USPS will start selling James Webb Space Telescope stamps on August 8th

Want to show your fondness for the James Webb Space Telescope in physical form? The US Postal Service might have what you’re looking for. The mail agency is launching a JWST stamp that will be available to pre-order starting August 28th in sheets of 20. It’s ultimately a digital depiction of the telescope against a galactic backdrop, but that may be all you need to flaunt your space fandom when you send a letter or parcel

The USPS didn’t detail pricing. As a Forever stamp, however, the JWST print will always be worth the First-Class Mail one-ounce price. You won’t have to worry about using extra stamps years down the road, then. Forever 20-stamp sheets typically cost $12.

Yes, there’s a certain irony to celebrating bleeding-edge astronomy using mail stickers invented in the 19th century. You might want to buy a t-shirt or similar merch if you’re interested in visibility. Look at it this way, though: stamps are relatively inexpensive, and they might do the trick if you’re either a collector or just want to add a personal touch to your mail.

USPS will start selling James Webb Space Telescope stamps on August 8th

Want to show your fondness for the James Webb Space Telescope in physical form? The US Postal Service might have what you’re looking for. The mail agency is launching a JWST stamp that will be available to pre-order starting August 28th in sheets of 20. It’s ultimately a digital depiction of the telescope against a galactic backdrop, but that may be all you need to flaunt your space fandom when you send a letter or parcel

The USPS didn’t detail pricing. As a Forever stamp, however, the JWST print will always be worth the First-Class Mail one-ounce price. You won’t have to worry about using extra stamps years down the road, then. Forever 20-stamp sheets typically cost $12.

Yes, there’s a certain irony to celebrating bleeding-edge astronomy using mail stickers invented in the 19th century. You might want to buy a t-shirt or similar merch if you’re interested in visibility. Look at it this way, though: stamps are relatively inexpensive, and they might do the trick if you’re either a collector or just want to add a personal touch to your mail.

Meta will raise Quest 2 price to $400 on August 1st

Prices normally drop as devices get older, but that’s not the case for the Meta Quest 2. UploadVRreports Meta will raise the price of the Quest 2 from $299 to $400 for the base 128GB version on August 1st, and from $399 to $500 for the 256GB model. You can still find the VR headset for $299 on Amazon as we write this, but you may want to act quickly when supplies could easily run out.

Refurbished Quest 2 prices are jumping to a respective $349 and $429 for 128GB and 256GB headsets. You can also expect higher accessory prices. Meta will partly offset the increases by offering free copies of Beat Saber to new buyers between August 1st and December 31st, but that’s not much consolation if the previous price was the chief draw.

The company pinned the increase on higher manufacturing and shipping costs. The Quest 2 price hike will let Meta “grow [its] investment” in research and development for VR products, according to a blog post. Meta pointed to the high-end Project Cambria headset as an example, and emphasized that “new generations” of Quest were in the pipeline.

The Quest 2 is still one of the more affordable entry points for VR (you don’t require a PC, after all). That doesn’t make the higher minimum outlay any easier, however, and it potentially opens the door to Pico and other companies that might try to compete on price.

Netflix’s ‘The Gray Man’ is getting a sequel and a spin-off

It’s only been a few days since Netflix started streaming The Gray Man, its most expensive film to date, but the company has already announced plans to turn it into a major franchise. A sequel is in the works with star Ryan Gosling and directors Joe and Anthony Russo returning. Netflix didn’t say when the follow-up is expected to arrive.

A spin-off from Zombieland and Deadpool screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese is in development too. Netflix says that movie will explore a different aspect of The Gray Man universe, but it’s keeping quiet on the details for now.

While critics by and large had a lukewarm reaction to The Gray Man, the film appears to be a hit with viewers. It has a 91 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It debuted as the number one movie on Netflix in 92 countries when it was released last Friday. By Sunday, viewers had collectively streamed 88.55 million hours of the movie, Netflix said.

Whether that apparent success translates into helping Netflix retain subscribers and attract new ones remains to be seen. The company lost almost a million subscribers last quarter, though the attrition wasn’t as bad as Netflix feared.

Netflix spent a reported $200 million to make The Gray Man. So, along with moves the company is making elsewhere, it’s not a huge shock that Netflix is turning it into a franchise. Sequels to other Netflix blockbusters are in the pipeline, including follow-ups to Extraction and Army of the Dead. Netflix also snapped up the sequels to the terrific murder mystery film Knives Out.

In case it’s not clear, Netflix is very eager to build beloved franchises of its own. “We want to have our version of Star Wars or our version of Harry Potter, and we’re working very hard to build that,” the company’s vice president of original series Matthew Thunell told Reuters last week.

Netflix does have a few hit franchises already. A Stranger Things spin-off series and stage play are in development. The company has made a Korean version of La Casa de Papel and is working on a spin-off. It’s expanding Squid Game, Bridgerton and The Witcher beyond the core shows as well.

Update 7/26 3:43PM ET: Added first-weekend viewership figures for The Gray Man.

Meta is shutting down its couples messaging app you didn’t know existed

We hope you weren’t using Meta’s experimental Tuned app to keep your relationship fires burning. Gizmodoreports Meta is shutting down Tuned on September 19th, and that sign-up attempts for the couple-oriented app now produce errors. The company wasn’t shy about its reasons for the move. In a statement to Engadget, a spokesperson said Meta’s New Product Experimentation team winds down apps if they “aren’t sticking.”

Meta’s (then Facebook’s) NPE Team launched Tuned in April 2020 to give partners a “private space” where they could share feelings, love notes, challenges and music streams. The timing was apt (if unintentional) given the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In theory, this helped distant couples cement their bonds when they couldn’t connect in person.

It’s not certain how many people used the app, though. While Meta brought the initially iOS-only software to Android and said there were “many couples” who used Tuned to get closer, there’s little doubt Tuned remained a niche product compared to the likes of Facebook or Instagram. There’s a good chance you’re hearing about this app for the first time, after all. We’d add that there wasn’t much point when you could text, video chat or otherwise use existing services to accomplish many of the same goals.

You might have seen this coming. Meta has routinely shut down experimental apps, and has even axed higher-profile apps when they didn’t gain traction. These closures help the company save resources and focus on more popular platforms. As it stands, Tuned was increasingly an outlier for a tech giant shifting its attention from social networking to the metaverse.

Two of Europe’s biggest internet satellite companies are merging to take on Starlink

Internet satellite operators OneWeb and Eutelsat are planning to merge in the hopes of becoming a stronger rival to SpaceX’s Starlink. The merger, which is subject to approval from regulators and Eutelsat shareholders, is expected to close by mid-2023 and it values OneWeb at $3.4 billion. Shareholders of OneWeb and Eutelsat will each own half of the combined company.

Eutelsat has a fleet of 36 geostationary orbit satellites. These will be combined with OneWeb’s cluster of low-earth orbit satellites, which can provide internet access from the skies. OneWeb currently has 428 satellites in orbit of a planned 648 in its first-generation network.

OneWeb and Eutelsat expect to have combined revenues of €1.2 billion ($1.56 billion) in the 2022-23 fiscal year. Eutelsat chair Dominique D’Hinnin and CEO Eva Berneke will remain in those positions in the merged entity. OneWeb investor Sunil Bharti Mittal will become co-chairman.

The merger comes after OneWeb stumbled in its bid to become a viable competitor to Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper. OneWeb filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2020 as it sought a buyer. The UK government and Mittal’s Bharti Global each paid $500 million for a 45 percent stake in OneWeb. The company secured additional funding in early 2021 to launch hundreds of satellites.

More recently, OneWeb was caught in the crossfire between Russia and the West following the former’s invasion of Ukraine. UK sanctions prompted Russia to block launches of OneWeb satellites — it demanded that the UK sell its stake in OneWeb and wanted assurances the satellites wouldn’t be used for military purposes. OneWeb ended up turning to its rival SpaceX to launch the remainder of its first-gen satellites.

After the expected merger, the UK will retain a “special share” in OneWeb as well as exclusive rights over the company. These grant the government a significant say in national security controls over the network and veto rights over certain decisions, such as the location of OneWeb’s headquarters.

Instagram head responds to backlash by saying video is inevitable

You’re not alone if you think Instagram’s TikTok-like test feed is undercooked, but don’t expect it to go away completely. As CNBCnotes, social network head Adam Mosseri has posted a Twitter clip acknowledging that the video-focused trial feed is “not yet good,” and would need to be improved before it reached all Instagram users. However, he maintained that Instagram would invariably become more video-centric over time as that’s the content people were sharing. Get used to seeing more clips, in other words.

Mosseri also defended the rise of recommended posts in users’ feeds. He contended they were the “most effective and important” ways for creators to grow their audiences. Users could pause all recommendations for a month if they weren’t interested, he said.

The Twitter post is effectively Instagram’s response to a mounting backlash against the video feed and recommendation efforts. High-profile users like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian recently blasted Instagram for “trying to be TikTok,” while posts and petitions have increasingly called on the social media site to “make Instagram Instagram again” by returning its attention to photos.

While Mosseri asked for feedback, there’s no guarantee Instagram will change course. Meta has a long history of duplicating features from social networks that pose a competitive threat, including TikTok and Snapchat. The test feed and recommendations are clearly meant to keep Instagram users from drifting toward TikTok, and Meta is trying a similarly overt strategy with Facebook. So long as Meta is worried that rivals might take its user base, it’s unlikely to completely scrap features like these.

PlayStation VR2 will offer livestreaming support and a ‘Cinematic Mode’

Sony is finally ready to share early details of PlayStation VR2’s software experience, not just the hardware. The company has previewed a few key features for its PS5 VR headset, including livestreaming support. If you have a PS5 HD Camera, you can broadcast both gameplay and a view of yourself. As you might guess, that could be helpful for Twitch streamers, YouTubers and others who want to share their PSVR2 footage without relying on capture cards and green screens.

The company also explained how it will handle non-VR content. The PSVR2 headset will offer a 1080p “Cinematic Mode” that displays the PS5 interface and conventional games on a virtual screen at refresh rates between 24Hz and 120Hz. This is a very familiar experience if you’ve used VR before, but it will still be helpful if you’d rather not remove your headset to change system settings. Native VR content displays at 4,000 x 2040 with a 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rate.

 Other known features exist primarily to prevent accidents. A “see-through” mode lets you quickly peek at the room to avoid a collision or find your controllers. You can also define a customized play area that will warn if you’re too close to the couch or TV. This also isn’t a novel concept, but it could prove crucial to apartment dwellers and anyone else with limited space for walk-around VR experiences.

There are still many more unknowns, such as the VR-native interface. Sony has promised that developers will “soon” have access to this latest experience, though, and it has teased upcoming details for the release date and more games. Don’t be shocked if you hear considerably more about PSVR2 in the near future.