Month: December 2017

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A newly-released letter has formally acknowledged what was only briefly stated last month in a San Francisco courtroom: federal prosecutors have an open criminal investigation into Uber.

Late last month, as part of the proceedings in the high-profile and ongoing Waymo v. Uber trade secrets lawsuit, US District Judge William Alsup said that on November 22 he had received a letter from San Francisco-based federal prosecutors. It is very unusual for a judge in a civil case to be apprised of a pending criminal investigation involving one of the litigants.

In a separate November 28 letter sent to Judge Alsup, Acting US Attorney Alex Tse asked that the first letter not be made public. The judge unsealed both letters on Wednesday.

Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our friends at TechBargains, we have another round of deals to share. Today's list includes a good range of discounts, including a bundle that includes a PlayStation VR headset, its accompanying PlayStation Camera, and a copy of Gran Turismo Sport for $199. You're technically getting the first-generation PS VR hardware here, but if you don't care about having HDR pass-through support, that shouldn't be a big deal. And while we aren't crazy about Gran Turismo Sport from a VR-specific standpoint, we do find it to be another enjoyable and superbly realistic racer, albeit one that's almost totally focused on online play. Maybe just pick up Resident Evil 7 to go with the headset, though.

There's plenty more beyond that, so have a look at the full roundup below.

(credit: TechBargains)

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Opting to handle your bills online keeps a lot of paper out of the bin, but the devices you use to go online eventually die anyway. If this “e-waste” ends up in a landfill, the energy and materials that went into manufacturing and delivering those devices are lost. And besides being unsustainable, disposal can expose people to hazardous metals and compounds.

Apart from a story here and there about a new e-waste recycling project, it’s hard to get an idea of just how much e-waste is getting tossed around the world. A new report from the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union helps paint a picture by providing some global statistics.

Altogether, the report estimates that nearly 45 million tons of electronics were thrown out in 2016—and only about 20 percent of it is known to have been recycled. The report puts the value of the raw materials in that 45 million tons of e-waste at about $55 billion ($9 billion from smartphones alone), but most of that waste isn’t being recovered.