Month: October 2020

Enlarge / A car with US President Trump drives past supporters in a motorcade outside of Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on October 4, 2020. (credit: Getty | Alex Edelman)

After being hospitalized several days for a coronavirus infection and receiving two experimental treatments, supplemental oxygen, and a steroid drug used only for the most severe COVID-19 cases, President Donald Trump on Monday tweeted that he would be leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and returning to the White House.

In a press briefing Monday afternoon, White House physician Sean Conley readily acknowledged that Trump has not yet reached a critical period of his infection—roughly, days seven to 10 after symptoms—in which COVID-19 patients’ conditions can quickly and dramatically deteriorate from overzealous immune responses. Trump is believed to be at around day six of his symptomatic infection.

“Though he may not entirely be out of the woods yet,” Trump’s condition has improved and his medical team cleared him to return to the White House, “where he’ll be surrounded by world-class medical care, 24/7,” Conley explained.

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  It's totally normal to wake up at 4am and drive 70 miles out to the mountains to go fetch apple donuts when you have a Honda Civic Type-R. [credit: Jonathan Gitlin ]

After reviewing the entry-level and middle-ranked Honda Civics, it's only fair to extend the same courtesy to the apogee of all things Civic—the $37,495 Type-R. It takes the starfighter styling and turns the dial all the way, adding spoilers and wings and vents and scoops. Underneath all those aerodynamic appendages, the mechanical bits have been similarly stimulated, taking friction out here and quickening response times there. It's Honda's idea of the world's best hot hatch, and after a week in the brightly colored, heavily bolstered driver's seat, I'm inclined to agree.

I didn't need long behind the wheel before I started kicking myself for waiting until 2020 to make friends with the Type-R. It's had a few tweaks here and there since Jim Resnick drove it in 2018. The front grille admits more air, and an uprated radiator core makes use of that to reduce coolant temperatures by up to 10˚C. The bigger grille opening led Honda to reprofile one of the two front spoilers to balance out the efficiency, a change you're unlikely to notice unless you take it off the car and look carefully.

There are some stiffer suspension bushings here and there, and the adaptive dampers react 10 times faster than they used to. The front brakes are now two-piece items, so they weigh less and are more resistant to fade. At its core, the Type-R is still a Civic, so it benefited from the same midlife refresh as its cheaper, more numerous siblings—new front and rear bumpers, better infotainment, and a full suite of advanced driver-assistance systems.

Enlarge (credit: YouTube Music)

YouTube Music is finally opening up Chromecast support to everyone. Google Music is actively winding down this month, leaving YouTube Music as Google's only music app. A major feature gap between the two services that we've been complaining about has been the restrictive Chromecast support. On Google Music, casting just worked for everyone. On YouTube Music, casting was restricted to people paying for the monthly streaming service. For the bring-your-own-music crowd, this meant if you wanted to cast music you own to speakers you own, there was no alternative but to subscribe to a streaming service you probably didn't want.

As of today, though, Google tells us casting on YouTube Music should now work for everyone. Previously, when tapping the "cast" button, unsubscribed users would get a "subscribe to YouTube Premium" pop-up box, but now YouTube Music will starting blasting tunes to our speakers with no monthly fee.

The Google Music shutdown is already well underway. The service is scheduled to shut down worldwide in October, and last week Google turned off music uploads for everyone. That means that while you can still stream, you can't upload new music to your account. So open casting support for YouTube Music is arriving just a few days late.

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Today's Dealmaster is headlined by a handful of discounts on popular Nintendo Switch games produced by Nintendo itself. The deals include Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Party, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, each down to $45 at Amazon and Best Buy, while other hits such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Luigi's Mansion 3, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are down to $50.

While these aren't the lowest prices we've seen for every title on sale, they're still better deals than we typically see over the course of the year. We hadn't seen Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey drop below $50 since last holiday season, for instance, while Animal Crossing hasn't been cheaper than $50 since launching earlier this year. Nintendo is famously stingy about discounting its own biggest Switch games; each one here still goes for $60 over on the company's digital eShop store, despite many being more than a couple years old.

The caveat here is that Amazon Prime Day kicks off next week, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday following a little over a month later. We can't guarantee that we'll see better prices during those shopping events—particularly in a year that has seen extraordinary demand for Nintendo's console—but, for reference, games like Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Party did drop all the way to $30 in Black Friday sales last year. So if you don't want any of these games right away, there's at least a chance that patience will save you a few more bucks.

20th Century Studios has dropped a new trailer for Free Guy, the sci-fi comedy starring Ryan Reynolds, currently slated for a December 11 release. But in these pandemic times, all release dates are basically pencilled in until further notice—which is why Reynolds and company also released an amusing teaser in which they debate potential alternate dates for the film's release.

Per the official premise: "A bank teller who discovers he is actually a background player in an open-world video game decides to become the hero of his own story... one he rewrites himself. Now in a world where there are no limits, he is determined to be the guy who saves his world his way... before it is too late."

Tonally, the trailer feels like a live-action Wreck-It Ralph with dashes of The Matrix and the Deadpool movies thrown in for good measure. In fact, the new trailer is giving us strong Upload vibes, which can only be a good thing, since Upload was one of our fave new series this year.

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  A close-up on the DualSense controller shows the four LEDs that indicate which player is connected. [credit: 4Gamer ]

Like most of the world, we here at Ars are still waiting for our first hands-on experience with the PlayStation 5 ahead of its planned release next month. But over the weekend, a handful of Japanese journalists and YouTubers got to try out Sony's new system and have revealed a few new tidbits about the hardware and its design.

The most welcome news—at least for those accustomed to the "jet engine" fan noise sometimes encountered on the PS3 and PS4—is that the PS5 seems to remain relatively quiet even while in continuous use. Dengeki Online (Google Translate) noted that "it was really quiet" after playing for hours in a hot room, with no apparent heat felt on the surface of the system itself.

AV Watch (Google Translate) similarly noted that "the operating sound of the main unit [is] now smaller than [that] of PS4," as was the sound of pressing buttons on the DualSense controller. And 4Gamer (Google Translate) confirmed that "the exhaust was gentle, and I could hardly hear what seemed to be the rotating noise of the fan."