Month: June 2018

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Update 2:43 pm: This afternoon White House Secretary Sarah Sanders said that President Trump told Energy Secretary Rick Perry to "prepare immediate steps" to prevent coal plants from early closure.

Original Story 9:10am: In a draft memo to be circulated on Friday, the Department of Energy (DOE) argues in favor of using a wartime rule called the Defense Production Act to bail out failing coal and nuclear plants, according to Bloomberg, which obtained a copy of the memo.

The memo suggests that the Energy Department could force grid operators to buy power or electric generation capacity from a list of pre-determined power plants for two years, “to forestall any future actions toward retirement, decommissioning or deactivation.”

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SANTA MONICA, California—You'd be forgiven for losing track of Underworld Ascendant. The first-person RPG emerged in early 2015 as another entry in the "game-dev veterans launch a Kickstarter" fray, though this one stood out by emphasizing its Looking Glass Studios heritage. Some of the names behind the original Thief and System Shock games were back to try again, the game's Kickstarter campaign announced—and to renew the classic Ultima Underworld series, at that.

Many years later, a backer-only pre-alpha has been the only proof of life for this crowdfunded game, but that changed during a pre-E3 press event. There, we got to see exactly how Underworld Ascendant's promise of "no right way to play—only your way" has so far turned out.

In short: an action-RPG revelation this ain't, at least so far. And while standard-issue adventuring and a mountain of bugs in a preview aren't entirely uncommon, the latest build's issues make us wonder how, or in what state, Underworld Ascendant will launch this September.

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Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off in the Bay Area this Monday. As always, the company will start the event with a keynote from Apple executives to lay out the company's software priorities for the coming year—and possibly some hardware priorities, too.

The primary focus will be on iOS 12 and macOS 10.14—software for iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Apple will describe many of the new features coming to those platforms. This year, we're not expecting a radical overhaul for any of them. Apple plans to hold major features and redesigns until 2019 so it can focus on stability and performance this year.

Apple is usually secretive about what's coming until the event, but we can fill in some of the blanks with past comments from executives about the company's strategy and direction, leaks from reliable sources, and more. The following is what we might learn at the keynote that starts on Monday, June 4 at 10am PDT (1pm ET).

Enlarge / We need your help to produce a new newsletter to chronicle the dynamic launch industry. (credit: Aurich Lawson/background image United Launch Alliance)

Welcome to Edition 1.02 of the Rocket Report! This collaborative effort with readers of Ars Technica seeks to diversify our coverage of the blossoming launch industry. The Rocket Report publishes as a newsletter on Thursday and on this website every Friday morning.

We welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe in the box below. Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Rocket Lab sets a date for its third Electron launch. After a delay from April, Rocket Lab has set a new 14-day launch window that will open from June 23 to July 6. The company says the original launch window was moved from April after unusual behavior was identified in a motor controller during a wet dress rehearsal. The team used the additional time to review data, identify the cause of the issue, and fix it. This extra time also allowed Rocket Lab to add additional payload to its launch vehicle, including a "drag sail" that could be attached to small satellites and deployed once they reached the end of their useful life, Stuff reports.