Month: September 2022

Enlarge / Let's see: Xbox Cloud Gaming, Nvidia Geforce Now, Xbox again, and Steam Link. That's all the cloud streaming services, right? Nothing's missing. (credit: Logitech)

It's not every day that you see the attempted birth of an entirely new category of video game hardware. But it feels like that's what we're seeing this month with the announcement of the Logitech G Cloud and the Razer Edge 5G handheld gaming systems.

While these devices (and somewhat similar emulation-focused handhelds like the AYN Odin) have their differences, they share Qualcomm SnapDragon internals, an Android-based OS, and vaguely Switch-like hardware designs. And while these devices can natively run games designed for Android phones (for whatever that's worth), the main focus seems to be streaming portable versions of high-end console and PC games through various cloud-gaming providers or in-home streaming options.

It's too early to know how well these handhelds will serve their stated purpose, or how much actual market demand there is for dedicated portable devices that primarily play games hosted on remote servers or platforms. Still, we can't help but compare and contrast this new hardware design trend with the last major (failed) attempt to create a new category of gaming hardware: the microconsole.

Enlarge / Illustration of magnetic levitation using a high-temperature ceramic superconductor.

A paper that claimed to provide the first evidence of superconductivity at room temperatures has been retracted by the journal Nature, even as the paper's authors say they still have confidence in the results. The decision appears to come down to an issue of the experiment's questionable controls.

High-temperature superconductivity has made a lot of progress due to the use of hydrogen-rich chemicals at extreme pressures, which can force the hydrogen into chemical structures that would otherwise have empty space. Several papers have gotten hydrogen-rich chemicals to superconduct at temperatures that could be reached using dry ice.

The room-temperature report followed a similar path, using intense pressure to force hydrogen to combine with a new mix of chemicals and reach record temperatures—in this case, above the freezing point of water, a major milestone. The pressures involved mean the material wouldn't be useful for real-world applications but could potentially point the way toward other chemicals that could.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | PM Images)

The Federal Communications Commission today unanimously approved a rule that aims to minimize space debris by requiring low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to be disposed no more than five years after being taken out of service. "The new rules shorten the decades-old 25-year guideline for deorbiting satellites post-mission, taking an important step in a new era for space safety and orbital debris policy," the FCC said in a press release.

As previously reported, the new five-year rule will be legally binding, unlike the current 25-year standard that's based on a NASA recommendation proposed in the 1990s. The FCC has said it will apply to "space stations ending their missions in or passing through the low-Earth orbit region below 2,000 kilometers."

Satellites already in orbit will be exempt from the new requirement. There's also a grandfathering period of two years for satellites that are already authorized by the FCC but not yet launched.

Enlarge / Amazon's Fire TV Omni QLED Series with Alexa widgets displayed. (credit: Amazon)

A year after it started pushing its own TVs, Amazon is expanding its lineup with pricier, more advanced options. The Fire TV Omni QLED Series announced yesterday at the invite-only Amazon hardware event shows the tech giant upping the ante with quantum dot displays and more evolved features for smart homes.

Amazon's first self-branded TVs came last September, ranging from the more budget-friendly 4-Series, which originally started at $370 for 43 inches, and the Omni Series, which originally cost $1,100 for the largest model, at 75 inches. The 4K TVs aren't particularly unique. They're HDR TVs and include HDMI 2.1, with eARC for soundbars, and feature variable refresh rates from a mere 48–60 Hz at 4K. Amazon Alexa is also present, of course. Alexa can work when the TVs are off, enable voice control, and work with Alexa Routines but is not an Amazon-exclusive among modern TVs.

Amazon is paying a little more attention to image quality with the Omni QLED Series; it still avoids specific claims, though, like brightness or color coverage specs. The new 65- and 75-inch TVs use Samsung Display's QLED technology with quantum dots for a claimed boost in color, plus full-array local dimming to boost contrast.

Enlarge (credit: HHakim)

A common practice in the oil industry called flaring is believed to cut down on methane emissions by burning waste or excess gas in the process of extracting or processing oil. But flaring may not be as effective as once thought, according to new research published in the journal Science.

It’s a widely held belief that flaring is 98 percent effective at destroying methane emissions caused by oil and gas operations. However, according to Eric Kort, associate professor in the University of Michigan’s department of climate and space and one of the paper’s authors, this assumption has only rarely been tested.

Why burn a potentially useful fuel? “You might have a volume of natural gas, which is primarily methane, that you don’t have anything to do with. You don’t have the capacity to capture it and put it into a pipeline—it’s not economic, the pressure would exceed safety tolerances,” Kort told Ars.