In late September, a Spanish military plane carrying the country’s defense minister to a base in Lithuania was reportedly the subject of a kind of attack—not by a rocket or anti-aircraft rounds, but by radio transmissions that jammed its GPS system.
The flight landed safely, but it was one of thousands that have been affected by a far-reaching Russian campaign of GPS interference since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The growing inconvenience to air traffic and risk of a real disaster have highlighted the vulnerability of GPS and focused attention on more secure ways for planes to navigate the gauntlet of jamming and spoofing, the term for tricking a GPS receiver into thinking it’s somewhere else.
US military contractors are rolling out new GPS satellites that use stronger, cleverer signals, and engineers are working on providing better navigation information based on other sources, like cellular transmissions and visual data.
But another approach that’s emerging from labs is quantum navigation: exploiting the quantum nature of light and atoms to build ultra-sensitive sensors that can allow vehicles to navigate independently, without depending on satellites. As GPS interference becomes more of a problem, research on quantum navigation is leaping ahead, with many researchers and companies now rushing to test new devices and techniques. In recent months, the US’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and its Defense Innovation Unit have announced new grants to test the technology on military vehicles and prepare for operational deployment.
Tracking changes
Perhaps the most obvious way to navigate is to know where you started and then track where you go by recording the speed, direction, and duration of travel. But while this approach, known in the field as inertial navigation, is conceptually simple, it’s difficult to do well; tiny uncertainties in any of those measurements compound over time and lead to big errors later on. Douglas Paul, the principal investigator of the UK’s Hub for Quantum Enabled Precision, Navigation & Timing (QEPNT), says that existing specialized inertial-navigation devices might be off by 20 kilometers after 100 hours of travel. Meanwhile, the cheap sensors commonly used in smartphones produce more than twice that level of uncertainty after just one hour.
“If you’re guiding a missile that flies for one minute, that might be good enough,” he says. “If you’re in an airliner, that’s definitely not good enough.”
A more accurate version of inertial navigation instead uses sensors that rely on the quantum behavior of subatomic particles to more accurately measure acceleration, direction, and time.
Several companies, like the US-based Infleqtion, are developing quantum gyroscopes, which track a vehicle’s bearing, and quantum accelerometers, which can reveal how far it’s traveled. Infleqtion’s sensors are based on a technique called atom interferometry: A beam of rubidium atoms is zapped with precise laser pulses, which split the atoms into two separate paths. Later, other laser pulses recombine the atoms, and they’re measured with a detector. If the vehicle has turned or accelerated while the atoms are in motion, the two paths will be slightly out of phase in a way the detector can interpret.
Last year the company trialed these inertial sensors on a customized plane flying at a British military testing site. In October of this year, Infleqtion ran its first real-world test of a new generation of inertial sensors that use a steady stream of atoms instead of pulses, allowing for continuous navigation and avoiding long dead times.
A view of Infleqtion’s atomic clock Tiqker.
COURTESY INFLEQTION
Infleqtion also has an atomic clock, called Tiqker, that can help determine how far a vehicle has traveled. It is a kind of optical clock that uses infrared lasers tuned to a specific frequency to excite electrons in rubidium, which then release photons at a consistent, known rate. The device “will lose one second every 2 million years or so,” says Max Perez, who oversees the project, and it fits in a standard electronics equipment rack. It has passed tests on flights in the UK, on US Army ground vehicles in New Mexico, and, in late October, on a drone submarine.
“Tiqker operated happily through these conditions, which is unheard-of for previous generations of optical clocks,” says Perez. Eventually the company hopes to make the unit smaller and more rugged by switching to lasers generated by microchips.
Magnetic fields
Vehicles deprived of satellite-based navigation are not entirely on their own; they can get useful clues from magnetic and gravitational fields that surround the planet. These fields vary slightly depending on the location, and the variations, or anomalies, are recorded in various maps. By precisely measuring the local magnetic or gravitational field and comparing those values with anomaly maps, quantum navigation systems can track the location of a vehicle.
Allison Kealy, a navigation researcher at Swinburne University in Australia, is working on the hardware needed for this approach. Her team uses a material called nitrogen-vacancy diamond. In NV diamonds, one carbon atom in the lattice is replaced with a nitrogen atom, and one neighboring carbon atom is removed entirely. The quantum state of the electrons at the NV defect is very sensitive to magnetic fields. Carefully stimulating the electrons and watching the light they emit offers a way to precisely measure the strength of the field at the diamond’s location, making it possible to infer where it’s situated on the globe.
Kealy says these quantum magnetometers have a few big advantages over traditional ones, including the fact that they measure the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field in addition to its strength. That additional information could make it easier to determine location.
The technology is far from commercial deployment, but Kealy and several colleagues successfully tested their magnetometer in a set of flights in Australia late last year, and they plan to run more trials this year and next. “This is where it gets exciting, as we transition from theoretical models and controlled experiments to on-the-ground, operational systems,” she says. “This is a major step forward.”
Delicate systems
Other teams, like Q-CTRL, an Australian quantum technology company, are focusing on using software to build robust systems from noisy quantum sensors. Quantum navigation involves taking those delicate sensors, honed in the placid conditions of a laboratory, and putting them in vehicles that make sharp turns, bounce with turbulence, and bob with waves, all of which interferes with the sensors’ functioning. Even the vehicles themselves present problems for magnetometers, especially “the fact that the airplane is made of metal, with all this wiring,” says Michael Biercuk, the CEO of Q-CTRL. “Usually there’s 100 to 1,000 times more noise than signal.”
After Q-CTRL engineers ran trials of their magnetic navigation system in a specially outfitted Cessna last year, they used machine learning to go through the data and try to sift out the signal from all the noise. Eventually they found they could track the plane’s location up to 94 times as accurately as a strategic-grade conventional inertial navigation system could, according to Biercuk. They announced their findings in a non-peer-reviewed paper last spring.
In August Q-CTRL received two contracts from DARPA to develop its “software-ruggedized” mag-nav product, named Ironstone Opal, for defense applications. The company is also testing the technology with commercial partners, including the defense contractors Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin and Airbus, an aerospace manufacturer.
An illustration showing the placement of Q-CTRL’s Ironstone Opal in a drone.
COURTESY Q-CTRL
“Northrop Grumman is working with Q-CTRL to develop a magnetic navigation system that can withstand the physical demands of the real world,” says Michael S. Larsen, a quantum systems architect at the company. “Technology like magnetic navigation and other quantum sensors will unlock capabilities to provide guidance even in GPS-denied or -degraded environments.”
Now Q-CTRL is working on putting Ironstone Opal into a smaller, more rugged container appropriate for deployment; currently, “it looks like a science experiment because it is a science experiment,” says Biercuk. He anticipates delivering the first commercial units next year.
Sensor fusion
Even as quantum navigation emerges as a legitimate alternative to satellite-based navigation, the satellites themselves are improving. Modern GPS III satellites include new civilian signals called L1C and L5, which should be more accurate and harder to jam and spoof than current signals. Both are scheduled to be fully operational later this decade.
US and allied military users are intended to have access to far hardier GPS tools, including M-code, a new form of GPS signal that is rolling out now, and Regional Military Protection, a focused GPS beam that will be restricted to small geographic areas. The latter will start to become available when the GPS IIIF generation of satellites is in orbit, with the first scheduled to go up in 2027. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson says new GPS satellites with M-code are eight times as powerful as previous ones, while the GPS IIIF model will be 60 times as strong.
Other plans involve using navigation satellites in low Earth orbit—the zone inhabited by SpaceX’s internet-providing Starlink constellation—rather than the medium Earth orbit used by GPS. Since objects in LEO are closer to Earth, their signals are stronger, which makes them harder to jam and spoof. LEO satellites also transit the sky more quickly, which makes them harder still to spoof and helps GPS receivers get a lock on their position faster. “This really helps for signal convergence,” says Lotfi Massarweh, a satellite navigation researcher at Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands. “They can get a good position in just a few minutes. So that is a huge leap.”
Ultimately, says Massarweh, navigation will depend not only on satellites, quantum sensors, or any other single technology, but on the combination of all of them. “You need to think always in terms of sensor fusion,” he says.
The navigation resources that a vehicle draws on will change according to its environment—whether it’s an airliner, a submarine, or an autonomous car in an urban canyon. But quantum navigation will be one important resource. He says, “If quantum technology really delivers what we see in the literature—if it’s stable over one week rather than tens of minutes—at that point it is a complete game changer.”
Theologians give scriptural OK to online faith communities
The Bishop of Hong Kong said last week that AI was definitely not a gift from the devil at a meeting of his peers across Asia that called for sensible engagement with the technology.…
Instagram user ryc._1216 showed off his incredible PC build in a 30-second clip on the social media site. The maker is playing Arena Breakout: Infinite, the FPS extraction shooter that was released in September.
OnePlus has confirmed the OnePlus Turbo series, promising flagship-style performance, standout battery life, and a gaming-first focus at a lower price point. Specs, pricing, and a launch date are still unknown.
The Amazon Fire TV Stick HD is back on sale at Amazon, and if you're wanting to upgrade your streaming device before Christmas, now is the time. As of Dec. 16, you can save $16 with the new price of $18.99. That's a 46% savings on list price.
This streaming stick is designed for HD TVs and supports Full HD playback. It's easy to set up (just insert it into your TV's HDMI port) and easy to use, bringing the Fire OS to your TV, meaning all your favorite shows and movies are easy to access. You'll have access to the top streaming apps too, including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and more. And if live TV is more your thing, enjoy access with Sling TV, YouTube TV, and other popular options.
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You can even use Alexa voice commands to search and launch content across multiple apps, watch live TV, news, or even have it search the web. Simply hold down the blue Alexa button on the remote control and speak. It can even be used to control other smart home devices, like your lights or robot vacuums.
Looking to upgrade your TV in time for Christmas? You still have time, because as of Dec. 16, there's a great deal on the Fire TV 2-Series at Amazon. The 32-inch model is currently on sale for $109.99, saving you $40.
And you're getting so much with this TV, including 720p resolution with support for HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Digital Audio. The Fire TV OS also keeps all of your entertainment easily accessible, with access to live TV, video games, and streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and more.
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If you have several Amazon TV devices, like a Fire TV Stick, content will stay in sync across each device, meaning you can move from room to room and pick up watching where you left off. The TV also supports Alexa voice control with the remote, allowing you to search for content, check sports scores, and manage compatible smart home devices like robot vacuums or lights.
Connectivity-wise, you'll get two standard HDMI inputs, an HDMI ARC port for audio equipment, Bluetooth support, and access to games through the app store, Amazon Luna, and Twitch.
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When you hear about a Mike Flanagan and Stephen King collab, you automatically assume it's a horror flick. But The Life of Chuck is far from it.
Part post-apocalyptic thriller, part feel-good coming-of-age drama, and part ghost story, The Life of Chuck is based off a short story of King's and it's one of our favorite films of the year. Starring Tom Hiddleston as Chuck Krantz and a wonderful ensemble cast including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Annalise Basso, Benjamin Pajak, Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Matthew Lillard, Carl Lumbly, Samantha Sloyan, Harvey Guillén, Jacob Tremblay, Kate Siegel, and Mark Hamill, it weaves a tale of love, loss, and joys in living. It's a real crowd pleaser.
If you didn't catch it in theaters, now's your chance to stream it at home. Here's everything you need to know about how to watch The Life of Chuck.
What is The Life of Chuck about?
Written and directed by Mike Flanagan, The Life of Chuck marks his third Stephen King adaptation following 2017’s Gerald’s Game and 2019’s Doctor Sleep. Based on the King novella of the same name, it begins in a world plagued by catastrophe. School teacher Marty Anderson (Ejiofor) is dealing with an onslaught of bad news, from natural disasters to the internet going down for good. As he's trying to make sense of things, he's distracted by a billboard honoring Charles "Chuck" Krantz (Hiddleston) for "39 great years." Who is this mystery man, and why are these billboards appearing in what seems to be the end of the world as we know it?
The Life of Chuck blends genres in three chapters to explore the life of an average guy, Chuck, and his profound impact on the world.
While it didn't get the biggest crowd at the box office, those who did show up for The Life of Chuck loved it. It holds an 81 percent critic rating and 88 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and earned the coveted People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024, beating out Oscar winner Anora and nominee Emilia Pérez.
"The Life of Chuck is masterfully told. Like King's most moving adaptations, it doesn't play by standard rules of structure or audience expectations. It demands we follow the winding road through playful dialogue, painful lows, and rollicking highs, to an unknown beyond," Mashable's Kristy Puchko writes. "It's surprising and upsetting, funny and profound. I laughed hard, cried 'til my eyes ached, and once gasped so loud that I heard it echo across a theater struck silent by a moment both shocking and tender."
The Life of Chuck opened in theaters nationwide on June 13, 2025, after premiering at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. If you missed out, no biggie; it's now officially available to watch at home. You'll have three different ways to watch as of Dec. 23: buy it on digital video-on-demand retailers, rent it from digital video-on-demand retailers, or stream it. See the details below.
Buy or rent on digital
The Neon film officially made its at-home debut via video-on-demand retailers like Prime Video and Apple TV on July 29. And as of Dec. 12, the rental price has dropped to just $5.99. You can purchase The Life of Chuck for your own digital library or rent it for 30 days. Just keep in mind that with rentals, you'll only have 48 hours to finish watching once you start.
Here are some quick links to buy or rent the film on digital:
As a Neon film, it's no surprise that The Life of Chuck is set to make its streaming debut on Hulu as of Dec. 23. We were expecting a late fall release in November 2025, based on the theater-to-streaming windows for other Neon films, but Neon took its time with this one. Fortunately, it's worth the wait.
Hulu subscriptions start at $11.99 per month (thanks to a recent price hike), but there are a few different ways you can save. We've rounded up the best ongoing Hulu streaming deals below.
The best way to cut the price of a Hulu subscription is to opt for an annual plan instead of a monthly plan. By paying for a year upfront for $119.99 (which breaks down to $9.99 per month), you'll save about 16% or just shy of $24. Sure, it's not a ton of money, but every dollar counts.
One of the best deals in the streaming world is Disney's bundle plan. You can get both Disney+ and Hulu with ads in the Duo Basic bundle for just $12.99 per month. That's only a dollar more than paying for one streamer on its own, saving you about 45% total. You could also throw HBO Max into the mix for an extra $7 per month. That's $19.99 per month for three different services, which saves you about 42%.
College students can save 83% or $10 per month on a Hulu with ads subscription. Sign up through the Hulu Student promotional page and verify your college email address via SheerID, and the price will drop from $11.99 to just $1.99 per month.
Aside from the free trial, the only way you can get Hulu for free in 2025 is through T-Mobile's Go5G Next and Experience Beyond plans. Better yet, you'll also get Netflix and Apple TV+ for free. If you're already on one of these plans, head over to the T-Mobile promo page and choose "redeem now" to claim the offer. You'll just have to enter your T-Mobile number and account details to sign up for Hulu. If you're not on the Go5G Next plan or Experience Beyond plan, make the switch to start taking advantage of the best free streaming lineup around.
If you're still on the hunt for the perfect Christmas gift for the runner in your life, take a look at this latest Amazon deal on the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2. This pair of bone conducting earbuds is currently on sale for $40, and as of Dec. 16 you can purchase for just $139.95.
Bone conduction headphones sit on your cheekbones and transmit sound through vibrations directly to your inner ear, rather than through the ear canal (air conduction, which is the traditional way sound reaches your ears). They keep ears open, so you can still hear background sounds like traffic or conversations. They’re especially useful for running and cycling, keeping the user safe and aware of their surroundings.
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The Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 combine bone conduction with air conduction technology using dual drivers to give you a powerful sound. You can adjust the listening experience using dedicated EQ modes in the Shokz app, too. These modes include a Classic Mode and a Volume Boost option for noisier environments. If you use your earbuds for calls or voice notes, dual wind-resistant microphones and AI noise reduction are designed to reduce background noise, including wind, so your voice is picked up nice and clear.
The battery life is impressive too, with a single charge promising to last up to 12 hours, and it only takes an hour to charge up.
TL;DR: Live stream New York Knicks vs. San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Cup for free with a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The NBA Cup final is finally here, and no, it doesn't involve the Oklahoma City Thunder. They were dumped out at the semi-final stage by Wemby's San Antonio Spurs, setting up a final showdown with the New York Knicks. It's going to be an electric contest between two star-studded teams.
If you want to watch Knicks vs. Spurs in the NBA Cup final for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
When is Knicks vs. Spurs?
Knicks vs. Spurs in the NBA Cup final starts at 8;30 p.m. ET on Dec. 16. This game takes place at the T-Mobile Arena.
This free live stream is geo-restricted to the U.S., but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the U.S., meaning you can access free live streams of the NBA from anywhere in the world.
Stream the NBA for free by following these simple steps:
$12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee)
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer money-back guarantees or free trials. By leveraging these offers, you can watch NBA live streams without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it does mean you can watch select games from the NBA Cup before recovering your investment.
What is the best VPN for the NBA?
ExpressVPN is the best service for accessing free live streams on platforms like Prime Video, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure
Fast connection speeds free from throttling
Up to eight simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.95 (with money-back guarantee).
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has found the strongest evidence yet that a small, rocky planet outside our solar system has air, even though it orbits precariously close to its star.
The exoplanet, called TOI-561 b, is less than 1.5 times as wide as Earth and circles its star in less than 11 hours. That's so close — less than 1 million miles away from it in space — one side always faces the star. Having that permanent daylight likely causes the hemisphere to get hot enough to melt rock, bathing the world in a hellish lava ocean.
But what surprised scientists is the alien planet’s lightness.
"What really sets this planet apart is its anomalously low density," said Johanna Teske, a Carnegie Science Earth and Planets Laboratory researcher and the study’s lead author, in a statement. "It’s not a super-puff, but it is less dense than you would expect if it had an Earth-like composition."
If TOI-561 b has an atmosphere, it would mean even rocky exoplanets exposed to the harshest conditions can have air, providing new insights for scientists on the hunt for habitable worlds elsewhere in the galaxy.
At first, the team wondered whether TOI-561 b, a world 280 light-years away, formed with unusual materials. The exoplanet's host is a G-type star like the sun and only slightly smaller, but it's very old with relatively little iron. That may mean the planet has similar chemistry to that of worlds born early in the universe. But that alone could not explain the measurements.
The researchers then tested another idea: What if the planet has a thick atmosphere? To do this, Webb measured how much heat the planet gives off by tracking changes in infrared light as the planet passed behind its star. This method lets scientists estimate surface temperature.
The James Webb Space Telescope is on the hunt for rocky worlds elsewhere in the galaxy with atmospheres. Credit: NASA GSFC / CIL / Adriana Manrique Gutierrez illustration
If the planet were a bald rock with no air to circulate heat, its dayside should reach about 4,900 degrees Fahrenheit. Instead, Webb measured a much cooler temperature of about 3,200 degrees — still cooking, but far lower than expected. The research team's findings appear in the The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
"We really need a thick volatile-rich atmosphere to explain all the observations," said Anjali Piette, a coauthor from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, in a statement.
An atmosphere could cool the planet by driving strong winds that move heat to the dark side. Gases such as water vapor could also block some heat from escaping, making the planet appear cooler to the telescope. Bright clouds made of rock-like material may reflect some starlight as well.
The team plans to keep studying the planet to map temperatures across its surface and learn what its atmosphere is made of. Scientists don't yet know how a small planet could hold onto its atmosphere under such intense radiation. One idea some have proposed is that gases may constantly cycle between the lava ocean and the air hanging over it.
"This planet must be much, much more volatile-rich than Earth," said Tim Lichtenberg, another coauthor. "It’s really like a wet lava ball."
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