Technologies

The New Year Will Kick Off With a Supermoon. Here’s When to See It

January’s Wolf Moon will be the final of four consecutive supermoons.

Supermoons tend to come in packs, and Earth has just experienced three of them in a row, dating back to October. The final supermoon of this sequence is happening on Jan. 3, and it also happens to be the first supermoon of 2026. Skygazers will want to catch this one, since the next one won’t occur until next November.

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The moon tends to spend three to four months at a time in perigee, a fancy term that means it’s as close to Earth as its elliptical orbit will allow. During this time, humans refer to full moons as a supermoon. Since the moon is physically closer to Earth than it normally is, a full moon appears brighter and larger in the sky.

The difference can be a moon that is up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than a micromoon, which occurs when the moon is at apogee, or the furthest point away from Earth. That brightness is the real differentiator, as a supermoon is bright enough to light up your backyard, especially if there is snow on the ground.

The odds of this are pretty good, as it is expected to snow in a few parts of the US between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.

To see the moon at its brightest, you’ll want to stay up late on Jan. 2 or wake up very early on Jan. 3. According to The Farmer’s Almanac, January’s supermoon will rise from the eastern horizon and streak across the sky to settle in the west around sunrise. The moon will reach peak illumination at 5:03 a.m. ET. It should still be dark outside for the entire US during this time, so everyone will have a chance to see it.

If you can’t due to weather or other engagements, the Wolf Moon will be over 90% full from Dec. 31 through Jan. 5, which gives you almost a week at near-maximum illumination.

Since the moon is the largest and brightest object in the night sky, you also won’t need any special magnification devices to see it. However, a good pair of binoculars or a telescope makes the moon’s surface details easier to see, and helps photographers take some impressive moon shots.

The full moon in January is commonly called the Wolf Moon, and it’s due to increased activity from wolves during this time. Not only does January mark the beginning of the wolf’s winter mating season, but wolves are also typically more active during the dusk and dawn hours, and dusk happens pretty early in the day, right after the winter solstice. In the old days, this meant that people were much more likely to see a wolf or hear wolves howling during January.

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.