Cache Me Out

The latest image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, pictured above, also happens to be a stunning illustration of Einstein's theory of general relativity. So much so that the cosmic phenomenon is called an "Einstein ring." 

Einstein rings happen when light from one distant object is bent around the mass of another, slightly closer and even larger object. The effect is normally too subtle to observe up close on a local level, "but it sometimes becomes clearly observable when dealing with curvatures of light on enormous, astronomical scales," NASA writes. In the case of this image, when the light from one distant galaxy is warped around the mass of another.

This "gravitational lensing," as it's technically called, is Einstein's general relativity in practice. Spacetime (the fusion of space and time that makes up the fabric of the universe) curving around an object's mass, with the curve itself being gravity. Objects like the ones pictured in the image — an elliptical galaxy wrapped in a spiral galaxy — are "the ideal laboratory in which to research galaxies too faint and distant to otherwise see."

This Einstein ring was captured by the "Strong Lensing and Cluster Evolution (SLICE) survey" conducted at the University of Liège in Belgium. The survey is led by a team of astronomers looking "to trace eight billion years of galaxy cluster evolution," according to NASA.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/latest-webb-telescope-image-shows-a-cosmic-phenomenon-called-an-einstein-ring-185911553.html?src=rss

Score another one for regulatory scrutiny. Following a 2022 Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation, Google said on Friday that it's adding the UK to the list of countries where it supports user choice billing. This lets Android developers in the nation allow users to pay for in-app purchases using alternative billing systems.

Google says the UK will get user choice billing beginning on March 29. It will start with non-gaming apps, which aligns with how Google has handled these rollouts in other regions. Areas where alternate billing is already available include the US, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa and European Economic Area (EEA) markets.

Developers who enroll in the program can only offer alternative payments in addition to — not in place of — Google Play billing. They'll receive a four percent discount from Google's service fees.

The move is closely tied to the nation's regulations. In 2023, the company floated user choice billing as a concession to help settle a UK CMA antitrust investigation that began the previous year.

Although Google acknowledged the CMA's influence on its decision in its announcement, the company framed the move in a blog post as giving the people (in this case, developers) may want. "While over 90% of our developers are 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with Google Play's billing, which provides a secure way for people to buy subscriptions and digital goods in apps, we recognise that some developers may want more choice in how they process payments," Google Competition Counsel Myrto Tagara wrote.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-play-will-offer-user-choice-billing-in-the-uk-180145121.html?src=rss

Mushroom fans rejoice. Adult Swim has ordered a second season of its animated hit Common Side Effects. This is happening just ahead of the finale of the first season, which airs this weekend.

For the uninitiated, Common Side Effects is something of an odd duck. It’s a cartoon, but it’s more of a thriller than a comedy. Mike Judge (Silicon Valley, King of the Hill) and Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation) are onboard as executive producers, so there are some jokes. I guess it could be called a dramedy, but comedic thriller seems more apt.

The plot follows two former high school lab partners who discover a mystical mushroom that can cure just about every disease. This forces them to go on the run from the DEA, big pharma and shadowy business entities. The animation style is certainly unique, and may not be for everyone, but the show really comes into its own after a few episodes.

The voice cast includes Mike Judge, who played both Beavis and Butt-Head, and Martha Kelly, who starred in the animated Carol & the End of the World. She’s also fantastic in Baskets and absolutely terrifying in the second season of Euphoria. The remaining cast includes Joseph Lee Anderson, Dave King and Emily Pendergast.

Along with the renewal announcement, Adult Swim president Michael Ouweleen called the show a “boundary-pushing and genre-defining piece of television.” He also praised fans for “lighting up socials to spread the word.”

Common Side Effects was created by Steve Hely, who wrote for American Dad and 30 Rock, and Joe Bennett, who made the criminally underrated (and now cancelled) Scavenger’s Reign. The pair said their goal for the show is “to transform planet Earth and restore the human spirit” but that they’ll “settle for a second season.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/common-side-effects-has-been-renewed-for-a-second-season-by-adult-swim-173256630.html?src=rss

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Before we jump into the transportation news of the week, it’s worth pointing you to a couple of articles that are focused on Elon Musk, the CEO […]

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Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week reminded us that creative accounting doesn’t only happen in Hollywood. Some hopes were dashed, but startups are delivering on all sorts of promises, from nuclear […]

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Despite the stealthy nature of spyware, security researchers keep detecting Pegasus spyware attacks in part because of sloppy 'operational security.'

Google's Pixel 9a, a candidate to be the "midrange smartphone king," was announced last week but delayed at the last second due to a component problem. Today, we finally know when the handset will arrive: April 10 in North America.

In an update to a Pixel 9a support page (via 9to5Google) on Friday, Google wrote that the phone will arrive on April 10 in the US, Canada and the UK. On April 14, it will land in a long list of European countries: Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, Czechia, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Finland. Meanwhile, Australia, India, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia have to wait until April 16.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Pre-announcement reports suggested the phone would arrive on March 26, but Google said on the day of its unveiling that it was delayed into April. An unverified leak hinted that the pushback was related to camera-related heating problems, but Google only said it was to address a "component quality issue that’s affecting a small number of Pixel 9a devices." Regardless of the specifics, at least the problem ultimately only amounted to a short delay.

The Pixel 9a has dual cameras, a Tensor G4 chip and AI tools like Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, Best Take and Photo Unblur. (However, an Ars Technica report suggests it runs an "extra extra small" version of Gemini.) In his hands-on, Engadget's Sam Rutherford found the midrange phone to offer compelling features and performance relative to its $499 and up pricing. The phone isn't yet available for pre-order.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/the-pixel-9a-launches-on-april-10-in-the-us-161940732.html?src=rss

Jennifer Salke is stepping down as the head of Amazon MGM Studios, according to reporting by Deadline. She’s been at the post for over seven years, which is a ripe old age for a studio head. Before Amazon, Salke was president of NBC Entertainment.

She will not be replaced. Instead, the head of studio role will be eliminated as part of a new structure for the division. Prime Video honcho Mike Hopkins said in a memo that the company "decided to flatten our leadership structure a bit." The studio will split into two distinct arms, with one focusing on TV and the other handling films.

"We will be taking a couple of weeks to have thoughtful conversations with Jen’s directs and others to finalize the ideal long-term structure for the Amazon MGM Studios organization as a whole, and we’ll have more to share on that work soon," Hopkins said.

Salke isn’t leaving the studio entirely. She’s transitioning to a first-look film and TV deal with the company. However, industry rumors suggest that it’s more like a firing than a voluntary career change. She was largely absent from the deals that brought in Amy Pascal and David Heyman as the producers of the next James Bond film.

Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson sold creative control of 007 to Amazon for around $1 billion earlier this year. Insiders have suggested that Broccoli and Salke didn’t get along, which Jeff Bezos allegedly caught wind of. It has been reported that one condition of Pascal and Heyman signing on was that the pair would not report to Salke.

We don’t know what any of this means for James Bond, other than new movies are most definitely coming. It’s also been suggested that the platform could be prepping an affiliated TV show.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/jennifer-salke-steps-down-as-head-of-amazon-mgm-studios-161856700.html?src=rss