Tag: feeds

Cassini points to a hidden ocean on Saturn’s icy moon

I carry an ocean in my womb. NASA/JPL/SSI/J Major Finding liquid water on a body within the Solar System is exciting. The only thing that is probably more exciting is finding an ocean full of it. Today such news comes via Cassini, which has made measurements that show that Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a hidden ocean beneath its icy surface. While orbiting Saturn in 2005, Cassini found jets of salty water spewing from the south polar region of Enceladus. According to Luciano Iess of Sapienza University of Rome, lead author of the new study published in Science , “The discovery of the jets was unexpected.” Geysers require liquid water, and we wouldn’t expect Enceladus to have any. It is too far from the Sun to absorb much energy and too small (just 500km in diameter) to have trapped enough internal energy to keep its core molten. The answer to how the water got there might lie in the details of the moon’s internal structure. Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Cassini points to a hidden ocean on Saturn’s icy moon

USB-IF posts first photos of new reversible Type-C connector

The new USB Type-C connector compared to current A and B plugs. USB-IF USB Type-A. USB Type-B. Mini-USB Type-A. Mini-USB Type-B. Micro-USB Type-A. Micro-USB Type-B. That special, ugly variant of micro-USB Type-B you need to use for phones with USB 3.0 support. These are the different types of connectors you have to be aware of to use your current USB-equipped computers, phones, tablets, printers, and whatever other accessories you might have. The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) wants to simplify this problem by rallying behind the new Type-C connector, a new specification designed to replace current Type-A and Type-B plugs of all sizes. While we already knew that the USB Type-C connector would be smaller than many existing connectors and that (like Apple’s Lightning cables) it would be reversible, we didn’t know exactly what it would look like before today. The renderings released by the USB-IF today are still subject to change, but they show a Type-C connector that looks pretty much like you’d expect. Current cables usually use different Type-A and Type-B plugs on either end out of necessity—most computers use standard-sized Type-A connectors, while phones and cameras need either mini- or micro-sized Type-B connectors on the other end. Type-C will eventually supersede all of them, providing the same type of connector on both computers and phones. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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USB-IF posts first photos of new reversible Type-C connector

One week before its end of life, 28 percent of Web users are still on Windows XP

Windows XP will receive its last ever security update on April 8th next week. After that, any flaws, no matter how severe, will not be patched by Microsoft, and one would be well advised to not let Windows XP machines anywhere near the public Internet as a result. In spite of this, 28 percent of Web users were still using the ancient operating system in March. This seems unlikely to end well. Net Market Share Net Market Share Chrome has come close to Firefox’s market share a number of times over the years. However, the market share tracker we use, Net Market Share, has never seen Google’s browser actually surpass Mozilla’s—until now. In March, Chrome finally overtook Firefox to claim the second spot. Internet Explorer dropped a quarter of a point, Firefox dropped 0.42 points, and Chrome reaped the reward, gaining 0.68 points. Safari was essentially unchanged, up 0.01 points; likewise Opera, dropping 0.03 points. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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One week before its end of life, 28 percent of Web users are still on Windows XP

Reuters: Next iPhone will come with 4.7” or 5.5” screen

Satire – The iPhone 5S (Parody) Ad Reuters reports that Apple’s next iPhone will be available in both 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screen versions —considerable increases over the current iPhone 5S and 5C models’ 4-inch displays. Reuters cites “supply chain sources” for the information, which could mean anything from a Foxconn vice president down to a factory janitor. According to Reuters, three separate suppliers have been tapped to produce the larger LCD panels: Japan Display, Sharp, and LG Display. The existence of the displays themselves isn’t necessarily the point of the Reuters report, though—according to Reuters, not only are the two unannounced display sizes planned, but the 5.5-inch version might already be facing production problems. The report speculates that the displays will contain the same in-cell touch sensor technology that Apple has been using since the iPhone 5’s debut . This kind of display incorporates touch sensors directly into the screen’s glass, making it considerably more complex to manufacture than displays with separate glass, panel, and sensor elements. Making in-cell displays in quantity at the larger 5.5-inch size is apparently difficult, which is why the screen manufacturers are said to be leading with 4.7-inch screens. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Reuters: Next iPhone will come with 4.7” or 5.5” screen

Faster, cheaper, smaller: The state of the system-on-a-chip in 2014

Aurich Lawson/Ars Technica If you’re reading this, the odds are pretty good that you have a smartphone. There’s also a better-than-average chance that you know a little something about the stuff inside that phone—who makes the chips inside and how those chips stack up to the ones in other phones. About a year ago,  we wrote a guide covering most of the major players making these chips, and now that this year’s Mobile World Congress is over and done with, we thought it was time to revisit the subject. What’s changed? What’s stayed the same? And what’s going to happen in the next year that you need to know about? We’ll begin by looking at emerging trends before moving on to a bird’s-eye view of where all the major chipmakers stand. This won’t give you an in-depth technical description of every detail, but it should help you understand where this tech is headed in 2014. Read 55 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Faster, cheaper, smaller: The state of the system-on-a-chip in 2014

“Pirate Bay Bundle” shares 101 little-known indie games via BitTorrent

Since The Humble Bundle launched in 2010 to almost immediate success , the Internet has been absolutely flooded with similar pay-what-you-want bundles of various indie games. Even amid this flood, a new indie game bundle stands out, both for its selection of titles and its distribution method. The Pirate Bay Bundle is a free collection of 101 small indie titles that I can almost guarantee you’ve never heard of, let alone played. Curator Moshboy describes the collection as an extension of his Underrated Indie Games series of YouTube videos . “Some were made for game jams, others were made just because, some are made by celebrated game makers, many are made by folks that you won’t know,” Moshboy explains. “Many are usually only available to play in your browser, but I managed to convince these wonderful folks to provide me with offline versions.” As the name implies, this massive collection of games is being distributed via a BitTorrent link on The Pirate Bay , with the cooperation of all the creators involved. While other indie bundles have also shared their DRM-free games via BitTorrent, I’m not aware of any that have willingly offered their selections entirely free via the popular and perpetually legally pressured torrent-sharing site (though that hasn’t stopped some people from turning to piracy to save a penny on other bundles). Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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“Pirate Bay Bundle” shares 101 little-known indie games via BitTorrent

Shields up: Tesla Model S gains (free) titanium and aluminum armor upgrade

Model S 1, concrete block 0. Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk has taken to Medium.com to post about a design change to the expensive-but-awesome Model S electric car: all Model S vehicles manufactured after March 6, 2014 will come with additional titanium and aluminum armor on their underbellies. The Model S carries its thousands of battery cells in a sealed enclosure below the floorpan, and the added armor is intended to protect the enclosure from puncture even under extreme conditions. This in turn should reduce the chances of Model S vehicles catching on fire. Not that the cars catching on fire is much of a thing; Musk is quick to point out that there have been only two Tesla fires resulting from road accidents (one of which involved a Model S being driven at 110 miles per hour directly into—and then through—a concrete wall), versus hundreds of thousands of gasoline vehicle fires last year. Nonetheless, Musk has directed his company to improve the car’s battery armor in an effort to assure customers (and investors) that the Model S really and truly isn’t going to burst into flames if you drive over a curb. The new armor takes the form of a three-part system: there’s a big hollow aluminum bar to deflect objects, a large titanium plate to absorb impacts, and an angled aluminum extrusion to cause the car to “ramp up and over” objects that can’t be crushed or flung aside. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Shields up: Tesla Model S gains (free) titanium and aluminum armor upgrade

Microsoft releases source code for MS-DOS and Word

In recognition of their historical importance and commercial irrelevance, Microsoft has given the source code to MS-DOS 1.1 and 2.0 and Word for Windows 1.1a to the Computer History Museum  (CHM) in Mountain View, California. The source is now freely downloadable by anyone, though making practical use of it is an exercise for the reader. This source code joins other important early programs, including Adobe Photoshop 1.0 and Apple II DOS, among the CHM’s collection. Len Shustek, CHM chairman said, “We think preserving historic source code like [MS-DOS and Word] is key to understanding how software has evolved from primitive roots to become a crucial part of our civilization.” The scale of change between then and now is formidable. MS-DOS had just 300kB of source code and occupied as little as 12kB of memory. In 1981, MS-DOS was a key part of IBM’s PC, and the success of the PC—and its clones—made Microsoft the industry giant it is today. Word for Windows is the product that turned WordPerfect from market leader into all-but-irrelevant also-ran. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Microsoft releases source code for MS-DOS and Word

US gov’t secures first-ever win against Android app pirates

The hacked Android Market apps of SnappzMarket and AppBucket. Archive.org On Monday, American prosecutors announced that two of the four men involved  with two Android piracy sites, snappzmarket.com and appbucket.net, have pleaded guilty to copyright infringement. The case marks the first time that US authorities have successfully prosecuted a case involving pirate app stores. The FBI shut down the sites listed above in August 2012 and filed charges against the quartet of men in January 2014. The two men, Nicholas Anthony Narbone, 26, of Orlando, Florida, and Thomas Allen Dye, 21, of Jacksonville, Florida, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. They are set to be sentenced in the coming months. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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US gov’t secures first-ever win against Android app pirates

Xbox One gamepads finally, unofficially supported on PC

Not seen here: the Xbox One controller’s USB port that hackers have finally bent to their will. We at Ars have argued about which next-gen video game controller is more comfortable , but what hasn’t been up for discussion is that we want to use both pads on our computers. Both have USB connections, after all, and we’ve been racking up controller-friendly PC games lately. But neither Microsoft nor Sony has released official drivers to get their newest controllers working via that connection. That’s a bit crazy, as Microsoft’s choice to officially support PC gaming using the 360 pad helped make it the de facto standard for non-mouse-and-keyboard play for computer gamers. With the Xbox One controller, on the other hand, we’ve had to go the seedy, indirect path, installing unofficial drivers while crossing our fingers. Shortly after its launch, DualShock 4 buyers lucked out with an unofficial PC patch, but Xbox One controller owners had their chance shot down after Microsoft asked hacker Chris Gallizi  to stop developing his own workaround . Thankfully, another hacker made his own attempt this month before conferring with Microsoft, meaning that Windows users can finally add next-gen pads to their PC arsenal. At this time, hacker  Lucas Assis’ patch is quite inelegant, even though it received an update last week that fixed issues with the controller’s triggers. You’ll need to install an unofficial driver and two applications (linked in the video tutorial above) before the controller will even work, and you’ll probably want to install the paid XPadder app afterward to enjoy full support for your Steam library. Many games we tested didn’t work without that latter addition tossed on top. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Xbox One gamepads finally, unofficially supported on PC