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SpaceX has successfully launched the Fram2 private crewed mission on March 31 at 9:46 PM Eastern time on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. Fram2 is the first human spaceflight to explore the Earth's polar regions, which are not visible to the astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The crew will observe the Earth's poles through a panoramic cupola attachment from an altitude of 430 km (267 miles). SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule can fly from the North to the South Pole in around 46 minutes and Fram2 is a three-to-five day mission, so it's expected to provide scientists with a healthy amount of footage capturing the polar regions. In fact, SpaceX has already released the mission's first views of the Earth's poles from space.
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 1, 2025
The crew will observe unusual light emissions resembling auroras in the regions, including STEVEs, which appear as purple and green light ribbons in the night sky. They will also conduct 22 experiments designed to better understand human health in space for the sake of long-duration missions in the future. The crew will capture the first human X-rays in space, study exercises meant to preserve muscle and bone mass, explore sleep and stress patterns using wearable tech, monitor their glucose and observe the female crew members' hormonal health. They also won't get the typical medical and mobility assistance upon landing to see how they re-acclimate to gravity on
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Quick Machine Recovery is the first tangible result of Microsoft's work following the massive CrowdStrike incident of 2024, which knocked out large parts of the global IT infrastructure. QMR allows IT administrators to fix boot problems remotely, even when a problem is so grave that the computer can no longer boot as usual.
The recovery is done via the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), where the system connects to the internet and sends diagnostic data to Microsoft. Based on this, targeted updates can be sent back to the computer via Windows Update, Thurrott reports.
Previously, the feature was mainly aimed at business users, but now Microsoft confirms that private individuals will also have access to it—and it will be enabled by default. In managed IT environments, administrators will be able to control availability.
QMR is available in the Windows recovery menu as an option under "Advanced Options." According to Microsoft, the feature contributes to increased system resilience by automatically detecting errors and applying solutions, without any manual troubleshooting.
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If there's one thing you can count on with AI tools is that they'll launch without most of the promised features. It happened with Apple Intelligence. It happened with Galaxy AI. Now, it's happening with Alexa , Amazon's AI-heavy upgrade to its virtual assistant. The tool is officially available but it doesn't do a whole lot, according to reporting by The Washington Post.
The paper reviewed a number of internal company documents that noted the delay of many features. These documents suggest that a bunch of tools won't be available for two months or longer. Alexa users won't be able to use the platform to order takeout on Grubhub or identify family members via camera to remind them to do chores.
The same goes for that neat-sounding tool that the company says will auto-generate a story to entertain kids. Also, Alexa cannot be used to brainstorm gift ideas or order groceries. Finally, there isn't a browser-based version available. The company says these delays are because the features do not "meet Amazon's standards for public release."
So what can Alexa do right now? I haven't gotten a chance to fool around with it, but the
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