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 Apple used the launch week of the M5 Vision Pro this week to run a two-day "Meet with Apple" program for developers, with a focus on building immersive media and interactive apps for visionOS 26.
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Signed up for an internet plan that's left you stuck paying additional fees? Here's everything you need to know to find a broadband plan that'll fit your needs and help save costs.
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Stop reserving roast chicken for Sundays. Your air fryer makes it possible tonight.
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Happy Memorial Day, Short Wavers! This holiday, we bring you a meditation on time ... and clocks. There are hundreds of atomic clocks in orbit right now, perched on satellites all over Earth. We depend on them for GPS location, Internet timing, stock trading and even space navigation. In today's encore episode, hosts Emily Kwong and Regina G. Barber learn how to build a better clock. In order to do that, they ask: How do atomic clocks really work, anyway? What makes a clock precise? And how could that process be improved for even greater accuracy?
- For more about Holly's Optical Atomic Strontium Ion Clock, check out the OASIC project on NASA's website.
- For more about the Longitude Problem, check out Dava Sobel's book, Longitude.
Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
Have questions or story ideas? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org!
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Electronic Arts has confirmed that the next Battlefield game will be revealed this summer, ahead of a launch date some time before April 2026. The news was shared in the company's Q4 and and financial year 2025 results, published this week.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson called the latest installment in the long-running first-person shooter series a "pivotal step in delivering on our next generation of blockbuster entertainment" and recommitted to a previously announced FY26 release window for the currently untitled game. That means it can't launch any later than March 2026, when EA's fiscal year ends.
A launch date before April next year would mean the new Battlefield game will get a bit of room to breathe before the recently delayed Grand Theft Auto 6, which is supposed to arrive on May 26, 2026. Like every other publisher on the planet, EA has likely factored GTA 6 into its own upcoming launch plans for a number of titles. Eurogamer reported earlier this year that Wilson had admitted a willingness to delay games in order to get out of the way of the (unnamed, but heavily implied) competition.
The most recent Battlefield game was 2021's Battlefield 2042, to which EA has steadily added new content. Back in February, EA launched Battlefield
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The votes are in and residents of a small swath of southern Texas are in favor of Starbase becoming a real city. The newly-designated city is home to SpaceX and many of its employees, and it's where Elon Musk's company builds rocket engines, launches spacecraft and manufactures other space-related tech. According to the final vote tally, 212 residents voted in favor of incorporating as Starbase, while six voted against the measure — but, it's worth noting that most of the eligible voters in the locale are SpaceX employees and only 143 votes were needed to make Starbase a city.
Musk celebrated on X, while the city also made its first post, stating that "becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity's place in space." The idea for Starbase dates back to March 2021, when Musk first teased the idea on what was then Twitter. Now that the vote has taken place, Starbase will be separated from Cameron County as its own roughly 1.5-square mile city. This designation is particularly important considering SpaceX may be able to circumvent governmental red tape when it comes to scheduling rocket launches. Previously, Musk's company had to get permission from county authorities to close a nearby highway or restrict public access to Boca Chica Beach and Boca Chica State Park for rocket launches.
While the vote to designate Starbase as an official Texas city passed, county commissioners and judges still need to declare the election results official, according to Remi Garza, the elections admin
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