Month: August 2022

An atomic clock based on a fountain of atoms. (credit: National Science Foundation)

Meta recently joined the ranks of tech giants calling for the end of the leap second, the fascinatingly complex way humans account for tiny changes in the Earth’s rotation timing. The owner of Facebook and Instagram adds to a chorus that’s been growing for years, and the debate could come to a head at a global conference in 2023—or even sooner if the Earth keeps having record-short days.

Facebook, like many large-scale tech companies, is tired of trying to time a global network of servers against leap seconds, which add between 0.1 and 0.9 seconds to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) every so many years. There have been 27 leap seconds added since 1972. In a post on Meta’s engineering blog, Oleg Obleukhov and Ahmad Byagowi say 27 is quite enough for non-solar-scientist types—"enough for the next millennium."

International timekeeping bodies add leap seconds at unpredictable intervals because the things that cause them—the braking action of tides on rotation, moon position, the distribution of ice caps on mountaintops, mantle flow, earthquakes—are unpredictable. When the Earth’s speed varies too much from atomic time-keeping, a leap second is called for by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS).

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Diy13)

Attorneys general from all 50 states have created an Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force "to investigate and take legal action against the telecommunications companies responsible for bringing a majority of foreign robocalls into the United States," they announced yesterday.

In the task force's first action, it "issued 20 civil investigative demands to 20 gateway providers and other entities that are allegedly responsible for a majority of foreign robocall traffic," said an announcement from North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein. The task force's formation was led by Stein and the attorneys general of Indiana and Ohio, the announcement said.

Stein cited data suggesting that "more than 33 million scam robocalls are made to Americans every day," such as "Social Security Administration fraud against seniors, Amazon scams against consumers, and many other scams targeting all consumers, including some of our most vulnerable citizens."

Enlarge / Widgets on iPadOS 15's home screen. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Apple will delay the release of the iPadOS 16 software update for iPads well into October, about a month after the September release of the iPhone's iOS 16. The news comes from a report in Bloomberg citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Typically, Apple releases iPadOS—which is closely related to iOS—very close to or shortly after the iOS launch, which comes in September alongside new flagship iPhone models. It's arrived slightly later in the past, but this would be an unusually large gap in releases.

According to the report's sources, the delay can be blamed at least partly on the upcoming overhaul of the iPad's multitasking features, including the new Stage Manager feature that is also coming to Macs in macOS. Those features were announced at Apple's developer conference in June.

Enlarge / We hardly knew ye, feature-length live-action film version of Batgirl, and perhaps we never will. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Warner Bros)

In response to mounting reports and rumors, the creative teams behind the upcoming straight-to-HBO-Max films Batgirl and Scoob 2: Holiday Haunt confirmed this week that both had been canceled and locked away to apparently never be released in any way, shape, or form.

The bizarre news began unfolding on Tuesday thanks to a report from the New York Post, which alleged that Batgirl, a feature-length, live-action reimagining of the DC Comics superhero that began production last year, would be outright shelved and hidden away in the wake of test screenings. The nearly complete film, which had a budget exceeding $70 million and co-starred Michael Keaton as the character of Batman for the first time in nearly 30 years, was reportedly "unspeakable" on a quality basis.

Two inevitabilities: Death (of possibly decent DC films) and taxes

Shortly after that report went live, well-placed industry rags blamed Batgirl's cancellation on a different issue: accounting and taxes. Deadline pointed to a limited-time opportunity for new WB corporate owners Discovery, which initiated its $108 billion acquisition of Warner in May 2021, to write off both Batgirl and the CGI animation feature Scoob 2: Holiday Haunt as a "purchase accounting maneuver." The outright cancellation would have to happen by "mid-August," according to Deadline; any other attempt to commercially release either film in any way (streaming, theatrical runs, VOD sales) would nix the accounting move.

Enlarge / A Starlink satellite dish. (credit: Starlink)

Over a year and a half after tentatively winning $886 million in broadband funding from the government's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), SpaceX is still trying to get paid by the Federal Communications Commission. One problem for Starlink—though not the only problem—is a series of objections from satellite company Viasat, which says Starlink lacks the capacity and speed to meet FCC obligations.

In a new FCC filing, SpaceX denounced Viasat's "misguided campaign" against the Starlink funding. "Viasat is transparently attempting to have the Commission impede competition at all costs to protect its legacy technology," SpaceX told the FCC. The new SpaceX filing was submitted on Friday and posted to the FCC's website Monday, as pointed out by Light Reading.

But SpaceX might have struggled to get its funding even if Viasat never objected. Starlink was tentatively awarded $886 million in December 2020 by the FCC during the final weeks of Chairman Ajit Pai's tenure. Consumer advocacy group Free Press accused Pai of "subsidiz[ing] broadband for the rich," pointing out that Starlink was awarded money in urban areas including locations at or adjacent to major airports.

Enlarge (credit: Anadolu Agency / Contributor | Anadolu Agency)

Microsoft isn’t the only company that seems to contradict its own politics by promising to cover abortion travel costs for employees, while at the same time donating to political action committees that funded the governors and attorneys general who fought to overturn Roe v. Wade. However, Microsoft is one of the biggest donors that helped install so many anti-abortion officials over time. The Center for Political Accountability (CPA) told Bloomberg that since 2010, Microsoft donated $3 million to Republican groups doggedly working to end abortion in America.

Microsoft might be donating to these groups for any number of reasons, but a UK activist shareholder group called Tulipshare says the company should change its political giving policy to resist political contradictions and increase transparency. To put pressure on Microsoft, Tulipshare partnered with CPA. Together, they propose that Microsoft release an annual report that would publicly connect the dots between the money Microsoft donates, the elected officials those donations support, and the specific causes that those elected officials support. Such a report could end any company claims about incidental anti-abortion donations.

According to Jenna Armitage, Tulipshare’s chief marketing officer, the activist group’s strategy is to “engage with Microsoft’s investor relations department” to request the annual report. That report would ideally “mandate that the company require political action committees it funds to say which candidates and causes they support.” If Microsoft rejects the proposal, Tulipshare’s next step would be to prompt investors to “introduce a shareholder motion.”

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

It's Wednesday, which means the time has come for another Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best tech deals from around the web includes a number of discounts on recommended PlayStation 5 games. Sony technically started its annual "PlayStation Summer Sale" late last month, but earlier this week it rolled out a fresh batch of deals that covers a range of first-party games. The new offers are available across multiple retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and GameStop—plus, for digital copies, Sony's PlayStation Store. Sony says the sale will run until August 17.

The selection includes the first significant discount we've seen for Horizon Forbidden West, the big PlayStation-exclusive action-RPG that arrived in February. Its PS4 and PS5 versions are available for $40 and $50, respectively, both of which represent a $20 discount. Unless having PS5 box art really matters to you, though, you should only get the PS4 copy—it's the last game to have a free PS4-to-PS5 upgrade path, so you might as well take advantage and save yourself the Hamilton.

Either way, our review deemed Forbidden West nothing less than "one of the greatest game sequels of all time," praising its writing, lush visuals, and general attention to detail. You really need to have played the original Horizon Zero Dawn to get the most out of it, and at the end of the day, it's another modern open-world game, which some players may be fatigued of at this point. But if you enjoyed the original's robot-dinosaur hunting and sweeping sci-fi-infused plot, Forbidden West is a more polished version of that.

Enlarge / Insta360's new Link webcam. (credit: Insta60)

These past couple of years have experienced a bit of a webcam renaissance, as the ability to get an in-person feel from a virtual meeting has become more valuable than ever. That renaissance included the introduction of helpful features, many of which focus on keeping the user center-frame. We've seen cameras play with AI, and in the case of Dell's magnetic, wireless webcam concept, even magnets to keep your face perfectly in frame. The Insta360 Link announced Tuesday also leverages AI auto-framing but adds a much more obvious, yet rare, tool for capturing a moving subject: physical mobility.

Insta360, headquartered in Guangdong, China, and founded in 2015, is primarily known for sports and 360-degree cameras. The Insta360 Link is its first webcam, and it's like if the DJI Pocket 2 and Apple Center Stage had a baby.

The Link is a 4K camera with a proprietary half-inch sensor and f/1.8 aperture living on top of a three-axis gimbal (the webcam can also be mounted on a tripod or stand purchased separately). Insta360's camera is similar to the $269 Obsbot Tiny 4K, but the latter has a two-axis gimbal.