Month: January 2021

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Today's Dealmaster includes a minor but notable deal on the latest iPad Air, bringing it down to $559 from its usual MSRP of $599. While that's not a huge price drop, it matches the biggest discount we've tracked from a reputable retailer, and we consider the Air itself to be the best iPad for those who can afford it. Elsewhere, we have a nice $10 discount on a two-pack of Eufy's Indoor Cam 2K, which we recently recommended in our 2020 holiday gift guide for offering clear 2K resolution video, Apple HomeKit support, and a variety of storage options at a low cost. Other notables in today's roundup include a nice discount on the SteelSeries Arctis 9X, an Xbox-friendly wireless gaming headset we like; a variety of video game deals; and a few solid price drops on Apple Watch devices. You can check out our full list below.

Note: Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

Enlarge / Intense wildfires were one of the climate impacts linked to the recent string of very hot years. (credit: Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Today, NASA and NOAA are announcing that 2020 was one for the record books, tying with 2016 for the warmest year since we've been tracking temperatures. NASA rates 2020 as the warmest ever, although by a margin that's not large enough to reach statistical significance; NOAA reverses the order, also without a significant difference between the two years. Whatever its precise rank, 2020 was the continuation of a worrying trend—the past seven years are all on the list of the seven warmest years on record, regardless of which source you turn to for your global temperatures.

While there is a lot of year-to-year variability (black), the overall trend (red) is hard to miss. (credit: NASA)

Another reason for concern is that 2020 saw the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in a state that, in the absence of human-driven climate change, would have produced relatively cool conditions. NASA's Gavin Schmidt said that, in the absence of the influence of the ENSO, 2020 would have been the warmest year on record. As shown in the chart below, strong El Niño years tend to be associated with warm records, while the cycle's opposing conditions, called La Niña, are typically associated with cooler conditions. 2016 was notable for having the strongest El Niño since the 1990s, an event that pushed temperatures far above the baseline where they'd spent most of the start of the century.

Since then, the ENSO has been largely stuck in neutral, shifting back and forth between weak El Niños and La Niña tendencies. Temperatures dropped slightly, but not back to the conditions that were typical of the decade prior. 2020 saw temperatures match those of 2016's strong El Niño despite remaining stuck in neutral. "The previous record warm year, 2016, received a significant boost from a strong El Niño," Schmidt said in a statement. "The lack of a similar assist from El Niño this year is evidence that the background climate continues to warm due to greenhouse gases.”

Enlarge / Health workers in personal protection suits stand next to buses at a cordoned-off section of the international airport in Wuhan on January 14, 2021, following the arrival of a World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. (credit: Getty | NICOLAS ASFOURI )

Chinese authorities have held up two scientists sent to Wuhan, China, by the World Health Organization to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus—yet another obstacle the Chinese government has thrown at the health agency’s efforts to understand how the devastating pandemic began.

The two scientists were traveling as part of an international team of 15 that has long been working to gain access to the city where the virus first emerged in late 2019. Thirteen of the scientists—who all repeatedly tested negative for the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, in their home countries—were allowed to travel on. They have now arrived in Wuhan, the WHO said on Twitter earlier today. However, China is still requiring the 13 scientists to undergo a 14-day quarantine in Wuhan.

The two scientists held back also tested negative for the virus multiple times prior to traveling. But while in Singapore en route to Wuhan, they tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, suggesting past exposure to the virus. Despite their negative PCR tests, Chinese authorities had them remain in Singapore for additional testing.

Enlarge / A promotional shot for Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga laptop, one of the new 2021 laptops meant to capitalize on growing traditional PC sales. (credit: Lenovo)

During the Consumer Electronics Show this week, research firm IDC released a report on worldwide traditional PC sales in 2020, and it tells a rosier story than we've been used to in recent years. In the fourth quarter of 2020, PC shipments grew 26.1 percent over the same period last year.

That means 13.1 percent year-over-year growth overall, and the best year and month for PC sales in quite some time. In total, 91.6 million traditional PCs were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2020. "Traditional PCs" in IDC's report include systems like desktops, laptops, and work stations. For years, sales of these kinds of computers were declining at worst or growing negligibly at best even as other, newer computing gadget categories like smartphones, smart speakers, and tablets grew relatively rapidly.

IDC notes that the last time the market saw this kind of growth was way back in 2010, when modern multitouch smartphones were still building momentum and Apple's very first iPad had only just launched.