The iPhone Duo's inner screen has an under-display front camera that's largely hidden from view. It's the first time we've seen an under-display camera on an iPhone, and it turns out there's a reason Apple hasn't used the technology before.
Apple said the camera offers 1080p video recording, but didn't mention photo quality. Gizmodo said it's a 4-megapixel camera and described the photos as "low-res, washed out, and just not sharp at all." It's not good for selfies, and even video calls "look muddy."
Marques Brownlee said the camera is "very first gen" and that the photo quality is "trash." Samsung previously used under-display cameras but dropped them because of poor image quality. Brownlee speculates whether Apple will make the same decision in the future.
Reviewers say the camera is better at video than photos, and it does disappear into the background when you're using the phone, which is a plus.
The iPhone Duo has an alternative 12-megapixel front-facing camera on the outer display, which is much better for selfies, plus with the dual displays, you can use the rear cameras to take selfies. PetaPixel says that if you unfold the Duo and point it at yourself, there's an option to move the camera controls to the outer screen. With that setup, you can use the outer display as a viewfinder for the rear camera to take a selfie.
Apple’s new HomeView takes center stage (no pun intended) as the panel examines its design, features, pricing, and potential role in the smart home. From tabletop and wall-mounted models to HomeKit integration, FaceTime, calendars, and home automation, the discussion explores practical uses and limitations. Panelists who have already ordered HomeView share their buying decisions, while […]
Apple today introduced Apple HomeView, designed to be central to the home and personal to everyone in it. With a stunning 7-inch Liquid Retina display, HomeView brings entertainment, connection, and smart home management together in one place, from playing music and making FaceTime calls to home monitoring and hands-free automations with voice control — all designed with privacy and security at the core. HomeView recognizes users by their faces, adapting so they can access their personal content in Messages, FaceTime, Calendar, Reminders, and Find My.
[…]
Designed to fit in any space, HomeView can be placed on a tabletop as the center of the home or wall-mounted to fit in spaces like the entryway or hallway.
I guess the best part is the price. $299 (not including wall mount) is less than the base iPad and the same as the Apple TV. But I just can’t imagine what I would use this thing for. It does not seem more appealing than an iPhone or HomePod for any tasks. I wouldn’t want to dedicate any kitchen space for it, and the cord is a problem. Why would I not just use an old iPad or iPhone, which are wireless and support apps and standalone video? Maybe it would be interesting if it could do something extra, like act as a Time Capsule.
HomeView does not have FaceID. I asked about this and Apple reps said that first, your home is (reasonably!) presumed to be a safe space. But in order for users to be recognized — by voice or face — they must have a “registered [non-watch] personal device” that supports Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, that device must be present on the home’s Wi-Fi network, and it must have been recently unlocked.
It doesn’t have an App Store. Instead, Apple has a curated selection of apps, including FaceTime, Messages, and Safari. A handful of third-party media apps like Spotify are available, and developers can bring over existing CarPlay apps. If your iPhone already has one of these CarPlay apps installed, it can automatically appear on the HomeView after setup. (There are no video streaming apps like YouTube, Netflix, or Disney+, but if those companies choose to make their apps available on the CarPlay framework, they will show up on the HomeView; for now, you’ll have to consume videos by using the Safari browser.)
Beyond that, though, it seems like HomeView is at least starting life as a very limited app platform. Apple does say that if you make a Siri AI query for your personal content, it will search everything on your iPhone or iPad—and that includes apps that aren’t on the HomeView. So you should be able to query your iPhone apps, but not actually run them.
I do think I want one, but there are a few things to settle besides price and value. For starters, having more screens in the house doesn’t seem like a winning proposition (the HomePods we’ve got work OK for alarms, reminders, etc.), and the American fascination with the kitchen island (which, by the way, needs power sockets in the middle…) doesn’t translate to European flats.
Wait… I just noticed something else from the HomeView video🤔
When she goes to grab the HomeView, you can see her right hand reach out to grab the lower right hand corner of the screen. But then the cut shows her grab the top of the base to rotate it?
Did they not like the cut where the entire base rotates? (This would would have shown the USB-C plug rotate along with the entire unit)
Folks speculating HomeView is the tail end of Tim Cook’s product “leadership,” but 1) Ternus is the CEO and can torpedo it if he thinks it’s a stinker. 2) He’s also the guy who spearheaded iPad’s “what’s a computer?” campaign and the idea that an iPad was a viable replacement.
The biggest issue with Apple’s Home ecosystem is the absolutely garbage Home app. Still, in 2026, there is a tab dedicated fully to buying more smart home gadgets (aka, an ad) within the iOS Home app and it can’t be removed. Yet rooms are buried up top. Pitiful.
This is the ONE THING (“One more thing”?) I’d been hoping to get from
@Apple
in this announcement: they were redoubling efforts on HomeKit/Home.app to make the ecosystem actually work better… annnnnd did not get that impression. At all.
IMHO, as an HomeKit user with dozens of devices in 2 Homes, there is SO MUCH low-hanging fruit that
@Apple
could be working on to improve the UX, it is pathetic.
The original HomePod didn’t come to the EU either for 5 months, and even then it was only in two countries. The original HomePod never came to Ireland at all, before it was discontinued. But if you only listened to the pundits, this is somehow now the DMA’s fault.
It is so convoluted that people will be having trouble understanding it, and if they have trouble understanding it they’ll be having trouble trusting it. Most of what it does involves somehow sucking in the juices from the people’s devices that cohabitate with it.
[…]
That it works at all is impressive, but will people really put their integrity in its hands? Between this and the various “always-listening” features of the recent Apple Watch releases, I’m thinking Apple has gotten a bit too high on its own supply.
Apple overhauled the external display APIs in iOS 27 for unclear reasons and replaced it with a ‘scene accessory’ API, which I believe powers the iPhone Duo’s both-screens-at-once entitlement-gated API.
Enter HomeView, with its ‘CarPlay’ API, which is clearly a stopgap solution that will please nobody.
But if we’re beaming UI from a connected iPhone, the external scene accessory API suddenly looks more promising. That way you could do ‘real’ apps without an App Store.
I do think the basic concept is an intriguing idea. But as an implementation of that concept, my initial impressions are threefold. First, I am unconvinced that anyone in a family would use this for anything other than playing music or podcasts, rather than just using their phones. And if that’s the case, why not just have a HomePod? Apple’s video shows family members taking turns to use the HomeView, rotating it on the kitchen island to face themselves. Why? Why does the mom check her calendar on this, rather than on her iPhone, while the dad is using it to follow a French toast recipe? There’s a real “Why do we need this?” question here and I don’t think Apple’s video answers it, at all.
I don’t have a HomeView yet. But I’m excited to own one.
[…]
I’m confident that Apple won’t show endlessly scrolling promos on that screen.
[…]
Yes, my phone shows those things. Yes, my Apple Watch shows those things. But I like that data being glanceable and not requiring I look at a full-on distraction machine. I’m thinking the HomeView might be the Kindle hardware of tiny bits of data I want.
Apple postponed the HomeView repeatedly — first until spring 2025, then summer, then fall, and then again throughout 2026 before finally unveiling it this past week. And the hardware betrays its age. With thick bezels, an A18 processor and 8 gigabytes of memory, this is clearly a product conceived years ago. Finished units have been sitting boxed up in warehouses for the better part of a year, waiting for the software to catch up.
Apple produced a 3-minute promotional video that purports to show a “typical” family using a HomeView. The ad has drawn criticism from John Gruber and TidBITS readers, who were horrified by the behaviors portrayed, and more to the point, it doesn’t seem to show the HomeView making life any better. Certainly, nothing in that video matches how any “typical” morning has ever gone in our household.
Although we use our HomePods heavily to turn lights on and off and listen to music, it’s hard to think of much else we would choose to do on the HomeView.
[…]
As someone who cooks seriously, I’m skeptical of HomeView’s one-step-at-a-time approach.
I cook a lot and can’t imagine using HomeView for recipes. I always reformat and edit them beforehand. I print them out so I can jot notes as I’m cooking and easily see more than one at once without having to fiddle with a screen.
Screen Time has received one of its most substantial parental-control updates with iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, adding new ways for parents to manage how long children use categories of apps, which websites they can visit, and what content reaches them through Messages and FaceTime.
The features were previewed at WWDC in June and are now available as part of Apple’s latest operating-system releases. Rather than relying only on fixed app limits, the redesigned Screen Time gives parents a more flexible set of controls that can change throughout the day and adapt as a child gains access to more apps and services.
Among the additions are Time Allowances, Ask to Browse, a simpler child-device setup process, expanded Communication Safety protections, and faster controls for temporarily pausing or extending access.
Apple is also working with the American Academy of Pediatrics to adapt the organization’s Family Media Plan into guidance parents can reference when setting up devices and Screen Time.
Screen Time introduces Time Allowances by app category
Time Allowances give parents a daily amount of time that can apply across categories including Entertainment, Games, and Social Media.
That differs from managing each application individually. Parents can set time allowances for categories such as Entertainment, Games, and Social Media, then adjust those settings based on the needs of their household.
Apple provides suggested starting points based on a child’s age and guidance informed by clinical and child-development research. Those recommendations are optional, with parents able to change them based on their own household and the individual child.
The updated Screen Time also supports schedules that control which apps remain available at different periods of the day. Parents can therefore create separate access patterns around school, homework, evenings, and weekends rather than relying on one universal daily restriction.
Temporary adjustments have been made easier as well. Parents can quickly limit access to apps and the web during periods such as meals, then restore access without rebuilding their existing restrictions. When a child reaches a limit, they can request additional time from a parent to complete an activity or finish a conversation.
The redesigned interface puts device usage and the most frequently used applications closer to the front, reducing the amount of navigation required to understand how a child is spending time on a device.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
Ask to Browse extends parental approval into Safari
Ask to Browse brings a permission model already familiar from app downloads to the web.
When the feature is active, a child who attempts to visit a new website in Safari can be required to request permission first. The parent receives the request through Messages and can review it before allowing access.
The feature is available across iPhone, iPad, and Mac and works alongside existing web-content restrictions.
It complements Ask to Buy, which requires children to obtain permission before downloading or purchasing an app or making an in-app purchase. Apple has also expanded the initial setup process so a parent configuring a personal device for a child can choose which apps are available from the beginning.
Setup Assistant offers the option to provide only essential apps, use a recommended group, or manually choose which ones are permitted. More applications can then be introduced later as the parent decides the child is ready for them.
The approach gives parents a way to begin with a comparatively limited device instead of configuring a full standard account and removing unwanted access afterward.
Communication Safety expands beyond detected nudity
Communication Safety now intervenes when it detects gore or violent imagery in shared photos and videos, expanding protections that previously centered on nudity.
Apple says the feature works with content shared through areas including Messages and FaceTime, with the new protection also extending to live FaceTime calls.
Communication Safety is designed to intervene before a child views or shares detected sensitive material. Apple has previously built these protections around on-device analysis, allowing the system to identify content without requiring Apple to receive the underlying images.
Parents can also continue controlling who children communicate with. Contact-management settings can require approval before a child adds someone new and then communicates through Phone, Messages, or FaceTime.
Child Accounts remain the foundation for these controls. Apple generally requires Child Accounts for children under 13, although the applicable age can vary by state, country, or region. Child Accounts remain available for family members up to age 18.
The accounts automatically activate age-based safeguards and connect parental controls through Family Sharing.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
iOS 27 requires the family’s devices to stay in sync
The new Screen Time controls arrive with one practical requirement: devices participating in the same Family Sharing setup need current software.
Apple says all devices in the Family Sharing group must be updated to the corresponding 27-generation releases — iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27 — before the updated Screen Time controls can be used consistently across the family.
The family organizer, parent, or guardian must also update the parental-control configuration after the software upgrades.
That requirement is worth checking before troubleshooting a missing setting on one child’s device. If every device in the group cannot be updated, Apple says the family can continue using the previous version of Screen Time and its parental controls, but the new controls will not be available consistently across the group.
The features themselves also vary by platform. Ask to Browse and Time Allowances are available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, while some Family Sharing and communication features extend to other devices.
Apple has launched a dedicated Child Safety site alongside the software release, collecting setup instructions, explanations of Child Accounts, Screen Time controls, communication protections, App Store age tools, Find My, and Apple Watch options for families.
The updated Screen Time controls are available now with iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, although individual features can vary by region, language, and hardware. For families upgrading several devices at once, checking every device in the Family Sharing group for its corresponding version 27 update is the most useful place to start.
Apple software updates for 2026 are now reaching supported devices, bringing iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, visionOS 27, and tvOS 27 out of preview and into everyday use. The releases place Siri AI and the next generation of Apple Intelligence at the center, but many of the changes extend well beyond generative AI.
The updates began rolling out September 14. Alongside new intelligence features, Apple has made measurable performance changes to iPhone and iPad, overhauled several parental controls, refined the Liquid Glass interface introduced across its platforms, improved search, and added smaller changes to services including iCloud Shared Albums, Maps, AirPods, and Health.
Siri AI is initially rolling out as a beta in English. Apple says French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish support is scheduled for October, making some of the headline functionality a staggered release rather than something every user receives immediately after installing the new operating systems.
Apple software updates make Siri AI a cross-device feature
Siri AI is built around personal context, onscreen awareness, expanded app actions, and access to current information from the web. The assistant can draw on material stored in areas such as Messages, Mail, and Photos when responding to requests, while Visual Intelligence allows users to ask about content currently displayed on their screen.
On iPhone, Siri mode is integrated directly into the Camera app. A user can point the camera at something and ask questions or perform supported actions based on what appears in front of them.
The assistant also gains a dedicated Siri app that synchronizes conversation history privately through iCloud. A conversation started on an iPhone can therefore be continued on an iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, or Apple Vision Pro.
Write with Siri expands the assistant into text creation and editing. Users can describe the material they need drafted or ask Siri to refine existing writing without moving to a separate application.
Apple Intelligence is also adding more specialized features outside Siri. Photos receives Spatial Reframing, Extend, and an updated Clean Up tool. Image Playground can generate images in a wider selection of styles, including photorealistic output, with metadata designed to identify AI-created material and planned support for the SynthID standard.
Safari can automatically organize tabs by topic and monitor webpages for changes, such as a product returning to stock or a price dropping. Apple is also introducing tools that can create custom extensions from a description.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 put more emphasis on speed
Some of the less visible changes could be among the most frequently experienced.
Apple says apps can launch up to 30% faster on iPhone and iPad after installing the new software. Photos can load an image up to 70% faster immediately after it is taken, while AirDrop transfers can be up to 80% faster.
iPadOS 27 receives additional work around file handling and multitasking. Apple says browsing files and transferring them to an external USB drive can be as much as five times faster, accompanied by smoother window closing, switching, and dragging.
Connectivity behavior has also been adjusted. Transitions between cellular connections and Wi-Fi are designed to happen more seamlessly, while Messages no longer needs to hold subsequent texts behind a large photo or video being uploaded over a slow connection.
Search across Spotlight, Photos, and Mail has been revised on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Mail gains a new ranking system for Top Hits, while Apple describes search across the three platforms as more stable and comprehensive.
Liquid Glass has received another round of refinements after becoming the common visual language across Apple’s software. A new Settings slider allows users to adjust the interface from an ultraclear appearance toward a more heavily tinted version, and app icons have been sharpened.
Screen Time and child safety controls get a substantial redesign
Apple has also expanded the controls available to families rather than limiting this software cycle to interface and AI work.
The setup process for child accounts now allows parents to specify which apps a child can access from the beginning, with additional apps added later if appropriate. Ask to Browse extends approval controls to Safari, letting parents require permission before a child opens a new website.
Communication Safety has been expanded beyond sexually explicit material to detect and intervene when gore or violent content appears in shared images and videos.
Screen Time presents average device usage and frequently used apps more prominently. Parents can establish daily time allowances across categories such as Entertainment, Games, and Social Media, while Schedules can change which apps remain available at different points during a weekday or weekend.
These changes are particularly notable because they work at the account and platform level rather than requiring parents to configure separate controls inside every individual app.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
watchOS 27, visionOS 27, and tvOS 27 add targeted upgrades
The smaller platforms receive their own additions rather than simply inheriting features from iPhone and Mac.
watchOS 27 introduces a dedicated Siri app, a dynamic app grid, expanded Smart Stack suggestions, and a new single-handed tap gesture for opening widgets. Workout Buddy can now operate without the paired iPhone nearby, while Cycle Tracking in Health adds support related to perimenopause and menopause.
visionOS 27 brings Siri AI and Visual Intelligence into Apple Vision Pro, where the assistant can respond to objects a user is physically looking at. Panoramas can be converted into spatial scenes and used as personal Environments, while Mac users can bring compatible 3D models into their physical space to preview and edit them.
Apple says Vision Pro can now start up and connect to Wi-Fi up to three times faster. New curved windows, Control Center changes, eye-controlled notification expansion, and improvements to Dwell Control further adjust the spatial interface.
tvOS 27 takes a narrower approach. Apple Music gains high-resolution lossless audio support, Apple Podcasts has been redesigned, and additional text-size accessibility options have been introduced. Apple TV 4K owners can install the release on supported second- and third-generation models.
Other changes stretch across device categories. iCloud Shared Albums can now retain full-resolution photos and videos while making participation easier from Android and Windows devices. AirPods gain custom EQ settings, Maps expands Flyover with AI-assisted aerial detail, and Missed-message notifications and unread counts now synchronize more quickly and reliably across Apple devices.
With the September 14 releases now public, the software cycle shifts from preview demonstrations to staggered feature delivery. Siri AI language expansion begins in October, while some Apple Intelligence capabilities and individual app features will continue arriving through later updates rather than being tied exclusively to the initial 27.0 releases.
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
As we approach the release of the newest iPhones, Chuck Joiner, Marty Jencius and Chuck Joiner look at how science fiction and popular culture imagined modern communication long before the technology existed. From early video-phone concepts and Dick Tracy to Star Trek, Get Smart, Space: 1999, and more, the panel examine fictional devices that anticipated smartphones, wearables, Bluetooth earbuds, video calls, authentication, mobile computing, and maybe even foreshadow what’s coming next. (Part 1)
Unforgetful isn’t a new productivity system to learn.
[…]
This is designed for a small number of short-term tasks. What do you need to do today, tomorrow, this week, or this month?
[…]
If you want tagging, folders, archives, or other ways to organize or file away tasks, this isn’t the app you’re looking for.
Unforgetful is for people who know that if they file away a task, it never gets done.
I’m an OmniFocus person. I love tagging, folders, and archives; I never want to see a notification for a to-do item. I prefer pull to push. So this is absolutely not the right tool for me. But I like the fresh thinking behind this app and how the various design choices interact to make it an opinionated tool for the right type of person.
Calendar alarms changed my life. Events without alarms don’t happen.
[…]
Most of my Reminders interaction has always been via Siri and notifications. And that fits me very well, with three major exceptions:
If I say “Remind me to buy milk,” but I forget to specify a time (or Siri misses it), Reminders will never notify me, and I’ll never check the app, so it’ll be lost.
If I inadvertently dismiss a Reminders notification without snoozing it, Reminders will never notify me about it again, so it’ll be lost.
When I do snooze a Reminders notification, which I do a lot, the snooze options suck.
He has good solutions to these and other problems. I’m tempted to try out Unforgetful just for the purported quick capture of dictated reminders, however there’s no watch app.
Listen to Accidental Tech Podcast to hear about unfortunate limitations of EventKit. Reminders itself is interesting to me in that the (private) data model is now so rich, but I’m put off by the UI, the lack of export, and the limited support for driving it from the keyboard.
With a highly elliptical orbit around Sagittarius A* of only 8.7 years, the newly named S301 comes as close as Saturn does to our Sun during its nearest approach. The research team said this close approach makes it the star with the shortest recorded orbital period and the tightest ever observed in the galaxy’s center.
Black Hole-Orbiting Star Experiencing Warped Spacetime
In a statement emailed to The Debrief, Reinhard Genzel, Director at MPE and Nobel Laureate for Physics in 2020, noted that S301’s historically tight orbit around Sagittarius A* is ten times closer to the Galactic Center than “our previous best star.”
The above image shows all known stars in the Galactic Center orbiting the central massive black hole Sgr A*. The central region is dominated by young, hot stars (blue), and a couple of cooler stars (orange/red). One of the cooler stars, S301, is approaching Sgr A* very closely, about the distance from the Sun to planet Saturn. Sgr A* itself is surrounded by hot plasma, the light of which is warped due to the black hole’s strong gravity (Credit: MPE).
Along with that record, the team said the star’s tight orbit also moves it through a region of space where the black hole’s extreme gravitational pull “drags spacetime itself.”
Genzel noted that “S301 probes spacetime in the Galactic Center,” a phenomenon that astrophysicists believe only occurs in the immediate vicinity of a massive, spinning object like a black hole.
According to the MPE team, the evidence for this warped spacetime shows up in the star’s orbital path. Specifically, they said the star’s path “deviates significantly” from the path predicted by Newton’s classical theory of gravitation.
“This is a clear sign of relativistic effects that occur only in the vicinity of a massive, rotating black hole,” the researchers explained.
Image of the Galactic Center in July 2025. The highly eccentric, tight orbit of S301 around Sgr A* (colored in white), and the orbits of five other stars in the Galactic Center are shown (Credit: MPE).
The Physics Behind the Phenomenon
To explain the evidence of warped spacetime, the MPE team said two scientific principles are at work. The first, called Schwarzschild Precession, occurs when space itself is curved around a central mass. In the case of S301, the object creating an extended field of warped spacetime around it is the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*.
“The Schwarzschild solution of general relativity remains a useful approximation to explain the orbit of S2, even for a spinning black hole at the center of the Galaxy,” they explained.
This image shows the path of the S301 star around Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. The diamonds show measurements performed with the GRAVITY instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). The size of Neptune’s orbit is shown as a reference. Credit: MPE
The second relativistic mechanism causing the warped spacetime drag on S301 is called the Lense-Thirring effect. Specifically, the massive black hole exerts a separate force from Schwarzschild Precession due to its rotation.
“A rotating mass, in a sense, drags the surrounding space-time along with it – much like a rotating spoon setting the water in a cup in motion,” the MPE team explained.
Unlike the more powerful effect of gravity, the team said the effect on the star caused by the rotation of Sagittarius A* is “significantly weaker and therefore more difficult to detect.” This rarity marks the team’s observation of the effect, another historic first.
“S301 is the first star to orbit directly in the region around Sagittarius A* where the frame-dragging effect is extreme,” explained Felix Mang, PhD student at MPE and corresponding author of the study. “We’re not just measuring spacetime curvature; we are measuring how it gets distorted by the rotation of the black hole itself. That is unique.”
“Explore Strange New Worlds, Seek Out New Physics, and See What Nobody Has Seen Before”
Astronomers first identified S301 in spring 2023 using the GRAVITY instrument at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile. Unlike conventional observatories, GRAVITY observes targets simultaneously with four 8-meter telescopes. The light is then combined into a single image, resulting in an angular resolution 40 times sharper than images captured by a single telescope.
“GRAVITY’s exceptional resolution makes it possible to observe stars at the center of the Milky Way on scales comparable to the size of our solar system, even when they are extremely faint,” the MPE team explained, adding that “this unprecedented combination of precision and sensitivity has made it possible to detect S301, a new and extremely faint star.”
ESO’s Very Large Telescope in front of the Galactic Center in the Milky Way. Four powerful lasers are shot into the night sky to remove disturbances of the atmosphere. These lasers are the Laser Guide Star (LGS) system as part of the GRAVITY+ project, the upgrade of GRAVITY. Credit: MPE
When discussing the next steps in the investigation of the star experiencing warped spacetime, the MPE team noted that a recent upgrade to the facility, GRAVITY+, which includes a new adaptive optics system and laser guide stars, “has increased the instrument’s sensitivity by a factor of 10 to 100.” Genzel said the upgrade will lead to even more discoveries in a relatively short time.
“Within the next decade, we will measure the black hole’s rotation directly — a milestone for general relativity,” The researcher explained.
Frank Eisenhauer, director at MPE and Principal Investigator of the GRAVITY and GRAVITY+ projects, said the opportunity to discover “the beauty of nature” in the form of S301 “is truly a dream come true.” The researcher also pointed to future observations and the new tools that will make them possible, while seemingly harkening back to a popular 1960s TV show introduction championing the exploration of space.
“GRAVITY+ and the upcoming MICADO instrument, currently being developed in an international consortium led by MPE for the ESO Extremely Large Telescope [will help us] to explore strange new worlds, seek out new physics, and see what nobody has seen before.”
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and has spent the last six years as Associate News Editor and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him at christopher@thedebrief.org.
Google’s $4.1 billion EU Android fine launches a debate over technology regulation, encryption backdoors, age verification, app-store mandates, and the political tension between the United States and Europe. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Eric Bolden, Jim Rea, and Marty Jencius also explores an unusual national time capsule, compares Evernote, Apple Notes, GoodNotes, Notion, and Notability, discusses vibe coding, and considers JustWatch as TV Time shuts down.
The Road to Macstock stops to talk to Paula Marie Davis, who previews her first Macstock appearance and the path that led her from longtime Mac user and wellness coach to launching Ditch the Dogma with Ecamm. She explains why creators need to care for the person running the tech stack, how conference inspiration can become post-event exhaustion, and how movement, time mapping, and small wellness practices can support energy, creativity, and follow-through.
A breathtaking new view of the cosmos featuring more than half a million galaxies has been released by the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, revealing its first LSST Camera image for scientific use.
Unveiling one of the most studied regions of space, the millions of galaxies featured in the new image were captured with Rubin’s 3.2-gigapixel LSST Camera, the largest digital camera currently in existence.
Mounted on the observatory’s 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope, the stunning new imagery captured with the LSST focuses on the COSMOS field, a region located within the Sextans constellation. Long a cornerstone of astronomical research, this region of the sky has remained an extensively studied area for more than two decades.
A Crowded View of the Cosmos
By stacking hundreds of individual observations into a single composite view, the Rubin imagery contains more than 500,000 galaxies and over 50,000 foreground stars, all packed into an unprecedented view of the Milky Way.
However, since the COSMOS field comprises regions of space much further from the crowded plane of our galaxy, it offers an unusually unobstructed view into more distant parts of the universe, allowing astronomers to look not only farther out into space, but also to peer billions of years back into the past by observing the light from ancient galaxies that is only now making its way to Earth.
Above: A portion of the highly detailed astronomical imagery obtained by the Rubin Observatory in its newly released imagery. The view above reprsents approximately 1/100th of Rubin’s field of view (Image Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA).
The result is a somewhat crowded view of our universe, showcasing the immensity of the cosmos in some of the most stunning astronomical imagery in recent memory.
The COSMOS Field
Since 2003, astronomers have focused their studies on the COSMOS field with the world’s most powerful observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.
By observing spectral ranges from radio waves to X-rays, astronomers have successfully made the region one of the premier reference fields in modern astronomy for everything from galaxy formation to the birth of stars and the evolution of the cosmos.
Now, the detailed cosmic vistas being captured by the Rubin Observatory are adding a new dimension to those earlier observations. Unlike past observations, though, Rubin will repeatedly capture imagery from the same region over the course of the decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). By doing so, astronomers will not only be able to study distant galaxies in greater detail than ever before, but also will be treated to a view of gradual changes over time.
Through ongoing observations, detections of supernovae, variable stars, and other transient phenomena occurring deep in space will be revealed, along with the presence of fainter celestial objects such as galaxies that could not otherwise be seen without the age of composite imagery.
Rubin’s Work is Only Beginning
The newly released images are part of Rubin’s initial Early Data Preview 2 (EDP2), which comprises the observatory’s first science data release. Based on observations made with the LSST camera, the recent images offer a preview of things to come as the full 10-year LSST survey moves forward.
“The COSMOS deep image is just the beginning for Rubin in this region,” said Bob Blum, director of Rubin Observatory at NSF NOIRLab, in a statement. The observatory’s current efforts will be followed by a second phase, which is expected later this year, from which individual observations and specialized “difference images” will be produced, highlighting objects that exhibit changes across successive observations.
Image Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA
Altogether, the datasets will provide an emerging picture of the remarkable work astronomers are anticipating from Rubin, which will culminate in the most comprehensive cinematic record of the universe astronomers have ever assembled.
“Repeated visits to the field over the next few years will demonstrate the power of our survey design for discovery by providing our science community with a huge number of transient and variable objects like supernovae and other explosive transients for follow-up and detailed study,” Blum added.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached atmicah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
Ele, inclusive, foi desenvolvido por um dos cofundadores do TV Time, Antonio Pinto, que afirmou ter tentado recriar os melhores recursos do finado aplicativo (o qual foi adquirido pela Whip Media, que decidiu encerrar o serviço para focar em iniciativas de IA).
Finally, Bingers is out 🎉
Took us longer than we wanted, but we didn't want to ship something ugly or clunky.
It's a first version so there’s probably tones of things to improve, but we'll be reading every piece of feedback. Let's make it perfect together.
Levamos mais tempo do que gostaríamos, mas não queríamos lançar algo com visual ruim ou difícil de usar.
É uma primeira versão, então provavelmente há muita coisa para melhorar, mas vamos ler todos os comentários e sugestões.
Vamos deixá-lo perfeito juntos.
App Store / Play Store 👇
O Bingers conta com três componentes principais: uma ferramenta para acompanhar as séries e os filmes que você assiste ou deseja assistir, uma forma de descobrir novos conteúdos e uma espécie de rede social. Ademais, o app exibe suas estatísticas com detalhes da sua vida de espectador.
Assim como no TV Time, os fãs podem criar perfis e realizar comentários sobre séries e filmes, inclusive adicionando mídias como fotos e GIFs. Eles também podem avaliar episódios, expressar opiniões com emojis e votar em seus personagens favoritos.
Divulgação/Bingers
O app foi projetado para carregar as bibliotecas dos usuários diretamente de seus dispositivos, permitindo que ele realize o processamento pesado — como o calendário de exibição e a lista de desejos — localmente, em vez de depender dos servidores da empresa. Por fim, ele oferece uma maneira de importar dados dos arquivos do TV Time.
A group at the Institute of Science Tokyo simultaneously measured the activity of thousands of neurons in two mousebrain regions and found that the areas sometimes shared timing information but maintained more independent representations at other times. The researchers, led by Associate Professor Riichiro Hira, maintained that this flexibility enables the brain to remain stable as it adapts to changing requirements.
A Task Built to Catch the Brain Switching Modes
Hira’s team created a task to highlight this timing mystery. They trained mice to expect rewards at intervals that switched between 6 and 12 seconds, without any break to mark the end of one trial and the start of the next. Since there was no pause, the mice had to keep updating their internal sense of time throughout the experiment, instead of resetting their mental stopwatch for each new trial.
The mice eventually figured out the pattern. At first they expected a reward every six seconds even if the time they had to wait was longer than this, but by the end of the training session, their behavior indicated that they had learned to anticipate both reward intervals. This showed that the mice were capable of keeping track of both durations and of predicting which one would come next.
While the mice performed the task, the researchers recorded activity in their secondary motor cortex and the posterior parietal cortex using wide-field two-photon calcium imaging. Both regions play key roles in planning, prediction, and working memory.
Two Regions, Two Kinds of Mistakes
The neurons fired in sequence in each brain area, with different cells becoming active at different times. This sequence showed that each region was monitoring the passage of time.
The researchers also identified two kinds of errors in the neural activity. In some cases, both areas made the same mistake when assessing the passage of time. These coherent errors suggested that both regions sometimes shared the same timing drift. In other instances, only one region was inaccurate while the other remained correct. These independent errors suggested that one region could temporarily maintain a different timing representation from the other. Independent errors were more frequent than coherent ones, and this ratio remained the same in all the mice examined.
If the brain regions were just randomly out of sync, you’d expect the ratio to change. However, it didn’t, which suggests that the brain has a built-in way to balance working together and working independently.
Modeling the Switch Between Coherence and Independence
To identify this mechanism, the team built a computational model with two recurrent neural networks linked by sparse, long-range connections and exposed to the same background noise. The model produced the same 2-to-1 ratio of independent to coherent errors seen in the mice.
The model also discovered that the limited connections between the networks tended to cause them to become synchronized, while the common noise caused them to move in separate directions. Hira provided an explanation of the interaction saying, “We found sparse inter-regional connectivity promotes synchronization between the two regions, whereas widespread fluctuations prevent complete synchronization, allowing each region to preserve its own temporal representation.” Neither force takes precedence; instead, a compromise is reached which allows communication between the regions.
The findings challenge the idea that brain regions rely on a single synchronized timing system. It indicates that the brain can adjust how different parts are coordinated, rather than just turning that coordination on or off.
What a Flexible Clock Could Mean for the Brain
Hira’s team believes that there are implications beyond simple timing circuits. “In the future, our results may contribute to a better understanding of cognition, neurological disorders involving disrupted inter-regional coordination, and the development of brain-inspired artificial intelligence and robotic control systems that combine stability with flexibility,” said Hira.
This last idea may prove most important in the years ahead. Engineers building AI and robotic systems face a similar challenge: how to let separate parts work on their own when needed, yet still come back into sync. The mouse brain shows that sparse connections and shared background fluctuations can achieve this balance. This could point to a design principle that even applies to systems with no biological components.
Austin Burgess is a writer and researcher with a background in sales, marketing, and data analytics. He holds an MBA, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and a data analytics certification. His work focuses on breaking scientific developments, with an emphasis on emerging biology, cognitive neuroscience, and archaeological discoveries.
More light at the day’s end comes at a price: much later winter sunrises across much of the U.S. Scientists have documented consequences for public health and the economy.
Um dos jogos mais cultuados de todos os tempos, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time — lançado originalmente em 1998 para o console Nintendo 64 —, agora pode ser jogado nativamente em iPhones e iPads.
Essa opção se tornou uma realidade graças ao projeto de código aberto HarkinianPad, do desenvolvedor Karis [@chrissotraidis]. Criado com a ajuda do Codex 5.6 Sol, ele é baseado em outro projeto que ganhou certa notoriedade há alguns anos: Ship of Harkinian — versão decompilada de Ocarina of Time capaz de rodar em dispositivos com macOS, Windows, Linux e Android — bem como os consoles Nintendo Switch e Nintendo Wii U.
Ocarina of Time, running natively on iOS and iPadOS for the first time.
Not an emulator. Ship of Harkinian has run on Windows, Linux, macOS, Switch, Wii U, and Android. Never iOS. Now it runs on iPad, with iPhone in the build too.
Segundo Karis, o jogo foi decompilado para a linguagem de programação C e, então, reconstruído como uma aplicação ARM64 (a arquitetura dos processadores da Apple) nativa. Ele também garante que nenhum elemento do hardware do Nintendo 64 é simulado pelo seu projeto, que renderiza o game via Metal — framework proprietário da Maçã.
Por se tratar de uma versão nativa, é possível colocar Ocarina of Time para rodar em widescreen, na resolução completa do iPhone/iPad e a 60 quadros por segundo. Para efeito de comparação, o console da Nintendo roda o game a 240p e com uma taxa de quadros de aproximadamente 20qps.
Configurar tudo no seu smartphone ou tablet, no entanto, não é exatamente simples, já que, para rodar, o HarkinianPad precisa, primeiro, ser assinado por uma Conta Apple ou por um time de desenvolvimento. A página do projeto no GitHub, no entanto, oferece um passo a passo (em inglês) bem completo com várias opções de instalação.
Você também vai precisar extrair a ROM 1Read-only memory, ou memória somente de leitura. de uma edição física do jogo para rodá-lo no seu dispositivo, já que o projeto não vem com uma cópia por questões legais.
Uma vez que tudo for configurado, no entanto, é possível aproveitar Ocarina of Time em sua completude, embora seja possível que você esbarre em alguns problemas de áudio dependendo do dispositivo escolhido. O HarkinianPad também conta com suporte a controles de videogame, teclados e mouses — além dos controles adaptados para a tela sensível ao toque.
Login
