Most rocket launch aborts are largely uneventful, but United Launch Alliance’s latest was… dramatic. The spaceflight outfit had to abort its NROL-44 mission (via Parabolic Arc) just three seconds before it was due to start, with the Delta IV rocket’s initiators already covering the vehicle in flames — the crew even declared “liftoff” without realizing that the mission had been cut short. The engines never ignited, ULA said.

It’s not initially clear what the problem was, but it will take at least a full week to try launching again. This shouldn’t affectt SpaceX’s plan to launch an Earth observation satellite on August 30th (today, if you’re reading in time) at 7:18PM Eastern from a nearby launchpad at Cape Canaveral. SpaceX also hoped to launch a Starlink mission earlier in the day, but that was pushed back due to bad weather.

As you might imagine, though, the combination of a fashion imprint and the extras could easily make this one of the most expensive Samsung phones to date. The Thom Browne Galaxy Z Flip cost $2,480 when new, or well over the $1,380 price of the standard Z Flip. With the Z Fold 2 likely to carry a considerably higher starting price (the original Galaxy Fold was $1,980), there’s a real chance its Browne counterpart could crack the $3,000 mark — this really will be for the wealthy and style-conscious.

Toyota-backed SkyDrive has finally conducted a public, crewed test flight (via Observer) for its flying car after years of work. The startup flew its SD-03 vehicle around the Toyota Test Field in the city of Toyota with a pilot at the helm. While it wasn’t autonomous, as you might have guessed, it showed that the aircraft could work as promised in the field.

The SD-03 is billed as the smallest electric VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) vehicle in the world, and it’s meant to usher in a “new means of transportation” for urban life. It has a total of eight rotors that help it fly safely even if there’s a motor failure.

The approach could be used for spear phishing attacks that trick users into compromising their systems. You might get a notification of a document update and grab the file without realizing the threat.

Nikoci said he notified Google about the issue, but that it was still unpatched as of August 22nd. We’ve asked Google for comment.

This would mainly be useful for attacking companies that rely on Google Drive for sharing documents, but that’s increasingly common. The description also suggests that this would require a significant change to Drive’s version control. For now, the best solutions may be to use antivirus software and be wary of Google Drive file update alerts, especially if you weren’t expecting them.

Ubisoft’s ongoing Splinter Cell revival is gathering momentum. After some teasing, the developer has confirmed that series hero Sam Fisher will be a playable character in the third season of Rainbow Six: Siege, Operation Shadow Legacy. True to his clandestine roots, he’ll pack a suppressed pistol and a “two-way drill camera” that will let you see both sides of a wall and even destroy gadgets. You’ll also have Fisher’s signature SC-3000K assault rifle or an MP7 to fight back when things get rough.

Shadow Legacy will also bring some improvements to the game itself, including a new contextual ping system, reworked EMP grenades, match replays and web-based stat tracking. You can also expect a refreshed Chalet map with new paths.

By itself, the study revealed what was possible with the material. You could turn the friction (and thus the fluid state) “on and off like a switch” just by varying the pressure.

However, Swansea University also suggested this could have a significant impact on engineering going forward. Scientists are already hoping to use DST for soft body armor, dynamic speed bumps and other products that could change properties on demand. Don’t be surprised if high-speed cameras become a mainstay of some engineering teams as a result.

If you balked at the $400 extra to configure a Mac Pro with wheels (let alone the $699 to buy the kit after the fact), OWC is coming to your rescue. The company is taking pre-orders (via MacRumors and The Verge) for a Rover Pro wheel kit that will normally cost $250, and are available in advanced for $199. You could save enough money over the Apple solution to get a (modest) RAM or video card upgrade for the machine itself.

Importantly, you don’t have to give up the Mac Pro’s default feet like you do with the official wheels. The Rover Pro kit attaches to the feet with a “few hand twists,” OWC said. And did we mention there are included wheel stops, so your premium workstation won’t roll away on its own?

One of the pioneers of the modern computer interface has passed away: the New York Times reports that William “Bill” English died on July 26th from respiratory failure at the age of 91. Alongside Douglas Englebart at the Stanford Research Institute, English helped develop the first computer mouse and put together a 1968 “Mother of All Demos” that outlined many concepts that would come to PCs over the decades, such as graphical user interfaces, online text editing, video calls and hypertext links.

While Englebart was considered the visionary, English was one of the only people who truly grasped the ideas and had the talent to bring them to fruition. He built the mouse after Englebart drew a sketch of it, for example. While Englebart was demonstrating the concepts at that 1968 event, English was orchestrating things behind the scenes.

Apple committed to a second season of For All Mankind before the first even premiered, and it’s finally clear how the tech giant will follow up its alternative history of spaceflight. The company has premiered a teaser trailer (via Space.com) that has Ron Moore’s Apple TV+ series leaping into the 1980s, when the Space Shuttle was NASA’s shining star. Tensions with the Soviet Union haven’t improved, though — the clip suggest that militarization of space could prove a central problem.

There’s still no debut date for the new run, although a teaser suggests you won’t be waiting too long to hear more.

Long defunct cable television network G4 is returning sometime in 2021, according to a teaser posted on Friday afternoon (via Variety). The one-minute video doesn’t provide many details of what we can expect from the network moving forward. 

We never stopped playing. pic.twitter.com/fKJSvL9uaZ

— G4TV (@G4TV) July 24, 2020

The CG teaser pans across an abandoned warehouse littered with old camera equipment and gaming artifacts. At one point, two NES controllers appear in the frame. Eventually, the camera makes its way to an old CRT television that’s displaying a game of Pong. The TV screen then glitches out before a lengthy animation ends with the G4 logo. The teaser ends with the year 2021 and the tagline, “We never stopped playing.”