Enlarge / Blue Origin’s New Shepard crew, Oliver Daemen, Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos, and Wally Funk hold a press conference after flying into space in the Blue Origin New Shepard on July 20, 2021 in Van Horn, Texas. (credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images) LAUNCH SITE ONE, Texas—Jeff Bezos burst from his spacecraft with a smile on […]
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) We’re in phase three of our machine-learning project now—that is, we’ve gotten past denial and anger, and we’re now sliding into bargaining and depression. I’ve been tasked with using Ars Technica’s trove of data from five years of headline tests, which pair two ideas against each other in […]
Enlarge / Collectors say bare cartridges in “sous vide” condition can command a premium at auction. (credit: Aurich Lawson) If you aren’t immersed in the world of high-end video game collecting, it’s probably hard to understand why someone paid in excess of $1. 5 million for a single, shrinkwrap-sealed boxed copy of Super Mario 64 […]
Enlarge / Turning the lens on ourselves, as it were. There’s a moment in any foray into new technological territory that you realize you may have embarked on a Sisyphean task. Staring at the multitude of options available to take on the project, you research your options, read the documentation, and start to work—only to […]
If you’d like, you can pretend that Ghirahim (right) is the thirsty, corner-cutting Nintendo, and Link is an average fan, aghast at the shape Skyward Sword HD ultimately arrived in. [credit: Nintendo ] Nintendo has never shied away from opportunities to touch up and re-release its most beloved video games. 1993’s Super Mario All-Stars is […]
Enlarge Every day, some little piece of logic constructed by very specific bits of artificial intelligence technology makes decisions that affect how you experience the world. It could be the ads that get served up to you on social media or shopping sites, or the facial recognition that unlocks your phone, or the directions you […]
Enlarge / Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson, with Sirisha Bandla on his shoulders, cheers with crew members after flying into space aboard VSS Unity . (credit: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N. M. —Sir Richard Branson basked in the late morning New Mexico sunshine on Sunday. Beaming his white, toothy […]
Enlarge / Google’s second-generation Nest Hub in its ideal environment, bedside. (credit: Corey Gaskin) Google’s second-generation Nest Hub, like much of the company’s hardware these days, looks a lot like the previous version. But in this case, I don’t mind so much. This is a purpose-built smart display with a camera-less design aimed at maintaining […]
Enlarge / Google Chat, in just some of its many form factors. (credit: Google) Google Chat officially launched for consumers recently, and that means the time has come to dive back into everyone’s favorite subject: Google messaging services! Google Chat is the latest in Google’s long and prodigious line of (usually) short-lived messaging applications, but […]
[credit: AtGames ] If you’d told me at the beginning of 2021 that I’d review not one but two virtual pinball options for the home, I would have nodded and said, sure, that sounds entirely unsurprising. A replica arcade experience seems like a great antidote for any nerd going stir-crazy in a pandemic. Yet while […]