Geekly Update - 18 November 2021

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Twenty-seven years after the invention of the BananaPhone, we finally have The DogPhone, an internet-connected ball to help stay-at-home dogs connect with their owners. The dog-tech device was developed in Finland, and allows the dog to initiate a video call.

IBM has announced Eagle, the world's largest superconducting quantum computer. At 127-qubits, it is twice as large as previous 64-qubit competitors. Quantum computers are able to solve some problems that would take traditional computers thousands of years to process. In other news, cybercriminals and totalitarian governments are rejoicing at the thought of breaking all known encryption.

Meta/Facebook thinks it's not enough to wander about in the fake world they call the Metaverse. They want you to feel it with high-tech haptic virtual reality gloves, that use silicone-based microfluidic tactile feedback and pneumatic control architecture to simulate touch and feel. Meta's head of research says "feeling is the next frontier."

It's no wonder Seattle startup HaptX is "feeling" a bit upset. They claim Meta’s VR glove prototype is ‘substantively identical’ to their own patented virtual reality glove, which, incidentally, also has silicone-based microfluidic tactile feedback and pneumatic control architecture.

Apple will begin offering a do-it-yourself repair option for iPhones and Macs next year. They'll provide repair manuals and allow mere mortals to buy the same parts and tools that Apple certified technicians and repair shops use. I had to check my calendar to make sure this wasn't an April Fool's joke.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today has approved EaseVRx, an immersive virtual reality (VR) system that uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help patients with chronic lower back pain. Let's hope boosters are not required.

Russia doesn't want their dead spy satellites floating about in space, so they sent a missile to explode one of them last weekend. The explosion was a success, but the resulting debris field posed a danger to the crew aboard the International Space Station. The seven astronauts were forced to take emergency shelter inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Russian Soyuz spacecrafts which were docked on the ISS. Apparently the Russians never saw this scene from the movie Gravity.

In other space news, Oumuamua probably isn't a nitrogen iceberg. That leaves astronomers puzzling over a few options: is it an interstellar probe trying to sneak a peek into our solar system, a cosmic cigar, or a space pancake?

Experimental relativistic zero-knowledge proofs, and Einstein's theory of special relativity could help create unhackable ATMs. If that sounds complicated, it's because cryptography theorists are here to help, by replacing your PIN with a system where you'd have to plug two separate devices into two separate ATMs, several feet apart.

ConstitutionDAO is a "Decentralized Autonomous Organization," a collective of “internet friends” and cryptocurrency investors with a shared bank account. The DAO members are pooling their funds with a goal of buying a rare copy of the US Constitution at a Sotheby's auction, so they can put it on public display.

Fujifilm has announced the Instax Mini Evo, a new film-digital hybrid camera that prints to Instax Mini film. The company describes it as a new Instax flagship that has been “designed with a premium and classical touch.” It has several retro elements including top-mounted dials and a Really Big Button That Doesn't Do Anything film advance lever that doesn't advance film.

...and finally, this week's Just Here For The Headline item: NASA Scientists Hope Singing Trees Could Help Us Reach Another Planet.

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