Month: April 2019

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | pictafolio)

When repealing net neutrality rules, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and fellow Republicans argued that consumers had nothing to worry about, because the Federal Trade Commission would protect them from discriminatory practices by Internet service providers.

But there was never any good reason to think the FTC could come close to replacing FCC oversight of broadband providers, and FTC Chairman Joseph Simons essentially confirmed it in a speech last week.

Simons said that "blocking, throttling, or paid prioritization would not be per se antitrust violations." By contrast, the now-repealed FCC rules prohibited all three classes of behavior on a per se basis, Simons noted. Simons made the remarks at a telecom policy conference hosted by the Free State Foundation, a free-market think tank (see transcript).

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  Not a scale model of the Nissan Rogue—it's the Nissan Kicks. It's Nissan's entry-level SUV, it starts at $18,540, and it's been selling like hotcakes. [credit: Jonathan Gitlin ]

"Kicks" is an odd name for a car, isn't it? As a verb, it means to hit something with a foot. As a noun, it's slang for sneakers. But at Nissan, Kicks means the entry point into its SUV lineup, a replacement for the slightly less oddly named Juke. In this case, the unconventional name—I still don't know if it's meant to be a verb or a noun—comes with rather more conventional styling. The Juke was widely criticized by people who opine on how cars look, but the Kicks looks for all the world like a Nissan Rogue that shrunk in the wash.

Nissan would probably consider that a success, as it means the application of its corporate design signatures like the V-motion grille and wraparound headlights did what they were supposed to do. Our test Kicks came in a fetching two-tone paint scheme—this is an optional extra, but even if opting for one color all over, you still get a "floating roof" thanks to the black plastic panel on the C pillar. (Hiding a C pillar like this continues to be a popular styling detail throughout the industry, even though I personally think it's horrid.) I've got no such qualms about the other bits of black plastic that adorn the Kicks; these run from stout wheel arch extensions along the bottoms of the doors to the rear bumper. It's a car that has been designed for life in the city, and these should help protect it against the inevitable bumps and scrapes that entails.

Enlarge / Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon.com, in May 2018. (credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The government of Saudi Arabia gained access to the private contents of Jeff Bezos' phone, a Bezos-hired private investigator alleged in a Saturday post at the Daily Beast. According to the investigator, Gavin De Becker, the Saudis obtained racy text messages between the married Bezos and his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez. The material was leaked to the National Enquirer, which published a story revealing Bezos' affair.

"Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone and gained private information," De Becker wrote. He added that it was "unclear to what degree, if any," the National Enquirer "was aware of the details" of how the information had been obtained.

De Becker thinks the Saudis may have been motivated by the Bezos-owned Washington Post's dogged coverage of last October's murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While the Saudi government initially denied responsibility for the killing, the CIA has reportedly concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's murder.

Enlarge / Southwest was hardest hit by a software glitch that delayed flights nationwide. (credit: Luiz Eduardo)

A fault in software used by most US airlines caused a wave of flight delays this morning across the US, affecting hundreds of flights. "Several airlines are experiencing issues with a non-FAA flight planning weight and balance program called AeroData," a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. "Mainline operations and regional operations are affected to varying degrees."

That software, provided as a service by AeroData Inc., is used to perform weight and balance calculations needed for flight planning—which is particularly important for airlines operating regional and commuter flights. Today's software outage only lasted for about 40 minutes, but it had a rippling effect across the US.

Southwest Airlines was the most heavily affected by the outage as the airline had to delay 620 early flights. SkyWest, a commuter airline affiliated with United and Delta Airlines, had over 200 flights delayed. United Continental had about 150 regional flights delayed.

Enlarge / The 13.5 inch Surface Book 2. (credit: Microsoft)

Over the weekend, Microsoft refreshed the Surface Book 2 lineup, adding a new mid-range processor option for the 13.5-inch model (via The Verge).

At launch, the Surface Book 2 could be equipped with either a 7th generation dual-core i7-7300U processor with two cores and four threads or an 8th generation i7-8650U with four cores and eight threads, with prices starting at $1,499 for the 7th generation part. That dual-core system now starts at $1,149 (with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage), with the $1,499 slot taken by a new i5-8350U model. This too is a four core/eight thread chip, with clock speeds of 1.7-3.6GHz and 6MB cache, in contrast to the 1.9-4.2GHz and 8MB cache of the top-end i7.

That $1,499 system is available exclusively with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. Other prices seem unaffected; the 8th generation i7 processor, which also includes a discrete Nvidia 1050 GTX GPU with 2GB dedicated memory, carries a $500 price premium over the new model today, rising to $2,999 for 16GB RAM and 1TB storage.

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  Here's the sample packet we received from Lockheed Martin. [credit: Eric Berger ]

Who says traditional aerospace contractors can't have some fun, too?

On Monday, April 1—yes, April Fools' Day—Lockheed Martin announced the release of a new fragrance that smells like space. The company describes the scent as featuring "a deep metallic base," with a "clean, sterile feel that is balanced by a subtle yet seductive fiery undertone that burns off like vapor in the atmosphere, helping men, women and children everywhere smell like they’re floating through the cosmos."

The company also produced a slick "origin" video for the scent, dubbed Vector, featuring in-house astronaut Tony Antonelli. Antonelli has twice piloted a space shuttle into orbit, in 2009 and 2010.

The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. (credit: Ron Amadeo)

Google has discontinued the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, the company's flagship smartphones from last year. As first spotted by Android Police, the Pixel 2 has been scrubbed from the Google Store page, and the old Pixel 2 URL now redirects to the Pixel 3 page.

The Pixel 2XL was probably Google's most competitive smartphone to date. There were the usual Pixel features—a great build of stock Android, fast updates, and a great camera—but the Pixel 2 was the last phone from Google with an aluminum body. (Remember aluminum? It didn't shatter when you dropped it.) The real rarity from the Pixel 2 XL was a design from Google that was actually good, with slim bezels (for the time) and a unique design that didn't look like an iPhone. Google basically carried the Pixel 2 XL design a year forward for the smaller Pixel 3.

With the death of the Pixel 2 and 2 XL, Google ups the ante on its title of "World's most expensive smartphone lineup" going by entry-level price. While many manufacturers sell low- and mid-range smartphones and offer older premium models at a discount, Google stops manufacturing its older models shortly into the life cycle of the new model. Once the old models sell out, they're gone forever. Previously, the older Pixel 2 was selling for $649, which still made it the most expensive entry-level smartphone from a manufacturer, but it was better than only carrying the Pixel 3. With the discontinuation of the Pixel 2, Google's phone lineup starts at a whopping $800 MSRP.