Sheena Vasani

Commerce Writer

NASA picks three companies to develop a Moon car for Artemis astronauts

Sheena VasaniApr 3, 2024

Scientists created a car-sized digital camera to understand the universe

The 3,200-megapixel Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Camera will help researchers address cosmology’s biggest questions, including the nature of dark matter and our solar system, by photographing the southern sky for 10 years.

It took the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory over 20 years to build, and now the largest digital camera ever created for astronomy will be shipped to the Andes.

Sheena VasaniApr 3, 2024

You can now adjust the sleep timer settings on your Kindle.

Amazon’s latest software update lets Kindle users adjust the lock screen timeout interval — previously set to 10 minutes — so you don’t have to keep waking up your Kindle if you need to take a longer break.

The update also gives the ability to filter the content of Kindle libraries by subscription type and reading format.

Kindle E-Reader Software Updates - Amazon Customer Service

[Amazon.com]

Apple’s second-gen AirPods are available at a rare discount

Sheena VasaniApr 2, 2024

Sony’s elusive PlayStation Portal is back in stock at Best Buy (update: sold out)

Sheena VasaniMar 29, 2024

AI-generated books are flooding the lock screens of some Kindles.

Futurism reports that some Kindle users are seeing ads for AI-generated kids books, including clear ripoffs of existing classics. None of the books — including the laughably bad Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: The Haunted House — appear to be popular, though it’s unclear whether sellers manipulated Amazon’s algorithms or the retailer itself was involved.

Amazon has since removed the AI-generated books Futurism identified, with an Amazon spokesperson stating that all books “must adhere to our content guidelines, regardless of how the content was created.”

Amazon Kindle Lock Screens Are Showing Ads for AI-Generated Books

[Futurism]

Amazon is offering a rare deal on Philips Hue’s Festavia string lights

Sheena VasaniMar 29, 2024

Sheena VasaniMar 27, 2024

Melting ice, missing seconds.

University of California geologist Duncan Agnew published research in Nature saying the melting of ice in Greenland and Antarctica has contributed to slowing Earth’s rotation, reports Space.com.

While timekeepers have already agreed to stop adding leap seconds by 2035, Agnew claims a negative one will be necessary by 2029 and would’ve been required sooner if not for the effects of climate change. If that’s true — and not everyone agrees that it is — international timekeeping guidelines and the world’s computers will need updates.