On a cloudy Christmas morning last year, a rocket carrying the most powerful space telescope ever built blasted off from a launchpad in French Guiana. After reaching its destination in space about a month later, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) began sending back sparkling presents to humanity--jaw-dropping images that are revealing our universe in stunning new ways. Every year since 1988, Popular Science has highlighted the innovations that make living on Earth even a tiny bit better. And this year--our 35th--has been remarkable, thanks to the successful deployment of the JWST, which earned our highest honor as the Innovation of the Year. But it's just one item out of the 100 stellar technological accomplishments our editors have selected to recognize. The list below represents months of research, testing, discussion, and debate. It celebrates exciting inventions that are improving our lives in ways both big and small. These technologies and discoveries are teaching us about the ...

The TriRhenaTech alliance presents the accepted papers of the 'Upper-Rhine Artificial Intelligence Symposium' held on October 27th 2021 in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Topics of the conference are applications of Artificial Intellgence in life sciences, intelligent systems, industry 4.0, mobility and others. The TriRhenaTech alliance is a network of universities in the Upper-Rhine Trinational Metropolitan Region comprising of the German universities of applied sciences in Furtwangen, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Offenburg and Trier, the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Loerrach, the French university network Alsace Tech (comprised of 14 'grandes \'ecoles' in the fields of engineering, architecture and management) and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. The alliance's common goal is to reinforce the transfer of knowledge, research, and technology, as well as the cross-border mobility of students.

GM has increased the money it's earmarking for its combined EV and self-driving investment from 2020 through 2025 to $35 billion. The largest automaker in the US originally planned to pour $20 billion into the endeavor but decided to give it a boost and up it to $27 billion late last year. Now, as CNBC reports, it's spending even more on efforts to go electric and driverless. The company will use the additional investment to accelerate the production of its battery and fuel cell technologies. It will build two more battery plants to the US in addition to the two that are already in construction, most likely in an effort to ensure that it doesn't come across battery shortages as it ramps up its EV production.

New York (CNN Business)Talk of a possible Apple car is back. Apple (AAPL) hasn't commented publicly on its plans for the project, nicknamed Titan, so it's not clear exactly what will come of the effort. Some who follow the company think it could release a whole Apple-branded, electric, self-driving car. Others think it's more likely Apple will partner with existing automakers to sell an operating system (iDrive, maybe?), self-driving tools or other technology. There are some clues available, though.

They were ineligible to be looked at by the Genius Bar, for instance, meaning that getting a battery replacement could mean passing up the chance for any other service work. That was the case even if the problem was with another component and not the battery, meaning that the entire phone would be banned from repairs just for having a third-party battery. We'll tell you what's true. You can form your own view. But a new note seen by Macrumors shows that Apple Stores and Apple's approved service providers will be able to fix those phones.

The reduced-price replacements last until the end of the year, at which point the cost will dramatically increase. For the moment, a new battery costs only £25 – but once the new year arrives, that will rocket up to as much as £65. Old batteries can cause significant problems for their owners as iPhones age. With use, the power begins to drop – something that can lead to phones lasting for much less time, and to Apple having to slow down phones to ensure that they don't crash because they're not getting enough power. It was the revelation that Apple was doing that – throttling performance on older phones, in line with more spectacular rumours that swirled before it was admitted – that led to the cheap repairs in the first place.

Japanese farmers are using terrifying robotic wolves with beaming red LED eyes to scare off wild boars, deer and other pests from grazing on the country's rice and chestnut crops. The "Super Monster Wolf" stands at 50cm tall, is 65cm long and runs on rechargeable solar-batteries, using motion-sensors to detect when other mammals approach and letting out an alarming primal howl in response. The robo-wolf can cover distances of up to half a mile and has been used in trials to patrol fields near Kisarazu City, Chiba, as a deterrent to pests, effectively acting as a moving scarecrow. In addition to its satanic stare, the creature features a realistic fur hide and snarling rubber jaws. Chikao Umezawa of the Japan Agricultural Cooperative, the man who commissioned it, said he has seen a significant drop in the number of crops devoured by animals since the beast was unleashed.

Nokia has settled its legal battle with Apple with a new patent licence agreement and also signed a business deal with the US giant, surprising investors who had expected the dispute to drag on. The companies said on Tuesday that Nokia would receive an upfront cash payment and additional revenues from Apple starting from the current quarter, without giving details. Analysts said the revenue was likely to be far higher than a previous deal. Nokia shares, which fell in December when the patent dispute was announced, jumped as much as 8 per cent to their highest since February 2016 and were 6.5 per cent higher at €5.88 by 0848 GMT. "We are pleased with this resolution of our dispute and we look forward to expanding our business relationship with Nokia," Apple chief operating officer Jeff Williams said in a joint statement from the companies.

This article was originally published at 9:30 p.m.

Google has announced that users can download the beta release of Android O right now. The next version of its operating system will officially launch around October, but consumers can get a taste of the platform's newest features early. As it's still just a test version, some of those features might not work as they're supposed to. It will succeed Nougat, which was released late last year, and will introduce brand new functionality to Android smartphones and tablets. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.