Ars Technica
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Valve's Gabe Newell shares his thoughts on DRM
At this year's Game Developer's Choice Awards, Vavle's Gabe Newell won the Pioneer Award, and he used the opportunity to share a slide show with the crowd of developers, press, and business people. His message? DRM is not good for bu...
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Surprise: iPhone app use heaviest at night and on weekends
Apple has made inroads into the professional market with the iPhone—the company has noted that some Fortune 500 companies have deployed them alongside or even replacing BlackBerrys. Despite this, analysis of app usage suggests ...
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Netflix settles privacy lawsuit, ditches $1 million contest
Netflix has canceled its $1 million contest aimed at finding a better recommendation engine in the wake of a privacy lawsuit settlement. The company informed its users today via the company blog, noting that it had "reached an under...
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New Zealand relies on BGP router protocol to filter the 'Net
New Zealand's government-run Internet filtering system is now running, and two ISPs are already using the system. Seven thousand websites are on the list, most dealing with child sexual abuse, bestiality, and other ...
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China and Google playing game of Chicken over censorship
Chinese authorities are pounding their desks over compliance with the law as Google's C-Day approaches. The "C" is for Censorship, of course, which Google plans to lift in China sometime in the near future. The company has been in ta...
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Science journo quits writing to fight chiropractic libel suit
The UK's libel laws, which place the burden of proof onto those who have published inflammatory statements, have had a chilling effect on journalism in that nation, and have led to a closet industry in "libel tourism."...
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Bed readers rejoice: iPad gains last-minute rotation lock
When Apple first introduced the iPad in late January, we noted with much disappointment that the device had no way to lock the screen orientation. This is apparently no longer the case, however—according to an updated iPad spec...
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Five insights into the behaviors of social media users
We do a decent amount of social media coverage here at Ars, but not everything that happens with Facebook, Twitter, and the like is worth its own story. Sometimes, though, we happen across things that make us say "huh...
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Comcast-NBCU merger: how the regulators will decide
"Good morning, this hearing will come to order, and we welcome all. I notice that there are a few people in the room," declared Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). "We're here to discuss consumers—they're the good gu...
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Hands on with Bit.Trip Runner: don't watch, listen
The bit.trip series of games combines simple graphics with catchy songs, and then blends both together into an addictive soup. The past games in the series for the Nintendo WiiWare service have all been gold, and at GDC we were able ...
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Beautiful innovation: the first 20 hours of FF XIII
Final Fantasy games often seem like a mixed bag. One one hand, they tend to take too long to get into; the first ten hours or so always feel like something you have to slog through before things really become exciting....
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Family of four gets their genomes sequenced
Late last year, we described a genome sequencing technique that brought the price of consumables down to under $5,000. That technique, offered by Complete Genomics, has now been put to use: all the genomes have bee...
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SOCOM 4, played with PlayStation Move: our thoughts
We played with the PlayStation Move at the party last night, but at Sony's more intimate gathering at the W Hotel today it was easier to get a better picture of the peripheral. The main games on the floor were interesting, but the ga...
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Or will I go from rags to riches? Hands-on with Mafia 2
With Mafia 2, developer 2K Czech is leaving the optimism to Tony Bennett: this is not intended to be a rags to riches crime story. Don’t expect golden dreams to come true. This is the story of a man trying to k...
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OpenGL 4 spec arrives with Direct3D 11 feature parity
At GDC the Khronos Group announced not one but two new OpenGL specifications. The headline release, OpenGL 4, includes a raft of new features bringing OpenGL in line with Microsoft's Direct3D specification. OpenGL 3.3 ...
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Intel's NAS-specific Atom platform hastens PCification
Intel's announcement last week that the company is planning two versions of its Atom processor specifically for the NAS market was easy to overlook. After all, there are a few Atom-based NAS options on the market alre...
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iPhone OS 4.0 may finally bring multitasking nirvana
One complaint commonly leveled against the iPhone is that it can't run multiple apps at the same time. However, sources for AppleInsider say that Apple is finally planning to incorporate a task manager that will integrate with the es...
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Transformers: War for Cybertron shows how it all began
Cybertron isn't just the homeworld of the Transformers... it is a Transformer itself. It was the first Transformer. In War for Cybertron you get to explore the Civil War between the Autobots and the Decepticons as they...
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Canonical's design team responds to theme criticisms
Canonical is burying Ubuntu's traditional brown theme and is adopting a new visual style for version 10.04, which is scheduled for release in April. The new theme was revealed last week as part of Canonical's broader effort to overha...
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Court nixes individual track downloads of Pink Floyd albums
Individual Pink Floyd songs will soon disappear from online music stores. The British High Court has ruled against EMI, the band's record label, saying that the band's contract requires EMI to "preserve the artistic integrity of the...
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feature: Safely whitelist your favorite sites and opt out of tracking
So there was this article on the Internet recently about how ad blocking is devastating to sites that you love. You may have read it and there's a good chance that you participated in the frank and lively discussion th...
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0-day exploits for IE flaw another reason to switch to IE 8
Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday a new flaw affecting version 6 and 7 of its Internet Explorer web browser that could allow remote code execution. The security advisory noted that targeted attacks using the flaw were already in the wil...
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FCC Commissioner rips ISPs on broadband prices, competition
Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn solidified her role as the agency's tail gunner on Wednesday with a warning to the big ISPs that the FCC's patience with rising broadband subscription rates is wearing...
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Limbo is quiet, subtle genius... coming to XBLA
The problem with dreams is that things never work the way you think they should. Try turning on a light... nothing happens. The branches of that tree may turn out to be the legs of a spider. You never feel safe, not ex...
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Congress wants big NatSec exemptions for spectrum inventory
A newly revised version of a House bill requiring the government to inventory the nation's radio spectrum would give Federal agencies and private license owners a national security pass on publicly disclosing informat...
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feature: Why new hard disks might not be much fun for XP users
A rather surprising article hit the front page of the BBC on Tuesday: the next generation of hard disks could cause slowdowns for XP users. Not normally the kind of thing you'd expect to be placed so prominently, but t...
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Power Gig: it's a rhythm game... with a real guitar
There is a point when playing rhythm games such as Rock Band or Guitar Hero where you hit a kind of wall; there is only so much to learn hitting buttons as notes flow down the screen. Power Gig: Rise of the Six String&...
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Code library gives homebrew iPod remotes chance for awesome
Not too long ago, David Finland built a device capable of communicating with just about any model of iPod via the dock connector using an Arduino Nano, PodGizmo breakout board, an old USB iPod connector, and a momentary switch. Whil...
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Sony announces the PlayStation Move motion controller
SAN FRANCISCO — At a GDC event today, Sony showed off its new PlayStation Move controller, along with a number of games. The audience response was positive, but the demos shown, including sports games and sword-...
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Bad employee! 12% knowingly violate company IT policies
By now, it's practically a mantra that the biggest problem with corporate IT security is the employees themselves. However, we usually assume that's due to ignorant users or poorly enforced policies. Not so for a chunk of the US wor...
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Researchers get plastic to act totally metal
Plastics became ubiquitous during the 20th century. They were hot topics of industrial and academic research, and saw innumerable consumer applications. While plastics can have a wide variety of mechanical properties, they are almos...
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Pushing the speed limits of quantum memory
It feels like quantum computers have barely been invented, and scientists are already testing how extensible the current technology is. A paper published in Nature Photonics this week describes how researchers are beg...
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Donkey-politician vid keeps two Azerbaijani bloggers in jail
Two Azerbaijani bloggers will remain in jail after using a donkey to represent their government in a satirical YouTube video. Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli lost an appeal Wednesday asking for them to be released from their respectiv...
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Cellcos hoping to cash in on iPad with 3G/4G mobile hotspots
Though the 3G-equipped version of the iPad will only be able to get data services from AT&T, Verizon apparently sees the introduction of Apple's tablet device as "an opportunity" for the company to sell data services. A supposed&...
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Free wireless broadband plan is déjà vu all over again
As part of the grand hoopla-fest building up to the release of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan this month, the agency hosted a Digital Inclusion Summit at Washington, DC's Newseum on Tue...
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Street Fighter IV: as good as you can expect on the iPhone
Street Fighter IV is now available on Apple's App Store; you can pick it up right now for $10 if you'd like to see what Capcom can do with Apple's hardware. Capcom also threw quite the party at GDC, allowing the press and community s...
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Getting chopped: why True Crime loves bladed weapons
Jeff O'Connell is the lead producer of the new True Crime game, and he's showing off the game's hand-to-hand fighting. The part of the game we saw was low on gunplay, but it looked great, with some cinematic-looking moves and kills. ...
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Winning the war on cancer? US death rates show broad decline
President Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971 and, since then, the National Cancer Institute (part of the NIH) has funded research on prevention, surveillance, and treatments. But, despite the effort, progress has been elusive, le...
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CodePlex refresh, FOSS projects more compatible with Windows
The CodePlex Foundation has announced the arrival of several new board members, including Jim Jagielski, the Chief Open Source Officer of SpringSource. Jagielski, who was one of the original cofounders of the Apache So...
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feature: True story: the making of the Terminator's laser-sighted .45 pistol
One of the most striking images from The Terminator was the weapon he carried and used in his first attempt on Sarah Connor's life: the .45 Longslide, with laser sighting. Who can forget the scene in the gun shop? The...
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HTC lawsuit came after warning by Apple to handset makers
Apple COO Tim Cook's warning from early 2009 wasn't the only one that handset makers received before Apple sicced the lawyers on HTC last week. According to a research note from Oppenheimer analyst Yal Reiner, Apple be...
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MRI's successes put the brain on trial
A typical neuroscience paper (or a typical report on one) is a laundry list of structure:function relationships between brain regions and the mental tasks they perform. The amygdala deals with registering rewards, the...
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Facebook's location feature expected to launch next month
Facebook is allegedly planning to roll out location sharing capabilities next month, once again playing catch-up to other services that have gained popularity thanks to location data. The rumor comes courtesy of anonymous sources wh...
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Microsoft browser ballot gives Opera, Firefox a boost
The Microsoft browser ballot released this month to Windows users in the EU is already doing Microsoft's rivals a favor. Two of the major competitors to Internet Explorer have seen an increase in downloads, while the other two are n...
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The Internet of tomorrow: 100Gbps to your house by 2030
Google's recent announcement of a 1Gbps fiber-to-the-home testbed has communities across the US salivating—but imagine what the Internet might be like if that connection to your home were even faster. Say... 100...
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FileMaker Pro goes to 11, admits people like spreadsheets
Apple subsidiary FileMaker has released version 11 of its flagship FileMaker Pro database. The updated software purports to make building and maintaining databases even easier, while acknowledging that many users are a...
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Microsoft begins rolling out redesigned MSN homepage
Microsoft today began rolling out its new MSN homepage, but not everyone will be getting it at once: the update will trickle out over the next few weeks to the site's 100 million US customers. The software giant is touting the new ve...
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Plans for .xxx top-level domain pop up again
The .xxx domain is back on the table. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will reconsider the top-level domain during a meeting in Kenya this week, nearly three years after it was shot down...
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"PowerPoint is evil" author to monitor stimulus spending
Government and industry bureaucrats addicted to spewing out mind-numbing PowerPoint presentations, be very afraid; Edward Tufte is coming to Washington, DC. The Obama administration has appointed Tufte to serve on the ...
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Mozilla borrows from WebKit to build fast new JS engine
Mozilla's high-performance TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which was first introduced in 2008, has lost a lot of its luster as competing browser vendors have stepped up their game to deliver superior performance. Firefo...
