Month: March 2016

Andrew Cunningham

The 9.7-inch iPad Pro and its most important accessories.

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Earlier today, I was handed a 9.7-inch iPad Pro and a gaggle of accessories in a big bag with my name on it, which is pretty standard procedure when companies hand review units off to you. And then I was told there was no embargo.

For those of you who don’t know, pre-release review hardware is often given under the condition that you not publish anything about it until a certain date and time. It’s unavoidable in access-based journalism and it’s a double-edged sword. On the one hand, agreeing to let a company dictate when you can publish something gives the company tighter control of its message, and outlets that aren't included in that embargo are at a disadvantage compared to publications that are. On the other hand, it serves as a sort of safety cushion for reviewers, giving us time to test things thoroughly and prepare articles for publication without fear that we’ll be beaten to the punch by some competing outlet.

We’re flying without that particular safety cushion for the new iPad Pro, so we’ll try to split the difference. Today, I’ll give you some expanded impressions of the hardware and accessories based on the few hours I’ve been able to use it (as opposed to the 10-15 minutes that are typical for a hands-on session). Next week, I’ll expand those impressions into a full article with additional observations, more performance and battery data, and other thoughts about the new iPad Pro’s place in Apple’s lineup and the wider market.

This patent application may point to Nintendo's next home-console controller—and now, it may be the only thing that Nintendo Wii U fans can look forward to, thanks to a Wednesday report from Japanese business publication Nikkei. (credit: US Patent Application 2015/0355768)

Nintendo's Japanese arm has assured investors that the company will unveil its new gaming console, currently code-named Nintendo NX, by the end of this year, but it hasn't had nearly as much to say about the future of its current major home product, the Nintendo Wii U. That might be because its time is nigh. In spite of a few major Wii U exclusives slated to launch this year—particularly a major new Legend of Zelda game—a major Japanese business publication has now claimed that the hardware in question will cease production by the end of 2016.

A Wednesday-morning report from Japan's Nikkei pegs this year as the final year of Wii U hardware production—a crazy prediction, to be sure, considering that its console successor doesn't even have an official name or release date. However, that report also backs up its claim with the allegation that some Wii U accessories have already been discontinued. Worth noting: Nikkei's report did not go so far as to attach a 2016 release window to the new console.

If true, that may explain why Japan saw some substantial Wii U shortages in the past few months. A Nintendo World Report story in February pointed to a substantial sales drop-off in Japan after selling 250,000 Wii U consoles in December of last year and over 40,000 consoles in January 2016. That count dropped to 4,000 for the first week of February.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket successfully launches the AFSPC-5 satellite for the U.S. Air Force in 2015, (credit: United Launch Alliance)

In a memorandum sent Tuesday to the US Secretary of the Air Force, the Department of Defense's deputy inspector general for policy and oversight, Randolph R. Stone, announced his office had begun an investigation "regarding assertions" made by a former United Launch Alliance executive.

The executive, Brett Tobey, resigned from the Colorado-based company last week after making comments about ULA struggling to compete on launch costs with another rocket company, SpaceX. Tobey also said the government "had bent over backwards to lean the fill to our advantage," when it came to awarding launch contracts.

"At the request of the Secretary of Defense, the OIG DoD has opened an investigation regarding assertions made by United Launch Alliance’s former Vice-President of Engineering relating to competition for national security space launch and whether contracts to ULA were awarded in accordance with DoD and Federal regulations," Stone writes in the memorandum, obtained by Ars Tuesday evening.