Thursday, February 23, 2017

NASA finds new planetary pals for Earth. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23 2017 By Darrell Etherington

NASA's big discovery, Samsung's big phone and the web's big encryption milestone. It's all big in The Daily Crunch for February 23, 2017.

1. NASA finds some hot rocks

NASA found seven rocky, Earth-like planets which are likely warm enough that they could support water. The discovery is huge, because it buttresses the theory that planets which basically resemble Earth aren't actually all that rare in our galaxy.

The discovery doesn't mean these exoplanets are crawling with alien life – any life at all is still just a very remote possibility. But it's a different kind of acknowledgement that we're not alone – when it comes to rocky planets relatively close to their stars, that is.

2. Samsung's next phone could be very big

Samsung has plans to release an S8+, a larger version of the S8 with a whopping 6.2 inch curved screen. It sounds like it could share a lot in common with the ill-fated Note 7, and maybe Samsung will focus on splitting the main S line with two sizes, like Apple does with the iPhone, rather than continuing to offer Notes.

3. Half of all web traffic is now encrypted

The EFF says that half of all traffic on the web is now encrypted, thanks to the continued over-the-air to HTTPS, and the use of that tech by big players in particular, including Facebook, Reddit and more.

4. Tesla's ideal way to sell cars is all-in

Tesla is already using a sales model where it includes insurance and maintenance costs in the price of purchase in some markets in Asia, and ideally, it would like to do the same elsewhere. The idea is sound, but mitigating the sticker shock with that kind of transparency sounds like a challenge.

5. Airbnb finalizes Tilt acquisition

Vacation rental company Airbnb has finalized an offer to buy Tilt, formerly Crowdtilt. The group payment platform will continue to run independently for now, but we're hearing it's more about talent retention than product long-term.

6. Wix.com has purchased DeviantArt

Remember DeviantArt? If you were an angsty teen like me, you might've used it to showcase your "portfolio" of Star Wars fan art or similar. Blast from the past.

7. SpaceX's supply ship succeeds on its second try

SpaceX's CRS-10 mission keeps racking up the hits, after a successful launch, rocket recovery and now docking operation with the Dragon supply spacecraft and the ISS. It's taken a couple tries for some of those aspects of the mission, but it's still ultimately hitting its targets.

Get more stories at techcrunch.com 

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