Tag Archives: stuck

Science

US and Russian astronauts stuck waiting in space after spacecraft suffered damage

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BREVARD, Fla. — NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin are faced with extending their stay aboard the International Space Station by several months and will require a new ride home after their Russian MS-22 Soyuz spacecraft sprang a leak last month.

The trio was supposed to use that spacecraft to return to Earth in March. Wednesday, NASA and Russian space officials unveiled a plan to launch an empty Soyuz capsule to the ISS to ferry them back instead. That means the three men will spend several more months at the ISS.

During a briefing with reporters, NASA’s Joel Montalbano, manager of the International Space Station program, said that NASA is not considering the move-up in the MS-23 Soyuz launch a rescue mission. “We’re not calling it a rescue Soyuz,” said Montalbano. “Right now, the crew is safe onboard the space station.”

“I’m calling it a replacement Soyuz,” he said. “There’s no immediate need for the crew to come home today.”

Extended space stay

Initially set to fly the next rotation of Russian cosmonauts to the station in mid-March, the MS-23 Soyuz spacecraft is now being repurposed to launch as an empty lifeboat to ferry the MS-22 crew home later this year. The empty spacecraft is set to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Feb. 20.

Flying the MS-23 crew up as previously planned would have left the ISS in the same situation, with more people on board than available seats on functioning spacecraft to evacuate back to Earth in the unlikely event of a catastrophe.

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That means that Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin will need to extend their space stay until September or until Roscosmos can build another Soyuz spacecraft to launch its next rotation of crew members, which are now stuck grounded for longer than anticipated.

According to Montalbano, the space station remains safe, and the crew members are healthy enough to remain in space while this plan plays out.

“They’re prepared to stay until the September launch date, if that’s the case,” said Montalbano. “If that launch date moves up earlier, then they’re prepared to come home earlier.”

Jokingly, he said: “I may have to find some more ice cream to reward them.”

“The awesome thing about our crews are they’re willing to help wherever we ask,” he said. “They are ready to go with whatever decision that we give them.”

Expedition 68 crew members Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos, top, Frank Rubio of NASA, and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos, bottom, wave farewell prior to boarding the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft for launch, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

A Russian space leak

The MS-22 Russian Soyuz spacecraft that transported Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin to the station back in September sprang a leak on Dec. 14. Coolant from an external coolant loop and radiator on the spacecraft spewed into space for hours just as Prokopyev and Petelin were preparing to conduct a spacewalk. Out of an abundance of caution to prevent any exposure to the leaking substance, the spacewalk was canceled.

On Dec. 18, NASA used the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, to provide images and conduct an additional external inspection of the damaged spacecraft.

After a joint investigation conducted by NASA and Roscosmos, the space agencies are confident that the damage was caused by a micrometeoroid impact that resulted in a hole of about one millimeter in diameter in the coolant loop.

While it was determined that the leak posed no immediate threat to the station or crew, it left the MS-22 Soyuz spacecraft incapable of returning the trio of astronauts home safely.

The damaged coolant loop meant that the temperature and humidity inside the cabin of the Soyuz spacecraft could skyrocket, making for a very uncomfortable and claustrophobic return trip home, typically taking about six hours to complete.

The Russian Soyuz MS-22 crew ship is pictured on Oct. 8, 2022, in the foreground docked to the Rassvet module as the International Space Station orbited 264 miles above Europe.

The path forward

Instead of returning crew as expected, roughly two weeks after the replacement MS-23 Soyuz docks at the station, the damaged MS-22 spacecraft will be outfitted as a cargo transport ship. NASA and Roscosmos intend to collect data about the conditions inside the cabin as the spacecraft makes its trip back for a landing in Kazakhstan in mid-to-late March.

“On the returning Soyuz, we’ll be taking some temperature measurements to measure how the vehicle does in this scenario such that if we ever had a need in the future, we have some additional data,” said Montalbano. “We’re going to fully use this vehicle all the way till it lands back on Earth.”

Also speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Sergei Krikalev, Roscosmos director of human space flight, said, “At this point, we have calculations and thermal scenarios, but we want to prove this calculation with the result (in) real-time.”

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Going forward, this will most likely impact the busy schedule of crew and cargo missions to the station for the rest of this year. How it impacts specific mission launch dates, such as NASA’s next crewed mission, SpaceX’s Crew-6, which was to launch from Kennedy Space Center in mid-February, has yet to be fully determined.

“We’re going to take the next couple of weeks to kind of lay out the plan,” said Montalbano. The shift is expected to impact at least four crewed missions and two cargo resupply missions to the station through at least September.

“Laying everything out is what we’re going to plan now. We just need a couple more weeks to lay all that out,” Montalbano said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Astronaut crew needs new Russian spacecraft to come home after damage

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World

Passengers stuck on runway as their flight takes off

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(CNN) — A group of passengers at India’s Bengaluru airport experienced a particular kind of flight envy as they watched their own plane take off without them.

The 55 passengers were still on a shuttle bus out to the plane, boarding passes in hand, when the Go First flight to New Delhi departed.

In a statement to CNN, Go First acknowledged the incident, which took place on January 9.

“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to the passengers due to an inadvertent oversight in the reconciliation of flight G8 116, from Bengaluru to Delhi,” said a spokesperson for the airline, which operates domestic flights in India. “Passengers were accommodated on alternate airlines to Delhi and onward to other destinations.”

One of the stranded passengers was Neeraj Bhat, who was returning home from a vacation in Bengaluru, which is also called Bangalore.

Bhat tells CNN that his boarding group was on the last shuttle bus from the gate out to the plane when anxieties started to set in. The bus hadn’t moved in about half an hour, and no announcements were made.

“One of the passengers got a call from their friends who was already on the flight and asked why they weren’t on the plane,” he says. “We asked the bus driver, but he didn’t have any information. That’s when we realized there was some confusion.”

Bhat, who lives in New Delhi, was booked on a flight that took off four hours later and says he was not offered a meal voucher or other compensation while he waited.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, India’s national aviation regulator, has confirmed it is investigating the incident, which it called a “dereliction of their regulatory obligations,” according to CNN affiliate News18.

According to Go First’s spokesperson, “all concerned staff” have been taken off of the work rota, and the airline has issued a notice to Bengaluru airport’s ground handling agency.

The airline also says it will give one free ticket on any domestic route to the passengers who were affected.

Bhat, however, says he won’t be taking Go First up on its offer.

Top image: Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru. (Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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Sports

Broncos seem to be stuck with Russell Wilson for at least one more year

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Getty Images

The decision of the Broncos to fire coach Nathaniel Hackett and to keep, at least for now, G.M. George Paton suggests that the Broncos indeed will try to rectify the Russell Wilson debacle.

They really have no choice.

The contract that Paton gave to Wilson in late August makes the cap consequences for cutting him after the first year of the new deal untenable. Without a post-June 1 designation, the Broncos would take a $107 million cap charge by cutting Wilson this year. With a post-June 1 designation, the Broncos would carry $22 million in Wilson’s name this year, and $85 million in 2024.

It gets a little easier after the 2023 season. A post-June 1 designation in 2024 would result in a $35.4 million cap charge that year, with $49.6 million carried over to 2025.

Here’s another reason to do it in early 2024. If Wilson is on the roster on the fifth day of the 2024 league year, $37 million in 2025 salary becomes fully guaranteed.

Wilson already has received $57 million for 2022. He has another $67 million in fully-guaranteed payments over the next two years.

A trade would result in a lower cap charge, by foisting the remaining guarantees onto a new team. But who in their right mind would take on Wilson at $67 million over two years, and $104 million over three?

The best outcome, as suggested in spitball style during Tuesday’s PFT Live, would be to persuade Wilson to retire, perhaps with an offer that there would be no effort to recoup $40 million in paid but unearned signing bonus. That would reduce the cap charge for 2023 to $40 million. (If the retirement were processed after June 1, Wilson would cost only $10 million against the cap in 2023 and $30 million in 2024.)

Good luck getting Wilson to walk away. He’d likely need at least one more year of sluggish play, at a minimum, to begin to come to the conclusion that he’s no longer the player he used to be, and that he should consider packing it in and walking away. Even then, why give up guarantees that are fully vested?

Sure, it’s bad for the team to owe a bunch of money to a player who isn’t earning it. But it’s good for the player to ultimately cash every check of $124 million in full guarantees over three seasons.

Bottom line? Unless Wilson would indeed retire, the Broncos seem to be stuck with him for one more year. After 2023, it becomes more manageable to move on — and it arguably becomes imperative to avoid another $37 million in full guarantees that vest in March 2024.

Our assessment? The Broncos will try to fix Wilson in 2023. If they can’t make him the player he once was, he’ll be gone in 2024.

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World

Oil tankers are getting stuck in the Black Sea. That could become a problem

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CNN
 — 

A bottleneck is building across an important trading route for oil, which if left unresolved could knock global supply and boost prices at a fragile moment for energy markets.

As of Thursday, 16 oil tankers traveling south from the Black Sea were waiting to cross the Bosphorus strait into the Sea of Marmara, an increase of five from Tuesday, according to a report from Istanbul-based Tribeca Shipping Agency. A further nine tankers were waiting to cross southbound from the Sea of Marmara through the Dardanelles strait into the Mediterranean.

The snarl-up in waterways controlled by Turkey, which Turkish officials said is mostly affecting crude oil shipments destined for Europe, has caught the attention of UK and US government officials who are now in talks with Ankara to resolve the growing impasse.

The snag is linked to a Western price cap on Russian oil that came into effect on Monday. The cap is supposed to limit the Kremlin’s revenues without adding to stress on the global economy by reducing supply. But Turkey is insisting that vessels prove they have insurance that will pay out in light of the new sanctions, before allowing them to pass through the straits linking the Black Sea and Mediterranean.

Although currently causing no disruption to global oil supply and thus prices, the hold-up could become a problem if left unresolved, said Jorge Leon, senior vice president for oil market analysis at Rystad Energy. “This is a very popular route around the world for global trade and specifically for crude,” he told CNN Business.

Countries including Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan use the Turkish straits to get their oil to world oil markets.

The traffic jam in the Turkish straits arose following the imposition this week of the price cap on Russian oil. The cap bars ship owners carrying Russian oil from accessing insurance and other services from European providers unless the oil is sold for $60 a barrel or less.

In light of the cap, Turkish maritime authorities are concerned about the risk of accidents or oil spills involving uninsured vessels, and are preventing ships from passing through Turkish waters unless they can provide additional guarantees that their transit is covered.

In a notice issued last month by Turkey’s government ahead of the price cap, maritime director general Ünal Baylan said that given “catastrophic consequences” for the country in the event of an accident involving a crude tanker, “it is absolutely required for us to confirm in some way that their [protection and indemnity] insurance cover is still valid and comprehensive.”

The International Group of P&I Clubs, which provides protection and indemnity insurance for 90% of the goods shipped by sea, has said it cannot comply with the Turkish policy.

The Turkish government’s requirements “go well beyond the general information that is contained in a normal confirmation of entry letter” and would require P&I Clubs to confirm coverage even in the event of a breach of sanctions under EU, UK and US law, the UK P&I Club said in a statement.

Turkish officials say this position is “unacceptable” and on Thursday reiterated demands for letters from insurers. “The majority of the crude oil tankers waiting to cross the strait are EU ships and a majority of the petrol is destined for EU ports,” the Turkish maritime authority said in a statement.

“It is difficult to understand why EU-based insurance companies are refusing to provide this letter… for ships that belong to the EU, carrying crude oil to [the] EU when the sanctions in question have been set forth by the EU,” it added.

Western officials, clearly worried about potential disruption to oil supply, say they are in talks with Turkey’s government to resolve the situation.

US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal on a call that the price cap only applies to Russian oil and “does not necessitate additional checks on ships” passing through Turkish waters.

“Both officials highlighted their shared interest in keeping global energy markets well supplied by creating a simple compliance regime that would permit oil to transit the Turkish straits,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

“The UK, US and EU are working closely with the Turkish government and the shipping and insurance industries to clarify the implementation of the Oil Price Cap and reach a resolution,” according to a statement from the UK Treasury.

“There is no reason for ships to be denied access to the Bosporus Straits for environmental or health and safety concerns,” it added.

Despite the backlog of tankers, the average waiting time to cross the Bosphorus strait is still well below where it was this time last year, according to Leon of Rystad Energy. “Given the reaction from UK and US officials, my hunch is that this is going to be resolved very soon,” he said.

-— Gül Tüysüz in Istanbul contributed to this article.



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Business

Celsius users with crypto collateral stuck turn to bankruptcy process

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Alan Knitowski holds an MBA, has worked in technology and finance for over 25 years and is CEO of a mobile software company that trades on the Nasdaq. That didn’t prevent him from getting duped by a crypto firm.

Knitowski borrowed $375,000 from crypto lender Celsius over several years and posted $1.5 million in bitcoin as collateral. He didn’t want to sell his bitcoin because he liked it as an investment and believed the price would go up.

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That was the Celsius model. Cryptocurrency investors could essentially store their holdings with the firm in exchange for a loan in dollars that they could put to use. Knitowski would get the bitcoin back when he repaid the loan.

But that’s not what happened, because Celsius, which earlier in the year managed $12 billion in assets, spiraled into bankruptcy in July after a plunge in crypto prices caused an industrywide liquidity crisis. Knitowski and thousands of other loan holders had more than $812 million in collateral locked on the platform, and bankruptcy records show Celsius failed to return collateral to borrowers even after they repaid their loans.

“Every aspect of what they did was wrong,” Knitowski, who runs an Austin, Texas-based company called Phunware, said in an interview. “If my CFO or I actually did anything that looked like this, we would immediately be charged.”

Creditors are now working through the bankruptcy process to try and reclaim at least a portion of their funds. They were provided with some level of optimism on Friday, after Celsius announced the sale of its asset custody platform called GK8 to Galaxy Digital.

David Adler, a bankruptcy lawyer at McCarter & English who is representing Celsius creditors, said money from the transaction has to go to paying legal fees. Beyond that, there could be funds remaining for former customers.

“The big question is — who is entitled to the money they get from GK8?” Adler told CNBC. Adler said he’s representing a group of 75 borrowers who have approximately $100 million in digital assets on Celsius’ platform.

Later this month, more relief could be coming as bidding will open for Celsius’ lending portfolio. If another company purchases the loans, customers would likely have a chance to repay them and then have their collateral released. 

Knitowski told CNBC he had elected to take out his loans at a 25% loan-to-value rate. That means if he took out a $25,000 loan, he would post four times that amount in collateral, or $100,000.

The more collateral a borrower is willing to post, the lower the interest rate on the loan. If the borrower fails to repay the loan, the lender can seize the collateral and sell it to recoup the cost. It’s just like a residential mortgage, for which the borrower uses the home as collateral. In the crypto world, a borrower can ask for a loan and pledge bitcoin as collateral.

Earlier this year, as the price of bitcoin dropped, Knitowski paid off one of his Celsius loans to avoid getting margin called and having to increase his collateral. But after doing so, the company didn’t return the bitcoin that was serving as collateral for that loan. Instead, the assets were deposited into an account called “Earn.” According to the company’s terms and conditions, assets in those accounts are the property of Celsius, not customers. 

“Imagine you pay off your car, but someone keeps it,” Knitowski said. “You pay off your house, but somebody keeps it. In this case, it would be like you pay off the loan. And instead, you don’t get your collateral back even though it’s paid off.”

Failure to disclose

That wasn’t the only problem. The crypto platform also failed to provide borrowers with a complete federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA) disclosure, according to former employees and an email sent to customers on July 4. The act is a consumer protection measure that requires lenders to give borrowers critical information, such as the annual percentage rate (APR), term of the loan, and total costs to the borrower. 

The email to borrowers said, “the disclosures required to be provided to you under the federal Truth in Lending Act did not include one or more of the following,” and then proceeded to list more than a dozen possible missing disclosures. 

A former Celsius employee, who asked to remain anonymous, told CNBC that the company was retroactively trying to come into compliance with TILA.

“You don’t get to say, ‘Oh, oops, we forgot like 25 items in the Truth in Lending Act and, as a result, we’re just going to redo them and pray,'” Knitowski said. 

Jefferson Nunn, an editor and contributor for Crypto.news, took out a loan with Celsius and posted more than $8,000 worth of bitcoin as collateral. He knows those assets are now unavailable to him even if he repays his loan. 

Nunn, who lives in Dallas, said he got the loan to invest in more bitcoin after seeing a promotion for the platform. He said he heard about Celsius after doing a podcast with co-founder Nuke Goldstein. On the show, Goldstein said, “your funds are safe,” Nunn said. Alex Mashinsky, Celsius’ former CEO, made similar comments shortly before halting withdrawals.

Alex Mashinsky, Celsius CEO on stage in Lisbon for Web Summit 2021

Piaras Ó Mídheach | Sportsfile | Getty Images

“It’s basically a mess and my funds are still locked up in there,” Nunn said. 

That theme has come up repeatedly in crypto, most recently with the failure last month of FTX. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of the exchange, told his followers on Twitter that the company’s assets were fine. A day later, he was seeking a rescue package amid a liquidity crunch.

While Celsius’ implosion doesn’t carry the magnitude of FTX, which had been valued recently at $32 billion, company management has faced its share of criticism. According to a court filing in October, top executives took out millions of dollars in assets prior to the company halting withdrawals of customer funds.

A former employee, who asked not to be named, said there was a lack of financial oversight that led to significant holes on the company’s balance sheet. One of the biggest problems was that Celsius had a synthetic short, which occurs when a company’s assets and liabilities don’t correspond. 

The former employee told CNBC that when customers deposited crypto assets with Celsius, it was supposed to ensure those funds were available any time a customer wanted to withdraw them. However, Celsius was taking customer deposits and lending then to risky platforms, so it didn’t have the liquidity to return funds on demand.

As a result, when customers wanted to withdraw funds, Celsius would scramble to purchase assets on the open market, often at a premium, the person said.

“It was a tremendous error in judgment and operational control that really put a dent in the balance sheet of the organization,” the former employee said. 

He also said that Celsius was accumulating cryptocurrency tokens that had no value as collateral. On its platform, Celsius touted that customers could “earn compounding crypto rewards on BTC, ETH, and 40+ other cryptocurrencies.” But according to the former employee, the teams responsible for deploying those coins had nowhere to go with many of the more obscure tokens.

The ex-employee said he left Celsius after discovering the company wasn’t being prudent with customer funds and that it was making risky bets to continue generating the high yields it promised depositors.

“A lot of individuals took all of their money out of traditional banking systems and put their full faith in Alex Mashinsky,” the person said. “And now those individuals are left unable to pay medical bills, pay for weddings, mortgages, retirements, and that continues to weigh very heavily on me and my colleagues that have left the organization.”

Celsius didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment. Mashinsky, who resigned from Celsius in September, declined to comment. 

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Business

Hedge fund Galois Capital says half its capital stuck on FTX exchange -FT

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Nov 12 (Reuters) – Galois Capital is the latest hedge fund caught off guard after close to half its assets were trapped on collapsed crypto exchange FTX, the Financial Times said on Saturday, estimating the amount to be around $100 million.

Galois co-founder Kevin Zhou wrote to investors in recent days that while the fund had been able to pull some money from the exchange, it still had “roughly half of our capital stuck on FTX,” the paper said, quoting a letter it had seen.

“I am deeply sorry that we find ourselves in this current situation,” Zhou wrote as per the report, adding that it could take “a few years” to recover “some percentage” of its assets.

FTX filed U.S. bankruptcy proceedings on Friday and its Chief Executive Officer Sam Bankman-Fried resigned after a rapid liquidity crunch at the group left FTX scrambling to raise about $9.4 billion from investors and rivals.

FTX’s swift fall from grace followed heavy speculation about its financial health that triggered $6 billion of withdrawals in just 72 hours earlier this week. The company had published a valuation of $32 billion as recently as January.

FTX and Galois did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Stephen Coates

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Hedge fund admits half its capital stuck on FTX exchange

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Galois Capital, a hedge fund whose founder is credited with spotting the collapse of cryptocurrency luna this year, has been caught off guard after close to half its assets were left trapped on crypto exchange FTX, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday.

Galois co-founder Kevin Zhou wrote to investors in recent days, in a letter seen by the Financial Times, that while the fund had been able to pull some money from the exchange, it still had “roughly half of our capital stuck on FTX”. Based on Galois’s assets under management as of June, that could amount to around $100mn.

“I am deeply sorry that we find ourselves in this current situation,” wrote Zhou. “We will work tirelessly to maximise our chances of recovering stuck capital by any means.”

He added that it could take “a few years” to recover “some percentage” of its assets.

FTX on Friday said Sam Bankman-Fried was resigning as chief executive, after failing in a last-ditch effort to secure a rescue package. It follows a tumultuous week in which the exchange admitted it was unable to meet customer withdrawal demands without external funds, raising fears that clients could face big losses.

FTX’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in a federal court in Delaware includes FTX’s US entity, Bankman-Fried’s proprietary trading group Alameda Research and about 130 affiliated companies. His empire was valued at $32bn just months ago.

Industry insiders say that the fact FTX was used by so many hedge funds and seen as one of the world’s safer crypto trading venues means many managers may have money stuck on the exchange.

Galois did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Galois is one of the industry’s biggest crypto-focused quant funds and, as of this summer, it was managing more than $200mn in assets. A major part of its trading activity is as a market maker, allowing it to make tiny gains on other investors’ trades.

Zhou, who worked at digital exchange Kraken before setting up Galois, is well known for his early criticism of cryptocurrency luna and its linked stablecoin terraUSD, ahead of their $40bn collapse in May.

He said in the letter that his fund had been left with the money in FTX because it had “a ton of open positions” that it had to close and due to “underappreciating the solvency risk with holding our funds at FTX”. 

He added that if FTX did file for bankruptcy, then Galois would become a creditor.

If that happened, then “I expect we will recover some percentage of our assets on FTX over the course of a few years,” he said.

laurence.fletcher@ft.com

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Technology

Apple iPad (10th gen) review: stuck in the middle

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The new 10th-generation iPad is ostensibly the new starting point for the iPad line. It’s got a bigger screen, faster processor, and better design than the ninth-gen model that came out in 2021 and has been the entry point for the iPad line for the past few years. The bigger size screen and many of the design features have trickled down from the more expensive iPad Air, but the 10th-gen iPad has an older processor and makes some other omissions to bring the price down.

At its core, this iPad is an excellent tablet with fast performance, reliable battery life, and a vast library of optimized apps to make use of its large touchscreen.

But along with those upgrades comes a higher price: the 10th-gen iPad starts at $449, $120 more than the previous model, and can be kitted out to over $1,000 with storage, cellular, and accessory upgrades. This is for the entry-level iPad with no qualifier after its name, the one that you buy for casual use, kids, schoolwork, travel, and content consumption — it’s not really a device to replace your laptop with.

Apple seems to be aware of this conundrum because it’s still selling the ninth-gen iPad for $329, a much more palatable and accessible price for the many people just looking for a basic iPad to do basic iPad things.

That puts this iPad in a weird spot — it’s certainly better than the ninth-gen model (which is still great), but it costs considerably more and is not as good as an iPad Air. And since you can find a current iPad Air on sale fairly easily at this point, this new iPad is not the iPad to buy right now despite the fact that it has a lot going for it.

a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white md:text-30″>Looking the part

The 10th-gen iPad brings the squared-off, even-bezel, home button-less design Apple introduced on the iPad Pro way back in 2018 to the sub-$500 price point. It’s very nearly a clone of the last two iPad Air models, with the same size display and chassis measurements within a millimeter of the Air in every dimension. (Those millimeters do mean it’s different, though, and precisely fitted cases can’t be swapped between the Air and the new iPad.)

The updated look is much more modern than the ninth-gen iPad, but since we’ve seen variations of this for four years now on other iPad models, it doesn’t look particularly fresh. It just looks like an iPad.

Like virtually every other iPad ever made, the new model has an excellent fit and finish that feels nice to hold and interact with. My review unit is a yellow that I’m not especially fond of, but thankfully Apple sells it in three other colors, including silver, blue, and pink.

Apple says the iPad has an “all-screen design” in its marketing materials, but let’s be honest here: the front of this new iPad is not “all-screen.” There is a considerable bezel area framing the display, and though it’s nice that it is the same size all around and provides a place to hold the thing without accidentally touching the screen, it’s far from edge-to-edge. Plus, there’s a camera on the front. So even if you don’t count the bezel, it’s not “all-screen.”

The camera is good news, though: in a long overdue change, Apple’s stuck the front-facing camera in the bezel on the long edge of the screen, which makes using it for video calls in landscape orientation much easier. It’s surprising that this is the first iPad to actually have the front camera in the right spot, but it’s a safe bet we’ll see this change in future updates to other iPad models (though not for this year’s iPad Pro M2, oddly). The camera itself is just fine, but the better placement makes using it for video calls from a desk much less awkward. It still supports Apple’s self-centering Center Stage feature, but there’s no real point to using it now that the camera is in the right spot, and I left it off for the majority of video meetings I took on the iPad.

The biggest upgrade over the ninth-gen iPad, other than the updated design, is the larger screen, which stretches out to 10.9 inches diagonally from 10.2. It’s the same size as the iPad Air’s screen, and it has the same brightness and resolution. It’s a good size for a tablet and comfortable enough for getting light work done as well as watching movies, reading, or playing games, even if it feels a bit cramped as a laptop replacement. The roughly 3:2 aspect ratio also works well in either portrait or landscape orientations.

But unlike the screens on the iPad Air or Pro, this is not a laminated display, and it has an inferior anti-glare coating to those models. That results in a screen that’s just not as nice to look at, with more reflections, a noticeable gap between the glass and the LCD panel, and shifts in brightness when you view it off-axis. These issues are much more forgivable at $329, but it’s a lot tougher to excuse this display at $449.

The lack of a laminated display is harder to excuse at this new, higher price

Also carried over from the iPad Air and Mini models are the Touch ID fingerprint scanner in the power button on the left side (when in landscape orientation) and a USB-C port for charging and data in place of the prior iPad’s Lightning port. The Touch ID scanner works well enough, even if it’s not quite as seamless and convenient as the iPad Pro’s Face ID system. The USB-C port makes charging and attaching accessories like USB hubs much more convenient than before, though it is limited to USB 2.0 data speeds and 4K 30Hz (or 1080p 60Hz) external displays. I don’t think either of those limitations will matter much for the consumer uses this iPad is meant for.

The big thing that’s missing here is a headphone jack, which is a baffling deletion for the iPad that is supposed to appeal to the widest range of people. A lot of schools and parents buy entry-level iPads for kids, and not having a universal and easy way to plug in standard wired headphones will be frustrating. Apple does include a braided USB-C cable (nice) and a 20W charging brick (bless) in the box, but there’s no USB-C to 3.5mm wired headphone adapter. That’ll cost you $9.

a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white md:text-30″>Magic Keyboard Follies

Despite the 10th-gen iPad looking like the iPad Air and iPad Pro models, it doesn’t share any accessories with them. Instead of using the same Magic Keyboard as the Air and Pro, the 10th-gen iPad gets a wholly new keyboard accessory called the Magic Keyboard Folio. (If you’re keeping count, that brings Apple’s iPad keyboard lineup up to six distinct models, and no, you can’t use this new one with an iPad Air or Pro.)

The staggeringly expensive $249 Magic Keyboard Folio (a full 55 percent of the iPad’s starting price, putting an iPad-plus-keyboard kit at $700) has a two-piece magnetic design with a back cover with a kickstand and a separate keyboard. The keyboard connects to the iPad via the Smart Connector on the tablet’s edge, eliminating the need for a battery or Bluetooth connection.

Typing on the Folio keyboard is satisfying — the keys have the same amount of travel as Apple’s Magic Keyboard, and they are well-sized and spaced apart. The trackpad is also excellent and even slightly larger than the one on the Magic Keyboard. The inclusion of a function row with quick access keys for things like media control, volume, and brightness, is much appreciated; the lack of any kind of backlighting is a dumb omission, especially at this price.

Unlike the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Air and Pro, which features a unique floating design, the Magic Keyboard Folio is a design we’ve seen many times before. It’s very similar to Microsoft’s Surface keyboards and basically identical to the keyboards that are bundled with inexpensive tablets like Lenovo’s $300 Chromebook Duet. It’s even effectively the same design as the $160 Logitech Combo Touch, which comes in versions for the iPad Air, Pro, and now the 10th-gen iPad.

This two-piece design provides more flexibility than the Magic Keyboard — you can pull the keyboard off and still have a kickstand holding the tablet up for movie watching or gameplay with a controller. But it’s also much less stable on my lap — I’m able to make it work, but it’s not nearly as comfortable as the Magic Keyboard or a proper laptop. Microsoft solved this somewhat with more magnets to hold the keyboard in place better, but Apple’s keyboard is much floppier on a lap. You really have the best experience using this on a desk or table.

The Magic Keyboard Folio only comes in white, so avoid eating Cheetos while using it

Apple’s design also limits how far back the kickstand can travel, so you can’t push it down to a 20-degree angle ideal for drawing or writing like you can with many other keyboard cases of this type. And just like the Magic Keyboard, the Magic Keyboard Folio provides virtually no protection against drops — if you need something with more protection, you should look at Logitech’s offering.

Lastly, the Magic Keyboard Folio only comes in white, so you’ll want to be careful using it while eating a Doritos Locos Taco unless you want a slightly orange Magic Keyboard Folio.

Another confounding accessory situation is that the 10th-gen iPad doesn’t work with the second-gen Apple Pencil, which has been shipping since 2018. It only works with the first-generation model that came out way back in 2015. But since the new iPad doesn’t have a Lightning port anymore, pairing and charging the $99 first-gen Pencil with this iPad requires a new $9 USB-C to Lightning adapter that plugs into a USB-C cable that then plugs into the iPad itself. (Apple is bundling the adapter in the box with first-gen Pencils purchased now, but if you’re upgrading from an older iPad and still want to use your Pencil with this one, you’ll have to buy the adapter.)

So despite the new iPad having the same design as the iPad Air and Pro, complete with a flat side that could be home to a second-gen Pencil, you’re stuck with a comical umbilical cord charging situation and nowhere to store the Pencil when you’re not using it.

Those limitations with charging and storage were always weird with the first-gen Pencil but made more sense when it was introduced as an add-on to an existing iPad design that wasn’t built to accommodate it. Apple figured out a better iPad and Pencil solution back in 2018, and this iPad uses that better design, so it’s baffling that we’re in this situation with a new iPad released in 2022.

So, yes, there’s an awkward charging situation and a silly little end cap that’s easy to lose. But don’t worry, the first-gen Pencil is also worse to use than the second-gen model and doesn’t support things like double-tap to switch between writing and erasing. Its glossy surface is also not as nice as the matte finish of the newer model, and it has a much greater tendency to roll off a desk due to its circular design.

As for its performance, the first-gen ApplePencil is the same as the second-gen, and it has very little lag and a smooth stroke. It’s pressure sensitive and has tilting support — both good for art and drawing purposes — but I prefer Samsung and Microsoft’s softer-tipped styli for handwriting. The Pencil’s hard tip slips and slides across the glass of the iPad and makes more noise when writing compared to the others.

For those who already have a first-gen Apple Pencil and are just looking to upgrade to this iPad, it’s great that the older stylus is compatible with the new iPad. But Apple could have designed the iPad to work with the second-gen Pencil and provided backward compatibility for the first-gen one for those that need it, and it chose not to.

Inside, the 10th-gen iPad is a dead ringer for 2020’s fourth-gen iPad Air. It’s got an A14 Bionic chip, Wi-Fi 6, and either 64GB or 256GB of storage. While the A14 is not as fast as the M1 or M2 processors Apple’s putting into the more expensive iPads, I’d be shocked if most people can really tell. This iPad has no problem doing the exact same tasks I use my 11-inch iPad Pro M1 for, from running multiple apps side by side to jumping between tasks to playing games like Genshin Impact smoothly and without issue.

Apple now has four different processors (five if you count the still-available ninth-gen iPad) in its lineup of iPads, but outside of the most demanding uses, all the iPads I’ve used perform effectively the same. If you’re coming to this iPad from a model that’s considerably older, you will certainly notice a faster experience using it. But you’ll also get a faster experience from the $329 A13-powered ninth-gen iPad and save $120.

Battery life on this iPad is right in line with what we’ve come to expect from every iPad released over the last decade or so — it will last about 10 hours or more for basic tasks, closer to six or seven if you try to use it for office productivity work. The 10th-gen iPad also has optional sub-6GHz 5G support, making it useful when you don’t have Wi-Fi available, but that’s a $150 upcharge, and at that price, you might as well just consider an iPad Air.

The iPad runs iPadOS 16, which isn’t a huge departure from the last couple of versions of iPadOS. It’s got a lot of the features that arrived on the iPhone in iOS 16, including editable iMessages, live text for video, and the ability to pull a subject out of a picture and place them into another app. It also has more options for adjusting the way apps are arranged in split-screen mode, as well as more configurability for toolbar layouts in apps. My colleague David Pierce has a much more complete look at iPadOS 16 for all iPad models here.

What’s missing in iPadOS 16 on this model compared to the Air or Pro is the Stage Manager windowing feature and the ability to adjust the display scaling to show more things on the screen at a smaller size. At least lacking Stage Manager isn’t a loss — it’s not a great experience in its current state — and unless you’re coming to the new iPad from an Air or a Pro and are used to the scaling option, you’re not likely to miss that, either.

iPadOS 16 is not much different from iPadOS 15, but it does bring some of the new features of iOS 16, like editable iMessages, to the iPad

iPadOS remains very straightforward and easy to use for tablet tasks, such as reading, light email, watching movies, or playing games. It can also handle light workloads — I wrote much of this review on the iPad in Google Docs in the Safari browser — but it still struggles with multitasking and heavier workloads compared to a laptop. The 10.9-inch screen quickly gets cramped when working with longer documents and multiple apps, as well. I don’t think many people are actually replacing their laptop with an iPad at this level, and if they are, they are likely light users and aren’t hamstrung by iPadOS’s limitations.

I have seen some odd graphical and display bugs here and there, though, which tarnishes the polish that we’ve come to expect from Apple’s platforms. Given that iPadOS 16 is actually launching as iPadOS 16.1, I’d have expected these bugs to be ironed out, but it’s clear Apple still has some work to do.

Oh, and I feel like I’m beating a dead horse here, but I still think Apple should add multi-user support to iPadOS, even though with each passing year, it seems less likely to happen. Entry-level iPads are often shared devices in homes, as opposed to the iPad Pro, which is likely purchased for use by one person. Not being able to support more than one user account at a time makes for a lousy experience when sharing an iPad. The most basic Android tablets can support multiple users, complete with parent and children accounts — it’s long past time Apple did as well.

In a vacuum, there’s very little to complain about with the 10th-gen iPad. It’s an excellent tablet that does all of the things you expect from a tablet very well. Even though its screen isn’t as good as other iPads, it’s still good enough, and its performance is unimpeachable. If this was the only iPad Apple sold, many people would buy it and be perfectly happy with it.

But in context with the many other iPads that Apple sells, I’m not sure why you’d pick this one. If cost is a factor, you’re buying an iPad for a kid, or need a headphone jack, the still-available and much less expensive ninth-gen model is the one to go with. For a lot of people, the ninth-gen model is the better iPad for their needs. If you want the bigger screen and more modern design, the iPad Air is right there with its better display, even faster processor, and better accessory landscape, and you can frequently get it for less than $100 more than the new iPad.

In a vacuum, the 10th-gen iPad is great; in context, it is a confusing mix of new ideas and old compromises

It’s likely that this iPad will be the entry-level iPad at some point, fully replacing the ninth-gen model. But I hope that Apple brings the price down quite a bit by the time that happens and adds the headphone jack back (which is, admittedly, unlikely to happen). Until then, the 10th-gen iPad sits as a weird sub-midrange, not really budget-level middle child in Apple’s sprawling iPad lineup.

Photography by Dan Seifert / The Verge

a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white md:text-30″>Agree to Continue: Apple iPad (10th gen)

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we’re going to start counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.

To use an iPad (10th gen), you have to agree to:

  • The iOS terms of service agreement, which includes Apple’s warranty agreement and the Game Center terms and conditions. You can have it sent to you by email. 

This agreement is nonnegotiable, and you cannot use the tablet at all if you don’t agree to them.

Apple further gives you the option to agree to:

  • Sending data to Apple to improve Siri dictation
  • Share app analytics with developers

The iPad also prompts you to set up Apple Cash and Apple Pay at setup, which further means you have to agree to:

  • The Apple Cash agreement, which specifies that services are actually provided by Green Dot Bank and Apple Payments, Inc, and further consists of the following agreements:
  • The Apple Cash terms and conditions
  • The electronic communications agreement
  • The Green Dot bank privacy policy
  • Direct payments terms and conditions
  • Direct payments privacy notice
  • Apple Payments, Inc, license

If you add a credit card to Apple Pay, you have to agree to:

  • The terms from your credit card provider, which do not have an option to be emailed

Final tally: one mandatory agreement, two optional data sharing agreements, six optional agreements for Apple Cash, one optional agreement for Apple Pay



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Sports

Giants punter Jamie Gillan stuck in London over passport issue

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Punter Jamie Gillan did not fly home with the Giants and remains in London because of a passport technicality, as first reported by NFL Network. United States diplomats got involved to change Gillan’s passport from a NATO visa to a work visa, per the report.

The Scotland native is expected to fly home Thursday, but the Giants will work out other punters in the meantime so as not to be caught flat-footed Sunday against the Ravens.

Giants punter Jamie Gillian
AP

Gillian punted just twice in the Giants’ win over the Packers on Sunday, averaging 50 yards per kick and a long of 58. He is tied for fourth in the NFL in average length of his punts at 51.0 yards. His long of 69 is tied for the seventh longest this season.

Rookie DT D.J. Davidson has a season-ending knee injury, the Giants announced. He is the third member of the 2022 draft class to be ruled out for the season, joining LB Darrian Beavers and G Marcus McKethan, both of whom were hurt during training camp. Davidson, a fifth-round pick, played 43 snaps on defense and 43 more on special teams over the first five games.



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Science

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Had Mystery Debris Stuck to Its Leg

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Ingenuity’s navigation camera (NavCam) caught the debris, which can be seen in the bottom right of this image.
Gif: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter just completed its 33rd flight on Mars, and this one featured an unexpected twist: unidentified debris stuck to one of its lander legs.

Ingenuity’s navigation camera, or NavCam, captured images of the hitchhiker during the aerial jaunt on September 24, NASA wrote in a status update. Images show the helicopter taking off with the debris dangling from one of its legs, much like a piece of toilet paper stuck to a shoe. As Ingenuity moves through the air, the debris detaches from the lander leg and floats off into the distance.

NASA noted that the debris was not present in NavCam images from Ingenuity’s previous flight, and that all data from the helicopter’s instruments are nominal—meaning the debris is likely not from Ingenuity itself. While it certainly looks like plastic, NASA says that the Ingenuity team is working on identifying what exactly it is and where it came from. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab did not immediately reply to Gizmodo’s request for more information.

During flight number 33—and it’s amazing to write that, given that the original mission called for just five test flights—Ingenuity was supposed to be in the air for just under a minute, reaching an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) and traversing about 365 feet (111 meters).

This is not the first time we’ve spotted debris on Mars. In July, the Perseverance rover imaged what looked like a wad of Martian spaghetti, and in April, Ingenuity got a photo of the crumpled mess of landing gear that helped Perseverance touch down on Mars, which is now a part of the planet’s dusty landscape for the foreseeable future.

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