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At a town hall event on Monday, Apple announced a few new interchangeable bands for the Apple Watch. The company will now sell a woven nylon band option that features a four-layer construction and comes in some flashy colors, including light blue, pink, and yellow. The Sport band collection is receiving some new colors as well, and Apple has also added a black version of the luxe Milanese Loop band.

According to Tim Cook, about one-third of Apple Watch wearers regularly switch out their wristbands. That's a particularly interesting figure when you consider that each Apple Watch comes with just one band—if you want extra options, you'll have to shell out more money. Additional bands don't come cheap, either: the Sport bands are $49 each and the Milanese Loop along with the Classic Buckle straps are $149 when purchased separately. If nothing else, this points to the trend of Apple Watch wearers wanting extra wristbands to personalize the look and feel of their smartwatch.

Apple didn't mention any new partnerships with fashion houses or other design companies, nor did it touch upon its hyped partnership with Hermés that it announced last fall. The luxury leather bands start at $1,100, making them significantly more expensive than the base model of the Apple Watch itself. Apple didn't get into pricing for the new nylon bands, but Apple's store website should update with the new bands and pricing soon.

Just a month ago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation accused Apple of a public relations marketing stunt when the company refused to comply with a court order to help the bureau unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.

"Apple’s current refusal to comply with the Court’s Order, despite the technical feasibility of doing so, instead appears to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy,” Justice Department attorneys wrote in a court filing. Those remarks came days after Apple CEO Tim Cook published a message on the gadget maker's website telling consumers that the government's "overreach" would "undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect." In Cook's eyes, Apple was being asked to implement a backdoor of sorts to its mobile phone's encryption.

But would Cook take his biggest stage, during the latest product launch of new shiny gadgets on Monday, and again rail against the government's demands? Would Cook, or anybody from Apple, take a swipe at the government and play into its hands while unveiling a new iPad, iPhone, or other product during a live-streamed event from company headquarters? Would that happen just one day before the much-anticipated court hearing?

NASA subsidizes the Russian space program through astronaut launches, like Jeff Williams on March 18, but for how much longer? (credit: NASA)

When it comes to space, Russia talks a good game. It speaks of sending humans to the Moon in 2029. It is building a large, $3 billion cosmodrome in far Eastern Russia. And at present it can boast of being NASA's only means of getting astronauts to the International Space Station.

But behind a reliable program of aging rockets that date to the 1960s (the Soyuz and Proton launch vehicles), most of Russia's successes have come in conjunction with NASA during the last two decades. Beyond this participation in the space station program, however, lies a much beleaguered science program. Russia has not had a successful interplanetary mission in more than three decades since 1984’s launch of Vega 2, a probe to Venus and Halley’s Comet.

Now comes more concern for the Russian space program. Amid the country's budget problems due to a slump in oil prices and western sanctions for its intervention into Ukraine, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev intends to cut funding for Russia's space program by 30 percent, Reuters has reported.

That green box in the middle of this Aperture Science scene indicates it's running right in the middle of the adaptive performance curve. (credit: Alex Vlachos)

Officially, Valve's SteamVR performance test seems to require a high-powered Nvidia GTX 970 graphics card or better for high-quality "VR ready" performance. At a GDC talk last week, though, Valve Graphics Programmer Alex Vlachos detailed how a number of adaptive quality programming tricks let him run Valve's impressive Aperture Science VR demo passably on a four-year-old Nvidia GTX 680.

That's especially impressive because VR graphics can often push even high-end graphics cards to their limits. In virtual reality, the graphics hardware has to push two separate views (one for each eye) at a rock-solid 90 frames per second to avoid a nauseating delay between head movement and the view shown on the display. That leaves the graphics card only 11.1 ms per frame to render what can be complex 3D scenes.

The VR environment also means the user can often move the first person "camera" (i.e. their head) wherever they want, as fast as they want. Unlike a standard first-person engine, which usually displays the world only at standing or crouching height, a free-roaming VR engine needs to be potentially ready to display any object from any distance and any angle, rendering it quickly at a convincing level of detail. And a VR engine can't just slow to a crawl when scenes get crowded or complicated, either. Remember, dipping below 90 fps can be literally sickening.

Verizon FiOS TV app on Xbox One. (credit: Verizon)

Verizon is telling customers that its FiOS TV apps for Xbox game consoles and smart TVs will be discontinued, limiting the options for hardware on which to view live programming.

Several people have reported receiving an e-mail from Verizon that states the following:

On March 31, 2016, the FiOS TV app you are using to watch your FiOS TV programming through a Smart TV or an Xbox gaming system will be retired and will no longer be available for use. Sorry for the inconvenience.

But we have great news; you can watch your FiOS TV content using our FiOS Mobile app from your smartphone or tablet. This app allows you to stream TV content in and out of your home and so much more.

Verizon's website still lists the FiOS TV app as being available for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Samsung's smart TVs and Blu-ray players. Verizon says the "app allows you to enjoy FiOS TV without the need for an additional set-top box"—for the next 10 days, anyway.

(credit: Electronic Arts)

Without comment, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to side with Electronic Arts' contention that it had a First Amendment right to use professional football players likenesses without their permission in one of the world's most popular video games, Madden NFL.

EA's petition to the Supreme Court had attracted widespread interest from academics, digital rights groups, (PDF) and others. The dispute was at the intersection of the right-of-publicity claims balanced against modern technology allowing for virtual, realistic portrayals of people—in this case, professional athletes who want a piece of the financial pie.

In its petition to the justices, the game maker claimed it should not be allowed to be sued simply because it made a game that looks too real that it nearly mirrored reality. The company wanted the high court to accept its assertion that its life-like depiction of the virtual gridiron was covered by the First Amendment.

(credit: Neil R)

If Apple was finally feeling like it had a solid win after getting paid $548 million in patent damages by Samsung—well, now it shouldn't be so sure.

The Supreme Court said today that it will consider what kind of damages should be warranted when a design patent is found to be infringed as the court takes up the blockbuster Apple v. Samsung case.

After a 13-day trial in 2012, a jury held that Samsung's phones infringed Apple utility and design patents. Apple was originally granted $1.05 billion, but that number was slashed down on appeal. Samsung paid $548 million late last year, but the company didn't give up its right to one last appeal. A Supreme Court win could result in Samsung getting much of that money back.