Month: July 2019

Amazon Prime has released the first teaser for the upcoming fourth season of the beloved science fiction series, The Expanse.

The Expanse is based on a series of novels by James S.A. Corey (the pen name for writing team Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), exploring interplanetary tensions that are breaking out all over a solar system long since colonized by humans—mostly between Earthers, Martians, and "Belters." Part mystery, part political thriller, part classic space opera, The Expanse has earned almost nothing but praise from critics and its devoted fans alike, not just for its gripping storytelling, but also its excellent use of accurate physics. (Wired's Rhett Allain has explored the physics of a spinning spacecraft and an accelerating spacecraft, among other topics.) The third season earned a rare 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes (seasons one and two earned 76% and 96%, respectively).

So it was something of a shock when SyFy cancelled the series after just three seasons, citing "restrictive distribution arrangements," specifically, just first-run linear rights in the US. Per Deadline Hollywood, "That puts an extraordinary amount of emphasis on live, linear viewing, which is inherently challenging for sci-fi/genre series that tend to draw the lion’s share of their audiences from digital/streaming."

Amazon Prime has released the first teaser for the upcoming fourth season of the beloved science fiction series, The Expanse.

The Expanse is based on a series of novels by James S.A. Corey (the pen name for writing team Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), exploring interplanetary tensions that are breaking out all over a solar system long since colonized by humans—mostly between Earthers, Martians, and "Belters." Part mystery, part political thriller, part classic space opera, The Expanse has earned almost nothing but praise from critics and its devoted fans alike, not just for its gripping storytelling, but also its excellent use of accurate physics. (Wired's Rhett Allain has explored the physics of a spinning spacecraft and an accelerating spacecraft, among other topics.) The third season earned a rare 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes (seasons one and two earned 76% and 96%, respectively).

So it was something of a shock when SyFy cancelled the series after just three seasons, citing "restrictive distribution arrangements," specifically, just first-run linear rights in the US. Per Deadline Hollywood, "That puts an extraordinary amount of emphasis on live, linear viewing, which is inherently challenging for sci-fi/genre series that tend to draw the lion’s share of their audiences from digital/streaming."

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Greetings, Arsians! The Dealmaster is back with another round of deals to share. Today's list is led by new lows on TCL's 5-Series Roku TVs—the 55-inch model is down to $380, while the 49-inch set is down to $300. These two sets have gone for about $20 more for the past couple of months, but this is as cheap as either of them have gone to date.

In any event, both TVs here are a good value at these prices. They launched last year, and while they technically support HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR, they don't support local dimming, so it's hard to say they're truly capable of displaying HDR content. They also only support a 60Hz refresh rate. But their contrast and colors are impressive for the price nonetheless, and their built-in Roku OS remains much more intuitive and useful than most smart TV interfaces. If you can afford to step up to something like Vizio's P-Series, or if you can really splash the cash, LG's OLED sets are clear steps up in picture quality. But if you just can't spend more than $400, these should still please.

If you're all set on the TV front, though, we also have deals on wireless chargers, gaming laptops, Ars-approved board games, and more. Have a look for yourself below.

Enlarge / Apple CEO Tim Cook. (credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Apple is in the final stages of negotiations to buy the bulk of Intel's modem chip business, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Journal says the deal, valued at $1 billion or more, could be finalized in the next week. The deal would involve the transfer of talent as well as modem-related patents.

Intel's wireless efforts date back to at least 2011, when the company bought Infineon Technologies for $1.4 billion. Intel hoped to become a major rival to Qualcomm, which has long played a dominant role in the market for wireless chips.

But Intel has struggled to gain traction. That's partly because Qualcomm negotiated restrictive contracts with potential Intel customers that effectively blocked them from considering a second supplier. After Apple began shipping iPhones with Intel chips inside them in 2016, Qualcomm declared war on Apple, suing for patent infringement and eventually refusing to supply chips for new iPhone models—making Apple dependent on Intel for those chips.

Enlarge (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The spinoffs from gravitational wave detectors are not just new scientific discoveries. The technology also has other uses. A good example of this is the gravity-measuring mission, GRACE Follow On, which was launched last year. The first reports on its laser rangefinder's performance have been released, and it makes for impressive reading.

Gravitational wave detectors work by measuring tiny changes in the distance between two mirrors. Ripples in space-time cause a tiny oscillation in that distance, which is then detected by comparing the phase shift between light that has traveled between the two mirrors and light that has traveled along a path that was unaffected by the gravitational wave. To put it in perspective, a gravitational wave detector measures changes that are far smaller than the diameter of an atom and are more like the diameter of a single proton.

The gravity of GRACE

Similar technology found its way into space to increase the sensitivity of Earth-monitoring instruments. On Earth, we have stationary detectors that wait for gravitational waves to pass through them. In orbit, the detector is moving and can measure subtle changes in the Earth's gravitational field.