After a whole day of suspense, SpaceX's landmark launch to the International Space Station - the first crewed mission to blast off from US soil in almost a decade - was scrubbed Wednesday due to fears of a lightning strike. With NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley strapped into the Crew Dragon capsule, the launch pad platform retracted and rocket fueling underway, SpaceX made the call to abort.

In mere hours SpaceX is scheduled to launch two NASA astronauts into orbit  - weather permitting - to kick off a new era of corporate-driven space missions. No company has ever flown commercially developed hardware carrying humans and linked up with the International Space Station (ISS). If Space Exploration Technologies Corp. reaches that goal, it will mark a major shift in the country’s space endeavors, being the first human launch from US soil since 2011.

Sony already promised that the PS5 will revolutionise gaming sound with its built-in 3D audio processing unit. Now it appears Sony's next move is to develop AI-powered game soundtracks that react to how you play, or to your emotions, and change the music accordingly. 

The Oppo Find X2 Pro's elegant design is just one of the main features of this luxurious looking smartphone. It has an impressive camera, impressive storage capacity, flagship power capabilities, and lightning-fast 5G connectivity. It also has a 120Hz refresh rate screen with slides and glides, plus charging speeds that clock in as the fastest in any flagship smartphone.

When talking about lasers, it's common knowledge that it goes a straight line. However, that isn't the case for the new laser, developed by the University of Witwatersrand. Instead, researchers have demonstrated the world's first metasurface laser that produces "super-chiral light" - light with ultra-high angular momentum.

Latvia may soon become one of the first countries to launch a smartphone app using a new toolkit created by Apple and Google to help trace coronavirus infections, news wires reported. Apturi Covid (Stop Covid) app is based on technology launched last week by the two giants, whose iOS and Android operating systems run 99% of the world's smartphones.

Forty years ago Friday the most popular video game of all time was released. Today, the game has been born again, this time the result of an artificial intelligence model undertaken by Nvidia Research. And it was accomplished without an underlying game engine, the standard procedure for designing such games, but rather by training a neural network by having it "watch" 50,000 hours of the original game.

Samsung and Huawei, the world’s largest manufacturers of Android smartphones, are now joining an interesting initiative along with Qualcomm. The three companies have agreed to support and play a key role in promoting the MPEG-5 EVC (Essential Video Coding) codec. This standard will find application in devices supporting 4K and 8K resolution, but it is also optimised for virtual and augmented reality (AR).

The Bulgarian company Allterco Robotics has released its latest smart product on the market – a smart camera with the capability of remotely taking body temperature with an accuracy level of within 0.3℃ of the real number. As the company notes, the MyKi Tcam is a pandemic control solution with features like body temperature screening and a smart warning system.

Beaches deserted, city squares devoid of people: Many tourist attractions are currently unrecognisable. People are stuck at home because of coronavirus lockdowns, wondering when they can travel once again. But that gives them plenty of time to plan and make the next trip really count. In the meantime, they can digitally explore the world from their sofa.