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Next-Gen Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 still coming 2021… CDPR thinks

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 20:23

Enlarge (credit: CD Projekt RED)

CD Projekt Red is still pushing to release next-gen versions of Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 in 2021—or so the developer hopes.

As CDPR mothership CD Projekt Group held its H1 2021 financial earnings presentation with investors this week, it put its ongoing support for Cyberpunk front and center. The company's public report highlights the high number of patches and hotfix additions added to the game since launch, improved performance across platforms, and Cyberpunk's recent re-addition to the PlayStation Store after Sony pulled the title from its digital storefronts in December. The incremental experience fans have been getting, the report suggests, is slowly making progress.

Joint CEO Adam Kiciński even reiterated during the presentation that continued improvements to Cyberpunk will be the company's top-priority for "as long as it takes." (He also noted that, despite its myriad issues, the game was the leading revenue driver for CDPR in the first half of 2021.)

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Shang-Chi film review: Marvel’s latest grabs the brass ring—all ten of them

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 19:05

This film review originally ran on August 23, 2021, to coincide with its press embargo being lifted. We are bringing it back in light of its wide release on Friday, September 3—and unlike other recent Disney/Marvel films, this film has launched as a theatrical exclusive.

If you want to know what direction Marvel's post-Avengers superhero films are going, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a pretty clear indicator—and it's an optimistic one at that.

I had a blast watching Shang-Chi, which arrives exclusively in theaters on Friday, September 3, and I spent most of the time after my screening wishing for more. It could have been longer. Maybe there's a director's cut. Or, maybe this is the darned good launch of an entirely new film franchise, and this film is merely meant to set up the even more fully rounded sequel(s). Whatever the case, that's a decidedly better way to leave theaters than being bored, annoyed, or otherwise shaken out of a good moviegoing experience by bad writing, acting, and directing decisions.

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A brief overview of IBM’s new 7 nm Telum mainframe CPU

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 18:45

Enlarge / Each Telum package consists of two 7nm, eight-core / sixteen-thread processors running at a base clock speed above 5GHz. A typical system will have sixteen of these chips in total, arranged in four-socket "drawers." (credit: IBM)

From the perspective of a traditional x86 computing enthusiast—or professional—mainframes are strange, archaic beasts. They're physically enormous, power-hungry, and expensive by comparison to more traditional data-center gear, generally offering less compute per rack at a higher cost.

This raises the question, "Why keep using mainframes, then?" Once you hand-wave the cynical answers that boil down to "because that's how we've always done it," the practical answers largely come down to reliability and consistency. As AnandTech's Ian Cutress points out in a speculative piece focused on the Telum's redesigned cache, "downtime of these [IBM Z] systems is measured in milliseconds per year." (If true, that's at least seven nines.)

IBM's own announcement of the Telum hints at just how different mainframe and commodity computing's priorities are. It casually describes Telum's memory interface as "capable of tolerating complete channel or DIMM failures, and designed to transparently recover data without impact to response time."

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Apple’s AR headset will leave a lot of the hard work to the iPhone

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 18:15

Enlarge / Apple offices in northern California. (credit: Apple)

Apple's long-rumored mixed reality headset will require an iPhone within wireless range to function for at least some apps and experiences, according to a new report in The Information.

The Information's sources say that Apple completed work on the system-on-a-chip (SoC) for the headset "last year" and that the physical designs for that and two other chips intended for the device have been completed. Apple has also finishing designing the device's display driver and image sensor.

The SoC will be based on TSMC's five-nanometer manufacturing process, which is current now but may not be when the headset releases in 2022 or later.

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The FAA grounds Virgin Galactic’s spaceship after flight deviation

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 17:46

Enlarge / VSS Unity burns its rocket motor on July 11, 2021. (credit: Virgin Galactic)

The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday said it has grounded Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo vehicle until the agency completes an investigation into the vehicle's flight outside its designated air space.

"Virgin Galactic may not return the SpaceShipTwo vehicle to flight until the FAA approves the final mishap investigation report or determines the issues related to the mishap do not affect public safety," the aviation agency said in a statement.

The statement follows a report on Wednesday that the spacecraft, carrying Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson and three other passengers, flew outside of its designated airspace over New Mexico for 1 minute and 42 seconds on July 11.

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Cosmic indigestion: Swallowing a neutron star can cause a star to explode

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 16:29

Enlarge / A model of the supernova exploding inside a torus of gas ejected years earlier. (credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF)

One of the stranger features of our Universe is the existence of what you might call "dual-core stars." Many stars exist as part of a multistar system, and in some cases, their orbits are extremely close. Couple that with the fact that stars can expand as they age, and you get a situation in which the outer edges of one star may engulf a second. Friction can then draw the stars' orbits closer, resulting in the core of both stars orbiting within a large, shared envelope of plasma.

Things can get more complicated still when you consider that the stars won't necessarily have life cycles that line up well—one of them could easily explode before the other, leaving behind a black hole or a neutron star. That can lead to some bizarre situations, like a star that replaces its core with a neutron star.

Now, researchers say they have probably found a more violent alternative to that merger. In this case, the neutron star didn't settle neatly into the core of its companion star. Instead, the companion star lost its outer layers to space and then saw its core disrupted in a way that caused it to explode.

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Apple will let video and music apps—but not games—link to other payment options

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 15:50

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | stockcam)

Apple has made another concession related to its restrictive App Store rules, saying that it will let several types of media apps link to their own websites, where users can purchase subscriptions without Apple getting its usual commission. Apple was forced to make the change to settle an investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC). The change will take effect in early 2022, Apple said in an announcement yesterday.

"The update will allow developers of 'reader' apps to include an in-app link to their website for users to set up or manage an account," Apple said. "While the agreement was made with the JFTC, Apple will apply this change globally to all reader apps on the store. Reader apps provide previously purchased content or content subscriptions for digital magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video."

The JFTC issued a statement saying that the planned change "would eliminate" Apple's suspected violations of Japan's Antimonopoly Act. The regulator said it "decided to close the investigation on this case after the JFTC confirms the measure has been taken."

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The Wheel of Time teaser is here, and it looks and feels exactly right

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 15:29

It's been just a few weeks since we got our first look at still images from Amazon's forthcoming The Wheel of Time series, adapted from the late Robert Jordan's bestselling 14-book series of epic fantasy novels. And now we have the first official teaser trailer. Count several Ars staffers among the many fans of Jordan's books who have been eagerly following the years-long development of the series. From what we've seen, it looks like showrunner Rafe Judkins (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) has gotten the overall look and feel of the books exactly right. Fans should be pleased.

As I've written previously, the TV series will center on Moiraine (played by Oscar-nominee Rosamund Pike), a member of a powerful, all-woman organization called the Aes Sedai. Magic, known as the One Power, is divided into male (saidin) and female (saidar) flavors. The latter is the province of the Aes Sedai. Long ago, a great evil called the Dark One caused the saidin to become tainted, such that most men who show an ability to channel that magic go mad. It's the job of the Aes Sedai to track down such men and strip them of their abilities—a process known as "gentling" that, unfortunately, is often anything but. There is also an ancient prophecy concerning the Dragon Reborn: the reincarnation of a person who will save or destroy humanity.

Given the epic scope of the novels, it's no surprise that the TV series boasts a sprawling cast. In addition to Pike, Josha Stradowski stars as Rand al'Thor, while Marcus Rutherford plays apprentice blacksmith and dream-walker Perrin Aybara. Zoë Robins plays healer Nynaeve al'Meara, and Madeleine Madden plays Egwene al'Vere. Barney Harris plays series comic relief Matrim Cauthon. Hammed Animashaun has been cast as Loail, a close friend to Perrin and Rand al'Thor. Alexandre Willaume portrays Thom Merrilin, a "gleeman and adventurer"—basically a traveling bard—while Johann Myers plays the villainous Padan Fain, and Alvaro Morte plays Logain.

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Audi subverts the luxury sedan with new grandsphere concept

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 13:30

Audi's design team is in the midst of what might be called its "sphere trilogy," exploring how autonomous driving might alter the luxury car experience. At Monterey Car Week in August, the team showed off the skysphere, which morphs from stubby sports car to autonomous cruiser, extending its wheelbase as the driver's controls fold out of sight. Soon, we'll see the (presumably compact) urbansphere, but today, it's the grandsphere sedan's turn. And no, none of the names are capitalized.

The grandsphere doesn't need morphing bodywork; the vehicle is long enough that there's always more than enough room inside, regardless of who's driving. At first glance, the car looks like a grand tourer, but there's a visual trick at work. The base of the windshield is way out ahead of the A-pillar, curving out almost as far as the front axle.

At the front, Audi's distinctive grille (actually called the Singleframe) is no longer an actual grille; it's there so the grandsphere is recognizably an Audi. Even in our video briefing, the Singleframe appeared as if it—and therefore the rest of the car—was a render, thanks to the way it was lit from within. (Save the CGI conspiracies for Ted Lasso; the car is a real, full-size, physical concept.)

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Billionaire Sacklers granted lifetime legal immunity in opioid settlement

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 12:35

Enlarge / Friends and family members of people who have died during the opioid epidemic protest against a bankruptcy deal with Purdue Pharmaceuticals that allows the Sackler family to avoid criminal prosecution and to keep billions of dollars in private wealth, on August 9, 2021, outside the Federal courthouse in White Plains, New York. (credit: Getty | Andrew Lichtenstein)

A federal bankruptcy judge on Wednesday approved a $4.5 billion opioid settlement that provides sweeping lifetime legal immunity for the billionaire Sackler family behind Purdue Pharma.

“This is a bitter result,” Federal Judge Robert Drain said Wednesday in a lengthy explanation of his approval of the settlement. "I believe that at least some of the Sackler parties also have liability for those [opioid] claims… I would have expected a higher settlement.”

The Sacklers owned and were largely directing Purdue Pharma in the late 1990s when the company allegedly began aggressively and deceptively selling its highly addictive opioid painkiller, OxyContin. Purdue, which has twice pled guilty for wrongdoing in marketing OxyContin, is widely seen as sparking the nationwide epidemic of opioid addiction and overdoses. The opioid crisis has killed nearly 500,000 people in the US in the past two decades.

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Samsung builds the world’s highest-resolution phone camera sensor: 200 MP

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 12:17

(credit: Samsung)

Samsung's latest super-sized camera sensor is the "Isocell HP1." It has a whopping 200 MP sensor, making it the highest-resolution smartphone camera sensor ever made. If you saved an image from it at full resolution, you'd end up with something like a 16,384 × 12,288 image.

Megapixels don't matter—what matters way more for image quality is the size of each pixel, as bigger pixels (and bigger sensors) capture more light. Samsung is trying to cover both bases with pixel binning, though, which merges several pixels into a bigger pixel for low-light situations. The HP1 has an "all-new" variable pixel-binning technology called "ChameleonCell," which lets the sensor bin at 2×2 or 4×4, depending on the amount of light.

At 4×4, you're ratcheting the 200 MP sensor all the way down to 12.5 MP by merging sets of 16 pixels. This will turn the full-resolution 0.64 μm pixels into a respectable 2.56 μm pixel, which Samsung says "is capable of more light absorption and sensitivity, producing brighter and clearer photos in in-doors or in the evening."

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New script makes it easy(ish) to put Windows 10 or 11 on a Raspberry Pi

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 12:06

Enlarge / The Raspberry Pi 4. (credit: Raspberry Pi)

Installing the ARM versions of Windows 10 or Windows 11 to a cheap Raspberry Pi board has been possible for a long time but has always required more time and patience than it's worth. But if you're curious, a new script called "WoR-flasher" (that's Windows on Raspberry) simplifies the process. WoR-flasher has a simple UI that can create ARM Windows install media, which can then be booted up on a Raspberry Pi for installation in the same way a USB stick created with Microsoft's tools can install Windows on an x86 PC.

The script's creator argues that it violates no laws or Windows licensing agreements since it downloads all its code directly from Microsoft's servers and installs Windows in an unlicensed, deactivated state, just as it would install on a regular x86 PC without a product key. Microsoft only sells licenses of the ARM versions of Windows to OEMs. WoR-flasher has officially been tested using the 32-bit version of the Raspberry Pi OS (and that's what I used to create some install media, too), but it should run without issue on any Debian-based Linux distributions.

The only Pi models you should even consider installing Windows on are the higher-end versions of the Pi 4 with 4GB or 8GB of RAM (with a quick workaround to allow Windows to see more than 3GB of RAM). And with those boards, even with a fast microSD card and a processor overclock, Windows 11 isn't going to feel fast enough to use as your day-to-day OS. But this tool does give developers and enthusiasts an affordable way to test ARM Windows apps. Windows 11 is introducing a new ABI called "ARM64EC" that's designed to simplify the process of porting x86 Windows apps to ARM by allowing developers to ship apps that use a mix of ARM and x86_64 code. Windows will use its built-in x86_64 emulation for any x86_64 code (with the attendant performance penalty), while the ARM code can run natively at full speed.

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Reddit bans r/NoNewNormal and quarantines 54 “COVID-denial subreddits”

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 11:57

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | stockcam)

Reddit yesterday banned r/NoNewNormal, a hub of anti-mask and anti-vaccine posts, after a protest against the platform's refusal to take more aggressive action against COVID misinformation. In a post titled "COVID denialism and policy clarifications," Reddit said it also quarantined "54 additional COVID-denial subreddits." While NoNewNormal was taken off Reddit entirely, quarantining a subreddit imposes restrictions that "prevent its content from being accidentally viewed by those who do not wish to do so."

NoNewNormal was banned not for spreading misinformation but for breaking Reddit's rule against "brigading," which refers to members of one subreddit conducting "targeted interference" in other subreddits. Reddit said:

While we want to be a place where people can explore unpopular views, it is never acceptable to interfere with other communities. Claims of "brigading" are common and often hard to quantify. However, in this case, we found very clear signals indicating that r/NoNewNormal was the source of around 80 brigades in the last 30 days (largely directed at communities with more mainstream views on COVID or location-based communities that have been discussing COVID restrictions). This behavior continued even after a warning was issued from our team to the Mods. r/NoNewNormal is the only subreddit in our list of high-signal subs where we have identified this behavior and it is one of the largest sources of community interference we surfaced as part of this work (we will be investigating a few other unrelated subreddits as well).

Although not mentioned in Reddit's announcement, a subreddit called CoronavirusConspiracy was also banned yesterday "due to being unmoderated." That community was already quarantined last year because it "may contain misinformation or hoax content."

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WhatsApp fined $267M for not telling users how it shared data with Facebook

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 11:48

Enlarge (credit: Stan Honda / Getty Images)

WhatsApp has been fined €225 million for breaking the EU’s data privacy law by not telling its users how it was sharing their data with its parent company Facebook.

In one of the biggest fines relating to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Irish data regulator applied a penalty more than four times the level it had initially proposed for the messaging service after coming under pressure from other European countries.

The WhatsApp ruling came after Luxembourg fined Amazon a record €746 million in July for breaching GDPR and Ireland fined Twitter €450 million in December for not informing regulators about a data leak within 72 hours.

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NPM package with 3 million weekly downloads had a severe vulnerability

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 10:20

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Popular NPM package "pac-resolver" has fixed a severe remote code execution (RCE) flaw.

The pac-resolver package receives over 3 million weekly downloads, extending this vulnerability to Node.js applications relying on the open source dependency. Pac-resolver touts itself as a module that accepts JavaScript proxy configuration files and generates a function for your app to map certain domains to use a proxy.

To proxy or not to proxy

This week, developer Tim Perry disclosed a high-severity flaw in pac-resolver that can enable threat actors on the local network to run arbitrary code within your Node.js process whenever it attempts to make an HTTP request.

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Locast’s free TV service shuts down after losing copyright ruling [Updated]

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 09:57

Enlarge (credit: iStockPhoto)

Update, 9/2/2021: Locast said it is shutting down its TV service, at least for now, in response to its loss in court. "We are suspending operations, effective immediately," Locast said in a message on its homepage. "As a nonprofit, Locast was designed from the very beginning to operate in accordance with the strict letter of the law, but in response to the court's recent rulings, with which we respectfully disagree, we are hereby suspending operations, effective immediately."

Original Story, 9/1/2021: The major broadcast networks have won a big copyright ruling against Locast, a nonprofit organization that provides online access to broadcast TV stations. Although it's a partial summary judgment, the ruling by a federal judge rejects Locast's primary defense against claims of copyright infringement.

Locast was sued by ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC in July 2019. The companies alleged that Locast "must have a license to retransmit copyrighted television programming" even though the TV channels are available over the air for free. The lawsuit argued that Locast must "secure the consent of the broadcasters to retransmit the broadcast signals" in the same manner as cable, satellite, and online video services. Locast fought the lawsuit, saying it qualified for a copyright-law exemption available to nonprofits.

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China may use an existing rocket to speed up plans for a human Moon mission

ArsTechnica - Thu, 2021/09/02 - 09:08

Enlarge / China's Long March 5 rocket made its debut in November, 2016. (credit: Xinhua/Sun Hao)

China appears to be accelerating its plans to land on the Moon by 2030 and would use a modified version of an existing rocket to do so.

The chief designer of the Long March family of rockets, Long Lehao, said China could use two modified Long March 5 rockets to accomplish a lunar landing in less than a decade, according to the Hong Kong-based online news site, HK01. He spoke earlier this week at the 35th National Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition in China. The full video can be found here.

During Lehao's speech, he said one of these large rockets would launch a lunar lander into orbit around the Moon, and the second would send the crew to meet it. The crew would then transfer to the lander, go down to the Moon's surface, and spend about six hours walking on its surface. Then part of the lunar lander would ascend back to meet the spacecraft and return to Earth.

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Michelle Gomez is a time-traveling Madame Rouge in Doom Patrol S3 trailer

ArsTechnica - Wed, 2021/09/01 - 18:29

Michelle Gomez is always a welcome addition to any series, whether playing the Master on Doctor Who or Madame Satan on the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. So we were thrilled to learn she was joining the cast for the upcoming third season of Doom Patrol. And now we have our first good look at her portrayal of Madame Rouge in the official S3 trailer.

(Spoilers for S2 below.)

A S3 teaser dropped a few weeks ago, largely focused on the lingering plot line from the pandemic-curtailed S2: namely, Dorothy Spinner's (Abigail Shapiro) confrontation with The Candlemaker. Dorothy, as fans will know, is Caulder's (Timothy Dalton) daughter, who has a special ability to bring imaginary friends to life. That's not so bad when it was a friendly giant beast named Manny or Herschel the giant spider. But The Candlemaker is linked to a tribal curse and is a far more insidious creature. He emerges whenever Dorothy makes a wish, and widespread slaughter is usually the result. In the S2 finale, Dorothy got her first period, marking her transition into womanhood, and The Candlemaker's powers began to manifest in the real world.

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Report: Big new health features are coming to the Apple Watch—just not this year

ArsTechnica - Wed, 2021/09/01 - 18:08

Enlarge / The Apple Watch Series 6. (credit: Corey Gaskin)

Analysts and reporters have published conflicting reports about what to expect from the next Apple Watch. Some, like Nikkei, claimed it will have new health sensors, but others like Bloomberg's Mark Gurman have said that this year's model will offer no major new hardware features amidst production constraints.

Topping off a week of debate on the subject, The Wall Street Journal today published a report that claims that several major new health-sensing features are coming to the watch—just not this year's model.

According to the Journal's sources, a future Apple Watch that is not this year's Series 7 model will include more advanced sleep tracking, like the ability to detect sleep apnea. To accomplish this, Apple is looking into ways to allow the Apple Watch to obtain sensor data overnight without taxing the battery, which has been a barrier for the watch in competing with sleep-tracking wearables from Fitbit and others.

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Spaceship carrying Richard Branson flew off course [Updated]

ArsTechnica - Wed, 2021/09/01 - 17:59

Enlarge / Sir Richard Branson flying, finally. (credit: Virgin Galactic)

During the historic spaceflight of Sir Richard Branson in July, near the end of the burn of the VSS Unity spacecraft's engine, a red light appeared on a console. This alerted the crew to an "entry glide-cone warning." Pilots Dave Mackay and Mike Masucci faced a split-second decision: kill the rocket motor or take immediate action to address their trajectory problem.

This scenario is outlined in a new report by Nicholas Schmidle, a writer with more insight into Virgin Galactic than any other journalist, in The New Yorker. For his recently published book Test Gods, Schmidle had unparalleled access to Virgin Galactic and its pilots.

"I once sat in on a meeting, in 2015, during which the pilots on the July 11th mission and others discussed procedures for responding to an entry glide-cone warning," Schmidle wrote in his story, published Wednesday. "C. J. Sturckow, a former marine and NASA astronaut, said that a yellow light should 'scare the sh-- out of you,' because 'when it turns red it's gonna be too late.'"

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