Month: February 2023

Enlarge

Another week, another Dealmaster. In this week's roundup of the best tech deals on the web, we have deals on the latest iPad Air, the Meta Quest Pro, and the latest MacBook Pros.

The 2022 iPad Air is in the goldilocks zone for anyone in the market for a new tablet. We called it the "easiest tablet to recommend" in our review, due to its blazing-fast M1 processor, compact form factor, and faster USB-C performance, among other things. Whether you want to upgrade from an older iPad or pick up your first, it's a great choice for most buyers. At $499, its current discount matches the recent lower holiday prices. If you need a bigger screen and the ability to create a laptop-like experience, the 11- and 12-inch iPad Pros are on sale for $1,300 ($200 and $100 off, respectively).

Meta's Quest Pro is a bit of a splurge, but the current $400 discount (now $1,100) makes it a slightly better deal. In our review, we enjoyed the enhanced comfort, sharper image, rechargeable controls, and two to three hours of battery life with an option for a battery pack, among other improvements over previous models and the Meta Quest 2. We still think the $400 Meta Quest 2 is the better deal, but in case those upgrades are worth it to you, now's the first time you can snag the Pro at a nearly 30 percent discount.

Enlarge / The Arc A750 is slower than the top-tier A770, and it's getting a $40 price cut to make it more appealing. (credit: Intel)

It has been about four months since the launch of Intel's long-awaited Arc graphics cards. If you rolled the dice and bought a flagship A770 or an A750 in the interest of getting a decent deal on a mid-range GPU after two years of artificially inflated prices, the news has been mostly good. There have been some weird issues here and there, but Intel has kept plugging away at its buggy drivers, slowly improving Arc's performance across a range of games.

The company is making a pair of announcements today. First, the Arc A750 (the third-fastest Arc card, behind the 16GB and 8GB versions of the A770) is getting an official price cut, from $289 to $249. Second, the company is releasing yet another driver update (version 31.0.101.4086), bragging about widespread performance improvements in old DirectX 9 games and more targeted improvements for newer titles relative to the launch drivers from October.

Intel is using the A750 for these performance comparisons, but the drivers will benefit all Arc GPUs, from the lowly A380 up to the 16GB A770. (credit: Intel)

In our review, the Arc A750 was usually around 10 or 20 percent slower than the 16GB version of the A770, at least for games where the A750's 8GB of memory wasn't a bottleneck. But in the games where it did well, it usually still outperformed Nvidia's RTX 3060, and Intel's driver updates have made the "games that Arc plays well" list a little longer by now. A new RTX 3060 still typically goes for somewhere in the $350 to $400 range.

Enlarge / During the launch of space shuttle Columbia in 2003 a chunk of foam fell off the external tank and struck the orbiter's left wing. (credit: NASA)

Leaden skies and chilly air greeted Milt Heflin 20 years ago today when he pulled into the large parking lot outside Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Although space shuttle Columbia was due to return to Earth after a two-week mission, the center was quiet on a Saturday morning. When Heflin, chief of the flight director office at NASA, walked into Mission Control, he found the observation room nearly empty. While the shuttle's seven astronauts made their final preparations to enter Earth's atmosphere, Heflin chatted amiably with the room's only other occupant, a mission operations chief named Ron Epps.

Through large glass windows, the two looked out over Mission Control. As the shuttle's ground track began to cross over the United States, making its approach across the southern tier of states toward Florida, Heflin began to sense that all was not well. "I got the feeling that something was not right from the movements of the flight controllers," he said.

Enlarge / Major League Soccer across a number of devices in a promotional image made by Apple. (credit: Apple)

Today marks the launch of Apple's heavy-duty Major League Soccer integration in the company's TV app. For either a monthly or annual fee, users in 100 countries can watch live or recorded video of all MLS and League Cup matches without regional or timed blackouts.

The service is available on any device that runs Apple's TV app, from Apple's Macs, iPads, and iPhones to smart TVs, streaming boxes, or other companies' game consoles. It's priced at $14.99 per month or $99 per season, but existing Apple TV+ subscribers can pay $12.99 per month or $79 per season instead.

The MLS season hasn't started yet—things kick off February 25—but until then, the app will offer videos from past games so subscribers can catch up, including a few that are free even if you don't subscribe.

Enlarge / What might have been. (credit: Lee Hutchinson / NASA / NOAA)

February 1, 2023: One of the most tragic events in the history of space exploration is the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and all seven of her crew on February 1, 2003—a tragedy made worse because it didn’t have to happen. But just as it is human nature to look to the future and wonder what might be, so too is it in our nature to look at the past and wonder, “what if?” Today, on the twentieth anniversary of the event, Ars is re-publishing our detailed 2014 examination of the biggest Columbia "what if" of all: what if NASA had recognized the damage to the orbiter while the mission was still in progress? Could anything have been done to save the crew?

If we die, we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.

—Astronaut Gus Grissom, 1965

It is important to note at the outset that Columbia broke up during a phase of flight that, given the current design of the Orbiter, offered no possibility of crew survival.

—Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report

At 10:39 Eastern Standard Time on January 16, 2003, space shuttle Columbia lifted off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Just under a half-minute later, at 81.7 seconds after launch, a chunk of insulating foam tore free from the orange external tank and smashed into the leading edge of the orbiter's left wing at a relative velocity of at least 400 miles per hour (640 km/h). Columbia continued to climb toward orbit.

The foam strike was not observed live. Only after the shuttle was orbiting Earth did NASA's launch imagery review reveal that the wing had been hit. Foam strikes during launch were not uncommon events, and shuttle program managers elected not to take on-orbit images of Columbia to visually assess any potential damage. Instead, NASA's Debris Assessment Team mathematically modeled the foam strike but could not reach any definitive conclusions about the state of the shuttle's wing. The mission continued.