Month: June 2020

Enlarge / A close-up of a box of Dexamethasone tablets in a pharmacy on June 16, 2020 in Cardiff, United Kingdom. (credit: Getty | Matthew Horwood)

Researchers at the University of Oxford announced Tuesday that a cheap, readily available steroid drug lowered the risk of death in COVID-19 patients who were enrolled in a randomized clinical trial and required either ventilation or oxygen during their treatment.

According to unpublished data, the steroid dexamethasone reduced the risk of death from 41 percent to about 27 percent in patients who were ventilated, and from 25 percent to 20 percent in patients on oxygen.

If the finding holds up, it would mark the first time in the five-month-old pandemic that researchers have identified a therapeutic that reduces mortality from infections with the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.

Enlarge / President Trump points to a map that has undergone some post-printing modifications. (credit: Chip Somodevilla )

President Trump not only refused to correct a tweet mistakenly stating that Alabama would “most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated” by Hurricane Dorian last September—he went as far as to display an official forecast map crudely modified with a black marker to defend his claim. The incident dragged the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration into the controversy.

The Birmingham office of the National Weather Service had quickly responded to questions by tweeting that Alabama was not forecast to be impacted. That in turn led to an unsigned statement released by NOAA leadership, intended to aid the White House in damage control. It read:

From Wednesday, August 28, through Monday, September 2, the information provided by NOAA and the National Hurricane Center to President Trump and the wider public demonstrated that tropical-storm-force winds from Hurricane Dorian could impact Alabama. This is clearly demonstrated in Hurricane Advisories #15 through #41, which can be viewed at the following link.

The Birmingham National Weather Service’s Sunday morning tweet spoke in absolute terms that were inconsistent with probabilities from the best forecast products available at the time.

The statement set off a storm within NOAA, including several complaints being filed to its scientific integrity officer. On Monday, the officer's independent report was published. It finds violations of NOAA’s scientific integrity policy, but it recommends policy clarifications and better training rather than direct consequences for those involved in releasing the statement.

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Today's Dealmaster is headlined by a new deal on the AirPods Pro, which are currently down to $220 on Amazon. That's $29 off Apple's MSRP and about $15 off the device's usual going rate on Amazon. The discount is the largest we've seen for Apple's noise-cancelling true wireless earphones at the retailer, beating the previous low by about $10 and matching the best price we've seen at various online stores. Outside of a very brief drop to $215 at Adorama earlier this year, it's the device's lowest price to date from any reputable retailer.

The AirPods Pro were a recommendation in our travel tech gift guide last holiday season, and they remain a top choice for anyone who wants active noise cancellation in a totally wireless design. They're pricier than the standard AirPods, but they're a noticeable upgrade in almost every major way: their in-ear design creates a tighter and more stable seal in the ear, they produce a cleaner and more detailed sound quality that doesn't overemphasize bass or treble, and they have a more reliable set of touch controls based on force feedback.

The active noise-cancellation here can't match that of the best over-ear pairs from Sony and Bose, but it's strong enough to be effective in most settings. An accompanying "Transparency" mode does a remarkable job of piping in outside noise without drowning out your music. If you own an iPhone, all of this is combined with steady Bluetooth connectivity and a dead-simple pairing and setup process. The earphones also have an IPX4 sweat-resistance rating to withstand light workouts.

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  A prototype SX Pro device soldered to a Nintendo Switch motherboard. [credit: Team Xeceuter ]

Last month, Nintendo went to court in an effort to stop retailers from selling an upcoming line of internal Switch mod chips, which the company says enable and encourage piracy. Now, Nintendo is expanding its efforts by sending a cease-and-desist letter to one company that merely offers to install mod chips obtained elsewhere.

Connecticut-based Logistics Consulting LLC has offered a "Nintendo Switch SX CORE SX LITE Mod Chip Service" on its website for a few weeks, according to founder Ben Van Rheen. As noted on the site, the $60 offering is "NOT for the purchase of the Nintendo Switch SX CORE or SX LITE mod. We don’t make the mod or sell the mod, just the installation service."

That offering has now been suspended, according to the page, as Logistics is "currently in talks with Nintendo and their lawyers from New York."

How did NBA Jam overcome a rocky launch and become one of the arcade era's all-time biggest hits? How did its developers move past a serious "digitization" screw-up? And where's the legendary original version featuring Michael Jordan and Ken Griffey, Jr?

On the eve of NBA Jam's latest home release—this time as an Arcade1Up cabinet (Best Buy, Walmart) featuring the series' first three arcade versions—we asked series lead programmer and designer Mark Turmell to join us from his home to answer these questions and more. The result is our most "on-fire" War Stories video yet, complete with original development footage provided by Turmell himself.

“Geeking out on digitized graphics”

As he explains in our interview, Turmell's game development history began with early consoles and home computers before he "shifted to the coin-op business" in 1989 with Williams, a Chicago arcade game and pinball manufacturer. (Two years later, the company's arcade division was re-branded "Midway," since Williams had bought Bally/Midway in 1988.) Shortly after his hire, the company began focusing on a trend that would eventually define many of its hits: "We were geeking out on the digitized graphics concept, the new technology, if you will," Turmell says.