Technology

Enlarge / Federal Communication Commission Republican members (L-R) Brendan Carr, Michael O’Rielly, and Chairman Ajit Pai participate in a discussion during the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 23, 2018 in National Harbor, Maryland. (credit: Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla ) The Federal Communications Commission has voted 3-2 to approve T-Mobile’s acquisition of Sprint, an …

T-Mobile and Sprint get FCC approval to merge in 3-2 party-line vote Read More »

This is the XC40 Recharge, Volvo’s new battery electric crossover. It goes on sale next year at about $55,000 before you take any tax incentives into account. [credit:Brian Won ] Volvo was one of the first automakers to declare its plans to do something about carbon emissions. In 2017, the Swedish OEM announced that it …

Volvo’s XC40 crossover goes fully battery electric for “under $48,000” Read More »

Enlarge / EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager imposes interim measures on Broadcom in TV and modem chipset markets on October 16, 2019, in Brussels, Belgium. (credit: Thierry Monasse | Getty Images) European regulators have hit chipmaker Broadcom with a rare “interim” restriction on its behavior as their antitrust probe into the company’s alleged abuse …

EU orders Broadcom to halt exclusivity deals while investigation deepens Read More »

Enlarge / 60 Starlink satellites stacked for launch at SpaceX facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (credit: SpaceX) SpaceX is seeking permission to launch another 30,000 low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites for its Starlink broadband network, which would be in addition to the nearly 12,000 satellites the company already has permission to launch. But it’s too early …

SpaceX says 12,000 satellites isn’t enough, so it might launch another 30,000 Read More »

Enlarge / Floppy data leads to abandoned high-heels research. (credit: Jason Parks / Flickr) Two years ago, Ars published a story about some famous psychology research that smelled… off. Psychologist Nicolas Guéguen’s flashy findings on human sexuality appeared to be riddled with errors and inconsistencies, and two researchers had raised an alarm. Now, four years …

Dodgy sex-psychology paper finally gets retracted Read More »

Floating in a sea of portable games. If you know the name Analogue, you know the company’s reputation for somewhat pricey but authentic and beautiful HDMI-compatible FPGA (field-programmable gate array) recreations of classic gaming consoles. Today, the company is announcing that it will extend that line into the portable market next year with the Analogue …

$199 Analogue Pocket promises FPGA accuracy for portable retro gaming Read More »

Enlarge / NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, right, is seen with Representative José Serrano, D-N.Y., in March, 2019. (credit: NASA) NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with legislators who write the House’s version of the space agency’s budget. The hearing came after six months of frenetic lobbying by Bridenstine to …

A House budget committee has likely killed the 2024 Moon landing Read More »

Enlarge / Nicky Morgan, UK Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport. (credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images) The United Kingdom is abandoning plans to try to force pornography websites to age-verify UK Internet users. Digital Secretary Nicky Morgan announced the shift in a Wednesday statement. Morgan claimed that “the government’s commitment to protecting children …

UK porn blacklist is dead after government abandons age verification Read More »

Enlarge / The Vebjørn Sand Da Vinci Project bridge in Ås, Norway, is based on a design by Leonardo Da Vinci. (credit: Åsmund Ødegård/Wikimedia Commons) Pedestrians and bicyclists in Ås, Norway, use the Da Vinci Bridge to cross the city’s E-18 highway, a laminated-wood structure based on an early 16th-century sketch by Leonardo da Vinci. Had …

Testing Leonardo da Vinci’s bridge: His design was stable, study finds Read More »

Enlarge / A new solar array at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. (credit: NIST) While US President Donald Trump may be “the world’s most powerful climate change denier,” our latest research suggests that he took over a thriving green economy. According to new data, by 2016 it was generating more than $1.3 trillion in …

US green economy’s growth dwarfs the fossil fuel industry’s Read More »