Chief

Google’s cloud business lost more than $5.5 billion last year, but it’s growing fast

Google parent company Alphabet weathered the tail end of 2020 to post better-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter of the year. But the bigger story is that Alphabet broke out Google Cloud’s sales for the first time ever, revealing an eye-popping $5.6 billion annual loss last year, but a nearly 50 percent jump in revenue… Read more

Xbox Series X stock will be scarce until June, warns Microsoft

Home News (Image credit: Future) Microsoft has admitted the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles could be in short supply until June 2021 or later. The company’s head of investor relations, Mike Spencer, told The New York Times that Microsoft company “sold every Xbox unit it had last quarter,” adding that supply is “likely… Read more

Go read this profile of the trader whose huge bet on GameStop moved the entire market

The markets are not okay. If you’ve paid any attention to internet chatter this week, you’ve probably seen the names RoaringKitty or DeepFuckingValue — the bullish trader behind the recent GameStop stock phenomenon who’s inspired millions of retail investors to get behind his bet, which has nearly bankrupted at least one hedge fund. Until recently,… Read more

Elon Musk’s shot at Amazon flares monthslong fight over billionaires’ orbital real estate

The satellite feud between Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Amazon spilled out into the open on social media this week, after brewing for months in meetings with regulators. It’s only the latest spat in a new race among billionaires for a slice of a $1 trillion telecommunications market. Musk and Bezos, the two richest… Read more

Spin is testing remote-controlled electric scooters to prevent blocked sidewalks

Spin, the scooter company owned by Ford, is testing a new scooter that can be controlled by a remote operator. The scooters, Segway’s T60 model, look different than Spin’s regular fleet with the addition of a third wheel in the front. They’re also outfitted with sensors and other technology provided by a startup called Tortoise,… Read more

10 best remastered games: The top Xbox, PlayStation, Switch and PC gems to play now

(Pocket-lint) – Feeling all nostalgic? Well, if you want to dabble in a bit of old-school gaming then there’s no need to go digging the PS1 or Dreamcast out of the attic – so many of those machines’ older games have been lovingly picked up and remastered by developers. No scratched CD nightmares or cartridge-blowing… Read more

Axiom names first private crew paying $55 million for a trip to the ISS

An American real estate investor, a Canadian investor and a former Israeli Air Force pilot are paying $55 million each to be part of the first fully private astronaut crew to journey to the International Space Station. The trio will hitch a ride on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule early next year, with a veteran NASA… Read more

Testing sidelined as health departments focus on vaccination

Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles was the biggest COVID-19 testing site in the United States, with the ability to test over 10,000 people each day. But two weeks into January, amid a chaotic and slow-moving COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the city shut down the site in order to convert it into a vaccination site. The city… Read more

Seagate Ships 20TB HAMR HDDs Commercially, Increases Shipments of Mach.2 Drives

Home News (Image credit: Seagate) Seagate said this week that it had begun commercial shipments of its hard drives featuring heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology back in November and expanded the evaluation program for its dual-actuator Mach.2 HDDs, which offer twice the performance of a standard hard drive. The company is confident that its technology… Read more

SpaceX is sparring with a Texas oil company to drill for natural gas

SpaceX is locked in a legal fight with a Texas oil company for a plot of land it wants to use to drill for natural gas, according to public records. The 806-acre site in southern Texas sits near SpaceX’s Starship facilities, a sprawling testing ground for its methane-fueled Raptor rocket engine. Tim George, an attorney… Read more

Away CEO Stuart Haselden is stepping down

Away CEO Stuart Haselden will step down in February, according to a company press release. The luggage brand’s president and co-founder, Jen Rubio, will take over as interim chief executive until Away finds a permanent replacement. The news was first reported by Axios. Haselden, a former Lululemon executive, joined the company in the wake of… Read more

heise + | Upcycling: Building Micro-NAS with Banana Pi M1, FreeBSD and ZFS

Upcycling: Building Micro-NAS with Banana Pi M1, FreeBSD and ZFS Write FreeBSD to SD card and prepare speed exhaust localize external hard drive Start FreeBSD Conclusion When we switched to FreeBSD out of curiosity tested various ARM-based single board computers (Single Board Computer / SBC), two older Banana Pi M1s stood out from the crowd:… Read more

heise + | IoT hacking: improve firmware and network security

Software in embedded devices offers many points of attack. A systematic approach to securing and automated scanning of security gaps helps. IoT hacking: Improve firmware and network security Secure update mechanisms Do not underestimate web applications Reduce the attack surface Silence services Article in iX 2 / 2021 read How can IoT software be implemented… Read more

heise + | Retrofitting a smart home: washing machine reports finished laundry

With smart adapter plugs and simple rules, the washing machine reports when it is finished. We show which systems it works with. (Image: Berti Kolbow-Lehradt) Retrofit Smart Home: Washing machine reports finished laundry Standby consumption as an alarm trigger Laundrify: Ready-to-use solution for the washing machine AVM FritzDECT: Connect the washing machine to the Fritzbox… Read more

Astronaut Payette: Canada's Viceroy must abdicate

Ex-astronaut Julie Payette is forced to abdicate as Governor General of Canada. Her leadership style has become the scientist’s undoing. It is the first time in the history of the world’s largest monarchy that a governor-general has to resign. Until a successor is appointed, Richard Wagner takes over the official business. The grandson of a… Read more