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- Why every GPU, console, and laptop chip is suddenly sold out
A pandemic-driven scramble for consumer electronics capacity has left GPUs, consoles, and even car computers starved of chips heading into 2021.
- Bezos Hands Amazon's Keys to Jassy
Jeff Bezos will step down as Amazon CEO in 2021, moving to Executive Chairman as AWS chief Andy Jassy takes over.
- SpaceX's Starship SN9 Nails the Ascent, Still Can't Stick the Landing
SN9 flew to 10 km and executed its belly flop reentry, but crashed on landing just like SN8 did in December.
- Clubhouse Goes Mainstream After Elon Musk's Surprise Appearance
Elon Musk's Clubhouse cameo pushed the invite-only audio app's user base from 3.5M to 8.1M in two weeks, crashing servers along the way.
- GitHub's Release Radar Wraps a Big Month for Dev Tools
GitHub's January 2021 Release Radar rounds up Fastify, ECharts-GL 2.0, and VS Code 1.53 in a month packed with open-source shipping.
- The Space Stories That Made January 2021 Worth Watching
A look back at the record-setting launches, lunar samples, and cosmic discoveries that filled out an eventful month in space and astronomy.
- The Galaxy S21 Hits Shelves, a Month Ahead of Schedule
Samsung's Galaxy S21 lineup goes on sale in the US and Europe today, capping an early launch built to beat spring's rival phones.
- Robinhood Freezes GameStop Buying, and the Internet Loses It
Robinhood halted buy orders for GameStop, AMC, and other volatile stocks today, and a $700 million clearinghouse demand is at the center of the backlash.
- SpaceX Launches Its Fourth Starlink Batch of January
SpaceX sent up another round of Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center, its fourth Starlink launch this month alone.
- New Gaming Laptops Land Just as the Chip Shortage Tightens Its Grip
Razer Blade and other CES-announced laptops with RTX 30-series and Ryzen 5000 chips hit shelves today, even as AMD warns supply won't loosen until late 2021.
- SolarWinds Finally Patches Sunburst and Supernova
SolarWinds shipped fresh patches on January 25 addressing both the Sunburst backdoor and the separate Supernova malware found in its Orion platform.
- SpaceX Crams 143 Satellites Onto One Rocket
SpaceX's Transporter-1 mission set a new record by deploying 143 spacecraft from a single Falcon 9 launch.
- The Post-CES Laptop Buying Guide: What's Actually Worth Waiting For
A look at the wave of RTX 30-series and Ryzen 5000 laptops announced at CES 2021, with the first units due on shelves January 26.
- GPT-3-Style Models Are Sneaking Into Everyday Developer Tools
As access to GPT-3 stays limited to a waitlist, developers are already prototyping code suggestions, writing aids, and image generation on top of it.
- Astronomers Find a Six-Star System Built From Three Eclipsing Pairs
Researchers have identified a rare sextuple star system made of three gravitationally bound eclipsing binaries.
- Hitman 3 Closes the Book on the World of Assassination Trilogy
IO Interactive's self-published Hitman 3 launches today across every major platform, wrapping up the studio's rebooted assassin trilogy.
- SolarWinds and the Uncomfortable Truth About Trusting Your Vendors
A joint FBI/CISA/NSA statement pins the SolarWinds breach on a likely Russian actor, and the technical details show just how deeply attackers can hide inside a trusted build pipeline.
- China Opens Its Moon Rocks to the World
China hosted 32 countries in Beijing to discuss joint research on the 1,731 grams of lunar material Chang'e 5 brought home in December.
- Intel Closes Out CES With a Bigger 11th-Gen Lineup
Intel rounded out CES 2021 by expanding its 11th-gen Core lineup with new laptop and desktop chips, claiming up to 14% faster gaming performance.
- Microsoft Says the Pandemic Just Created 150 Million Future Tech Jobs
Microsoft's new report ties 2020's remote-work shift to a projected 150 million tech and tech-adjacent jobs over the next five years.
- Astronomers Find the Youngest Supermassive Black Hole Yet
A newly announced supermassive black hole dating to 800 million years after the Big Bang is forcing a rethink of how these giants grow so fast.
- Samsung Jumps the Line With the Galaxy S21
Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event brings the S21, S21+, and S21 Ultra a full month early, with the Ultra finally getting S Pen support.
- Parler Goes Dark After Apple, Google, and Amazon Cut the Cord
Apple, Google, and AWS pulled support from Parler within days of the Capitol riot, and the app has nowhere left to run.
- Meet TOI-561b, the Rocky Planet Baking at 3,140°F
A newly detailed exoplanet orbiting one of the Milky Way's oldest stars completes a year in under 12 hours and bakes at over 3,140°F.
- CES 2021's Real Headline: Your Next Laptop Just Got a Lot Faster
Nvidia and AMD used CES 2021 to unveil next-gen mobile GPUs and Ryzen 5000 laptop chips, promising a huge wave of new gaming notebooks.
- Twitter Pulls the Plug on @realDonaldTrump
Twitter permanently banned President Trump's account on January 8th, citing incitement risk after the Capitol riot, cutting off his 88.9 million followers.
- SpaceX's Cargo Dragon Heads Home With a Cargo Hold Full of Science
A SpaceX Cargo Dragon undocked from the ISS on the CRS-21 mission, bringing zero-gravity organ research back to Earth under NASA's new resupply contract.
- CES Goes Fully Virtual, and Nobody's Quite Sure What That Means Yet
CES 2021 runs January 11-14 as an all-digital event, with Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm expected to unveil new laptop and desktop chips.
- OpenAI's DALL-E Turns Text Prompts Into Original Images
OpenAI unveiled DALL-E, a GPT-3-based model that generates original images straight from written descriptions.
- Perseverance Enters Its Final Approach to Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover is now in its final approach phase, running trajectory corrections ahead of a nail-biting February 18 landing in Jezero Crater.