By  Olivier Pinaud and  Alexandre Piquard

In Depth’Race to the Stars’ (2/4). Starlink’s promise of fast internet access everywhere on the planet poses a threat to telecom operators. Though they stay quiet, their radars have spotted the rockets, and some shots have already been fired.

Is Elon Musk threatening to bring the sky down on the heads of telecom operators? By promising Internet access everywhere on the planet thanks to his Starlink satellite constellation, the US entrepreneur is turning their world upside down. Going online by pointing a dish at a satellite is not a revolutionary idea: the first mass-market satellite internet connections date back to 2008. But their speed could not compete with wired (ADSL and fiber) or cellular (4G and 5G) connections.

In contrast, Starlink’s satellites, positioned in low Earth orbit (at an altitude of 550 kilometers) and no longer in geostationary position (36,000 kilometers), are reversing the balance of power: their theoretical data transmission rate compares favorably with a very good 4G network. Most importantly, the speed of data communication between Earth and space (latency) is 50 times faster than that of conventional satellites and supports applications such as video calls or network games.

Continue reading… “Elon Musk’s Starlink constellation may well destabilize the world of telecom”

by Ananya Gairola

Twitter is planning first to verify if there’s a human behind an account before unlocking all features. 

What Happened: Twitter is working to ensure there’s a human behind an account before unlocking features like sending Direct Messages to people without getting filtered, said developer Alessandro Paluzzi sharing a screenshot on the platform.   

Paluzzi further stated that this new development will be “tested sooner or later.”

Twitter did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comments. 

Why It’s Important: Last week, Twitter chief Elon Musk said that the platform is currently “purging a lot of spam/scam accounts.” According to Musk, the step could result in users losing some followers. 

Continue reading… “Are You A Robot? Elon Musk’s Twitter To Perform These Checks Before Unlocking All Features For Users”

By Fred Lambert

Elon Musk’s The Boring Company announced that it is starting testing on its first full-scale high-speed Hyperloop transportation system.

The company might fulfill Musk’s vision for a new mode of transportation 10 years after unveiling it. But there have been some changes to the spec…

Back in 2013, Elon Musk released a white paper describing what he called the “Hyperloop,” a new mode of transportation consisting of building a near-hard vacuum environment in a tunnel or tube in order to move electric vehicles at high speeds more efficiently inside of them.

At the time, Musk put the idea out there and encouraged other businesses to run with it. Several companies were founded around the idea, but almost a decade later, there are still no commercial applications of the system – though there are a few prototypes out there.

Musk later founded The Boring Company (TBC) to improve tunnel boring technology in order to help reduce traffic.

The main applications of TBC’s tunnels have been “Loops,” which are similar to the Hyperloop without the low-pressure environment. The company is focusing on developing loops under cities, like its first commercial application in Las Vegas, but it has also been working on some proposals for Hyperloop systems to connect cities over longer distances.

Continue reading… “Elon Musk’s Boring Company begins testing full-scale Hyperloop system, with a twist”

Elon Musk keeps talking about Neuralink as a treatment for morbid obesity, but how likely is it and when will it be available for medical use?

Elon Musk really seems to believe that a brain chip can treat morbid obesity, something that scientists have weighed in on as well. The device is, of course, the Neuralink, a computer interface that’s implanted into the brain. It’s suggested that this might someday be a quick and simple procedure, enabling all sorts of futuristic possibilities. A real chance of bypassing spinal cord injuries to restore movement seems exciting, and has a basis in reality, but other ideas seem less likely to come anytime soon.- Advertisement –

It’s no surprise that Neuralink made headlines since it’s one of Elon Musk’s companies. However, despite its early surge of interest, the company has been relatively quiet since its launch in 2015. Musk occasionally throws out a tidbit of information about progress but only a few demonstrations have been seen so far. Animal tests with rats, pigs, and monkeys have shown that the device is capable of connecting to the brain and picking up signals that can be processed by a computer. Human testing is supposedly the next step.

Continue reading… “Elon Musk Doubles Down On Claim That Brain Chip Can Treat Morbid Obesity”

BY TYLER DURDEN

After a massive volcanic eruption that severed Tonga’s internet connection to the world, a Fiji official tweeted Monday that a team of SpaceX engineers are in the process of establishing Starlink internet for the devastated island. 

Last month, an undersea volcano about 40 miles north of Tonga’s main island unleashed a massive shockwave that severed undersea internet communication lines with nearby Fiji. The volcanic eruption is believed to be the largest in three decades.

Fiji’s Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum tweeted that a SpaceX team has arrived in Fiji and is working to “establish a Starlink Gateway station to reconnect Tonga to the world.” 

Continue reading… “Elon Musk’s Starlink Begins To “Reconnect Tonga To The World””

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, once again took to Twitter to reaffirm his pledge to make humanity a ‘multi-planet species’ with bases on both the Moon and Mars

By Ethan Blackshaw

Elon Musk has doubled down on his pledge to build permanent bases on the Moon and Mars and to make us a “multi- planet species”. 

As per usual, the world’s richest man took to Twitter to communicate his plans. 

One user tweeted the Tesla CEO with a quote of his from April which read: “It’s been now almost half a century since humans were last on the moon. 

“That’s too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the moon — again, like a big permanently occupied base on the moon.

“And then build a city on Mars to become a space-faring civilisation, a multi-planet species.”

Musk replied to the tweet yesterday simply with: “Absolutely!”

Continue reading… “Elon Musk doubles down on plan to build ‘permanent moon base’ and ‘city on Mars’”