It’s finally fall and that means CES preparations and holiday gift guide outreach is well underway here at the BIGoffice! The past couple of weeks have been jam packed with tech news, including Apple’s special event, Elon Musk’s SpaceX announcement and Amazon’s surprise hardware event. Settle in with your favorite fall inspired Starbucks drink and catch up on everything you may have missed.

SpaceX
Ever had dreams of being an astronaut and going to the moon? Well, Japanese billionaire and founder of Zozotown, Yusaku Maezawa, will be living the dream out aboard SpaceX’s Big Falcon Rocket in 2023. Yusaku will be accompanied by six to eight artists of his choosing in an effort to turn the week-long space trip into an artistic experience called #dearMoon. The Big Falcon Rocket is the massive reusable rocket that SpaceX is developing to take people to the Moon and Mars. The detailed plans for this billion dollar moon trip have yet to be set in stone and will be developing over the next few years. Who knows, maybe Elon Musk will join!     

Amazon
On Thursday, Amazon hosted a private event to announce several new hardware products, leaving jaws dropped and people scrambling to decide what they’ll equip their smart home with next. BIGclient Ring, acquired by Amazon in April, announced their new indoor / outdoor Stick Up Cams. The Ring Stick Up Cam Wired is now available for presale and will begin shipping on October 18 and the Ring Stick Up Cam Battery will be available in December. Check out what else Amazon announced yesterday:

• Echo Dot
• Echo Auto
• Echo Sub / Echo Link and Link Amp
• Fire TV Recast
• New Echo Show
• Echo Input
• Alexa Microwave
• Updated Echo Plus
• Alexa Clock
• Echo Smart Plug
• Alexa updates

Twitter
Twitter users, rejoice! You can now choose between a chronological or algorithm-based feed. The change comes after Twitter moved to an algorithm-based feed more than two years ago. While users have always had the ability to opt out of the “show the best tweets first” option, their feeds were still curated based on popular tweets, even from users they didn’t follow. Twitter’s decision to give users the option between a chronological or algorithm feed comes from user feedback the social platform has received over the past few years, showing they’re willing to make changes to keep their users happy. Which begs the question, will Instagram follow in suit?  

iOS12
Apple announced the new iOS software back in June at WWDC and finally released it this past week following their September event. The software update is simple, practical and isn’t jam packed with flashy features – a welcomed change by many Apple users. Check out some of the top new features within iOS 12, then download it yourself to try it out!

• Increased performance: meaning faster swipes and texts
• Personalized Memoji and new Animojis
• Fun new camera effects
• Augmented Reality
  • Measure: the new app that lets users measure real-world objects just by pointing the camera at them.
• Screen Time: track how often you use certain apps and search the web

From hardware news to software news to a trip to the moon, which tech story was your favorite? Let us know in the comments and follow us on Twitter to keep up on all things BIGfish and tech!