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SpaceX has successfully reused a previously landed Falcon 9 booster based on its final 'Block 5' design.

This is not the first time that SpaceX successfully relaunched a previously flown and landed (or as SpaceX describes them: flight proven) booster, but it is the first time that it landed a Block 5 booster. SpaceX is hoping to reuse Block 5 boosters up to 100 times, and to fly no less than 10 times without the need for maintenance.

Last night, SpaceX launched a commercial satellite to geostationary orbit for Telecom Indonesia. The booster / first stage of the rocket was previously used back in May when SpaceX launched the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 into orbit.

The promise of reflying boosters is to cut launch costs significantly, though initially SpaceX may opt to keep launch costs higher to recoup the significant financial investment into the development of reusable rockets, the development of the Falcon Heavy and the ongoing development of the BFR.

NASA has also announced the first astronauts that will fly to space on a human-rated Dragon capsule from SpaceX. The Crew Dragon will have to pass a couple of test flights before the company will be able to fly humans.

AMD has put their newest, and most powerful, addition to Ryzen Threadripper family of CPUs on pre-order. The chip in question is the 32-core and 64-thread Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX, the first of the WX series, that was unveiled in June.

Now 2990WX is available for pre-order for those looking for a truly top notch multithread processor. The second generation Threadripper chip includes new Zen+ architecture produced with 12 nm process, but its TR4 socket is supported by current X399 motherboards with a BIOS update.

According to AMD, the new Threadripper 2990WX managed to already snatch the record for Cinebench multithread benchmark, although not with default cooling solution, as you might imagine. The CPU normally clocked at 3.0GHz (and boosted at 4.2GHz) was overclocked to 5.1GHz during the test.

While powerful in all kinds of tasks, this specific family of chips is meant mainly for professional use, be it video rendering or other CPU intensive work, where core and thread counts are important. The price tag is telling as well, as not many PC enthusiasts are willing to shell out $1799 for a CPU.

Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX pre-orders are now open and it'll take another week for it to hit the stores on August 13. The cheaper $1299 24-core (and 48-thread) 2970WX will be released next month.

Known for its electric cars, Tesla wouldn't be thought as the first company to develop their own microchips. But obviously Tesla's vehicles are just moving computers, and one of the most important parts of that computer happens to be the brains, the artificial intelligence brains.

It's been actually known for quite some time that Tesla is trying to come up with a more cost-efficient and tailored solution than the current Nvidia chips for its cars. Now the company has confirmed that it will be dropping Nvidia in favor of their proprietary AI chips.

Amidst reporting on quarterly results Elon Musk revealed that the homebrew chip will be introduces during next year. According to the Tesla and Space X visionary, it has been developed from the ground up for Tesla's vehicles and according to their needs.

The new chip will be able to handle all the AI calculations unlike many competing chips that require some form of software emulation. This makes Tesla's chip "an order of magnitude" faster than for example the currently used Nvidia chip.

Tesla chip is also backwards compatible so old vehicles could get an AI performance boost with a chip replacement. However, there's no word what the procedure would cost or when it would be available.

Taiwanese contract chip manufacturer TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) has had to shut down some of its factories after a virus infected its production lines. The world's largest semiconductor manufacturer builds Apple's system-on-chips, including for the upcoming iPhones expected to be released next month.

According to Bloomberg, TSMC was hit by a virus that crippled some of the company's factories. TMSC representatives have denied that the systems were compromised by a hacker but there is currently no explanation how the virus entered the systems.

For TSMC the timing is horrible, since it is currently trying to crank out as many Apple chips as possible for its most important customer before the release of upcoming iPhones.

The company did not, however, disclose if the affected factories were producing chips for iPhones and what kind of financial damage was inflicted by the virus. As the investigation matures TSMC hopes to answer more questions after the weekend.

Some factories are already back to normal but others with more severe problems are expected to take at least until Sunday to reboot.

Apple removed the headphone jack from iPhones almost two years ago with the release of iPhone 7. Whether it was at the time a brave move, as they spun it, or just a silly design choice it up to you.

However, $1 trillion Cupertino giant is not backing away from the strategy, rumors suggest. They plan to move further away from wired headphones towards a truly wireless future.

Barclays research team has been suggesting since early this year that Apple will be getting rid of the headphone jack dongle from the next iPhone. Now Cirrus Logic, a supplier for the headphone adapter, has all but confirmed to Barclays that this indeed is the case, MacRumors reports.

Apple is expected to release three new iPhone models next month, all of which are likely to not have headphone jack. Now users with traditional wired headphones might have to shell out some extra cash to use their preferred audio equipment.

The adapter isn't fortunately too expensive, currently at $9, and many of the current or previous generation iPhone users already have one adapter, but it is surely going to stir up some controvery if indeed Apple decides to exclude it from the retail box.

A couple years ago Nintendo released what seemed like a silly promotional product, a mini version of the good old Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES.

After NES Classic other companies followed suit, including Atari (although their approach is way different), but it was the NES Classic with the strong lineup of classic retro games that caught all the attention. So much so that it was sold out almost immediately.

Huge demand meant that the prices rose to ridiculous amounts in the second-hand market. Now, two years later, the NES Classic is back and the supply has been far better.

The demand is still there which is proven by the fact that according to market research firm NPD it has outsold all other consoles, including the current generation favorites Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.

This even though NES Classic was only sold for a few days during the analyzed period (June 2018). Of course one has to remember that NES Classic costs $59 while the others go for several hundreds.

So as the tweet by NPD analyst Mat Piscatella below shows, NES Classic outsold PS4 by unit numbers but not in dollar sales. If you want to know more about the numbers of both software and hardware sales head to Twitter and read the thread.

Apple has reached new heights that no company before it has reached. Cupertino-based tech giant closed the day yesterday with a share price of $207.39 which means it surpassed the magical and revolutionary (add other Apple-like superlatives) $1 trillion market cap.

Who would've guessed that making iPhones is such a good business model? Or as someone put it, buying low and selling high seems to pay off. Joking aside, Apple has done something no company has managed and to celebrate Tim Cook sent a memo to Apple employees reiterating what is important.

According to the note Apple's number one priority is customer. While people should be excited and happy about the milestone, they should remember that it is just a measurement of success in one, albeit super tangible, respect.

Obviously Cook knew the memo would be read by many outside the company and promoting a view that customer always comes first is good for the business in the long run. Not surprisingly Steve Jobs gets a mention as the visionary founder who instilled Apple with the values it holds.

And here's the letter Apple CEO Tim Cook sent to company's employees after hitting the historic milestone:

Team,

Today Apple passed a significant milestone. At our closing share price of $207.39, the stock market now values Apple at more than $1 trillion. While we have much to be proud of in this achievement, it's not the most important measure of our success. Financial returns are simply the result of Apple's innovation, putting our products and customers first, and always staying true to our values.

A recent update to the mega-popular CCleaner tool prompted backlash from long-term users as privacy options disappeared and other problems arose.

Recently acquired by Avast, CCleaner was updated to v5.45.6611 with some noticeable changes. In the free version of the app, Privacy settings were removed from the options meaning users could no longer opt-out of sending usage information. Another noted issue is that it seems impossible to close the application through normal means.

When you click the X in the top right hand corner of the app, CCleaner minimizes to the system tray on the taskbar, which is not unusual behavior. What is unusual is that right-clicking on the CCleaner icon in the system tray no longer provided the option to exit CCleaner.

This could be because of a shift in the way the developers want CCleaner to be used. In the new version, it seems much more difficult to disable Active Monitoring. Many CCleaner users may only use it to clear out browser history and temporary files every now and then. Active Monitoring will keep an eye on the accumulation of junk and other data and prompt users to run the cleaner routinely.

In order to disable it in the latest version, users apparently need to toggle off "Enable system monitoring," and then turn off Active Monitoring later. The problem users are having is that it toggles itself back on after restarting the app or rebooting.

According to a report by The Intercept, Google has been working on a version of its search engine that would comply with Chinese censorship laws.

It cited internal Google documents and inside sources in reporting on Dragonfly, a project that would omit results from websites including terms like "human rights" and "religion." The Reuters News Agency and Agence France-Presse both confirmed the initial report from their own separate sources.

A Google spokesperson provided a brief statement on the report without confirmation of denial.

"We provide a number of mobile apps in China, such as Google Translate and Files Go, help Chinese developers, and have made significant investments in Chinese companies like JD.com," the statement said. "But we don't comment on speculation about future plans."

The report cites Android apps called Maotai and Longfei that have been developed and could be launched within months if approved by the Chinese government.

Securities Daily, with is a state-owned outlet, dismissed the report citing "relevant departments" in reporting that Google is not preparing a return to the Chinese market.

Plex has taken Podcasts out of beta with the addition of several new requested features to improve the podcast experience.

You can now easily download your favorite podcasts so you will be able to listen to them when you don't have connectivity, such as during a long commute. You can download single episodes with a single tap or set up a smart rule to make sure you have enough episodes of podcasts that you'll need. You can with a couple of taps download the latest 5 episodes, or you could just opt to download all.

If you are migrating to Plex for your podcast needs, you can also now import your podcast subscriptions using an OPML import feature. The OPML format is supported by most podcast apps (e.g. Apple Podcasts), so this makes it much easier to migrate all of your subscriptions at once with a few steps on iOS, Android or on the web.

Additionally, Plex lets you listen to your podcasts on Sonos speakers, through Android Auto or on Chromecast-connected devices.

More info: www.plex.tv

A Seattle judge has halted the planned release of designs for 3D printed guns that were due to go on sale to consumers on Wednesday.

Defense Distributed was to start selling 3D gun designs to customers based on a prior settlement reached with the federal government. However, U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik has granted a temporary restraining order at he request of eight state attorneys general and D.C.

President Donald Trump had addressed the issue in a tweet on Tuesday, writing: "I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesn't seem to make much sense!"

At the center of the controversy is uncertainty over the implications of the First and Second Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said that the President "will continue to look at all options available to us to do what is necessary to protect Americans while also supporting the First and Second amendments."

In response to statements made by Democrats about the settlement between the federal government and Defense Distributed, Gidley noted that it is illegal to own or to produce a wholly plastic gun under the law, and that the President supports the law as it stands.

Samsung has today released their second quarter results, and the fallout is fairly pessimistic for their smartphone division. The Korean electronics giant's Galaxy phones kept them at the top of the sales figures for years, but this year's flagship's sales figures might spell an unforeseen dive.

While the overall results of Samsung Electronics were good as expected, racking a 58.48 trillion won or around $53 billion in revenue, albeit being slightly less than in Q1 or last years Q2, and increasing the operating profit by 6% to around $13 billion, the top-of-the-line Galaxy smartphone has been suffering from disappointing sales numbers.

Samsung acknowledges that the sales of Galaxy S9 have been slow, and the iterative upgrade has obviously not been exciting enough. Apple and especially competing Android manufacturers are having a field day, but we'll see if that changes once Samsung releases the upcoming Galaxy Note9 smartphone expected in early August.

Fortunately for Samsung the smartphone slump has been filled by extraordinarily good memory sales. Both DRAM and NAND memory chips have been chipping in in record numbers.

WhatsApp has updated their mobile messaging platform with a major new feature. Facebook-owned, world's largest, instant messaging app first unveiled group calling in May, now it's finally available.

Group calls were introduced at Facebook's F8 conference in May and now the company has managed to finish the feature and released it in their mobile app. Both iOS and Android versions of WhatsApp got the feature.

Group calls offer both video and audio only calls between multiple people. There are limitations, though, and most importantly the group calls are limited to four concurrent connections.

Other platforms offer even up to 32 people chatting all at once. However, four people calls is a good start for WhatsApp, and it wouldn't be a complete surprise if the company will expand the support.

What is nice about the WhatsApp calls is that they are entirely end-to-end encrypted, a feature that has made WhatsApp's text messaging a huge success.

To make a group call you'll just make a regular call between two people and add the other recipients from the button on the top right.

This year's Google phone is soon just around the corner and we've been hearing a lot about the phones. Rumors have suggested that we get once again two phones in two distinct sizes.

Now we have also a new leak which offers a fresh look at the devices. A user of XDA Developers has released a few photos that are said to be depicting the upcoming Google Pixel 3 XL, the larger of the two phones.

While the backside hasn't changed an awful lot, although there is no dual tone colors, it is definitely clear from the display, and perhaps even more importantly the parts that lack a display (*ahem* notch *ahem*), that this is indeed not Pixel 2 XL.

The phone is an all white version that has a single camera in the back, as expected, and the front panel is dominated by a large display with a distinct notch. Google has not, however, gone as far as Apple and removed the tiny chin.

The notch seems to be even larger than on Apple's device or many competing Android phones, and it is likely because of the dual cameras that can be seen in one of the pictures below.

OnePlus, a Chinese smartphone company that became known by their Flagship Killer branding used in their early models, has now shared some amazing news to their users. The company has been among the best when it comes to updating their phones to new Android versions, and seemingly the company only is getting better at it.

Android's newest versio, dubbed Android P, is coming to not only the latest OnePlus models, namely the OnePlus 6, but even last years models (both OnePlus 5 and 5T) as well as two year. Those phones are of course the OnePlus 3 released in the summer of 2018 and OnePlus 3T released later that year.

Google is planning the final release of Android P later this fall alongside new Pixel smartphones. Currently the beta version is available for a few Android phones, one of which happens to be OnePlus 6.

The company has previously informed that it will support future devices at least two years regarding Android version updates after the phones release, but seems like it has been more generous to users of past devices, which is admirable. OnePlus also includes a third year of support in which it promises Android security updates.

Reliable and quick updates is one of the better ways smaller manufacturers can challenge big boys like Samsung, especially since most Android manufacturers have been utterly disappointing when it comes to software updates, and new versions of Android. Currently OnePlus stands as one of the better manufacturers in this respect alongside HMD Global, a Finnish company that creates the new Nokia Android phones.