SpaceX Launces First National Security Space Mission
A SpaceX rocket blasted into space carrying a U.S. military navigation satellite from Florida on Sunday. This is the first national security mission the company completed. The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off at 8:51 a.m. local time, and carried the roughly $500M GPS satellite into space.
SpaceX postponed the launch four previous times due to weather conditions and technical issues. Originally scheduled for 2014, the launch delayed due to production difficulties. In addition, an additional launch is planned for mid-2019.
Australia To Set Up Drone Identifying Systems
Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority announced plans to implement systems to detect drones around airports. This comes after the UK’s disruption last weeks, which caused 140,000 passengers delays.
In addition, both the UK and Australia started plans on a drone registration scheme, which will help identify the pilots of the drones. Anyone breaking regulations could face fines of up to 10,000 Australian dollars ($7,058) as well as checks on the safety of their craft.
Apple Pulls Some iPhones In Germany
After chip supplier Qualcomm Inc won a second court battle over patents against Apple, the phone maker announced that it will pull older models from German stores. This come just weeks after Qualcomm achieved the same in Chinese markets. In response, Apple said they would seek an appeal, but until that happened the phones would be pulled in both markets.
“We are of course disappointed by this verdict and we plan to appeal,” Apple said. In addition, they plan to take Qualcomm to court in the US for violating antitrust laws. Both companies shares were down in late trading.
AT&T Places Fake 5G Logo On Old Phones
We’ve seen this before. When the phone company AT&T entered into the 4G race, it placed fake logos on old phones that were still running 3G technology. The phones only got a new 3G technology, not the new at the time 4G network. Now, AT&T customers will see a 5GE logo on their phone, even though 5G isn’t available yet. The phones getting the new logos received a speed upgrade, but not 5G networks.
Instagram Tries New Post Scrolling
Instagram apologized after an test feature rollout hit more users than intended. The new feature made users scroll horizontally instead of vertically. Almost immediately, the users took to Twitter to voice their complaints. Likening the update to Tinder, they called for it to be rolled back.
After about 5 hours Instagram rolled the update back, saying, “Sorry about that, this was supposed to be a very small test but we went broader than we anticipated.”
