Month: March 2018

An effort to revamp the classic 1994 space station thriller System Shock for a new generation has hit a few stumbles since raising $1.35 million via Kickstarter in 2016. Developer Nightdive Studios officially put the project on hiatus last month, citing a loss of focus and a too-ambitious project scope.

Now, in a new interview with PC Gamer, Nightdive Studios Business Development Director Larry Kuperman says the project is back on track with an "expectation" of a launch in "probably Q1 of 2020."

Nightdive's Kickstarter was originally conceived as a "faithful reboot" of the original game for modern hardware, following on the more limited "Enhanced Edition" which Nightdive released on GOG in 2015. After receiving funding, though, the project expanded into a complete recreation of the game with new concepts and features. The team showed off a pre-alpha demo in the Unity Engine back in 2016, but Nightdive has since shifted over to the Unreal Engine, a move the company describes as "a choice that we don’t regret and one that has worked out for us."

Enlarge / A child received a vaccination against influenza A (H1N1). (credit: Getty | BSIP)

Kids diagnosed with autism are less likely than the general population to receive the recommended set of safe and protective vaccines—and so are their younger siblings, according to a new observational study in JAMA Pediatrics.

The finding indicates that children with autism and their siblings are at an increased risk of contracting preventable—and dangerous—infectious diseases. It also suggests that a pernicious and completely bogus notion that vaccines cause autism may be spurring hesitancy in some parents.

The authors of the study note in their conclusion:

Enlarge / Dara Khosrowshahi, shown here in 2013, is CEO of Uber. (credit: Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Uber's retreat from the global ridesharing business continued on Monday as the company announced it was selling its southeast Asian business to Singapore-based rival Grab. The deal gives Uber a 27.5 percent stake in Grab and gets its CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, a seat on Grab's board of directors.

Uber is pulling out of Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia. According to Bloomberg, this represents a region of 620 million people. The deal includes the operation of UberEats.

Bloomberg also notes that the deal was brokered by the Japanese firm Softbank, which is the biggest shareholder in both companies.

Enlarge (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Every company hopes to make a device that appeals to the masses. But when you're a company like Fitbit, known for its fitness expertise, it can be harder to clear the mental hurdle in consumers' heads that separates what you're known for and what you want to be. People who prioritize wearable features that aren't fitness-related may not even look to Fitbit when considering a new device, because fitness is so deeply ingrained into the company's identity.

Fitbit's core will always be health and fitness, but the company is actively trying to make devices that appeal to people who don't necessarily place their exercise and dieting regime on a pedestal. The new $200 Versa smartwatch speaks to those users as a wearable designed for "mass appeal." With its combination of Fitbit-developed fitness features and Pebble-influenced smartwatch capabilities, the Versa aims to bring more users into the Fitbit ecosystem with the promise that it can add value and convenience to all parts of your life.

Design

It's not shocking that the Versa stands tall as Fitbit's most polished smartwatch to date. The company learned a lot since coming out with its two previous smartwatches (the Blaze and the Ionic) and since purchasing Pebble at the end of 2016. Pebble loyalists will immediately recognize the Versa's design as a Pebble derivative; it closely resembles the Pebble Time Steel.

Enlarge / Ray Ozzie, former chief software architect at Microsoft Corp., speaks during the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, California, on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008. (credit: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Department of Justice is pushing for a new industry proposal that would grant law enforcement access to encrypted digital devices with a warrant, according to a new report by The New York Times.

For years, top federal law enforcement officials have advocated for a way to overcome what they call the "going dark" problem—the occasional inability to access data kept on an encrypted smartphone or tablet even when a judge has granted that authority. In recent months, the FBI director, among others, has emphasized the problem's severity.

"I recognize this entails varying degrees of innovation by the industry to ensure lawful access is available," FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a speech earlier this month. "But I just don’t buy the claim that it’s impossible."

Enlarge / An exterior shot of the Apple Store on the Chicago River. (credit: Apple)

An Apple event in Chicago? It's unusual, but that's what's going down on March 27 at 10am CDT/8am PDT/11am EDT. The event is education-focused, and both hardware and software announcements are possible from the company. Apple is looking to gain ground on the dominant platform for students K-12: Google's Chromebook.

Apple has said this event will not be livestreamed—though a video will be made available after the fact—but Ars Technica Managing Editor Eric Bangeman will be in attendance, liveblogging the announcements for Ars readers.

We're not yet certain what Apple plans to announce, but reports suggest a new, cheaper iPad is coming—possibly with Apple Pencil support, a feature previously reserved for the iPad Pro line. Apple will likely announce software updates for iOS updates, possibly including ClassKit, a rumored developer framework for educational apps.

Ron Amadeo

While Xiaomi keeps pushing back its attempts to get a serious foothold in the US, it's still fun to take a look at one of their phones once in a while. Today, we're looking at one of the highest-profile Android One devices out there, the Xiaomi Mi A1. With this phone, you get Xiaomi's typically great (if unoriginal) hardware with a mostly unaltered build of Android, which makes for a pretty awesome combo, especially for the low, low price of $220.

Xiaomi phones are often pretty difficult to purchase, but this phone, as part of the Android One program, is getting a rollout to more than 40 countries, along with a bit of a push from Google itself. None of those countries is officially the United States, but the Mi A1 is just a click away on Amazon. The problem you'll run into is with the LTE compatibility, but with band 4 it is partially compatible with T-Mobile and, if you're lucky, some Verizon and AT&T signals. There's also always Wi-Fi.