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Sebastian Anthony

The Range Rover Evoque Convertible, roof down, with Wales in the background.

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Land Rover, one of the oldest and most recognisable car brands in the UK, is adventuring off the beaten path with the Range Rover Evoque Convertible. As far as I can tell, it's the world's first convertible compact luxury SUV. And despite the intrinsic engineering tradeoffs from trying to straddle three different automotive segments, I'm surprised to report that it's a rather nice car indeed.

Well, it's a nice car if you have at least $50,000 burning a hole in your pocket and you're looking for a convertible SUV at least.

Engines, storage, rear seats, etc.

Starting at $51,470 and ranging up to about $58,270, the Evoque Convertible is certainly not a cheap acquisition, but you do get quite a lot of car (and technology) for your money. There are only two engines available: a decent 2.0L TD4 diesel that puts out 180hp (134kW) and 317 ft-lbs (430Nm) and a 2.0L petrol engine that puts out 240hp/179kW but only peaks at 250ft-lbs/340Nm of torque. Both engines are attached to a ZF nine-speed automatic gearbox. In theory the diesel does 0-62mph in 10.3 secs; the petrol, 8.6 secs.

(credit: europe-vs-facebook)

The US government has asked to be joined as a party in the Irish High Court case between the Austrian privacy activist and lawyer Max Schrems, and the social network Facebook. In a press release, Schrems called this "an unusual move."

He told Ars that there are no documents relating to the "amicus curiae"—friend of the court—request yet. "The US government simply appeared via a barrister at the first (administrative) hearing today," he said. "They will be able to file the documents until the 22nd."

Schrems speculated that the US government has made this move because it wanted to defend its surveillance laws before the European Courts. "I think this move will be very interesting," he told Ars. "The US has previously maintained that we all misunderstood US surveillance."

Theranos CEO and founder Elizabeth Holmes. (credit: Max Morse for TechCrunch)

After months of visible discomfort, Walgreens Co. officially ended their partnership with blood testing company, Theranos.

In a news release issued late Sunday, Walgreens announced the company had informed Theranos that it was calling off its nearly three-year-long relationship. Walgreens will close all 40 Theranos Wellness Centers in its drug stores “effective immediately.”  The announcement comes after Theranos voided or corrected tens of thousands of tests and faces possible federal sanctions for repeated failures at one of its labs.

“In light of the voiding of a number of test results, and as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has rejected Theranos’ plan of correction and considers sanctions, we have carefully considered our relationship with Theranos and believe it is in our customers’ best interests to terminate our partnership,” Brad Fluegel, Walgreens Senior Vice President, said in the news release.

A gaming PC.

As part of this year's E3 festivities, PC Gamer is once again hosting a night of press announcements devoted solely to PC gaming. Ars will be on hand to liveblog the event starting at 11:30am PDT (2:30pm EDT, 7:30pm UK time) on Monday, June 13.

Last year's first ever PC Gaming Show was a long-winded lineup of PC developers chatting awkwardly on stage about newly announced games. This year's show promises to be shorter and snappier, but it should still pack in plenty of announcements from the likes of Microsoft, Oculus, AMD, Nexon, Square Enix, Sega, and more.

Before E3 starts properly on Tuesday, Sony will unveil its plans for the show at a press conference from Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. Ars will be on hand to liveblog the event at 6pm PDT (9pm EDT; 2am Tuesday UK time) on Monday, June 13.

The big rumors surrounding Sony ahead of E3 this year have all swirled around an expected "PlayStation 4K" mid-cycle update for the PlayStation 4 hardware. Sony confirmed those reports just days ago but said the hardware wouldn't be ready to be shown at E3.

That leaves the upcoming PlayStation VR headset as the sole likely hardware focus for the press conference. This is the final E3 before Sony finally releases its PlayStation VR hardware to the masses, so expect an intense push to show off the potential of living room VR. There will probably be showcases for some of the software that will launch alongside it this October.