Thursday Morning Minute

Russian Missile Attack Levels Children's Hospital in Kiev as NATO Summit Kicks Off

It took Aryan Kapoor three years to land a model rocket vertically. | Screenshot: YouTube Joe Barnard (or BPS.Space) and Aryan Kapoor are two model rocket enthusiasts who’ve spent years working to advance the hobby with innovative ways to precisely steer model rockets and land them vertically instead of just watching them parachute back to Earth after a launch. Despite many failures and setbacks, they’ve each succeeded in recreating SpaceX’s Falcon 9 landing capabilities at a much, much smaller scale and without billions of dollars of funding. Barnard, who studied music production in college — not aerospace engineering — spent seven years designing, building, and perfecting various custom components, including a custom thrust vectoring mechanism for model rocket engines. Relying on a pair of servo motors that are geared down... Continue reading…

280 Earth’s pilot carbon removal facility in The Dalles, Oregon. | Image: 280 Earth Data centers are a growing climate problem, especially as all the energy needed to train AI models inflates tech companies’ carbon footprints. A startup that spun out of Google’s “moonshot factory” X says its technology can provide a potential solution. It can pull carbon dioxide out of the air, run partially on servers’ waste heat, and even generate water to help cool a data center more efficiently. The company, 280 Earth, just signed a $40 million agreement to capture carbon dioxide emissions for some big names through an initiative called Frontier that Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey launched in 2022 to support emerging carbon removal tech. The buyers include Frontier’s founding members as well as Autodesk, H&M Group,... Continue reading…

DeepMind found “preliminary evidence” that Gemini enables its robots to plan how to undertake complex tasks from simple instructions. | Image: Google DeepMind Google is training its robots with Gemini AI so they can get better at navigation and completing tasks. The DeepMind robotics team explained in a new research paper how using Gemini 1.5 Pro’s long context window — which dictates how much information an AI model can process — allows users to more easily interact with its RT-2 robots using natural language instructions. This works by filming a video tour of a designated area, such as a home or office space, with researchers using Gemini 1.5 Pro to make the robot “watch” the video to learn about the environment. The robot can then undertake commands based on what it has observed using verbal and / or image outputs — such as guiding users to a power outlet after being shown a phone and asked... Continue reading…

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 are available for preorder right now, and you should probably get your preorder in quickly to save as much money as possible. The two handsets are $100 more expensive than their predecessors, starting at $1,899 and $1,099, respectively. While they look a lot like the previous-generation models, the two devices come with various upgrades. It's not just the specs. Samsung has improved the designs of both foldables, making the Fold 6 and Flip 6 even more durable than before. That includes design changes for the hinges and foldable displays of the two phones. However, that extra $100 won't get you a phone with a perfect foldable screen that hides the crease when opened flat. Not this year, at least. Continue reading... The post Hands-on: Do the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6 still have really bad screen creases? appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Today’s deals: $120 off Ryzen 9 mini PC, $89 Apple AirPods, $25 portable neck fan, $79 23andMe DNA test, more Best Fire TV Stick deals for July 2024 Best July 4th deals: Apple sale, $30 mosquito repellent, $50 Waterpik, $70 SodaStream, 36% off eero, more July 4th deal roundup: $16 wireless charger, $50 Ninja blender, DJI Mini 3, KitchenAid Stand Mixers, more

Apple Vision Pro is struggling to achieve strong sales. According to market tracker IDC (via Bloomberg), Apple's headset has yet to sell 100,000 units in a quarter since its launch in the US in February. With a 75% drop in domestic sales in the current quarter, Apple's first spatial computer is not convincing customers about the next generation of computing. Still, even with Apple Vision Pro expanding internationally (it's already available in some European and Asian markets), IDC says this device won't cross 500,000 sales in 2024. That said, while some analysts believed Apple would have issues manufacturing enough units for the market, it seems Cupertino could produce even more spatial computers than people are willing to buy. Among the reasons Apple Vision Pro is having a slow start are its high pricing, weight, and lack of tailored apps and video content. For example, Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify aren't on the platform. In addition, visionOS 2 doesn't look like a huge upgrade. It will address important issues but won't revamp its first software. With that, rumors about a cheaper model keep spreading. IDC believes Apple could more than double sales when a new version of Vision Pro arrives, and Bloomberg thinks this could happen in the latter half of next year. It seems that this cheaper Apple Vision Pro would cost around $1,600. However, Apple doesn’t know what features to cut to make this device affordable, as removing cameras and the ultra-realistic display might interfere with the experience. Bloomberg previously reported that Apple has internally discussed prices ranging from $1,500 to $2,500 for the upcoming “low-cost" Apple Vision Pro model. In addition to lower-resolution displays and an iPhone processor rather than a Mac chip, Apple could be planning to remove the EyeSight feature and include fewer external cameras and sensors. Don't Miss: Apple Vision Pro: Release date, price, hands-on, features, accessories, and more The post Apple Vision Pro sales said to sputter, which is obvious until there’s a much cheaper model appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Best Fire TV Stick deals for July 2024 Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2024: Get $400+ free Today’s deals: $140 AirPods 3, $348 Sony 4K smart TV, $50 off M2 iPad Air, $25 light bulb camera, more Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales

A fire broke out Thursday in the spire of the medieval cathedral in Rouen, a major landmark in northern France that was under renovation, but authorities said it was quickly brought under control.

The fallout from President Joe Biden's abysmal debate performance June 27 includes a "disastrous" effect on fundraising, according to multiple reports.

Taiwan said Thursday it was closely watching the Chinese military, which it said posed a rising threat to the region, after a flurry of warplanes passed near the island to join drills with China's Shandong aircraft carrier in the Pacific.