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Anbernic is a Chinese company that’s responsible for a lot of the cheap-but-sometimes-decent handheld game consoles that have flooded the market in recent years. But the current tit-for-tat tariff battle between the US and China has prompted the …
Anbernic is a Chinese company that’s responsible for a lot of the cheap-but-sometimes-decent handheld game consoles that have flooded the market in recent years. But the current tit-for-tat tariff battle between the US and China has prompted the company to suspend shipments from China to the US starting today. Customers in the US can still place orders […]
The post Anbernic suspends US shipments of its handheld game consoles appeared first on Liliputing.
New data suggests that the human inclination toward feasting in groups is part of our deep evolutionary history
Is there anything more human than gathering in groups to share food and partake in a fermented beverage or two (or three, or....)? Researchers have caught wild chimpanzees on camera engaging in what appears to be similar activity: sharing fermented African breadfruit with measurable alcoholic content. According to a new paper published in the journal Current Biology, the observational data is the first evidence of the sharing of alcoholic foods among nonhuman great apes in the wild.
The fruit in question is seasonal and comes from Treculia africana trees common across the home environment of the wild chimps in Cantanhez National Park in Guinea-Bissau. Once mature, the fruits drop from the tree to the ground and slowly ripen from a hard, deep green exterior to a yellow, spongier texture. Because the chimps are unhabituated, the authors deployed camera traps at three separate locations to record their feeding and sharing behavior.
They recorded ten instances of selective fruit sharing among 17 chimps, with the animals exhibiting a marked preference for riper fruit. The authors measured the alcohol content of the fruit with a handy portable breathalyzer between April and July, 2022, and found almost all of the fallen fruit (90 percent) contained some ethanol, with the ripest containing the highest levels—the equivalent of 0.61 percent ABV (alcohol by volume).
Trump insists defense secretary who shared secrets on Signal “doing a great job.”
It's possible that the White House may be looking to replace defense secretary Pete Hegseth after critics warned that a pair of controversial Signal chats risked compromising US national security.
In March, it was revealed that Hegseth accidentally texted secret bombing plans in a Signal chat that included a reporter, raising alarms about his handling of sensitive military information. And then this weekend, The New York Times revealed that he similarly shared the attack plans, just minutes after learning of them, in a personal Signal chat that included his wife and brother.
That second revelation sparked a "full-blown meltdown" at the Pentagon, The Guardian reported, apparently prompting the Trump administration to begin "the process of looking for a new secretary of defense," a US official granted anonymity told NPR Monday.
Developer tells Ars free app could “seriously threaten CrossOver’s viability.”
Whisky, a gaming-focused front-end for Wine's Windows compatibility tools on macOS, is no longer receiving updates. As one of the most useful and well-regarded tools in a Mac gamer's toolkit, it could be seen as a great loss, but its developer hopes you'll move on with what he considers a better option: supporting CodeWeavers' CrossOver product.
Also, Whisky's creator is an 18-year-old college student, and he could use a break.
"I am 18, yes, and attending Northeastern University, so it's always a balancing act between my school work and dev work," Isaac Marovitz wrote to Ars. The Whisky project has "been more or less in this state for a few months, I posted the notice mostly to clarify and formally announce it," Marovitz said, having received "a lot of questions" about the project status.
As Trump eyes chip controls, TSMC fears its tariff-proof era will end.
As the global artificial intelligence (AI) race presses on amid a US-China trade war, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)—a $514 billion titan that manufactures most of the world's AI chips—is warning that it may not be possible to keep its customers' most advanced technology out of China's hands.
US export controls require chipmakers to monitor shipments and know their customers to restrict China's access to AI chips. But in a recently published 2024 report, TSMC confirmed that its "role in the semiconductor supply chain inherently limits its visibility and information available to it regarding the downstream use or user of final products that incorporate semiconductors manufactured by it."
Essentially, TSMC expects that it plays too big a role in the semiconductor industry to stop all the possible unintended end-uses of the semiconductors it manufactures. Similarly, it appears impossible to track all the third parties determined to skirt sanctions. And if TSMC's hands are truly tied, that ultimately means that the US can't effectively stop the latest AI tech from trickling into China.
Original botched launch still haunts new version of data-scraping AI feature.
Microsoft is preparing to reintroduce Recall to Windows 11. A feature limited to Copilot+ PCs—a label that just a fraction of a fraction of Windows 11 systems even qualify for—Recall has been controversial in part because it builds an extensive database of text and screenshots that records almost everything you do on your PC.
But the main problem with the initial version of Recall—the one that was delayed at the last minute after a large-scale outcry from security researchers, reporters, and users—was not just that it recorded everything you did on your PC but that it was a rushed, enabled-by-default feature with gaping security holes that made it trivial for anyone with any kind of access to your PC to see your entire Recall database.
It made no efforts to automatically exclude sensitive data like bank information or credit card numbers, offering just a few mechanisms to users to manually exclude specific apps or websites. It had been built quickly, outside of the normal extensive Windows Insider preview and testing process. And all of this was happening at the same time that the company was pledging to prioritize security over all other considerations, following several serious and highly public breaches.
The court ruled that Google has a search monopoly. Now, we learn the consequences.
The remedy phase of Google's search antitrust trial is getting underway, and the government is seeking to force major changes. The next few weeks could reshape Google as a company and significantly alter the balance of power on the Internet, and both sides have a plan to get their way.
With opening arguments beginning today, the US Justice Department will seek to convince the court that Google should be forced to divest Chrome, unbundle Android, and make other foundational changes. But Google will attempt to paint the government's position as too extreme and rooted in past grievances. No matter what happens at this trial, Google hasn't given up hope it can turn back time.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has a major advantage here: Google is guilty. It lost the liability phase of this trial resoundingly, with the court finding Google violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by "willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power." As far as the court is concerned, Google has an illegal monopoly in search services and general search advertising. The purpose of this trial is to determine what to do about it, and the DOJ has some ideas.
Users complain of new “sycophancy” streak where ChatGPT thinks everything is brilliant.
Ask ChatGPT anything lately—how to poach an egg, whether you should hug a cactus—and you may be greeted with a burst of purple praise: “Good question! You’re very astute to ask that.” To some extent, ChatGPT has been a sycophant for years, but since late March, a growing cohort of Redditors, X users, and Ars readers say that GPT-4o's relentless pep has crossed the line from friendly to unbearable.
"ChatGPT is suddenly the biggest suckup I've ever met," wrote software engineer Craig Weiss in a widely shared tweet on Friday. "It literally will validate everything I say."
"EXACTLY WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING," replied a Reddit user who references Weiss's tweet, sparking yet another thread about ChatGPT being a sycophant. Recently, other Reddit users have described feeling "buttered up" and unable to take the "phony act" anymore, while some complain that ChatGPT "wants to pretend all questions are exciting and it's freaking annoying."
A shocking scene hits a bit different thanks to some odd narrative choices.
New episodes of season 2 of The Last of Us are premiering on HBO every Sunday night, and Ars' Kyle Orland (who's played the games) and Andrew Cunningham (who hasn't) will be talking about them here every Monday morning. While these recaps don't delve into every single plot point of the episode, there are obviously heavy spoilers contained within, so go watch the episode first if you want to go in fresh.
Kyle: I'd like to personally welcome Andrew and everyone else who didn't play The Last of Us Part 2 to the summer of 2020, when the gaming world was rocked by the most shocking video game character permadeath this side of Final Fantasy VII.
Before we get into how they changed Joel's pivotal death scene for the TV show, and why I think it doesn't work quite as well here, I'd love to hear more about what was going through your head both as it was happening and after.
Andrew: This should, if nothing else, reinforce my bona fides as someone who has not the faintest idea what is coming.
My main reaction is "Boy, Kyle just let me say a whole bunch of things last week even though clearly he knew this was what was going to happen!" I thought we were watching the opening to a second season of a TV show in the first episode, the establishment of a new status quo that we would then explore over the course of the next few episodes. But we were, instead, playing the tutorial level of a second video game, right before everything blows up.
I was pretty astonished by what the show did to Joel. Not just because I didn't see it coming! But because it leaves the show without one of the two nuanced and well-developed characters we spent all of last season building up. I don't, uh, love it, as a storytelling decision.
Probably the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Credit:
HBO
Kyle: I will say it was hard not even alluding to what was coming last week, but it was also kind of fun just letting you have your last "Sweet Summer Child" moments in the sun. I also felt that Joel's sudden absence hurt the remainder of the game, though based on the storytelling beats we've seen and/or missed so far, I wouldn't be shocked if we have some flashbacks...
Back in 2020, I actually had the shocking moment spoiled by some pretty major leaks that I ended up covering as a journalist weeks before I was able to review the game myself.
Aside from that, though, the show kind of dampens the impact of "The Moment" by making Abby's motivations crystal clear for 1.5 episodes leading up to it. In the game, you actually play as a mostly blank-slate Abby for a few brief scenes before being rescued by Joel. After that, the shocking turnaround plays out as a quick gut punch during a cutscene that has a lot less Abby-monologuing than the show did.
The game doesn't fill in the details about the "why" of it all for the audience until much later, which makes the whole thing that much more impactful. But maybe the showrunners figured that since the game already exists, it would be hard to keep the audience off balance like that for weeks when they could just look up what was going on...
Ellie will probably be just fine after all this, right?
Credit:
HBO
Kyle: Yeah, I don't think it's spoiling much to say that Joel and Ellie's relationship carried the first game, and now it's obvious that Ellie's hunt for revenge is going to attempt to carry the second. It's a rough shift that I don't think did the second game any favors, personally.
The game goes to a lot of trouble to literally put you in Abby's shoes and eventually tries to try to make her own revenge saga feel a little more earned. Here, I feel like the show is being a bit more blunt about selling you her backstory at the front end and attempting to "justify" her brutal turn toward Joel somewhat in advance.
I wondered if you found yourself sympathizing at all with her character at this point.
Andrew: Obviously what Joel did to the Fireflies is awful, maybe unforgiveable. Beyond the lie to Ellie, there's a strong possibility that he deprived humanity of a cure for the disease causing the very-much-ongoing apocalypse.
But, like, no! I don't sympathize with Abby! Not only is she driven solely by this bland Inigo Montoya thing, but she sadistically tortures someone who just saved her stupid life, brutalizing Joel so much that it drives her also-supposedly-revenge-driven Firefly friends to tears. If I'm supposed to sympathize with her, the show did pretty much everything possible to make sure I don't.
On paper, what Joel did is probably way worse, but we've also been primed by a whole season of TV (and by the charm of Pedro Pascal) to try and understand why he did what he did. None of this is really happening with Abby.
Kyle: Yeah, "supposed to sympathize with her" is a bit too strong, perhaps, especially at this point in the narrative. But I do think the show is trying to make her actions at least feel partially justified or understandable? It will be interesting to see how the show handles turning her into a more fleshed out character, because at this point, her revenge quest feels a bit mustache-twirling to me.
Backing up a bit, this episode also featured a huge set-piece zombie horde battle that ruins the brief calm we enjoyed in Jackson Hole. The scene played out so much like a video game mission that I had to go back and make sure I hadn't forgotten about some major Jackson Hole firefight in the game. But no, this is a pure creation of the show.
I think the whole thing worked pretty well both as a reminder of the precarity of the vestiges of human civilization and an excuse for some flashy special effects. I also thought for a second that they were actually going to kill off Tommy so the show had its own totally unexpected death, even for people who had played the game. That couple of minutes with the flamethrower was actually tense for me!
Mmmmm... roasted mushrooms...
Credit:
HBO
Andrew: Maybe Abby will become more fleshed-out, and maybe she won't. But she's started by making the exact same mistake as Joel: leaving witnesses.
I did enjoy the zombie battle a lot. The liquid churn of the snow as a million guys burst out from under it: creepy! Good on the show and HBO for figuring out a way to do a snowy zombie horde fight without making it feel too reminiscent of Game of Thrones.
I will, again, refrain from speculating overmuch about where the Jackson Hole storyline goes since I'm not even sure at this point how much time will be spent on the aftermath and rebuilding (if there is rebuilding rather than further societal collapse). I did find myself wondering during the flamethrower scene whether roasted mushroom guy smelled appetizing or whether people in this world can even bring themselves to enjoy mushrooms on a pizza or in an omelette.
Andrew: We've established that I have no idea what is going to happen next, but we do have dangling threads here to deal with next week. How do the residents of Jackson Hole deal with the fungus in their pipes? How many people try to talk Ellie out of her revenge tour before she goes off and does it anyway? How are the Smart Zombies we met last week going to come back and cause problems? How many more Abby flashbacks will I need to sit through?
But above all, I'm really curious to know what the show is going to do to keep game-players like yourself on your toes.
There’s a new version of a pocket-sized mini PC available from AliExpress that packs an Intel N150 quad-core processor, 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and an M.2 slot into a body that measures just 145 x 62 x 20mm (5.71″ x 2.44″ x 0.79″)….
There’s a new version of a pocket-sized mini PC available from AliExpress that packs an Intel N150 quad-core processor, 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and an M.2 slot into a body that measures just 145 x 62 x 20mm (5.71″ x 2.44″ x 0.79″). While I’m reluctant to call this little computer a “stick,” it is […]
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