This week on Liftoff, Jason and I catch up on Space X and Blue Origin news, wish Opportunity a happy 12th birthday and reflect on the 30th anniversary of the Challenger disaster.
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The 20th Anniversary Mac is a unique computer, and the newest in my collection. It came with a bunch of discs, including an interactive Welcome Tour that is … weird.
Really weird.
Even for 1997.
When I bought my iPad Pro, I spent about 15 minutes with the Smart Keyboard in an Apple Store. I wasn’t super impressed, and wrote off the accessory until recently, when I picked one up more or less on a whim.
My first impressions haven’t held up.
While the Smart Keyboard has dome switches under the keys that are similar to those found in the MacBook, the travel here is noticeably better than the notebook’s. I’d peg it somewhere in between the Magic Keyboard and the MacBook.
Your favorite space-themed Relay podcast is now on Tumblr. Jason and I will be sharing links, photos and more in between our fortnightly episodes.
Myke and Brad are doing a live show again this year:
The Atlanta Pen Show is scheduled for April 15th - 17th, 2016, and The Pen Addict posse is ready to take over once again! Like last year, we are asking for your help to get this done.
Thanks to your support, we were able to fly in Myke Hurley and Ana Reinert to record live with Brad Dowdy and film it for all to see. We plan on doing the same thing this year, this time with a live studio audience!
A heart-breaking oral history of the Challenger disaster.
Today, on the 30th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, NASA is remembering its fallen astronauts.
Sadly, 1986 doesn’t mark the only tragedy in the agency’s history. On January 27, 1967 the crew of Apollo 1 was killed during a test on the launchpad. A year earlier, on February 28, 1966 two Gemini astronauts were killed in a flight in St. Louis, Missouri.
On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry, killing all seven crew members.
With iOS 5, Apple introduced Notification Center, the pull-down shade that houses missed notifications and messages all in one place.
With iOS 7, Apple added Today, a section of Notification Center that users can fill with first- and third-party widgets, as well as Control Center, a quick way to get at commonly-used utilities with a flick up from the bottom of the display.
I don’t think this has aged very well, unfortunately, and it’s mostly Control Center’s fault. In addition to it being confusing to have a hidden panel at the top of the screen, having one at the bottom too is a lot to handle for some users. But there’s a bigger problem in my mind: Control Center just does way too many things.
The DeLorean Motor Company has some news:
In December 2015, the language from the “Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act” (H.R. 2675) - which creates a reasonable regulatory structure allowing small companies to produce a limited number of completed replica motor vehicles that resemble the appearance of cars produced 25 years ago or more was inserted to the federal highway bill (H.R. 22) and signed into law.
[…]
In anticipation of this legislation, DeLorean Motor Company has been working for some time to identify a supplier for engines and other parts that must be reproduced to facilitate this production for 2017. A number of hurdles exist before production can begin, and we’re still early on in this process of determining the feasibility of moving forward. Further updates will be posted here.
This article is linked to in almost all of Apple’s recent software release notes:
For the protection of our customers, Apple does not disclose, discuss or confirm security issues until a full investigation has occurred and any necessary patches or releases are available. To learn more about Apple Product Security, see the Apple Product Security website.
This document describes recent updates and releases.
Today, Apple announced its first quarter results:
The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $75.9 billion and record quarterly net income of $18.4 billion, or $3.28 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $74.6 billion and net income of $18 billion, or $3.06 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.1 percent compared to 39.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 66 percent of the quarter’s revenue.