Amazon has been talking with wireless carriers about offering low-cost or possibly free nationwide mobile phone service to Prime subscribers, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing people familiar with the situation. From a report: The company is negotiating with Verizon, T-Mobile US and Dish Network to get the lowest possible wholesale prices. That would let it offer Prime members wireless plans for $10 a month or possibly for free and bolster loyalty among its biggest spending customers, the people said, who requested anonymity to discuss a private matter. The talks have been going on for si[...]
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: After endless leaks, Motorola made its fourth-generation lineup of foldables official today. The flagship is the Moto Razr+, which will launch in the US on June 23 for $999. There's also a cheaper phone called only the "Moto Razr" with a smaller outside screen, slower SoC, and no clear US price or release date. Internationally, these phones are called the Moto Razr 40 Ultra and Moto Razr 40. The Ultra model's SoC is a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 -- that's not the best you can get from Qualcomm, which would be the 8 Gen 2 -- this is a year-old mid-[...]
Fidelity, the lead investor in Reddit's most recent funding round in 2021, has slashed the estimated worth of its equity stake in the popular social media platform by 41% since the investment. From a report: Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund's stake in Reddit was valued at $16.6 million as of April 28, according to the fund's monthly disclosure released over the weekend. That's down 41.1% cumulatively since August 2021 when the asset manager spent $28.2 million to acquire the Reddit shares, according to disclosures the firm has made in its annual and semi-annual reports. Reddit was valued at $10 [...]
The Japanese space agency (JAXA) and NASA plan to launch a satellite made of wood in 2024. The Independent reports: The high durability of wood in space was recently tested and confirmed at the International Space Station (ISS) by an international group of scientists led by those from Kyoto University. Their experiments showed wood samples tested at the ISS for durability underwent minimal deterioration and maintained good stability. Preliminary inspection, including strength tests and crystal structural analyses, of the wood samples was also done once they were brought back to Earth from the [...]
quonset writes: In what is considered to be a first, the European Space Agency (ESA) will, if everything goes to plan, stream live images of Mars from ESA's Mars Express orbiter on Friday, June 2nd. The event is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the launch of the agency's Mars Express -- a mission to take three-dimensional images of the planet's surface to see it in more complete detail.
You can watch the stream on ESA's YouTube channel for an hour starting at 6 p.m. Central European Time, or noon ET Friday. While it won't be truly live, there will be a new image about every 50 seconds of [...]
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Smithsonian: With a new technique, scientists have essentially figured out how to create power from thin air. Their tiny device generates electricity from the air's humidity, and it can be made from nearly any substance, scientists reported this month in the journal Advanced Materials. The invention involves two electrodes and a thin layer of material, which must be covered with tiny holes less than 100 nanometers in diameter -- thinner than one-thousandth the width of a human hair, according to a statement from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst,[...]
North America has emerged as the fastest-growing market for new battery cell manufacturing factories, driven by incentives provided by the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), according to a report by Clean Energy Associates. Electrek reports: CEA says that China is still the leading battery cell manufacturing hub, but its share will decline in "coming years." Europe has seen delays and cancellations of several planned battery factories, mostly due to high energy prices and other countries' pro-clean energy and EV manufacturing policies luring projects away. Global EV battery [...]
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed a rule that would require all new cars and trucks to have automatic braking systems capable of preventing collisions. The rule aims to address the rise in traffic fatalities and would mandate the use of advanced systems that can automatically stop and avoid hitting pedestrians and stationary or slow-moving vehicles. The New York Times reports: The agency is proposing that all light vehicles, including cars, large pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, be equipped to automatically stop and avoid hitting pedestrians at sp[...]
theodp writes: Golf reports that amateur golf legend Rose Zhang will compete for the first time as a professional when she tees off in the first round of the Mizuho Americas Open Thursday. Golf news is rarely fodder for Slashdot discussion, but when the 20-year-old Stanford student (who plans to complete her degree after a leave of absence) was asked by Golf to identify her toughest class, she threw CS under the bus.
"CS 106A," Zhang replied, referring to a computer science course. "Currently and still trying to grind in that class. It's been a little unfortunate for me. I'm not a CS major. [...]
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: An AI-enabled drone killed its human operator in a simulated test conducted by the U.S. Air Force in order to override a possible "no" order stopping it from completing its mission, the USAF's Chief of AI Test and Operations revealed at a recent conference. At the Future Combat Air and Space Capabilities Summit held in London between May 23 and 24, Col Tucker 'Cinco' Hamilton, the USAF's Chief of AI Test and Operations held a presentation that shared the pros and cons of an autonomous weapon system with a human in the loop giving the final [...]