Month: February 2021

Enlarge / The SUV currently known as a Jeep Cherokee. (credit: Jeep)

It's time for Jeep to reconsider calling its SUVs "the Cherokee" and "Grand Cherokee," says Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. This marks the first time the Cherokee Nation has directly asked Jeep to stop using its name for vehicles, something the brand has done for the past 45 years.

Although the Cherokee Nation has commented on the name in the past, this time, the debate was reignited by Car and Driver, which reached out to Chief Hoskin for comment on the topic.

"I'm sure this comes from a place that is well-intended, but it does not honor us by having our name plastered on the side of a car. The best way to honor us is to learn about our sovereign government, our role in this country, our history, culture, and language and have meaningful dialogue with federally recognized tribes on cultural appropriateness. I think we're in a day and age in this country where it’s time for both corporations and team sports to retire the use of Native American names, images and mascots from their products, team jerseys, and sports in general," he told the publication.

The first Jeep Cherokee arrived in model year 1974, and although the nameplate was retired in favor of the Jeep Liberty between 2002 and 2014, Jeep continued to sell a Grand Cherokee model throughout that time. In fact, the Grand Cherokee is Jeep's best seller, with nearly 210,000 finding homes in the US in 2020.

Enlarge / A stack of 60 Starlink satellites launched in 2019. (credit: SpaceX)

Starlink broadband speeds will double to 300Mbps "later this year," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter yesterday. SpaceX has been telling users to expect speeds of 50Mbps to 150Mbps since the beta began a few months ago.

Musk also wrote that "latency will drop to ~20ms later this year." This is no surprise, as SpaceX promised latency of 20ms to 40ms during the beta and had said months ago that "we expect to achieve 16ms to 19ms by summer 2021."

It sounds like the speed and latency improvements will roll out around the same time as when Starlink switches from beta to more widespread availability. Two weeks ago, Starlink opened preorders for service expected to be available in the second half of 2021, albeit with limited availability in each region.

Enlarge / To call Sony's PlayStation 5 "in demand" would be an understatement.

The global semiconductor shortage is threatening to constrain PlayStation 5 supplies throughout the rest of this year, even as Sony’s gaming chief insisted the company would be able to produce “decent numbers” of its new console in the second half of 2021.

The PS5 is one of the most sought-after tech products of recent months, with shipments selling out as soon as they reached stores when the console was launched in November last year.

Coronavirus lockdowns have only added to gamers’ demand for the latest consoles and software, fueling what are expected to be record profits for Sony’s gaming division in the financial year to March. Sony upgraded its gaming unit’s annual revenue forecasts earlier this month primarily thanks to improving sales of game software, services, and accessories.

Enlarge / Then Rep. Bill Nelson (D-Fla., at bottom) undergoing zero-gravity training onboard a KC-135 along with other astronaut trainees in 1985. On his right is schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who died along with seven other crew members in the Challenger disaster. (credit: Bettman | Getty Images)

On Monday a rumor that has simmered in Washington for several weeks boiled to the surface—that former US Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida, is a leading contender to become the next NASA administrator.

The publication Breaking Defense publicly shared the rumor on Twitter, noting that Nelson has a "strong" relationship with President Biden and understands how Congress works. Nelson, 78 years old, lost his 2018 bid for reelection to the Senate. He had served six terms as a member of the House of Representatives and three terms in the upper house.

Two sources told Ars that Nelson is pushing hard to become administrator and is leveraging his friendly relationship with Biden to do so. "This is more than a rumor," one source said. However, it is also not a done deal, as after the rumor broke there was pushback in the space community about the appointment of Nelson to the position, who has a long and at times contentious history in the space community.