As the coronavirus pandemic spread in the spring and summer, Pokémon Go rolled out a series of changes that made it easier for players to keep participating. Now Niantic Labs has announced that while some of the temporary bonuses it added will remain active, several of them will go away as of October 1st.

In April the game added a feature where your buddy Pokémon would gather gifts from nearby PokéStops even if you didn’t leave your home, and now it will only do that if you’re running low. The distance walked to hatch eggs is going back up to where it was previously, and incense that attracts Pokémon will only have increased effectiveness while walking.

It’s an ambitious project. This will represent NASA’s first multi-rotor science vehicle on another celestial body, and the first of any kind to carry its full science payload between multiple areas. The drone will spend nine years flying relatively regular missions to collect samples and study both the habitability of Titan as well as the development of its prebiotic chemistry in a key impact crater.

It may take a long while to learn more about Titan as a result. If all goes well, though, Dragonfly should shed more light on the still-mysterious moon and the viability of life beyond Earth.

As part of its 2021 plans, SXSW will host an online festival that will attempt to replicate the best features of its annual conference in Austin, Texas. SXSW Online will run from March 16th to March 20th, 2021. SXSW’s organizers say the event will allow attendees to check out film and music screenings, as well as take part in sessions, networking opportunities and exhibitions.

“The challenge of building a new future is one that we’re excited to tackle. This has been such a year of change and we, like the entire world, are reshaping our perspective on how we connect,” said Ronald Swenson, the CEO and co-founder of SXSW. “We’re pleased to introduce SXSW Online as part of our program for 2021, and regardless of platform, we will continue to bring together the brightest minds from creative industries worldwide.”

Walmart is starting to deliver at-home COVID-19 tests by drone. A trial got underway in North Las Vegas today and the deliveries will expand to Cheektowaga, New York early next month.

It’s delivering the kits to qualifying patients who live within a mile of certain Walmart Supercenters in both locales. Patients will self-administer a nasal swab, which they’ll send to Quest Diagnostics for testing.

The Hummer EV has a new release date. GMC will detail its new electric truck on October 20th, with online reservations opening that same day. The automaker had originally planned to reveal the vehicle on May 20th, but it ended up delaying the event due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sometimes the biggest leaps forward are actually diagonal. The world premiere of the world’s first all-electric supertruck, #GMCHummerEV. See it. Reserve it. 10.20.20.https://t.co/MM1MgDH8NJ pic.twitter.com/AAWnbvN5xl

— GMC (@GMC) September 14, 2020

Building on a tease it shared last week, GMC also confirmed the truck will include a ‘crab mode’ feature that will allow it to move diagonally. Beyond that, we also know the Hummer’s electric engine will deliver up to 1,000 horsepower and give it the ability to accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in approximately three seconds. You’ll have the option to remove its roof panels so that you can more easily take in the scenery while driving. All of those features should make for an interesting EV, but whether there’s a market for a luxury super-truck in 2020 is a separate question. The Hummer EV is also likely to face tough competition from the Tesla Cybertruck and Rivian R1T.

Deutsche Telekom and SAP developed the interoperability gateway service that allows for “a safe exchange of information between the backends of national contact tracing and warning apps,” according to the EC. The system will be run from the EC’s data centre in Luxembourg. If all goes well during the trial period, the gateway should go live in October.

No personal data will be shared between the countries through this system. Other EU countries will be able to join the network later if their contact tracing apps use a decentralized system like the one developed by Apple and Google. That probably rules out France, which is storing its data centrally.

“Many member states have implemented national contact tracing and warning applications. It is now time to make them interact with each other,” Thierry Breton, the EC’s commissioner for the single market, said in a statement. “Travel and personal exchange are the core of the European project and the single market. The gateway will facilitate this in these times of pandemic and will save lives.”

In the coming weeks, we can expect content starring Quentin Tarantino, Barbara Streisand, Alan Menken, Bright Eyes, Tame Impala, Rufus Wainwright, Panic! At the Disco, X Ambassadors and more. The service will cost $2.99 per month or $29.99 for a full year. If you’re not sure which to commit to, you can opt for a free three-day trial. 

“Creating a streaming option for our programming was always a part of our strategic approach, but COVID-19 brought it to the forefront,” Grammy Museum president Michael Sticka said. “We look forward to continuing to grow this platform, even after we re-open our doors to the physical museum.”

Area 120 / Google

As a regular user, you also won’t need to download any other apps outside of Fundo to take part in an experience. You can find Fundo events either through links people share or the app’s homepage. Besides YouTubers, Area 120 says it has also seen authors, fitness instructors and lifestyle consultants take advantage of the app. 

While Fundo might seem like a response to the coronavirus pandemic, Area 120’s work on the software actually predates the current situation by a couple of years. Part of the inspiration for the project came from Fundo’s creators attending VidCon in 2018 and seeing YouTubers and other content creators interact with their fans.  

Fundo is currently available in the US and Canada, with availability in more countries coming soon.  

Android users will also be alerted when exposure notifications are available in their state, then will be prompted to download a customized app developed by Google. This functionality will appear in Android 6.0 and higher later this month.

Meanwhile, iOS 13.7 will be released today with the new exposure notification system. The first states on the system will be Maryland, Nevada, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

The unprecedented collaboration between Apple and Google was first announced in April. The interoperable system has been available for public health agencies to develop their own apps on — Virginia launched the first one in the U.S. in August and five more states have followed.

The more people who opt in, the better for public health. In a statement from Apple and Google, Christophe Fraser, from Oxford University’s department of health said: “We estimate that a well-staffed manual contact tracing workforce combined with 15% uptake could reduce infections by 15% and deaths by 11%.”

Contact tracing — the practice of identifying anyone an infected person has interacted with — is vital to a pandemic response. But the U.S. has struggled with it through a deadly mixture of overwhelming case loads, slow testing and uncooperative civilians. There is no federal contact tracing program, even as people can travel freely from state to state. The two dominant makers of smartphone operating systems can’t snap their fingers and create faster testing, responsible self-quarantining and widespread mask wearing, but the hope is that comprehensive exposure tracking can get people to assist in one fundamental of public health with as little friction as possible.

Abbot Laboratories

It’s an antigen test, as opposed to the slower lab-based PCR testing that has kept people waiting hours, days and weeks for results, and uses a lateral-flow approach similar to home pregnancy test kits. According to the Mayo Clinic, antigen tests work by detecting certain proteins specific to this virus, and work more quickly, but have an increased chance of false-negative results.

Based on a clinical study supported by US research universities, Abbott said its test showed sensitivity of 97.1 percent (correct diagnoses of people who have the disease) and specificity of 98.5 percent (correctly ruling out people who don’t have it), “in patients suspected of COVID-19 by their healthcare provider within the first seven days of symptom onset.”

Abbot Laboratories

The Navica app is intended to allow entry into places where people will gather, with negative results attached to a QR code. Positive results will result in a message to quarantine and contact a doctor. The “digital health pass” attached to negative results expires after a time period that depends on the organizations that accept the app. The app itself is free for users and available on Android and iOS. It’s not a contact tracing app, but there are obviously privacy concerns attached to sensitive medical information. According to Abbott, the data collected includes “a person’s first and last name, email address, phone number, zip code, date of birth and test results.”