Next step in Space Tourism

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned about the race between SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. Last time, Bezos' Blue Origin supposed to be the first civilian company to sent the civilian into space, but last Sunday, Richard Branson stole the show. His Virgin Galactic successfully sent him, and five other crewmates to the edge of the Space and back. Although, the crew experienced the Space for brief moment, Branson called it "an experience of a lifetime".

Branson plans to open the Space for masses next year. The ticket costs around $250k, and Virgin Galactic already sold 600 of them. If you don't have such money, you can try to win 2 tickets with Omaze.

The remaining competitors still plan to launch later this year. Blue Origin on July 20th, and SpaceX, with their Inspiration4 Mission, on September 15th.

Windows in the cloud

Microsoft announced the Windows 365 service, which puts Windows in the cloud. Windows 365 will let users access Windows 10 or Windows 11 from a web browser.

There will be two editions of Windows 365: Business and Enterprise. Both are powered by virtual machines in 12 configurations. Business will be able to choose from a single CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage, up to eight CPUs, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.

The service will be available on August 2nd. Unfortunately, the pricing is still unknown.

Steam Deck

Valve announced SteamDeck - a handheld gaming console.  

It will be powered by AMD's quad-core Zen 2 CPU with eight threads and eight compute units. It will have 16GB of RAM and three storage options: 64GB eMMC, 256GB NVMe SSD, and 512GB of high-speed NVME SSD. The storage is also expendable thanks to the high-speed microSD card slot.

On the front there is a 7-inch 1280 x 800 touchscreen for 720p gameplay.

In term of controls, there are two thumbsticks, two small trackpads, ABXY buttons, and a D-pad. The device also has a gyroscope for motion controls.

According to Valve, the device should allow to 7-8 hours of gameplay on a single charge.

Device will be available in December, starting at $399.

Image credits: Virgin Glactic

Windows 11

Microsoft has announced Windows 11. Here are the most important features:

• New UI, including new Start Menu,
• The brand new store and support for Android apps on Windows,
• Snap Layouts -  allowing to easily arrange multiple windows,
• Faster and smaller updates,
• Microsoft Teams and Xbox Game Pass are now built into the system,
• Windows Widgets is an AI driven personalized feed,
• Auto HDR adds HDR to DirectX 11 and 12 games,
• Improved support for stylus and voice commands/dictating,
• It's a FREE update!

It all looks very good, but there is one catch - the system requirements. Windows 11 will require a 64-bit PC with UEFI firmware that is Secure Boot capable. It also needs a  Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 module. Some versions of Windows also require an Internet connection to complete the setup process.

iPhone rumors

There are some new rumors surrounding the 2022 iPhones:

• Apple will discontinue the 5.4-inch “mini” size,
• There will be only 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch size,
• Both new models will have improved wide-angle camera with 48 megapixels,
• Apple may include an under the screen Touch ID sensor for some models,
• Apple also plans to release a new iPhone SE that will support 5G.

Image credits: Microsoft