Month: January 2021

Enlarge (credit: AMD)

As expected, AMD took to the CES stage this week to announce new laptop CPUs. Most of the new Ryzen 5000 mobile family of chips share similarities with the desktop CPUs the company announced a few months ago, and they'll start shipping with laptops from some of the bigger computer-makers in February.

The new chips are divided into two sub-families, both at least in part based on 7nm Zen 3 tech: there's the H-series, which is meant for high-end, performance-oriented gaming and content creation notebooks, and the U-series, which takes aim at Intel's dominance in the ultraportable space with a greater focus on power efficiency.

The lineup's biggest lifters are the Ryzen 9 5980HX and 5980HS. The former is a gaming-oriented chip that will be unlocked for overclocking in some machines. The latter, meanwhile, is tuned more for laptops made for creatives. Both of these (and all but two of the chips in the Ryzen 5000 mobile family) sport eight CPU cores and 16 threads at up to 4.8Hz.

Enlarge / In dry hopping, hops are added during or after the fermentation stage of the brewing process. (credit: Natasha Breen/Getty Images)

Craft-beer aficionados relish the endless flavor variations that can be achieved by mixing and matching different varieties of hops, whether one favors refreshing citrus or fruity notes or something a bit more earthy or pine-scented. But some of the chemical compounds that contribute to those flavors are present in such trace amounts that it's difficult for brewers to measure and track them during the brewing process. Now German scientists have devised an automated, efficient method for doing just that, according to a recent paper published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

As we've previously reported, all beer contains hops, a key flavoring agent that also imparts useful antimicrobial properties. (Without them, beer spoils quickly.) Brewers mash and steep grain in hot water, which converts all that starch into sugars. This is traditionally the stage when hops are added to the liquid extract (wort) and boiled to give the beer that hint of bitterness. During the boiling process, a certain portion of the resins (alpha acids) in hops isomerize into iso-alpha acids. That chemical rearrangement of the molecules is what produces bitterness. Yeast is then added to trigger fermentation, turning the sugars into alcohol.

But a little hops goes a long way. Add too many hops, and the beer will be so bitter as to be undrinkable.

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  The Fitbit Inspire 2, which Osterloh seems interested in. [credit: Fitbit ]

Google's senior VP of Hardware, Rick Osterloh, announced Thursday that Google has closed its acquisition of Fitbit. The $2.1 billion deal was announced back in November 2019 and kicked off a regulatory review process from governments around the world concerned about Google's influence over the Internet and the data it can collect on users.

Normally, Osterloh announcing that "Google has completed its acquisition of Fitbit, and I want to personally welcome this talented team to Google" would mean Google has cleared its worldwide regulatory gauntlet. Google's announcement today is highly unusual since the Department of Justice has not yet cleared the deal. As the DOJ told New York Times reporter Cecilia Kang, "The Antitrust Division's investigation of Google's acquisition of Fitbit remains ongoing." Australian regulators also haven't announced a final decision on the merger. It seems particularly provocative for Google to do something like this while it is also dealing with a DOJ antitrust investigation.

When asked about the status of the DOJ's merger investigation, a Google spokesperson told Ars, "We complied with the DOJ's extensive review for the past 14 months, and the agreed-upon waiting period expired without their objection. We continue to be in touch with them and we're committed to answering any additional questions. We are confident this deal will increase competition in the highly crowded wearables market, and we've made commitments that we plan to implement globally."

Enlarge / Then-Michigan Governor Rick Snyder testifies on the Flint water crisis during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on March 17, 2016. (credit: Getty Images | Saul Loeb)

Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and eight other officials have been indicted on criminal charges related to their handling of the Flint water crisis. Snyder was charged with two counts of willful neglect of duty, which are misdemeanor charges that can each be punished by up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

"When an entire city is victimized by the negligence and indifference of those in power, it deserves an uncompromising investigation that holds to account anyone who is criminally culpable," Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud said at a press conference today. "We must remember that the Flint water crisis is not some relic of the past. At this very moment, the people of Flint continue to suffer from the categorical failure of public officials at all levels of government, who trampled upon their trust and evaded accountability for far too long."

The charges against Snyder are "for willfully neglecting his mandatory legal duties under the Michigan Constitution and Emergency Management Act, thereby failing to protect the health and safety of Flint's residents," Hammoud said.