Month: June 2021

Enlarge / The iPhone 12 mini. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Facing calls from regulators to open the gates to alternative app stores and sideloaded apps on the iPhone, Apple has launched a substantial public-relations push this week to make the case that sideloading would do harm to the iOS ecosystem and its users.

The campaign builds on a recent quote from an interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, in which he said that sideloading is "not in the best interests of the user."

The cornerstone of Apple's messaging is a new white paper the company has published. The paper's release appears closely timed with the US House Judiciary Committee's debates about potential tech antitrust legislation.

Enlarge / This is what Earth looks like from within the Solar System. Imaging it from a different system entirely poses some challenges. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has primarily involved looking outward and searching nearby stars for signals that can't be explained by known natural processes. But there has also been consideration given to the possibility that an extraterrestrial intelligence might be looking for us. Investigations have included intentional signals sent to nearby stars and calculations of how far out our civilization's radio transmissions will reach.

A new study focuses on the question of who might be capable of detecting us and considers how we're looking for signs of life around other stars. The study estimates that the Earth is surrounded by thousands of star systems from which hypothetical inhabitants would be able to detect our presence via the same techniques we've been using to search for life around other stars. And civilizations orbiting a significant number of those stars would also be able to detect things like oxygen in our atmosphere or the radio signals we have produced over the last century or so.

A shifting landscape

The new analysis, done by researchers Lisa Kaltenegger and Jacqueline Faherty, relied on data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, which was put in space to generate a three-dimensional map of the Milky Way. But the Milky Way isn't static; its stars rotate in synchrony, but they also move relative to each other. For many stars, repeated observations by Gaia also allowed an estimation of their motion relative to the Sun. This allowed Kaltenegger and Faherty to extend their analysis forward and backward in time, creating a window 10,000 years wide and centered on the present.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | buzbuzzer)

Altice is slashing its cable-Internet upload speeds by up to 86 percent starting on July 12. Altice Optimum Online plans that currently have advertised upload speeds of 35Mbps will be reduced to uploads of either 5Mbps, 10Mbps, or 20Mbps, depending on the plan. Altice did not announce any immediate price changes on the plans that are getting upload-speed cuts.

The only good news for users is that the change will not affect existing customers as long as they stay on their current service plans, an Altice spokesperson told Ars. But new customers will have to accept the lower upload speeds, and existing customers would have to take the lower upload speeds whenever they upgrade, downgrade, or change service, Altice said.

Altice claimed that its cable network isn't having any trouble offering its current advertised speeds. "Our network continues to perform very well despite the significant data usage increases during the pandemic and the speed tiers we offer," the company said. The upload-speed change is apparently being implemented not to solve any network problem but to match the slower upload speeds offered by other cable ISPs. Altice told Ars that it is changing its cable upload speeds to bring them "in line with other ISPs and aligned with the industry."

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Amazon's latest Prime Day is in the rearview mirror, but for those still looking to get a better-than-usual price on a good gadget, time hasn't totally ran out. Today's Dealmaster rounds up the handful of Prime Day deals we liked that are still kicking today, be they from Amazon or the many other retailers that ran competing sales earlier this week.

While many of the most notable deals have expired, the leftover offers include a $100 discount on Apple's entry-level—and Ars-approved—M1 MacBook Air; a $15 discount on a three-month subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which just received a major upgrade to its cloud gaming service; price cuts for Amazon's Audible and Kindle subscriptions; good prices on Switch games, board games, and SSDs we like; and several deals on Google's Nest line of smart home gear, among others. We've also thrown in a few new deals that have popped up post-Prime Day. You can check out our full rundown below.

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

Enlarge / Bill Nelson was confirmed by the US Senate to become NASA administrator on April 30. (credit: NASA)

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the space agency expects a decision from the US Government Accountability Office on a lunar lander protest by August 4. This would seem to set a firm timeline after which NASA can move forward with its Artemis program.

Nelson's comments came in response to members of the US House Science, Space, and Technology Committee asking for specifics on Artemis, which NASA intends to use to return humans to the Moon and eventually go on to Mars.

"I will have a plan to announce," Nelson said, referring to Artemis specifics and the protest timeline.

Enlarge / Website seizure notice that appears on presstv.com.

On Tuesday, the US government said it seized 33 websites run by a branch of the Iranian government that spread disinformation in the US before the 2020 presidential election. The US also seized three websites that it said were operated by an Iraqi terrorist organization.

Yesterday's Department of Justice announcement said the 33 Iranian sites were used by the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU), which is owned or controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF). The DOJ said the IRTVU "targeted the United States with disinformation campaigns and malign influence operations."

"Visitors to leading Iranian media sites like Press TV and Al-Alam, the country's main English- and Arabic-language broadcasters, as well as the Al-Masirah TV channel of Yemen's Huthis, were met with single-page statements declaring the website 'has been seized by the United States government' accompanied by the seals of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Commerce Department," the AFP wrote. The US also "took over the domain name of the news website Palestine Today, which reflects the viewpoints of Gaza-based Islamic militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad," The Washington Post reported.