Month: November 2021

Enlarge / Gigabyte's $270 Z690 Aorus Elite AX Z690. Alder Lake motherboards come in all shapes, sizes, and prices, as long as you have at least $200 (and preferably, closer to $300) to spend. (credit: Gigabyte)

Intel's 12th-generation Core processors for desktops are here, and they're fast. Codenamed Alder Lake, these processors consume a lot of power to reach the heights that they do and will require expensive high-performance cooling to match. But in exchange, they deliver healthy single-threaded performance boosts over their closest competition from AMD, and they generally come pretty close in multi-threaded performance tests despite the use of lower-performance "efficiency" cores (or E-cores).

As they so often do, this new processor architecture requires new chipsets and processor sockets from Intel—motherboards with 500-series chipsets aren't compatible. To accompany our Alder Lake review, we've looked at the breadth of Z690-based motherboards that are currently available, as well as the state of the nascent DDR5 RAM market (spoiler: it's not great).

All kinds of boards

Gigabyte's Z690 UD AX DDR4 is a solid entry-level full-size ATX motherboard for Alder Lake, featuring DDR4 support, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a respectable port selection, and decent-looking VRM heatsinks for around $220. (credit: Gigabyte)

Entry-level ATX and Micro ATX motherboards with the Z690 chipset start between $200 and $250. There are a few that dip below that $200 line, but they're more likely than the other models to be sold out as of this writing. In general, we tried to focus on boards that you can actually buy right this minute; Newegg lists most ASRock and many Asus motherboards as out of stock right now, but you can still find boards to fit most budgets if you need one.

Enlarge (credit: Starlink)

Starlink has provided an encouraging update for preorderers who unexpectedly had their estimated delivery dates delayed to 2022 or 2023, but the Starlink website is still displaying delayed delivery dates to people who were previously told to expect service in 2021.

As we reported Tuesday, some people who preordered Starlink broadband made tiny changes to their service locations on the Starlink website and immediately had their estimated delivery dates delayed by a year or more. There was a spurt of people making these small changes because SpaceX's satellite division urged them to use a mapping tool to ensure the accuracy of their location. But people said that even changes of a few feet delayed their orders from 2021 to 2022 or 2023, apparently sending them to the "back of the line."

Starlink's public relations division and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk did not respond to requests for comment, but a Starlink support FAQ was subsequently updated with this sentence:

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  The brilliantly nerdy, high-strung German safecracker Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer) was a highlight of Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead. Now he has his own prequel origin story with Army of Thieves. [credit: Netflix ]

A humble, nerdy bank teller with a secret passion for safecracking finds himself taking on the heist challenge of a lifetime in Army of Thieves, a prequel to Zack Snyder's hugely entertaining Army of the Dead, which debuted earlier this year on Netflix. Army of Thieves is light on zombies but brings the same sly humor and thrilling action to its story, making it a beautifully crafted entertaining romp in its own right.

(Spoilers for Army of the Dead below. Mostly mild spoilers for Army of Thieves, but if you haven't seen its predecessor, there is one major spoiler at the end. We'll give you a heads up when we get there.)

Army of the Dead followed Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) and his team of mercenaries as they ventured into zombie-infested Las Vegas to recover millions in cash from a casino vault. Brain-munching carnage ensued. In addition to Tig Notaro's delightfully cynical pilot and Samantha Win's martial arts fireworks, viewers loved the dynamic between zombie-killing-machine Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick) and the brilliantly nerdy, high-strung German safecracker Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer). Not only did the two forge a believable (albeit reluctant) bond, Dieter's well-timed high-pitched screams whenever a zombie charged was one of several running gags. So naturally Dieter got his own prequel. And you know what? Schweighöfer's standout character deserved one.

Enlarge (credit: Kevin Key / Getty Images)

This summer, the Western United States saw a truly devastating wildfire season. Across the country, more than 48,000 wildfires raged, damaging more than six million hectares of land. It would be nice to think that humans weren’t the primary cause of these events and that natural changes in weather patterns contributed to how dry and fire-prone parts of the world have become.

But the reality isn't so nice. Climate change is likely the cause of the wildfires, according to new research that aimed to quantify just how much blame we can lay at the feet of natural causes when it comes to the increasing rates of wildfires in the US’s West. “We want to know how much this increase in fire weather is just changing weather patterns and how much cannot be explained by changing weather patterns,” Rong Fu, one of the paper’s authors and a professor at UCLA’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, told Ars.

The research began around a year ago. Fu and some of her colleagues live in California and were all impacted by the wildfires, so they wanted to investigate what is causing them.

Enlarge / Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos Inc., left, arrives at federal court in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021. (credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

The prosecution had an up-and-down day in court yesterday during the criminal trial of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of failed medical diagnostic startup Theranos.

Judge Edward Davila ruled that a witness that the prosecution had flown in from out of state wouldn’t be able to take the stand. The onetime Theranos patient identified in court documents as “B.B.” was supposed to testify about “suspicious” test results he received in 2015. Holmes’ attorneys had filed a motion last week to block his testimony, saying that the test in question, a complete blood count, wasn’t included in a list of 25 tests that the government claimed Theranos couldn’t consistently or accurately produce results for.

The judge agreed, saying that because the test wasn’t included in court documents, Holmes’ attorneys wouldn’t have time to prepare an adequate defense. Assistant US attorney John Bostic admitted that prosecutors were “confused.” They thought that B.B. had taken a test for blood clotting, which was included in court documents. Bostic said the patient was likely to testify about whether he had symptoms related to an elevated platelet count.

Enlarge / Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 3 (the big one) and the Flip 3 (the little one). Given the realities of the supply chain and Google's relationship with Samsung, Google's foldables will probably look pretty similar to this. (credit: Samsung)

Will the Google Pixel Foldable ever happen? We've seen plenty of rumors and Android source code pointing to Google going in that direction, plus the announcement of a foldable-focused Android release. Now, a recent 9to5Google report says that a Pixel foldable with a very familiar camera sensor is coming in 2022.

Apparently, the latest Google Camera app has a device detection flag called "isPixel2022Foldable." Believe it or not, the Google Camera app is a decent indicator of release dates, as it previously outed the Pixel 4 and 3a with flags like "isPixel2019MidRange" and "isPixel2019."

The software side of the Pixel Foldable plan is definitely happening. Google recently announced Android 12L, a mid-cycle update for Android that focuses on features for tablets and foldables. The Android Team's development process promises that new Android software and hardware will be developed together (which is why there have always been Nexus or Pixel devices). So with a big foldables release, it makes sense that a Pixel foldable is in the works. Android 12L is due out in March 2022, so that's probably the earliest any Pixel foldable will be released.

Enlarge / Razer Pro Type Ultra. (credit: Scharon Harding)

It's nearly 2022, yet it's still hard to find a good wireless mechanical keyboard. There are options, sure, but if you're after a numpad, a decent price, or different color options, the pool gets small. But an unlikely ally has emerged in the battle for more wireless mechanical options: pricey peripheral-maker Razer, which is now entering the productivity space with fewer RGB lights or snake logos.

The Razer Pro Type Ultra, announced this week for $160 and set to ship in Q4, can connect to three devices via Bluetooth (you switch between them using keyboard shortcuts). It also features a wireless dongle and a cable for wired connections, so it's ready for today's multi-device world. Razer's Synapse software lets users reprogram the Pro Type Ultra's buttons and even create macros to make work more efficient.

However, the Pro Type Ultra isn't a solution for everyone. For one thing, it adds to the already high price of the original Razer Pro Type, which currently has an MSRP of $126 (though it's sometimes cheaper). The new keyboard offers much better battery life, dampening foam for a quieter sound profile, and a wrist rest—at the cost of some extra cash.