The Kentucky Derby was originally slated to happen this weekend, but like most everything else worth getting excited about, it has been postponed to later in the year. This is only the second time the race has even been postponed in its storied 146-year history. (The first time was in 1945, in the final year of World…
Source: LifeHacker – How to Watch the Virtual Kentucky Derby This Weekend
Microsoft has been pretty forthcoming about its next-generation Xbox Series X game console, and has revealed many details about its hardware and software features. Not only have we seen what the console looks like (something that Sony isn’t yet prepared to do with its PlayStation 5), but we also know about the innermost workings of the console
Source: Hot Hardware – Microsoft To Showcase Xbox Series X Gameplay Footage Next Week, Here’s When To Tune In
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.2 is here six months after version 8.1
Source: Linux Today – Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Released with Enhanced Security and Performance
Women exist. This is a basic fact of life, but it’s also a frequent source of controversy for more… let’s say reactionary sections of the gaming community. In what appears to be an attempt to head off the usual tiresome complaints, Ubisoft has addressed its decision to allow players to choose between male and female…
Source: Kotaku – Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Devs Preemptively Shut Down Bullshit Concerns About Female Vikings
Last week we published our initial review of Apple’s new iPhone SE. In the piece, I had remarked that the camera was relatively disappointing and suffered from a lack of detail in photos, with the phone’s camera seemingly suffering from optical weaknesses that manifested in partially blurred out shots. This was quite puzzling as the iPhone SE’s camera module should be of the same design as that of the iPhone 8, which produced sharp images.
I had notified Apple of the results ahead of the publication of the article, and the company communicated back that they had not seen such results before, and that they were not what was expected of the new iPhone SE’s camera abilities.
The company decided to dispatch out a new phone, and to collect my initial unit for analysis. I exchanged units earlier in the week, and was able to retest the new phone’s cameras.
In the new camera samples, we can see a dramatic improvement in sharpness of the pictures, and the new phone exhibits none of the optical issues that were initially described in the article.
Although I wasn’t able to test both units side-by-side, as the old phone had been collected at the same time, here’s some similar scene shots (although they are done on different days with different lighting conditions) between the two phones:
One can immediately note massive improvements in sharpness, with the new phone now performing as good as, or even better, than the iPhone 8.
I’ve completely updated the initial camera evaluation with new samples, and all criticism about the detail retention and optical performance of the iPhone SE naturally don’t apply any more, with the phone now performing excellently in that area.
For transparency’s sake – we’ve kept on the old page with the old samples in the article so that readers can see the differences between the two units.
Overall, the new update is both good news and bad news. The good news is that the iPhone SE should feature a much better camera than initially reported, and I hope that’s what most users will experience.
The bad news is that we still don’t exactly know what went wrong with the first unit – what I don’t doubt is confirmed is that it suffered from a manufacturing defect in the optical system of the camera.
The problem with confirming such a scenario is that it’s very unlikely that I was extremely unlucky in being the sole person receiving such a sample, as usually one-off faults like these are insanely rare, with the more likely scenario being some sort of systematic failure for a whole batch of units.
As an anecdote, the last time this happened was a few years back, with initial production runs of Huawei’s Mate 8 having camera focus issues, and this was confirmed to be faulty manufacturing of the initial batches rather than just my unit. The issue was partly resolved by software updates, and fully resolved by a recalibration in the manufacturing lines.
For such a QA-issue to happen to Apple is extremely rare, and to their credit, they took it very seriously with a prompt response and device replacement. Only their internal analysis will showcase the root cause of the problem, and unfortunately given the company’s more secretive nature, we might never find out about the results of that investigation.
We’ll be following up with a full-blown camera analysis of the new iPhone SE (and a ton of other phones we have to catch up on!) in the next few weeks.
Source: AnandTech – Updated IPhone SE Camera Testing: Replacement Phone Shows Much Improved Results
You’re not supposed to get a bill for coronavirus tests. But as anyone who’s ever gotten a surprise medical bill can tell you, just because you’re not expecting to be charged doesn’t mean you won’t be.
Source: LifeHacker – What to Do if You Get a Bill for Your Coronavirus Test
Respawn Entertainment has detailed what players can expect from season five of Apex Legends. Fortune’s Favor will start on May 12th, one week later than expected. The most exciting addition is a new playable character named Loba. Respawn released an…
Source: Engadget – The latest ‘Apex Legends’ hero is a master thief named Loba
Plastic garbage floating on the ocean may draw the most outrage, but it accounts for just 1 percent of the 10 million tons of plastic that get into the world’s oceans every year. The rest of it ends up in the deep ocean, and new research has revealed where it’s accumulating.
Source: Gizmodo – The Seafloor Is Absolutely Littered in Microplastic
Microsoft has offered the Xbox Game Pass service since June 2017, and it’s been growing rapidly in popularity ever since. Microsoft’s Phil Spencer says that over the last two months, he has seen just how important gaming can be to the community. People around the world have been stuck inside due to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, and many have
Source: Hot Hardware – Microsoft’s Spencer Confirms Xbox Game Pass xCloud Integration And When It Will Arrive
Disney Cloth Face Masks (4-Pack) | $20 | Disney Store
Source: LifeHacker – Now Ready for Pre-Order, the Inevitable Disney Face Masks Are Here
Enlarge / Amazon’s headquarters on a sunny day in 2018. (credit: Andrei Stanescu | Getty Images)
Amazon is reportedly (and suddenly) enforcing rules limiting employees’ internal communication as workers, critical of the company’s behavior, become increasingly outspoken and organized.
Internal listservs with more than 500 participants are now required to move to a moderated model where a manager must approve any content before its distribution, according to emails obtained by Recode.
Amazon had almost 800,000 total employees worldwide as of the end of 2019, a number that does not include the recent addition of another 175,000 temporary warehouse and delivery workers the company just hired to handle increased demand due to COVID-19. Of those 800,000, more than 500,000 are in the United States, and at least 275,000 of those are full-time employees.
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Source: Ars Technica – Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts
Raspberry Pi Ltd. has launched a $50 “High Quality Camera” for the Raspberry Pi. The 12.3-megapixel, HD camera ships with optional 6mm CS-mount ($25) and 16mm C-mount ($50) lenses. Raspberry Pi Ltd. has sold 1.7 million units of its circa 2016, 8-megapixel v2 Raspberry Pi Camera after discontinuing its original 5-megapixel camera. Raspberry Pi has […]
Source: LXer – Raspberry Pi gains 12MP camera with optional C and CS lenses
Microsoft now has 10 million subscribers to its Xbox Game Pass service, the company said during an investor call yesterday. It’s the first time Microsoft has publicly disclosed Xbox Game Pass numbers, and it’s a sign that the company’s ambitious bet on subscription gaming is starting to pay off. From a report: Microsoft has been trying to build a “Netflix for video games” for years, and it looks like it’s taking an early lead before a significant expansion to game streaming later this year. 10 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers is a significant milestone. EA’s competing subscription services, EA Access and Origin Access, hit more than 5 million subscribers last year, and Sony’s PlayStation Now subscriber base reached 1 million in October, five years after its debut. Apple and Google haven’t disclosed numbers for Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass, and Nvidia’s GeForce Now service reached 1 million users shortly after its launch. Microsoft is also sharing some additional Xbox Game Pass statistics today. “Since March, Xbox Game Pass members have added over 23 million friends on Xbox Live, which is a 70 percent growth in friendship rate,” explains Xbox chief Phil Spencer. “Game Pass members are also playing twice as much and engaging in more multiplayer gaming, which has increased by 130 percent.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Microsoft’s Big Xbox Game Pass Bet is Starting To Pay Off
There are a great number of different ways that people can attempt to run away from their demons, some of which are healthy while others are profoundly self destructive. That’s a realization at the heart of a new series at Z2 Comics: Electric Century, from writers Mikey Way (of My Chemical Romance fame) and Shaun…
Source: io9 – My Chemical Romance’s Mikey Way Is Penning a Haunting, Nostalgic New Comic
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said in March that promoting bleach as a cure for the coronavirus was “misinformation that has imminent risk of danger” and that such messages would immediately be removed from the social network. President Trump has now put Mr. Zuckerberg’s comments to the test. From a report: At a White House briefing last week, Mr. Trump suggested that disinfectants and ultraviolet light were possible treatments for the virus. His remarks immediately found their way onto Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites, and people rushed to defend the president’s statements as well as mock them. But Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have declined to remove Mr. Trump’s statements posted online in video clips and transcriptions of the briefing, saying he did not specifically direct people to pursue the unproven treatments. That has led to a mushrooming of other posts, videos and comments about false virus cures with UV lights and disinfectants that the companies have largely left up.
A New York Times analysis found 780 Facebook groups, 290 Facebook pages, nine Instagram accounts and thousands of tweets pushing UV light therapies that were posted after Mr. Trump’s comments and that remained on the sites as of Thursday. More than 5,000 other posts, videos and comments promoting disinfectants as a virus cure were also on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube this week. Only a few of the posts have been taken down. The social media companies have always trod delicately when it comes to President Trump. Yet their inaction on posts echoing his remarks on UV lights and disinfectants stands out because the companies have said for weeks that they would not permit false information about the coronavirus to proliferate.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Trump’s Disinfectant Talk Trips Up Sites’ Vows Against Misinformation
Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)
Today’s Dealmaster is headlined by a deal on Bose’s Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, which are currently down to $299 at various retailers. That’s $100 off Bose’s list price and about $75 off the average price we see them go for online. The catch is that this deal only applies to the white (or “Soapstone”) model, but if you like that look, this is the lowest price we’ve seen from reputable retailers to date. (We previously highlighted a deal that brought the pair down to $280, but that only applied to officially refurbished models.)
The Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are Bose’s newest pair of wireless active noise-cancelling (ANC) headphones, having launched last May. While we don’t have a formal review for them on Ars, we have tested them for various gift guides over the past year. They sport a more premium-feeling design than the company’s older QuietComfort 35 II, with a slick metallic finish on the headband and lusher earpads. Their active noise-cancellation is virtually identical, too, which is to say it’s just about best-in-class and plenty strong enough to mute out noisy kids or the rumbling of the subway.
Their sound is more bass-forward than the more laidback profile of the QuietComfort; there’s less treble detail as a result, and as is usually the case with wireless ANC headphones, you can get better pure sound out of a wired non-ANC pair at the same price. But if you prefer a more “fun” sound, they should be perfectly enjoyable. Beyond all that, their 20-hour battery life is solid, and their integrated mics provide great clarity over calls.
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Source: Ars Technica – Bose’s latest noise-cancelling headphones are down to their lowest price yet
How do you follow up a masterpiece? That’s the unenviable question the team at id Software had to answer for themselves after they released Doom in 2016. And for some, the answer to that question, Doom Eternal, is going to be a disappointment. Not be…
Source: Engadget – ‘Doom Eternal’ isn’t the ‘Doom’ sequel I wanted — but I still loved it
If you’re wearing a face mask with a little plastic valve embedded in it, you should know that valves compromise the effectiveness of the mask—and this is true whether your mask is a hardware-store N95 or a designer cloth mask.
Source: LifeHacker – If Your Mask Has a Valve, It’s Half Useless
Enlarge / An image of some of the plant parts imaged under their own glow. (credit: Mitiouchkina et al.)
Wander into the wrong section of a home improvement store and you’ll discover entire aisles dedicated to a product category called “landscape lighting.” Apparently, many people find it aesthetically pleasing to have systems to illuminate trees and flowers after the Sun goes down. If a group of Russian scientists has its way, however, the trees may ultimately be able to illuminate themselves.
Plenty of living things glow in the dark. Some of these, like jellyfish and corals, rely on fluorescent proteins, which absorb energy at one wavelength and then re-emit it later at a visible one. Others, like fireflies, have enzymes that convert chemical energy to photons and so aren’t limited by the need for a source of photons to power their glow. Typically, these latter organisms have a specific chemical—generically called a “luciferin”—that provides the energy. An enzyme called a “luciferase” (again, a generic term) cleaves a chemical bond in the luciferin and releases its energy as a photon.
(The use of these generic terms can be confusing, as the terms are interchangeable but the molecules are not. If you try to feed the luciferin from bacteria to the firefly luciferase, nothing will happen. It also means that the list of molecules in the “luciferin” category is regularly expanding as biologist categorize more systems.)
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Source: Ars Technica – Want your flowers to glow? If you’re OK with GMOs, that’s now an option
This is a video from Nature on PBS partially shot by a spy copter disguised as a hummingbird so it can fly through a monarch butterfly swarm in Mexico with minimal disturbance. There’s so many of them — they look like flying leaves. Moths? Moths are flying dead leaves. I refuse to even donate one to Blathers in Animal Crossing because I don’t want it in my museum.
Keep going for the full video while I suggest next time they try to outfit that hummer with a nicer camera because some of that footage looked like a scrambled cable channel.
Source: Geekologie – Hummingbird Spy Copter Flies Through A Monarch Butterfly Swarm
