Month: October 2017

Thank Tesla, blame Dieselgate: whatever the reason, the fact remains that the auto industry is finally taking electrification seriously. And Nissan has been doing it better—and longer—than most when it comes to electric vehicles. On sale since 2010, the Leaf is the world's best-selling EV. Now in its second generation, there's a long-range version in the works scheduled for 2019.

There might also be a go-fast Leaf in the works. Nissan showed off a NISMO-badged version of the EV at the Tokyo Motor Show, and design chief Alfonso Albaisa told Autocar that a more muscular look ought to sell a few more cars.

When Marvel debuted Runaways back in 2003, it took the superhero genre in a compelling new direction. Not only did it have teenage characters who were more than sidekicks or mini versions of adults, but it also upped the stakes by pulling a Game of Thrones and killing off major characters. Hulu's series based on the books is coming next month, and the first trailer pushes all the right buttons.

Created and written by Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Y: the Last Man), Runaways is about a group of six teenage friends who discover their parents are secretly a gang of supervillains called the Pride. Torn between loyalty to their families and a desire to make things right, the characters are ambivalent and complex right out of the gate. Some of them have been trained in the ways of superpowers by their parents, while others are just figuring out what they can do. Led by tactical mastermind Alex (Rhenzy Feliz), they quickly decide to band together and fight evil. But that means running away from home, leaving everything they love behind, and taking on the people they once believed were their protectors.

The cast from the show, and from the comics. Hulu has definitely gotten the look right. (credit: Hulu/Marvel)

In this trailer, we meet the founding members of the Runaways (it's not clear whether this show will kill any of them off the way the comics did). There's Alex, who shows his friends the secret room where their parents are sacrificing innocent people. Molly (Allegra Acosta) has super strength, probably inherited from her mutant telepath parents. Gert (Ariela Barer) has a mind-meldy connection with a genetically-engineered dinosaur from the future named Old Lace. Then there's Karolina (Virginia Gardner), who thought she was human until she turned into a glowing, solar-powered alien known as a Majesdania. Chase (Gregg Sulkin) is the son of mad scientists, and we see him with the fire-controlling "fistigons" that he's stolen from his parents.

Enlarge / Georgia voters at a voting machine during the US presidential election at the Athens-Clarke County Fleet building in Athens, Georgia on November 8, 2016. (credit: TAMI CHAPPELL/AFP/Getty Images)

A server and its backups, believed to be key to a pending federal lawsuit filed against Georgia election officials, was thoroughly deleted according to e-mails recently released under a public records request.

Georgia previously came under heavy scrutiny after a researcher discovered significant problems with his home state’s voting system. A lawsuit soon followed in state court, asking the court to annul the results of the June 20 special election for Congress and to prevent Georgia’s existing computer-based voting system from being used again. The case, Curling v. Kemp, was filed in Fulton County Superior Court on July 3.

As the Associated Press reported Thursday, the data was initially destroyed on July 7 by the Center for Elections Systems at Kennesaw State University, the entity tasked with running the Peach State’s elections.

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

According to Bloomberg, Apple is taking a markedly different path with its streaming TV series than the likes of HBO Now or Showtime. The sources for the report—which include Hollywood producers and other industry insiders who have met with the company in recent months—paint a picture of a very conservative corporation making slow progress.

They say that Apple has expressed a preference for uplifting, family-friendly shows and that it has been disinterested in other kinds of pitches—even those from prestigious artists like Gravity's Alfonso Cuarón—because they don't fit that mold.

Carpool Karaoke, based on the segment from CBS' The Late Late Show with James Corden, was scheduled to premiere on Apple Music in April, but it didn't. The series came out in August instead. The Bloomberg report indicates that the show was delayed because the initial cuts had swearing and "references to vaginal hygiene."

Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our friends at TechBargains, we have another round of deals to share. With pre-orders for Apple's new iPhone X (that's "ten," not "ex") set to open at midnight, today's list includes a roundup of the savings the four major US carriers are promising for those who want the new handset.

Each carrier is promising "up to" $300 or so off for those who trade in an old device toward the purchase of an iPhone X; just know that you'll usually have to trade in a newish iPhone or Android device—think an iPhone 6 or Galaxy S7—and be on a monthly installment plan to get the entirety of that discount. Older phones will likely still get some kickback, but the exact amount will vary. And in most cases, the discount is spread out over the course of 18-24 months in the form of credits. Carriers will be carriers, but something's better than nothing, right?

Beyond the iPhone, you can find a variety of deals on laptops, TVs, drones, and other gadgets below.

The Turtles in 1967. (credit: Chris Walter/WireImage)

Members of 1960s rock band The Turtles have lost a major legal battle in their quest to collect copyright royalties from their old hit songs.

The Florida Supreme Court held today (PDF) that the state doesn't recognize any copyrights in pre-1972 music recordings, despite the band's arguments to the contrary. All seven justices concurred in the ruling.

Flo & Eddie, a company that represents two members of The Turtles, had claimed that even though there is no federal copyright in sound recordings for pre-1972 songs, they are entitled to payments because their songs are protected by state copyrights and common law. The band members sued Sirius XM in 2013, and lawsuits against streaming services like Pandora followed. The major record labels also got involved, essentially copying The Turtles' strategy, by suing Sirius as well as Pandora.

Enlarge / Vehicles drive past a Las Vegas billboard featuring a Federal Bureau of Investigation tip line number on Interstate 515. On October 1, Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured more than 450 after he opened fire on a large crowd at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival. (credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Local and federal investigators still have not come up with a motive that sparked a Nevada man to commit one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. More than three weeks after Stephen Paddock opened fire and killed 58 people and wounded hundreds of others attending a country music festival below his Las Vegas hotel room, authorities appear stumped about uncovering a critical piece of information—Paddock's hard drive—that could potentially lead them to other suspects.

Stephen Paddock. (credit: Facebook)

Some perpetrators of mass violence leave behind manifestos of sorts, like the one from Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber. His 35,000-word manifesto railing against technology paved the way for his 1996 arrest after his brother, David, realized it was written by his sibling. Paddock, who killed himself in his Mandalay Bay hotel room after the October 1 shooting rampage, hasn't left any hint of a motive to explain his murders.

The FBI is currently examining computers and cell phones in the FBI's lab in Quantico tied to the Paddock case. However, a hard drive in a laptop found in the shooter's hotel room is now missing, according to the Associated Press.