【推荐1】It was hard for Apple Inc. to spring a surprise these days, but four new iPhone 12 models were introduced, with two of them—the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro—hitting stores on Friday. All would include the 5G next-generation wireless standard, which made some analysts surprised. They had ever said that the high cost of networks would drive Apple to include 5G only in the higher phones.

Instead, Apple turned its new products into a use of 5G. It paid particular attention to the millimeter wave(mmWave), because the mmWave can deliver the highest speeds. Though it needs higher technology, all of the new iPhones will reach the mm Wave standard, even though Verizon is the only U.S. company using it widely.

That made the iPhone 12 do a valuable commercial for Verizon. Apple even had the company’s chief president, Hans Vestberg, to support the event. But it also needed the support of another company Qualcomm, which makes the modern chips that connect smart phones to their networks. In a report, Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland wrote that each mmWave smart phone would bring Qualcomm an extra $18. He said, each year, this would bring $350 million to Qualcomm’s revenue, which would be the money that Qualcomm got from Apple’s new phone generation.

The revenue would be a large sum of money that the chip maker expected to get from the new iPhones. Qualcomm had been shut out of the Apple business for the last few iPhone generations because of something unhappy between the two companies. However, Apple needed help with 5G, so it had to choose Qualcomm.

【推荐3】On Dec 22, China became the third country in the world after Japan and the US to have a carbon dioxide（CO₂）monitoring satellite.

Named Tansat, as "tan" is the Chinese word for carbon, the satellite moves around Earth at about 700 kilometers above the ground. There, it can “see” clearly how much CO₂ there is in the air and how it is moving.

How is TanSat able to do that？When sunlight travels through the air, the CO₂ molecules（分子）take in different colors from the light. The satellite then looks at these colors to find out how much CO₂ there is in the air.

“The TanSat has very good vision（视力）, and it can tell changes in CO₂ as small as 1 percent, ” said Yin Zeng shan, one of the satellite's designers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to Xinhua News Agency.

But there is a question. When CO₂ can already be measured from ground stations, why do we need a satellite that does the same thing？

The truth is that they don't do exactly the same thing. According to Zhang Peng, vice director of the National Satellite Meteorological Center, the data from ground stations is limited and it does not cover the ocean area, which takes up more than 70 petcent of Earth's surface.

But TanSat has solved the problem. It has a bird's eye view of the Earth, covering both the land and the ocean. It can also change its mode（模式）and position when looking at the ocean area because the water can reflect light. This light may change the data if its normal mode is used.

More importantly, China is now working on its goal of producing less CO, , starting from 2030 or earlier. To meet that goal, it will need to keep track of every bit of progress that it's making.

And with TauSat, China will have first-hand, detailed data of CO₂ emissions in different areas, provinces and parts of the ocean, no longer having to use data from Japan and the US.

【推荐1】It’s become an accepted part of keeping up to date with your family and friends, but if schoolchildren were in their parents’ shoes, most of them say they wouldn’t share posts of their sons and daughters online. Over 55%said they would not upload news about, or images of, their children on their social media, according to survey of over 16,000 pupils by Votes for Schools.

While some were worried about being awkward or the long life of content which could remain online, others feared of their personal data being misused. One of the pupils surveyed said, “Although our parents mean well, sometimes the danger brought by sharenting(晒娃)can be huge.”

In response to the survey, children’s mental health organization Mishcon de Reya has produced three films ahead of the Christmas holidays—the best period for parental oversharing.

In one video, about safety online, 10-year-old Adavan said, “If you share anything with your family, you know who’s going to see it. But if you share it on your social media, there are millions of people who can see your picture.”

Joe Hancock, a security leader at Mishcon de Reya, encouraged parents to share wisely. “Simple steps, such as checking your network environment and asking others not to post content of your children on their accounts(账户)if they are not sure about the privacy settings, are a good start. And, as we found out from the children during filming, having their permission is key,” he said.

The study marks a change from the usual practice of teaching children how to use the Internet safely to warning parents against network risks. Sandra Davis, head of the organization’s family department, said, “Children are the real and immediate affected side of sharenting. We must ensure we listen to children and take their views into consideration now in order to avoid any unwanted results further down the line.”

【推荐3】The Wall Street Journal recently published an excellent article penned by Wendy Bounds on a hot topic here at MNN: the air-purifying qualities of the common houseplant. Given that the air inside your home can be 2 to 5 times more polluted than the air outside of it, making it clean with plants like peace lily(百合花)and asparagus fern(芦笋蕨)is an economical, artistically pleasing alternative to air purifiers. So, it's been acknowledged that a bunch of pretty potted houseplants can help you maintain a healthier home, but a smarter home?

That's the question in light of a recent study published by the Journal of Environmental Psychology showing that the presence of plants in a room, particularly in an office environment, can shrink attention span(范围). Struggling directive attention (the kind of attention that takes effort) can be refreshed through exposure to naturalistic environments. Basically, taking a walk through the park can clear one's head. But can a head be refreshed simply by being surrounded by houseplants?

To test their theory, the study's authors rounded up a bunch of participants, put some of them in a room with no plants and put others in a room with four plants placed around a desk, and put them all to the same series of tests. First was a Reading Span Test, which involves reading a series of sentences aloud and remembering the last word in each sentence. This task requires that you fluently switch between attention demanding tasks: from reading and memorizing at one moment, to writing and recalling at the next. Next came a proof-reading task followed by another Reading Span Test.

The results? Participants working in the room with the plants improved their performance from the first Reading Span Test to the second while those working in the room lacking in greenery did not. Consequently, the benefits of working among plants is indeed evident.