Helping startups succeed has been an integral part of AWS since its beginning which is why Amazon's cloud computing arm has announced the launch of its new accelerator for space-focused startups.
AWS Space Accelerator is a four-week business support program open to space startups that are seeking to use AWS to help solve the biggest challenges in the space industry. Through its new accelerator, AWS will provide technical, business and mentoring resources to space startups around the globe.
AWS is also collaborating with the investment group Seraphim which focuses exclusively on the space industry to provide business development and investment guidance. Together, the two companies will select a cohort of space startups to participate in their intensive, four-week program with AWS Cloud and technical training to help accelerate their research, development and growth using AWS.
Director of aerospace and satellite at AWS Clint Crosier explained in a blog post how the new accelerator will help startups in the space industry succeed, saying:
“Startups provide a catalyst for bold new experimentation in the space industry. We are proud to announce the AWS Space Accelerator as part of our ongoing commitment to help startups succeed, and to shape the future of aerospace. We look forward to helping the first cohort of companies launch and grow through this new program.”
AWS Space Accelerator
AWS and Seraphim are now accepting applications from innovative startups at all stages of maturity working with space technology or space-derived data that have a clearly defined and unique mission. Some examples of qualifying missions include (but are not limited to) earth observation, electronics and robotics, spacecraft launch and delivery, spacecraft hardware and software, launch manufacturing and launch operations.
Applications will be judged on several factors such as the innovative and unique nature of the project, the overall value the solution will bring to the industry, creative application of AWS to solve problems and the team's ability to deliver on an identified opportunity.
AWS and Seraphim will select a total of 10 companies to participate in the AWS Space Accelerator that is scheduled to take place in June. Selected startups may receive up to $100k in AWS Activate credit as well as mentoring from space domain and technical subject matter experts with experience working on AWS.
Interested space-focused startups can apply now and their proposals will be due on April 21.
iOS 14.5 is the next version of iOS, and while it won’t be as big an update as iOS 15, which isn’t expected to land in finished form until September, it’s still set to add a bunch of new features and improvements.
We know this because iOS 14.5 is already in beta, so developers and members of the public have turned up all sorts of interesting additions. Some of these are handy upgrades, like an alternative to Face ID that lets you unlock your iPhone by wearing an Apple Watch.
iOS 14.5 beta 6 has arrived with another promising feature – recalibrating your iPhone's battery life estimates to correct faulty readings. Unfortunately, that feature's only for the iPhone 11 range at first, though we can't imagine why it won't come to other Apple phones.
Below, we’ve highlighted the four best things we’re expecting in iOS 14.5. It’s worth noting that there’s a chance some of these things won’t turn up, as occasionally features in beta don’t make it to the finished release, but we’d certainly expect most of them.
We’ve also included information on when iOS 14.5 is likely to land, so that those who don’t want to brave the beta will know how long they have to wait.
Latest news
The iOS 14.5 beta 6 for developers came out, and with it the capability to recalibrate battery life estimates. This takes time – up to several weeks – and only seems to be for the iPhone 11 range for now.
Cut to the chase
What is it? The next upgrade for your iPhone
When is it out? Possibly in March 2021
How much will it cost? It will be free
iOS 14.5 release date and beta
There’s no news on exactly when iOS 14.5 might launch, but we have reason to believe it’s coming very soon.
There are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, it’s already available in both public and developer betas, which suggests it would probably arrive soon. But secondly and more significantly, Apple has launched a new 14.x version every calendar month since the launch of iOS 14, and iOS 14.4 landed in January, so we could see iOS 14.5 this month (March).
That said, iOS 14.4 started rolling out at the end of January, and the actual gap between new versions is over a month on average, so it might be towards the end March by the time we get iOS 14.5.
Expect to hear an exact date for the rollout before it arrives on your phone, but it's likely to be a quick turnaround between us hearing the new software upgrade is out and it actually landing on your iPhone.
We’re expecting a bunch of updates as part of iOS 14.5, but below we’ve listed the five most interesting ones that we’ve heard about so far.
1. Mask support for Face ID
(Image credit: Future)
Face ID was great until we all started wearing masks, but with iOS 14.5 Apple is making it great again, at least for Apple Watch owners.
That’s because as long as your Apple Watch is unlocked, you’ll now be able to use it to authenticate your identity on your phone, meaning you can simply raise your phone as if to use Face ID, and it will unlock, with a buzz on your wrist to tell you your watch has done the heavy lifting.
However, while this will work for unlocking your iPhone, it doesn’t currently work for other things that rely on Face ID, such as authenticating purchases. Still, it's a handy workaround for users who have had facial recognition blocked when wearing face masks – and given the feature arrived in iOS 14.5 beta 2 for developers, we'd expect this to land in the full release.
2. A change to your music players
Previously, we'd thought this change meant that you'd be able to change your default music player in iOS 14.5. A new update from Apple has confirmed that it won't work in the exact way we had expected though.
A new feature will allow you to better use your own choice of music players rather than your iPhone defaulting to Apple Music, but it isn't a specific change you can make within a Settings menu.
Instead, Siri will use its learning of how you listen to music, audiobooks and podcasts. When you ask it to play a specific piece of audio, it'll then ask you where you want to listen to it.
Then it'll gently integrate that into your future listening, and that likely means that in the future your iPhone will learn you listen to music on Spotify and podcasts on the Apple Podcasts app.
iOS 14.5 is also expected to include a big new privacy feature called App Tracking Transparency. This will require apps to get your permission before sharing your activity and data with websites and apps owned by other companies.
This sharing of data is often used for adverts, with Facebook for example making big use of it, but with App Tracking Transparency you’ll be able to opt out if you’d prefer, and Apple is insisting that users still have full access to apps even if they do opt out of this.
4. PS5 and Xbox Series X controller support
If you’re a gamer then you’ll probably appreciate the addition of support for PS5 and Xbox Series X controllers as part of iOS 14.5. The Verge reports that this feature has been found in the public beta, and it should be a handy upgrade for anyone who owns one of these consoles, especially those who also make use of Apple Arcade.
Arguably this would be even more useful for gaming on an Apple TV, and while the feature isn’t yet confirmed for tvOS, we’d expect it will soon be added to that too.
5. Crowdsourced alerts in Apple Maps
(Image credit: Apple / MacRumors)
Many of us aren’t really going anywhere at the moment, but for those who do have much use for Apple Maps, there’s a potentially handy new feature in the iOS 14.5 beta.
MacRumors reports that you can now report accidents, hazards, and speed checks on your journey, and presumably if enough people flag the same thing a warning about it will appear on Apple Maps – though with so many people staying at home and the feature still being in beta, it’s not getting enough use for that to have been confirmed as far as we can see.
Missing Game of Thrones since it ended? You're not alone. Luckily, it's incredibly easy to rewatch the entire series in Australia, with a number of on demand options readily available.
If you're not caught up yet, what have you been doing?! We can only assume you were in a country with a painfully early viewing time when it aired live. But don't worry, you can now watch the whole of Game of Thrones online.
Whether you're just starting season 8, gearing up for the epic finale or even half-way through season 3 (come on, the shows been out for years!) we can tell you there is a lot of drama to come.
Plus, with a Game of Thrones prequel on the way, it's still well worth revisiting all the major events from each of show's eight seasons. They may not mean much in regards to the prequel series, but there's every chance it will delve into story aspects that were previously touched on in original show. So keep reading as we tell you how to watch Game of Thrones from anywhere.
So if you’ve got everything ready for the new episode this weekend (Arya fan t-shirts and Wildling fur coats are essential) and just lack the streaming service and time, you can find everything you need to know about how to watch Game of Thrones online on this page.
Watch Game of Thrones online: stream outside your country
Are you an Aussie that's currently outside of Australia? You will likely find that watching Game of Thrones via your usual Australian services won't be an option thanks to geo-blocking, but with the handy help of a VPN, you can get around that without having to sign up to additional services.
ExpressVPN - get the world's best VPN We've put all the major VPNs through their paces and we rate ExpressVPN as our top pick, thanks to its speed, ease of use and strong security features. It's also compatible with just about any streaming device out there, including Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Xbox and PlayStation, as well as Android and Apple mobiles.
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If you're trying to watch Game of Thrones in Australia, there are a number of options for you. By far the easiest option streaming option is Binge, which has all eight seasons of the show on offer.
Following the service's 14-Day Free Trial period, prices start at AU$10 per month for two SD streams, moving up to AU$14 per month for two HD streams, and AU$18 per month for four HD streams.
Additionally, the show is available on demand via Foxtel's cable service, as well as the or the company's streaming service, Foxtel Now, which starts at AU$25 per month. All episodes are now available to watch on Foxtel.
Like all of the streaming services above, you will have to pay to get a subscription and there are a host of different packages available, but Foxtel Now offers a free 10-day trial if you haven't already signed up.
With the quantum era just around the corner, interest in quantum computing has grown tremendously over the past few years which is why IBM has announced the world's first ever developer certification for programming a quantum computer.
According to a report from the market research firm P&S Intelligence, quantum computing could be a $65bn industry by 2030 and this will likely lead to an influx of new jobs in the field.
With its new IBM Quantum Developer Certification, IBM Quantum is providing a path for people with all development backgrounds to earn a certification in programming with Qiskit.
For those unfamiliar, Qiskit is an open source quantum software development kit supported by IBM. Since its launch in 2017, thousand of users have developed applications, maintained and improved code and have take part in hackathons using Qiskit.
IBM Quantum Developer Certification
As IBM makes progress on its quantum development roadmap, the company wants to build a diverse, global, cloud-based ecosystem of developers who can bring quantum computing skills to their industries and communities.
The IBM Quantum Developer Certification is a 60-question certification exam that will be offered on the Pearson VUE platform. Those who pass the exam will have demonstrated experience using Qiskit to create and execute quantum computing programs on both IBM's quantum computers and simulators. When it's released, the exam will be available worldwide and will be in English.
As IBM Quantum's hardware and software develop further, so too will the IBM Quantum Developer Certification in order to show that certified individuals are able to use state-of-the-art hardware and application modules.
Around the world, it's become second nature for people to navigate their way through cities and streets via Google Maps, but now the tech giant has announced you'll soon be able to bring some of that power to indoor spaces as well.
The latest post on Google's blog lists a host of AI-powered updates that will be rolling out over the course of the year to Google Maps, and chief among them is an Indoor Live View.
Google Maps has already implemented Live View for a while now – a feature which uses the company's wealth of Street View footage to determine specific directions and overlay them over live footage from your camera, creating an augmented reality (AR) directional tool.
Indoor Live View, as its name suggests, is the same feature but will also operate in a number of key indoor locations such as malls, airports, and other transit stations.
According to Google, this new feature "can help you find the nearest elevator and escalators, your gate, platform, baggage claim, check-in counters, ticket office, restrooms, ATMs and more," so it's clearly a granular tool.
As for availability, the feature is live now on both iOS and Android apps, but is currently only operating in "a number of malls in Chicago, Long Island, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle," with locations in Tokyo and Zurich rolling out in the coming months and other cities further down the track.
Google Maps and the environment
Along with this key feature, a number of other tools are finding their way to Google Maps, including map layers that provide information on current and forecast weather conditions for specific areas, as well as the air quality in an area (granted there's a nearby Air Quality Index [AQI] station).
The weather layer will roll out globally over the course of the year, and the AQI layer will be coming to the US, India and Australia.
(Image credit: Google)
For the environmentally-conscious Google Maps user, you'll soon be able to select a route based on lower fuel consumption and, as a result, lower carbon emissions. This will be calculated based on factors such as high density traffic and road incline.
In fact, Google Maps will default to choosing the more eco-friendly route when the alternatives "has approximately the same ETA," but you'll be given a prompt when it will take significantly longer. In either case, you'll be told how fewer emissions your trip will cause as a percentage.
This feature will land 'later this year' in the US on both Android and iOS, with other countries on the way.
From June, Google Maps will let you know if you'll be driving through low emission zones in global locations and cities that enforce them, and whether or not your vehicle is allowed in them. This feature will be coming to Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain and the UK, with more to follow.
Google is also making the choice between sustainable transport options easier to access with a singular screen within Maps that quickly summarizes all the different modes of transit to your destination and the time they'll take.
This feature will also learn from your habits and location to prioritize certain suitable options higher in the list – you can select your preferred methods manually, but biking options will be preferred if you cycle often, similarly with public transport. This feature is rolling out globally 'in the coming months'.
A number of other features will be coming to the iOS and Android app over the course of the year, including improvements to pickup and delivery details for participating grocery stores and service providers, as well as updates to Assistant Driving Mode.
