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A long-running conspiracy theory among users of Apple products is that Apple intentionally slows down their older phones to force users to buy newer ones. Like most conspiracy theories, it’s completely ridiculous, but unlike most conspiracy theories, it’s actually kind of true.Geekbench’s John Poole has been analyzing the performance of his iPhone 7 and 6S and found that the CPU speeds of those phones do actually decrease over time. Further, he found that the decrease in processing speed is tied to the strength of the battery, and that the weaker the battery gets the less powerful the phone’s CPU becomes....

Media Platforms Design TeamBlack & Decker’s InfraWave Speed Cooking Oven is one minor shockwave in the larger market explosion of infrared cooking options. From boat-mounted grills to conventional stove-top burner replacements, it feels a little like the introduction of microwave ovens decades ago, but also like a vast infomercial conspiracy. The InfraWave’s “As Seen on TV” ads offer the low-low deal of three payments of $49.99—wait, check it out, they crossed out the price!...

Climate change has altered rainfall patterns across the globe. Heavy flooding is now more likely to occur in the United States and the rest of the planet. A new study from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) examines a paradox within this new climate—while extreme rain events are more frequent, water supplies across the globe are shrinking. The answer, the study says, lies in a worldwide phenomenon of drying soil....

Media Platforms Design TeamApple’s latest feline operating system, Mountain Lion, has arrived, with widespread iCloud integration, a new notifications center, and a slew of smaller tweaks. The changes all fit into Apple’s emphasis on mobile platforms (namely the iPad and iPhone), rather than traditional computers, and on using your Apple account to do pretty much everything. It’s a continuation of what the Cupertino giant began with Lion, the previous iteration of its OS....

Boston Public Schools faced a crisis in busing inefficiency and expense.Amid skepticism, two MIT doctoral students won a contest with an algorithm to improve busing.It’s been a tremendous success, but hasn’t yet helped other school-based algorithms take hold.Algorithms are invading transportation in a variety of ways beyond the flashy chase for self-driving cars. A new report shows that in Boston, an algorithm that was first implemented in 2017 to increase the efficiency of school bus driving routes has worked with tremendous success....

The self-contained breathing units firefighters carry into burning buildings are heavy, bulky, and limited in capacity. So a team of former firefighters came up with an idea: What if they ran an air line through the firehose back to an air supply at the truck? With engineering assistance from LIFT - Lightweight Innovations For Tomorrow, a Detroit-based public–­private partnership, they created the Lifeline Firehose. Fire Chief Rodney VanDeCasteele of Grand Ledge, Michigan, explained what his firefighters have learned as the pilot department for the new hose....

The former commanders of the destroyers USS Fitzgerald and USS McCain face court martials on multiple criminal charges, including negligent homicide, for their part in a pair of separate collisions involving U.S. Navy destroyers and commercial ships.The two collisions killed a total of 17 Navy sailors and placed two Japan-based guided missile destroyers temporarily out of action. Other officers and at least one non-commissioned officer from both ships face additional charges....

Sharp-eyed observers have spotted U.S. Navy SEALs driving a new but familiar vehicle: modified versions of Yamaha personal watercraft. SEALs were also spotted using magnetic gear to scale the hull of a navy destroyer. The exercise, held off the Greek island of Crete last October, was documented in a series of images that showed up on the Defense Video Imagery System, or DVIDS. It’s a popular site where U.S. military public affairs share pictures and video of ongoing military operations around the world....

Media Platforms Design TeamDave Shinsel has posted all the source code and schematics for his Loki robot at dshinsel.com. (Photograph by Chris Mueller)Digital GeppettoDave Shinsel; Portland, Ore.Dave Shinsel’s latest robot may look like WALL-E—but it takes after the Jetsons’ Rosie. “I was just going to attach a webcam to a mobile pedestal, but then I figured I should make it more personable,” says the longtime engineering manager at Intel. “Then I decided it should at least pick up the pet toys....

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has released footage of its newest astronaut: a half-humanoid robot named Vyommitra. As part of its Chandrayaan-3 mission, ISRO will send an unmanned lander (well, with Vyommitra inside) to the moon after a failed attempt last September.Vyommitra is meant to help ISRO understand how astronauts will one day interact with the equipment inside India’s spacecrafts.When the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sends its first astronaut into space, it won’t have to worry about building her a spacesuit....

Archaeologists found rotten eggs amongst a small trove of treasures in a waterlogged pit in Aylesbury, England, a town near Oxford.Three of the four eggs cracked during the excavation and released what the archaeologists called a “potent stench.” We think that’s putting it mildly.The remaining egg is in good condition and is being stored at Oxford Archaeology HQ until it’s ready to be put on display at the Buckinghamshire County Museum....

Astronomers at the Very Large Telescope have announced they’ve discovered a very strange pair of stars engaging in some unique behavior. They’ve documented their findings in a paper published in the journal Nature.The stars in question, a binary star system called AR Scorpii, have been under investigation for a while. Back in 2015, astronomers noticed the star system pulses brighter every two minutes. Pulsating stars aren’t new, but two minutes is extremely fast, and scientists were at a loss to explain what was going on....

Update: SpaceX successfully landed all three boosters on today’s flight. On its maiden voyage early last year, SpaceX was unable to recover Falcon Heavy’s center stage, but it appears SpaceX has fixed the problem. Here’s a look at the landings and satellite deployment:Two boosters land successfully during Falcon Heavy’s first mission on april 11. this never gets old.’ The center stage rests on SpaceX’s drone ship of course i still love you after the livestream feed returned after shutdown....

It’s amazing that any of us can drive a car. Driving requires complex motor skills, finely honed inference, and the ability to act on incomplete information. Considering that nothing in human evolution prepared us to hustle across the planet at 70 mph, it’s a long shot that we ever make it from the driveway to the grocery store. But we take it for granted that we can do this, that driving is even kind of easy....

With only eight episodes to wind through its galaxy-spanning plot, The Mandalorian at times has felt a bit meandering. Turns out, it wasn’t at all as (nearly) every small side adventure gels together in the penultimate episode of the season, called “The Reckoning.“And if you think that title sounds ominous, well, there’s a reason for that.⚠️There will absolutely be spoilers below, so don’t continue if you haven’t seen the show yet....

Government reports rarely make for stimulating reading. That’s because most government reports aren’t about throwing people off a cliff or clubbing them to death.In 1887, the state of New York published what became popularly known as the Gerry Commission Report. This is one piece of bureaucratic prose that is neither dull nor boring. In fact, it may be among the most macabre and gruesome in the annals of American writing. And it was important....

The U.S. Air Force is joining the Army in using a new camouflage pattern for its daily uniform. The service has approved the Operational Camouflage Pattern for use by airmen starting October 1. It’s worth pausing however and wondering: Why does the Air Force need a camouflage uniform anyway?The Air Force introduced the Airman Battle Uniform in 2007, replacing the Battle Dress Uniform used by most of the Armed Forces for decades....

The U.S. Army is trialing a new fire control system for infantry guns.The SMASH scope is designed to detect targets automatically.SMASH will only fire when it projects the bullet will impact the target. The U.S. Army is evaluating a scope that won’t let the user fire his or her rifle unless the shot is guaranteed. The SMASH scope is the product of Smart Shooter Ltd., an Israeli company, and could go on the Army’s upcoming replacements for the M4 carbine and M249 squad automatic weapon....

U.S. Special Operations Command wants to purchase up to 75 planes capable of both reconnaissance and strike missions.At the same time, the U.S. Air Force is canceling plans to buy up to 300 light attack planes. The new planes will replace aircraft that carry out the same missions unarmed, giving SOCOM two planes for the price of one. U.S. Special Operations Command plans to purchase up to 75 “armed overwatch” planes that will conduct intelligence, reconnaissance, and even strike missions....

Look, we all love Star Wars, and part of that love is picking apart all of the ways it’s dumb. The walking tanks make absolutely no sense. The capital ships? Questionably designed. The fighters? Not a whole lot better. And to explore that last bit in even more detail, one endeavoring YouTuber took to analyzing the aerodynamics of some of the series’ classic ships to see exactly how they’d fare in atmospheric flight....