Month: November 2017

Enlarge / AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson speak onstage at The New York Times 2017 DealBook Conference on November 9, 2017 in New York City. (credit: Getty Images | Michael Cohen)

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson today said his company is ready to fight the Trump administration in court in order to complete its $85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc.

The Department of Justice is reviewing AT&T's proposed acquisition of Time Warner and could file an antitrust lawsuit to block the deal or force AT&T to make concessions. Reports yesterday indicated that the DOJ is asking AT&T and Time Warner to sell off either CNN or DirecTV in order to win government approval of their merger (Time Warner owns CNN and AT&T owns DirecTV).

Stephenson cast some doubt on those reports today, but he also said AT&T is ready for a court battle. AT&T would still like to settle with the government if it can get a favorable deal, but the company will fight in court if the DOJ's demands are too high.

Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our friends at TechBargains, we have another round of deals to share. Today's list should be good news for anyone in the market for a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, as Bose's QuietComfort 25 are down to $179 at Amazon.

Note that this is Bose's wired flagship—the QuietComfort 35 is its wireless pair—so you may need a dongle. But for frequent flyers or anyone with a long holiday drive coming up, the QC25s are still right toward the top when it comes to noise-cancelling strength.

Beyond that, we've got discounts on Roku streamers, Dell laptops, a few smartphones, smart home gear, and more. You can have a look at the full rundown below.

Enlarge (credit: Logitech)

Customers were rightfully outraged when Logitech announced it would end service and support for its Harmony Link devices next year. Now, Logitech is attempting to right some of the wrongs of this situation, even though its plans to end the life of all Link devices hasn't changed. According to a Logitech blog post, the company will now provide all Harmony Link users with a free replacement Harmony Hub before service and support to Link devices ends in March 2018.

When Link users were notified of the discontinuation via email, Logitech also informed them that customers within warranty could replace the Link with a Harmony Hub for free. However, out-of-warranty customers were only allowed a 35-percent discount to purchase a Harmony Hub.

Customers were originally frustrated by Logitech's decision to end the life of Link devices apparently solely for business purposes. Many users claimed they experienced no problems with the Link and the devices worked as promised. However, some were also upset that Logitech was essentially forcing them to pay for an updated device that they wouldn't want or need if not for Logitech's decision to brick their currently functioning devices.

Enlarge / Today, Waymo cars have safety drivers when they're on public streets. But the company envisions a future with no one in the driver's seat. (credit: Waymo)

Waymo made history on Tuesday, announcing that fully driverless cars—with no one sitting behind the wheel—were already roaming public streets near the Phoenix suburb of Chandler. It's happening way earlier than I expected it would.

Back in 2010, I made a bet with the Economist's Ryan Avent. He had an infant daughter and mused on Twitter that she might never need a driver's license since self-driving cars could be commonplace by the time she turned 16 in 2026. I was skeptical. I certainly expected self-driving cars to reach American streets eventually, but I thought it wouldn't happen until after 2026.

So we made a bet. I haven't officially lost the bet yet because the bet focuses on travel from Philadelphia to Washington, DC. But it seems pretty likely that Waymo will expand to the East Coast long before 2026 and I'll have to pay up.

Enlarge / Indian visitors walk through the courtyard of Jama Masjid amid heavy smog in the old quarters of New Delhi on November 8, 2017. SAJJAD HUSSAIN/ AFP/ Getty Images)

With calm winds, seasonal crop burns, and the usual vehicle and industrial emissions, an extremely thick, toxic fog of pollution has settled on Delhi, choking and sickening residents.

Pollution measurements and indexes have exceeded charted ranges, blowing past the highest categorized levels dubbed “severe” and hazardous to health. In some areas of the gigantic metropolitan area, measurements of certain pollutants were around 30 times the levels considered safe by the World Health Organization. Local journalists reported that the smog is causing throat irritation, wheezing, nausea, vomiting, and extreme fatigue.

Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, took to Twitter to call the city a “gas chamber.”

Enlarge (credit: Samuel Axon)

iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users running iOS 11 have complained of a bug with autocorrect that converts the letter "i" into any number of things that are not in fact "i," such as the letter A or an exclamation point. A report earlier this week suggested that Apple would soon release an update to address the issue. Today, iOS 11.1.1 became available on supported devices, and it does just that.

The update also reportedly addresses a problem that could sometimes cause the "Hey Siri" command to stop functioning. Apple's update notes are as follows:

iOS 11.1.1 includes bug fixes for your iPhone or iPad. This update:

• Fixes an issue with keyboard auto-correct
• Fixes an issue where Hey Siri stops working

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

Nothing in Apple's support documentation suggests there are any other changes of note; for example, the security documentation says that the security content of iOS 11.1.1 is the same as that of iOS 11.1. iOS 11.1 fixed the serious KRACK Wi-FI vulnerability for some devices. It also introduced new emoji, reintroduced a deprecated touch gesture that users wanted back, and addressed numerous other bugs and issues with Photos, notifications, and more.

Enlarge / An array of Windows Mixed Reality headsets. (credit: Microsoft)

As promised back in August, all owners of Windows Mixed Reality headsets who are running Windows 10 will be able to run much of SteamVR's library of VR software.

This is an expansion of the SteamVR preview program for Windows Mixed Reality headsets, which was previously open to developers but will open up to all users on November 15. Interested users will be able to navigate from Microsoft's VR hub to Valve's and select from SteamVR software there.

SteamVR is best known for games like EVE Valkyrie and Project Cars, but several apps are available, too. For example, Virtual Desktop allows you to use your computer's desktop in a VR space, and Google's Tilt Brush is a VR painting experience. This preview program is a beta test, so not every app or game is expected to work perfectly right now.

Enlarge / Congressman Randy Weber feeling curious about some atmospheric science.

House Science Committee hearings on climate change are many things to many people. For members of the committee, they are typically soapbox pageants, with long, blustery declarations punctuated by leading questions to witnesses who have been invited because they will give a desired answer. For well-known contrarians who reject most of the conclusions of climate science, they are a platform to wax martyrish about why the entire field doesn't believe them. And for scientists (and humble journalists) who know the topic, they are primarily generators of head-to-desk contact and almost hazardously vigorous eye-rolling.

On Wednesday, the committee held a hearing that was none of these things.

To be fair, it was a subcommittee hearing that didn't feature the full roster of members, but there is reason to believe that made no difference. So why the departure? The topic of the hearing was not the human actions responsible for global warming or the emissions cuts necessary to halt it. Instead, the committee discussed the science of geoengineering: the techniques that could potentially be employed to intentionally manipulate the climate in ways that would limit climate change.