Trump admin shrugs off FCC court loss to fight Calif. net neutrality law

DOJ and ISPs sue Calif. despite court vacating FCC’s bid to preempt state laws.

An Ethernet cable and fiber optic wires.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Rafe Swan)

The Trump administration and broadband industry are resuming their fight against California's net neutrality law, with the US Department of Justice and ISP lobby groups filing new complaints against the state yesterday.

The case is nearly two years old but was put on hold because California in October 2018 agreed to suspend enforcement of its law until after litigation over the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of US net neutrality rules and the FCC's attempt to preempt state net neutrality laws. That lawsuit was decided in October 2019 when the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the FCC repeal of its own rules but overturned the FCC's attempt to impose a blanket, nationwide preemption of any state net neutrality law.

"At bottom, the Commission lacked the legal authority to categorically abolish all 50 States' statutorily conferred authority to regulate intrastate communications," judges in that case wrote. But that doesn't prevent the Trump administration and ISPs from trying to block state laws on a case-by-case basis.

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Daily Deals (8-06-2020)

GOG is giving away the first PC game in The Witcher series for free until 6:00PM Eastern Time tonight. The Epic Games Store is giving away 3 out of 10and Wilmot’s Warehouse for free for the next week. Amazon is running a Big Summer Sale event. A…

GOG is giving away the first PC game in The Witcher series for free until 6:00PM Eastern Time tonight. The Epic Games Store is giving away 3 out of 10and Wilmot’s Warehouse for free for the next week. Amazon is running a Big Summer Sale event. And BuyDig is selling a 2-pack of Google Nest WiFi routers […]

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Sony takes on Bose with new WH-1000XM4 noise-cancelling headphones

We take a listen to the heir to Sony’s highly regarded noise-cancelling cans.

Sony on Thursday announced its latest flagship pair of wireless noise-cancelling headphones: the WH-1000XM4. The new over-ear cans are the follow-up to Sony's WH-1000XM3, which have been widely regarded as being among the best premium pairs of noise-cancelling headphones on the market—and have been an Ars favorite—since launching in 2018.

The XM4 is available for pre-order starting today, with shipping to start sometime in "mid-August," according to Sony. The headphones cost $350, which is the same price as the XM3 at launch and Bose's competing QuietComfort 35 II, but $50 less than Bose's Noise Cancelling Headphones 700.

I've had the XM4 on hand for the past couple of days; I plan to have a more detailed comparison in the near future, but for now I can share some initial impressions alongside today's news.

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Google Pixel roundup: Pixel 5 coming Oct 8, Pixel 5a (and a foldable) in 2021?

The Google Pixel 4a is available for pre-order, and two more Google Pixel phones are coming this fall. But details about Google’s 2021 smartphone lineup are starting to leak. According to a Google document reviewed by the folks at 9to5Google, th…

The Google Pixel 4a is available for pre-order, and two more Google Pixel phones are coming this fall. But details about Google’s 2021 smartphone lineup are starting to leak. According to a Google document reviewed by the folks at 9to5Google, there could be as many as four Pixel phones coming next year. It’s just one […]

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Review: Odyssey X86J4105, a mini-PC for makers and builders

If a Raspberry Pi and a Chromebox had a baby, it would look a lot like this.

Today we're going to take a look at Seeed Studio's Odyssey X86J4105—a maker/builder-tailored, Celeron-powered mini-PC. The little device seems like what you'd get if a Chromebox and a Raspberry Pi made sweet, sweet love—it's a Celeron-powered all-in-one system-on-chip (SoC) board, sold without a case, with Raspberry Pi-compatible GPIO headers and an Arduino coprocessor for more hardware-based maker projects.

I have a confession to make: I've never really loved the Raspberry Pi. Heresy, I know! But despite how seriously cheap the much-loved little boxes are, they never seem quite powerful enough for the projects I'd be interested in tackling. On occasion, I've flirted with other ARM mini-PCs that are a little more expensive and a lot more powerful—like Odroid XU4, or the newer Odroid N2—but they still felt pretty constrained compared to even budget x86 PCs. The Odyssey seems tailor-made to address those performance concerns.

Specifications and capabilities

Specs at a glance: Odyssey X86J4105
OS Windows 10 Enterprise (activated)
CPU Quad-core Celeron J4105
RAM 8GiB LPDDR4
GPU integrated Intel UHD 600
Wi-Fi Dual-band Intel 9650 Wi-Fi 5 + Bluetooth 5.0
SSD Sandisk 64GB (59.6GiB) eMMC
Connectors
  • 40-pin Raspberry Pi-compatible GPIO
  • 28-pin Arduino header
  • 3.5mm audio combo jack
  • 2x Intel I211 1Gbps Ethernet
  • 1x SATA
  • 2x M.2 (1 B-key, 1 M-key)
  • 2x USB2 type-A
  • 1x USB3.1 type-A
  • 1x USB 3.1 type-C
  • 1x MicroSD card slot
  • 1x SIM (LTE) slot
  • 1x 12-19VDC power
Price as tested Odyssey with activated Win10 Enterprise: $258
Seeed re_computer case: $20

Odyssey's quad-core Celeron SoC might not be a powerhouse by desktop standards—but it's more than powerful enough to run a full Windows 10 desktop experience. Add in 8GiB of RAM, 64GB eMMC storage, one SATA-III port, two 1Gbps Ethernet jacks, dual M.2 slots (one B-key and one M-key), Intel 9560 Wi-Fi, Intel UHD 600 graphics and a full-size HDMI port, and it's hard to figure out what this $260 box can't do.

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Android: Oneplus installiert Facebook-Services auf Smartphones vor

Oneplus’ Oxygen OS hat eigentlich einen guten Ruf – Nutzer merken jetzt allerdings, dass auf den jüngsten Oneplus-Smartphones ein Facebook-Framework installiert ist. (Oneplus, Soziales Netz)

Oneplus' Oxygen OS hat eigentlich einen guten Ruf - Nutzer merken jetzt allerdings, dass auf den jüngsten Oneplus-Smartphones ein Facebook-Framework installiert ist. (Oneplus, Soziales Netz)