ASRock Rack’s TURIN2D48G-2L+ is a sizable new server motherboard designed to handle the most demanding needs of high-performance computing.

Supporting dual AMD EPYC 9005/ 9004 series processors, including the top-tier 192-core EPYC 9965, this motherboard is engineered for maximum power and memory capacity.

A couple of days back the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that it had successfully completed its third reusable launch vehicle (RLV) landing experiment (LEX) at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Chitradurga, Karnataka. This time, it showed that the launch vehicle could land on its own, even in tougher conditions. This mission tested the approach and landing conditions for a vehicle returning from space at high speeds. It confirmed that ISRO had the necessary skills to develop an RLV. Earlier ISRO’s LEX-01 mission on April 2, 2023, and LEX-02 mission on March 22, 2024, had also been executed flawlessly. 

Following these successful missions, ISRO announced that the RLV LEX-03 mission had, once again, demonstrated the vehicle’s ability to land autonomously. This time, it performed under tougher conditions, including a wider release range of 500 metres compared to LEX-02’s 150 metres and more challenging wind conditions. The 21-foot-long winged vehicle, called ‘Pushpak’, was dropped from an Indian Air Force Chinook helicopter at a height of 4.5 km, and a similar distance away from the runway. Pushpak then automatically adjusted its course, approached the runway and made a precise horizontal landing right at the centre of the runway. 

“As this vehicle has a low lift-to-drag ratio, it had to land at a speed of over 320 km/h. In comparison, commercial planes usually land at around 260 km/h and fighter jets typically land at about 280 km/h. A low lift-to-drag ratio means an aircraft or object generates a relatively smaller lift compared to the drag it experiences, resulting in less efficient flight performance and increased fuel consumption. Drag is the force that resists an object’s motion through air or fluid, slowing it down and requiring energy to overcome,” explained space expert Girish Linganna. 

ISRO noted that this mission tested and confirmed an advanced guidance algorithm that corrects errors in both forward and sideways directions. This system is crucial for future missions where vehicles re-enter Earth’s atmosphere from orbit. 

“The RLV-LEX uses a combination of sensors, including an inertial sensor, radar altimeter, flush air data system, pseudolite system and NavIC. The space agency highlighted that the RLV-LEX-03 mission reused the winged body and flight systems from the previous LEX-02 mission without any changes. This shows ISRO’s strong ability to design flight systems that can be reused for multiple missions,” added Linganna. 

After the success of the LEX programme, ISRO’s ‘Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator’ (RLV-TD) project is set to advance by testing an unmanned Orbital Re-entry Vehicle (ORV). This new vehicle will be about 1.6 times larger than Pushpak. It will be launched into a 400-km orbit within the next two years using a modified geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV).

The ORV mission will carry out several experiments in space. These tests are designed to evaluate a heat shield that protects against high temperatures during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, as well as a foldable landing gear system. 

Over 50 years ago, the idea of reusable launch vehicles emerged. However, it was SpaceX that transformed this concept into reality. In December 2015, SpaceX achieved a historic milestone by successfully landing the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket vertically on a landing pad at Cape Canaveral. Since then, the restoration of Falcon 9 boosters has become routine, and SpaceX continues to push the boundaries with innovations like the reusable nose cone and the Starship rocket—a fully reusable space vehicle currently in testing. 

“An RLV is a vertical (retrograde) multistage launch system that allows for the reuse of some or all of its component stages. Unlike science fiction depictions, we haven’t yet created an all-encompassing reusable launch engine that operates both in the air and space. However, progress is underway, with projects like the Sabre engine in development. Reusing the first stage and nose fairing can slash overall launch costs by 30–40 percent. SpaceX’s RLV can compete across multiple payload classes (medium, heavy, and transitional) by adjusting boosters and choosing between reusable and disposable options,” said Srimathy Kesan, founder and CEO of Space Kidz India, which is into design, fabrication and launch of small satellites, spacecraft and ground systems. 

“Vehicle-Technol India’s space agency, ISRO, has been developing the RLV-TD—a scaled-down prototype to test technologies for future reusable launch vehicles. The RLV-TD has undergone successful hypersonic flight experiments, demonstrating crucial aspects like aerodynamic manoeuvring and autonomous landing,” she added. 

This expert says that achieving vertical reusability demands intricate engineering and precise landing capabilities. “Other reusable technologies, such as horizontal (winged) launch systems, exist. These use jet aircraft as accelerators, simplifying launch requirements but sacrificing payload mass. SpaceX’s success has inspired other players. As the industry evolves, RLVs will continue to shape the future of space exploration, making access to space more sustainable and economically viable,” said Kesan. 

Besides India several countries have pursued, or are pursuing, programmes similar to ISRO’s RLV-TD. For instance, in the United States, the Space Shuttle is one of the most famous reusable spacecraft programmes, that operated from 1981 to 2011 and X-37B is an unmanned, reusable space plane operated by the US Air Force. Similarly in the US SpaceX Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy were partially reusable launch vehicles with landing boosters and Blue Origin’s New Shepard a reusable suborbital launch vehicle. 

In Russia, too Buran which was similar to the US Space Shuttle, only flew once in 1988 and the Federation spacecraft (in development) is a planned partially reusable crewed spacecraft. Also in Europe Space Rider (in development phase) is an unscrewed, reusable space plane by the European Space Agency. China too has a reusable experimental spacecraft which was tested in 2020 but details are limited. 

When one compares ISRO’s RLV-TD with other global peers it is a small-scale technology demonstrator, while some other programmes (such as Space Shuttle) were full-scale operational systems. “ RLV-TD is primarily focused on demonstrating technologies for future reusable vehicles, while some other programmes are or were operational launch systems. In design terms also RLV-TD uses a winged body design similar to the Space Shuttle and X-37B, but different from vertical landing systems, such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9. RLV-TD is still in the early testing phases, while some other programmes are operational, or in advanced stages of development. Also like the X-37B, RLV-TD is designed for autonomous operation, unlike crewed systems, such as the Space Shuttle,” pointed out Linganna. 

While ISRO’s RLV-TD programme is not as advanced as some other countries’ reusable spacecraft programmes, it represents a significant step for India in developing this technology. The programme aims to reduce launch costs and increase access to space, which aligns with global trends in the space industry. 

Imagine yourself 20 years from now, and ask yourself the question: What was Apple’s biggest impact on the world? Since the return of the prodigal Steve Jobs in 1997, the California company has unveiled a series of innovations that have heavily impacted how we use technology today.

Apple’s influence is vast, and its sheer market power means it’s a consultant to companies and governments worldwide. It has many products that have had a lasting impact on our lives, not the least of which is the iPhone and how it changed the smartphone industry. Then there’s the iPod and iPad, which created entirely new categories.

Despite all of these successes, I think Apple’s biggest lasting impact is in an entirely different category: Apple Health. To understand why, we need to briefly look at some key moments in Apple’s history that have shaped its direction today.

A brief history of Apple’s devices portfolio

Think back to the first question; your mind may have immediately jumped to the iPhone, or perhaps thinking of the iPod brought a smile to your face. Apple has a long history of creating products that either overhaul entire categories or create all new categories of their own.

The iPhone is the best example of this. In 2007, Apple introduced the first iPhone, and once it went on sale, it changed your smartphone forever. No more styluses and resistive displays — hello fingers and capacitive screens. Within a year, we had the App Store, then there was FaceTime, Siri, Touch ID, and Face ID. And then the removal of the headphone jack.

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It’s not just the iPhone. The iPod has had a similar impact and helped usher in a digital era for music, and no one has come close to replicating the success of the iPad in the tablet space. For all these successes, there’s one product and area that no one has been able to compete with Apple. That thing is Apple Health.

All roads lead to Apple Health

Apple’s Glowtime event in September saw many announcements. From the iPhone 16 series to the Apple Watch Series 10 and the new AirPods 4, the company unveiled a lot of new products. It also unveiled updates to others, including a new color for the Apple Watch Ultra 2, and a single update for the AirPods Pro 2.

In the long term, Apple’s Glowtime event will be remembered for that single update: the AirPods Pro 2 can now conduct a clinical hearing test, and soon, they’ll be able to act as hearing aids.

We all know people who have lost or have limited function in one or more of their senses and they all act the same way: at some point, there’s a denial that there’s a problem. This is due to more than just denial of the problem; hearing aids are feared because they’re ugly, expensive, and cumbersome, and no one likes going to a doctor.

Now consider the AirPods Pro 2. Apple has sold tens of millions of pairs of these, and we’re all used to seeing them in people’s ears. Diagnosing a hearing problem, and getting a pair of hearing aids, can cost thousands of dollars, but for $249 (unless you grab one of the best AirPods deals), you can achieve the same thing. This will transform millions of lives overnight, and you’re more likely to persuade a friend or loved one in denial to test using their pair of AirPods.

The Apple Watch is the crown jewel in Apple Health

The AirPods Pro 2 is a great example of how any product can be used to improve some aspect of health, but the crown jewel in the Apple Health ecosystem is the Apple Watch. This year was the 10th anniversary of the first Apple Watch, and it’s been documented as saving millions of lives, mine included. The iPhone changed our lives, but did it save them?

The Apple Watch is the most important device that Apple sells right now. Of all the products on Apple’s shelves, it’s the one that markedly improves your life. There’s a suite of health features that could save your life, including high and low-heart-rate notifications, EKG, fall detection, and blood pressure monitoring (at least, on older generations).

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There are also features that can detect AFib and other heart conditions, car crash detection, and Sleep Apnea detection. This latter feature is new for this year and is designed to help diagnose Sleep Apnea in the millions of undiagnosed patients globally. The Apple Health app can sync data to and from most fitness apps — unlike the myriad of equivalent apps on Android that don’t sync to as many apps — and it can even sync your medical records.

The suite of Apple Health features available today is already incredibly strong. Looking down the road for the next few year, it only stands to get better.

The future for Apple lies in Health

Smartphone sales have stagnated over the past few years. Although 1.14 billion smartphones were sold globally in 2023 and there are still millions of new customers who are coming online for the first time, many of these people won’t be able to afford an iPhone. For Apple, the iPhone is designed to bring customers into its ecosystem, but there are not many places that Apple can innovate, at least until it makes a foldable iPhone.

Now think about the Apple Watch. It’s several generations younger than the iPhone, and the entire wearable market is nascent in comparison to smartphones. Crucially, Apple still has a dominant lead, with Apple Watch shipments accounting for 26% of total wearable shipments, according to a recent report from Counterpoint.

I can’t tell you what long-term features Apple is working on for the iPhone, but Apple is working on several Apple Watch features that will be transformative. These include blood pressure monitoring without a cuff and non-invasive blood glucose monitoring. Samsung and Google are both also working on these features, and all three companies are going head-to-head with large pharmaceutical companies in a race to be the first to bring these features to market.

In particular, non-invasive glucose monitoring is considered the holy grail for treating diabetes. I use a continuous glucose monitor that inserts a small needle in my arm and transmits glucose readings to my phone. I change the sensor every 10 days and it costs hundreds of dollars per month for the sensors, even with a premium health insurance plan.

Like the AirPods Pro 2 and hearing aids, consider the possibility of buying a single device from Apple that did all of this instead. These are just two examples of many ways that Apple could become your health provider. The company is on a journey to democratize health for everybody, and in doing so, its impact on our lives will grow ever stronger.

I’m not the only one who thinks so. In late 2020, Tim Cook dived into the Apple Watch and Apple’s approach to Health. He confirmed that the company was initially surprised at how many customers called Apple Health features life-changing, leading him to say: “I do think, looking back, in the future, you will answer that question: Apple’s most important contribution to mankind has been in health.”

Having already been a beneficiary of Apple Health, I can’t wait to see what Apple — and Samsung and Google — do over the next few years to keep growing the mobile health space.

Anker makes some excellent charging products and right now Amazon is lowering the price of the Anker Prime 6-in-1 charging station to its lowest ever. This charging station/power strip normally costs $110, but you can currently pick it up for $70.

This is the lowest we’ve seen this particular product on Amazon, and it looks like it was discounted just this week based on the price history from Camel Camel Camel. It also usually sits at around $99. So this is definitely a good deal.

As a charging station and power strip with multiple ports and outlets, you’ll be able to charge several devices at one time. This is a 6-in-1 charging station so that’s 6 devices. There are two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, and then two AC outlets. So you could use the USB ports for charging your phone, smartwatch, earbuds, and tablet, and then use the AC outlets for your laptop charger for example. Now remember this is also a compact power strip, so you could also use the AC outlets for plugging in other devices like lamps or clocks. Or really anything that needs to be plugged into an AC outlet.

This charging station is very slim so it should easily fit in your bag if you need to take it with you places. Plus, it has a power output of 140W. Which is more than enough to charge pretty much any smaller device. Even bigger devices like the Switch or Steam Deck.

Another really neat feature is that there’s a small display on the front of the charging station. This shows you how much power is coming from which port. So you know at all times which devices are charging quicker. Which is pretty handy.

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Blumhouse wasn’t going to publish a game in 2024. The studio, one of the leading names in horror films, announced in February 2023 that it was launching a video game publishing business and executives were scouting projects from independent teams with budgets under $10 million. The goal of Blumhouse Games was to support a few rad horror titles per year, with a tentative plan to start publishing them in 2025.

But then, in September 2023, the Blumhouse folks stumbled across Fear the Spotlight. It was a moody, voxelized horror game about two friends sneaking around their haunted high school and communing with the ghosts of students that died in a fire in the ’90s. Spooky shenanigans and mysterious puzzles ensued, all presented in third-person and with a gritty PS One aesthetic. Fear the Spotlight was a PC game made by Crista Castro and Bryan Singh of Cozy Game Pals, a husband-and-wife team with impressive professional credentials: Castro was an art director at Nickelodeon and the art lead on the Animaniacs reboot, and Singh was a programmer who worked on The Last of Us and Uncharted series and Journey. They left their corporate jobs and founded Cozy Game Pals during the pandemic, and Fear the Spotlight was their first major project together.

Fear the Spotlight didn’t have a particularly buzzy debut, but a few weeks after it hit Steam, Blumhouse Games president Zach Wood and creative lead Louise Blain happened to spot it on Twitter. Castro told Engadget how it went down:

“Zach found it, and he and Louise Blain sat down and played it together and were like, oh my gosh, this is exactly the kind of game that we want to be publishing, this is really great. Let’s reach out to them and see, do they need any help? Is there something here that we can work together on?”

“Meanwhile, yes, we did need help,” Singh added, laughing. “We had released it, but we had no idea how to get people to know about it. The people that were finding it were saying very positive things, and we’re like, OK, that’s great, but now what do we do? We know how to make things, but we don’t know anything else about marketing.”

Blumhouse signed Cozy Game Pals and asked how they could help improve Fear the Spotlight. At first, Castro and Singh suggested porting it to consoles and adding additional languages, basic things to get the existing game in front of more players.

“They were excited about the idea, but then they also offered more time,” Singh said. “They asked, what would you do if you had an extra year to work on it?”

The opportunity to expand Fear the Spotlight caught Castro and Singh by surprise. It also scared them, at first.

“We had never really considered a significant addition to the game before that,” Singh said. “And we also had what we thought was a finished game that we were really proud of. So it was really, really difficult to figure out how to add to a thing that we felt was finished; we didn’t want to ruin it. Part of it is our taste and our work, but also part of it feels like black magic. Like, if we mess with it, is it going to come out in a way that we’re proud of?”

Castro and Singh took the chance. On October 26, 2023, about one month after Fear the Spotlight’s debut, they removed it from Steam with the promise that they’d add new gameplay, console versions and localization features. They didn’t mention Blumhouse at the time. Behind the scenes, Blumhouse Games gave Cozy Game Pals one year to create the definitive version of Fear the Spotlight, with no creative restrictions.

The revamped version of Fear the Spotlight came out on Steam, PS4, PS5, Switch and Xbox Series X/S on October 22, 2024, developed by Cozy Game Pals and published by Blumhouse Games. It’s the first game in Blumhouse’s publishing roster, which includes future titles from EYES OUT, Half Mermaid, Perfect Garbage, Playmestudio and Vermila Studios.

Cozy Game Pals used the year of extra development time well. Rather than messing with the black magic of the original, Castro and Singh added an entirely new segment, doubling the game’s run time and expanding on their initial ideas in sophisticated, extra-horrific ways. Fear the Spotlight, by the way, is an excellent horror experience. It has low-poly environments, low-res textures and grainy CRT effects, but its animations are smooth and the camera uses friendly third-person controls, nailing the nostalgia without compromising modern conveniences. The story revolves around two teenage friends, Vivian and Amy, and takes them on individual but connected journeys through twisted, spirit-infested versions of reality. Their dialogue and personalities feel authentic, and their emotions are incredibly relatable, whether in the face of unspeakable horrors or just when talking to a crush. It has a few good jump scares, too.

The first half of Fear the Spotlight is packed with satisfying puzzles, spooky phantoms and tense hide-and-seek mechanics. The second half, created after Blumhouse’s intervention, adds layers of emotional depth and introduces a truly terrifying foe. Vivian is the main playable character in the original version and Amy’s story takes center stage in the expanded content.

“The first Vivian story was really us figuring out how to make this game,” Castro said. “But then by the time we were making Amy’s, we had so many lessons learned. I feel like the monster is better, the puzzles are better, the storytelling is more streamlined. The second half wraps it up really nicely.”

On top of handling the art, Castro was the main writer on Fear the Spotlight, while Singh handled programming. Castro was the diehard horror fan in the relationship — he was a Resident Evil boy, she was a Silent Hill girl (read to the theme of Avril Lavigne’s Sk8er Boi) — and together, they wanted to capture the fun of being scared in video game form. Fear the Spotlight draws from their personal lives and memories of high school, when every emotion felt new, extreme and sometimes silly. From this lens, Fear the Spotlight also deftly handles serious topics like loss, death, prejudice and love.

“It’s just such an impactful time in our, in most people’s lives,” Castro said. “I grew up playing these games in the ’90s or in the early 2000s, like Silent Hill one and two and three. So thinking back to high school and how I felt, writing the story was just like, I can only write from my own personal experience. Having a crush and feeling awkward, and when you actually bond with someone, how special that is.”

Singh continued the thread, saying, “I think the home-life stuff — we bond over a lot of our shared experience, which is also represented in the game. Families are complicated, family structures. Having a father that’s not present in your life, or the loss of a very close family member, it just changes you and affects you. Those are just pulled from our lives.”

Castro and Singh lovingly described Blumhouse Games as a scrappy team of horror fans, with fewer than 10 people supporting a handful of projects at once, and doing so while trying to prove themselves in a new market. On top of handling trailers and press for Fear the Spotlight’s re-release, the Blumhouse crew helped Cozy Game Pals find a contractor to do a logo and key art, a porting company to help get the game on consoles, and a localization team. More than any of that, though, Castro and Singh said the people at Blumhouse Games seem to truly enjoy the projects they’ve signed.

“They’ve just been the ideal partner, incredibly supportive,” Castro said. “They really let us decide everything for our game, the game is completely our vision. We would show them prototypes and level designs and of course, they had feedback and thoughts, but yeah — ”

“They know our game really well,” Singh said. “They’re genuine fans of the original release. They know our game intimately and can talk to us about our ideas from a very informed perspective.”

Castro concluded, “They come from it from a support perspective. Like, how can we help you guys create your vision that you care about, that you’re happy with. It’s been amazing.”

Fear the Spotlight is available now for $20 on Steam, PS4, PS5, Switch and Xbox Series X/S.

While many venture investors, and likely their LPs, were hoping IPOs were going to come back in 2024, that hasn’t happened and isn’t likely to in the next two months.

NASDAQ CEO Adena Friedman isn’t surprised.

Friedman said at Axios’s BFD event on Tuesday that while on paper the public markets have been experiencing a spectacular year with the S&P 500 up about 22%, there’s more to the story than the headline number. Friedman said that the S&P is overweight toward larger cap companies, as it should be. And on the strength of such companies Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft and so on, this index of companies has performed well.

But not all areas of the public market are having a great year, and those companies with smaller valuations are really struggling.

“It’s a little bit of a tale of two cities,” Friedman said. “Large cap, which has done very well, and you can kind of see in the S&P 500, you have a 10% kind of valuation increase in a large cap. But if you look at the small cap index, they’re actually down 10%.”

While the exact definition of a small cap company varies, there is a general agreement that it refers to companies under $2 billion which would fit a substantial amount of today’s late-stage startups. So that’s a data point telling them investors aren’t so interested in them.

Many late-stage startups are also not fully ready to go out and have a successful IPO, Friedman said. Companies want to have a really strong year of financials before they debut, which many companies likely don’t have yet after a tougher 2022 and 2023. And, in this atmosphere of higher interest rates, any company that is still in the red and burning through cash to support its growth, could face a particularly harsh reception from public investors.

“They want to have 12 months of really strong performance before they start to think about coming out,” Friedman said. “The cost of capital environment has made it so that companies, those that are relying on capital to continue to grow their businesses, are definitely trading at a discount.”

It doesn’t hurt that the private markets have become a safer place for companies to hang out as well. The secondaries market has been particularly hot all year – where investors buy stock in private companies, often in company-approved transactions. This has allowed late-stage companies to get some needed liquidity for their investors and/or employees. So it doesn’t seem like VCs are really pushing their portfolio companies toward the public market in these not-ideal conditions. One example is telemedicine provider Ro, last valued at $6.6 billion when it raised cash in 2022. Ro CEO Zach Reitano said the benefits of staying a private company are growing just about an hour before Friedman took the stage.

Friedman said she thinks IPOs will start to return with momentum in 2025. She added that there have been some positive recent biotech IPOs that have shown there is appetite for these younger companies. For instance, Tempus AI had a successful debut in June; raising $410 million; So did Bicara Therapeutics in September, raising $362 million, among others. Though, despite Friedman’s optimism, some of the biotech’s who went public this year didn’t see their share prices maintain their IPO-day prices.

She also naturally thinks that there is a good reason for companies to go public as it spreads the wealth to more than just a handful of private investors.

There were 14 venture-backed IPOs in the U.S. this year through the third quarter, according to PitchBook data. There have been 51 in total so far in 2024, meaning this year may not even match last year’s 86 total or 2022’s 81.

There does seem to be more momentum for a 2025 IPO market brewing already with names like Chime, Klarna and CoreWeave all seemingly moving in that direction.