-episode program, so we can expect shows with a limited number of episodes. 

The Obamas’ deal with Spotify was rumored to be worth $25 million and produced Renegades: Born in the USA with Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen, as well as The Michelle Obama Podcast, wherein the former First Lady talked about relationships with friends and family. The Michelle Obama Podcast was one of Spotify’s most popular shows in 2020 and was eventually made available on other platforms. 

While Higher Ground has yet to issue an official statement, a Vanity Fair report from February during the height of the Joe Rogan debacle may shed some light on its decision not to pursue another exclusive deal with a single platform. Apparently, Higher Ground was frustrated with Spotify at times and found it difficult to get additional shows off the ground under their partnership. Further, the Obamas are more interested in producing shows for young new voices than for their own, and that vision just doesn’t align with Spotify’s.

UK court orders US extradition of Julian Assange on espionage charges

A court in London has formally issued the order to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US. That puts his fate in the hands of UK home secretary Priti Patel, who’ll be the one deciding whether Assange will be sent back to the US where he’s set to face espionage charges. WikiLeaks made waves in 2010 after publishing thousands of classified documents and diplomatic cables sent to the US State Department. Assange is wanted in the US for 18 criminal charges due to those leaks, and he could face up to 175 years in prison if convicted.

Assange sought refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy of London in 2012 and stayed there for years until his asylum was withdrawn in 2019. WikiLeaks claimed back then that the embassy spied on its founder and took photos, videos and audio recordings of him. He was arrested from the embassy, and the US government has been trying to get him extradited since then. 

In January 2021, a British court ruled that he shouldn’t be extradited to the United States to stand trial, because “the risk to his mental and physical wellbeing was too great.” However, the US government appealed and argued that he had no history of “serious and enduring mental illness.” A UK appeals court reversed the previous ruling in December 2021, opening the doors for his extradition. 

Assange joined the most recent trial via video call from the Belmarsh Prison in London. The extradition order was issued by Paul Goldspring, the chief magistrate, who said during the trial: “I am duty bound to send your case to the secretary of state for a decision.” According to The Guardian, Assange’s side will have the chance to sway Patel’s decision by sending the home secretary “serious submissions” and could also challenge issues he lost in court but haven’t appealed yet. And it is possible to convince a home secretary to block extraditions — former UK home secretary Theresa May blocked Scottish hacker Gary McKinnon’s extradition on human rights grounds. British activist Lauri Love also successfully convinced the UK High Court to side with him when he appealed his extradition orders. 

Lenovo’s Smart Clock Essential with Alexa falls to a new low of $45

Lenovo launched a new smart clock at CES earlier this year, and it improved upon its previous models by giving it a pogo docking pin at the bottom and support for Amazon’s Alexa. If you’ve been thinking of picking it up but haven’t gotten the chance to until now, you may want to head over to the device’s listing at Best Buy. Lenovo’s Smart Clock Essential with Alexa is currently on sale for $45 on the retailer’s website only for today — there’s less than 20 hours left for the deal as of this writing. That’s $25 off the smart clock’s $70 retail price and lower than a previous deal at Amazon. 

Buy Lenovo Smart Clock Essential with Alexa at Best Buy – $45

The Smart Clock Essential with Alexa retains the brand’s Smart Clock 2 cloth design. While its predecessors only supported Google Assistant, though, this model only supports the Alexa voice assistant. It has a 4-inch LED display that shows the time, day and real-time decibel levels in white text on a black background. Lenovo clearly kept things minimal for the model and gave it just a few buttons for the volume, for activating assistant and for setting the alarm.

Lenovo’s compatible docks for the device are optional, but they do improve the experience. The brand has docks that can accommodate the clock along with a wireless charging-capable device like smartphones, for instance. It also sells the Ambient Light Dock in either a sea lion or a squid design that works as a nightlight. You can get the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential from Best Buy at a discount right now in both Misty Blue and Clay Red. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Delta confirms it worked with SpaceX to trial Starlink’s satellite internet

Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian has revealed in an interview that the airline held talks with SpaceX and conducted “exploratory tests” of Starlink’s internet technology for its planes. According to The Wall Street Journal, Bastian declined to divulge specifics about the test, but SpaceX exec Jonathan Hofeller talked about the company’s discussion with several airlines back in mid-2021. Hofeller said back then that the company was developing a product for aviation and that it’s already done some demonstrations for interested parties. 

SpaceX chief Elon Musk tweeted in the same period last year that Starlink antennae for planes would have to be certified for each aircraft type first. He added that the company is focusing on dishes for 737 and A320 planes, because they serve the most number of people.

Hofeller reiterated SpaceX’s quest to put Starlink on planes at the Satellite 2022 conference last month, saying that the company believes “[c]onnectivity on airplanes is something [that’s] ripe for an overhaul.” He said SpaceX is developing a service that would allow every single passenger on a plane to stream content like they’re able to do in their homes.

SpaceX filed an application with the FCC in August last year for a ruggedized type of Starlink antenna that can withstand harsh environments meant for use on planes, ships and other types of moving vehicles. A couple of months later, another FCC filing had revealed that SpaceX was going to test the new “mobile user terminal” on an aircraft for six months. 

Even though Delta had already tested Starlink’s technology, Summit Ridge Group (a consulting firm with expertise in satellite communications) founder J. Armand Musey told The Journal that it could take several years for SpaceX’s satellite broadband to see widespread adoption. It still has to schedule time with airlines to install terminals on their planes, after all, while more established competitors are also taking steps to improve their service. 

Netflix plans to offer cheaper ad-supported subscription tiers

Netflix might offer cheaper ad-supported plans in the coming years. In the company’s most recent earnings call, co-CEO Reed Hastings has revealed that the streaming giant is currently working on the offering and that it will be finalizing details for those plans “over the next year or two.” Hastings said he finds ads complex and he’s a huge fan of the simplicity of subscriptions, but giving consumers who don’t mind watching ads the option to pay less “makes a lot of sense.”

And it could make a lot of sense for the company, too. The service lost around 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, a development it blamed on stiffer competition, inability to expand in some territories due to technological limitations and account sharing. Apparently, 222 million households are paying for Netflix, but over 100 million more are sharing those accounts. 

Back in March, Netflix started testing a feature in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru that allowed subscribers to add two “sub-members,” who’ll get their own log-ins and profiles, for $3. It may just be a fraction of what a full membership costs, but at least Netflix is getting something from people who’d normally just borrow their friends’ accounts.

Hastings clarified during the call that the ad-supported memberships will be added as tiers and members who don’t mind paying full subscription fees don’t have to be subjected to advertisements. “It is pretty clear that it is working for Hulu, Disney is doing it, HBO did it. We don’t have any doubt that it works,” he said. The executive also added that Netflix will merely be a publisher and that it will not track user data to match ads like some of its competitors do.

China’s record-breaking astronauts are back on Earth after six months in orbit

Chinese astronauts — or taikonauts, as the country calls them — Zhai Zhigang, Ye Guangfu and Wang Yaping have returned to Earth after spending 183 days in space. That’s the country’s longest crewed mission to date so far, with the taikonauts spending those six months aboard Tianhe, the living module of China’s Tiangong space station. As Space notes, Wang Yaping was also the first female taikonaut to live aboard Tianhe and the first Chinese woman to go on a spacewalk. 

The taikonauts were part of the Shenzhou-13 mission, which is the second of four crewed missions and the fifth out of the eleven overall missions China intends to launch to finish building its space station by the end of the year. They did two spacewalks and performed 20 science experiments while in orbit. The team also manually controlled the Tianhe module for a docking experiment with an unmanned cargo spacecraft. 

China, which isn’t an ISS partner, launched Tianhe to low Earth orbit in April 2021 and quickly followed that up with several more launches in an effort to meet its space station’s 2022 construction deadline. The country sent the first crewed mission to its fledgling station in June last year, and the three taikonauts involved spent three months in Tianhe testing systems and conducting spacewalks. In June, China is expected to launch its next crewed mission, the Shenzhou-14, with three taikonauts onboard who’ll also spend six months in orbit.

Scammy Mac apps force users to pay for subscription

Back in 2021, The Washington Postreported that around two percent of the 1,000 highest-grossing apps in the Apple App Store were some form of scam. Turns out the Mac App Store also isn’t immune to shady developers. As The Verge reports, a developer named Kosta Eleftheriou has shed light on questionable apps listed on the Mac App Store, which use pop-ups that make it difficult to exit unless you pay their subscription fees. Eleftheriou had also previously identified a number of scam apps for iOS that made it through Apple’s review process.

The developer started looking into the situation after a Twitter user named Edoardo Vacchi posted about an app called My Metronome that disables the Quit option until you pay for a subscription. (Apple made it easier to report scam apps on iOS 15, but Vacchi said there was no way to report My Metronome on Mac.) Eleftheriou confirmed Vacchi’s claim and pointed The Verge to other applications exhibiting the same behavior. Mac and iOS developer Jeff Johnson did some digging of his own and found that the developer behind My Metronome, Music Paradise LLC, is registered at the same address in Russia as another developer named Groove Vibes. 

The Verge downloaded apps by both Music Paradise and Groove Vibes and found that while some of them had appropriate ways to quit, others disabled the quit option and Mac’s force quit keys. It’s still possible to exit the applications without paying, but the links to close their pop-ups look like they were deliberately designed to be hard to find. 

Apple prides itself in having a rigorous review process for the App Store — Tim Cook even said during an Epic trial last year that the store would be a “toxic mess” without it. Shady and fraudulent apps are still slipping through despite the measures taken by the tech giant, though, and it may even be earning from them. According to that 2021 report from The Post, the scam apps it found may have defrauded users out of an estimated $48 million, including Apple’s commission. The My Metronome app is no longer available for us when we checked, but it’s unclear if it was Apple itself that removed it. We asked the tech giant for a comment and will update this post if we hear back. 

Opera’s crypto browser is now available on iOS

Opera launched its dedicated “Crypto Browser” into beta back in January, promising to make Web3 as accessible as any Web2 website. The company released the browser for Windows, Mac and Android users back then, but the version for iOS devices still wasn’t ready for rollout. Now, Opera has announced that the Crypto Browser for iPhones and iPads is out and available for download from its website.

The browser comes with a built-in non-custodial crypto wallet that supports the Ethereum, Bitcoin and other blockchain ecosystems. It will allow users to buy crypto coins with fiat currency and to trade any supported token without needing to install extensions. In addition, the browser will give users access to Web3-based NFTs and decentralized apps, including 7,000 services based on the Polygon ecosystem. 

One of the browser’s other features is a Crypto Corner start page, where users can get live information and updates on cryptocurrency, such as the latest prices and events, airdrops and relevant podcasts. Opera says it designed the browser for both veteran crypto users, as well as newbies who still need help navigating cryptocurrencies and Web3. 

Jorgen Arnesen, EVP Mobile at Opera, said in a statement:

“The interest in Web3 is continuing to grow. The Opera Crypto Browser Project was built to simplify the Web3 user experience that has often been bewildering for mainstream users. Opera believes Web3 has to be easy to use in order to reach its full potential and a mass adoption.”

Opera didn’t say whether the iOS browser supports the more energy-efficient Etherium Layer 2 standard. It did launch Layer 2 support for the Android version back in February, however, which the company claims makes it the first mobile browser to have the feature. 

DC Attorney General asks court to reconsider Amazon antitrust lawsuit

DC Attorney General Karl Racine has filed a motion (PDF) asking the court to reconsider its decision to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit he filed against Amazon in 2021. In the original lawsuit, Racine accused the e-commerce giant of “illegally abusing and maintaining its monopoly power by controlling prices across the online retail market.” Third-party sellers that use Amazon’s Marketplace have to abide by the company’s agreement, which includes a fair pricing policy. If they sell their goods for lower prices elsewhere, Amazon could remove their items’ buy box, suspend their shipment option and even terminate their selling privileges for “serious or repeated cases.”

The company stopped telling sellers back in 2019 in the midst of antitrust scrutiny that they couldn’t sell their products for cheaper prices elsewhere. However, the company later added back a clause under its fair pricing policy that’s nearly identical. Racine argued that since sellers price their goods with Amazon’s cut in mind, the policy artificially raises prices even on sellers’ own websites and on competing e-commerce platforms. 

Amazon told us when Racine first filed the lawsuit that the Attorney General had it “exactly backwards.” The spokesperson said: “Amazon takes pride in the fact that we offer low prices across the broadest selection, and like any store we reserve the right not to highlight offers to customers that are not priced competitively. The relief the AG seeks would force Amazon to feature higher prices to customers, oddly going against core objectives of antitrust law.” The Superior Court of the District of Columbia sided with Amazon and threw out Racine’s complaint back in March. 

Now, the DC AG wants another chance at proving that Amazon violated antitrust laws. His office’s amended complaint includes additional details about how the company’s policy violates DC code, mostly focusing on how it “causes prices to District residents to be higher than they otherwise would be” and how it inhibits sellers from competing with Amazon’s own products. 

Racine said in a statement about the motion he filed:

“We’re asking the court to reconsider its decision to dismiss our Amazon case because the antitrust laws and facts are on our side and we are determined to continue standing up for DC consumers. Amazon illegally uses its market power to prevent sellers from lowering their prices on other platforms — including their own. This results in higher prices for DC consumers.”