Month: February 2023

Enlarge (credit: GETTY IMAGES)

Building more EVs is a start, but the automotive industry needs to rapidly decarbonize its supply chains if it wants to stand any chance of meeting the 1.5˚C climate goal, according to a new study conducted by the consulting company Kearny on behalf of EV startups Polestar and Rivian. "Car companies may be on different paths when it comes to brand, design, and business strategies, and some won’t even admit that the road to the future is electric. I believe it is, and that the climate crisis is a shared responsibility—we must look beyond tailpipe emissions," said Fredrika Klarén, Polestar's head of sustainability.

Around the world, electric vehicle adoption is accelerating. EV sales in 2021 were already strong enough to cause the International Energy Agency to declare them a rare bright spot in terms of decarbonization, and 2022 saw sales accelerate by 55 percent year-on-year. Battery EVs accounted for almost 10 percent of all new light passenger vehicle sales last year, with nearly 7.7 million deliveries.

As automakers replace old internal combustion engine models with new BEV versions, the companies' corporate carbon footprints should shrink. As we explored last year, it only takes about two years for a BEV to beat a gasoline-burning car in terms of carbon footprint, as the BEV's vastly better efficiency overrides the fact that it's more energy-intensive to build.

Enlarge / Canon's new EOS R8 full-frame mirrorless camera. (credit: Canon)

Canon is introducing a pair of budget-minded mirrorless cameras for people who want to buy into its RF lens system and shoot smooth 4K video but who don't want to pay thousands of dollars to do it.

The new EOS R50 ($680 for the body only) has a 24.2 megapixel APS-C crop sensor and can shoot 30 fps 4K video—it's $80 more expensive than the EOS M50 Mark II, but that model is tied to the older EF-M lens mount. The higher-end EOS R8 ($1,500 for the body only) has a full-frame 24.2 megapixel sensor and can record 4K video at up to 60 fps or 1080p video at up to 180 fps. Both cameras will be available in "spring 2023."

One key improvement of both cameras for videographers is that they don't impose a 30-minute time limit on continuous recording. The R50 can record continuously for up to an hour, and the R8 can record 30 fps 4K or 1080p video for up to two hours as long as your memory card has space for that much video (higher framerate videos do still have shorter time limits).

Enlarge / Despite Microsoft's assurances, the CMA worries that making Call of Duty an exclusive would be in the company's financial interests. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) came down squarely against Microsoft's proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Wednesday morning. In a sprawling provisional report summary, the government regulator said the merger could hurt consumers by "weakening the important rivalry between Xbox and PlayStation gaming consoles" and "could result in higher prices, fewer choices, or less innovation for UK gamers."

The CMA's provisional findings focus on cloud gaming, where the CMA says Microsoft already accounts for 60 to 70 percent of the global market. After the merger, Microsoft would "find it commercially beneficial to make Activision’s games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service (or only available on other services under materially worse conditions)," the CMA said.

The CMA also expressed particular worry about "a small number of key games, including Call of Duty" being potentially locked to the Xbox and Windows PCs. While Microsoft has repeatedly promised that Call of Duty would remain fully available on other platforms for at least 10 years after the merger, the CMA notes that Microsoft has previously purchased other game studios and then "[made] their content exclusive to Microsoft’s platforms."

Enlarge / A child who escaped from under debris on February 8, 2023, in Hatay, Turkey. (credit: Getty Images News)

Search and rescue efforts continue after earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria on Monday, displacing thousands and killing more than 11,000, AlJazeera reported. Amid this ongoing emergency, a new report suggests that Twitter access has been restricted in Turkey, cutting off a critical social media tool that rescue efforts rely on to quickly communicate needs and request assistance globally.

The independent global Internet monitor NetBlocks reported Wednesday morning that network data confirmed that Twitter has been restricted on multiple network providers, including TTNet and Turkcell. There has been “no formal explanation” from Turkey authorities, but NetBlocks notes that Turkey often acts to prevent alleged disinformation during national emergencies, as it did last year following a terrorist attack, and it has “an extensive history of social media restrictions” during such events.

Alp Toker, NetBlocks’ director, told Ars that this is the first time NetBlocks has detected what appears to be social media restrictions in response to a natural disaster, though. Toker says the negative impact of imposing such a restriction at this moment “can’t be understated.”