Amazon.com has announced that it has added a HBO Subscription for its Prime Members.
After a 30-day free trail, Prime members can have access to all of HBO's movies, specials, and more for a monthly price of $14.99 a month.
For more information, click here.
(NY Times): Three months after one of its rockets exploded on a launchpad, SpaceX hopes to resume launching in a couple of weeks.
Iridium Communications, which provides communications services through a constellation of more than 60 satellites, announced Thursday that it was aiming to launch the first batch of its next-generation satellites on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Dec. 16.
The launch hinges on approval by the Federal Aviation Administration, which is reviewing SpaceX's investigation of the Sept. 1 launchpad explosion. A Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral, Fla., caught fire and exploded during fueling before a test firing of its engines. The explosion destroyed a $200 million Israeli satellite that Facebook had planned to use to expand internet services in Africa and elsewhere.
But Matthew J. Desch, chief executive of Iridium, said his company had taken part in the SpaceX investigation, adding that he had read a preliminary explanation for the accident. "I wouldn't approve our satellites to be launched if I wasn't confident," Mr. Desch said in an interview.
"We are looking forward to return to flight with the first Iridium NEXT launch," Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement, referring to Iridium's satellite constellation.
The F.A.A. said that the investigation was still underway and that it had not yet approved the launch.
SpaceX officials did not provide any new technical details of what went wrong in September.
In an interview on CNBC in November, Elon Musk, SpaceX's chief executive, said the company had identified the cause. Liquid oxygen flowing into a second-stage tank had frozen solid, setting off a catastrophic sequence of events, he said. In that same interview, Mr. Musk said he hoped to resume flights in mid-December.
The explosion damaged SpaceX's launchpad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying 10 Iridium satellites will instead lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the site of a second SpaceX launchpad.
Iridium provides communication services including satellite telephones through its network of satellites circling the Earth at an altitude of 485 miles. The original satellites launched two decades ago at a cost of $5 billion, but Iridium flopped, declaring bankruptcy in 1999. The company finally found its financial footing.
Sixty-five of the original satellites are still in orbit, and Iridium is planning to replace all of them in the next year and a half, with seven Falcon 9 launches carrying 70 satellites, each roughly the size of a Mini Cooper. The new satellites are bigger and more powerful, able to send data at faster rates. Iridium is also planning new services like the tracking of planes and ships in real time.
"This will know where every airplane is, second by second," Mr. Desch said. That could prevent another disaster like the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished in March 2014. More important, Mr. Desch said, that kind of real-time global information would allow the assignment of more efficient flight paths for airliners while still making sure they stay safely apart.
For launches from Florida, SpaceX hopes to complete renovations at Launchpad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, once used for space shuttle launches. It is tentatively aiming to resume cargo flights to the space station in January.
“‘Are we running today?’ I looked at the pouring rain smacking against my window before glancing at the glowing message on my wrist. ‘Don’t let a couple drops stop you,’ the watch replied. The new Apple Watch Nike+ is trying to do something other fitness trackers aren’t: be your buddy,” Natalie DiBlasio reports for USA Today. “It’s no human, but with conversational reminders and encouraging notifications, the new sport version of the Apple Watch Series 2 feels more like a companion than other data-focused watches.”
“If you’re looking for motivation and community, the Apple Watch Nike+ has you covered. If you’re a data-driven athlete, the watch might not be your best bet. The watch face is meant to be simple, showing just distance in the simple mode, or distance, pace and time elapsed in advanced mode. After the run, data like elevation gain, heart rate and estimated calories are logged in the Nike+ Run Club app,” DiBlasio reports. “Sports data nerds more accustomed to a Garmin will notice what’s missing: stats on cadence, form and lactate threshold.”
Read more in the full article here.
(BBC): Investigators have warned consumers they face potentially fatal risks after 99% of fake Apple chargers failed a basic safety test.
Trading Standards, which commissioned the checks, said counterfeit electrical goods bought online were an "unknown entity".
Of 400 counterfeit chargers, only three were found to have enough insulation to protect against electric shocks.
It comes as Apple has complained of a "flood" of fakes being sold on Amazon.
Apple revealed in October that it was suing a third-party vendor, which it said was putting customers "at risk" by selling power adapters masquerading as those sold by the Californian tech firm.
The Trading Standards tests were performed by safety specialists UL.
They applied a high voltage to the chargers, which were bought online from eight different countries, including the US, China and Australia, to test for sufficient insulation.
Leon Livermore, the chief executive of Chartered Trading Standards Institute, urged shoppers to buy electrical goods only from trusted suppliers.
"It might cost a few pounds more, but counterfeit and second-hand goods are an unknown entity that could cost you your home or even your life, or the life of a loved-one," he said.
A separate operation found that of 3,019 electrical goods bought second hand, 15% were non-compliant.
Officers said the unsafe electrical items, which came from charity shops, antique dealers and second-hand shops, had failings such as counterfeit plugs and basic insulation.
Source: Trading Standards
Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: "Counterfeit electrical goods are likely to be poor quality and in the worst cases unsafe.
"Look out for tell-tale signs of counterfeiting such as mistakes in brand names or logos, and check plugs for safety marks - all genuine electrical items made in the EU should have a CE mark on them."
Consumers were also urged not to overcharge appliances and to never cover devices when charging or use a charger with a cracked case or frayed cable.
There is no suggestion the company involved in the Apple case sold the chargers used in the Trading Standards tests.
