Month: October 2016

Enlarge / With the width trimmed, the keyboard now spans almost the full width of the system. (credit: HP)

We really liked HP's Spectre x360 Ultrabook when we reviewed its first Broadwell version last year. HP gave it a minor revision to add a Skylake processor, but didn't change the basic formula. Today the company announced the third version of its Spectre x360, now with a 7th generation Intel Core processor (better known to you and me as Kaby Lake). While some of the Kaby Lake refreshes we've seen have been minor, doing little more than swapping out a Skylake part and putting in a Kaby Lake chip, HP's been a little more ambitious with the Spectre x360.

The updated system is smaller and sleeker: it shaves 2mm (0.01 inches) off its thickness, cutting it to 13.8mm (0.54 inches) at its thickest point, and almost 10mm (0.39 inches) off each side. This reduces the Spectre's weight by 0.16kg (0.35lb). In spite of this, the new x360 sports a bigger battery (57.8 Wh, up from 56), and, with Kaby Lake's power reductions, HP claims that the battery life will be at least 25 percent better than the Skylake version.

With its 360 degree hinge, the Spectre x360 is more versatile than a traditional laptop. (credit: HP)

That's all nice, but the Spectre's new features are more exciting: HP has added Thunderbolt 3—a pair of USB Type-C ports support the high-speed technology—and an infra-red camera to enable Windows Hello biometric authentication. These are two of our favorite laptop features, and we're delighted to see HP adding them to an already desirable system. The SSD (available up to 1TB) has been upgraded, too: it now uses NVMe instead of SATA, which should provide a performance boost. The system also sports fast-charging, taking about 90 minutes to reach 90 percent charge.

Enlarge / The cover of Mr. Robot: Red Wheelbarrow, burnt by Hot Carla. (credit: Jennifer Hahn)

NEW YORK—The very, very long line to get into the Mr. Robot book panel at the 2016 New York Comic Con’s BookCon demonstrates how much this TV show has captured the fascination of a huge audience. The attention to minute detail, the Easter eggs, the psychology, and the crazy plotting have led to some of the hottest water cooler/Reddit conversations of 2016. The show has also inspired our own Nathan Mattise to analyze every single episode on Ars' TV podcast Decrypted.

Jennifer Hahn

Show creator Sam Esmail (who has been listening to the Ars podcast) and writer Courtney Looney showed off a trailer for the new book that answers questions about the current seasons of the show (no, they would not give up anything about Season 3).

The long legal war between Apple and Samsung reached the Supreme Court today. For the first time in a century, the high court considered what the limits of "design patents" should be.

Until they took up a starring role in Apple v. Samsung, design patents were like the poor, long-lost cousins of the better-known "utility" patents that cover machines themselves.

Here's how this long-lasting technology case made its way to the high court: In 2012, the first Apple v. Samsung trial ended with a jury slapping Samsung with a $1.05 billion verdict for infringing Apple patents and trademarks. After appeals, that got whittled down to $548 million based entirely on patent infringement. With this Supreme Court case, Samsung is looking to get back the majority of that—the $399 million that's based on three design patents.

Enlarge / Elsie the lead engineer debugs Maeve the madame robot. (credit: HBO)

The second episode of Westworld, "Chestnut," took us deeper into the mysteries of robot consciousness and the Man In Black's obsessive quest. Now we'll take a deep analytical dive into Westworld on Ars Technica's podcast Decrypted.

On this episode, I'm joined by Ars Technica's video editor Jennifer Hahn, who is also a documentary filmmaker and editor. We talk about the recent episode, as well as how it fits into the world established in the original Westworld movie, its sequel Futureworld, and the short-lived 1980 TV series Beyond Westworld. Jen also talks to us about Westworld's cinematography and design.

Topics discussed: Whether the Westworld theme park is underground (maybe?), William's white hat status (dubious), the robot UX (command line mode and analysis mode are fascinating), the clash between Lee and Ford over why people come to the park (revealing), the plots of the original Westworld movies and TV series (they involve robots taking over the park and creating clone versions of world leaders so they can control humanity), and why it matters that the series is shot on 35mm film (you can control the shadows). Also: holy crap was that scene in the robot repair area with Maeve ever creepy!

(credit: Julian Ortiz)

Update October 12: Wells Fargo has announced that CEO and Chairman John Stumpf will step down from both positions and the bank's President and Chief Operating Officer Timothy J. Sloan will replace him, effective immediately. Stumpf promised earlier this year that he would forfeit $41 million in unvested equity, which the Wall Street Journal says is one of the largest bonus clawbacks ever for the chief of a US bank. CNBC reports that Stumpf will not receive a severance from the bank.

Original Story: Wells Fargo employees were creating fake accounts in customers’ names without their authorization as early as 2005, according to a letter obtained by Vice News. The letter comes from a former branch manager at a Washington state-based Wells Fargo Branch and was written in January 2006. Wells Fargo recently paid fines totaling $185 million for the creation of 2 million unauthorized accounts since 2011. The bank has said that it will investigate additional unauthorized accounts opened in 2010 and 2009, but it has not acknowledged that such a practice occurred as early as 2005.

Former branch manager Dennis Hambek wrote the 2006 letter to Carrie Tolstedt, who was Wells Fargo’s head of regional banking at the time. In it, Hambek documents a few instances of alleged misconduct, including employees applying for loans far greater than what their customers requested, as well as opening accounts without the customers’ consent.