Communications

A recently launched communications satellite suffered an anomaly during its deployment, affecting its ability to beam data to North and South America.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewCalifornia-based communications company Viasat announced that “an unexpected event occurred during reflector deployment” of its ViaSat-3 satellite which may affect its performance. ViaSat-3 could not deploy its main reflector antenna, which the company had previously described as the key to the…

This story was originally published by Grist, a nonprofit media organization covering climate, justice, and solutions. This story was co-published with WIRED.  With his electric Kia EV6 running low on power, Sky Malcolm pulled into a bank of fast-chargers near Terre Haute, Indiana, to plug in. As his car powered up, he peeked at nearby chargers. One in particular stood out. Instead of the businesslike welcome screen displayed on the other Electrify America units, this one featured a picture of President Biden pointing…

Last week the Russian government tried to disconnect its Internet infrastructure from the larger global Web. This test of Russia’s “sovereign Internet” seemingly failed, causing outages that suggest the system is not ready for practical use. “Sovereign Internet is not really a whole different Internet; it is more like a project that uses various tools,” says Natalia Krapiva, tech-legal counsel at the international digital-rights nonprofit Access Now. “It involves technology like deep packet inspection, which allows major…

Daphne, an eager computer-vision scientist, encounters a novel study highly relevant to her autonomous vehicles research. The study uses computational methods to reveal hidden driving patterns. Aware of autonomous driving’s safety implications, Daphne decides to act responsibly and replicate the study to verify its findings prior to relying on them.   After carefully reading the paper’s methodology, however, Daphne realizes that the original researchers provided no access to the code and only partial access to the data…

Twitter is not the right place to seek information during an emergency, Dutch politicians and a prominent online group said on Wednesday, following an incident in which citizens were directed to the platform for updates during a large storm."We find it problematic that the government depends on Twitter for sharing crucial information," lawmaker Nico Drost's office said in emailed remarks to Reuters, citing accessibility, accountability and reliability issues. Twitter could not immediately be reached for comment. The…

Twitter is not the right place to seek information during an emergency, Dutch politicians and a prominent online group said on Wednesday, following an incident in which citizens were directed to the platform for updates during a large storm."We find it problematic that the government depends on Twitter for sharing crucial information," lawmaker Nico Drost's office said in emailed remarks to Reuters, citing accessibility, accountability and reliability issues.Twitter could not immediately be reached for comment.The storm,…

Electric vehicle maker Rivian (RIVN) hired Sarah O’Brien to lead the company’s communications efforts on Friday. O’Brien previously served as vice president of communications at Tesla during the launch of the Model 3 and at Apple before that for a critical eight-year stretch. Rivian taps former Tesla, Apple communications leader Tesla hired O’Brien in September 2016 as vice president of communication, serving until August 2017 during the launch of the Model 3, Solar Roof, and Tesla Semi…

Tata Communications said on Wednesday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire communication platform service provider Kaleyra, Inc. for a value of $100 million. Tata Communications will also acquire NYSE-listed Kaleyra’s gross debt of $224.9 million and net debt of $149.9 million as on March 31, 2023. Most of the debt is related to older acquisitions done by Kaleyra.For the full year ended 31st December 2022, Kaleyra reported revenue of $ 339.2 million, an increase of 26.7% compared to the full year…

TikTok rolled out a series of executive shakeups Thursday, announcing Disney PR veteran Zenia Mucha will head the social platform’s comms department as chief brand and communications officer while longtime COO V. Pappas steps down. “TikTok’s ability to encourage creativity, connect people and create communities is nothing short of inspiring and I am excited to be joining this innovative and dynamic company,” Mucha said in a statement. At Disney, Mucha had a reputation for being tough on media and fiercely…

What if the search for life in the universe is really a search for how the cosmos computes? That’s the intriguing, and perhaps unsettling, possibility that we are exploring as a part of our quest to find out whether or not we are alone. Since the beginnings of our scientific understanding of genetic inheritance in the 1800s and our discovery of molecules like DNA and RNA in the 1900s, we’ve seen that life is informational in nature. There is a “code” of sorts at the heart of living things. It’s a hugely complex code for…