Bluewalker 3 is officially in full peacock mode. The satellite has unfurled a first-of-its-kind 693-square-foot array in low Earth orbit, that’s designed to provide 5G broadband connectivity direct to mobile devices on the surface, essentially acting as humanity’s tallest cell tower.

The array is covered with solar cells on one side that collect energy to power the antennas on the opposite side.

The spacecraft is a test satellite operated by Texas-based AST SpaceMobile that was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in September. If all goes according to plan, the company will launch a series of over 100 even larger satellites called Bluebirds.

“Every person should have the right to access cellular broadband, regardless of where they live or work. Our goal is to close the connectivity gaps that negatively impact billions of lives around the world,” CEO Abel Avellan said in a statement Monday.

The company says it has “agreements and understandings” with mobile carriers around the world, including Vodafone, Rakuten Mobile, AT&T, Bell Canada, Telefonica, Telstra and several others. The space-based service will offer extended cellular broadband coverage with the goal of eliminating dead zones.

“Particularly in territories where terrain makes it extremely challenging to reach with a traditional ground-based network,” said Luke Ibbetson, head of Group R&D for Vodafone and an AST SpaceMobile director.

The satellite is being watched not only by those interested in the nascent potential of space-based 5G, but also by astronomers.

The fully unfolded satellite is bright as some of the brighter

Google’s Pixel 7, which was unveiled Thursday, is the company’s next major phone designed to compete with Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy lineup. The Pixel 7 features Google’s new Tensor G2 processor, a camera with improved zoom, face unlock and a slightly updated design — for the same $599 (£599, AU$999) price as last year’s Pixel 6.

The Pixel 7 launches on Oct. 13, with preorders available now.

The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro represent Google’s latest effort to establish a foothold in the global smartphone market, which Samsung and Apple largely dominate. The Pixel 7 is a modest upgrade, unlike last year’s Pixel 6, which was the first phone to feature Google’s self-made Tensor processor and a revamped design.

The Pixel 7’s debut follows the September launch of Apple’s iPhone 14which like the Pixel 7 only features minor improvements over its predecessor.

Google’s latest flagship phones are now available to preorder. Pixel 7 starts at $599 and will be released on Oct. 13. Get up to $750 off with trade-in and $200 in Google Store credit.

Read our Pixel 7 first take.

Google Pixel 7’s new camera

The Pixel 7’s camera may look similar to the Pixel 6’s on paper, but there are some behind-the-scenes changes that Google said should make a difference. That’s especially true when it comes to zoom quality.

When zooming at 2x, the Pixel 7’s 50-megapixel main sensor crops into 12.5 megapixels

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg sees the metaverse as a wondrous new stage of technology, filled with opportunities to work, play and communicate. You could watch an Imax movie on the moonhost a work meeting in a Pirates of the Caribbean-inspired tavern or rock out on a stage with your favorite musician.

But while you watch how the metaverse unfolds, Zuckerberg is preparing for what appears to be the fight of his life. His opponent is Apple.

During his Meta Connect conference keynote last week, Zuckerberg laid out his vision for the future, including games like Iron Man VRa suite of business productivity apps from Microsoft and a new $1,500 headset called Quest Pro, whose top feature includes sensors that can read your real-life facial expressions. Still, at several notable times in the 82-minute presentation, he also attacked Apple without saying its name.

In veiled jabs, Zuckerberg attacked Apple over everything from its secretive nature to its business model, profiting primarily off hardware rather than ads. He also attacked Apple’s “closed” ecosystem approach to app development, funneling all iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch apps through its App Store. While that approach, where apps are checked for security issues and judged against the company’s editorial standards, it has helped create massive companies like Uber and TikTok, it’s also drawn scrutiny over antitrust concerns.

“In every generation of computing, there’s been an open ecosystem and a closed ecosystem,” Zuckerberg said, referencing the tech industry’s past platform battles between PCs

Razer is finally showing off the Edge, its portable Android gaming handheld. Good news: it looks a lot better than the last time we saw it in December 2021. There’s a lot to go over with this one. The Edge will release in a Wi-Fi-only version for $399.99 in January 2023, followed by a 5G-ready version through Verizon in early 2023. It’ll support the carrier’s ultra wideband and sub-6GHz networks. Razer’s following the Steam Deck reservation model, allowing people to pay $5 to reserve an Edge.

It’s meant to be a great device for cloud game streaming through Xbox Cloud Gaming or Nvidia GeForce Now. Razer says that the Edge supports up to 144 frames per second through the Steam Link app when you’re streaming PC games locally. The Edge runs on Android 12 with Qualcomm’s G3X Gen 1 chipset, though instead of being an all-in-one handheld like the concept shown off months ago (like Logitech’s G Cloud Gaming Handheld is), it’s a 6.8-inch tablet that can be removed from its controller. That controller, by the way, is a Kishi V2 Pro, a more feature-packed version that includes haptics and a 3.5mm headphone jack. That gamepad won’t be available separately for the time being; for now, it’s only available packed in with the Edge.

The tablet

NASA’s most eagle-eyed observatory yet has done it again. The James Webb Space Telescope has returned an image of the famous “Pillars of Creation” in infrared light that’s the sharpest, most detailed portrait of the spectacular star-forming region ever seen.

The ethereal scene captures translucent columns of cool interstellar gas and dust punctuated by piercing, bright points of light. Most of these are stars, and the reddish balls of fire near the edges of the pillars are newly formed stars, according to NASA.

Don’t confuse these with the deep red, magma-like areas along the inside perimeter of a few of the pillars. This is created by the turmoil of stars that are still forming and shooting supersonic jets of material out into space where they collide with other material. In short, this is what cosmic chaos looks like.

Fortunately these epic explosions and cosmological collisions are far away, at a distance of around 6,500 light-years from Earth.

This region of the universe first achieved fame in 1995 when it was imaged by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. A follow-up campaign was done by Hubble in 2014, and plenty of other observatories have also trained their lenses on the area that lies within the Eagle Nebula.

A side-by-side comparison of the new image and Hubble’s take on the cosmic phenomenon reveals how Webb’s infrared