When a supermassive black hole features such jets, it’s classified as a blazar. Astronomers posit that the magnetic poles of the black hole channel the energy up from the accretion disc and shoot it out with a tremendous amount of energy — the jet captured in the image is traveling at about 0.995 times the speed of light. Strangely, the jet in question seems to be shooting out from the black hole at an odd angle. This has been confirmed by Dr. Ziri Younsi of University College London, who is a co-author of the paper that featured the image. According to The Guardian, he says that this may indicate a “kink” at the base of the jet, or that energy is somehow winding itself around the jet.
This image will hopefully help astronomers answer some compelling questions, like how matter and energy are transported from the accretion disc to the poles of a black hole, or why our own supermassive black hole — which is 200 times smaller than the one in the image — does not shoot out jets of energy.
Reports that Samsung was working on a Fold successor first came out in March when Bloomberg published a report that said the company was developing two new foldable display phones. One of those devices turned out to be the recently released Galaxy Z Flip. The other hasn’t been announced yet. What’s more, Bloomberg said it would fold around the outside like Huawei’s Mate X.
We’ve heard relatively little about the device since then, and what has come out has seemed more fanciful than realistic. For instance, according to a report in January from Korean publication Aju News, the phone would feature a 7.7-inch foldable screen and an under the display selfie camera. Prior to that, another Korean publication said the Fold 2 would feature an 8-inch foldable display and S Pen support.
In February, XDA‘s Max Weinbach chimed in, saying the phone would feature either a hole or under the display camera, as well as a new S Pen stylus. He also said it would include the same main camera setup as the Galaxy S20+ and that Samsung would offer the phone in ceramic and stainless steel variants.
What’s important to point out here is none of those specs align with a desire to make a more affordable phone. If Samsung wanted to make the Fold more accessible, there wouldn’t be rumors of the company using ceramic and stainless steel to make the phone’s casing; exotic materials are one of the fastest ways to drive up the cost of a device. Technologies like an under the display camera would also increase the cost of the phone. Samsung may have changed course after those initial rumors came out, but at this point, it seems too early to say anything definitive about the phone.
Notably, we’ve also not heard how Samsung plans to make the Fold 2 more durable than its predecessor. As you may recall, the Galaxy Fold missed its initial launch when some of the pre-release units Samsung provided to publications for review started to break down after only a couple of days of use. Engadget’s Fold was fine, but other websites and YouTubers weren’t so lucky. Samsung eventually made the phone sturdier, but even after all the tweaks the company made to the phone’s design, it was still difficult to recommend. Presumably, the Fold 2 will feature the company’s new “tough, yet tender” foldable glass display, but even that has had its share of issues.
As for when we can expect to hear something official about Fold 2, SamMobile says they hear Samsung will announce the phone sometime in the third quarter of this year. With just how much the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the global economy, it’s hard to say if even a summer release date is realistic at this point. In any case, we’ll likely learn more about the Fold 2 in the coming months.
However, Screen Pass doesn’t work with all movies on the platform as things stand. More than 6,000 titles (about 80 percent) will be shareable during the beta. But, according to The Verge, that doesn’t seem to include Disney, Marvel or Star Wars films despite Disney running the service. To share a movie, you’ll also need to have purchased a compatible copy or have redeemed a DVD or Blu-ray code for a digital version of a film within the last six months.
There’s no messaging option in Movies Anywhere either. You’ll have to chat with your friends elsewhere to decide what movies you’re going to lend or borrow. And, of course, you’ll need to have an invite to the beta. Those hurdles aside, it seems like a neat way to share movies with your friends. You might even start a film at the same time while FaceTiming so you can watch together despite social distancing measures being in place.
According to CBS, virtual footage will be shot in the cast members’ homes using the aforementioned video apps, while VFX will be used to create the backgrounds. “In addition, a cinematographer operating solo from a vehicle will capture exterior footage that reflects the desolate environment that currently exists on the streets and in the neighborhoods of Los Angeles,” according to the press release.
Film and TV productions have ground to a halt in Los Angeles and elsewhere due to the COVID-19 crisis. Talk shows like Conan O’Brien have already adapted, but All Rise is one of the first filmed dramas to shoot using video apps and unconventional methods, and might not be the last. “It’s a unique chance for our All Rise family to band together — in our different homes, even cities — to tell a story about resilience, justice and the power of community,” said executive producer Greg Spottiswood.
According to NASA, “this is the highest resolution at which a planetary body has been globally mapped.” So while we’ve definitely seen closer up image of Mars and the Moon, that’s only been within a narrow field of view seen by a rover other type of lander — any orbiting craft can’t capture detail that close up.
We already know lots of other things about Bennu, including the fact that it’s spewing particles into space — behavior that’s common for a comet, but rare for an asteroid. Scientists also discovered that it’s surprisingly rugged, as is clear by the number of boulders strewn on its surface. They also found the presence of magnetite, indicating that it likely interacted with water on Bennu’s parent body.
NASA and its partners didn’t just make the image to have a cool screensaver, though. OSIRIS-REx’s mission is far from over, and it’s actually scheduled to land on the asteroid in August 2020. To that end, the team used the image to choose the landing site (codenamed Nightingale) in a large crater on the northern section of the asteroid.
That mission will be a barn-burner, as REx will slowly approach Bennu and gently kiss it, firing a burst of nitrogen to blow away particles that will be collected in the sampler head of its robotic arm. If all goes well, the spacecraft will return to Earth with the sample on September 24th, 2023. Hopefully, that will be the closest the Bennu ever comes to Earth.
I’ve tested a lot of mirrorless cameras and I’ve never found one that handles as well as the GH5s for video. It’s loaded with manual controls that make it easy to adjust important settings like ISO, white balance, shutter speed and aperture.
The flip-around screen is indispensable as I need to be able to see myself when doing standup or using the camera. For other types of shots, the 3,680K dot OLED makes it easy to film in bright sunlight. It’s relatively lightweight and easy to lug around, battery life is good and it has two dual UHS-II card slots, making it possible to shoot all day without changing memory cards.
Furthermore, you can set the camera to use shutter angle rather than shutter speed, which is important for videography. That’s because video looks more pleasing if the shutter speed is a multiple of the frame rate, i.e. 1/50th of a second when shooting at 25 fps. By setting the shutter angle to 180 degrees, that’s exactly what I get, regardless of the frame rate selected.
On the audio side, you can adjust the microphone socket to line (high) or mic (low) levels and power smallish lavalier-type mics. Using a relatively cheap wireless Rode lav mic and Rode shotgun mic, I’m able to record good-sounding audio without any assistance.
For standup, I use a smartphone and Panasonic’s camera app to remotely adjust settings, check the image and start and stop recording. The camera app takes a long time to connect to the camera, but it works well otherwise.
On a typical shoot, I’ll usually set the GH5s up on a fluid-head tripod and film the review camera, with the autofocus set and locked. Then I’ll film myself using the camera with the autofocus enabled in single point, continuous mode. For standups, I use the face-detection autofocus.
Steve Dent/Engadget
There’s no doubt that contrast-detect autofocus isn’t as good for video as the phase-detect systems in Canon or Sony cameras. There’s always a slight wobble as it overshoots focus then comes back, because that’s how contrast-detect AF works. When I first started using the camera, I (and our video production team) noticed this problem in a couple of early videos.
However, I’ve got to hand it to Panasonic for improving the autofocus system on the GH5s, via firmware updates, shortly after I acquired it. For the type of shooting I do, the autofocus now works fine and rarely misses focus. For instance, when I film myself handling a camera up fairly close to the lens, it tracks focus well when I’m moving it toward the camera or flipping it around. (It might not fare as well for less predictable run-and-gun shooting, so I’d recommend doing a thorough test before buying one.)
But what about the lack of stabilization for handheld shooting, you might ask? After all, the GH5 does have excellent in-body stabilization and the GH5s has none.
First of all, this isn’t too big an issue for me because I rarely shoot handheld. However, when I do (usually with an assistant operating the camera) I simply use one of Panasonic’s many stabilized lenses. My go-to lens is the very versatile 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 lens which has excellent stabilization (plus great optics and very good macro capabilities, by the way). For stationary hand-held shooting, or with very smooth camera moves, that works just fine.
Steve Dent/Engadget
When it comes to photography, there’s little doubt that the GH5 and any other higher-resolution camera, particularly one with in-body stabilization, would be a better choice. Still, the GH5s is actually better for the dimly-lit trade shows or indoor hands-on sessions where I often need to film. I just have to be more careful about framing, knowing that I don’t have a lot of extra resolution to crop.
Also, I have to admit that I sometimes cheat on photos by just extracting them from the 4K video. This is only possible because the video is so outstandingly sharp and color-accurate.
Finally, once I’m ready to edit a video, the footage is easy to handle in post. If I’m planning to use Adobe Premiere Pro CC, I do have to convert the 10-bit 4K footage to a more easily editable format like Cineform or ProRes. However, with DaVinci Resolve 16 — which makes better use of my NVIDIA GTX 1070 GPU — I can edit the footage directly with no transcoding.
The 10-bit 4:2:2 video is easy to adjust, whether I use a log profile or not. I rarely see banding or other nasty artifacts in case I need to push the footage.
So in conclusion, yes, I’m definitely happy with the GH5s and don’t regret my decision to get one. It was a good camera when it entered the market and Panasonic has made it better over time.The only other camera I would think about replacing it with is Panasonic’s full-frame S1H, which is in many ways a full-frame version of the GH5s. However, that camera costs over twice as much and the lenses are also very expensive. Until something comparable comes along, the $1,800 GH5s is perfect for my needs, and that’s what counts the most.
Welcome to the new look of The Morning After. With some changes to the backend here at Engadget, we’ve adjusted how we do things in a way that should hopefully make our daily newsletter look and feel even better. Expect to see more changes soon, and let us know if anything is broken or even just bent.
Hopefully, the changes leave you in a better mood than Bubba Wallace, the NASCAR driver who logged out 11 laps into the Food City Showdown from Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday night after another driver hit him. Sure, it’s just a game… er iRacing esports simulation, but because this one was being broadcast live on Fox, his sponsor responded by dropping Wallace. The driver was already back in action Monday night with a different sponsor’s logo on his Richard Petty Motorsports #43 stock car.
— Richard
UK carriers would like people not to set fire to its cell towers
They’re urging a stop to attacks based on false 5G coronavirus conspiracies.
Several arson attacks on phone masts in the UK have led to all of the country’s major phone carriers issuing a joint statement. They have urged people not to set fire to cellular masts, threaten engineers or spread conspiracy theories falsely linking 5G to COVID-19. As the companies reiterated, cell networks are critical in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, providing “essential connectivity” to emergency services and the National Health Service. Continue reading.
Boeing’s Starliner will make another uncrewed test flight
Take two.
In December, Boeing’s Starliner failed to reach the correct orbit and dock at the International Space Station. In light of that issue and other glitches, the company is now planning a second uncrewed flight for its Commercial Crew Program vehicle, instead of moving forward to a crewed flight. In a statement, Boeing said, “We have chosen to refly our Orbital Flight Test to demonstrate the quality of the Starliner system. Flying another uncrewed flight will allow us to complete all flight test objectives and evaluate the performance of the second Starliner vehicle at no cost to the taxpayer.” Continue reading.
Nintendo lets Japanese gamers build their own Joy-Con color schemes
Customers can pick a Switch console, specific controller colors and more.
Nintendo
Nintendo Japan is letting new Switch customers create their own made-to-order color scheme bundles with a bunch of new color options. This will help gamers achieve the style they want without forcing them to buy extra Joy-Cons, perfect if you’re chasing that Evangelion aesthetic with some purple accent. Within the scheme, there are also some exclusive Joy-Con strap colors. Continue reading.
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Pixel 4 adds an ‘eyes open’ check for using face unlock
So now your family won’t unlock your phone while you’re sleeping.
Google took its time about it, but several months later, you can finally enable face unlock on your Pixel 4 without worrying that someone will access your phone while you get some shut-eye. Google has rolled out a much-needed April security update that adds the promised “require eyes to be open” optional setting. Enable it in the Face Unlock menu and you’ll have to be awake and at least vaguely lucid to get into your phone. Continue reading.
At a time people are more reliant on messaging platforms than ever before, WhatsApp has introduced new measures in a bid to limit the spread of fake news. If you receive a frequently forwarded message – one that’s been forwarded more than five times and identifiable with a double arrow icon – you’ll only be able to forward them on to one chat at a time.
In a blog post, the company says it’s seen a “significant increase” in the number of forwarded messages on the platform, and while many of them are relatively innocent – memes and prayers, for example – this practice is contributing to the spread of misinformation. “We believe it’s important to slow the spread of these messages down to keep WhatsApp a place for personal conversation,” the company added.
Ruben Caballero, a former Apple executive, has joined Microsoft as corporate vice president for hardware design and technology. According to a new entry on his LinkedIn profile, which was first spotted by Bloomberg, Caballero will be part of Microsoft’s mixed reality and AI division. In particular, he’ll work on the HoloLens as well as other special projects.
Caballero served as a VP of engineering at Apple from 2005 to 2019 and led the company’s wireless technology development. His team of engineers built the antennas inside iPhones, iPads and Macs, and he oversaw Apple’s wireless testing labs around the world. After he left the tech giant in 2019, he served as an advisor for several companies before joining Microsoft.
“The Boeing Company is honored to be a provider for the Commercial Crew mission. We are committed to the safety of the men and women who design, build and ultimately will fly on the Starliner just as we have on every crewed mission to space. We have chosen to refly our Orbital Flight Test to demonstrate the quality of the Starliner system. Flying another uncrewed flight will allow us to complete all flight test objectives and evaluate the performance of the second Starliner vehicle at no cost to the taxpayer. We will then proceed to the tremendous responsibility and privilege of flying astronauts to the International Space Station.”
The Starliner was supposed to dock with the International Space Station in December, but it didn’t reach the correct orbit. A team from NASA and Boeing later investigated the incident and found flaws in the latter’s testing procedure that caused the failure.
Apparently, the aerospace giant divided its tests in small chunks instead of conducting longer ones that simulate the whole process from launch to docking. Because of that, the company didn’t realize that the spacecraft’s onboard computer time was miscalibrated by 11 hours, preventing its thrusters from firing at the right time. Further, the team found a critical software defect that could’ve led to the loss of the spacecraft.
Boeing has to ensure that the Starliner can safely reach the space station before it can fly with a crew onboard. NASA told The Post in a statement that it “has accepted the proposal to fly the mission again and will work side-by-side with Boeing to resume flight tests.”
