Month: September 2018

Enlarge / Elizabeth Holmes speaks on stage during the closing session of the Clinton Global Initiative 2015 on September 29, 2015 in New York City. (credit: JP Yim/Getty Images)

Theranos has told its investors that the company will wrap up, paying "unsecured creditors its remaining cash," according to the Wall Street Journal.

The company's dissolution comes months after its top two executives, ex-CEO Elizabeth Holmes, and former president Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, were federally prosecuted for criminal wire fraud.

Theranos, with Holmes at the helm, had claimed that it could run a slew of physiological tests with a simple pin-prick of blood. That assertion turned out to be false.

Enlarge / The source of the leak on the International Space Station. (credit: NASA TV)

Last week, a pressure leak occurred on the International Space Station. It was slow and posed no immediate threat to the crew, with the atmosphere leaving the station at a rate such that depressurization of the station would have taken 14 days.

Eventually, US and Russian crew members traced the leak to a 2mm breach in the orbital module of the Soyuz MS-09 vehicle that had flown to the space station in June. The module had carried Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, and NASA's Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor.

The crew on the station was in no danger, and, over the course of several hours, Russian engineers devised a fix that involved epoxy. A preliminary analysis concluded that the vehicle is safe for return to Earth (the orbital module detaches from the small Soyuz capsule before entry into Earth's atmosphere).

Enlarge / Law enforcement officials investigate a shooting in the GLHF Game Bar where three people including the gunman were killed at the Jacksonville Landing on August 26, 2018 in Jacksonville, Florida. (credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A survivor of the recent shooting at a Madden NFL 19 tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, has filed a lawsuit against Electronic Arts, alleging that the company was negligent when it failed to provide adequate security at the venue on August 26.

Three people died at the incident, including the shooter. Seven others suffered injuries, including the plaintiff in this case, Jacob Mitich. He took bullets in his leg and back during the shooting.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Duval County Court in Florida on August 30, claims that EA "knew or should have known that there had been a number of serious criminal incidents, including crimes of violence and murder at 'The Landing' and in the immediate neighborhood in the recent past prior to August 26, 2018." (The Jacksonville Landing describes itself as "a wide variety of waterfront dining options and a cozy inside shopping mall.")

Mercedes-Benz

Most of the traditional automakers have been slow to embrace electrification, but there's no denying that process is underway now. Mercedes-Benz is the latest automaker to unveil a new battery electric vehicle, taking the wraps off its new EQC earlier on Tuesday. The car, which was first seen as a concept two years ago at the Paris Auto Show, will enter production in 2019 and goes on sale here in the US in 2020.

The exterior styling is quite similar to the GLC but with more of an emphasis on drag reduction. The inside is dominated by massive widescreen displays that serve both as the main instrument panel and the MBUX infotainment system. Mercedes-Benz described this as an "avant-garde electro-look" and called out how the dashboard and door trim are meant to remind you of a high-end amplifier.

Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our friends at TechBargains, we have another round of deals to share. Today's list is highlighted by a deal on the Nokia 6.1, which is currently going for $229 at Amazon. That's a $40 drop from the phone's usual $269 going rate.

The Nokia 6.1 is our current budget Android phone of choice. We'll direct you to Ars' in-depth review from July for the full rundown, but in short, the 6.1 has a sensible, rigid design, competent performance, and stock software, all of which make it the best phone for those looking to spend less than $300. The 5.5-inch 1080p display is solid for the price point; there's a USB-C port, headphone jack, and NFC; and the fingerprint reader is on the back where it should be.

You'll have to deal with a middling camera, but that's par for the course with cheap phones. It's also worth noting that the phone only works on GSM networks like T-Mobile and AT&T; those on Verizon or Sprint can either pay more for an Essential Phone or go with the Moto G6, though the latter's software isn't quite as clean or regularly updated as the build here.