Public holiday on Monday, so no Sizzle until Tuesday.
Big week for space nerds! China has managed to collect lunar rock and dust from the dark side of the Moon and is currently in the process of returning it to Earth - a first for humanity. China's space activities are very impressive, it's a shame we don't hear about them as much or get as much detail about them as the USA's or EU's. Boeing's Starliner capsule finally managed to get into space with humans in it for the first time, docking with the International Space Station last night. The USA now has a backup option for getting people to and from the ISS that doesn't involve SpaceX. Speaking of SpaceX, they also had a big day launching the massive Starship and Super Heavy booster successfully, flipping it to slow it down, then "gently" landing it in the ocean for retrieval. The plan is to eventually have it plop softly on land like the Falcon 9, but that's still a while away.
Despite Apple's reputation and history of updates for iPhones and iPads, they've never actually formally stated "we will support (device) until (year)". Due to the UK's Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) regulations Apple had to say something on the record and they've said 5 years. Apple has supported devices for longer, but in the UK at least, you'll get a minimum of 5 years "from the first supply date" - so if an iPhone goes on sale 1st November 2024, it will get support until 1st November 2029, even if you could still buy that iPhone new from Apple in November 2027. Shame Apple didn't take the opportunity to one up Google's 7 years of updates on the current range of Pixel phones. Why is the cut off 5 years? Why not 8, 9, or even 10 years?
Adobe updated the Terms of Use for Photoshop to add, "solely for the purposes of operating or improving the Services and Software, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free sublicensable, license, to use, reproduce, publicly display, distribute, modify, create derivative works based on, publicly perform, and translate the Content". Content is defined as "any text, information, communication, or material, such as audio files, video files, electronic documents, or images, that you upload, import into, embed for use by, or create using the Services and Software" - so not just stuff you store on Adobe's cloud services! Adobe is pretty much saying anything you do in Photoshop, we have the right to use for whatever we want. Don't agree? You can't use Photoshop, sorry. Adobe hasn't made a public statement about the changes to clarify why, exactly, they've made this change but they really stink.
Next week, Google is removing the Manifest V2 extension system from Chrome and making Manifest V3 the only method extensions can use to do their thing. Why should you care about a technical change in the way Chrome extensions are coded? Because it removes a very useful feature - the webRequestBlocking API - that the best ad blockers use to block ads. This means ad blockers you love like uBlock Origin will stop working and you'll have to use the crappier uBlock Origin Lite that doesn't work as well. Banners will start appearing in the browser if you're using any extensions that utilise Manifest V2. You should ditch Chrome as your primary browser anyways, however if you must persist with Chrome, there is a workaround, but Google said they'll close that loophole in 12 months.
Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.
China unveiled the first high-resolution images of the China Space Station at a press conference in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Tuesday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. The images were captured by the Shenzhou-16 crew when their spacecraft flew around the space station before the crew returned to Earth. (CGTN / China Manned Space Agency)
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