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After a lengthy beta period that began in January, Google released Android Nougat 7.1.2 on Monday. Images and OTAs are up on Google's factory image page, and a rollout has started to creep across the Google device landscape.

Google is releasing the update for the Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, Nexus 6P, 5X, and Nexus Player. As we reported during the beta release, 7.1.2 marks the end of the line for the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9, Google's flagship devices from 2014.

Enlarge / The 2013 Mac Pro, doomed to never be updated again. (credit: Apple)

Wonders never cease. Apple, normally secretive to a fault and allergic to talking about future products before it considers them ready, summoned a small group of journalists from outlets including TechCrunch and Mashable to its headquarters earlier this month to tell them that the Mac Pro will once again be completely redesigned. But it isn't saying what the redesign will look like, and a new Mac Pro is not launching until sometime "next year."

The 2013 Mac Pro was controversial right from the jump. It replaced a hulking desktop with multiple expansion slots, multiple CPU sockets, and multiple internal drive bays with a tiny shiny computer that looked more than a little like a high-end designer trash can ("can't innovate, my ass," a defiant Phil Schiller said when it was announced). Users could still upgrade the RAM and the SSD themselves relatively easily, but most internal expansion space was replaced with a whopping six Thunderbolt 2 ports. Brave buyers could also pop in a new CPU if they were comfortable tearing the system apart, but the machine offered only one CPU socket, and its proprietary graphics cards couldn't be upgraded unless Apple released new versions (something it never did).

We don't know much about the new design except that we can expect it to be a response to the old one. Apple acknowledges that the new Mac Pro design will be "modular," which could mean anything but hopefully at least means that users will be able to swap out their own drives and GPUs if they want. The company wants to be able to "keep [the machine] fresh with regular improvements" and to make the Pro Apple's "highest-end, high throughput desktop system." The system will also be introduced with a new first-party external display, a business that Apple said it was leaving last year when it discontinued its Thunderbolt Display and leaned on LG to provide external screens for the new MacBook Pros.

Enlarge / Maybe reusing rockets isn't a crazy American capitalist idea after all? (credit: SpaceX)

As recently as last year, Russian rocket scientists were dubious about the potential of reusable rockets, such as those being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin. Among the doubters was the Central Research Institute of Machine Building, which develops basic rocket strategy for Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

"The economic feasibility of reusable launch systems is not obvious," an official with the research institute said in February 2016. "First and foremost it will depend on how often launches will be made. At the moment it is hard to forecast which way the market of launch services will go when reusable space rockets become available. The designers are still to demonstrate the real costs of production and of making reusable stages for re-launching,"

At the time of that statement, both SpaceX and Blue Origin had begun flying their purportedly reusable boosters, but SpaceX had not yet landed at sea nor had it reused a flown booster. Blue Origin, too, had only begun a series of ultimately impressive tests to stress its New Shepard booster. Accordingly, Roscosmos CEO Igor Komarov was confident that a reduction in launch costs of the country's workhorse Proton-M rocket from $90 million-100 million to $70 million would keep Roscosmos competitive.

Jim Resnick

When Jaguar launched the F-Type a few years ago, it awoke something long-dormant in the British carmaker. Jaguar used to make legitimate sports cars which won the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times in the 1950s. But focus groups and corporate mismanagement diluted away that spirit by the end of the century, a lackluster product line being the leftovers. The F-Type was a proper 21^st century sports car—no rehash of the decades-old XJ-S here.

Think Hamlet, but a car

The SVR is the ultimate expression of the F-Type, the most focused performance car in Jaguar's range. And it delivers a beautiful shape, be it in coupe or convertible form, but the character of the SVR takes some figuring. Be timid with the throttle and it's timid with you. Press that pedal more than halfway and it summons up noise and intensity.