Month: November 2021

Enlarge / Razer Pro Click Mini wireless mouse. (credit: Scharon Harding)

A mouse is an obvious candidate for cord-cutting. Going wireless ensures that you don't get tangled up in your cord or have to deal with cable drag, and wireless connections have become so reliable that even gaming companies are offering wireless mice with no real lag issues.

The situation is a bit more complicated for people using multiple devices. Bluetooth connections may be stable, but that doesn't mean I want to pair and re-pair my mouse repeatedly. Sometimes, being able to just plug in a mouse seems easier.

But there's another way. The Razer Pro Click Mini joins a selection of wireless mice that let you pair with three Bluetooth devices and pick which machine you're controlling with the press of a button. You can add yet another PC to the mix by using its included wireless dongle, for a total of four connected devices.

Enlarge / Medical examiner or forensic scientist with dead man's corpse in morgue. (credit: Getty )

A Louisiana widow is left horrified at the news that her deceased husband was dissected in front of a live, paying audience after she donated his body to scientific research.

Elsie Saunders had carried out the wishes of her late husband, David Saunders, who wanted his body donated to help advance medical science, according to The Advocate. David Saunders, a World War II and Korean War veteran, died of COVID-19 on August 24 at the age of 98. Donating his body was his last act of patriotism, Elsie Saunders said.

But instead of being delivered to a research facility, David Saunders' body ended up in a Marriott Hotel ballroom in Portland, Oregon, where DeathScience.org held an "Oddities and Curiosities Expo." At the October 17 event, members of the public sat ringside from 9 am to 4 pm—with a break for lunch—to watch David Saunders' body be carefully dissected. Tickets for the dissection sold for up to $500 per person.

Enlarge / The M1 SoC die compared to M1 Pro and M1 Max. (credit: Apple)

Apple has already finalized the second generation of Mac processors, and the third generation is expected to be made with a new 3-nanometer process, according to a report in The Information citing people with direct knowledge of the plans.

The report says that the second-generation chips will use an "upgraded version" of the 5-nanometer process used for the M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max found in recent Apple Silicon Macs. But unlike those first-generation chips, some of the second-generation chips will have two dies instead of one, allowing for more processor cores.

A second-generation chip with just one die will be included in the long-rumored, redesigned MacBook Air as well as in iPads. That chip is code-named Staten. On the other hand, the MacBook Pro will feature more powerful second-generation chips code-named Rhodes. The second-generation chips have already been finalized and are ready to enter trial production, according to The Information's sources.

Enlarge / A nice CPU that doesn't play nice with some DRM...

Longtime Ars readers probably remember some of the many cases in which overly onerous DRM prevented game owners from playing their legitimate purchases. We're seeing that situation play out again today, this time thanks to how some DRM systems interact with the unique features of Intel's 12th-generation "Alder Lake" CPUs.

We've already covered how Alder Lake's hybrid "big.little" design splits the CPU's workload into high-powered "performance" (P) cores and low-powered "efficiency" (E) cores. But after hinting at the potential issue in a developer FAQ last month, Intel is now confirming that some games contain DRM that Intel says "may incorrectly recognize 12th Generation Intel Core Processors efficient-cores (E-cores) as another system." That issue can lead to games that "may crash during launch or gameplay or unexpectedly shut down," Intel says.

PC Mag's Chris Stobing explained that the issue arises from the DRM middleware treating the two different types of cores as two distinct systems. "Once it detects that some portion of the load has been split between the P- and E-cores, it sees the new cores as a new license holder (a separate system) and force-quits the game to prevent what it believes is two PCs trying to play one game on the same key,” he said.

Enlarge / Author Sam Machkovech wears the Razer Zephyr mask out in public. (credit: Steve Haske)

For the past two weeks, I've carried the $99 Razer Zephyr mask with me pretty much everywhere I go—but that's not the same as wearing it.

Razer's first foray into the world of high-tech wearables comes in the form of an "N95-grade" face mask that claims to go above and beyond what you can expect from cloth options. The company set expectations pretty high with the mask's initial prototype reveal in January, only to cut down features to make the mask cheaper and lighter. Yet this launch version is still a far cry from the cloth masks that are so ubiquitous these days.

And since it's from Razer, a peripheral manufacturer best known for neon-tinged gaming mice, headphones, and keyboards, the mask looks striking. Look at it! The Razer Zephyr is basically a gaming mouse that you strap to your face, RGB lighting and all. So I had to try it.

Enlarge / A MacBook Pro running macOS Monterey. (credit: Apple)

Apple has fixed a Mac firmware bug that had bricked some users' Macs after they installed the macOS Monterey update, according to Apple reporter Rene Ritchie. The fixes apply to Macs with an Apple T2 chip, which covers most Intel Macs released in or after 2018.

"We have identified and fixed an issue with the firmware on the Apple T2 security chip that prevented a very small number of users from booting up their Mac after updating macOS," the statement reads. "The updated firmware is now included with the existing macOS updates. Any users impacted by this issue can contact Apple Support for assistance."

The statement doesn't address similar complaints by owners of pre-T2 Macs. We've asked Apple whether there are other fixes coming—as we explained earlier this week, these kinds of problems can be caused by everything from software and firmware bugs to underlying hardware issues, so it's possible that these reports are one-off problems that Apple can't fix on its end. We'll update if we get a response.