Technologies

Geminid 2021 meteor shower peaks tonight: How to see the shooting stars

Winter sky watchers will want to bundle up for a show that tends to deliver year after year.

This year’s Geminids, the annual meteor shower the American Meteor Society calls «the most dependable» on its calendar, reaches peak activity on Monday night and Tuesday morning.

The Geminids become active each December when Earth drifts through a cloud of debris ejected from the large asteroid 3200 Phaethon. It’s unusual for a meteor shower to trace back to an asteroid rather than a comet, but this asteroid acts a little bit like a comet in the way it shoots dust everywhere.

While the Geminids can be relied upon to produce meteors, unfortunately this year they’ll be competing with a bright moon much of the night. In most locations, the best viewing opportunities may come in the chilly early morning hours after the moon sets but before the sun rises, roughly between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. local time.

The Geminids are also among the brighter and more colorful meteor showers out there, making it worth bundling up to confront the cold temperatures that many skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere will have to contend with. Unfortunately, while meteors are visible south of the equator, the Geminids are significantly less impressive.

If you just can’t make it outside in those off hours, it may still be worth venturing out in the evening hours in the hopes you may catch a bright fireball known as an Earth grazer. Look toward the northeastern horizon before 11 p.m. local time and you just might get lucky.

If your only window for observation comes when the moon is still up, you can try to put something like a building or a tree in between the moon and your viewing site. This obviously restricts your overall view of the sky, but might prevent so many shooting stars from getting washed out by moonlight.

Whatever your viewing plan, be sure to get as broad a view of a clear sky as possible, with minimal light pollution. Lie on your back, give your eyes time to adjust and just relax and watch. Try to allow at least an hour for the entire experience, which means you’ll want to dress appropriately and bring some snacks.

Finally, if Monday night and Tuesday morning just don’t work out, the following night should also provide an impressive display, but keep in mind that the moon will set about an hour later.

Best of luck, and stay warm out there.

Technologies

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Technologies

Apple’s New Smart Home Display Delayed Until Fall Over Siri Issues

It has been nearly a year and a half since the company announced the AI-powered product.

Your home could get smarter with Apple’s Siri, but it will have to wait a few more months. Bloomberg reported the iPad-shaped AI home hub won’t be ready until September, several months after the company was hoping to launch it this spring. Apple engineers first need to complete work on a new and improved Siri assistant for the home device, code-named J490, according to Bloomberg.

Apple was hoping to release J490 this month, along with a slew of other new devices, including the iPhone 17e, MacBook Neo, MacBook Air M5, new Pro models, and iPad Air M4. Apple first teased the smart home display in November 2024.

A representative for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Siri is Apple’s virtual assistant that uses voice recognition and AI to fulfill a variety of tasks and commands, along with intriguing uses. You might use Siri to find your iPhone — «Hey Siri, where are you?» — or to hear the weather forecast — «Siri, what will the weather be today?» Siri is available on iPhones, MacBooks and iPads. It was launched in 2011 as a feature of the iPhone 4S.

As CNET reported last month, Apple engineers have struggled to push the upgraded Siri assistant out the door. It isn’t fast enough, gets confused by complex commands and doesn’t interact well with other Apple AI models. The company is also wrestling with how much personal data to access to inform the AI, and the new Siri is not yet able to complete in-app tasks, such as finding a photo and posting it to socials, all with one command.

It has been nearly two years since Apple announced that it would give Siri a major upgrade. In the meantime, competitors like Alexa Plus and Gemini for Home have entered the marketplace.

Tech tester Jon Rettinger, whose YouTube channel has 1.66 million subscribers, says the repeated delays in upgrading Siri can «erode» confidence in Apple’s ability to keep up in the AI race.

«Apple as a whole is still one of the strongest companies on the planet. But their AI play is clearly the weakest link in an otherwise very strong chain,» Rettinger told CNET.

Rettinger said he has had issues getting Siri to complete basic commands, such as setting two alarms at the same time, and that it’s a bit of «a mess» right now.

«Having said that, the iPhone has such massive market penetration that I’m not sure it will actually matter in the end. Which is kind of wild when you think about it,» Rettinger said.

Facial recognition for residents

The hardware for the forthcoming smart home display has already been finished. It resembles an iPad and can be either attached to a wall or rest on a half-domed-shaped base, the Bloomberg report said.

The device will be equipped with facial recognition, so when residents walk up to it, they will be shown personalized data such as music preferences, news headlines, appointments, reminders, tasks and so on.

The screen interface will include a bunch of circular app icons, similar to the display on an Apple Watch. The Bloomberg report said the smart home display will be the first of several home devices by Apple. Future products include a tabletop robotic limb with a 9-inch screen, a smart security camera and a Face ID-enabled smart doorbell.