Month: November 2023

Enlarge / It's not a Razer device unless it's posed next to a bunch of custom RGB lighting, right? In great news, the Razer Kishi V2 includes zero glaring lights, which we prefer here at Ars Technica. (credit: Razer)

With smartphones getting more powerful processors and integrated graphics, gaming on mobile is a firmly established thing at this point. However, while the touchscreen on most smartphones is great for doing phone things, it's not always the best gaming interface (and having your hands obscure the screen can make playing some games particularly difficult). If you find yourself spending serious time gaming on your device, a dedicated gaming controller can make a huge difference, leaving you with something similar in form factor to a Nintendo Switch.

Sure, you could also pack a dedicated handheld gaming device like the Lenovo Legion Go, Valve Steam Deck, or Nintendo Switch—but that's just another piece of gear you'll need to remember to charge and pack into your gear bag each day. Gaming on a mobile phone brings convenience and eliminates the need for a separate, standalone device, and with mobile silicon getting faster every year—especially on the iOS side, where this year's iPhone 15 gets you ray tracing—you're getting rich graphics in a pocket-friendly form factor.

Backbone One mobile gaming controller, Playstation edition (USB-C 2nd gen)

The Backbone One gaming controller. (credit: Simon Nguyen)

The Backbone One mobile gaming controller is a solid accessory. The buttons are crisp and satisfying to press, and they provide console controller-like responses. While playing a game (in my case, Chrono Trigger for iOS), the D-pad allows for easy maneuvering and doesn't munge inputs together like some cheap controllers do. A removable piece also allows the Backbone One to fit a phone with or without a case, which is a nice addition. (We tried out the USB-C version of the controller for this guide, although it also supports Lightning devices.)

Enlarge / Image of a planet-forming disk, with gaps in between higher-density areas. (credit: ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); C. Brogan, B. Saxton)

Where do planets come from? The entire process can get complicated. Planetary embryos sometimes run into obstacles to growth that leave them as asteroids or naked planetary cores. But at least one question about planetary formation has finally been answered—how they get their water.

For decades, planetary formation theories kept suggesting that planets receive water from ice-covered fragments of rock that form in the frigid outer reaches of protoplanetary disks, where light and heat from the emerging system’s star lacks the intensity to melt the ice. As friction from the gas and dust of the disk moves these pebbles inward toward the star, they bring water and other ices to planets after crossing the snow line, where things warm up enough that the ice sublimates and releases huge amounts of water vapor. This was all hypothesized until now.

NASA’s James Webb Telescope has now observed groundbreaking evidence of these ideas as it imaged four young protoplanetary disks.The telescope used its Medium-Resolution Spectrometer (MRS) of Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to gather this data, because it is especially sensitive to water vapor. Webb found that in two of these disks, massive amounts of cold water vapor appeared past the snow line, confirming that ice sublimating from frozen pebbles can indeed deliver water to planets like ours.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

A prolific espionage hacking group with ties to China spent over two years looting the corporate network of NXP, the Netherlands-based chipmaker whose silicon powers security-sensitive components found in smartphones, smartcards, and electric vehicles, a news outlet has reported.

The intrusion, by a group tracked under names including "Chimera" and "G0114," lasted from late 2017 to the beginning of 2020, according to Netherlands-based NCR, which cited “several sources” familiar with the incident. During that time, the threat actors periodically accessed employee mailboxes and network drives in search of chip designs and other NXP intellectual property. The breach wasn’t uncovered until Chimera intruders were detected in a separate company network that connected to compromised NXP systems on several occasions. Details of the breach remained a closely guarded secret until now.

No material damage

NCR cited a report published (and later deleted) by security firm Fox-IT, titled Abusing Cloud Services to Fly Under the Radar. It documented Chimera using cloud services from companies including Microsoft and Dropbox to receive data stolen from the networks of semiconductor makers, including one in Europe that was hit in “early Q4 2017.” Some of the intrusions lasted as long as three years before coming to light. NCR said the unidentified victim was NXP.

Enlarge / Exhaust plumes from the Ariane 6 rocket's main engine rise above the launch pad in French Guiana. (credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/P. Piron)

The European Space Agency (ESA) declared success after an Ariane 6 rocket fired its core stage engine in French Guiana for seven minutes on Thursday, clearing one of a handful of remaining hurdles before the new launcher can lift off on its first test flight.

The Ariane 6's inaugural launch, now scheduled for next year, has been delayed repeatedly since ESA approved the new rocket for development in 2014. The test-firing of the Ariane 6 main engine on a launch pad at the Guiana Space Center in South America last week was the most significant test not yet accomplished on the rocket's preflight checklist.

The test lasted 426 seconds—a little more than seven minutes—while a full-size test model of the Ariane 6 rocket remained on its launch pad. In order for the rocket to actually take off, it would need to light its four strap-on solid-fueled boosters. That was not part of the plan for Thursday's test.