Ars Staff 2023-03-22 10:00:13 arstechnica.com Enlarge / Whoa-oh… purple is the color of my energy… Arkane / Bethesda When people think of the acclaimed developer Arkane Studios, stealth-action adventures like Dishonored or Deathloop probably come to …
“Acropalypse” Android screenshot bug turns into a 0-day Windows vulnerability
Andrew Cunningham 2023-03-22 11:29:06 arstechnica.com Enlarge / Windows 10 and 11 have their own version of the Acropalypse screenshot editing bug. acropalypse.app/Andrew Cunningham Earlier this week, programmer and “accidental security researcher” Simon Aarons disclosed a bug …
Microsoft says its new developer tools can reduce Xbox’s climate impact
Kyle Orland 2023-03-22 12:00:55 arstechnica.com Enlarge / These tools won’t literally make vines grow out of your Xbox, but that’s definitely the image Microsoft wants to get across… When it comes to reducing gaming’s aggregate impact …
If your Netgear Orbi router isn’t patched, you’ll want to change that pronto
Dan Goodin 2023-03-22 18:35:33 arstechnica.com Enlarge / An Orbi 750 series router. Netgear If you rely on Netgear’s Orbi mesh wireless system to connect to the Internet, you’ll want to ensure it’s running the latest firmware …
Animals without a brain still form associative memories
John Timmer 2023-03-22 14:54:17 arstechnica.com Our brains are filled with lots of specialized structures that do things like process visual information, handle memories, or interpret language. One of the ways we try to understand what a …
Ethical AI art generation? Adobe Firefly may be the answer
Benj Edwards 2023-03-22 13:27:41 arstechnica.com Enlarge / An Adobe Firefly AI image generator example. Adobe On Tuesday, Adobe unveiled Firefly, its new AI image synthesis generator. Unlike other AI art models such as Stable Diffusion and …
New method gets better performance out of atomically thin transistors
John Timmer 2023-03-21 11:55:48 arstechnica.com Enlarge / The much-larger-than-2D form of molybdenum disulfide. Atomically thin materials like graphene are single molecules in which all the chemical bonds are oriented so that the resulting molecule forms a …
New VLT data reveals more about aftermath of DART vs. asteroid collision
Jennifer Ouellette 2023-03-21 15:41:42 arstechnica.com Enlarge / Artist’s illustration shows the ejection of a cloud of debris after NASA’s DART spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos. ESO/M. Kornmesser Last September, the Double Asteroid Redirect Test, or DART, …
Judge dismisses gamers’ claims that Microsoft-Activision merger will spoil gaming
Ashley Belanger 2023-03-21 15:53:47 arstechnica.com Last December, Call of Duty gamers sued Microsoft, seeking to block its merger with Activision, partly because they alleged that the merger would set up Microsoft to dominate industry rivals, drive …
Hackers drain bitcoin ATMs of $1.5 million by exploiting 0-day bug
Dan Goodin 2023-03-21 16:03:40 arstechnica.com Enlarge / A BATM sold by General Bytes. General Bytes Hackers drained millions of dollars in digital coins from cryptocurrency ATMs by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability, leaving customers on the hook …
Newegg’s unique NAS configurator is a handy, but limited, shopping tool
Scharon Harding 2023-03-21 16:21:52 arstechnica.com Newegg has a quick and dirty way to pick a new NAS device and the drives that’ll go in it. Announced today, the NAS Builder provides a unique, clean interface for …
Google says late Pixel Watch alarms will be fixed “in the coming weeks”
Ron Amadeo 2023-03-21 13:48:57 arstechnica.com Enlarge / The Pixel Watch. It’s a perfect, round little pebble. Ron Amadeo What good is a watch that can’t help you keep track of the time? That’s a problem the …
The 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 will do 0-60 in just 1.66 seconds
Jonathan M. Gitlin 2023-03-21 12:06:35 arstechnica.com Enlarge / The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 makes its wheels-up debut run at the Dodge Last Call Powered by Roadkill Nights Vegas performance festival at The Strip at Las …
Microsoft plans mobile games app store to rival Apple and Google
Financial Times 2023-03-20 09:30:16 arstechnica.com Microsoft is preparing to launch a new app store for games on iPhones and Android smartphones as soon as next year if its $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is cleared …
Microsoft wants changing default apps in Windows to be less of a mess
Andrew Cunningham 2023-03-20 13:10:49 arstechnica.com One of the enduring legacies of the ’90s browser wars has been an outsize attention to how Microsoft handles default app settings in Windows, especially browser settings. The company plans to …
Amazon is laying off another 9,000 workers
Jonathan M. Gitlin 2023-03-20 15:14:04 arstechnica.com Enlarge / Amazon has announced 27,000 layoffs since November 2022. Nathan Stirk/Getty Images Amazon will lay off another 9,000 workers in the coming weeks. The news was delivered in an …
8BitDo makes the Mac great for retro games—iPhone? Not so much
Samuel Axon 2023-03-20 17:41:44 arstechnica.com Enlarge / The 8BitDo SN30 Pro is now supported on Apple platforms. The 8BitDo SN30 Pro has repeatedly been called one of the best controllers for playing retro console games, particularly …
PC maker Acer aspires to get into e-bikes with the 35-pound “ebii”
Andrew Cunningham 2023-03-20 18:32:26 arstechnica.com Acer’s ebii, an out-of-left-field attempt at an e-bike from a company best known for affordable PCs. Acer The ebii has built-in lights and a single-sided fork for the front tire that …
Google Pixel bug lets you “uncrop” the last four years of screenshots
Ron Amadeo 2023-03-20 13:34:12 arstechnica.com Enlarge / At least the acropalypse.app tool has a pretty sweet logo. Back in 2018, Pixel phones gained a built-in screenshot editor called “Markup” with the release of Android 9.0 Pie. …
The SpaceX steamroller has shifted into a higher gear this year
Eric Berger 2023-03-20 09:40:55 arstechnica.com Enlarge / A Starlink mission launches on a Falcon 9 rocket Friday from Vandenberg Space Force Base. SpaceX Is it possible that SpaceX has succeeded in making orbital launches boring? Increasingly, …
North Sea cod are getting smaller—can we reverse that?
Doug Johnson 2023-03-19 09:00:43 arstechnica.com Generation over generation, catch after catch, fishing changes fish evolution. This phenomenon, called fisheries-induced evolution, is well documented, though it impacts the myriad species of fish differently. For the North Sea …
Starlink/T-Mobile plan for satellite-to-phone service to get boost from FCC
Jon Brodkin 2023-03-17 12:07:15 arstechnica.com Enlarge / SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert at a joint event on August 25, 2022, in Boca Chica Beach, Texas. Getty Images | Michael Gonzalez The Federal …
Nuclear Waste Borehole Demonstration Center started
Ars Contributors 2023-03-17 13:44:52 arstechnica.com Enlarge / An artist’s impression of a deep borehole for nuclear waste disposal by Sandia National Laboratories in 2012. Red lines show the depth of mined repositories: Onkalo is the Finnish …
Travel well with today’s best deals: iPad Air, iPad Mini, and Bose’s QuietComfort 45
Corey Gaskin 2023-03-17 15:59:25 arstechnica.com Enlarge / The 6th-generation iPad mini. Andrew Cunningham If you have some upcoming travel planned, today’s dealmaster can save you a nice chunk of change on some trusty travel companions. Bose’s …
Google tells users of some Android phones: Nuke voice calling to avoid infection
Dan Goodin 2023-03-17 16:26:26 arstechnica.com Enlarge / Images of the Samsung Galaxy S21, which runs with an Exynos chipset. Samsung Google is urging owners of certain Android phones to take urgent action to protect themselves from …
YouTube TV jumps in price again—it’s now $72.99 per month
Ron Amadeo 2023-03-17 13:17:25 arstechnica.com YouTube TV is jumping up in price again. The cable TV replacement service launched in 2017 for $35, but it went up to $40 in 2018, $50 in 2019, $65 in …
Inside Elon Musk’s cost-cutting drive at Twitter
Financial Times 2023-03-17 09:15:02 arstechnica.com FT montage/Getty Images/Bloomberg From a secretive “war room” at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters last month, Elon Musk’s trusted lieutenants pored over a list of employees, showing how much they cost the …
We finally have proof of active volcanoes on Venus
The Conversation 2023-03-17 06:08:29 arstechnica.com Enlarge / A perspective view across Maat Mons on Venus, based on Magellan radar data. NASA/JPL Venus is almost the same size, mass and density as Earth. So it should be …
Microsoft 365’s AI-powered Copilot is like an omniscient version of Clippy
Andrew Cunningham 2023-03-16 13:38:41 arstechnica.com Enlarge / Microsoft 365 Copilot will attempt to automate content generation and analysis in all of the former Microsoft Office apps. Microsoft Today Microsoft took the wraps off of Microsoft 365 …
FCC orders phone companies to block scam text messages
Jon Brodkin 2023-03-16 14:40:45 arstechnica.com Getty Images | B4LLS The Federal Communications Commission today finalized rules requiring mobile carriers to block robotext messages that are likely to be illegal. The FCC described the rules as the …
Federal agency hacked by 2 groups thanks to flaw that went unpatched for 4 years
Dan Goodin 2023-03-16 16:24:48 arstechnica.com Getty Images Multiple threat actors—one working on behalf of a nation-state—gained access to the network of a US federal agency by exploiting a four-year-old vulnerability that remained unpatched, the US government …
Large language models also work for protein structures
John Timmer 2023-03-16 15:01:06 arstechnica.com The success of ChatGPT and its competitors is based on what’s termed emergent behaviors. These systems, called large language models (LLMs), weren’t trained to output natural-sounding language (or effective malware); they …
Belkin takes “big step back” from Matter, endangering universal smart home standard
Andrew Cunningham 2023-03-16 12:19:10 arstechnica.com Enlarge / Several of Belkin’s Wemo smart home accessories support the Thread networking protocol, but the company is holding off on Matter support for now. Belkin Belkin is pumping the brakes …
Baidu shares fall after Ernie AI chatbot demo disappoints
Financial Times 2023-03-16 09:11:59 arstechnica.com Enlarge / “Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of Baidu,” chief Robin Li introduces the functions of the company’s AI chatbot Ernie …
Newbie firm plans $2,800 add-in card that holds up to 21 PCIe 4.0 SSDs, 168TB
Scharon Harding 2023-03-15 14:51:13 arstechnica.com Enlarge / SSDs not included, of course. For high-capacity storage needs, the average consumer turns to hard disk drives (HDDs). They’re generally not as speedy or reliable as SSDs, but they’re …
National Academies: We can’t define “race,” so stop using it in science
John Timmer 2023-03-15 18:50:21 arstechnica.com With the advent of genomic studies, it’s become ever more clear that humanity’s genetic history is one of churn. Populations migrated, intermingled, and fragmented wherever they went, leaving us with a …
Security firm Rubrik is latest to be felled by GoAnywhere vulnerability
Dan Goodin 2023-03-15 17:42:10 arstechnica.com Getty Images Rubrik, the Silicon Valley data security company, said that it experienced a network intrusion made possible by a zero-day vulnerability in a product it used called GoAnywhere. In an …
FCC officials owned stock in Comcast, Charter, AT&T, and Verizon, watchdog says
Jon Brodkin 2023-03-15 15:43:14 arstechnica.com Getty Images | SOPA Images The Federal Communications Commission should be investigated for letting employees own stock in Comcast, Charter, AT&T, and Verizon, nonprofit watchdog group Campaign Legal Center told government …
EPA sets limits on some “forever chemicals” as low as they can go
John Timmer 2023-03-15 08:14:16 arstechnica.com Enlarge / The EPA headquarters in Washington, DC. On Tuesday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it had started the process that will see drinking water regulations place severe limits on …