The iPhone Duo status icon introduces a new approach to information that has occupied the top edge of the iPhone display for nearly two decades. Instead of treating Wi-Fi, cellular signal, battery status, and other indicators as a conventional horizontal row, Apple has created a flexible circular system that sits in the corner of the foldable iPhone’s display.

Apple officially describes the feature as a “circular, flexible system” within the status bar rather than one fixed icon containing every piece of information at all times. The distinction is useful: the area can adapt according to context while consolidating status information into a smaller visual region.

It is part of a much larger rethink of iOS 27 specifically for iPhone Duo. The foldable device changes the proportions available to software, particularly when its 7.6-inch inner display is open, forcing Apple to reconsider interface elements that have traditionally stretched horizontally across an iPhone screen.

The status system is one of the smallest changes visually, but it illustrates how extensively Apple has adapted iOS around the new hardware.

iPhone Duo status icon replaces the traditional horizontal approach

Conventional iPhones distribute system information across the upper portion of the display. Cellular strength, network type, Wi-Fi connectivity, and battery status typically occupy space around the camera hardware and Dynamic Island.

iPhone Duo approaches that area differently.

Apple says its circular status system nestles into the corner of the screen and presents relevant information including Wi-Fi, cellular strength, battery status, and more. Rather than requiring a long horizontal strip, those indicators can occupy a compact area that works with the device’s unusual screen geometry.

The change is closely connected to the way iPhone Duo handles controls throughout iOS 27.

Apple has moved several interface elements to the side of the display. App navigation, toolbars, the Home Screen Dock, and some Lock Screen controls can use vertical space instead of occupying the familiar horizontal regions found on other iPhones.

The status system therefore becomes part of a vertical interface column rather than an isolated redesign.

This arrangement lets content use more of the display’s height while keeping frequently referenced system information visible. It also creates a consistent location for status details as users change how they hold or fold the device.

A flexible status system suits a foldable iPhone

A foldable phone presents an interface problem that a traditional slab-shaped iPhone does not have.

iPhone Duo can operate through its 5.4-inch outer display or its substantially larger 7.6-inch inner screen. The device can be opened completely, partially folded, rotated, or positioned like a small book.

A static status bar designed around one screen size and orientation would be less effective across those configurations.

Apple instead built iOS 27 so that interface elements can move as the physical device changes. Content reacts to folding, controls relocate, and layouts adjust around the hinge and available screen area.

Apple’s developer guidance provides additional detail about this philosophy. On iPhone Duo, navigation and toolbar controls share vertical space with system elements such as the status bar and Live Activities. When available room becomes limited, application controls can collapse into an overflow menu.

That makes the circular status area part of an adaptive system rather than a cosmetic flourish.

Developers do not need to manually reproduce the status treatment inside their apps. Apple’s standard interface frameworks handle much of the adaptation, especially when applications use native navigation, toolbar, and tab-bar components.

Dynamic Island also moves to the side

The status area is not the only familiar piece of iPhone interface that changes position on iPhone Duo.

Apple has redesigned Dynamic Island so that it can sit vertically along the side of both the outer and inner displays. It can expand from that position to present alerts and Live Activities.

The relationship between Dynamic Island and the new circular status system is particularly interesting because Apple now has two dynamic interface areas operating along the same side of the screen.

One communicates persistent device information such as network and battery status. The other handles temporary activity, alerts, and live information.

Apple’s developer documentation refers to this section as shared vertical space. Application controls may also occupy it, meaning iOS has to continuously decide how much room is available and which elements deserve priority.

That is a major departure from the long-standing assumption that the upper corners of an iPhone screen simply contain a predictable row of small status symbols.

On Duo, those regions have become active parts of the interface layout.

Wi-Fi, cellular, and battery remain immediately recognizable

Consolidating status information creates a design challenge: efficiency cannot come at the expense of readability.

Users have spent years learning the meanings of Apple’s individual status symbols. Cellular bars indicate signal strength, the Wi-Fi symbol communicates wireless connectivity, and the battery icon provides an immediate indication of remaining power.

Apple has not discarded those familiar concepts.

Instead, the circular system changes how and where information is presented. The familiar status categories remain present while the container around them becomes more adaptable.

This is particularly useful on a device with two displays. Users should not need to relearn the meaning of basic connectivity information when moving from the outer screen to the inner display.

The same reasoning applies when iPhone Duo changes orientation. Apple can reorganize the status area without changing the fundamental visual vocabulary behind Wi-Fi, cellular, or battery information.

iPhone Duo pushes the status bar beyond a fixed strip

The new design suggests a different direction for one of the oldest pieces of smartphone interface.

Status bars traditionally behave like reserved strips of screen space. Applications work around them, and their icons occupy predictable positions regardless of what is happening elsewhere.

iPhone Duo turns that space into something more fluid.

The circular system can coexist with a vertical Dynamic Island, changing application controls, Live Activities, and layouts that respond to the physical position of the foldable display. It becomes another component that iOS can arrange rather than a fixed row placed permanently along an edge.

There is no indication that Apple plans to bring the same circular status treatment unchanged to conventional iPhones. Its current implementation is specifically tied to iPhone Duo and the interface requirements created by the foldable hardware.

Still, the design provides a glimpse at how Apple can rethink even deeply established iPhone conventions when the shape of the device changes. When iPhone Duo reaches customers on October 23, the small circular area in the corner will be one of the most immediately visible examples: cellular strength, Wi-Fi, battery information, and other system details occupying a shared adaptive space instead of stretching across the display.

The post iPhone Duo status icon combines Wi-Fi, cellular, and battery information appeared first on AppleMagazine.

This summer, NASA test pilot Mike Lippert powered up the X‑59 cockpit for the first time, running the aircraft’s engines on the ground during a key step in his months of preparation and training to fly the experimental aircraft. 

“Getting into the cockpit of the X‑59 felt very comfortable,” said Lippert, the newest X-59 test pilot for NASA’s Quesst mission. “The whole team has done a tremendous job of making sure I am trained and prepared.”

Lippert’s first powered interaction with the aircraft demonstrated how mentorship works in NASA’s test pilot community. The X‑59’s two established pilots, Nils Larson and Jim “Clue” Less, guided him throughout the test. Larson monitored Lippert’s coordination with the control room, while Less answered questions and provided coaching. 

Their feedback, along with insights from experienced engineers, turned the startup sequence into a detailed training exercise to strengthen Lippert’s understanding of the X‑59’s systems and the pace of test operations. 

The X-59 is a revolutionary design, shaped to create a quiet thump instead of a sonic boom when flying faster than the speed of sound. The test pilots’ experience and skill will allow NASA to safely test the aircraft, then eventually fly it over U.S. communities to gather data on how the public perceives the sounds it makes. 

The engine run also introduced Lippert to the X‑59’s maintenance crew. As the test progressed, Lippert saw how the cockpit and control room work together during critical operations. Watching the real-time rhythm, he said, provided a better understanding of how NASA’s flight test teams align to ensure safety and precision. 

Lippert credited the test team’s operating practices and leadership for helping him prepare for flight. He spent extensive time in the X-59’s high-fidelity simulator — designed to match the aircraft’s cockpit — for training, aircraft familiarization, and mission rehearsal. The simulation team’s members are absolute experts on the aircraft and have been key contributors to his training and the program as a whole, Lippert said. 

Lippert said he felt energized after powering on the aircraft’s systems for the first time, adding the milestone left him feeling ready for upcoming test flights. The X-59 will continue to progress through envelope expansion and test its performance under various flight conditions. In the coming months, it will advance toward acoustic validation flight tests to study the sonic thumps it is designed to make.

Learn more about the Quesst mission on NASA’s site.  

The post NASA’s New X-59 Test Pilot Gets Behind Controls for Ground Test appeared first on NASA Science.

Nesta terça-feira, confira, aproveite e economize com a nossa seleção de promoções na App Store!

Planet of Lana é uma bela aventura, desenvolvida pelo Wishfully Studios e publicada nas plataformas móveis pela Playdigious, e nosso destaque do dia.

O jogo nos conquista primeiro pelos olhos: cada cenário parece uma pintura em movimento, com cores vibrantes, que transforma o planeta alienígena em algo ao mesmo tempo acolhedor e misterioso.

A jornada de Lana e seu companheiro Mui se destaca pela atmosfera contemplativa, criando uma experiência com um tom esperançoso. O design dos puzzles é intuitivo e nos incentiva a observar o ambiente e experimentar soluções criativas.

Confira um vídeo:

Um jogo cuja história passeia pelo equilíbrio, natureza e conexão. Uma oferta imperdível! 🥹

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Abaixo outros jogos/apps que, juntos, somam quase R$130 em descontos:

Jogos

Jogo de aventura.

Jogo de cartas.

Diversão matemática.

Aplicativos

Calculadora.

Utilitário para códigos QR.

Fotos panorâmicas.

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Aproveite as ofertas e até amanhã! Lembrando que elas são sempre por tempo limitado, então é bom correr. ✈️

Paleontologists have identified a new species of extinct alligatorid that lived in what is now Colorado just a few hundred thousand years after the asteroid impact that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs.

The post Ancient Alligator Relative Lived Right After Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Portable power stations have moved beyond simply charging phones and laptops. As more people look for backup power for home appliances, RVs, outdoor equipment and emergency situations, the useful question is no longer just how many USB ports a power station has. It is whether the system has enough capacity, output power and charging flexibility to handle demanding equipment without becoming impractical to move.

The SolarPlay Q3600 is designed around that idea. It combines a 3,840Wh LiFePO4 battery with up to 3,600W of AC output, 2,000W solar input and multiple charging interfaces. The result is a large-format power station aimed at users who need considerably more than a conventional portable battery can provide.

A 3,840Wh Battery Changes What a Portable Power Station Can Do

The Q3600’s biggest selling point is its 3,840Wh battery capacity.

That amount of stored energy gives the unit a very different role from smaller power banks or compact camping batteries. Instead of being primarily a device for keeping phones and laptops alive, the Q3600 is intended to support a wider range of equipment, including household appliances, workshop tools, RV equipment and other higher-power loads.

SolarPlay uses a LiFePO4 battery architecture for the Q3600. The manufacturer’s specifications list more than 4,000 charge cycles while retaining 80% of the original capacity, although real-world battery longevity will naturally depend on charging habits, temperature and load conditions.

For users considering a power station as an emergency backup, this distinction matters. A large capacity does not automatically mean unlimited runtime, because actual operating time depends heavily on the wattage of the connected equipment. A 3,840Wh battery can therefore be thought of as a substantial energy reserve rather than a guarantee of a specific number of hours.

3,600W of AC Output Makes It Suitable for More Demanding Loads

The Q3600 is rated for 3,600W continuous AC output and uses a pure sine wave inverter. The European version provides 220–240V AC output at 50Hz/60Hz.

This is one of the areas where the Q3600 separates itself from smaller portable power stations.

A 3,600W output ceiling gives users considerably more room for equipment with higher power requirements. That can be useful for appliances and tools that would simply be outside the practical range of a compact 1,000W-class station.

However, the sensible approach is still to check the rated and startup power of each appliance before connecting it. Motors, compressors and heating appliances can behave differently from their advertised average consumption, so the station’s maximum output should not be treated as a universal guarantee for every device.

Solar Charging Is One of the Q3600’s Most Interesting Features

The Q3600 is not limited to wall charging. Its solar input can accept up to 2,000W, giving the system a much stronger off-grid charging capability than many smaller portable power stations.

SolarPlay states that the Q3600 can reach a full charge in approximately 1.5 hours when AC and solar charging are combined, rather than implying that a 3,840Wh battery can always be fully recharged from solar alone in that time.

The European model also provides adjustable AC charging levels of 400W, 800W, 1,200W, 1,600W and 2,200W. This gives users more control over charging speed and power demand depending on the situation.

That flexibility could be particularly useful during longer outdoor trips. Instead of treating the battery as a one-time energy source, users can recharge it during the day and use the stored energy later when solar production falls.

Multiple Output Types Make It More Versatile

Another strength of the Q3600 is the range of connection options.

The specification includes AC outlets alongside a 12V cigarette-lighter output, an XT60 port, DC outputs, USB-A ports and several USB-C connections. One USB-C port supports up to 100W PD output, making it suitable for higher-powered compatible devices such as laptops.

The Banggood listing describes the product as having 17 outputs, while SolarPlay’s current product page lists 15 output ports. Because the two sources present the port count differently, buyers should check the exact configuration of the package and regional version before ordering.

More importantly, the variety of outputs means the Q3600 can serve several types of equipment at the same time rather than functioning as a single-purpose AC battery.

UPS Support Adds a Practical Home-Backup Role

The Q3600 also supports a UPS function, which makes it more interesting for use around the home.

According to the listed specifications, the system can switch to battery power in less than 20 milliseconds under its specified UPS conditions. This is intended to reduce interruption when mains power disappears.

That feature can be useful for equipment that needs a more consistent power source, such as networking hardware, computers or selected electronic devices.

It should not, however, be confused with a dedicated enterprise-grade UPS system. Users with particularly sensitive equipment should check the manufacturer’s UPS specifications and the equipment’s own power requirements before relying on the Q3600 as their only backup solution.

Large Capacity Comes With a Real Weight Trade-Off

The Q3600 is portable, but it is not lightweight.

The listed bare-device weight is approximately 42.2kg, with dimensions of about 608 × 289 × 456mm.

That makes the built-in wheels and telescopic handle particularly important. The Q3600 is better understood as a movable power station rather than something most users will casually carry by hand over a long distance.

For an RV, garage, workshop, campsite or home backup location, this design makes sense. Users can position the unit where it is needed and roll it into place instead of repeatedly lifting the entire 42kg system.

Designed for Home Backup, RVs and Off-Grid Use

The Q3600’s specifications suggest several practical use cases.

For home backup, the large battery and high AC output provide a way to keep selected appliances and electronics operating during outages.

For RV use, the combination of AC, 12V and other DC outputs can reduce the need to carry separate power solutions for different types of equipment.

For off-grid applications, the 2,000W solar input becomes especially important because it allows the Q3600 to function as part of a rechargeable solar-based power system rather than relying entirely on the electrical grid.

Outdoor users should still consider the unit’s 42.2kg weight and physical size when planning transportation. Its wheels make movement easier, but this is not a lightweight backpacking power station.

What About Noise and Protection?

SolarPlay lists the Q3600 with multiple battery-management protections covering conditions such as overcharging, over-discharging, over-current and short circuits. The Banggood specifications also list a working temperature range of approximately -10°C to 45°C for the Q3600.

The product is also listed with safety and transport-related certifications including CE, FCC, RoHS, PSE, UN38.3 and MSDS documentation.

These features do not eliminate the need to use the power station within its operating limits, but they show that the Q3600 is designed as a substantial energy-storage system rather than simply a large battery pack.

SolarPlay Q3600 Specifications

Specification	SolarPlay Q3600
Battery capacity	3,840Wh
Battery type	LiFePO4 / LFP
AC output	3,600W
AC voltage	220–240V
AC waveform	Pure sine wave
Solar input	Up to 2,000W
AC charging	Up to 2,200W
UPS	Less than 20ms under specified conditions
USB-C	Up to 100W on dedicated PD port
DC output	12V options
Weight	About 42.2kg
Dimensions	About 608 × 289 × 456mm
Operating temperature	Approximately -10°C to 45°C

Specifications can vary by regional version or package, so buyers should verify the configuration before purchase.

Is the SolarPlay Q3600 Worth Considering?

SolarPlay Q3600 power station is not trying to win the portability contest by being small and light. Its appeal comes from the opposite direction.

The 3,840Wh battery, 3,600W AC output and 2,000W solar input give it the kind of electrical capacity that makes sense for home backup, RV trips, workshops and longer off-grid use. The multiple output types and UPS function further expand its potential applications.

The biggest compromise is its size and 42.2kg weight. That means the Q3600 works best when it can be rolled into position rather than carried frequently.

For buyers who prioritize large energy storage, high output power and solar recharge capability over lightweight portability, the Q3600 offers a much more capable alternative to smaller portable power stations.

Before purchasing, users should also confirm the exact regional version, output configuration and included accessories, particularly because the current Banggood listing and SolarPlay’s own product page differ in how they describe the number of output ports.

The post SolarPlay Q3600 Brings 3840Wh Capacity and 3600W Output to Portable Backup Power appeared first on IGeeKphone China Phone, Tablet PC, VR, RC Drone News, Reviews.

In a catch-up interview after a lost CES interview, Jeff Gadway, SVP for Clicks discusses the Power Keyboard, a universal MagSafe-style Bluetooth keyboard and power bank for iPhone, Android, tablets, TVs, and more. He also details the Clicks Communicator, a smartphone built around physical keys, purposeful communication, productivity, security, and the idea of a task-focused […]

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In the Mapcreator booth at NAB in Las Vegas, Julia Schellekens provides an update on their service that delivers detailed maps for news and other organizations who want to clearly show what is happening where. With a wide array of export and animation capabilities to help drive home the information, it is almost certain that you have seen their product in use no matter where in the world you are. 

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If you’ve been using computers for a long time, you might recall the Apple II and Apple IIgs, two of Apple’s early computers that were before they had fully committed to the Macintosh platform. While there were plenty of productivity apps and programming tools for Apple II and Apple IIgs, there were also a whole ... Read More

The post Play Any Apple II or Apple IIgs Game in Your Browser appeared first on OS X Daily.

Paleontologists have described a new genus of small, bird-like dinosaur that lived in what is now New Mexico approximately 73 million years ago.

The post New Troodontid Dinosaur Genus Identified from Fossil Bone Found Decades Ago in New Mexico appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

The almost-natural-language notepad calculator Soulver’s latest release adds better tools for calculating durations or intervals between dates and times, planning travel itineraries, tracking inflation, finding distances, performing bandwidth math, and splitting restaurant bills or other expenses. That’s not all, but a good starting list. Should it do all these things? A point we could argue about! But many of the features it offered in the past, and several of the new ones it provides, previously required one or more web searches to find a tool or to pull together disparate information. That’s welcome.

Soulver 4’s release comes at an interesting time, when many people have turned to chatbots and Google’s search dialog—and soon will turn to Siri AI—to answer questions that are better written out or spoken than described as just numbers or operators.

This significant update succeeds in bringing a sort of authoritative basis to stuff you need to calculate or convert. Behind the scenes, there’s no inference or autocompletion—it’s numbers, baby, all the way down. However, the developers aren’t unaware of the AI glow-up. They’ve addressed it in an interesting way, making it easy for agents to ask questions of Soulver!

How many bushels in a peck as I travel a furlong faster than a parsec?

Soulver has filled a gap for me in my calculating needs since I dug into the subject in 2015. While I love PCalc and use it for regular and advanced calculator needs, Soulver is where I go when I need to mix things up.¹

PCalc and Soulver offer overlapping Venn diagrams of what’s possible in number space, but they are distinctly different beasts at heart. Where PCalc mostly calculates within a calculator-style interface, Soulver mostly offers a way to make sense of numbers, units, percentages, time, intervals, and much more. I think of it as a “take stuff in various units or other formulations and then produce an output in a way I want” tool.

I sometimes go days without using Soulver, and then find myself typing in an array of calculations. For instance, as a tiny print book publisher (it’s just me), I am often dealing with the weight of paper, the weight of books, the cost of shipping, and other variables. The number of sheets I have in some of my Numbers documents is alarming, but I often need conversion that sounds like a story problem: “The printer in Canada is giving me paper weight in gsm (grams per square meter). I know the book’s area per page (typically in inches). I need to calculate the weight of 1,000 copies in pounds.” I can type the query faster than I describe it. For instance, I need to estimate the weight of a new book based on the weight and page count of one I am holding:

(6 inches x 9 inches) / (5.875 inches × 8.25 inches) × (352 / 204) × 302g in lbs

Version 4 continues to offer all of what I consider its basics. You type out numbers and units with operators between them. You can set variables, add comments, and drag results into subsequent lines as part of further calculations. You can force-convert units, as above, telling it to use a metric unit instead of imperial, or to use a different unit scale. Say you want inches instead of feet, or kilograms instead of pounds.

Because it’s a notepad, your work is persistent. You can use Soulver to create the equivalent of tabs within sheets, collected into a “sheetbook.” This is somewhat like the Notes app, and it lets you organize calculations into projects and sub-projects. I have a monolithic sheet I use for essentially everything. Soulver can store files locally or sync via iCloud.

Where version 4 starts to diverge from previous releases is in what feels like a baroque set of options that aren’t stapled on, but most require a bit more effort to get the nuance and make them work for you.

How much did Minions & Monsters make in 1940 dollars?

It took me a few weeks to write this review, quite honestly, because every time I looked at the upgrade page, my eyes glazed over as I thought about how to best present this. I mean, the release notes page is broken into ten sections. The answer—which didn’t require Soulver 4—is that I need to cherry-pick more than usual for an app to give you the flavor.

Here are a few new elements that will keep me away from search engines and other resources more than any other:

Inflation calculation. As a historian, and as somebody who just wants to use his numeracy to interpret the world, I find myself jumping for an inflation calculator all the time.² You need an online source, as it has to have a table of the historical values to provide the correct cumulative percentage between two years or dates. Because of the relatively high inflation in developed nations since the start of the pandemic, I find myself trying to understand why I’m staring at a jar of peanut butter and can’t comprehend what it costs now. (Soulver currently does annual inflation calculations, but will add monthly data in a future update.)

It’s a date: Date math is the hardest math, in my experience. Soulver previously let you perform the magic of subtracting one date from another or adding days to a date to figure out the right month, day, and year. In the update, you can do more tricks, like figuring out work hours (set by default, and you can change) in periods of time or differences, calculating relative to cultural and religious holidays, finding the number of daylight hours in a particular place, and (as should be obvious so far) much more. As a person of the Jewish faith, I honestly never know when Hanukkah starts, and Soulver doesn’t appear to know either. (Soulver says Hanukkah is coming in a future update.) However, it does include Christmas and Ramadan; there’s no list of this category, but you can look in Soulver: Settings: Dates & Times and click Public holidays to see that list, set by your region.

How far away? I don’t know about you, but I regularly want to know the distance between two places, sometimes nearby, sometimes far away. Soulver 4 lets you ask, distance between [place name] and [place name], and get the proper curvature-adjusted distance. (I have a proviso about this that you can read at the end.)

How long to upload? I’ve used Soulver for bandwidth and file-transfer time calculations since I first installed it. With the latest release, you don’t have to punch in nearly as many units or conversions to get an answer to a question like time to upload 1TB at 900Mbps. (Answer: 2.47 hours.)

Elements you’ll find added or improved that I haven’t found a particular use for yet but seem significant include:

• Better formatting: You can highlight expression lines with one of eight preset colors, as well as add divider lines. This makes data in sheets easier to parse. In addition to the previously available export function, Soulver 4 lets you email sheets to yourself with full HTML formatting.

• Trip planning: I’ll be honest that this feature looks powerful, but requires breaking out of the Soulver mold, as it uses a multi-line approach by defining the top and bottom of the trip range as a “time point” via the contextual menu. However, because of how it calculates time intervals and provides warnings if the duration you’ve set doesn’t fit, you can use it for short itineraries (getting to the airport on time) or planning a long trip.

• Tags workflow: Coders are amazing people, and you can see that in the simplicity and complexity of this tagging feature. When you tag a line with a hashtag and a tag name, the associated value can be summed, and operations can be performed on it. For instance, you can tag everyone’s individual orders on a dinner bill, add in tax and tip, and then have it divvied out. But that’s just one example. A spreadsheet could be easier, but it can also be overkill.

• A command-line interface: If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like a GUI, a command-line approach to Soulver might fit you, but the developers created it mostly to allow a simple way for you to have various other things, whether scripts, editor plug-ins, or coding agents, use Soulver as a kind of engine of numerical accuracy.

Weather goest thou?

Soulver is a $59 one-time purchase and gives you access to Mac, iPhone, and iPad versions. (There’s a 60-day free trial to test it out.) While that might seem high, I think given inflation—wink, wink—that’s comparable to the $30–$40 we might pay for a single-platform great utility in 2010! The iPhone version can be purchased on its own for $15. Soulver 3 owners pay $29 to upgrade to version 4. You can also get Soulver 4 via the $15 a month Setapp subscription, and have full access to it and over 330 other apps.

But you might run into one not-quite-hidden subscription option if you make certain weather or stock queries. With the App Store version of Soulver, $26 a year gives you access to what the app labels Live Weather (a number of current metrics), Live & Historical Stocks (a deep trove of data and real-time), and Inline Knowledge Assistant (which lets you use Wolfram|Alpha). It’s included at no extra cost for Setapp subscribers.

I ran afoul of an aspect of this in testing, as Soulver (as of 4.0.2) included about the top 700 most populous cities and leaned on Wolfram for more, but didn’t prompt me as to why it couldn’t identify a city I mentioned. Developer Zac Cohan said the next minor update will add dynamic place-name lookups as part of the base price to reduce confusion and better fit the user base.

This subscription is not at all necessary to use Soulver 4, and Zac says the vast majority of Soulver users don’t need it. However, the cost to provide the data and services is too high to include for all users, hence the subscription to defray those costs.

Just 10 days after beginning its first trial operations, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has announced that scientists operating its new High Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) have successfully detected the “extremely rare” hafnium-153 isotope.

The international research team behind the achievement said the hafnium-153 observation is the first physics result achieved since the facility’s commissioning, which highlights its ability to aid scientists in exploring the “boundaries of the nuclear landscape.”

Detection of 10 Hafnium-153 Isotopes Represents Facility’s First “Physics Result”

According to a press release from the team, which was led by the State Key Laboratory of Heavy Ion Science and Technology affiliated with the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), exploring unknown isotopes and determining the limits of nuclear existence “are key frontiers of nuclear physics.”

Located in Huizhou in South China’s Guangdong Province, the HIAF facility is a world-class next-generation heavy-ion accelerator specifically designed to explore these “key frontiers” at extremely high energies.

To search for the rare hafnium-153 isotope, HIAF’s Booster Ring (Bring) delivered a primary beam of bismuth-209 onto agraphite target. Due to the energies involved, the collision produced radioactive nuclei through a process called projectile fragmentation reactions.

To maintain purity, the team purified and transported it via the facility’s High-rigidity Radioactive Ion Beam Line (HIRIBL). Next, the beam is injected into the Spectrometer Ring. Here, the scientists were able to perform “isochronous mass spectrometry” to make precision measurements.

Although the facility’s first physics result resulted in what the team described as an “extremely low production cross section,” the experiment was still a success. After a close count, the team identified spectral signatures for ten hafnium-153 ions.

Critically, the team’s detection was independently replicated at Japan’s Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF) at RIKEN, which also reported the observation of hafnium-153. The team said the dual detections provide mutual confirmation and “further highlight the significance of this isotope in nuclear physics research.”

An Important Advance in Probing the Limits of Nuclear Existence

When discussing the implications of the facility’s rare isotope detection, the team said that the results suggest that hafnium-153 is either a bound or weakly bound isotope, which matches predictions from nuclear mass models made before the experiments. The researchers also noted that this isotope is located within the neutron-deficient heavy nuclear region, so its detection offers scientists “a unique window into the evolution of nuclear structure and the limits of nuclear stability.”

“Its observation and precise measurement provide critical experimental information for testing nuclear models and advancing our understanding of nuclear structure,” they explained.

Beyond the scientific value, the team noted that the detection showcases the facility’s capabilities mere days into its operational phase. For example, HIAF’s high-intensity heavy-ion beams demonstrated the ability to enhance the production of rare isotopes. The facility’s high-performance beam line also successfully enabled efficient separation of the nuclei of interest, while its SRing’s isochronous mass spectrometry provides “single-ion”  level sensitivity for precision identification and measurement of rare nuclei such as hafnium-153.

Moving forward, the team said that further improvements in beam intensity and increases in experimental efficiency are expected to make HIAF an increasingly important tool for discovering new isotopes. They also note the facility’s goals of aiding the investigation of nuclear properties “under extreme conditions” for such fundamental research.

“This new achievement not only marks an important advance in probing the limits of nuclear existence but also opens the door to broader scientific exploration at HIAF,” they explained.

The study “Discovery of isotope hafnium-153 near the proton drip line via isochronous mass spectrometry: extending the nuclear landscape with HIAF” was published in Science Bulletin.

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

A Adobe anunciou hoje o lançamento de um plugin unificado para o ChatGPT, reunindo mais de 70 ferramentas criativas da seu suíte diretamente na interface do chatbot por inteligência artificial (IA) da OpenAI.

O plugin conta com ferramentas de aplicativos da Adobe que já possuíam integração com o ChatGPT, além de novos recursos do Adobe Express, Photoshop, Firefly, Premiere, Acrobat, Lightroom, Illustrator, InDesign e Adobe Stock, permitindo que os usuários possam criar peças publicitárias ou adaptar um vídeo para diferentes redes sociais sem precisar alternar entre aplicativos.

A novidade faz parte da estratégia da Adobe de expandir a compatibilidade dos seus recursos com as ferramentas de IA generativa; em junho, a empresa já havia mencionado que levaria esses recursos inclusive para rivais do ChatGPT, como o Claude. No Copilot, no Gemini e no Slack eles chegarão “em breve”, segundo a empresa.

Big news: a new Adobe plugin is now available in @OpenAI's @ChatGPT! 70+ tools, including @Photoshop, @AdobeFirefly, @Lightroom, and @Acrobat, all in one chat.

Mock up your photos. Repurpose a video for any platform. Turn a template into a polished PDF. Learn more:… pic.twitter.com/I1qrBctKyr

— Adobe (@Adobe) August 6, 2026

Ainda conforme a desenvolvedora, a novidade foi pensada para “facilitar e agilizar a transformação de ideias em conteúdo de alta qualidade dentro do ChatGPT”, mas a empresa destaca que, para necessidades criativas “mais profundas”, os seus aplicativos nativos seguem sendo a primeira opção.

Questionada pela AI Magazine se o uso dos recursos incorporados ao ChatGPT poderia rivalizar com o uso dos aplicativos nativos, a líder de produtos de IA agêntica da Adobe, Deepti Pradeep, respondeu o seguinte:

Dentro do ChatGPT, a experiência é transformadora: em vez de escolher plugins da Adobe separadamente, os usuários podem experimentar uma única experiência da Adobe que traz o Photoshop, Acrobat, Express e mais juntos.

Nós acreditamos que a consolidação adiciona mais valor aos usuários do ChatGPT. Fora dele, nossos aplicativos nativos permanecem essenciais para um controle mais profundo, preciso e avançado dos fluxos de trabalho.

Para iniciar, é possível utilizar algumas funcionalidades do plugin como convidado, embora a Adobe recomende fazer login com a sua conta para “desbloquear recursos adicionais”.

O plugin da Adobe já está disponível tanto no app quanto na versão web do ChatGPT.

You’re heading to that beach vacation. Or maybe like us in Washington State, you’re sneezing and coughing from the sunbaked wildfire smoke.

Source

Abrindo o mês de agosto com a nossa seleção de promoções na App Store para esta segunda-feira!

Cardinal Land, criado pela DogoTogo, é um quebra-cabeças com o adicional de também ser um aplicativo educacional — e, por isso, o nosso destaque do dia.

Combine as peças coloridas de diferentes formatos e crie imagens de animais. Uma vez completada a figura, fatos interessantes do animal são apresentados e podem ser compartilhados facilmente com quem você quiser.

Explore sete continentes em dezenas de fases e desafie as suas habilidades em diferentes modos de jogo. Complete rapidamente as tarefas e ganhe estrelas. Compartilhe as imagens dos animais com seu Apple Watch e transforme-as em mostradores!

Confira um vídeo:

Aproveite a oferta e boa diversão! 🦁

---

Abaixo outros jogos/apps que, juntos, somam quase R$170 em descontos:

Jogos

Jogo musical.

Jogo de estratégia.

Aplicativos

Para relaxar.

Utilitário para hábitos.

---

Aproveite as ofertas e até amanhã! Vale lembrar que elas são sempre por tempo limitado, então é bom correr. 🚀

Text expansion utility adds support for importing snippets from more apps. ($29.99 annual subscription, free update, 48.2 MB, macOS 13+)

Anyone who has used the Internet in recent years is probably used to encountering telltale signs of LLM prompting that lazy users sometimes forget to remove from their AI-generated pabulum. But a Canadian legislator took that idea to an embarrassing new level this week, reading an apparent LLM prompt instruction into the record during a floor speech.

Bill Oliver, a Progressive Conservative Party member of the legislative assembly of New Brunswick, noted in a speech last month that "One of the dangers associated with creating advocacy offices is that citizens often develop expectations that exceed the powers actually granted to those offices." He then went on to say out loud that "here’s a more natural, flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points," a line with all the hallmarks of an LLM presenting an alternative style option in response to a prompt.

The odd reading went more or less unnoticed at the time, but video of the remarks started spreading around social media networks like Reddit and Threads earlier this week. In Canada, the snafu is now getting mainstream attention from the likes of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and The Toronto Star, the latter of which called it a sign of "a growing divide in our society: between the elites, who are only too happy to delegate their duties to the Borg; and the masses, who find this objectionable."

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NASA added a new X-59 test pilot to support the agency’s Quesst mission: Mike Lippert, a research test pilot based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.  

“This fulfills a lifelong dream of conducting airborne research and experimental flight test for NASA in the high desert — contributing to humankind’s understanding of the science of flight and the nature of the world around us,” Lippert said. 

Lippert will fly the X-59, along with the F-15 and F-18 support aircraft to monitor the quiet supersonic X-plane when it’s in the air. He joins Nils Larson and Jim “Clue” Less, who have been flying the X-59 since its first flight in October 2025.  

A South Carolina native, Lippert served 20 years with the U.S. Marine Corps before retiring last year as a lieutenant colonel. Like his fellow test pilots, he boasts an impressive flight resume, including logging more than 2,600 hours of flight time in 60 different types of aircraft.  

Lippert said he finds test pilot work especially rewarding. 

“For me, the joy of taking part in experimental flight test and airborne research is the experience of discovery and learning something new every day,” he said. “It is incredibly rewarding to be part of a team solving complex problems and venturing into the unknown, together.” 

Lippert spent the majority of his career flying the AV-8B Harrier operationally and serving as a test pilot in the F-35 program. He is also an aerospace engineer, earning a bachelor’s degree from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and a Master of Science in flight test engineering from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Additionally, he earned a Master of Science in systems engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.  

Lippert is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Alabama Graduate School in Tuscaloosa, where his research focuses on high-speed gas dynamics, including supersonic and hypersonic fluid mechanics — complementing his work on the Quesst mission. 

Lippert is busy preparing for his role at NASA by flying training flights on support aircraft and spending time in the X-59 simulator. He is expected to begin flying the X-59 later this summer. 

More X-59 to Explore

Read more on the Quesst mission page.

The post Meet NASA’s New X-59 Test Pilot  appeared first on NASA Science.

Liopleurodon ferox is a short-necked marine reptile that patrolled the seas of what is now England and France some 163 million years ago.

The post Jurassic Pliosaur Liopleurodon Was Big, but Not as Big as Once Feared appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Apple:

You manage all the devices that appear in Xcode as run destinations using Device Hub.

Run your app on simulated devices in Device Hub to quickly evaluate new features and fix bugs, and to see how your interface works on devices that you don’t have physical access to. Run your app on physical devices to test features or services that have hardware dependencies or investigating performance issues. For more information, see Running your app on simulated or physical devices.

Fatbobman:

Device Hub is undoubtedly a major surprise. It integrates simulators, physical device management, system state testing, and dynamic size adjustment into a new workflow. Its impact on day-to-day development experience may be more direct than that of many individual APIs. That said, iPhone apps now also support dynamic size adjustment, which will bring new challenges for developers, especially in terms of data and state organization. Adapting to different sizes is not something that can be solved merely by relying on dynamic layout containers. In many scenarios, large and small sizes correspond to very different navigation logic.

Collin Allen (Mastodon):

Xcode 27 introduced, among other new features, a new Device Hub app for developers that takes the place of the Simulator app. Where Simulator relied on separate windows for each device, Device Hub brings them all together into a single window where each simulated device is the detail view from a source list of devices on the left. It’s a more organized approach, made necessary by the wide variety of platforms Apple and Apple platform app developers have to build and test against.

[…]

In releases prior to Xcode 27, you could resolve this by importing the root public certificate into the simulated OS. On iOS, this could be done by dragging and dropping the .cer file onto the Simulator device window. Nothing would appear to happen, but you could then navigate to Settings, General, About, Certificate Trust Settings and mark the certificate as trusted.

[…]

In Xcode 27 with Device Hub, this process is much more uniform. […] While this new process does require you to wrap certificates in an Apple Configurator profile, this is much more consistent with how Apple’s device management system works, as it relies on signed profiles with policies, not loose .cer files. And now, just by adding the .mobileconfig to the Profiles section of the device inspector, the embedded certificate is automatically marked as trusted, greatly speeding up installation on new virtual devices.

Steve Troughton-Smith:

I get what Apple is trying to do with the Device Hub, but it’s nowhere near as usable and as useful as the iOS Simulator (in this seed)

Adam Overholtzer:

Device Hub is missing the “pixel accurate” and “point accurate” zoom options and that’s not acceptable.

Steve Troughton-Smith:

Maybe someday the Simulator/Device Hub might even be able to output screenshots in the same orientation as the emulated device 😛

Steve Troughton-Smith:

Thanks to the remote control / screen sharing features of Device Hub, I can remotely navigate to Settings and start a software update on all my iOS27 devices without having to go collect them around the house 👌

Steve Troughton-Smith:

For all of Apple’s nonsense about adding iPhone Mirroring to the EU, the new Device Hub (iOS Simulator) lets you remote-control your physical iOS devices just fine. I don’t think the DMA has an opt-out for developer tools 😛

Steve Troughton-Smith:

It’s such a shame for now that Xcode 27’s Device Hub doesn’t support remote screen sharing with iOSes earlier than 27. I wish the screen sharing functionality was part of the developer disk image, and backported to iOS 26 and even iOS 18. Having a physical device plugged in somewhere is so much faster than booting a Simulator.

Previously:

• WWDC 2026 Links
• Xcode 27 Announced
• No Apple Intelligence or iPhone Mirroring in EU at Launch

Update (2026-06-26): Léo Natan:

Xcode 27’s “Device Hub” is a broken shitshow, but most importantly, it lacks the Debug menu, where you could toggle slow animations and simulate memory warnings. Apple works tirelessly to destroy any good tool they used to have.

He has a thread of issues. Hopefully these will be addressed before it’s out of beta.

Update (2026-07-01): Craig Hockenberry:

The Device Hub sometimes doesn’t kill CoreSimulator processes when you quit the app (not sure if this is a bug or intentional). Given that each device uses several hundred processes, the memory/processing impact is significant.

You’ll probably want to keep an eye on how many you have running: use right-click on the simulator in the list to “Shut Down” as necessary.

O Apple TV anunciou hoje que o ator Benicio del Toro fará sua estreia em um papel de destaque na série de comédia “Protective Custody”, futura produção estrelada e produzida por Ben Stiller que foi anunciada em maio deste ano.

A produção girará em torno de um financista desacreditado acusado de fraude em larga escala e colocado sob custódia. Na cadeia, ele se verá obrigado a lidar com a política da prisão, recuperar sua reputação e enfrentar as consequências de seus atos enquanto aguarda o julgamento.

Benicio Del Toro is set to make his leading comedy series debut on Apple TV.

Also starring and executive produced by Ben Stiller, and hailing from Emmy Award-winner Mike Judge, Emmy Award-winner Steve Hely and Dave King, comes a new series about a disgraced financier navigating… pic.twitter.com/3rglVYsR7C

— Apple TV (@AppleTV) July 22, 2026

“Protective Custody” também marcará o reencontro entre del Toro e Stiller, que já colaboraram na minissérie “Escape at Dannemora”. A produção marca, ainda, a estreia de Stiller como protagonista em uma série de comédia roteirizada, fora do formato de esquetes.

A produção será comandada por Steve Hely, Dave King e pelo diretor Mike Judge — que também serão roteiristas e showrunners. A produção executiva será de Stiller, John Lesher, Ben Silverman, Howard Owens, Rodney Ferrell, Michael Rotenberg, Oly Obst e Nanette Burstein.

O Apple TV está disponível no aplicativo Apple TV em mais de 100 países e regiões, seja em iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs, Macs, dispositivos Android, smart TVs ou online — além de também estar em aparelhos como Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast com Google TV, consoles PlayStation e Xbox. O serviço custa R$29,90 por mês, com um período de teste gratuito de 7 dias. Por tempo limitado, quem comprar e ativar um novo iPhone, iPad, Apple TV ou Mac ganha 3 meses do Apple TV. Ele também faz parte do pacote de assinaturas da empresa, o Apple One.

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