SpaceX launches first manned “operational” flight to the ISS
Those crazy space cowboys over at SpaceX, working alongside the eggheads of NASA, have done it again. This weekend, SpaceX successfully launched its second ever crewed mission to the International Space Station. The six month journey to the ISS is being helmed by four astronauts, namely Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker (whom all work for NASA) alongside Japan’s Soichi Noguchi. Launched into orbit, the four scientists will join a team of three researchers already aboard the ISS so they can do… science and stuff.
It was a spectacular launch as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, the “Resilience”, lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The crew of the Resilience will remain on the ISS for six months before returning to Earth. Although why you would want to come back down here is beyond us. If we had a choice, we’d just hang out in space with some cool scientists and revel in the fact that we don’t have to worry about a pandemic.
Source: Forbes
Be careful with your older MacBook Pros, Big Sur is reportedly bricking them
There’s no doubt that Big Sur is one of the most impressive and extensive software updates Apple has released for its range of Macs since… well, for a long time. Yet while macOS Big Sur sounds impressive, you might want to hold off on that updates as it’s reportedly bricking older MacBook Pros. Just the devices that need a software update more than most other Macs.
According to MacRumours, a cursory glance at Apple’s forums reveals quite a few people complaining that they’ve been stuck with a solid black screen after installing Big Sur on MacBook Pros released in 2013 and 2014. Apple has stated that it’s aware of the problem and looking into possible fixes but nothing has been confirmed just yet.
So maybe pause that Big Sur update unless you want your old MacBook to get the Big Sleep.
Source: MacRumours
YouTube has been cancelled, and nothing of value was lost
It’s not often that we’ve been able to report on good news in 2020, so actually being able to tell you that YouTube Rewind has been cancelled is just a blessing. At the end of every year, YouTube releases a video that gathers the platform’s top creatives and most viral videos and lobs them all together into what should be a celebration. Yet 2020 doesn’t really feel like a year worth celebrating, according to YouTube.
In a tweet, YouTube stated “Since 2010, we’ve ended the year with Rewind… but 2020 has been so different. And it doesn’t feel right to carry on as if it weren’t. So we’re taking a break from Rewind this year.”
Which is just as well as recent YouTube Rewinds haven’t been… great. YouTube has received flak for turning YouTube Rewinds into a marketing scheme for the more profitable YouTubers on the site rather than being about genuinely inventive creators. Let us never forget the time Will Smith opened a YouTube Rewind. You know, that actor who was well established before setting up a fairly below average YouTube channel and coasted on his fame? Hopefully this break allows the producers of YouTube Rewind to reconsider the direction of their celebration video.
Source: TNW
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Watch Dogs: Legion players are losing their save data
One of the things people adore about Ubisoft’s catalogue of games is the sheer amount of content in them; they’re utterly huge and take dozens of hours to finish. Yet that becomes a problem if you’re forced to restart due to an error that kills all your save data. Such is the problem being faced by players of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Watch Dogs: Legion, two of Ubisoft’s recent releases. Several users have taken to Reddit and Ubisoft’s forums to complain that they’ve lost hours of progress due to some kind of data corruption. Some have speculated it has something to do with the cloud save function on both games but that’s unconfirmed.
What we do know is that we have first had experience with the problem. Stuff editor Brett had his save data corrupted this weekend in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla but because he’s paranoid about that stuff he ensured he manually saved and didn’t lose too much time.
Ubisoft has yet to comment on the issue but one has to assume the company is aware that there’s a problem and is working to fix it. When you’re staring down the barrel of ten hours of lost progress, all you can really do is be optimistic, right?
Source: Engadget
