Amazon is turning Alexa into something you can see, with a new Home Map that lays out your lights, locks, cameras, and speakers across an interactive 3D model of your house, floor by floor. Researchers have created a phone-connected device that can detect PFAS levels in water. And finally, Californians got a sunlight surprise at night when a startup selling sun-as-a-service conducted its audacious test.

Send us feedback at [email protected].

Amazon is giving Alexa a visual upgrade. Alexa Home Map, unveiled alongside a new lineup of Echo speakers, a smart alarm clock, a photo frame and the Echo Show 16, places your connected lights, locks, thermostats, Echo speakers, Fire TVs and security cameras on an interactive 3D model of your house. You can move between floors, zoom into individual rooms, and control devices straight from the map, which even reflects the real colors of your smart lights and the weather outside. The catch is setup. You enter your address to generate a model of your home's exterior, then use a compatible iPhone to scan each room and manually place every device where it belongs.

That sounds tedious, but the payoff could be real once it's done, particularly on the large touchscreen of the Echo Show 16, which looks like a natural fit. The map can also be reached from supported smartphones, tablets, and other Echo Show displays. Ring cameras are built into the outdoor view, showing animated representations of people and vehicles approaching your property, plus live feeds and the previous 24 hours of activity. Alexa Home Map begins rolling out in preview later this year, and some features will require Alexa+ or an eligible Ring subscription.

Reflect Orbital, the startup building mirror satellites meant to beam sunlight onto Earth at night, has run an unannounced ground test that lit up a mountainside near Lone Pine, California, Futurism reports, citing Sky and Telescope. The company used powerful spotlights to simulate what its satellites could do, and a promotional photo shows a bright orb casting long shadows across low desert brush, with brightness exceeding a full Moon. Local astronomers got no notice, and local officials, including the county government, were apparently caught off guard. It remains unclear how, or whether, the company got permission. For anyone who watches the night sky, the stakes are real. Astronomers warn the beams could ruin observations and could permanently damage the eyes of amateur astronomers who look directly at the satellites through telescopes.

A recent paper by Princeton astrophysicist Gaspar Bakos and colleagues found the light could spill over 18 miles beyond the intended spot, challenging the company's claims that the beams will be controllable and dimmable. Bakos called it "the end of ground-based astronomy," while other scientists raised concerns about harm to nocturnal animals and the possibility of surveillance uses. Reflect Orbital counters that the technology could aid solar power generation, search and rescue, and disaster response. The FCC earlier this year approved a prototype satellite despite protests from astronomers, and the company is reportedly seeking to launch early test satellites from India, a move seen as a way around US regulators.

Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan have built a portable sensor that plugs into a smartphone or laptop and detects PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals, in water. Published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics, the work points toward a day when checking a water sample doesn't mean shipping it to a specialized lab. For now, it is an experimental prototype, so there is nothing to buy yet. The sensor uses molecularly imprinted polymers, engineered materials that act like synthetic antibodies. When PFAS molecules attach to the surface, they change the electrical current passing through it, and that change reveals the concentration. The team screen-printed 100 disposable electrodes onto repurposed fabric in just a few hours, and each one connects to a small measuring device called a potentiostat.

According to the paper, the sensor can detect PFOA and PFOS at concentrations as low as 1.11 and 1.63 parts per trillion, respectively. In drinking water and freshwater samples deliberately spiked with the chemicals, it recovered between 88% and 96% of what was there. That matters because PFAS resist natural breakdown, turn up in everything from nonstick cookware to firefighting foam, and have been linked to some cancers, immune problems, and developmental complications. Routine lab testing is expensive and inconvenient, so cheap field and home checks could help both environmental agencies and households. The sensors can also be modified to target other PFAS compounds.

Samsung may release Plus and FE versions of the Galaxy Z Fold 9

Motorola Signature 27 could cost a lot more than expected

Matic’s new Serene robot vacuum is designed for people who hate noise

AI bots are flooding a UK vape ban consultation

Comets probably didn't seed life on Earth, study finds

Discord messages from large public servers go on Google in December

Phantom Blade Zero is a sprawling, maximalist wuxia epic