Logitech gets into the vertical mouse game with the MX Vertical

Logitech on Monday announced the MX Vertical, the first vertical mouse to come from the popular peripheral maker. The mouse costs $99.99 and is available to pre-order on Logitech’s website as of Monday. Logitech says it will start shipping the MX Vertical to customers sometime in September. Like most vertical mice, the MX Vertical is designed to be held as if you’re giving it a handshake rather than draping your hand over the top of it. The click buttons and scroll wheel are located on the right side of the mouse, which Logitech says is sloped at a 57-degree angle. There’s a large thumb rest on the device's concave left side, and the sides themselves have a ridged rubber finish aimed at making the whole thing easier to grip. The MX Vertical is larger (79 x 78.5 x 120 mm) and heavier (135 g) than typical mice, but the idea is that contouring the mouse this way makes it easier to keep the wrist and forearm in a straighter and less strained position. There are two customizable buttons on its left side, along with a button on the aluminum top that is used to adjust pointer speed by default but can also be customized through Logitech’s Options desktop app. You can assign a series of gesture-controlled shortcuts in the app as well; for instance, one option lets you skip tracks in a music app by holding the Fn key and moving the mouse left or right. The scroll wheel is adjustable as well, but it can’t alternate between notched and free-scrolling modes like some of Logitech’s other higher-end mice. The device connects over USB-C, Bluetooth, or Logitech’s Unifying Receiver USB dongle. You can connect up to six wireless Logitech devices to one receiver, so if you own a Logitech keyboard already it’s possible to add the MX Vertical to an existing setup without using any extra ports on your computer. The mouse also supports Logitech’s “Flow” software, which allows it to move between multiple computers without needing to re-pair every time it’s used on another device. Logitech says the mouse has a resolution of up to 4,000 DPI. As for battery life, the company says the MX Vertical lasts up to four months on a charge and that it can gain three hours of use from one minute of charging. Some quick hands-on impressions I’ve used the MX Vertical for the past three days. While it’s too soon for me to say exactly how beneficial it’s been for my long-term wrist comfort, my first impressions are generally positive. The mouse is constructed well and the blend of soft-touch rubber and aluminum feels more premium than your typical lump of plastic. I've had no issues with responsiveness. It’s large enough for me to rest all of my fingers on the mouse itself but not so big that any buttons are out of reach. Logitech’s Options app has been perfectly straightforward for adjusting the mouse’s settings. ...

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MIT's 'GPS' for the body can locate hidden implants

Implants are supposed to represent the future of medicine, as they can deliver medicine and track illnesses in ways that just aren't possible with conventional pills and scans. But there's a problem: how do you place them in deeper parts of the body without surgery or intrusive cameras? MIT's CSAIL might have an idea. It's developing a system, ReMix, that it likens to a GPS for implants. The locator doesn't need to make physical contact -- it just needs wireless signals and math. The technology bounces radio signals off the patient, using an algorithm to track the implant. The main challenge is simply determining the difference between reflections from the skin and the implant itself. For that, the CSAIL team uses a diode to create combinations of the signals that help it filter out skin reflections. It's capable of "centimeter-level accuracy," according to MIT, and the implant doesn't have to transmit its own signal. There's still work left to be done. MIT wants to boost the accuracy by combining ReMix with data like MRI scans, and it acknowledges that the algorithm may need changes to account for the wide variety in human bodies. The applications are already clear, however. Doctors could use less intrusive implant methods while still confirming that they're on target. That could allow for implants in more circumstances. Proton-based cancer therapy, for example, could use trackable markers to make sure the tumor stays in place (necessary for blasting it with protons) and improve the quality of treatment.

Read Original Article     ON:   Engadget

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Elon Musk used to fly 'a Russian fighter jet' while founding SpaceX and Tesla and raising his kids

Elon Musk made his first millions from the sales of Zip2 and PayPal, then invested much of the money into founding SpaceX in 2002 and co-founding Tesla in 2003. But in addition to launching two of the world's most famous startups, Musk also devoted some cash to his love of aviation. He purchased a Piper Meridian single-engine turboprop, a two-engine Cessna Citation CJ2 corporate jet, and a high-speed military jet called the Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros. The L-39 jet was designed and built during the Cold War in Czechoslovakia, which was a satellite state of the Soviet Union. Engineers created the high-performance aircraft as a training vehicle for pilots before they climbed inside combat-grade fighter jets. "Probably the most fun plane I have is a Russian fighter jet," Musk told Fortune magazine in 2003. "It has a Czech air frame, a Ukrainian engine, Russian avionics. It's what they used to train their fighter pilots on, so it's incredibly acrobatic. But your butt hurts if you fly in it for more than an hour. The seats are really hard." 'It was just like Top Gun' Following the Soviet Union's collapse, Russia sold off many L-39s. Although a popular color scheme is Cold War-era camouflage, an alleged September 2006 photo of Musk's jet at an airport Reno, Nevada, suggests his had glossy black paint, red and chrome pinstripes down the side, and a "SpaceX" logo. "You can do eight Gs in that plane," Musk told Fortune, referring to eight times the force of Earth's gravity on the planet's surface — enough acceleration to make a pilot black out without a proper flight suit. Due to that risk, Musk says he only flew it up to about five Gs. But he noted even that force is enough to make it hard to move or concentrate, and that it can cause your cheeks to get "sucked down" while you "start seeing red dots" (because it draws blood away from the brain). Musk recounted that "the most fun flight" he ever did was in an L-39 near Reno. It was a tail chase in which he followed another jet at a low altitude over the mountains. "Literally, it was just like in Top Gun," he said. "You're no more than a couple of hundred feet above the ground, following the contour of the mountains." Christian Davenport of the Washington Post extracted more details about Musk's L-39 flights for his 2018 book, "The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos." "I'd do acrobatics in it and fly at tree top level, fly up a mountain invert and fly back down the other side," Musk said in the book. ...

Read Original Article     ON:   business insider

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Apple removes 25,000 apps from its App Store in China

BEIJING — Apple Inc. pulled illegal apps from its App Store in China after coming under fire from state media for not doing enough to filter out banned material. “Gambling apps are illegal and not allowed on the App Store in China,” Apple said in a statement Monday. “We have already removed many apps and developers for trying to distribute illegal gambling apps on our App Store, and we are vigilant in our efforts to find these and stop them from being on the App Store.” The removals were reported earlier by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday, which said 25,000 apps were pulled. Apple AAPL, +0.61% didn’t confirm that number. It offers more than 1.8 million apps in China, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Removing 25,000 apps would amount to about 1.4% of that total. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has recently been criticized by Chinese state media for having illegal apps in its store, as well as for not doing enough to filter banned content on its iMessage service. “Apple itself has set up the rules on how to allow apps onto its store, but it didn’t follow that, resulting in the proliferation of bogus lottery apps and gambling apps,” CCTV said in its report Sunday.

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Poof! Netflix has deleted all user reviews from its website, citing 'declining use'

If you are looking for a binge-worthy Netflix show to feast your eyes on, don't bother looking at what other users had to say. The streaming service deleted all user reviews of TV shows and movies from its website on Friday. The company announced the move last month and stopped allowing customers to leave criticism or praise under a program title on July 30. “Netflix customers were able to leave reviews on Netflix.com until mid-2018, when reviews were removed due to declining use,” the company’s help center says under the heading “How do I post reviews on Netflix?” But don’t fret: The removal shouldn't affect your Netflix experience. The reviews were visible only through the web, likely adding to the feature's downfall. Purging reviews is the latest change Netflix has made to its rating system. The streaming service switched from a five-star system to a simpler “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” rating in 2017. Netflix said the change was made to clear up confusion on how to rate the quality of a series or movie, but the company probably had other reasons — like user sabotage. Trolls would purposefully “review bomb” a show title with hopes of bringing its ratings down. Most notably, Amy Schumer’s Netflix comedy stand-up, “Amy Schumer: The Leather Special,” was given a one-star rating last year after being spammed with negative reviews. Users can still look forward to Netflix's own recommendations. It's a "great built-in way to only suggest content we think you'll love based on your viewing history," the company says. Regardless of the change, most of us will still be watching.

Read Original Article     ON:   Usa Today

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Google Goggles Is Now Officially Dead — Install Google Lens Instead

Google has officially put the final nail on Google Goggles's coffin. A new update released just now effectively renders the app unusable, displaying instead a splash screen that encourages users to download Google Lens and use that moving forward. Goggles was released in 2009, one of Google's burgeoning attempts to develop a visual experience around search. Since then, Google has had enormous development in that arena, and with the unveiling of the much better, much faster, much more intelligent Google Lens, Google essentially had to ring the death knell for Goggles. Google Goggles Receives Death Update Android Police was the first to spot the update. Just note that the last time Google Goggles received an update was in 2014. Loading the latest version of the app now results in a landing page instructing users to use Google Lens from now on, or Google Photos for phones that can't support Lens natively. The death of Google Goggles was entirely expected; it was only just a matter of when. Earlier this year, Wired reported that Google had "more or less shut down" development on the app by 2012 after users lost interest. Even so, development of visual search didn't languish. Google continued to make advancements in artificial intelligence and object recognition, but instead of improving the Google Goggles experience, it chose to introduce an entirely new platform altogether, one that offers a vastly better user experience than its predecessor. Google Lens Could Someday Be Shut Down, Too Google doesn't explicitly say just how many people are actively using Lens daily. The company has managed to create a more robust platform for visual search, sure, but it's not clear just how long it'll keep users' interest. At this point it's only a few steps above being a tad bit gimmicky. That's not to say visual search isn't incredibly useful when it works — just that people can probably live without it. Google has to find a way to make visual search so excellent that people simply won't be able to use any other method. Google could kill Lens in a few years' time, who knows? Internal operations at Google are reportedly very competitive, with teams working on projects that often overlap. A new team might present a much better implementation of visual search than Lens, and if people also lost interest in Lens over time, Google will definitely stop pumping fuel in that vehicle.

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Catholics consider withholding donations amid scandals

For decades, Michael Drweiga has opened his wallet whenever the donation basket comes around at church, but the latest revelations of priests sexually abusing children brought him to the conclusion that he can no longer justify giving. Brice Sokolowski helps small Catholic nonprofits and churches raise money, but he too supports the recent calls to withhold donations. And Georgene Sorensen has felt enough anger and "just total sadness" over the past few weeks that she's reconsidering her weekly offering at her parish. Across the U.S., Catholics once faithful with their financial support to their churches are searching for ways to respond to the constant sex-abuse scandals that have tarnished the institution in which they believe, with back-to-back scandals in the past two months. The most recent came Tuesday when a grand jury report revealed that hundreds of Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania molested more than 1,000 children in six dioceses since the 1940s — crimes that church leaders are accused of covering up. The report came two months after Pope Francis ordered disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick removed from public ministry amid allegations the 88-year-old retired archbishop sexually abused a teenage altar boy and engaged in sexual misconduct with adult seminarians decades ago. Last month, Francis accepted McCarrick's resignation as cardinal and ordered him to a "life of prayer and penance." The most recent "whopper of a report" from Pennsylvania, Drweiga said, was enough to make him wonder where his money was going and whether it was being used to cover up abuses. "In an organization that spans the whole world like the Catholic Church, you don't know where your money is going. And when you read about these priest-abuse scandals it just raises that question to the highest power. What is this money going for?" said Drweiga, 63, who lives in Wilmette, Illinois. Sokolowski, an Austin, Texas, resident who founded Catholicfundraiser.net to provide advice to Catholic nonprofits and churches, said he's heard from many who are "really sick and tired" of hearing about priests abusing children. "So the big thing that people are saying is, 'We just need to stop funding their crap,'" said Sokolowski, 36. He said he encourages people to stop giving money to their diocese, which oversees the network of churches in an area, but to keep supporting their local parish and tell their priest and bishop what they're doing. Calls to financially boycott the Catholic Church are not new. Five years ago, after sex-abuse scandals rocked the archdiocese in St. Paul, Minnesota, parishioners talked about withholding their donations in protest. ...

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Cohen, Trump’s Ex-Lawyer, Investigated for Bank Fraud in Excess of $20 Million

Federal authorities investigating whether President Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, committed bank and tax fraud have zeroed in on well over $20 million in loans obtained by taxi businesses that he and his family own, according to people familiar with the matter. Investigators are also examining whether Mr. Cohen violated campaign finance or other laws by helping to arrange financial deals to secure the silence of women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump. The inquiry has entered the final stage and prosecutors are considering filing charges by the end of August, two of the people said. Any criminal charges against Mr. Cohen would deal a significant blow to the president. Mr. Cohen, 52, worked for the president’s company, the Trump Organization, for more than a decade. He was one of Mr. Trump’s most loyal and visible aides and called himself the president’s personal lawyer after Mr. Trump took office. The bank loans under scrutiny, the total of which has not been previously reported, came from two financial institutions in the New York region that have catered to the taxi industry, Sterling National Bank and the Melrose Credit Union, according to business records and people with knowledge of the matter, including a banker who reviewed the transactions. Federal investigators in New York are seeking to determine whether Mr. Cohen misrepresented the value of his assets to obtain the loans, which exceed $20 million. They are also examining how he handled the income from his taxi medallions and whether he failed to report it to the Internal Revenue Service. The two lenders were cited in the search warrants for raids that federal agents conducted this spring on Mr. Cohen’s office, home and a hotel room where he was staying, several of the people familiar with the matter have said. Sterling received a grand jury subpoena seeking records related to the loans, one of the people said. There is no indication that either bank suffered a loss as a result of the loans or that Mr. Cohen missed payments, which are ordinarily important aspects in a bank fraud case. While bank fraud without a loss is rarely charged on its own, it is sometimes charged in conjunction with other crimes, which may be what happens in Mr. Cohen’s case. At this late stage of the inquiry, it is still possible that Mr. Cohen may plead guilty rather than face an indictment. He has hinted publicly and has stated explicitly in private that he is eager to tell prosecutors what he knows in exchange for leniency. A cooperation agreement would likely include a provision that Mr. Cohen also provide information to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating possible involvement by the Trump campaign in Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. ...

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Google To Launch New Version Of Chromecast With Bluetooth, Stronger Wi-Fi

Google is going to launch a revamped Chromecast that features stronger Wi-Fi and expanded Bluetooth capabilities, as per a recently spotted FCC filing. The addition of Bluetooth support was somewhat expected. Back in May, a similar listing revealed that Google was working on an updated Chromecast with Bluetooth connectivity that would be similar to the current second-generation model. An amended regulatory filing published Aug. 17 now details Wi-Fi improvements. Chromecast With Full Bluetooth Support? The current Chromecast device does have a Bluetooth chip in it, which is used during the setup process, but future Chromecast upgrades could offer full support for the wireless standard and even open up Chromecast to more flexible pairing with other devices, as Engadget speculates. Documents and reports pertaining to the said Chromecast were published shortly after losing their confidentiality status, but they were originally filed back in June. A notable document is a "change letter" that requests a "Class II permissive change for FCC ID A4RNC2-6A5B, originally granted on May 4, 2018." That refers to a change in the 5 GHz Wi-Fi antenna that aims to increase maximum antenna gain to deliver better Wi-Fi performance. Chromecast Design As for the design, the upcoming Chromecast will likely retain the aesthetics of its predecessor, and one diagram included in the filing gives credence to this, illustrating a circular dongle with a protruding HDMI port. The design isn't that important, anyway, as a Chromecast hides behind the TV and is rarely ever seen again once plugged in. In any case, at least it's not bulky and won't get in the way of other devices that might also be connected to the back of TVs. Google introduced the Chromecast in 2013 and released the second-generation model two years later. In 2016, it launched the Chromecast Ultra, practically the same device but for 4K TVs, specifically. The new model detailed in the filing will likely serve as a successor to the line of affordable streaming devices, one with expanded Bluetooth capabilities so as to potentially sit well with third-party devices. At this point everything is based on speculation, and there's always the chance Google changes something or doesn't go through with its plans, although an FCC filing is usually a firm indication that a product is almost ready for rollout.

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Trump claims he allowed White House counsel McGahn to 'fully cooperate' with Mueller probe

President Donald Trump on Saturday pushed back against a report from The New York Times that White House counsel Don McGahn has shared extensive details with special counsel Robert Mueller about whether Trump tried to obstruct justice in the Russia probe. 16360 “I allowed White House Counsel Don McGahn, and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel,” Trump tweeted Saturday evening. “In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents. Most transparent in history. No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt!” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also played down the idea that there was any tension between Trump and McGahn. “The president and Don have a great relationship," Sanders said in a statement. "He appreciates all the hard work he’s done, particularly his help and expertise with the judges, and the Supreme Court nominees.” McGahn's lawyer, William Burck, said in a statement that the president had freed the White House counsel to speak openly to Mueller's team. “President Trump, through counsel, declined to assert any privilege over Mr. McGahn’s testimony, so Mr. McGahn answered the Special Counsel team’s questions fulsomely and honestly, as any person interviewed by federal investigators must," Burck said. The New York Times reported earlier on Saturday that McGahn has been willing to share numerous details with Mueller’s investigators, and that he has provided at least three voluntary interviews with Mueller’s team that spanned 30 hours over the past nine months. The report stated that McGahn made the calculation to "protect himself" by fully cooperating with Mueller. The high-profile article threatens to add further tensions as Trump decides whether or not to sit down with Mueller for an interview. Trump has aggressively denied any collusion with Russian officials in the lead-up to the election or any attempt to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation into such allegations, regularly dismissing the probe as a “witch hunt.” Trump has been under scrutiny, in particular, for firing former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump pushed to back off the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, which is said to be part of the larger Russia probe. POLITICO reported in March that McGahn was expected to step down from his post later this year, but that his departure may hinge on whether there was another opening for Trump to fill on the Supreme Court — an opening that emerged with the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. ...

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ICE arrested a man driving his pregnant wife to give birth. She drove herself to the hospital.

Maria del Carmen Venegas was on her way to deliver a baby boy, her fifth child, by Caesarean section in a planned operation Wednesday afternoon. Her husband, Joel Arrona-Lara, was driving her car to the hospital. Two SUVs swooped in to block the vehicle at a San Bernardino, Calif., gas station. They belonged to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the agents asked for Venegas’s identification, she later told CBS Los Angeles. She complied. The agents also asked for Arrona-Lara’s identification. The couple was in a hurry when they left, and his ID was at home, Venegas told Univision affiliate KMEX. The agents searched the car and led Arrona-Lara away in handcuffs, leaving his wife frantic. On Saturday afternoon, officials released previously undisclosed details about Arrona-Lara’s arrest. He is a Mexican national wanted in Mexico under a warrant issued for homicide charges and has been detained pending removal proceedings, according to a statement by ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley. The homicide warrant brought the attention of agents, according to Haley. ICE did not provide details about the homicide that Arrona-Lara is accused in. After her husband was detained, Venegas drove herself to the hospital and delivered her baby, she told local media. Surveillance video from inside the store shows her crying and distraught. “ICE continues to focus its enforcement resources on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security. ICE conducts targeted immigration enforcement in compliance with federal law and agency policy,” Haley said. Arrona-Lara’s legal representative, Emilio Amaya García, told The Post he believed his client was not suspected of crimes within the United States, and denies criminal charges in Mexico. García questioned why Arrona-Lara is slated for removal but not extradition, where a more formal handoff to authorities would be made. He is representing Arrona-Lara through San Bernardino Community Service Center, a nonprofit group. [Citizenship service conspired with ICE to ‘trap’ immigrants at visa interviews, ACLU says] His concern was how the arrest affected Venegas. She had preeclampsia, he said, a pregnancy complication marked by high blood pressure. The couple explained the condition to the agents, he believes. “They left her alone,” he told The Post on Saturday. “They put the well-being and safety of the mother and baby at risk.” Garcia said Venegas remains in the hospital. Haley declined to say whether the arresting agents considered delaying Arrona-Lara’s arrest until after the birth or could have escorted Venegas to the hospital, given her condition. She also declined to provide any regulations either allowing or prohibiting such agent-level decisions. ...

Read Original Article     ON:   The Washington Post

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Nintendo Switch discounts, VR sales and more gaming deals

Nintendo Switch sales are rare — first party Nintendo games are hardly ever discounted more than a few dollars and the occasional bundle is one of the few times you can find a deal on the console itself. But when it rains, it pours. This week, some of Nintendo’s biggest Switch games were discounted by 25 percent and Walmart announced two new bundles that save an extra $30 each. The first bundle, a Switch + Labo Kit is available now, and a Mario Tennis Aces bundle will be available on Sept. 5. VR games are having a big week as well. Both the Humble Store and Green Man Gaming are running sales on tons of virtual reality PC games, from huge VR RPGs like Skyrim and Fallout 4 to silly simulators with VR support like Catlateral Damage. If you don’t have a VR setup, Best Buy is offering $50 off an Oculus gaming bundle, which includes an Oculus Rift headset, Touch controllers and the VR game Marvel Powers United. CONSOLES AND HARDWARE Nintendo Switch + Labo bundle at Walmart starting at $339 (usually $369). New Nintendo 3DS XL SNES Edition at Amazon for $149.99 (usually $199.99). Marvel Powers United VR Special Edition Oculus Rift + Touch at Best Buy for $349 (usually $399). Acer Nitro 5 15.6” Laptop at Best Buy for $599.99 (usually $719.99). Xbox One purchases include a free Xbox game (priced between $29.99 and $59.99) at Best Buy. GAMES Super Mario Odyssey on Switch at Walmart and Best Buy for $44.99 (usually $59.99). Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Switch at Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy for $44.99 (usually $59.99). Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Switch at Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy for $44.99 (usually $59.99). Mario Tennis Aces on Switch at Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy for $44.99 (usually $59.99). Skyrim VR on PC at Green Man Gaming and Humble for $41.99 (usually $59.99). Fallout 4 VR on PC at Green Man Gaming and Humble for $41.99 (usually $59.99). Doom VFR on PC at Green Man Gaming and Humble for $20.99 (usually $29.99). Superhot VR on PC at Green Man Gaming for $16.75 (usually $24.99). Catlateral Damage on PC at Green Man Gaming for $2.50 (usually $9.99). Resident Evil 7: Biohazard on PS4 at the PlayStation Store for $22.49 (usually $29.99). Rocket League on PS4 at the PlayStation Store for $13.99 (usually $19.99). Uncharted: The Lost Legacy on PS4 at the PlayStation Store for $14.99 (usually $29.99). Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End on PS4 at Amazon for $14.89 (usually $59.99). Monster Hunter: World on PC at Fanatical for $47.75 (usually $59.99). Pay-what-you-want Jackbox bundle at Humble (usually $25). ...

Read Original Article     ON:   Polygon

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Apple pulls iOS 12 beta 7 after less than 24 hrs

Apple has pulled the latest beta of its iOS platform software after less than 24 hours in the wild, and without explanation. This year’s release, iOS 12, is intended to be a performance update with Apple stating that it sought to improve performance on older, lower RAM devices like the iPhone 6. The platform release is available for iPhones and iPads going back to 2013: the iPhone 5S and the original iPad Air. And so far, it had been running comparatively smoothly. However shortly after Beta 7 was made available for an OTA download, developers and testers started reporting cripplingly long application startup times, an issue that some reported went away after a period. Apple also removed Group FaceTime (supporting up to 32 concurrent users) from Beta 7 - explaining via the Release Notes that it will “ship in a future software update this fall”. A public release of the annual platform update usually follows days after a hardware launch which takes place in mid to late September. Once open only to paying developers, Apple has opened the beta programme to tyre-kickers, something Google has opted to copy. The full firmware file (.IPSW) is still online, but the release is no longer being pushed to developers.

Read Original Article     ON:   The Register

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Trump calls Omarosa a 'dog' in latest attack on ex-aide

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump on Tuesday referred to former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman, the only African-American to have served in a senior role in the White House, as a "dog." "When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn't work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!" Trump tweeted Tuesday.

When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018

Referring to an African-American woman as an animal is at best a sharp departure from the language typically employed by Presidents and at worst a reference that traffics in sexual and racial imagery. Trump has long denied being racist and has dismissed a claim made by Manigault Newman that he used a racial slur on the set of "The Apprentice." He's also invoked "dog" to insult non-African-Americans -- including Mitt Romney and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. As President, however, Trump has stoked racial tensions in the US, blaming "both sides" after violence sparked last year by a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. He also also privately referred some African nations as "s***hole countries" and lambasted the protests led overwhelmingly by black NFL players. In a separate tweet Tuesday morning, Trump referred to a crash outside the UK's Houses of Parliament as a "terrorist attack" committed by "animals," though the incident was still being investigated and the identity of the driver had not been publicly released.

Another terrorist attack in London...These animals are crazy and must be dealt with through toughness and strength!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018

...

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Launch of solar probe scrubbed by technical issue in terminal countdown

An automatic alarm in the final two minutes of the Delta 4-Heavy rocket’s countdown early Saturday forced officials to delay blastoff with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe by 24 hours. NASA and United Launch Alliance — the builder of the Delta 4-Heavy — rescheduled the launch of the $1.5 billion solar probe for 3:31 a.m. EDT (0731 GMT) Sunday, at the opening of a 65-minute window. Officials hope to dodge anvil clouds that could blow over the Cape Canaveral spaceport from offshore thunderstorms during Sunday’s early morning launch window. The official launch weather forecast from the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predicts a 60 percent probability of acceptable conditions for launch Sunday. Scattered thunderstorms are forecast to move through Central Florida from the west Saturday afternoon, but the weather should improve in the evening hours. “Storms should move offshore and dissipate before the Mobile Service Tower roll operations, and weather will improve in the overnight hours,” the Air Force weather team wrote in a launch forecast issued early Saturday. “Closer to the launch window, thunderstorms will likely continue over the Gulf Stream offshore, and east upper-level winds could cause anvils from offshore thunderstorms to migrate toward the Space Coast.” NASA and ULA officials intended to launch Parker Solar Probe on Saturday, but a series of unspecified technical issues — capped by an alarm at T-minus 1 minute, 55 seconds — kept the 233-foot-tall (71-meter) Delta 4-Heavy rocket on the ground. A problem early in the countdown caused a 20-minute delay from Saturday’s original launch time of 3:33 a.m. EDT (0733 GMT), then a data stream issue further delayed the Delta 4-Heavy’s takeoff time to 4:28 a.m. EDT (0828 GMT). The countdown picked up from a hold at T-minus 4 minutes, but a member of the launch team announced a gaseous helium regulator alarm at T-minus 1 minute, 55 seconds. There was not enough time remaining in the launch window Saturday to resolve the alarm, so launch managers declared a scrub for the day. In a brief statement, ULA said the launch was scrubbed “due to a violation of a launch limit, resulting in a hold.” No other information about the gaseous helium system alarm, or the other technical concerns during the countdown, were released by NASA or ULA. Parker Solar Probe has until Aug. 23 to depart Earth and kick off a seven-year mission to fly through the sun’s atmosphere, making 24 orbits through the inner solar system and using the gravity of Venus to nudge ever-closer to our star. The compact, automated space probe will reach an orbit passing as close as 3.83 million miles (6.16 million kilometers) from the sun in 2024. ...

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I've spent the last 24 hours with Samsung's new Galaxy Note 9 — here are my first impressions

The latest $1,000 smartphone has arrived in the form of the Galaxy Note 9. Unveiled at Samsung's Unpacked event on Thursday in Brooklyn, New York, the Galaxy Note 9 is Samsung's biggest, heftiest device yet: It has a 6.4-inch screen, a gigantic 4,000 mAh battery, and up to 1 terabyte of storage. Samsung wants you to live your life on the Galaxy Note 9 — to take all your photos on the phone's advanced camera, to write important notes and sign important documents using the phone's S Pen, and to hook it up to a screen and turn it into a desktop computer using to Samsung's DeX technology. In short, this phone is a beast — or at least Samsung wants it to be. Over the past 24 hours or so, I've been playing around with the new Galaxy Note 9. I'm not a Samsung user — and my own iPhone 6s feels puny and incompetent next to this thing — so I'm looking at the Galaxy Note 9 with fresh eyes. It's important to note that I haven't run the Galaxy Note 9 through all its paces, and I can't give a full review of the phone after just 24 hours of usage. After we have a few more days to try the device, we'll post a comprehensive breakdown.

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