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SpaceX Unveils its Starship Prototype that may Take People to The Mars Next Year

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Elon Musk is dreamy about making interplanetary possible for humans. And for that, he and his company SpaceX have been researching and developing things that possibly can help humans to start living in different planets and visit space whenever they want to. SpaceX completed 11 years since it first made it to the orbit on 28th Septemeber. Marking the date, on Saturday, the CEO unveiled the prototype of another rocket, Starship vehicle named Starhopper, that would take him and his company a bit closer to his dream.

On Saturday night, Elon Musk addressed a gathering of hundreds of people, including employees, local supporters, space enthusiasts and space reporters at the company’s South Texas launch site, where he showcased the new rocket’s prototype named mk. 1. The event was also live-streamed.

According to Musk the rocket still needs improvements in its design and working, but it may go into the orbit within six months. He also talked about the test flights the rocket will be having in one or two months. The test will be conducted at the highest altitude it can go to, like the tests were done for the Falcon rocket, with its prototype Grasshopper rocket. The company took multiple tests for Grasshopper to practice and perfecting its launching and landing. Till now, mk. 1 has completed two successful flights at a lower altitude.

starship rocket
Image Source: cbsnews.com

The company built the Mk. 1 during this summer on the South Texas coast and the same will take off from the very coast for the test flights. This won’t be a single rocket. But a fleet of Starship rockets will be developed at Texas and the Florida coast.

“What’s really kind of hard to grasp, at a visceral level, is that this giant ship will do the same thing that Grasshopper did. This thing is going to take off, fly to 65,000 feet, about 20 kilometres and come back and land in about one to two months. So that giant thing, it’s really going to be pretty epic to see that thing take off and come back.” said Musk during the event.

Musk also revealed that the Starship rockets can carry around 100 people and that too for long-duration flights to different planets. The company aims to help the governments to build cities on planets like Mars, such that its rockets would be taking of significant quantities of cargo and people to the other planets.

“Starship serves as a large, long-duration spacecraft capable of carrying passengers or cargo to Earth orbit, planetary destinations, and between destinations on Earth,” SpaceX said.

tesla

Tesla Cars Get the Biggest Software Upgrade; User can Now Summon their Cars from the Parking Lot

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We need to admit that Tesla is one company with a mission to save the earth and at the same time, is providing us with the most luxurious fleet of cars. The cars are super comfy, luxurious and autonomous. What else can be better than that? But in order to keep customers interested in those automotive, the company is constantly working on improving its services.

For the same purpose, the company announced a new software upgrade for the Tesla cars on Thursday. The company has got new features and entertainment services like in-car “Car-aoke” (karaoke), Spotify Premium, Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu, to its version 10 in-car software. The karaoke feature will offer a multi-lingual songs collection for the user. Though the entertainment features added to the Tesla software are for the drivers, these can only be accessed when the cars are parked; obviously for the safety purpose.

version 10 in-car software. The karaoke feature will offer a multi-lingual songs collection for the user. Though the entertainment features added to the Tesla software are for the drivers, these can only be accessed when the cars are parked; obviously for the safety purpose.

tesla
Image Source: teslarati.com

Another feature that the company has rolled out with the upgrade is that now the car owners can summon the car when it’s in their line-of-sight, that too, without a driver. Yes exactly like you would do to your pet. It means, if a car is parked in a parking lot, the owners will command it to come out of the parking and pick them up. According to the company, the feature will perfectly work for the ones who have purchased the fully-automatic Tesla cars.

“It’s the perfect feature to use if you have an overflowing shopping cart, are dealing with a fussy child, or simply don’t want to walk to your car through the rain. Though the customers who use the feature must remain responsible for the car and monitor it, and its surroundings, at all times,” stated Tesla in a blog post.

The feature is already out for the Tesla Model S, Model X, and Model 3 owners. The ones who have got the fully autonomous self-driving cars will be the ones getting the feature first. The customers will get a notification to update their software, and they, then after updating it, can enjoy the new features.

According to the company, there will be some other features, too, arriving for the Tesla cars in the coming week, that are built specifically to make improvements to the current software. The company also admitted that these software updates are the largest updates to the software to date. In fact, Tesla shares’ prices also jumped by 6%, after the upgrades were announced on Thursday.

According to an email from Elon Musk, the company is ready to deliver 100000 cars by the end of the third quarter of this year, which can make a record. Though the company has already made a record by selling 95000 cars in three months ending in June.

Alexa Event

Amazon Alexa Event : Everything That Amazon Announced this Year

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The festive season is almost here and so the Amazon’s sale is. Amazon ahead of its upcoming season sale hosted its Alexa event, and to include more products to its sale, the company just introduced a new lineup of products at the event.

Last year, the company released around 70 products, including the echo speakers and many updates to its old products. Though we get the idea about the new launches in advance through some of the leaks, this time, Amazon was successful to keep the things under the wraps. But as the event is final over, we have got news about everything it launched at the Alexa event.

The Alexa Event was an invite-only event and the company took it to the stage to introduce its guest with new Echo devices, new Echo earbuds, a new Echo display, Smartglasses, and even a revamped oven powered by Alexa.

Alexa Event
Image Source: cnn.com

This time, the company came up with some unique upgrades to its Echo devices, like an Echo Dot with a clock. Amazon has now included a LED clock to its Echo Dot, that can also show the weather. The clock can be switched off, if not required. You can also use it to set the alarm. For this new feature, you need to pay an extra $10, making the price of Echo Dot a $59. It means the old Echo Dot is still there, and you can even buy it without the clock.

After Google’s Nest Max and Apple’s HomePod, this time, Amazon has brought its new Echo Studio, that offers a 3D audio and Dolby Atmos. The devices include a 5.25-inch woofer, and a 1-inch, front-firing tweeter. There are also three, 2-inches, mid-range speakers included in the speaker to provide awesome audio quality in different directions in the room. The company has also added the lossless music playback to the speakers, such that it will produce a great sound when Amazon’s HD songs are played on it. The speaker costs $199.99.

Amazon, like the other big companies, has now brought new Echo earbuds that also render support for Alexa. The wireless earbuds are incorporated with Bose’s Active Noise Reduction Technology and cost $129. These super small earbuds can run up to 5 hours with full charging, and with its case, you can charge them three times. These earbuds are one of the surprise elements from Amazon.

Another surprise product that the company revealed at the event is the 8-inch screen Echo Show 8. The devices come with an inbuilt camera and have got an HD display, such that you can make quality video calls through it. The device is perfect for watching videos, playing music and even keeping an eye on your kids. The price of the device is set to be $129.

Incorporated with four micro speakers, the company introduced a pair of eye frames costing a $179.99. The eyeglasses offer support for Alexa, such that it reads the notification and other information to the user. The eyeglasses are connected through the smartphone and lead the sound directly into your ears. There is no display, but Alexa will do all the work for you.

Another unique product that the company released during the Alexa Event is a Ring named Echo Loop. The $129 ring is a smart ring featuring a haptic engine and two microphones. The ring and the frame will only be sold on an invite-only basis.

Other than these devices, the company launched a $249.99 Alexa-powered smart oven, a $25 Echo Flex device, $249 Eero router, Amazon Sidewalk (a device to connect all the IoT devices around you), etc. There have also been some new upgrades to the Amazon devices, like the multilingual-mode and Neural Text to Speech model added to Alexa.

gmail dark mode

Gmail Finally Released the Dark Mode for the iOS and Android Users

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Though the smartphone makers can’t keep people from using their phones more, they are trying hard to help them escape any kind of healthwww.yourtechstory.com/2019/09/11/apple-event-2019-products-apple-talked-about/ issues. Last year, companies like Microsoft and Apple included such features to their OS that would alarm the user about how long they had been using their smartphone. Another thing that those companies have done is that included dark mode to the new OS they released.

On the same league, we had been waiting for similar dark theme on Gmail, too, and finally, the company has released the dark mode for Gmail. The new dark theme will turn the default white background into black. Gmail launched the dark mode theme for both iOS and Android today, but some of the users may only use it after fifteen or more days.

There are many users who use their smartphones and work on their laptops at night. Considering which, Gmail has incorporated the dark mode to it as the users won’t feel any strain on their eyes while using Gmail in the night time. And, it is not necessary that one can only the dark theme in the night. The dark theme can be turned on in the day time as well. Also having the dark mode will also save the device’s battery, as darker pixels need less power than lighter pixels.

gmail dark mode

The users already using Android 10 or iOS 13 with dark theme enabled on their device will get the dark mode on Gmail auto-adjusted. The dark theme will also be automatically turned on for Gmail on the Pixel smartphones if the user has enabled the battery saving mode on it. For the users using an older version of iOS or Android must make changes to their settings to get the dark theme on their Gmail.

You can check if your Gmail app has got the dark theme or not, from its settings. Go to the Gmail settings and under theme option, you will find the option to activate the dark theme. Else you might be among the users who, according to Google, will get the theme within or after fifteen days.

Mac Pro

Apple Mac Pro Computers’ Production will Solely Take Place in the U.S.

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The China-U.S. trade war does not seem to settle anytime sooner, amid which, many of the tech companies are facing real big issues. Even companies like Apple, despite being the biggest tech companies are not able to escape the heat.

For the past few years, Apple has been importing some of its major Mac components from China, as buying or manufacturing the same parts in the U.S. is a bit expensive. But due to the friction between the two countries, Apple had to make new arrangements for the components. At last, the company has got a green signal from the U.S. government for a cut in the tariffs on in-house manufacturing of the same components.

So finally, Apple now will be manufacturing its new Mac Pro computers solely in the U.S., and that too, in Austin, Texas. The company revealed the news on Monday, but it did not give any hints on when the computers will be out in the market. According to the previous reports from June, the company was planning to do the manufacturing in China, but as the government has given some revise on the tariffs, what can be better than that for Apple?

Mac Pro
Image Source: ilounge.com

“The Mac Pro is Apple’s most powerful computer ever and we’re proud to be building it in Austin. We thank the administration for their support enabling this opportunity. We believe deeply in the power of American innovation. That’s why every Apple product is designed and engineered in the U.S., and made up of parts from 36 states, supporting 450,000 jobs with U.S. suppliers, and we’re going to continue growing here.” said the Apple CEO Tim Cook.

The new Mac computer is the same $5,999 redesigned computer, that the company had revealed at the Worldwide Developer Conference in June. For the manufacturing of the various important parts, Apple has partnered with over a dozen American companies.

Over the China-U.S. trade war, U.S. President Donald Trump also encouraged the U.S. based tech companies for manufacturing the products and their parts within the country. On this, he gave a statement, “Make then in the U.S.A., no Tariffs! A man I have a lot of liking for and respect is Tim Cook, and we’ll work it out, I think they’re going to announce that they’re going to build a plant in Texas and if they do that I’m starting to get very happy, okay.”

If the manufacturing is solely done in the U.S., Apple may spend $350 billion in the U.S. by 2023, contributing to the U.S. economy to a high extent.