Month: April 2020

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Today's Dealmaster is headlined by a nice discount on a two-pack of Anker's PowerLine II USB-C and Lightning cables, which are down to $20 at Amazon when you use the code "AKCTLPK2" at checkout. That's tied for the lowest price we've seen for this pair of six-foot cables, which normally retail around $30.

We recommended these Anker charging cables as part of our tech under $50 gift guide last holiday season. There's not a ton to say about them as a product, but in this case, that's a good thing—they just work as advertised. The cable's rubber coating keeps the cord flexible enough, but it's protective to the point where we've seen next to no signs of wear after several months of testing and travel. If something does go wrong, Anker says it backs the cable with a lifetime warranty.

Crucially, the PowerLine II is also MFi certified, which means it has been vetted and approved by Apple as safe to use with iPhones and iPads. Just remember that you'll need a newer iPhone or iPad and an appropriately powerful USB-C Power Delivery charger to take advantage of the fast-charging this kind of cable provides. Those with an iPhone 11 Pro or iPhone 11 Pro Max get all the necessary materials in the box, but longer cables like these may be useful for rooms where an outlet is out of arm's length either way.

Enlarge / Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Kimberly Wyss, from Ventura, Calif., dons surgical gloves aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19). (credit: flickr)

Update, April 24: On Friday, the FDA issued a safety announcement regarding the use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, saying the drugs' use "should be limited to clinical trial settings or for treating certain hospitalized patients." The move came in response to a growing number of "adverse incident" reports from hospitals and outpatient treatment, focused on a known side effect of chloroquine and its derivatives:  changes in heart rhythm that can be (and apparently have been) fatal.

Chloroquine is know to alter a property of the heart's electrical activity called the QT interval. Should this interval get overly long, the heart can lose its rhythm entirely; if the lower chambers stop coordinated contractions, the results are fatal unless they can be restarted. One anecdotal report of successful treatment of COVID-19 had paired chloroquine with the antibiotic azithromycin, which also prolongs the QT interval, which led to the drugs frequently being prescribed together.

By limiting the use of the drug to hospital settings, the FDA is attempting to ensure appropriate care is available should the side effects become problematic. The adverse effect reports it cites indicates that, while there were some fatalities, there are also non-fatal cases of the potentially lethal ventricular fibrillation, which suggests availability of medical staff allowed these patients to recover.

Enlarge / Expect to see an "e" tacked onto this logo somewhere in the near future, as an additional 1200MHz of spectrum is now available to Wi-Fi 6 in the USA. (credit: Wi-Fi Alliance)

During the Federal Communications Commission's monthly meeting today, it ratified unlicensed use of the 6GHz radio frequency spectrum in the USA. This decision opens the way for the proposed Wi-Fi 6E standard to move forward.

Industry giants Intel and Broadcom began planning for this move two years ago. Broadcom released its first Wi-Fi 6E chipset in February, targeted at mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Intel hasn't released any actual products using it yet, but in discussions with Ars, an Intel rep confirmed that they're on the way.

Intel's spokesperson said that the company's own working prototype devices were part of the presentations originally given to the FCC to facilitate the decision-making process and described Intel's and Broadcom's work on devices prior to the FCC's decision as a risky but rewarding two-year investment on both companies' part.

Enlarge / A screenshot from a shutterstock video of a tit. Bing linked to the video with the caption "big tits stock video footage." (credit: Shutterstock)

Microsoft has shut down a feature in its Bing search engine that shows popular articles from major websites after Ars Technica reported that the feature was showing wildly inappropriate results from the stock photo site Shutterstock. How inappropriate? Well, here are a couple of screenshots I took on Wednesday morning after a reader tipped me off to the problem:

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  The first three images in the carousel. We blurred the "little girl peeing" image.

This is what I saw after searching Bing for "Shutterstock." These weren't the very top results—I scrolled down a bit before taking these screenshots—but this "trending articles" carousel appeared on the first page.

I wasn't about to click on a link to "boys erection" without talking to a lawyer first. So my editor advised our tipster to notify the FBI, while I emailed Microsoft and Shutterstock to see if they could explain what was going on.

There are still several more months until season two of The Mandalorian hits Disney+ in October (assuming everything stays on schedule), but to tide us over, the Mouse House has released a trailer for Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian. The eight-episode documentary series will explore multiple facets of the production of this first live-action Star Wars television show.

Disney+ announced the documentary series earlier this month. “Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian is an opportunity for fans of the show to take a look inside and get to see a different perspective, and perhaps a greater understanding, of how The Mandalorian came together and some of the incredibly talented contributors throughout Season 1,” executive producer Jon Favreau said in a statement at the time. “We had a great experience making the show, and we’re looking forward to sharing it with you.”

Per the official synopsis: "The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic." The premise is that after the defeat of the Empire in Return of the Jedi, there was a period of chaos and lawlessness as a new government struggled to emerge from the wreckage.