WIRED Awake October 31: The planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has ceased operation

In association with The planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has ceased operation The Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel, and Nasa has announced its immediate retirement (Space.com). During its nine-year operational lifespan, Kepler discovered over 2,600 exoplanets – worlds beyond our solar system. A video explains how, from its current position in deep space, Kepler will remain in orbit around the sun, never coming nearer than a million miles from Earth. Nasa's planet-hunting duties are now in the hands of TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which launched on April 18, 2018, Continue Reading Waymo's autonomous cars can drive unsupervised on the streets of California Waymo has announced that it's been granted permission to operate its autonomous vehicles in California without a safety driver (Ars Technica). According to the local Department of Motor Vehicles, the Alphabet subsidiary is now allowed to "test a fleet of about three dozen test vehicles without drivers behind the wheel" in the cities of Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Sunnyvale in Santa Clara County – the heart of Silicon Valley. This makes Waymo the first autonomous vehicle firm to get a licence of this kind, although a further 60 self-driving car firms have permission to operate fleets with safety drivers on board to supervise them. Continue Reading Apple has launched a new iPad Pro, MacBook Air and more Apple CEO Tim Cook and colleagues have announced a raft of new product updates at an event in New York, the company's second hardware launch in as many months (WIRED). The new iPad Pro comes with a significant spec upgrade, dropping the Lightning port in favour of USB-C, with storage of up to 1TB, 11-inch and 12.9-inch display options, and the new A12X Bionic processor. Apple also revealed new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, with streamlined designs, upgraded displays and a range of powerful new component options available for the Pro. Continue Reading Can the UK's digital services tax actually work? How to handle multitasking and still get things done Chinese intelligence officers charged over US aerospace secret theft The US government has charged two intelligence officers from the Chinese Ministry of State Security with orchestrating a five-year scheme to steal aerospace trade secrets from French and US firms (Gizmodo). Zha Rong and Chai Meng are accused of running a team of hackers and moles inside multiple companies, of which only Capstone Turbine Corp has been named. The charges follow the arrest and extradition from Belgium of alleged Chinese spy Yanjun Xu, who is to stand trial in the US for economic espionage and trade secret theft. Continue Reading Shroud of the Avatar is now free to play Leftfield fantasy single/multi-player RPG Shroud of the Avatar is now free-to-play on Windows, macOS and Linux (Rock, Paper, Shotgun). Its steampunk-tinged online world has plenty of depth, thanks to the involvement of Ultima creator Richard Garriott and Dragonlance co-author Tracey Hickman, as well as a solid selection of quests, dungeons and crafting, There's also a sociable in-game community, player-run events and new features that allow adventurers to build their own dungeons. Continue Reading Don't miss out on the future. Get WIRED. Subscribe now and save FOLLOW WIRED Unsubscribe   |   View this email in your browser Condé Nast Digital 1 Hanover Square, London W1S 1JU © The Condé Nast Publications Ltd Our Privacy Policy