March – OfdmFORUM

March 2023 – Satellite Technology of the Year Nominees for 2022

March 19, 2023 Audrey

Each year, Via Satellite magazine and its readers recognize a handful of technologies for either their notable level of innovation, their contribution to the development of the space and satellite industries as a whole, their influence on global events, their notable success in the market, or a combination of these achievements. We’ve nominated six standout technologies for our 2022 Satellite Technology of the Year Award, representing a wide range of products and services in connectivity, imagery, software, and emergency services. The 2022 list also includes our first nomination of a technically non-satellite company.

The winner of the award will be determined by a public vote combined with the votes of the Via Satellite editorial board. The winner will be announced during the Via Satellite awards luncheon on Wednesday, March 15, at the SATELLITE 2023 conference in Washington, D.C. Voting is open online from Feb. 22 to 12 p.m. on March 14 and can be accessed at satellitetoday.com/vote. Here are the 2022 Technology of the Year nominees.

Apple iPhone 14 with Emergency Satellite Messaging

There have long been suspicions and rumors that the Apple iPhone could eventually be a satellite device. Each new iteration of the iPhone came with whispers: “Will this be the one?” This is now a reality. With the iPhone 14, Apple brought life-saving emergency text messaging to the world’s most popular handheld device, via satellite. The service is already operational and making an impact. When the service officially saved its first life, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, BBC, and hundreds of other leading cable news shows ran with it as a top story.

To make this difficult satellite-to-cell connection possible, Apple designed and built custom components and specific software and algorithms so that iPhone 14 antennas can connect to the unique frequencies of satellites. It also built ground infrastructure to take data packets relayed from a satellite to emergency services. Apple even built an infrastructure for message relay centers to send critical information to emergency crews when local emergency response infrastructure is not able accept texts, to ensure the service is always available. The company is making a large investment of $450 million from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund to support the infrastructure for the service, and has done a lot of work behind the scenes to make this service a reality.

Apple has the money to invest in its own satellite network, and keeping technologies in-house has been a cornerstone of Apple’s corporate culture. Yet the company made the decision to go with an external partner Globalstar, with an existing satellite network. Via Satellite recognizes this as an extraordinary decision because it brings a much-needed technology to market faster, saving more actual lives today than potential lives in the future. Apple is recognized for the design and implementation of the texting service on such a widely distributed platform. With the iPhone 14 satellite emergency messaging, Apple is bringing a life-saving technology to the masses and raising the profile of what is possible with satellite technology.

Astrocast Satellite IoT

No cost Electronics Recycling in Denver in March

March 7, 2022 Audrey

Denver residents could not want to hold out right until the official finish of winter on March 20 to start off spring cleaning. Proper now, Retrievr, a recycling company shifting into the sector, will choose up old electronics at your doorway and recycle them adequately — for absolutely free.

The enterprise, which commenced in Philadelphia, is now increasing to Denver for a pilot calendar year. Retrievr CEO Kabira Stokes says that a number of tech businesses — including Google, Apple, Amazon, Dell Systems and Microsoft — had approached Retrievr about collaborating, which led to the group offering a free of charge month of recycling in Denver.

In 2019, Colorado’s statewide recycling rate was only 15.9 per cent as opposed to the countrywide price of 35 p.c the Front Array produced 87 per cent of the state’s municipal squander.

“Colorado is acknowledged for getting eco-friendly and [for] environmentalism, and nevertheless their recycling premiums are quite reduced, shockingly low,” Stokes states. “We imagined this would be a superior screening ground, and I knew of an on-the-ground assortment husband or wife who would be in a position to support us.”

That associate is Blue Star Recyclers, a Denver organization that employs men and women with disabilities.

Retrievr focuses on residential recycling somewhat than enterprise recycling since organizations have a substantially better electronics recycling fee than do people. Together with the gains of reusing cherished metals contained in electronics and preventing electronics from clogging landfills, right recycling can also enrich security.

“People know that there is details on your phones and other desktops, but you can find really info on far more devices than frequently people imagine,” Stokes suggests. Recycling businesses are accredited to properly wipe that knowledge, whilst landfills have no these types of obligation. Retievr is an e-Stewards Company, which usually means that each and every product is secured and tracked right until its components are divided and reused. Fax equipment, printers and gaming devices all retail store own info.

Using Retrievr is straightforward: Just plan a pickup time on the web page and a truck will get the goods from your property. The enterprise cannot acknowledge batteries, lightbulbs, smoke detectors and a couple other products, however, so be absolutely sure to verify the checklist of prohibited goods. “The reason that we can’t accept all those has to do with just the downstream recycling alternatives that are obtainable to us in the area,” Stokes clarifies. “There’s just unique supplies in there that have to be dealt with in various ways.”

Just after the trial period of time, folks will have to pay a $20 flat rate for Retrievr’s services, with an added $30 for televisions and computer system screens, due to the fact a lot of of all those goods have guide in the glass, demanding supplemental oversight for basic safety.

“How prolonged will it be free of charge? We never know. It will all rely on participation,” Stokes states, hinting that the deal could past

March 2022 Video Sport Release Calendar Is Way too Packed

January 15, 2022 Audrey

Kirby sleeping on a chaise lounge on a sandy beach. — A snapshot of me, the next April rolls all around.

For a spell, it appeared that February would be the busiest thirty day period for gaming in 2022, with marquees like Sifu, Elden Ring, and Horizon Forbidden West crowding the calendar. But in the latest days, March has officially taken the crown as the very best (worst?) month to love movie video games. People, it is obtaining very preposterous out there.

Earlier these days, Nintendo last but not least announced a release day for Kirby and the Neglected Land, a Breath of the Wild-seeking just take on everyone’s most loved form-shifting puffball. It is out on Switch on March 25…the extremely same day Little Tina’s Wonderlands, a spinoff of Gearbox’s loot-shooting Borderlands collection, hits PlayStation, Xbox, and Laptop. A week soon after that, on March 31, the fantasy-western RPG Weird West comes to Computer system and last-gen consoles.

But really much each individual prior week in the month is just as packed, with a person or two notable releases coming at a close to-weekly cadence.

March commences off with the sailing match Considerably: Altering Tides, which, just yesterday, was provided a release date of March 1 by publisher Frontier Foundry. That’s slated for launch on PlayStation, Xbox, Personal computer, and Swap. On March 3, Platinum’s co-op motion-RPG Babylon’s Slide—the just one that had a notable underneath-wraps graphical overhaul in October—comes to PlayStation and Laptop. Which is promptly adopted, on March 4, by two other big kinds: the PlayStation-distinctive racer Gran Turismo 7 and the Swap-special tactical RPG Triangle Method.

But hold out! Which is not all! March 16 sees the Xbox and Computer system launch of Tunic, an isometric dungeon-crawler with giclée pastel visuals and a pleasant baby-fox protagonist. (I have high hopes for Tunic. What I performed of a demo past summer season remaining me craving a lot more of its intriguingly imprecise solution to instruction.) Then, on March 18, Closing Fantasy prequel Stranger of Paradise: Remaining Fantasy Origins brings about chaos on consoles and Pc.

You consider which is it? Ha, superior one particular! Following a hold off out of its preliminary November 2021 window, the subsequent-gen version of Grand Theft Vehicle V is also prepared for March 2022, while it doesn’t currently have a business launch day. The exact same is accurate for the Change-distinctive job-taking part in sim Rune Manufacturing unit 5 and hellishly inventive roguelike Have a Nice Loss of life (perfectly, out by way of early obtain on Computer).

And this does not even component in the legitimate unknowables, individuals games opaquely detailed as “spring 2022” or “early 2022”—a lineup that counts deliriously predicted video games like Stray, Forspoken, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Neon White, and the Progress Wars remake among its roster—that could always close up in March’s quickly crowded release slate. And to believe, Marvel’s Midnight Suns the moment was a March 2022 recreation, much