This Atlantic hurricane season is looking like a dud, but there will be a price to pay

This Atlantic hurricane season is looking like a dud, but there will be a price to pay

fivenewscrypto    août 06, 2026   

The city of Houston, where I live, has been ground zero for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season. So far this year there have been two named storms, Arthur and Bertha, that have formed. And the centers of both have passed near or directly over Houston.

Two "strikes" in a year might seem notable, but like the middling hurricane season to date, Arthur and Bertha were both middle-of-the road tropical storms in terms of intensity.

As a resident of a coastal region prone to hurricanes, one never wants to tempt fate. And in truth, since it is only early August, the bulk of seasonal activity definitely lies ahead of us. But all indications are we can look forward to a quiet season.

Read full article

Comments

Review: Spider-Man: Brand New Day reminds us that superhero movies can be good

Review: Spider-Man: Brand New Day reminds us that superhero movies can be good

fivenewscrypto    août 06, 2026   

Over the past few years, it has become a rather rare treat when I end up genuinely, unequivocally enjoying the latest superhero film. Mostly I find them to be middling entertainment, sometimes a bit dull—and for The Eternals, nearly unwatchable—with the notable exception of 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine and last year's Thunderbolts*.

Add Spider-Man: Brand New Day to that list of exceptions. Tom Holland's latest outing as the titular web-slinger reminds us that superhero movies can still be very, very good—as much about well-drawn characters with interesting developmental arcs and well-timed emotional beats as CGI-filled action extravaganzas. There's plenty of the latter in Brand New Day, of course, but it's the grounded humanity at its heart that makes director Destin Daniel Cretton's film work so well.

(Spoilers below but no major reveals until after the gallery. We'll give you a heads up when we get there)

Read full article

Comments

D-Wave shows off its new entry in quantum computing race

D-Wave shows off its new entry in quantum computing race

fivenewscrypto    août 06, 2026   

D-Wave is a bit of an oddity in the quantum computing space, having been founded back in the last century. And its initial offering wasn't a quantum computer like those being developed by IBM or Google. Instead, the company built what's now called a quantum annealer, a machine that isn't general-purpose but can solve a large class of optimization problems. While the hardware shares some similarities with the qubits used in gate-based quantum computers, it operates in a fundamentally different way.

But a few years back, D-Wave started working on gate-based hardware, apparently choosing a somewhat unusual qubit technology called fluxonium. And this year, the company acquired a startup called Quantum Circuits that spun out of Yale University and has been developing what's called a dual-rail qubit (the same technology used by Amazon), which promises to make most errors very easy to detect, simplifying error correction.

On Wednesday, the company is publishing a paper in Nature that describes a key step in validating this dual-rail technology, showing that two of the qubits can be entangled without altering their best feature: Most are a single type that is easy to detect.

Read full article

Comments

Google plans to kill Assistant on your phone on September 4

Google plans to kill Assistant on your phone on September 4

fivenewscrypto    août 06, 2026   

Google Assistant's days have been numbered for a while, but the company has now settled on a date to retire its pre-AI assistant robot. In an email being sent out to users, Google confirms that Assistant on Android devices will be shut down starting on September 4, forcing everyone over to Gemini. Google told us it was coming, but that doesn't make it hurt any less.

The initial plan was to retire Assistant in late 2025, but the service got a brief reprieve as Google shored up some aspects of Gemini. Now that Gemini is ready to take over, Google will begin ending support for the old system on September 4, but the email notes that it may take several weeks for the process to complete. So those stubbornly clinging to Assistant may still be able to use it a bit longer before the option disappears. For those who made the switch already, nothing will change.

By ending Assistant on mobile devices, Google is also killing it on myriad other gadgets that connect to your phone for smart features. So smartwatches, headphones, and cars with Android Auto are also being forcibly moved to Gemini. Most of Google's smart home devices have already transitioned to Gemini.

Read full article

Comments

SpaceX spooks investors with debut earnings report

SpaceX spooks investors with debut earnings report

fivenewscrypto    août 06, 2026   

SpaceX shares dropped on Wednesday after Elon Musk’s plans for blockbuster spending to position his AI and rocket company as a data center developer spooked investors.

SpaceX surpassed analysts’ expectations in Tuesday’s debut earnings report, posting quarterly revenues of $7.8 billion, well above analysts’ estimates of $6.82 billion and up 92 percent from a year earlier. It posted a net loss of about $541 million, better than estimates of $2.12 billion.

But shares in SpaceX fell 10 percent in early trading after it reported capital expenditure of almost $16 billion on AI, double the previous quarter and well above Wall Street’s expectations. It said spending would persist at current levels for at least two more quarters.

Read full article

Comments

Pushing the limits: Infinite Machine's Olto is barely a bicycle

Pushing the limits: Infinite Machine's Olto is barely a bicycle

fivenewscrypto    août 06, 2026   

The Infinite Machine Olto is a great electric scooter, one with an overall layout that echoes the classic Vespa. It's comfortable, and it accelerates well, handles nicely, and has a capacious battery. It has a rugged design that seems capable of handling a lot of abuse, but it also comes with thoughtful touches and security features that mean you can park it anywhere with confidence. And it provides all that at less than half the cost of its full-featured stablemate, the P1 scooter.

The reason is that the Olto is also a bicycle. Sort of.

This may technically be a bicycle, but it's not one you'd ever want to pedal. While you can set it to operate as either a Class 2 or Class 3 e-bike, it works best when the pedals are both locked in a forward position, acting as footrests. The Olto was designed to provide riders with the experience of a scooter while still allowing them to take advantage of the growing bike lane networks in many urban areas across the country.

Read full article

Comments

Senators demand crackdown on wildfire "prediction market" bets

Senators demand crackdown on wildfire "prediction market" bets

fivenewscrypto    août 05, 2026   

Several US senators have written a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), inquiring about the agency’s “plans to crack down on prediction markets” that offer “contracts for individuals to bet on wildfires.”

“Offering bets on destructive wildfires threatens to minimize communities’ suffering, all so the rich and powerful can profit,” wrote the group of senators, who represent Oregon, California, Nevada, Minnesota, and New Hampshire.

The document specifically cites that Polymarket hosted bets in January 2025 on the wildfires in Los Angeles, and it mentions another website that specifically accepts “simulated bets” exclusively on California wildfires.

Read full article

Comments