Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Monday, December 04, 2017.

Hey, good morning!

We’re back to the start of the week, and Samsung is looking into palm reading. It’s also been 25 years since the first text message was sent, which is making us feel a little old.

You could get hints for password without them getting obvious.

Samsung envisions phones that read your palm

There's a good possibility that you've forgotten a password and had to get hints or recover it. But the process for that isn't very trustworthy -- intruders can guess security questions. Samsung might soon have a subtler way of helping you remember your password, though: through palm reading... of a kind. A recent patent application shows that Samsung has been exploring a system that would scan the unique lines on your palm and use them to display hints in the form of incomplete characters. You'd get a nudge in the right direction, but nothing so obvious that a thief could guess it (even if they could use your hand).

The first text message was sent 25 years ago

A lot has changed in a quarter century.

Engineer Neil Papworth sent the first SMS on December 3rd, 1992, when he wrote "merry Christmas" on a computer and sent it to the cellphone of Vodafone director Richard Jarvis.

It's much more than your usual artist page.

Neil Young's huge online music archive opens to the public

Neil Young has been talking up his giant online archive for ages, but he's finally ready to deliver on his promises. The simply-titled Neil Young Archives have launched and include all the media he has produced to date. And we do mean everything -- every song Young has made is available to stream for free (until June 30th 2018) through his Xstream Music service, including unreleased tracks.

The backup thrusters have been inactive since 1980.

NASA wakes up Voyager's slumbering thrusters 37 years later

NASA's Voyager 1 has been drifting farther and farther away from our planet for the past 40 years. Now, the agency has ensured that it can maintain contact with the farthest spacecraft from Earth for at least two to three more years by waking up a set of backup thrusters it hasn't used since 1980.

But wait, there's more...

1. Netflix cancels YouTube star Miranda Sings' show after two seasons

2. Ask Engadget: What is the best 4K, 3D-capable TV?

3. Apple releases iOS 11.2 with Apple Pay Cash and a bug fix

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Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Saturday, December 02, 2017.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Before your weekend begins it’s time to make sure you have the latest iPhone and macOS updates, then check out what Elon Musk is sending to Mars next month.

It couldn’t wait.

Apple released iOS 11.2 last night to fix an iPhone date bug

If your iPhone won’t stop resetting, there’s a reason. Many iPhones running the latest version of Apple’s software started having issues where local notifications (like reminders) would peg the CPU at 100 percent usage and cause a soft reset. To fix the glitch, Apple moved up its planned release of the iOS 11.2 update to… now. Along with the fix, there’s also support for the Venmo-like Apple Pay Cash system and other tweaks.

Flex.

Elon Musk is sending his Tesla Roadster to Mars

While confirming that SpaceX will launch its first Falcon Heavy next month, Elon Musk announced this Mars-targeted rocket will have a special payload on board: his “midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity.”

FYI

Apple's macOS 'root' bug can reopen

The other big Apple glitch this week just won’t go away. While the company did patch a High Sierra bug that could allow anyone to get admin access to your PC, there’s one small problem. If you installed the patch first, then updated to the newest version of macOS (13.1), it reintroduces the vulnerability. To resolve that, just install the patch again, and make sure to reboot (it won't happen automatically).

Study up.

What you need to know about net neutrality

Don’t know the difference between Tier I and Tier II? Don’t worry -- we’re here to help.

Great for gaming, not so much for photos.

Razer Phone review

Razer’s first phone has long battery life and buttery smooth gaming performance. On the other hand, it also has an unimpressive camera and the screen can get washed out in sunny conditions. Check out Nicole Lee’s review before you shell out $700.

Choose wisely.

Which gaming console is right for you?

Here we break down the best and worst bits of the PS4 Slim, PS4 Pro, Xbox One S, Xbox One X and the Switch for anyone looking to buy into the video game universe this fall.