news.buyenne.com

Matt Jones shows Ars the CES concept that Jaguar Land Rover and Intel put together, and discusses the company's tech incubator in Portland, Oregon. Video shot/edited by Nathan Fitch (video link)

LAS VEGAS—If you're a car nerd, you may know that Jaguar is based in Coventry, England. If you're a super-duper car nerd like me, you might also know that its main technology center is on a former RAF base in Gaydon, next door to Aston Martin. But did you know that it also has a tech center in Portland, Oregon? At CES we spoke to Matt Jones, director of future technology for Jaguar Land Rover, to find out more.

Last year, a confidential report was leaked that revealed that University of California, Berkeley had conducted an investigation into one of its prominent astronomy researchers and found that he had repeatedly engaged in sexual harassment. The report, however, was kept so confidential that the other faculty in his own department didn't even know about it. After it leaked, they called on him to resign, which he did.

That level of secrecy has now drawn the attention of Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-Calif.). Speier announced today that she would be seeking legislation that would compel universities to make other universities aware of the results of any investigations into violations of federal sexual harassment standards. To bolster her case, she also released a second confidential university report that details how a different astronomer engaged in flagrant sexual harassment, yet continued a successful career at a different university.

University investigations into faculty misconduct (sexual or otherwise) are typically kept confidential because even unfounded allegations can have severe consequences on an academic career. In both of these cases, however, the universities (Berkeley and the University of Arizona) kept the results of the investigation confidential even after the allegations had been substantiated during the investigation.

Amazon is making a serious play for gamers' dollars today, extending a 20 percent discount on all new and pre-release video games to subscribers of the $100/year Amazon Prime service. The discount only applies to physical games (excluding console bundles) and expires two weeks after a game's launch. Discounts will show up once subscribers put the games in their shopping carts.

This new benefit puts Amazon on similar ground to Best Buy, whose Gamers Club Unlocked program provides a similar 20 percent discount on new video games (as well as bonuses on trade-in games and discounts on used games). Best Buy's program cost $120 for a two-year subscription when it launched in 2012, but that subscription now goes for just $30.

Amazon Prime's gaming discounts come on top of free Release Date delivery that Amazon already provides to Prime members for many pre-ordered games. The Prime subscription also comes with benefits including the streaming Prime Video and Prime Music services, cloud photo storage on Prime Photos, and free two-day shipping on most products.

With the flip of two switches, men could one day curb their sperm flow and activate easily reversible birth control, according to ballsy German inventor Clemens Bimek.

Bimek, a carpenter who was frustrated with the lack of male-controlled contraceptives, came up with the idea after watching a television show about anatomy. Determined that his sperm shut-off method would work, the spunky creator patented the idea in 2000 and tested it out on himself (in collaboration with a surgeon) in 2009—and so far so good, he reports. Bimek intends to organize a 25-person clinical trial this year of the method, called the Bimek SLV.

The Bimek SLV works by implanting two devices—shut-off valves—in the scrotum. The valves are each "as small as a gummy bear," according to advertisements, and made of non-magnetic metallic components and a biocompatible polymer already used in medical implants. The devices get attached to the vas deferentia, the two ducts that transfer sperm from the testicles to the urethra. During implantation, each vas deferens is cut and the ends are plugged into the in and out tubes of a valve.

On Tuesday, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) rejected Volkswagen Group’s proposed fixes for 2.0L diesel engines that were caught with software to cheat the cars’ emissions control systems.

CARB’s decision (PDF) only applies to 75,688 California cars, but this afternoon the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is also demanding that Volkswagen put forth proposals to fix the diesel vehicles caught with so-called defeat devices, agreed with CARB's decision. In a statement, the EPA said that to-date, the Germany automaker "has not submitted an approvable recall plan to bring the vehicles into compliance and reduce pollution.”

Volkswagen has been scrambling to avoid regulatory blowback, lawsuits, and consumer outrage since the EPA issued a notice of violation (NOV) in September, accusing the automaker of installing defeat devices on diesel vehicles made after 2009. Volkswagen was eventually forced to admit that some 11 million vehicles worldwide could have the defeat device software on them. The software increases emissions by up to 40 times the limit allowed by US regulators when the car is being driven under normal conditions.

EA is shaking up the market for downloadable PC games with a new subscription-based service that apes some of the most popular features of console offerings like PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold. On Tuesday, the company made a surprise announcement of EA Origin Access for PC—not to be confused with the similarly named, entirely different offering on Xbox One consoles.

The new PC service will set players back $5 per month in exchange for access to full-game downloads from the "EA Vault," which currently includes 15 games, so long as they maintain a paid EA Origin Access subscription. Only one of those Vault titles, Battlefield Hardline, came out last year; the rest are "legacy" titles from the past few years, including Dragon Age: Inquisition, Battlefield 3 and 4, and the 2013 reboot of SimCity (all sans DLC). EA promises to add more Vault games on a monthly basis, including third-party offerings.

The service's FAQ claims that "some" EA Vault games will work offline, so long as players "periodically reconnect to Origin," but it doesn't clarify which games or how long "periodic" means. More troubling is the site's lack of confirmation about whether or not Vault games ever expire for paying members; on the comparable PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Games with Gold services, members receive permanent access to unlocked games, so long as they maintain paid subscriptions. We have asked EA representatives to clarify this point, and we will update this report if we receive a response.

Republicans in Congress are advancing a bill that could strip the Federal Communications Commission of authority to protect consumers from unreasonable broadband prices. Democrats and consumer advocates warn that the bill could help Internet service providers overcharge customers and impose unfair data caps.

When the FCC reclassified broadband as a common carrier service in order to impose net neutrality rules, the commission declined to impose traditional rate regulation in which telecommunications providers would have to seek permission before raising prices. But the reclassification allows customers to complain about prices, with the FCC judging on a case-by-case basis whether a price or pricing practice is "unjust" or "unreasonable."

Republicans led a hearing today on a few bills, including the "No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act," which would do exactly what its title says by forbidding the FCC from regulating rates charged for Internet service. Republicans have said they're simply trying to put into law a promise made by President Obama and FCC Chairman Wheeler that the commission won't require ISPs to face the rate-of-return regulation traditionally applied to telephone service. Passing a law would prevent future FCC chairpersons from using a different strategy.

Less than a month after Juniper Network officials disclosed an unauthorized backdoor in the company's NetScreen line of firewalls, researchers have uncovered highly suspicious code in older software from Juniper competitor Fortinet.

The suspicious code contains a challenge-and-response authentication routine for logging into servers with the secure shell (SSH) protocol. Researchers were able to unearth a hard-coded password of "FGTAbc11*xy+Qqz27" (not including the quotation marks) after reviewing this exploit code posted online on Saturday. On Tuesday, a researcher posted this screenshot purporting to show someone using the exploit to gain remote access to a server running Fortinet's FortiOS software.

Ralf-Philipp Weinmann, a security researcher who helped uncover the innerworkings of the Juniper backdoor, took to Twitter on Tuesday and repeatedly referred to the custom SSH authentication as a "backdoor." In one specific post, he confirmed he was able to make it work as reported on older versions of Fortinet's FortiOS.