Google has added a few new security and login features to Chrome OS recently, including experimental support for using a PIN to unlock a Chromebook instead of password, and the ability to unlock a Chromebook using an Android phone.
Another option may be on the way: according to a Chromium source code commit, it looks like at least one Chromebook with a fingerprint sensor is under development.
The commit is for a board called Gru, which Chrome Unboxed notes is expected to be used in an upcoming device that’s code-named Kevin.
Google has added a few new security and login features to Chrome OS recently, including experimental support for using a PIN to unlock a Chromebook instead of password, and the ability to unlock a Chromebook using an Android phone.
Another option may be on the way: according to a Chromium source code commit, it looks like at least one Chromebook with a fingerprint sensor is under development.
The commit is for a board called Gru, which Chrome Unboxed notes is expected to be used in an upcoming device that’s code-named Kevin.
Er ist gefunden: Die Sonde Rosetta hat ein Bild vom Kometen 67P/Tschurjumow-Gerassimenko zur Erde gefunkt, auf dem der Lander Philae zu sehen ist. Der war seit seiner spektakulären Landung auf dem Kometen vermisst. Für die Wissenschaftler ist es wichtig, Position und Ausrichtung von Philae zu kennen. (Rosetta, Raumfahrt)
Er ist gefunden: Die Sonde Rosetta hat ein Bild vom Kometen 67P/Tschurjumow-Gerassimenko zur Erde gefunkt, auf dem der Lander Philae zu sehen ist. Der war seit seiner spektakulären Landung auf dem Kometen vermisst. Für die Wissenschaftler ist es wichtig, Position und Ausrichtung von Philae zu kennen. (Rosetta, Raumfahrt)
The Amazon Tap is like Amazon Echo’s cheaper, smaller, and slightly less capable cousin. Like the Echo, the Tap is a Bluetooth speaker that can answer your spoken questions — but you have to tap a button to ask, because it’s not always listening. It’s also battery powered, unlike the Echo.
Normally Amazon charges $130 for the Tap, but right now you can pick one up for $30 off the usual price.
The Amazon Tap is like Amazon Echo’s cheaper, smaller, and slightly less capable cousin. Like the Echo, the Tap is a Bluetooth speaker that can answer your spoken questions — but you have to tap a button to ask, because it’s not always listening. It’s also battery powered, unlike the Echo.
Normally Amazon charges $130 for the Tap, but right now you can pick one up for $30 off the usual price.
Ford’s newest hot hatch is the starting point for the Hoonigan’s current race car.
The Ford Focus RS RX was designed to be the ultimate rallycross vehicle in the FIA World Rallycross Championship. Collaborating with UK-based M-Sport and Hoonigan Racing Division, Ford Performance engineers implemented the same high-tech instruments and procedures used on production vehicles to develop the Focus RS RX for competition.
Ford
Earlier this week we reviewed the Focus RS, Ford's hottest hatch and the best performance car to come from the Blue Oval in quite some time. Unlike RS Fords past, the Focus RS wasn't built to satisfy the homologation requirements of a particular racing series. But it turns out there is a competition version, developed in a partnership between Ford Performance, the UK's M-Sport, and Ken Block's Hoonigan Racing outfit. Meet the Ford Focus RS RX.
The Focus RS RX competes in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, a series similar to the Red Bull Global Rallycross, although the former is concentrated in Europe as opposed to the US. To find out more about the Focus RS RX, we spoke with Ford Performance Motorsports Supervisor Brian Novak, who happens to be a huge old-school computer nerd and Ars reader.
Ford has been competing in Global Rallycross with a Ford Fiesta—the car we rode in back in July at Red Bull's round in Washington, DC. But the Focus RS RX is all-new. Novak told us:
Wer mit der Erweiterung Legion für World of Warcraft schon wieder durch ist, muss jetzt auf Patch 7.1 warten. Das Update trägt den Titel Return to Karazhan – aber statt einer unbeschwerten Party gibt es Kämpfe gegen Odyn und Helya. (WoW, MMORPG)
Wer mit der Erweiterung Legion für World of Warcraft schon wieder durch ist, muss jetzt auf Patch 7.1 warten. Das Update trägt den Titel Return to Karazhan - aber statt einer unbeschwerten Party gibt es Kämpfe gegen Odyn und Helya. (WoW, MMORPG)
Eine Datenrate wie in Glasfasernetzen soll in wenigen Monaten im Kabelnetz möglich sein. Der größte Verband der TV-Kabelnetzbetreiber hat die Zeitplanung für die Einführung von Docsis 3.1 bekanntgegeben. Das soll künftig über 70 Prozent der deutschen Haushalte erreichen. (Unitymedia, Telekommunikation)
Eine Datenrate wie in Glasfasernetzen soll in wenigen Monaten im Kabelnetz möglich sein. Der größte Verband der TV-Kabelnetzbetreiber hat die Zeitplanung für die Einführung von Docsis 3.1 bekanntgegeben. Das soll künftig über 70 Prozent der deutschen Haushalte erreichen. (Unitymedia, Telekommunikation)
As Nintendo continues to rid the world of fan-made games which dare to mention the company’s characters, one dev team has bitten back. Rather than completely back down, the people behind No Mario’s Sky have rebranded their platformer as DMCA’s Sky. Sadly, that couldn’t stop it being withdrawn from triannual game coding competition, Ludum Dare.
With decades of experience and billions of software units shifted, Nintendo is one of the most enduring and popular gaming brands on the planet.
With continuous popularity of flagship character Mario and the recent revival of Pokemon as a global phenomenon, Nintendo is still making waves in 2016. In recent times, however, the company has been making gaming headlines for less popular reasons.
Just like many big technology companies, Nintendo sees its intellectual property rights as its most valuable asset. As a result, the company is cracking down on anyone using Nintendo characters without permission, from fan-made Metroid clone AM2R to Pokémon Uranium.
Most of the recent legal threats have been made by Nintendo of America attorney Brian Sniffen and before the weekend the legal hounds were at it again, this time targeting a project that by constraint was just a few hours old.
Ludum Dare (Latin “to give a game”) is a triannual game coding competition that was first held in 2002. In recent years it has become more popular after Minecraft designer Markus Persson became a semi-regular entrant. Its unique feature is that competitors are given a theme and then expected to produce a finished game in 48 to 72 hours.
One of the team entrants to Ludum Dare 36 (theme ‘Ancient Tech’) were ASMB Games (Alex McDonald, Sam Izzo, Max Cahill, Ben Porter) with their creation No Mario’s Sky, a game featuring “exploration and survival in an infinite procedurally generated universe.”
While the game’s title clearly plays on Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky, it was the Nintendo element that got ASMB in hot water with the gaming giant.
“We represent Nintendo of America Inc. (“Nintendo”) in intellectual property matters. Nintendo recently learned that content available at https://asmb.itch.io/no-marios-sky infringes copyrights owned by Nintendo. This notice is provided pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 USC § 512, and itch.io’s Terms of Service,” Sniffen wrote in a DMCA complaint sent to ASMB.
“This page provides access to downloadable files which violate itch.io’s Terms of Service and infringe Nintendo’s copyrights in its Super Mario video game franchise, including but not limited to the audiovisual work, images, and fictional character depictions….We would appreciate your expeditious removal of all infringing content.”
Faced with the wrath of Nintendo’s legal department in their inbox, ASMB responded by immediately taking the game down. Sadly that also had an effect on their standing at Ludum Dare.
“NO MARIO’S SKY IS NO MORE-IO!” the team announced. “Due to a copyright claim by Nintendo we’ve had to take the game down. As we’ve had to remove the game, we are voiding our entry into Ludum Dare. Thanks for playing, everyone!”
While it’s disappointing that the game had to be taken down, ASMB weren’t quite done. After addressing the issues highlighted by Nintendo of America, the team went back to work and removed all ‘infringing’ content from No Mario’s Sky. The end result is a new game cheekily titled DMCA’s Sky.
“Thanks everyone for playing and enjoying our little fan game,” ASMB said in a follow-up. “We would love to see an official Nintendo game in this style — a Mario Galaxy-style game in 2D within a procedurally-generated universe.”
Whether Nintendo will follow up on the request will remain to be seen but ASMB appear to be taking their little run-in with the gaming giant in their stride. Meanwhile, people are already swapping file-hosting links to the outlawed No Mario’s Sky, meaning that Nintendo has not only failed in its quest to kill the game but have also thrust it into the spotlight.
Die fairer produzierten Smartphones von Fairphone sollen künftig verstärkt auch über Mobilfunk-Provider angeboten werden. Ein neues Fairphone 3 wird es in diesem Jahr wohl nicht mehr geben, deutet der Hersteller an. (Ifa 2016, GreenIT)
Die fairer produzierten Smartphones von Fairphone sollen künftig verstärkt auch über Mobilfunk-Provider angeboten werden. Ein neues Fairphone 3 wird es in diesem Jahr wohl nicht mehr geben, deutet der Hersteller an. (Ifa 2016, GreenIT)
You may never make it to Willamette, but you’ll die trying.
Welcome to Ars Cardboard, our weekend look at tabletop games! Check out our complete board gaming coverage at cardboard.arstechnica.com—and let us know what you think.
Everyone of a certain age has their own experience playing The Oregon Trail on a computer as a kid.
Some of us started with the Apple II Oregon Trail, while some of us played later Oregon Trail versions. But we all learned what it meant to “ford a river” and “caulk a wagon.” Some of us played the Oregon Trail Deluxe version on Windows and acted out the scenes of our wagon train passing through what is now Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and, if you were lucky, more western states. Some of us started as bankers and went crazy buying laudanum in the General Store. Some wanted the challenge and started as teachers. Some of us eschewed gameplay when things got dire and spent our time throwing out supplies to make room for everything we brought back from hunting.
After launching its 7th-gen A-series notebook chips based on “Bristol Ridge” architecture in May, AMD says more powerful Bristol Ridge chips are now available for desktops.
The new chips are said to offer a 17 percent CPU performance boost over 6th-gen AMD chips, and 27 percent better graphics performance.
AMD also likes to compare its processors to rival Intel’s… and while Intel generally has had the lead in CPU power in recent years, AMD’s processors tend to have higher-performance integrated graphics (and lower price tags).
After launching its 7th-gen A-series notebook chips based on “Bristol Ridge” architecture in May, AMD says more powerful Bristol Ridge chips are now available for desktops.
The new chips are said to offer a 17 percent CPU performance boost over 6th-gen AMD chips, and 27 percent better graphics performance.
AMD also likes to compare its processors to rival Intel’s… and while Intel generally has had the lead in CPU power in recent years, AMD’s processors tend to have higher-performance integrated graphics (and lower price tags).
Er ist gefunden: Die Sonde Rosetta hat ein Bild vom Kometen 67P/Tschurjumow-Gerassimenko zur Erde gefunkt, auf dem der Lander Philae zu sehen ist. Der war seit seiner spektakulären Landung auf dem Kometen vermisst. Für die Wissenschaftler ist es wichtig, Position und Ausrichtung von Philae zu kennen. (
Wer mit der Erweiterung Legion für World of Warcraft schon wieder durch ist, muss jetzt auf Patch 7.1 warten. Das Update trägt den Titel Return to Karazhan - aber statt einer unbeschwerten Party gibt es Kämpfe gegen Odyn und Helya. (
Eine Datenrate wie in Glasfasernetzen soll in wenigen Monaten im Kabelnetz möglich sein. Der größte Verband der TV-Kabelnetzbetreiber hat die Zeitplanung für die Einführung von Docsis 3.1 bekanntgegeben. Das soll künftig über 70 Prozent der deutschen Haushalte erreichen. (
Die fairer produzierten Smartphones von Fairphone sollen künftig verstärkt auch über Mobilfunk-Provider angeboten werden. Ein neues Fairphone 3 wird es in diesem Jahr wohl nicht mehr geben, deutet der Hersteller an. (
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