A sandstorm, one of the effects of climate change on Battlefield 2042‘s (environmentally toothless) world. There’s a compelling game buried in the weather-ravaged wastes of Battlefield 2042‘s grim, apocalyptic premise that has almost nothing to do with hectic firefights and chaotic vehicular blowouts the series is known for. Instead, the setup—which is practically nowhere to […]
Enlarge / HP Chromebook x2 11-inch two-in-one. For tech enthusiasts, Chromebooks can be a good acquired taste. Advanced users don’t need a stripped-down operating system, and the low computing power generally disqualifies Chromebooks from being a serious, primary PC. But Chromebooks can often find a welcome spot in an enthusiast’s home as a secondary or […]
Mmm, the 1981 AMC Eagle SX/4 liftback. (credit: By G. Goodwin Jr. and Snark at en. wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3. 0 ) Quick, what’s the worst year in American automotive history? Recent bias might lead you to select 2008 , when an unprecedented modern financial crisis slammed the overall economy and led to a government […]
Enlarge (credit: Degui Adil / Getty Images) It is often said that the difference between science and superstition is that science is reproducible. Unfortunately, many scientific papers aren’t, making them about as reliable as superstition. Since the mid-1600s , the output from a typical scientific study has been an essay-style journal article describing the results. […]
Enlarge / Take one daily to keep Evil Hackerman away! (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) Information security and privacy suffer from the same phenomenon we see in fighting COVID-19: “I’ve done my own research” syndrome. Many security and privacy practices are things learned second- or third-hand, based on ancient tomes or stuff we’ve seen […]
Enlarge / The Apple Watch Series 7 is virtually indistinguishable from the Series 6 (less so with a light-colored watch face), and it doesn’t add much, but it’s still the best smartwatch you can buy. (credit: Corey Gaskin) Apple Watch Series 7 From $399 at Apple From $390 at Amazon (Ars Technica may earn compensation […]
Enlarge Welcome to Android API level 31, aka Android 12. Google’s latest OS had one of the weirdest rollouts ever. An anticlimactic source code release happened in the beginning of October, but if you wanted to run Android twelve on a device officially, you had to wait until Pixel 6 launch day, when Google also […]
Enlarge / In this story, we’re going to learn about “pig butchering. ” (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images) There are, by some estimates, more smart phones on this planet than human beings to use them. People who have never used a desktop computer use smart phones and other mobile devices every day and have […]
Author and daughter, enjoying a leisurely afternoon ride on the RadWagon 4. [credit: Jim Salter ] Rad Power RadWagon 4 $1899 at Rad Power Bikes (Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.) The Salter household is very much a bicycling household, so when Rad Power offered me […]
Enlarge / Man’s hand holding a cardboard sign that says SAVE THE PLANET (credit: Getty Images) After the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last month, it’s easy to feel demoralized. With everything else in the news, it’s also easy to focus on threats that are arguably more imminent, like […]