×
The FCC is letting SpaceX launch 7,500 more Starlink satellites

The FCC is letting SpaceX launch 7,500 more Starlink satellites

The FCC approved SpaceX’s plan to launch an additional 7,500 Gen2 Starlink satellites on Friday. That brings the total number of satellites the company will have in orbit to around 15,000 worldwide. As part of the approval, the government is also waiving previous requirements that prevented overlapping coverage and enhanced capacity.

SpaceX originally sought approval for 30,000 satellites, but for now, the FCC is only greenlighting 15,000. The company will be on a deadline, too. The government says 50 percent of the Gen2 satellites must be launched and operational by December 1st of 2028, with the rest to follow by December of 2031. But the company seems plenty satisfied with the outcome. Musk and the administration had a pretty public falling out earlier this year, but it seems like the X owner has been mending that relationship.

That many new satellites in orbit is likely to raise concerns from astronomers who have complained about light pollution, as well as increase worries over space junk and orbital collisions. (The company already had to lower the orbit of many of its satellites earlier this year to reduce the risk of collisions.) But the promise of direct-to-cell connectivity outside the US, as well as internet speeds of up to 1 Gbps, apparently won out.

Source link
#FCC #letting #SpaceX #launch #Starlink #satellites


The Mandalorian and Grogu comes out this month, and new toys for it will keep on coming for a while.

From Lego, the new tie-in hotness is the “Hutt Palace Sentry Droid Showdown” set. With 415 pieces, owners can pit Din and Grogu against the Hutt Cartel’s three-armed sentry and its stud shooter. Once the beat the sentry and open the palace doors, they’ve got one other obstacle in Embo, everyone’s favorite Clone Wars-era bounty hunter. Along with his bowcaster, Embo’s got his own backup in his anooba Keibu.

In his earliest appearances, Embo had another named Marrok, but we know from the Aftermath: Empire’s End novel that one had died before the New Republic era. Canonically, it makes sense that Embo would get a new pet, but this probably also comes from other Star Wars projects like Ahsoka and Maul: Shadow Lord—which, like this movie, count Dave Filoni as a key creative—having an Inquisitor with the same name among their casts.

Newly named space dog aside, the set takes inspirartion from a fight we’ve seen in the final trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu wherein Din fights two sentry droids and Grogu tries to shut one of them down. Fans of the movie could recreate that fight beat for beat, or do their own version—maybe one where Din and Embo are buds, or Grogu solos everyone else. The choice is yours, but you’ll be waiting for a while to make it happen: the movie’s out on May 22, but the set’s available beginning August 1 for £44.99 (or roughly $53).

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

#Legos #Mandalorian #Grogu #Set #Confirms #Silly #ChangeLego,Star Wars,The Mandalorian and Grogu">Lego’s New ‘Mandalorian & Grogu’ Set Confirms a Very Silly Name Change
                The Mandalorian and Grogu comes out this month, and new toys for it will keep on coming for a while. From Lego, the new tie-in hotness is the “Hutt Palace Sentry Droid Showdown” set. With 415 pieces, owners can pit Din and Grogu against the Hutt Cartel’s three-armed sentry and its stud shooter. Once the beat the sentry and open the palace doors, they’ve got one other obstacle in Embo, everyone’s favorite Clone Wars-era bounty hunter. Along with his bowcaster, Embo’s got his own backup in his anooba Keibu. In his earliest appearances, Embo had another named Marrok, but we know from the Aftermath: Empire’s End novel that one had died before the New Republic era. Canonically, it makes sense that Embo would get a new pet, but this probably also comes from other Star Wars projects like Ahsoka and Maul: Shadow Lord—which, like this movie, count Dave Filoni as a key creative—having an Inquisitor with the same name among their casts.   Newly named space dog aside, the set takes inspirartion from a fight we’ve seen in the final trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu wherein Din fights two sentry droids and Grogu tries to shut one of them down. Fans of the movie could recreate that fight beat for beat, or do their own version—maybe one where Din and Embo are buds, or Grogu solos everyone else. The choice is yours, but you’ll be waiting for a while to make it happen: the movie’s out on May 22, but the set’s available beginning August 1 for £44.99 (or roughly ).  Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.      #Legos #Mandalorian #Grogu #Set #Confirms #Silly #ChangeLego,Star Wars,The Mandalorian and Grogu

The Mandalorian and Grogu comes out this month, and new toys for it will keep on coming for a while.

From Lego, the new tie-in hotness is the “Hutt Palace Sentry Droid Showdown” set. With 415 pieces, owners can pit Din and Grogu against the Hutt Cartel’s three-armed sentry and its stud shooter. Once the beat the sentry and open the palace doors, they’ve got one other obstacle in Embo, everyone’s favorite Clone Wars-era bounty hunter. Along with his bowcaster, Embo’s got his own backup in his anooba Keibu.

In his earliest appearances, Embo had another named Marrok, but we know from the Aftermath: Empire’s End novel that one had died before the New Republic era. Canonically, it makes sense that Embo would get a new pet, but this probably also comes from other Star Wars projects like Ahsoka and Maul: Shadow Lord—which, like this movie, count Dave Filoni as a key creative—having an Inquisitor with the same name among their casts.

Newly named space dog aside, the set takes inspirartion from a fight we’ve seen in the final trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu wherein Din fights two sentry droids and Grogu tries to shut one of them down. Fans of the movie could recreate that fight beat for beat, or do their own version—maybe one where Din and Embo are buds, or Grogu solos everyone else. The choice is yours, but you’ll be waiting for a while to make it happen: the movie’s out on May 22, but the set’s available beginning August 1 for £44.99 (or roughly $53).

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

#Legos #Mandalorian #Grogu #Set #Confirms #Silly #ChangeLego,Star Wars,The Mandalorian and Grogu">Lego’s New ‘Mandalorian & Grogu’ Set Confirms a Very Silly Name ChangeLego’s New ‘Mandalorian & Grogu’ Set Confirms a Very Silly Name Change
                The Mandalorian and Grogu comes out this month, and new toys for it will keep on coming for a while. From Lego, the new tie-in hotness is the “Hutt Palace Sentry Droid Showdown” set. With 415 pieces, owners can pit Din and Grogu against the Hutt Cartel’s three-armed sentry and its stud shooter. Once the beat the sentry and open the palace doors, they’ve got one other obstacle in Embo, everyone’s favorite Clone Wars-era bounty hunter. Along with his bowcaster, Embo’s got his own backup in his anooba Keibu. In his earliest appearances, Embo had another named Marrok, but we know from the Aftermath: Empire’s End novel that one had died before the New Republic era. Canonically, it makes sense that Embo would get a new pet, but this probably also comes from other Star Wars projects like Ahsoka and Maul: Shadow Lord—which, like this movie, count Dave Filoni as a key creative—having an Inquisitor with the same name among their casts.   Newly named space dog aside, the set takes inspirartion from a fight we’ve seen in the final trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu wherein Din fights two sentry droids and Grogu tries to shut one of them down. Fans of the movie could recreate that fight beat for beat, or do their own version—maybe one where Din and Embo are buds, or Grogu solos everyone else. The choice is yours, but you’ll be waiting for a while to make it happen: the movie’s out on May 22, but the set’s available beginning August 1 for £44.99 (or roughly $53).  Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.      #Legos #Mandalorian #Grogu #Set #Confirms #Silly #ChangeLego,Star Wars,The Mandalorian and Grogu

The Mandalorian and Grogu comes out this month, and new toys for it will keep on coming for a while.

From Lego, the new tie-in hotness is the “Hutt Palace Sentry Droid Showdown” set. With 415 pieces, owners can pit Din and Grogu against the Hutt Cartel’s three-armed sentry and its stud shooter. Once the beat the sentry and open the palace doors, they’ve got one other obstacle in Embo, everyone’s favorite Clone Wars-era bounty hunter. Along with his bowcaster, Embo’s got his own backup in his anooba Keibu.

In his earliest appearances, Embo had another named Marrok, but we know from the Aftermath: Empire’s End novel that one had died before the New Republic era. Canonically, it makes sense that Embo would get a new pet, but this probably also comes from other Star Wars projects like Ahsoka and Maul: Shadow Lord—which, like this movie, count Dave Filoni as a key creative—having an Inquisitor with the same name among their casts.

Newly named space dog aside, the set takes inspirartion from a fight we’ve seen in the final trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu wherein Din fights two sentry droids and Grogu tries to shut one of them down. Fans of the movie could recreate that fight beat for beat, or do their own version—maybe one where Din and Embo are buds, or Grogu solos everyone else. The choice is yours, but you’ll be waiting for a while to make it happen: the movie’s out on May 22, but the set’s available beginning August 1 for £44.99 (or roughly $53).

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

#Legos #Mandalorian #Grogu #Set #Confirms #Silly #ChangeLego,Star Wars,The Mandalorian and Grogu

The performance boost on Geekbench is particularly striking, with the A16 scoring 50 to 100 percent faster than competing systems from AMD and Intel. It’s even faster than the Apple MacBook M4 Pro, the last Mac for which I have comparable benchmark scores. However, that Mac did beat the Asus on the Cinebench benchmark, but not by much, and the Asus now stands solidly in second place in my testing archive.

Graphics performance is much better than in previous generations of Snapdragon X chips, with frame rates quadrupling on average, depending on the test. That’s a dramatic and much-needed improvement for the CPU, and while no one will accuse the A16 of being a gaming rig, it does at least make for a workable experience with less taxing games and graphics-heavy workloads.

Beige Belies Performance

Image may contain Computer Electronics Laptop Pc Computer Hardware Computer Keyboard Hardware and Floor

Photograph: Chris Null

I’m happy enough with how the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme performs to sign off on its performance claims, but there’s a lot more to the Zenbook A16 than its CPU.

Under the hood, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E94100 CPU is complemented by 48 GB of RAM and a 1-TB SSD. The 16-inch touchscreen offers a solid resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels, and it’s incredibly bright. A weight of 2.9 pounds is impressive (if not unheard of) for the 16-inch category, and at 0.65 inches (at its thickest), it has a svelte, quite portable carrying experience. Asus’s Ceraluminum technology (now with added magnesium) is used in the machine’s lid, base, and keyboard frame. That helps keep it thin and light, though when adjusted or touched, the screen shimmied more than I expected.

#Asus #Zenbook #Delivers #Great #Performance #Mediocre #Laptopasus,laptops,shopping,reviews,review,computers,qualcomm,windows">The Asus Zenbook 16 Delivers Great Performance in an Otherwise Mediocre LaptopSo, what’s not to like? Well, early compatibility problems slowed the initial uptake of Snapdragon X, and the CPU’s integrated graphics performance turned out to be pretty terrible. And to date, powerful onboard AI features just haven’t proven important, as most AI workloads are still being done in the cloud. With the second-generation X2, Qualcomm set out to deliver on the original promise of faster performance.But what exactly does “faster” mean? As with most claims in the PC computing space, it’s all about the benchmarks. On the Zenbook A16, the tests I ran indeed showcased exemplary performance from the X2 Elite Extreme, in some of the most widely used benchmarking tools, namely Geekbench 6 and Cinebench 2024. (I don’t have enough competitive Cinebench 2026 results to make wide comparisons yet on that benchmark.)The performance boost on Geekbench is particularly striking, with the A16 scoring 50 to 100 percent faster than competing systems from AMD and Intel. It’s even faster than the Apple MacBook M4 Pro, the last Mac for which I have comparable benchmark scores. However, that Mac did beat the Asus on the Cinebench benchmark, but not by much, and the Asus now stands solidly in second place in my testing archive.Graphics performance is much better than in previous generations of Snapdragon X chips, with frame rates quadrupling on average, depending on the test. That’s a dramatic and much-needed improvement for the CPU, and while no one will accuse the A16 of being a gaming rig, it does at least make for a workable experience with less taxing games and graphics-heavy workloads.Beige Belies PerformancePhotograph: Chris NullI’m happy enough with how the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme performs to sign off on its performance claims, but there’s a lot more to the Zenbook A16 than its CPU.Under the hood, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E94100 CPU is complemented by 48 GB of RAM and a 1-TB SSD. The 16-inch touchscreen offers a solid resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels, and it’s incredibly bright. A weight of 2.9 pounds is impressive (if not unheard of) for the 16-inch category, and at 0.65 inches (at its thickest), it has a svelte, quite portable carrying experience. Asus’s Ceraluminum technology (now with added magnesium) is used in the machine’s lid, base, and keyboard frame. That helps keep it thin and light, though when adjusted or touched, the screen shimmied more than I expected.#Asus #Zenbook #Delivers #Great #Performance #Mediocre #Laptopasus,laptops,shopping,reviews,review,computers,qualcomm,windows

Ceraluminum technology (now with added magnesium) is used in the machine’s lid, base, and keyboard frame. That helps keep it thin and light, though when adjusted or touched, the screen shimmied more than I expected.

#Asus #Zenbook #Delivers #Great #Performance #Mediocre #Laptopasus,laptops,shopping,reviews,review,computers,qualcomm,windows">The Asus Zenbook 16 Delivers Great Performance in an Otherwise Mediocre Laptop

So, what’s not to like? Well, early compatibility problems slowed the initial uptake of Snapdragon X, and the CPU’s integrated graphics performance turned out to be pretty terrible. And to date, powerful onboard AI features just haven’t proven important, as most AI workloads are still being done in the cloud. With the second-generation X2, Qualcomm set out to deliver on the original promise of faster performance.

But what exactly does “faster” mean? As with most claims in the PC computing space, it’s all about the benchmarks. On the Zenbook A16, the tests I ran indeed showcased exemplary performance from the X2 Elite Extreme, in some of the most widely used benchmarking tools, namely Geekbench 6 and Cinebench 2024. (I don’t have enough competitive Cinebench 2026 results to make wide comparisons yet on that benchmark.)

The performance boost on Geekbench is particularly striking, with the A16 scoring 50 to 100 percent faster than competing systems from AMD and Intel. It’s even faster than the Apple MacBook M4 Pro, the last Mac for which I have comparable benchmark scores. However, that Mac did beat the Asus on the Cinebench benchmark, but not by much, and the Asus now stands solidly in second place in my testing archive.

Graphics performance is much better than in previous generations of Snapdragon X chips, with frame rates quadrupling on average, depending on the test. That’s a dramatic and much-needed improvement for the CPU, and while no one will accuse the A16 of being a gaming rig, it does at least make for a workable experience with less taxing games and graphics-heavy workloads.

Beige Belies Performance

Image may contain Computer Electronics Laptop Pc Computer Hardware Computer Keyboard Hardware and Floor

Photograph: Chris Null

I’m happy enough with how the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme performs to sign off on its performance claims, but there’s a lot more to the Zenbook A16 than its CPU.

Under the hood, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E94100 CPU is complemented by 48 GB of RAM and a 1-TB SSD. The 16-inch touchscreen offers a solid resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels, and it’s incredibly bright. A weight of 2.9 pounds is impressive (if not unheard of) for the 16-inch category, and at 0.65 inches (at its thickest), it has a svelte, quite portable carrying experience. Asus’s Ceraluminum technology (now with added magnesium) is used in the machine’s lid, base, and keyboard frame. That helps keep it thin and light, though when adjusted or touched, the screen shimmied more than I expected.

#Asus #Zenbook #Delivers #Great #Performance #Mediocre #Laptopasus,laptops,shopping,reviews,review,computers,qualcomm,windows

Post Comment