Microsoft

Hey you. Yeah you! Wanna see a rocket launch?

Tonight, millions of people on the east coast can watch NASA launch a rocket toward the International Space Station (assuming the weather cooperates). One of Northrop Grumman's Antares rockets is scheduled for Tuesday August 1 at 8:31 p.m. ET, and it's taking off from the Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. Launches like these can sometimes be viewable from backyards, rooftops, and balconies across a huge swath of the eastern U.S.

This launch is expected to be Northrop Grumman's 19th expedition, and it would supply the International Space Station with provisions, experimental materials, and other equipment.

Here's how to watch:

How to watch the launch from near the launch site

If you're near the launch site, what are you waiting for? NASA recommends heading to Wallops Visitor Center, seven miles away, with its clear view of the launchpad. Another great option would be Chincoteague Island, fifteen miles from Wallops, where NASA recommends stopping at Curtis Merritt Harbor, Robert Reed Park, or the Museum of Chincoteague Island. If you're a little further out, you can try and watch the launch from Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland. You can also check it out from the Delaware Seashore, or Virginia Beach.

How to watch the launch from elsewhere on the east coast

As NASA's helpful map (at the top of this article) shows, each concentric, color-coded ring matches a time when the rocket should be visible, based on calculations of rocket speed, direction, distance, and the curvature of the Earth. The map appears to show that some major population centers like New York City lack the required 3 degrees of elevation, and won't have line-of-sight access.

However, people in huge sections of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina will be able to see it.

How to watch the launch online

If you aren't lucky enough to be in one of the areas on the color-coded map, you can watch online. NASA's livestream of the launch is right here:

As of this writing on Tuesday afternoon, conditions were considered 80 percent favorable for launch. There's always a chance a mission can be scrubbed for one of a million reasons, but it looks like your odds of seeing a rocket streak through the sky tonight (or on your screen) are pretty good.

Meta has made good on its threat to block news via Facebook and Instagram in Canada.

Starting Tuesday, Aug. 1, Meta is ending the availability of news for Facebook and Instagram users in Canada. Meta's decision to block news-related content for Canadian users is in response to the Online News Act, which was passed by Canada's Parliament in June 2023.

Following in the footsteps of similar laws proposed in Australia and California, the Online News Act (Bill C-18) "ensures fair revenue sharing between digital platforms and news outlets." In other words, Canada's government wants tech giants like Meta and Google to pay Canadian news outlets for driving valuable traffic and profiting from posts published on their sites. Local newsrooms in particular have been greatly impacted by social media's disruption of the traditional news distribution model.

In response, Meta says, the legislation "is based on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms, when the reverse is true." Meta had been threatening to block news in Canada instead of engaging with Canadian lawmakers and has instead decided to comply with the law by removing access to news on its platforms altogether.

Canadian journalists and news outlets have already begun reporting on the effects of Meta's decision. Local newsrooms that were already vulnerable to the whims of Meta's publishing policies now have zero visibility on its platforms. "This fight with Meta is making that harder and harder. Our livelihoods are at stake," Tweeted Christopher Curtis, co-founder of a newsletter called The Rover. The accounts from Cult MTL and indigenous writer Anna Mary McKenzie also tweeted about their content being blocked.

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UPDATE: Aug. 1, 2023, 5:07 p.m. EDT X / Twitter officially announced that it filed a legal claim against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) late Monday night.

Elon Musk's X has announced Tuesday that it had followed through on its legal threats against the Center of Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit that tracks hate speech and disinformation online.

In a post shared on its website, X alleges that the CCDH is trying to stifle it's users' free speech and pressure the company's advertisers. Musk's company also claims the CCDH improperly accessed X's data.

CCDH provided Mashable with its own response.

“Elon Musk’s latest legal threat is straight out of the authoritarian playbook – he is now showing he will stop at nothing to silence anyone who criticizes him for his own decisions and actions," said CCDH Founder and CEO Imran Ahmed. "The Center for Countering Digital Hate’s research shows that hate and disinformation is spreading like wildfire on the platform under Musk’s ownership and this lawsuit is a direct attempt to silence those efforts. People don’t want to see or be associated with hate, antisemitism, and the dangerous content that we all see proliferating on X. Musk is trying to ‘shoot the messenger’ who highlights the toxic content on his platform rather than deal with the toxic environment he’s created. The CCDH’s independent research won’t stop - Musk will not bully us into silence.”

Published Monday, July 31:

Fresh off of making legal threats to Microsoft and Meta, X (Twitter) has its sights set on a new potential lawsuit: One against a nonprofit that tracks hate speech and disinformation online.

On Monday, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) shared a letter, sent by Twitter's legal representative Alex Spiro, threatening legal action against the organization for allegedly making "a series of troubling and baseless claims that appear calculated to harm Twitter generally, and its digital advertising business specifically."

In response to the letter, as first reported by the New York Times, the CCDH's own legal counsel responded and cautioned against any further attempt from Twitter to silence the organization. Imran Ahmed, who heads the CCDH, also responded in a post on their website beside embeds of both letters.

"Elon Musk’s actions represent a brazen attempt to silence honest criticism and independent research in the desperate hope that he can stem the tide of negative stories and rebuild his relationship with advertisers," said Ahmed.

In a series of tweets on Monday, Musk also responded to the CCDH's statements.

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"They should save their words for the jury," Musk posted. "Let’s pull the mask off this organization and see who is really behind it."

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While the CCDH has published numerous reports researching hate speech and the spread of disinformation on Twitter, the letter from Twitter's lawyer specifically mentions one that focused on Twitter Blue, the company's $8 per month paid premium subscription service.

The CCDH report on Twitter Blue found that the company failed to act on 99 percent of Blue-subscribed accounts that were reported for hate speech. Twitter disputes CCDH's findings in the letter, saying "claims in this article are false, misleading, or both, and they are not supported by anything that could credibly be called research."

"We have reason to believe that your organization’s operations—and thus its campaign to drive advertisers off Twitter by smearing the company and its owner—are supported by funding from X Corp.’s commercial competitors, as well as government entities and their affiliates," the letter from Twitter's representative continues.

Twitter has struggled with advertisers, traditionally the company's biggest revenue driver, since Musk's takeover of the company in October of last year. Half of the social media platform's top advertisers stopped ad campaigns on the site shortly after Musk's acquisition. And recent reports have found that advertising on the platform is still way down compared to before Twitter became privately owned by Musk. In fact, Musk has admitted so himself in a tweet earlier this month.

"We’re still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load," Musk said

As for the allegations that CCDH is "funded" by its competitors and government entities, the organization says it does “not accept any funding from tech companies, governments, or their affiliates.”

The CCDH received significant attention in early 2021 after releasing a report detailing how the majority of COVID vaccine disinformation online stemmed from just 12 anti-vaxx influencers, which the report branded as the "Disinformation Dozen." In the months following the report, platforms like YouTube and Facebook took action against these accounts.

Earlier this month, Musk even responded to a tweet that was critical of the CCDH's Disinformation Dozen report.

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"Who is funding this organization?" Musk tweeted. "They spread disinformation and push censorship, while claiming the opposite. Truly evil."

The specific tweet Musk responded to was referring to Facebook's own previous critiques of CCDH's research into its own platform. Facebook's parent company, of course, is Meta, which recently launched Threads, Twitter's biggest competition yet.

As previously mentioned, the platform formerly known as Twitter has also sent legal threats to Microsoft and Meta in recent months. Musk has accused Microsoft of "training illegally using Twitter data." The company has also alleged that Meta used Twitter "trade secrets" and intellectual property in building Threads, a claim which Meta denied.

YouTube's short form TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts, continues to grow beyond being just a place to find clips under 60 seconds on the most popular video platform on the internet.

According to the company, YouTube Shorts now sees 2 billion logged-in views per month. Furthermore, some creators have basically built an entire audience on the platform through nothing but short form videos. 

YouTube has managed to build a formidable competitor to TikTok, the leader in the short form video space, in YouTube Shorts. And, of course, YouTube Shorts did so by borrowing some ideas from its biggest competitor.

In an announcement on Tuesday, YouTube shared even more upcoming YouTube Shorts features to further close the gap between these two short form video platforms.

Out of the six newly announced features, perhaps the most important is that livestream discover is coming to YouTube Shorts. That's right, vertical video livestreaming is coming to YouTube's short form video platform and will be recommended to users swiping through Shorts. 

Now, yes, vertical video streaming was already possible on YouTube but they previously did not appear on the YouTube Shorts platform. It just makes sense to recommend vertical video streams on YouTube's platform that's best made for mobile video.

And the timing couldn't be better. TikTok's live video feature went viral in July as seemingly the entire rest of the internet discovered the NPC livestreamer trend that's popular on the platform. Will NPC streamers try their luck over on YouTube Shorts? Super Chats, Super Stickers, and Memberships will all be available via these streams, just like they are for regular livestreams on the YouTube platform, so it's certainly possible.

Collabs are coming to YouTube Shorts

Another new major feature coming to YouTube Shorts is the "Collab" remix option. Creators will be able to easily make collaborative videos, reacting to other users' content with a tap. Collab will give users the option to record their own video in a side-by-side split screen format with another creator's videos on either YouTube or YouTube Shorts.

YouTube says it will also soon release more effects and stickers. One example the company provided is a Q&A sticker, which will enable creators to interact with their viewers and get responses to their questions right in the comment of the video.

New features designed to make YouTube Shorts fast, easy to make

In addition to live recommendations, collaborations, and new effects and stickers, YouTube also announced three more features that will help YouTubers in the creation of their content. One new feature will allow creators to easily make videos when inspiration strikes while watching another Short. This option will bundle audio and Shorts effects from videos that a user wants to remix, so, for example, they don't have to sift through the options to find the correct sounds.

One new option already available is the ability to save Shorts to playlists so users can curate their favorite videos.

And, finally, YouTube says it will be bringing out new recomposition tools so users can continue to make Shorts out of longform YouTube content. These editors will help creators zoom into content and adjust the crop and the layout of video segments. It will also include the Shorts split screen option built-in to the tool.

YouTube says it will start rolling out these new features in the coming weeks.

The United States Women's National Team (USWNT) advanced to the Round of 16 of the World Cup in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, which, taken at face value would be an obviously good thing. But this is the USWNT — perhaps the most dominant U.S. sports team — and expectations are lofty.

They barely advanced via a disappointing 0-0 draw with Portugal, coming literal inches from being eliminated in what would have been a disastrous result for the top-ranked squad. That result, paired with milquetoast defeat of Vietnam and skin-of-their-teeth tie with Netherlands — well, it's been a decidedly mediocre tournament for a team expected to deliver excellence.

Analysts and fans are, understandably, quite frustrated by the performance. So some people did not take kindly to the players being jovial, dancing, and greeting fans with selfies after the match. And by some people, I particularly mean former USWNT great Carli Lloyd and Fox Sports soccer commentator Rob Stone. They blasted the team on air just after the nail-biting draw with Portugal.

Stone noted: "These are not the images we should be expecting to see of a team that survived Portugal and survived to get to the Round of 16."

He then tee'd up Lloyd, who was on the desk as a commentator. She stung the hardest with her commentary.

"I have never witnessed something like that," Lloyd said. "There's a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family, but to be dancing and smiling...I mean the player of that match was the post.," she said, referring to a near-goal from Portugal that struck the post. "You're lucky to not being going home right now."

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This sparked lots of posts on social media about the new crop of stars being more focused on TikTok dancing and being stars, rather than winning. The team, Lloyd, and other related terms trended on X (née Twitter).

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See, lots of the players on the USWNT, like just almost all other athletes, are on TikTok. Sometimes they have posted fun dances or looked cool in cool outfits. And they had the absolute gall to...take selfies with fans that flew all the way to New Zealand to watch them play. And then they danced! After...advancing in a win-or-go-home tournament.

First things first, we should acknowledge Lloyd is hardly a neutral observer. Dave Zirin of The Nation wrote a comprehensive article noting that her attack of the team is both personal and political. While a USWNT legend, an embittered Lloyd has repeatedly slammed the new generation, saying some players were more focused on "building a brand" and courting endorsements. As the sole player to not kneel to protest racism at the Tokyo Olympics, some people saw her repeated criticisms of the team's culture as thinly veiled shots at progressive members of the squad. She denied that's what she meant.

Far be it from me to imply I know more about soccer than Lloyd — she is an all-time great and I played on a bad Division 3 team — but I find it hard to believe dancing, or TikToks, or selfies is the reason the team is underperforming. In fact, if anything, they've done the gritty, unsexy parts of the game well. They've defended well and allowed just a single goal in the tournament. If anything scoring goals at all costs would be the me-first thing to do. And yet, in this tournament, it's almost as if the team is incapable of generating goals. I suspect some mix of tactics, randomness of performance day-to-day, and sure, maybe some complacency would be at play. I'll leave the actual soccer analysis to CBS soccer analyst Mike L. Goodman.

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In some ways, though, the fact that this controversy exists at all goes to show how the sports world has come in talking about the U.S. women's soccer. Male athletes have long had to defend having an interest in literally anything else besides winning a game — so much so that LeBron James invented the incomprehensible phrase "Zero Dark Thirty-23" to basically alert that he was shutting down his social media for the NBA playoffs.

It's difficult for fans to understand, or for analysts to explain, the intricacies of a match that might explain why it went one way or the other. What's easier is to rail against the team dancing.

I bet if the USWNT win their next match — a win-or-go-home Round of 16 game — they'll dance. And everyone will love it.

The Fitbit app is getting a fresh design come fall, with early beta invites already going out to select users, according to Google.

The Google-owned health app is not only getting a redesign, but a new layout and presentation of users' data, too. The Fitbit app will have a "simpler design and more motivating content," according to Google's announcement on Tuesday.

This new "simplified" app breaks down users' most important information into three distinct tabs. All of their latest stats will be in the "Today" tab, which can be personalized based on their goals. The data will also be broken down into charts and graphs for easy access. The "Coach" tab will provide users with "workouts and mindfulness sessions." Premium subscribers can also find paywalled classes in this tab. And the final tab is "You," where users will be able to manage their account, community connections, personal progress, and more.

Aside from the new layout centered around these three tabs, Google is focusing heavily on the overall new look. Visually, the new Fitbit app has a more Google-esque feel than it did previously, with its new icons and color palette. The company also highlighted how users' health data will be easier to track and information will be able to be logged in the mobile app even without using a Fitbit device.

As The Verge points out, Google likely isn't updating the Fitbit app without a broader concurrent launch. The fall release appears to coincide with a potential Pixel Watch 2 announcement, which is expected around the same time.