The train that shrunk France… and Europe

The record-setting high-speed train went into service on this day 40 years ago.

Image of an orange train.

Enlarge (credit: SNCF)

Every year, the Journées Européennes Patrimoine (European Heritage Days) weekend in September offers visitors a chance to visit numerous monuments all over Europe. Among the attractions in Paris this year was an orange-colored electric train with a name that has become a byword for speed and cutting-edge technology: the TGV. Thousands of enthusiasts flocked to the Gare de Lyon station to see the inaugural TGV (Train a Grande Vitésse), which was launched 40 years ago in September 1981.

Jacques Ruiz, one of the two drivers who piloted the first train 40 years ago, was at the Gare de Lyon station during the European Heritage Days weekend. “What impressed me most about the TGV was its aerodynamic design. The other locomotives, which looked like cubes, did not have such a shape. Of course, the power and the comfort of the air-conditioned cabin were impressive, too. It was exciting to drive this new train,” the 79-year-old said.

The first train was flagged off by the then French President François Mitterrand on September 22, 1981, and the first Paris-Lyon line was opened to the public five days later.

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Newest iPad mini has a subtle scrolling problem

Unclear whether this is a hardware issue or something fixable in software.

Sixth-generation iPad mini with Smart Folio case and Apple Pencil 2, lying flat with case open.

Enlarge / The 6th-generation iPad mini. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Apple's newest iPad mini was released to the general public on Friday, and over the weekend, users began to complain about a subtle scrolling problem when using the tablet in portrait mode (MacRumors has a good round-up post). The tablet appears to refresh the left and right halves of its screen at slightly different rates, creating a subtle-but-noticeable "jelly scroll" effect. The Verge's Dieter Bohn has captured slow-motion video that demonstrates the problem.

The issue is subtle enough that we didn't notice it when testing the mini for our review, but our review unit does indeed appear to suffer from the same problem. It's the most noticeable when scrolling relatively slowly up and down a webpage or document—the left side of the screen seems to trail the right side by just enough that paragraphs of text appear rubbery and wobbly to an attentive eye.

In our testing, the problem does appear to affect the screen in landscape mode, where the left and right halves of the screen become the top and bottom halves of the screen. But horizontal scrolling is much less common in most apps than vertical scrolling, making the effect less obvious. Some users have reported not being able to notice the problem in landscape mode at all.

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Daily Deals (9-27-2021)

Just a month after HP launched the Chromebook x2 11 tablet with a Snapdragon 7c processor, a detachable keyboard, and a 2160 x 1440 pixel display, it’s on sale at Best Buy for $379, which is $220 off the list price. In the market for a Windows laptop instead? Newegg is offering the MSI Prestige […]

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Just a month after HP launched the Chromebook x2 11 tablet with a Snapdragon 7c processor, a detachable keyboard, and a 2160 x 1440 pixel display, it’s on sale at Best Buy for $379, which is $220 off the list price.

HP Chromebook x2 11

In the market for a Windows laptop instead? Newegg is offering the MSI Prestige Evo 14 with an Intel Core i5 Tiger Lake processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for $664 after rebate when you use the coupon 2021EGGIEUPS at checkout).

Here are some of the day’s best deals.

Chromebooks

Laptops

Tablets & eReaders

stuff

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The Galaxy Note is back, it’s just going to be called the “Galaxy S22 Ultra”

Early S22 renders claim the Galaxy Note will be dead in name only.

It's never too early to start talking about new Samsung phones, is it? OnLeaks has a series of renders out for the Galaxy S22. These are usually based on CAD renders given to case manufacturers, and while they might get some of the smaller details wrong, the cutouts, camera block, and other major features should be correct.

First up is a Galaxy S22 Ultra render, and here's a shocker: it has an S-Pen! Samsung killed the Note line this year to focus on foldable phones, but it apparently still can't let the idea of phone handwriting go. Samsung has shipped pen accessories for the S21 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 3, but those required some kind of case for storage. This render shows the S22 Ultra with the telltale oval along the bottom edge, just like an old Note phone. Push it in and the pen will pop out.

The upside to an integrated S- Pen is that if you want to do handwriting on your phone, you'll always have the pen with you. The downside is that the S22 Ultra battery will be smaller than it could be, because a lot of space is taken up by the pen holder. It's also a huge bummer for anyone who wants a premium Samsung phone but has no interest in handwriting because they'll have to put up with the pen sucking up battery space. You don't get a choice.

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Occultist tries to imprison Death in first The Sandman teaser

Plus new peeks at Stranger Things S4, Cowboy Bebop, The Witcher S2, Army of Thieves.

Tom Sturridge stars as Dream/Morpheus in the Netflix adapted series, The Sandman.

It has been a long time coming, but we finally have our first glimpse of footage from The Sandman, Netflix's adaptation of the DC Comics graphic novels created by Neil Gaiman. The streaming giant also released several character posters for the series during its Tudum global fan event. And in addition to The Sandman, we got a tantalizing new teaser for Stranger Things S4, the opening credits for Cowboy Bebop, and new trailers for Army of Thieves and The Witcher S2, among other goodies.

The Sandman teaser

As I've written previously, the titular "sandman" is Dream, aka Morpheus, among other names. He is one of seven entities known as the Endless, and he is seeking to set right his past mistakes. The other Endless are Destiny, Destruction, Despair, Desire, Delirium, and Death (portrayed as a perky punk/goth young woman). They became almost as popular as Dream himself (especially Death) and were featured in several spinoff comics. The series opens when Morpheus, the King of Dreams, escapes from a 70-year imprisonment by an occultist—who actually wanted to capture Dream's sibling Death but trapped the Sandman by mistake.

Gaiman has been heavily involved with this Netflix adaptation, which bodes well for the project. Tom Sturridge snagged the coveted role of Morpheus, Lord of the Dreaming, no doubt due in part to his well-sculpted cheekbones. As for Dream's Endless Siblings, Kirby Howell-Baptiste plays Death, Donna Preston plays Despair, and Mason Alexander Park plays Desire. Game of Thrones alums Gwendoline Christie and Charles Dance play a gender-swapped Lucifer and the charlatan magician Roderick Burgess, respectively. (Burgess is styled after real-life occultist Aleister Crowley and is Crowley's arch-rival within the world of DC Comics.)

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Film studios sue “no logs” VPN provider for $10 million

Independent movie studios are demanding $10 million in damages from LiquidVPN.

Your at-home entertainment studio.

Enlarge / Your at-home entertainment studio. (credit: Ella Don)

Dozens of movie production companies sued LiquidVPN this year over the VPN provider's marketing efforts that could be perceived as promoting piracy. These companies, which are now seeking $10 million in damages, claim that the "no log" policy of LiquidVPN is not a valid excuse, as the VPN provider actively chose to not keep logs.

And because LiquidVPN's lawyers failed to show up in court, the plaintiffs are pushing a motion for a default judgment to be granted.

Fiery marketing that backfired

At what point does a netizen's right to privacy and anonymity cease is the crux of the lawsuit brought forth against LiquidVPN. LiquidVPN is a no-log VPN provider that, over the course of its business activities, has been observed to... almost encourage online piracy.

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Emails show Elizabeth Holmes directing response to failed Theranos tests

Lab director “felt pressured to defend the company’s results to physicians.”

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes leaves the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building and US Courthouse in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021. Holmes is charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Enlarge / Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes leaves the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building and US Courthouse in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021. Holmes is charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. (credit: Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/The Mercury News)

Theranos’ former lab director, Dr. Adam Rosendorff, told jurors on Friday that he quit the company because he “felt pressured to vouch for tests I did not have confidence in.”

The company’s management, he said, was not willing to perform proficiency testing that is required by federal law before clinical laboratories can run tests on patient samples. That, and a series of other issues, caused him to lose confidence in the company. “I came to believe that the company was more about PR and fundraising than patient care,” Rosendorff said.

Rosendorff didn’t always have such a dim view of Theranos, though. When he joined the company in April 2013, he was eager to help founder Elizabeth Holmes realize her vision to replace veinous blood draws with finger sticks. 

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New Xiaomi Mi TV Stick with Android TV and Google Assistant hits the FCC

After launching its first Android TV stick last year, Xiaomi is preparing for round two. A new Xiaomi Mi TV Stick passed through the FCC website today, and while it looks nearly identical to its predecessor, Xiaomi has improved wireless speeds, updated the processor, and added support for new features. There’s no word on when the […]

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After launching its first Android TV stick last year, Xiaomi is preparing for round two. A new Xiaomi Mi TV Stick passed through the FCC website today, and while it looks nearly identical to its predecessor, Xiaomi has improved wireless speeds, updated the processor, and added support for new features.

There’s no word on when the new Mi TV Stick will be available or how much it will cost, but it will enter an increasingly crowded field of small, cheap media streaming devices. The new Mi TV Stick will go head-to-head with similar media streamers including the Chromecast with Google TV, onn UHD Streaming Device, Roku Streaming Stick 4K, and the Amazon Fire TV Stick line of devices.

The new Mi TV Stick has an Amlogic S905Y4 processor, which is a quad-core ARM Cortex-A35 processor with 850 MHz ARM Mali-G31 MP2 graphics.

That actually seems like a downgrade from the S905Y2 processor used in the previous-gen. That chip had the same GPU, but featured a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU, which means the new model might actually be a little slower.

But Xiaomi says its new Mi TV Stick can still support Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and DTD HD content, among other things. The FCC documents also don’t mention how much memory the stick has – last year’s model was available in two versions. Models with 1GB of RAM topped out at 1080p video playback while 2GB versions could handle 4K video.

The remote control for the new model looks pretty much the same as last year’s version, with a direction pad, a few navigation keys, dedicated Netflix and Amazon Prime video buttons, volume keys, and a Google Assistant button.

Xiaomi will ship the new Mi TV Stick with a 5V/1A power adapter, a USB cable for charging, and a short HDMI extender cable for use in situations where there may not be room to plug the stick directly into the HDMI port of your television.

The new Xiaomi Mi TV Stick features support for Bluetooth Low Energy (the remote control has a Bluetooth logo on the back) and WiFi 5, with WiFi data transfer speeds up to 866.7 Mbps.

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