Apple appears poised to unveil a long-rumored headset that will place its users between the virtual and real world, while also testing the technology trendsetter's ability to popularize new-fangled devices after others failed to capture the public's imagination.After years of speculation, the stage is set for the widely anticipated announcement to be made Monday at Apple's annual developers conference in a Cupertino, California, theater named after the company's late co-founder Steve Jobs. Apple is also likely to use the event to show off its latest Mac computer, preview the next operating system for the iPhone and discuss its strategy for artificial intelligence.But the star of the show is expected to be a pair of goggles — perhaps called “Reality Pro,” according to media leaks — that could become another milestone in Apple's lore of releasing game-changing technology, even though the company hasn't always been the first to try its hand at making a particular device.Apple's lineage of breakthroughs date back to a bow-tied Jobs peddling the first Mac in 1984 —a tradition that continued with the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, the iPad in 2010, the Apple Watch in 2014 and its AirPods in 2016.But with a hefty price tag that could be in the $3,000 range, Apple's new headset may also be greeted with a lukewarm reception from all but affluent technophiles.If the new device turns out to be a niche product, it would leave Apple in the same bind as other major tech companies and startups that have tried selling headsets or glasses equipped with technology that either thrusts people into artificial worlds or projects digital images with scenery and things that are actually in front of them — a format known as “augmented reality.”Apple's goggles are expected be sleekly designed and capable of toggling between totally virtual or augmented options, a blend sometimes known as “mixed reality." That flexibility also is sometimes called external reality, or XR for shorthand.Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been describing these alternate three-dimensional realities as the “metaverse.” It's a geeky concept that he tried to push into the mainstream by changing the name of his social networking company to Meta Platforms in 2021 and then pouring billions of dollars into improving the virtual technology.But the metaverse largely remains a digital ghost town, although Meta's virtual reality headset, the Quest, remains the top-selling device in a category that so far has mostly appealed to video game players looking for even more immersive experiences.Apple executives seem likely to avoid referring to the metaverse, given the skepticism that has quickly developed around that term, when they discuss the potential of the company's new headset.In recent years, Apple CEO Tim Cook has periodically touted augmented reality as technology's next quantum leap, while not setting a specific timeline for when it will gain mass appeal.“If you look back in a point in time, you know, zoom out to the future and look back, you’ll wonder how you led your life without augmented reality,” Cook, who is 62, said last September while speaking to an audience of students in Italy. “Just like today you wonder how did people like me grow up without the internet. You know, so I think it could be that profound. And it’s not going to be profound overnight.”The response to virtual, augmented and mixed reality has been decidedly ho-hum so far. Some of the gadgets deploying the technology have even been derisively mocked, with the most notable example being Google's internet-connected glasses released more than a decade ago.After Google co-founder Sergey Brin initially drummed up excitement about the device by demonstrating an early model's potential “wow factor” with a skydiving stunt staged during a San Francisco tech conference, consumers quickly became turned off to a product that allowed its users to surreptitiously take pictures and video. The backlash became so intense that people who wore the gear became known as “Glassholes,” leading Google to withdraw the product a few years after its debut.Microsoft also has had limited success with HoloLens, a mixed-reality headset released in 2016, although the software maker earlier this year insisted it remains committed to the technology.Magic Leap, a startup that stirred excitement with previews of a mixed-reality technology that could conjure the spectacle of a whale breaching through a gymnasium floor, had so much trouble marketing its first headset to consumers in 2018 that it has since shifted its focus to industrial, healthcare and emergency uses.Daniel Diez, Magic Leap's chief transformation officer, said there are four major questions Apple's goggles will have to answer: “What can people do with it? What does this thing look and feel like? Is it comfortable to wear? And how much is it going to cost?”The anticipation that Apple's goggles are going to sell for several thousand dollars already has dampened expectations for the product. Although he expects Apple's goggles to boast “jaw dropping” technology, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said he expects the company to sell just 150,000 units during the device's first year on the market — a mere speck in the company's portfolio. By comparison, Apple sells more than 200 million iPhones, its marquee product a year. But the iPhone wasn't an immediate sensation, with sales of fewer than 12 million units in its first full year on the market.In a move apparently aimed at magnifying the expected price of Apple's goggles, Zuckerberg made a point of saying last week that the next Quest headset will sell for $500, an announcement made four months before Meta Platform plans to showcase the latest device at its tech conference.Since 2016, the average annual shipments of virtual- and augmented-reality devices have averaged 8.6 million units, according to the research firm CCS Insight. The firm expects sales to remain sluggish this year, with a sales projection of about 11 million of the devices before gradually climbing to 67 million in 2026.But those forecasts were obviously made before it's known whether Apple might be releasing a product that alters the landscape.“I would never count out Apple, especially with the consumer market and especially when it comes to finding those killer applications and solutions,” Magic Leap's Diez said. “If someone is going to crack the consumer market early, I wouldn’t be surprised it would be Apple.”

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An Apple logo adorns the facade of the downtown Brooklyn Apple store. 

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Apple's goggles are expected be sleekly designed and capable of toggling between totally virtual or augmented options

Apple Is Expected To Unveil A Sleek, Pricey Headset

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2023 FW13 circles the sun in sync with the Earth, in an eccentric orbit that takes it halfway to Mars and Venus while it executes a long, lazy orbit around our planet.

Earth Picked Up A 'New Moon' 2,100 Years Ago. Astronomers Just Found It.

taste-testing-the-space-food-of-the-future

Does this look appetizing? If you go to Mars, it may be your meal

The Deep Space Food Challenge is an open call to experts around the world to develop technologies for keeping astronauts fed and healthy

Taste Testing The Space Food Of The Future 

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It's a race for comanies to find potential employees with ChatGPT experience

Resume Genius surveyed 1,000 employees to examine attitudes and feelings toward AI and predictions for its future. In the survey, 74% of employees predicted AI technology will make human workers obsolete.

1 In 4 Workers Prefer Interacting With Ai Instead Of Humans, Survey Finds

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Something else you are going to find shining bright in the sky in the month of June - Venus. Just look west.

Sky Watchers Treat Friday Night: “Short-Night Full Moon"

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Officials say the technology will dramatically reduce rear-end crashes, saving what it estimates would be at least 360 lives per year.

Automatic Emergency Braking To Be Required On New Vehicles

APTOS, Calif. (AP) — A woman taking a Memorial Day weekend stroll on a California beach found something unusual sticking out of the sand: a tooth from an ancient mastodon.But then the fossil vanished, and it took a media blitz and a kind-hearted jogger to find it again.Jennifer Schuh found the foot-long (.30-meter) tooth sticking out of the sand on Friday at the mouth of Aptos Creek on Rio Del Mar State Beach, located off Monterey Bay in Santa Cruz County on California's central coast.“I was on one side of the creek and this lady was talking to me on the other side and she said what’s that at your feet,” Schuh recounted. “It looked kind of weird, like burnt almost.”Schuh wasn't sure what she had found. So she snapped some photos and posted them on Facebook, asking for help.The answer came from Wayne Thompson, paleontology collections advisor for the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History.Thompson determined that the object was a worn molar from an adult Pacific mastodon, an extinct elephant-like species.“This is an extremely important find," Thompson wrote, and he urged Schuh to call him.But when they went back to the beach, the tooth was gone.A weekend search failed to find it. Thompson then sent out a social media request for help in finding the artifact. The plea made international headlines.On Tuesday, Jim Smith of nearby Aptos called the museum.“I was so excited to get that call,” said Liz Broughton, the museum's visitor experience manager. “Jim told us that he had stumbled upon it during one of his regular jogs along the beach, but wasn’t sure of what he had found until he saw a picture of the tooth on the news."Smith donated the tooth to the museum, where it will be on display Friday through Sunday.The age of the tooth isn't clear. A museum blog says mastodons generally roamed California in ancient decades past.Broughton said it is common for winter storms to uncover fossils in the region and it may have washed down to the ocean from higher up.Schuh said she is thrilled that her find could help unlock ancient secrets about the peaceful beach area. She didn't keep the tooth, but she did hop on Amazon and order herself a replica mastodon tooth necklace."You don’t often get to touch something from history," she said.It's only the third find of a locally recorded mastodon fossil. The museum also has another tooth along with a skull that was found by a teenager in 1980. It was found in the same Aptos Creek that empties into the ocean.“We are thrilled about this exciting discovery and the implications it holds for our understanding of ancient life in our region,” museum Executive Director Felicia B. Van Stolk said in a statement.

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Mastodon Tooth in the sand at an Aptos, Calif., beach

 “It looked kind of weird, like burnt almost.”

Beach Stroller Finds Ancient Mastodon Tooth On West Coast Beach

BERLIN (AP) — The world is set to add a record amount of renewable electricity capacity this year as governments and consumers seek to offset high energy prices and take advantage of a boom in solar power, according to a new report Thursday.The International Energy Agency said high fossil fuel prices — resulting from Russia's attack on Ukraine — and concerns about energy security had boosted the rollout of solar and wind power installations, which are expected to reach 440 gigawatts in 2023.That's about a third more than the world added the previous year, taking the global installed capacity to 4,500 GW, roughly the combined total power output of the United States and China combined, the Paris-based agency said.“The global energy crisis has shown renewables are critical for making energy supplies not just cleaner but also more secure and affordable," said Fatih Birol, the IEA's executive director.“Governments are responding with efforts to deploy them faster,” he said. Recent incentives to install renewables introduced by the Biden administration are already driving a significant uptake in the United States.About two-thirds of this year's increase in renewable power capacity will come from photovoltaic, with both large-scale solar farms and consumer rooftop installations seeing significant growth.IEA said manufacturing capacity for PV components was also surging, especially in China.But Birol cautioned that power grids must be upgraded and expanded to cope with the intermittent nature of solar and wind power, which requires a fundamentally different approach by network operators compared with existing coal, gas or nuclear plants.Shifting the global economy away from fossil fuels is one of the most important steps for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.The International Renewable Energy Agency, a separate body, has called for a major increase in wind and solar investments. Nations are expected to discuss setting an international target for the rollout of renewable energy at this year's U.N. climate summit in Dubai.

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Solar panels on Germany's biggest floating photovoltaic plant

High fossil fuel prices and concerns about energy security have boosted the rollout of solar and wind power installations.

Money Expected To Pour Into Renewable Energy This Year

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amazon will pay more than $30 million to settle alleged privacy violations involving its voice assistant Alexa and its doorbell camera Ring.The Federal Trade Commission voted to file charges in two separate cases Wednesday that could also force the company to delete certain data collected by its popular internet-connected devices.<blockquote>In the Alexa case, the FTC said Amazon had deceived users of the voice assistance service for years. It retained children’s recordings indefinitely unless a parent requested the information be deleted, the agency said, and even when it deleted those recordings, Amazon often kept the transcripts.The FTC ordered the company to delete inactive child accounts as well as certain voice information and geolocation data.</blockquote>In imposing a $25 million fine, the agency said Amazon had violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and FTC Consumer Protection Chief Samuel Levine accused the tech giant of sacrificing “privacy for profits” in “flouting parents’ deletion requests.”FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya said Amazon kept kids' data indefinitely to refine its voice recognition algorithm. In a separate statement, he said the Alexa ruling sends a message to all tech companies who are “sprinting to do the same” amid fierce competition in developing AI datasets.“Nothing is more visceral to a parent than the sound of their child’s voice,” tweeted Bedoya, the father of two small children.In the Ring case, the FTC accuses Amazon's home security camera subsidiary of allowing its employees and contractors to access the private videos of consumers and providing lax security practices that enabled hackers to take control of some accounts.Amazon bought California-based Ring in 2018, and many of the violations cited by the FTC predate the acquisition. The FTC's order would require Ring to pay $5.8 million that would be used for consumer refunds.Amazon said it disagreed with the FTC’s claims about the two devices and denied violating the law. But it said the settlements “put these matters behind us.”“Our devices and services are built to protect customers’ privacy, and to provide customers with control over their experience,” the Seattle-based company said.The proposed orders must be approved by federal judges.FTC commissioners unanimously voted to file the charges against Amazon in both cases. In addition to the fine in the Alexa case, the proposed order prohibits Amazon from using deleted geolocation and voice information to create or improve any data product. The order also requires Amazon to create a privacy program for its use of geolocation information.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/58059.jpg" alt="Amazon Echo and Echo Plus devices, behind, sit near illuminated Echo Button devices "><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP Photo/Elaine Thompson] Amazon Echo and Echo Plus devices, behind, sit near illuminated Echo Button devices</figcaption></figure>

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Ernie Field pushes the doorbell on his Ring doorbell camera at his home in Wolcott, Conn.

FTC Consumer Protection Chief Samuel Levine accused the tech giant of sacrificing “privacy for profits” in “flouting parents’ deletion requests.”

Is Your Alexa Or Ring Camera Gathering Too Much Info On You And Your Kids?

LONDON (AP) — The United States and Europe are drawing up a voluntary code of conduct for artificial intelligence, a top European Union official said Wednesday, as the developing technology triggers warnings about the risks it poses to humanity and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/chatgpt-openai-artificial-intelligence-rules-europe-1a249ab94593356940d8f56d15e8a019">growing calls for regulation</a>.The voluntary code would bridge the gap while the 27-nation <a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-chatgpt-europe-rules-906fc89d2561b200fa6eb40a06b946a5">EU works on groundbreaking AI rules</a> that won't take effect for up to three years, European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager said at a meeting of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council, which is jointly led by American and European officials.“We need accountable artificial intelligence. Generative AI is a complete game changer," Vestager said, adding that a draft of the code was expected within weeks.She said officials will seek feedback from <a href="https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-office-generative-ai-word-email-chatgpt-5a399068c29272b6841047535d9fd1c2">industry players</a>, invite parties to sign up and promised “very, very soon a final proposal for industry to commit to voluntarily," she said at a press conference after the council's meeting in Sweden.The council has “an important role to play in helping establish voluntary codes of conduct that would be open to all like-minded countries,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.The <a href="https://apnews.com/article/what-is-chat-gpt-ac4967a4fb41fda31c4d27f015e32660">breathtaking rise of generative AI systems</a> such as ChatGPT has dazzled users with their capability to mimic human responses while <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-godfather-google-geoffrey-hinton-yoshua-bengio-chatgpt-5f7dc295a576833dfc3378071b5716f2">stirring fears about the risks they pose</a>, setting off a global debate about how to design guardrails for the technology.Scientists and tech leaders warned that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-risk-of-extinction-ai-54ea8aadc60d1503e5a65878219aad43">mitigating AI risks should be a global priority</a> because it could lead to human extinction, according to a statement posted online Tuesday and signed by hundreds of experts.Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, signed that statement and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/chatgpt-openai-ceo-sam-altman-congress-73ff96c6571f38ad5fd68b3072722790">has suggested that AI should be regulated</a> by a U.S. or international agency.The EU is at the forefront of the global movement to regulate artificial intelligence <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tech-ai-artificial-intelligence-europe-eu-15ac394679519084478e15217c156abc">with its sweeping AI Act</a>. The legislation is set for final negotiations, with political approval expected by year's end.But those rules won't take effect for two to three years “in the best possible case,” while AI technology is developing “by the month,” Vestager said.

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Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age and Competition, left, shakes hands with US Secretary of State Antony Blinke

US, Europe Working On Voluntary AI Code Of Conduct

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government’s auto safety agency plans to require that all new passenger cars and light trucks include potentially life-saving automatic emergency braking and meet stricter safety standards within three years.Wednesday's announcement by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration represents the agency's latest move toward regulating electronic systems that take on certain tasks that drivers themselves have normally done. NHTSA has been reluctant in the past to impose such regulations, saying the technology will change during the time it takes to enact new rules.Ann Carlson, the safety agency's chief counsel, says 90% of new passenger vehicles already include the braking technology under a voluntary program that automakers have approved. But she says NHTSA wants to make the braking systems more effective at higher speeds and better at avoiding pedestrians, especially at night.The regulation proposed by NHTSA will require, for example, that the systems allow vehicles to fully avoid other vehicles at up to 50 miles per hour if a driver should fail to react. If a driver brakes some but not enough to stop a collision, the system would have to avoid hitting another vehicle at up to 62 mph.“With this proposal, we could change a high-speed crash from a deadly one to a lower-speed crash with minor injuries or just property damage,” Carlson said.The regulations will undergo a 60-day public comment period before NHTSA will decide on a final version.The agency says the technology will dramatically reduce rear-end crashes, saving what it estimates would be at least 360 lives per year. It also will cut injuries by at least 24,000 annually, according to NHTSA's estimates, and reduce property damage from rear crashes.The Transportation Department, which includes NHTSA, called the proposal an important step in the broader goal of reducing roadway deaths.Though the number of people killed on U.S. roadways declined slightly last year, the agency said the 42,795 who died still represented a national crisis. Traffic deaths did slow slightly in the fourth quarter of last year, the third straight quarterly drop. But the pace was still close to 2021 numbers, which were the highest in 16 years.With Wednesday's announcement, NHTSA is responding to requirements approved by Congress in the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law that require automakers to equip new passenger vehicles with automatic braking and other safety technology.Automatic emergency braking can detect objects in the way and stop or slow a vehicle, preventing a crash or making it less severe.Carlson said the new rule will require braking systems to spot pedestrians in the dark to potentially save the lives of walkers and cyclists. Pedestrian deaths, she said, are up 53% nationwide in the past decade, and roughly two-thirds of them occur when someone is struck by the front of a passenger vehicle. Carlson said all cars would be required to stop and avoid hitting a pedestrian at up to 37 mph.Officials said the systems that automakers are installing will have to be improved to make them more effective in darkness and low-light situations. Carlson said many current such systems can’t perform in low light.

safety-agency-wants-to-require-new-vehicles-to-have-automatic-emergency-braking

Traffic moves along the Interstate 76 highway on March 31, 2021, in Philadelphia.

“With this proposal, we could change a high-speed crash from a deadly one to a lower-speed crash with minor injuries or just property damage.” 

Safety Agency Wants To Require New Vehicles To Have Automatic Emergency Braking 

american-tech-firm-nvidia-invests-millions-in-israeli-ai-supercomputer

Shainer described artificial intelligence as the “most important technology of our lifetime.”

American Tech Firm NVIDIA Invests Millions In Israeli AI Supercomputer

BEIJING (AP) — China launched a new three-person crew for its orbiting space station on Tuesday, with an eye to putting astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade.The Shenzhou 16 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan launch center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China atop a Long March 2-F rocket just after 9:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) Tuesday.The crew, including China’s first civilian astronaut, will overlap briefly with three now aboard the Tiangong station, who will then return to Earth after completing their six-month mission.A third module was added to the station in November, and space program officials on Monday said they have plans to expand it, along with launching a crewed mission to the moon before 2030.China built its own space station after it was excluded from the International Space Station, largely due to U.S. concerns over the Chinese space programs’ intimate ties with the People's Liberation Army, the military branch of the ruling Communist Party.China’s first manned space mission in 2003 made it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to put a person into space under its own resources.On &nbsp;this latest mission, payload expert Gui Haichao, a professor at Beijing’s top aerospace research institute, will join mission commander Maj. Gen. Jing Haipeng, who is making his fourth flight to space, and spacecraft engineer Zhu Yangzhu.The crew will stay aboard the station for around five months, during which they will conduct scientific experiments and regular maintenance.The mission comes against the background of a rivalry with the U.S. for reaching new milestones in space. That has been largely friendly, but also reflects their sharpening competition for leadership and influence in the technology, military and diplomatic fields.American spending, supply chains and capabilities are believed to give it a significant edge over China, at least for now. China has broken out in some areas, however, bringing samples back from the lunar surface for the first time in decades and landing a rover on the less explored far side of the moon.The U.S., meanwhile, aims to put astronauts back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, aided by private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.In addition to their lunar programs, the two countries have also separately landed rovers on Mars, and China plans to follow the U.S. in landing a spacecraft on an asteroid.

china-eyeing-human-moon-landing-before-2023

A Long March rocket carrying a crew of Chinese astronauts in a Shenzhou-16 spaceship lifts off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China

China launched a new three-person crew for its orbiting space station on Tuesday, with an eye to putting astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade.

China Eyeing Human Moon Landing Before 2023

Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink says it's gotten permission from U.S. regulators to begin testing its device in people.<blockquote>The device is about the size of a large coin and is designed to be implanted in the skull, with ultra-thin wires going directly into the brain. Musk has said the first two applications in people would be to attempt to restore vision and try to help people with little or no ability to operate their muscles rapidly use digital devices. He also said he envisions that signals from the brain could be bridged to Neuralink devices in the spinal cord for someone with a broken neck.</blockquote>The company made the announcement on Twitter Thursday evening but has provided no details about a potential study, which was not listed on the U.S. government database of clinical trials.Officials with the Food and Drug Administration wouldn’t confirm or deny whether the agency granted the approval, but press officer Carly Kempler said in an email that the FDA “acknowledges and understands” that Musk’s company made the announcement.Neuralink is one of many groups working on linking the nervous system to computers, efforts aimed at helping treat brain disorders, overcoming brain injuries and other applications.<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1661897511337082880"></oembed></figure>Earlier this week, for example, researchers in Switzerland published research in the journal Nature describing an implant that restores communication between the brain and spinal cord to help a man with paralysis to stand and walk naturally. There are more than 30 brain or spine computer interface trials underway, according to clinicaltrials.gov.Musk – who also owns Twitter and is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX – said last December that his team was in the process of asking regulators to allow them to test the Neuralink device.<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://youtu.be/8vAMt56p_j8"></oembed></figure>After Musk made a presentation late last year about the device, Rajesh Rao, co-director of the Center for Neurotechnology at the University of Washington, said he doesn’t think Neuralink is ahead of other teams in terms of brain-computer interface achievements but is “quite ahead” in terms of the hardware in the devices.It’s unclear how well this device or similar interfaces will ultimately work, or how safe they might be. Neuralink’s interface is considered an “investigational device” at this point, and clinical trials are designed to collect data on safety and effectiveness.In its tweet this week, Neuralink said that it’s not yet recruiting participants for the study and will provide more information soon.<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://twitter.com/neuralink/status/1643339633546215430"></oembed></figure>___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Neuralink is one of many groups working on linking the nervous system to computers, efforts aimed at helping treat brain disorders, overcoming brain injuries and other applications.

Tech/Science