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Off-the-shelf satellite bus business Apex raised $95 million in new funding

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Fresh off the success of its first mission, a satellite manufacturer Top closed $95 million in new capital to scale its operations.

The Los Angeles-based startup successfully launched and put into service its first spacecraft in March, a model called Aries. The mission apparently went off and not using a hitch – a rarity in the space industry – and with its aerospace heritage, the corporate is targeted solely on development.

This includes increasing production of the Aries vehicle and investing in the event and production of the Nova spacecraft, which has a mass roughly twice that of Aries. The company is on the right track to provide five Aries this 12 months alone, Apex CEO and co-founder Ian Cinnamon told TechCrunch.

Apex was created based on the thesis that considered one of the foremost bottlenecks facing the event of the space industry is the production of satellite buses. Cinnamon and his co-founder, Maximilian Benassi, intend to essentially manufacture (i.e. produce and sell in standard formats) satellite buses – which have historically been subject to individual engineering processes and really long lead times – and rapidly expand the flexibility of corporations to send their payloads into orbit .

The same innovations which have increased demand for access to space – namely, falling launch costs due to SpaceX Falcon 9 ride-sharing missions – have also created the conditions for victory in the manufactured spacecraft market. Up to a certain volume, customers pay the identical to fly to orbit, so Cinnamon and Benassi realized that the spacecraft might be standardized and even barely redesigned without the extra cost of launching to the shopper.

Cinnamon said the concentrate on productivity has created a powerful foundation for the corporate. “For every satellite bus that we have sold or are in the process of selling, we are able to indicate very clearly: here is the selling price, here are the economics of our unit, here is what our margin is,” he said. “We are usually transparent with our customers and let them know that we do not strive to offer the lowest price on the market… We are sometimes able to charge an additional fee for very short delivery times.”

This vibrant economic picture has undoubtedly proven compelling for investors. While there was a variety of buzz around hard tech currently, “investors are still very keen to put their money into businesses where they can really see the fundamentals,” Cinnamon said.

According to Cinnamon, a silver lining for the corporate is that the majority customers are usually not interested in purchasing a single satellite, but in purchasing multiple satellites, with purchases often stretching over time because the constellation is built.

The company is approaching fifty people, and that number will likely double by the tip of this 12 months.

The funding round was led by early Apex investors XYZ Venture Capital and co-led by CRV, with participation from new investors Upfront, 8VC, Toyota Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Mirae Asset Capital, Outsiders Fund, GSBackers and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Shield Capital, J2 Ventures, Ravelin, Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt and Avalon Capital Group.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident

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Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.

In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”

Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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It’s a Raspberry Pi 5 in a keyboard and it’s called Raspberry Pi 500

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Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.

The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.

The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.

More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)

Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.

The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.

Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.

In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.

Image credits:Raspberry Pi

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Apple Vision Pro may add support for PlayStation VR controllers

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Vision Pro headset

According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.

However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.

Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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