Month: March 2021

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Today's Dealmaster is headlined by a good discount on Sony's WH-1000XM4, as the wireless noise-canceling headphones are currently down to $278 at various retailers. That's roughly $70 off Sony's MSRP, about $45 off the average street price we've tracked online, and tied for the largest price drop we've seen from a reputable retailer. We've seen this deal a few times since the headphones launched last August, including during the most recent set of Black Friday sales.

Clunky name aside, the WH-1000XM4 is our recommend pick for most people among noise-canceling headphones. The phones do a tremendous job of blocking outside noise, with a design that's comfortable enough to wear for hours at a time, a strong 30+ hours of battery life, USB-C charging, and multidevice pairing, among other useful features. In terms of audio quality, they have a more bass-focused, consumer-friendly sound by default, but Sony's convenient companion app includes an EQ tool that lets you create a more neutral sound if you'd like.

Competitors like Bose's Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 (which are also on sale today) offer clearer call quality and the ability to adjust the strength of its noise cancellation, while Apple's AirPods Max is one of the few wireless pairs that can approach the XM4 in terms of pure noise-canceling strength. Those are both strong choices, but for most people in search of a premium set of wireless headphones, we think Sony's pair has the best blend of comfort, features, performance, and, especially at this deal price, value.

Enlarge / Cars driving down I-80 in Berkeley, California, in May, 2018 when there were still places to go. (credit: David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images)

There is a strange sort of symmetry in the world of personal data this week: one new report has identified a company that wants to sell the US government granular car location data from basically every vehicle in the world, while a group of privacy advocates is suing another company for providing customer data to the feds.

A surveillance contractor called Ulysses can "remotely geolocate vehicles in nearly every country except for North Korea and Cuba on a near real-time basis," Vice Motherboard reports.

Ulysses obtains vehicle telematics data from embedded sensors and communications sensors that can transmit information such as seatbelt status, engine temperature, and current vehicle location back to automakers or other parties.

The mysterious pancake-shaped object dubbed 'Oumuamua (Hawaiian for "messenger from afar arriving first") generated considerable controversy earlier this year with the publication of Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb's bestselling new book arguing that it could be a piece of alien technology. Now two astrophysicists at Arizona State University (ASU) are counter-arguing that the secret to at least one aspect of the object's unusual properties lies in solid nitrogen ice. They described their findings in two new papers published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

As we reported previously, in late 2017, our Solar System received its very first known interstellar visitor: a bizarre cigar-shaped object hurtling past at 44 kilometers per second. Scientists have been puzzling over the origin and unusual characteristics of 'Oumuamua ever since. It was first discovered by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS1 telescope, part of NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations program to track asteroids and comets that come into Earth's vicinity. Other telescopes around the world soon kicked into action, measuring the object's various characteristics.

Because it had a hyperbolic, or escape, orbit around the Sun, 'Oumuamua is unlikely to pass our way again. So astronomers only had a brief window of time to gather as much data as they could about the object before it went on its merry way. For starters, 'Oumuamua was accelerating away from our Sun much faster than could be explained by gravity alone—i.e., via a "rocket effect" that is common in comets, caused by sunlight vaporizing the ice such bodies are made of. While its odd orbit initially had it categorized as a comet, imaging didn't show any indication of gas and dust being released, as is typical when a comet approaches the Sun. Its elongated, cigar-like shape, combined with its relatively rapid rotation, led to an early suggestion that it could also be an asteroid.

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  The 12.9-inch 2020 iPad Pro with the Smart Keyboard and Magic Trackpad peripherals. [credit: Samuel Axon ]

Apple plans to launch a new iPad Pro model imminently—perhaps as soon as next month—according to sources cited by Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, who has accurately predicted several Apple product launches over the past few years.

The report claims that the new iPad Pros will come in the same 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes in which they are currently offered and that they will look similar to current models, too. However, they will have better cameras, faster processors, a new port, and—at least in the 12.9-inch model—a new screen technology.

The biggest surprise in this article is that the new port would be the same one that is found in Apple's laptops: Thunderbolt. Bloomberg's sources say that Apple has been testing versions of the iPad Pro that can connect to more external monitors and other kinds of peripherals because of the inclusion of a Thunderbolt port.

Enlarge / Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in December 2019. (credit: Scott Heins/Getty Images)

After a five-year legal battle to continue treating drivers as independent contractors in the United Kingdom, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wants you to believe that he is throwing in the towel.

"Our thinking on this issue has evolved over time," wrote CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in a Wednesday op-ed for the UK's Evening Standard. One factor that likely changed Uber's thinking: a February ruling by the UK Supreme Court holding that drivers can't be treated as independent contractors.

Uber says it will now guarantee that all drivers are paid at least the national living wage, which is currently £8.91 ($12.40) for those over 23. And they'll get that rate after accounting for expenses. Uber says that 99 percent of Uber drivers already earn more than this minimum. And Uber says that's just a floor; Uber drivers will have the opportunity to earn more if they have a busy day, just as they do today. Uber drivers will also get holiday pay and many will be eligible to participate in a pension plan.