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Trends with Benefits: Did Apple’s WWDC 2015 Disappoint?


The long awaited VR headset from Oculus is finally on its way. After a handful of development kit iterations, Oculus this week unveiled the consumer edition of the Rift, available in early 2016. It boasts a fabric exterior, redesigned sensor and tracking system, and will include an Xbox One controller.

Apple’s WWDC 2015 is in the rear view mirror, and there were nearly no surprises. Apple Music is a step forward, but it doesn’t live up to the status of past ‘One more thing’ announcements. Does this mean Apple isn’t innovating the way they used to, or are they saving the goods for this fall?

This homemade laser shotgun is insane, and it comes with the disclaimer “Do not point at satellites.” Enough said.

After landing on the Moon nearly a half century ago, the list of galactic milestones has grown. Now Pornhub wants to film a porn in space. The plot of a spaceship repairman stopping by in the middle of the day might be a stretch.

Digital Trends Staff
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See the majestic Southern Pinwheel Galaxy in this Dark Energy Camera image
Twelve million light-years away lies the galactic masterpiece Messier 83, also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy. Its swirling spiral arms display a high rate of star formation and host six detected supernovae. This image was captured with the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF NOIRLab.

An image from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) shows a striking celestial sight: the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, a gorgeous face-on galaxy that is one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies in the sky. Also known as Messier 83, the galaxy is bright enough that it can even be seen with binoculars, but this image from a 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope shows the kind of stunning detail that can be picked out using a powerful instrument.

"This image shows Messier 83’s well-defined spiral arms, filled with pink clouds of hydrogen gas where new stars are forming," explains NOIRLab from the National Science Foundation, which released the image. "Interspersed amongst these pink regions are bright blue clusters of hot, young stars whose ultraviolet radiation has blown away the surrounding gas. At the galaxy’s core, a yellow central bulge is composed of older stars, and a weak bar connects the spiral arms through the center, funneling gas from the outer regions toward the core. DECam’s high sensitivity captures Messier 83’s extended halo, and myriad more distant galaxies in the background."

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Watch SpaceX fire up Starship spacecraft engines ahead of 7th test flight
SpaceX performing a static fire test of its Starship rocket in December 2024.

SpaceX has shared a video (below) showing a static fire test of its Starship spacecraft at the spaceflight company’s Starbase site near Boca Chica, Texas.

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1868436135468552361

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Watch the space station send the first wooden satellite into orbit
Japan's LignoSat being deployed from the ISS.

The world’s first wooden satellite has been deployed to Earth orbit from the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS Research X account posted footage of a trio of CubeSats, including Japan’s LignoSat, recently emerging from the orbital outpost into the vacuum of space.

https://x.com/ISS_Research/status/1867711109983039958

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