Apple isn't just looking to take on Meta in the smart glasses market; it's looking to upend eyewear as a whole, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. When the Apple Watch launched, it wasn't simply competing against the Pebbles and the Motorolas of the world. The company also had Swatch, Fossil, and Seiko in its crosshairs. Similarly, Apple's smart glasses will be positioned not just against Meta and Samsung, but against Oakley, Ray-Ban, and Warby Parker in the $200-$500 range.

Apple Watch generates an estimated $17 billion annually, but eyewear is a potentially even bigger prize. Where the watch market is worth an estimated $132 billion, a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Earth Oddities • Strange Weather Phenomena • Desert Ecosystems • Go back to Strange Sounds Death Valley is experiencing a rare superbloom, a spectacular desert event in which vast numbers of wildflowers suddenly bloom across the valley floor after rare rainfall. This is the best flowering desert phenomenon in the driest place in North America […]

The post Death Valley Superbloom Explained: Why the Desert Suddenly Explodes With Wildflowers appeared first on Strange Sounds.

Go back to Strange Sounds · Discover more in the Newsletter Archive From sinkholes swallowing roads to the disappearance of the Aral Sea, volcanic unrest across the Ring of Fire, and light measured in billionths of a second — reality is not static. It is constantly shifting. A vehicle sinks into a sudden roadway collapse […]

The post Earth Systems Update: Sinkhole Collapse, Aral Sea Warning & Ring of Fire Activity (Feb 2026) appeared first on Strange Sounds.

💾

Thermometer company ThermoWorks is putting its reputation for accuracy on the line with its first kitchen scale.

The biggest news stories of the week: An early look at the new version of Siri, reviews of Google's new wearable, GoPro's newest action cam and more!

Google I/O 2026 kicked off this week and to no one's surprise, it was almost completely about AI.

Airbnb is adding thousands of boutique hotels, new services and experiences to its app.

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida resumed operations Friday following the explosion of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket during a test Thursday night. Space Launch Delta 45 (SLD 45), which manages the U.S. Space Force’s Eastern Range and oversees all East Coast rocket and missile launches, said Friday that a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket deployedContinue reading "New Glenn explosion: what it means for Blue Origin and SpaceX"

The post New Glenn explosion: what it means for Blue Origin and SpaceX appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

After completing what it said was a “thorough assessment,” the FAA on Wednesday ordered SpaceX to investigate anomalies that its Super Heavy booster experienced during the 12th test flight of its behemoth Starship rocket. The aviation regulator on Tuesday was ambiguous about whether an investigation would be required into Starship Flight 12, which launched Friday evening fromContinue reading "FAA grounds SpaceX Starship after V3 debut"

The post FAA grounds SpaceX Starship after V3 debut appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

As winter’s brilliant stars slip toward the western horizon and the constellations of spring climb higher, Northern Hemisphere observers discover a quieter but richly rewarding sky. Spring is celebrated for its galaxies, yet our own Milky Way offers an equally compelling bounty of open and globular clusters. From youthful, loosely packed groups that still sparkleContinue reading "Observe spring’s star clusters"

The post Observe spring’s star clusters appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.

The A Minecraft Movie sequel officially has a title: A Minecraft Movie Squared. What's more, we now know that Kirsten Dunst will star as Alex, the game's female character option, and that Matt Berry is set to play an even bigger role in this film. He voiced Nitwit in the first movie, but in this one, he'll be playing a human character. Who exactly he'll be hasn't been revealed yet, but in the clip below, he can be heard dismissing a costume choice because "Steve would not be wearing that," suggesting he might be playing the Herobrine, a creepy pasta evil counterpart to Jack Black's Steve.

The director, Jared Hess, and Mojang Chief Creative …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Exclusive: Mining giant says technology is not yet advanced enough to run a fully electrified fleet but experts say it is hooked on federal fuel tax credits

• Revealed: the internal BHP memo that slammed the brakes on world’s biggest miner’s climate push

• Read more from the BHP files investigation here

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

BHP has continued to spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying diesel trucks in the Pilbara despite internal documents suggesting it would increase emissions and be “misaligned” with its decarbonisation goals.

The mining giant is Australia’s biggest consumer of diesel and trucks are its biggest single source of diesel emissions. Replacing the fleet with battery-electric trucks is considered a critical step in the multinational’s efforts to decarbonise.

Continue reading...

© Composite: Guardian

© Composite: Guardian

© Composite: Guardian

While Westminster’s attention is focused on Andy Burnham and Makerfield, another pivotal byelection is taking place in Scotland’s north-east

The coming byelection in Makerfield, from where Andy Burnham aspires to make rapid progress towards Downing Street, is perhaps the most consequential in British political history. But the decision by the Scottish National party’s former Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, to relocate to Holyrood means that another pivotal contest is taking place more than 350 miles to the north. If Makerfield is a test case for Mr Burnham and Labour’s ability to see off Reform UK, Mr Flynn’s old constituency of Aberdeen South is on the frontline of the increasingly fraught politics of North Sea oil.

Labour, despite finishing second in the 2024 general election thanks largely to anti-Tory tactical voting, will not be expecting much this time round. The ramifications of Donald Trump’s reckless war in Iran have exposed Britain’s ongoing vulnerability to fossil-fuel-related energy shocks, highlighting the practical benefits of moving to a green economy. But the knock-on effects of the closure of the strait of Hormuz have also been a gift for the Scottish Conservatives and Reform, who are framing the byelection as a local referendum on reviving oil and gas production beyond Westminster-imposed limits.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Iain Masterton/Alamy

© Photograph: Iain Masterton/Alamy

© Photograph: Iain Masterton/Alamy

United flight 236 from Newark to Palma de Mallorca on Saturday night was forced to turn around just an hour after takeoff due to security concerns around a Bluetooth signal. Multiple Redditors claimed to be on the flight and reported that the crew repeatedly requested passengers to turn off their Bluetooth. According to one poster, the crew issued a one-minute warning, saying that two devices were still active.

One Redditor reported flight attendants making comments like, "This little joke is ruining it for everyone."

An archived recording from Air Traffic Control (embedded below) confirms that the root of the issue was the name of a disc …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Grattan Institute calls on Labor to set policies that will further reduce the use of gas in order to meet net zero targets

• Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here

After more than a half a century of growth, the use of gas in Australia has peaked in all sectors and entered a “structural decline”. But use will need to fall fast to meet climate targets, according to new research from an influential thinktank.

The Grattan Institute warned the government had failed to acknowledge the decline and instead needed policies to further reduce gas use and avoid the need for expensive carbon capture technologies to meet net zero targets.

Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Manfred Gottschalk/Getty Images

© Photograph: Manfred Gottschalk/Getty Images

© Photograph: Manfred Gottschalk/Getty Images

On Saturday, at around 2:06 pm ET, a meteor streaked over the northeastern US and exploded north of Cape Cod Bay. The fireball was caught on camera by several people, shook houses, and can even be seen clearly in satellite imagery, lighting up the sky.

View this post on Instagram

Some residents initially thought that the shaking and boom may have been an earthquake, but the United States Geological Survey (USGS) denied that, saying that it was a "widely felt sonic boom from a suspected bolide." In a statement posted on X, NASA described the event as a "bright fireball… accompanied by a loud noise."

The meteor was t …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Leafy vegetables could be used to extract toxic metals from contaminated soil for use in medical technologies and

Researchers from the University of Twente and Harvard University have developed a new way to generate ultraviolet (UV)

Labour leadership hopeful says NI reduction for firms could ‘incentivise’ hiring, particularly of younger people

Wes Streeting has backed calls for national insurance cuts for businesses, and for the government to drill for oil and gas in the North Sea.

The former health secretary and potential Labour leadership candidate told the Sunday Times there should be a “targeted reduction” of employers’ national insurance contribution as a way to “actively incentivise” hiring, particularly of young people.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Federal Aviation Administration documents have provided new details about a SpaceX project to develop and test reentry vehicles that could be used to support in-space manufacturing projects.

The post FAA documents outline SpaceX plans for Starfall reentry vehicles appeared first on SpaceNews.