Month: August 2016

Enlarge (credit: Comcast)

When Comcast launched its gigabit cable service in Atlanta and Nashville earlier this year, the company offered a $70 monthly price for customers who sign three-year contracts, half off the no-contract "every-day" price.

But when Comcast announced gigabit Internet for parts of Chicago this week, the no-contract price of $139.95 was the only one mentioned. The difference, as DSLRreports wrote today, is that there's no Google Fiber providing competition in Chicago yet. While Google Fiber has tentative plans to expand to Chicago, its $70 gigabit Internet service is already available in parts of Atlanta and Nashville.

Comcast's Chicago announcement said the company "will test promotional pricing during the trial period," but didn't name any specific offers that are better than the $140 no-contract price. When contacted by Ars, a Comcast spokesperson said there is "nothing to announce at this time." The Chicago service may also come with a 1TB monthly data cap, as Comcast has previously only provided unlimited data to gigabit customers who sign a three-year contract. Otherwise, unlimited data costs $50 a month extra.

COLOGNE, Germany—Changing the formula of a respected, successful franchise is a risky business, and first impressions of Gears of War 4's DeeBees highlight the problem. This new robotic race of enemies, seemingly named by the director of a children's television show, flank and shoot like the Locust we're used to, but the aesthetic difference is difficult to warm to. Shooting and killing sentient boxes of circuit boards and wires doesn't provide that same sense of guttural, crass satisfaction that comes with blasting a hole through the head of a Locust (which appear in other parts of the game), or ripping a chainsaw through its torso. Call me an animal, but that's what I want from Gears of War, the quintessential third-person cover-based shooter. Dismembering an android incarnation of The Rock doesn't provide that same splat and release.

Having seen just 20 or so minutes of them in action, maybe that's an unfair judgement. After all, DeeBees come in various forms, so there's the potential for them to change tactics and develop their own unique personality amongst their fleshier brethren. Bipedal DeeBees, for instance, forego the use of cover, instead relying on their armour to deflect your rounds, while the power of their weapons deters you from poking your head out of cover to get a shot off. They can jump low when navigating over cover, and if they get close they turn suicide bomber and explode.

The smaller of the two walkers I saw tended to attack only in packs, their role seemingly focused on herding you into tight spots from which their larger siblings could deal the real damage and force you into a compromising position. It's these larger examples, which pack more potent weapons, that blow up in your face. If you're too close to them when they jump over cover you become stunned for a moment, which is enough time for them to blow up and take you out. Additionally, flying drones and fast, ground-based mechanised balls that roll up to you and, again, explode in your face, act as support robots and distractions.

Enlarge / Bill Hill, manager of exploration systems development for NASA, speaks during a social media event Thursday at Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana. (credit: Eric Berger)

One of the biggest criticisms of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft is that they will be too expensive to fly. Namely—while the large rocket and sizable capsule appear to be more-than-capable vehicles that could form the core of a deep-space exploration program—will there be any money left after producing them for NASA to actually go and explore? Until now, this has been a question the space agency has offered only vague assurances about.

But on Thursday, when Ars sat down to interview NASA’s Bill Hill inside the Michoud Assembly Facility, where the SLS core stage and Orion are assembled, the NASA manager was notably forthcoming. “We’re just way too expensive today,” Hill acknowledged. “It’s going to take some different thinking and maybe a little bit more risk taking than what we’re wanting to do today.”

Hill should know. As deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, he is the NASA headquarters official responsible for the development of SLS, Orion, and the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center. Hill said he has given managers of each of those three programs some targets for production and operating costs once the vehicles move out of the development phase and into production.