diff --git "a/raw_rss_feeds/https___arstechnica_com_feed_.xml" "b/raw_rss_feeds/https___arstechnica_com_feed_.xml" --- "a/raw_rss_feeds/https___arstechnica_com_feed_.xml" +++ "b/raw_rss_feeds/https___arstechnica_com_feed_.xml" @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ https://arstechnica.com Serving the Technologist since 1998. News, reviews, and analysis. - Sat, 17 Jan 2026 14:01:55 +0000 + Wed, 21 Jan 2026 02:09:19 +0000 en-US hourly @@ -19,732 +19,718 @@ 32 - Meta’s layoffs leave Supernatural fitness users in mourning - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/metas-layoffs-leave-supernatural-fitness-users-in-mourning/ - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/metas-layoffs-leave-supernatural-fitness-users-in-mourning/#comments + Webb reveals a planetary nebula with phenomenal clarity, and it is spectacular + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/webb-has-given-us-with-a-stunning-new-view-of-a-well-known-planetary-nebula/ + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/webb-has-given-us-with-a-stunning-new-view-of-a-well-known-planetary-nebula/#comments - + - Sat, 17 Jan 2026 12:00:11 +0000 - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/metas-layoffs-leave-supernatural-fitness-users-in-mourning/ + Tue, 20 Jan 2026 23:33:57 +0000 + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/webb-has-given-us-with-a-stunning-new-view-of-a-well-known-planetary-nebula/ - + - Tencia Benavidez, a Supernatural user who lives in New Mexico, started her VR workouts during the Covid pandemic. She has been a regular user in the five years since, calling the ability to work out in VR ideal, given that she lives in a rural area where it’s hard to get to a gym or work out outside during a brutal winter. She stuck with Supernatural because of the community and the eagerness of Supernatural’s coaches.

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“They seem like really authentic individuals that were not talking down to you,” Benavidez says. “There's just something really special about those coaches.”

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Meta bought Supernatural in 2022, folding it into its then-heavily-invested-in metaverse efforts. The purchase was not a smooth process, as it triggered a lengthy legal battle in which the US Federal Trade Commission tried to block Meta from purchasing the service due to antitrust concerns about Meta “trying to buy its way to the top” of the VR market. Meta ultimately prevailed. At the time, some Supernatural users were cautiously optimistic, hoping that big bag of Zuckerbucks could keep its workout juggernaut afloat.

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+ The Helix Nebula is one of the most well-known and commonly photographed planetary nebulae because it resembles the "Eye of Sauron." It is also one of the closest bright nebulae to Earth, located approximately 655 light-years from our Solar System.

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You may not know what this particular nebula looks like when reading its name, but the Hubble Space Telescope has taken some iconic images of it over the years. And almost certainly, you'll recognize a photograph of the Helix Nebula, shown below.

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Like many objects in astronomy, planetary nebulae have a confusing name, since they are formed not by planets but by stars like our own Sun, though a little larger. Near the end of their lives, these stars shed large amounts of gas in an expanding shell that, however briefly in cosmological time, put on a grand show.

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]]> - 96 + 61 - - -MetaThe Quest 3. + + +ASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)A new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of a portion of the Helix Nebula. - Managers on alert for “launch fever” as pressure builds for NASA’s Moon mission - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/managers-on-alert-for-launch-fever-as-pressure-builds-for-nasas-moon-mission/ - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/managers-on-alert-for-launch-fever-as-pressure-builds-for-nasas-moon-mission/#comments + Zuck stuck on Trump’s bad side: FTC appeals loss in Meta monopoly case + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/zuck-stuck-on-trumps-bad-side-ftc-appeals-loss-in-meta-monopoly-case/ + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/zuck-stuck-on-trumps-bad-side-ftc-appeals-loss-in-meta-monopoly-case/#comments - + - Sat, 17 Jan 2026 04:45:33 +0000 - - - - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/managers-on-alert-for-launch-fever-as-pressure-builds-for-nasas-moon-mission/ + Tue, 20 Jan 2026 23:22:26 +0000 + + + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/zuck-stuck-on-trumps-bad-side-ftc-appeals-loss-in-meta-monopoly-case/ - + - KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida—The rocket NASA is preparing to send four astronauts on a trip around the Moon will emerge from its assembly building on Florida's Space Coast early Saturday for a slow crawl to its seaside launch pad.

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Riding atop one of NASA's diesel-powered crawler transporters, the Space Launch System rocket and its mobile launch platform will exit the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center around 7:00 am EST (11:00 UTC). The massive tracked transporter, certified by Guinness as the world's heaviest self-propelled vehicle, is expected to cover the four miles between the assembly building and Launch Complex 39B in about eight to 10 hours.

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The rollout marks a major step for NASA's Artemis II mission, the first human voyage to the vicinity of the Moon since the last Apollo lunar landing in December 1972. Artemis II will not land. Instead, a crew of four astronauts will travel around the far side of the Moon at a distance of several thousand miles, setting the record for the farthest humans have ever ventured from Earth.

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+ Still feeling uneasy about Meta's acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, the Federal Trade Commission will be appealing a November ruling that cleared Meta of allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly in a market dubbed "personal social networking."

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The FTC hopes the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will agree that "robust evidence at trial" showed that Meta's acquisitions were improper. In the initial trial, the FTC sought a breakup of Meta's apps, with Meta risking forced divestments of Instagram or WhatsApp.

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In a press release Tuesday, the FTC confirmed that it "continues to allege" that "for over a decade Meta has illegally maintained a monopoly in personal social networking services through anticompetitive conduct—by buying the significant competitive threats it identified in Instagram and WhatsApp."

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]]> - 94 + 44 - - -NASAArtist's illustration of the Artemis II trajectory. + + +Aurich Lawson | Getty Images - Rackspace customers grapple with “devastating” email hosting price hike - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/rackspace-raises-email-hosting-prices-by-as-much-as-706-percent/ - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/rackspace-raises-email-hosting-prices-by-as-much-as-706-percent/#comments + Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/verizon-starts-requiring-365-days-of-paid-service-before-it-will-unlock-phones/ + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/verizon-starts-requiring-365-days-of-paid-service-before-it-will-unlock-phones/#comments - + - Fri, 16 Jan 2026 23:15:27 +0000 - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/rackspace-raises-email-hosting-prices-by-as-much-as-706-percent/ + Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:35:32 +0000 + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/verizon-starts-requiring-365-days-of-paid-service-before-it-will-unlock-phones/ - + - Rackspace’s new pricing for its email hosting services is “devastating,” according to a partner that has been using Rackspace as its email provider since 1999.

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In recent weeks, Rackspace updated its email hosting pricing. Its standard plan is now $10 per mailbox per month. Businesses can also pay for the Rackspace Email Plus add-on for an extra $2/mailbox/month (for “file storage, mobile sync, Office-compatible apps, and messaging”), and the Archiving add-on for an extra $6/mailbox/month (for unlimited storage).

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As recently as November 2025, Rackspace charged $3/mailbox/month for its Standard plan, and an extra $1/mailbox/month for the Email Plus add-on, and an additional $3/mailbox/month for the Archival add-on, according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

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+ Verizon has started enforcing a 365-day lock period on phones purchased through its TracFone division, one week after the Federal Communications Commission waived a requirement that Verizon unlock handsets 60 days after they are activated on its network.

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Verizon was previously required to unlock phones automatically after 60 days due to restrictions imposed on its spectrum licenses and merger conditions that helped Verizon obtain approval of its purchase of TracFone. But an update applied today to the TracFone unlocking policy said new phones will be locked for at least a year and that each customer will have to request an unlock instead of getting it automatically.

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The "new" TracFone policy is basically a return to the yearlong locking it imposed before Verizon bought the company in 2021. TracFone first agreed to provide unlocking in a 2015 settlement with the Obama-era FCC, which alleged that TracFone failed to comply with a commitment to unlock phones for customers enrolled in the Lifeline subsidy program. TracFone later shortened the locking period from a year to 60 days as a condition of the Verizon merger.

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]]> - 84 + 80 - - -Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images + + +Getty Images | Kevin Carter - Archaeologists find a supersized medieval shipwreck in Denmark - https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/archaeologists-find-a-supersized-medieval-shipwreck-in-denmark/ - https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/archaeologists-find-a-supersized-medieval-shipwreck-in-denmark/#comments + Google temporarily disabled YouTube's advanced captions without warning + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/google-temporarily-disabled-youtubes-advanced-captions-without-warning/ + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/google-temporarily-disabled-youtubes-advanced-captions-without-warning/#comments - + - Fri, 16 Jan 2026 22:07:41 +0000 - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/archaeologists-find-a-supersized-medieval-shipwreck-in-denmark/ + Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:17:02 +0000 + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/google-temporarily-disabled-youtubes-advanced-captions-without-warning/ - + - Archaeologists recently found the wreck of an enormous medieval cargo ship lying on the seafloor off the Danish coast, and it reveals new details of medieval trade and life at sea.

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Archaeologists discovered the shipwreck while surveying the seabed in preparation for a construction project for the city of Copenhagen, Denmark. It lay on its side, half-buried in the sand, 12 meters below the choppy surface of the Øresund, the straight that runs between Denmark and Sweden. By comparing the tree rings in the wreck’s wooden planks and timbers with rings from other, precisely dated tree samples, the archaeologists concluded that the ship had been built around 1410 CE.

-photo of a scuba diver swimming over wooden planks underwater - The Skaelget 2 shipwreck, with a diver for scale. - Credit: - Viking Ship Museum - -

A medieval megaship

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Svaelget 2, as archaeologists dubbed the wreck (its original name is long since lost to history), was a type of merchant ship called a cog: a wide, flat-bottomed, high-sided ship with an open cargo hold and a square sail on a single mast. A bigger, heavier, more advanced version of the Viking knarrs of centuries past, the cog was the high-tech supertanker of its day. It was built to carry bulky commodities from ports in the Netherlands, north around the coast of Denmark, and then south through the Øresund to trading ports on the Baltic Sea—but this one didn’t quite make it.

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+ YouTubers have been increasingly frustrated with Google's management of the platform, with disinformation welcomed back and an aggressive push for more AI (except where Google doesn't like it). So it's no surprise that creators have been up in arms over the suspicious removal of YouTube's advanced SRV3 caption format. You don't have to worry too much just yet—Google says this is only temporary, and it's working on a fix for the underlying bug.

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Google added support for this custom subtitle format around 2018, giving creators more customization options than with traditional captions. SRV3 (also known as YTT or YouTube Timed Text) allows for custom colors, transparency, animations, fonts, and precise positioning in videos. Uploaders using this format can color-code and position captions to help separate multiple speakers, create sing-along animations, or style them to match the video.

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Over the last several days, creators who've become accustomed to this level of control have been dismayed to see that YouTube is no longer accepting videos with this Google-created format. Many worried Google had ditched the format entirely, which could be problematic for all those previously uploaded videos.

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]]> - 55 + 24 - - -VollwertBITThis is a replica of another cog, based on an excavated shipwreck from Bremen. Note the sterncastle. + + +Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty - Judge orders Anna’s Archive to delete scraped data; no one thinks it will comply - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/judge-orders-annas-archive-to-delete-scraped-data-no-one-thinks-it-will-comply/ - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/judge-orders-annas-archive-to-delete-scraped-data-no-one-thinks-it-will-comply/#comments + Flesh-eating flies are eating their way through Mexico, CDC warns + https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/be-on-the-lookout-for-flesh-eating-flies-cdc-tells-clinicians-in-alert/ + https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/be-on-the-lookout-for-flesh-eating-flies-cdc-tells-clinicians-in-alert/#comments - + - Fri, 16 Jan 2026 21:43:22 +0000 - - - - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/judge-orders-annas-archive-to-delete-scraped-data-no-one-thinks-it-will-comply/ + Tue, 20 Jan 2026 21:59:38 +0000 + + + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/be-on-the-lookout-for-flesh-eating-flies-cdc-tells-clinicians-in-alert/ - + - The operator of WorldCat won a default judgment against Anna's Archive, with a federal judge ruling yesterday that the shadow library must delete all copies of its WorldCat data and stop scraping, using, storing, or distributing the data.

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Anna's Archive is a shadow library and search engine for other shadow libraries that was launched in 2022. It archives books and other written materials and makes them available via torrents, and recently expanded its ambitions by scraping Spotify to make a 300TB copy of the most-streamed songs. Anna's Archive lost its .org domain a couple of weeks ago but remains online at other domains.

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Yesterday's ruling is in a case filed by OCLC, a nonprofit that operates the WorldCat library catalog on behalf of member libraries. OCLC alleged that Anna’s Archive “illegally hacked WorldCat.org” to steal 2.2TB of data.

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+ The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health alert to clinicians Tuesday, warning that the savage, flesh-eating parasitic fly—the New World Screwworm—is not only approaching the Texas border, but also felling an increasing number of animals in the bordering Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

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The advisory, released through the agency's Health Alert Network, directs doctors, veterinarians, and other health workers to be on the lookout for patients with wounds teeming with ferocious maggots burrowing into their living flesh. The alert also provides guidance on what to do if any such festering wounds are encountered—namely, remove each and every maggot to prevent the patient from dying, and, under no circumstance allow any of the parasites to survive and escape.

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The New World Screwworm (NWS) is a fly that lays its eggs—up to 400 at a time—in the wounds, orifices, and mucus membranes of any warm-blooded animal. The eggs hatch into flesh-eating maggots, which look and act much like screws, twisting and boring into their victims while eating them alive.

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]]> - 58 + 50 - - -MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty ImagesThe Reading Public Library in Reading, Pennsylvania on June 7, 2021. + + +CSIROThe tip of a screwworm fly larvae. - This may be the grossest eye pic ever—but the cause is what’s truly horrifying - https://arstechnica.com/features/2026/01/this-may-be-the-grossest-eye-pic-ever-but-the-cause-is-whats-truly-horrifying/ - https://arstechnica.com/features/2026/01/this-may-be-the-grossest-eye-pic-ever-but-the-cause-is-whats-truly-horrifying/#comments + Macaque facial gestures are more than just a reflex, study finds + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/macaque-facial-gestures-are-more-than-just-a-reflex-study-finds/ + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/macaque-facial-gestures-are-more-than-just-a-reflex-study-finds/#comments - + - Fri, 16 Jan 2026 21:32:13 +0000 - - - - - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/features/2026/01/this-may-be-the-grossest-eye-pic-ever-but-the-cause-is-whats-truly-horrifying/ + Tue, 20 Jan 2026 21:25:30 +0000 + + + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/macaque-facial-gestures-are-more-than-just-a-reflex-study-finds/ - + - A generally healthy 63-year-old man in the New England area went to the hospital with a fever, cough, and vision problems in his right eye. His doctors eventually determined that a dreaded hypervirulent bacteria—which is rising globally—was ravaging several of his organs, including his brain.

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According to the man, the problems started three weeks before his hospital visit, when he said he ate some bad meat and started vomiting and having diarrhea. Those symptoms faded after about two weeks, but then new problems began—he started coughing and having chills and a fever. His cough only worsened from there.

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At the hospital, doctors took X-rays and computed tomography (CT) scans of his chest and abdomen. The images revealed over 15 nodules and masses in his lungs. But that's not all they found. The imaging also revealed a mass in his liver that was 8.6 cm in diameter (about 3.4 inches). Lab work pointed toward an infection, so doctors admitted him to the hospital and provided oxygen to help with his breathing, as well as antibiotics. But his chills and cough continued.

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+ Recent advances in brain-computer interfaces have made it possible to more accurately extract speech from neural signals in humans, but language is just one of the tools we use to communicate. “When my young nephew asks for ice cream before dinner and I say ‘no,’ the meaning is entirely dictated by whether the word is punctuated with a smirk or a stern frown,” says Geena Ianni, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania. That’s why in the future, she thinks, neural prostheses meant for patients with a stroke or paralysis will decode facial gestures from brain signals in the same way they decode speech.

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To lay a foundation for these future facial gesture decoders, Ianni and her colleagues designed an experiment to find out how neural circuitry responsible for making faces really works. “Although in recent years neuroscience got a good handle on how the brain perceives facial expressions, we know relatively little about how they are generated,” Ianni says. And it turned out that a surprisingly large part of what neuroscientists assumed about facial gestures was wrong.

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The natural way

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For a long time, neuroscientists thought facial gestures in primates stemmed from a neat division of labor in the brain. “Case reports of patients with brain lesions suggested some brain regions were responsible for certain types of emotional expressions while other regions were responsible for volitional movements like speech,” Ianni explains. We’ve developed a clearer picture of speech by tracing the origin of these movements down to the level of individual neurons. But we’ve not done the same for facial expressions. To fill this gap, Ianni and her team designed a study using macaques—social primates that share most of their complex facial musculature with humans.

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]]> - 133 + 3 - - -NEJM 2026A string test performed on the rare growth of Klebsiella pneumoniae from the sputum culture shows a positive result, with -the formation of a viscous string with a height of greater than 5 mm. + + +Gu JianfengMajestic Japanese macaque (snow monkey). - OpenAI to test ads in ChatGPT as it burns through billions - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/openai-to-test-ads-in-chatgpt-as-it-burns-through-billions/ - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/openai-to-test-ads-in-chatgpt-as-it-burns-through-billions/#comments + Netflix to pay all cash for Warner Bros. to fend off Paramount hostile takeover + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/netflix-to-pay-all-cash-for-warner-bros-to-fend-off-paramount-hostile-takeover/ + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/netflix-to-pay-all-cash-for-warner-bros-to-fend-off-paramount-hostile-takeover/#comments - + - Fri, 16 Jan 2026 21:20:03 +0000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/openai-to-test-ads-in-chatgpt-as-it-burns-through-billions/ + Tue, 20 Jan 2026 19:24:12 +0000 + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/netflix-to-pay-all-cash-for-warner-bros-to-fend-off-paramount-hostile-takeover/ - + - On Friday, OpenAI announced it will begin testing advertisements inside the ChatGPT app for some US users in a bid to expand its customer base and diversify revenue. The move represents a reversal for CEO Sam Altman, who in 2024 described advertising in ChatGPT as a "last resort" and expressed concerns that ads could erode user trust, although he did not completely rule out the possibility at the time.

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The banner ads will appear in the coming weeks for logged-in users of the free version of ChatGPT as well as the new $8 per month ChatGPT Go plan, which OpenAI also announced Friday is now available worldwide. OpenAI first launched ChatGPT Go in India in August 2025 and has since rolled it out to over 170 countries.

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Users paying for the more expensive Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise tiers will not see advertisements.

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+ Netflix agreed to pay all cash for Warner Bros. Discovery, amending its $72 billion deal in an attempt to fight off Paramount's hostile takeover bid.

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Netflix originally agreed to buy the company with a mix of cash and stock. To sweeten the offer for shareholders, Netflix and Warner Bros. today announced that Netflix will pay all cash instead. If successful, Netflix's purchase will include HBO Max, WB Studios, and other assets.

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The price is unchanged at $27.75 per share, and Warner Bros. is targeting an April 2026 shareholder vote. The original plan was for Netflix to buy each Warner Bros. share with $23.25 in cash and $4.50 in Netflix stock.

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]]> - 142 + 97 - - -OpenAI / Benj Edwards + + +Getty Images | Kenneth Cheung - Mandiant releases rainbow table that cracks weak admin password in 12 hours - https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/mandiant-releases-rainbow-table-that-cracks-weak-admin-password-in-12-hours/ - https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/mandiant-releases-rainbow-table-that-cracks-weak-admin-password-in-12-hours/#comments + Sony is giving TCL control over its high-end Bravia TVs + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/tcl-to-gain-majority-ownership-over-sonys-bravia-tvs/ + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/tcl-to-gain-majority-ownership-over-sonys-bravia-tvs/#comments - + - Fri, 16 Jan 2026 21:05:37 +0000 - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/mandiant-releases-rainbow-table-that-cracks-weak-admin-password-in-12-hours/ + Tue, 20 Jan 2026 18:58:22 +0000 + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/tcl-to-gain-majority-ownership-over-sonys-bravia-tvs/ - + - Security firm Mandiant has released a database that allows any administrative password protected by Microsoft’s NTLM.v1 hash algorithm to be hacked in an attempt to nudge users who continue using the deprecated function despite known weaknesses.

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The database comes in the form of a rainbow table, which is a precomputed table of hash values linked to their corresponding plaintext. These generic tables, which work against multiple hashing schemes, allow hackers to take over accounts by quickly mapping a stolen hash to its password counterpart. NTLMv1 rainbow tables are particularly easy to construct because of NTLMv1’s limited keyspace, meaning the relatively small number of possible passwords the hashing function allows for. NTLMv1 rainbow tables have existed for two decades but typically require large amounts of resources to make any use of them.

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New ammo for security pros

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On Thursday, Mandiant said it had released an NTLMv1 rainbow table that will allow defenders and researchers (and, of course, malicious hackers, too) to recover passwords in under 12 hours using consumer hardware costing less than $600 USD. The table is hosted in Google Cloud. The database works against Net-NTLMv1 passwords, which are used in network authentication for accessing resources such as SMB network sharing.

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+ TCL is taking majority ownership of Sony’s Bravia series of TVs, the two companies announced today.

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The two firms said they have signed a memorandum of understanding and aim to sign binding agreements by the end of March. Pending “relevant regulatory approvals and other conditions,” the joint venture is expected to launch in April 2027.

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Under a new joint venture, Huizhou, China-headquartered TCL will own 51 percent of Tokyo, Japan-headquartered Sony’s “home entertainment business,” and Sony will own 49 percent, per an announcement today, adding:

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]]> - 18 + 133 - - -Getty Images + + +Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesA Sony Group Corp. PlayStation 5 video game console and a controller displayed next to a Bravia XR 4K television at the company's showroom inside the Ginza Place building in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. - RAM shortage chaos expands to GPUs, high-capacity SSDs, and even hard drives - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/ram-shortage-chaos-expands-to-gpus-high-capacity-ssds-and-even-hard-drives/ - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/ram-shortage-chaos-expands-to-gpus-high-capacity-ssds-and-even-hard-drives/#comments + The first commercial space station, Haven-1, is now undergoing assembly for launch + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/the-first-commercial-space-station-haven-1-is-now-undergoing-assembly-for-launch/ + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/the-first-commercial-space-station-haven-1-is-now-undergoing-assembly-for-launch/#comments - + - Fri, 16 Jan 2026 19:56:33 +0000 - - - - - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/ram-shortage-chaos-expands-to-gpus-high-capacity-ssds-and-even-hard-drives/ + Tue, 20 Jan 2026 15:00:04 +0000 + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/the-first-commercial-space-station-haven-1-is-now-undergoing-assembly-for-launch/ - + - Big Tech's AI-fueled memory shortage is set to be the PC industry's defining story for 2026 and beyond. Standalone, direct-to-consumer RAM kits were some of the first products to feel the bite, with prices spiking by 300 or 400 percent by the end of 2025; prices for SSDs had also increased noticeably, albeit more modestly.

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The rest of 2026 is going to be all about where, how, and to what extent those price spikes flow downstream into computers, phones, and other components that use RAM and NAND chips—areas where the existing supply of products and longer-term supply contracts negotiated by big companies have helped keep prices from surging too noticeably so far.

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This week, we're seeing signs that the RAM crunch is starting to affect the GPU market—Asus made some waves when it inadvertently announced that it was discontinuing its GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.

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+ As Ars reported last week, NASA's plan to replace the International Space Station with commercial space stations is running into a time crunch.

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The sprawling International Space Station is due to be decommissioned less than five years from now, and the US space agency has yet to formally publish rules and requirements for the follow-on stations being designed and developed by several different private companies.

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Although there are expected to be multiple bidders in "phase two" of NASA's commercial space station program, there are at present four main contenders: Voyager Technologies, Axiom Space, Blue Origin, and Vast Space. At some point later this year, the space agency is expected to select one, or more likely two, of these companies for larger contracts that will support their efforts to build their stations.

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]]> - 92 + 124 - - -Andrew CunninghamThe GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is one GPU that may become a casualty of the RAM supply crunch. + + +Vast SpaceThe Haven-1 space station seen here in the Vast Space clean room. - Calif. counters FCC attack on DEI with conditions on Verizon/Frontier merger - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/verizon-frontier-to-complete-10b-merger-after-approvals-from-fcc-and-states/ - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/verizon-frontier-to-complete-10b-merger-after-approvals-from-fcc-and-states/#comments + The fastest human spaceflight mission in history crawls closer to liftoff + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/nasas-artemis-ii-rocket-rolls-to-launch-pad-but-key-test-looms-ahead/ + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/nasas-artemis-ii-rocket-rolls-to-launch-pad-but-key-test-looms-ahead/#comments - + - Fri, 16 Jan 2026 19:12:04 +0000 - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/verizon-frontier-to-complete-10b-merger-after-approvals-from-fcc-and-states/ + Mon, 19 Jan 2026 22:01:52 +0000 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/nasas-artemis-ii-rocket-rolls-to-launch-pad-but-key-test-looms-ahead/ - + - Verizon has received all approvals it needs for a $9.6 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications, an Internet service provider with about 3.3 million broadband customers in 25 states. Verizon said it expects to complete the merger on January 20.

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The last approval came from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which allowed the deal in a 5–0 vote yesterday. There were months of negotiations that resulted in requirements to deploy more fiber and wireless infrastructure, offer $20-per-month Internet service to people with low incomes for the next decade, and other commitments, including some designed to replace the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies that Verizon had to end because of demands by the Trump administration.

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"The approval follows extensive public participation, testimony from multiple parties, and negotiated settlement agreements with consumer advocates and labor organizations," the CPUC said yesterday.

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+ KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida—Preparations for the first human spaceflight to the Moon in more than 50 years took a big step forward this weekend with the rollout of the Artemis II rocket to its launch pad.

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The rocket reached a top speed of just 1 mph on the four-mile, 12-hour journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At the end of its nearly 10-day tour through cislunar space, the Orion capsule on top of the rocket will exceed 25,000 mph as it plunges into the atmosphere to bring its four-person crew back to Earth.

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"This is the start of a very long journey," said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. "We ended our last human exploration of the moon on Apollo 17."

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]]> - 29 + 123 - - -Getty Images | BloombergA Verizon store in New York on January 15, 2024. + + +Stephen Clark/Ars TechnicaNASA's Space Launch System rocket rolls to Launch Complex 39B on Saturday. - TSMC says AI demand is “endless” after record Q4 earnings - https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/tsmc-says-ai-demand-is-endless-after-record-q4-earnings/ - https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/tsmc-says-ai-demand-is-endless-after-record-q4-earnings/#comments + The first new Marathon game in decades will launch on March 5 + https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/01/bungies-delayed-marathon-revival-will-finally-launch-march-5/ + https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/01/bungies-delayed-marathon-revival-will-finally-launch-march-5/#comments - + - Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:55:08 +0000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/tsmc-says-ai-demand-is-endless-after-record-q4-earnings/ + Mon, 19 Jan 2026 21:07:55 +0000 + + + + + + + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/01/bungies-delayed-marathon-revival-will-finally-launch-march-5/ - + - On Thursday, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) reported record fourth-quarter earnings and said it expects AI chip demand to continue for years. During an earnings call, CEO C.C. Wei told investors that while he cannot predict the semiconductor industry's long-term trajectory, he remains bullish on AI.

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TSMC manufactures chips for companies including Apple, Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm, making it a linchpin of the global electronics supply chain. The company produces the vast majority of the world's most advanced semiconductors, and its factories in Taiwan have become a focal point of US-China tensions over technology and trade. When TSMC reports strong demand and ramps up spending, it signals that the companies designing AI chips expect years of continued growth.

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"All in all, I believe in my point of view, the AI is real—not only real, it's starting to grow into our daily life. And we believe that is kind of—we call it AI megatrend, we certainly would believe that," Wei said during the call. "So another question is 'can the semiconductor industry be good for three, four, five years in a row?' I'll tell you the truth, I don't know. But I look at the AI, it looks like it's going to be like an endless—I mean, that for many years to come."

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+ It has been nearly three years now since Destiny maker (and Sony subsidiary) Bungie formally announced a revival of the storied Marathon FPS franchise. And it has been about seven months since the game's originally announced release date of September 23, 2025, was pushed back indefinitely after a reportedly poor response to the game's first Alpha test.

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But today, in a post on the PlayStation Blog, Bungie revealed that the new Marathon would finally be hitting PS5, Windows, and Xbox Series X|S on March 5, narrowing down the monthlong March release window announced back in December.

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+ Today's preorder trailer revealing the Marathon release date. + +
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Unlike Destiny 2, which transitioned to a free-to-play model in 2019, the new Marathon sells a Standard Edition for $40 or a $60 Deluxe Edition that includes some digital rewards and cosmetics. That mirrors the pricing of the somewhat similar Arc Raiders, which recently hit 12 million sales in less than 12 weeks.

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]]> - 117 + 142 - - -BING-JHEN HONG via Getty ImagesThe Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) plant in Tainan Science Park, Taiwan seen in November 2023. + + +Bungie*Beatles voice* Bang bang shoot shoot. - Feds give Tesla another five weeks to respond to FSD probe - https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/feds-give-tesla-another-five-weeks-to-respond-to-fsd-probe/ - https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/feds-give-tesla-another-five-weeks-to-respond-to-fsd-probe/#comments + Signs point to a sooner-rather-than-later M5 MacBook Pro refresh + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/signs-point-to-a-sooner-rather-than-later-m5-macbook-pro-refresh/ + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/signs-point-to-a-sooner-rather-than-later-m5-macbook-pro-refresh/#comments - + - Fri, 16 Jan 2026 15:40:00 +0000 - - - - https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/feds-give-tesla-another-five-weeks-to-respond-to-fsd-probe/ + Mon, 19 Jan 2026 19:52:22 +0000 + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/signs-point-to-a-sooner-rather-than-later-m5-macbook-pro-refresh/ - + - Late last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened yet another investigation into Tesla and its partially automated driver assist systems. This time it was about FSD (again), which has been the subject of more than 60 complaints to the regulator after Teslas operating under FSD either ignored red traffic lights or crossed into oncoming traffic. As part of the preliminary investigation, NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation has asked Tesla for more information on the problem. This week, it told the automaker it could have a five-week extension on its homework.

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To be fair to Tesla, NHTSA has asked for a comprehensive amount of information: a list of every Tesla produced and sold or leased in the United States, including whether or not that car had FSD and which version; cumulative data on how many US Teslas have FSD and how often it's used; and a list of all the customer complaints, field reports, incident reports, lawsuits, and other data related to FSD ignoring traffic laws.

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For each incident involving a crash, Tesla must give NHTSA a summary of the incident, including "causal and contributing factors." Further questions require information on FSD use by crashed cars; any alert shown to the drivers; what work, simulation, or otherwise Tesla has conducted to ameliorate the problem; any modifications or changes to FSD hardware or software; an explanation of Tesla's theory of operation for traffic lights and stop signs; and Tesla's assessment of the problem.

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+ Mac power users waiting on new high-end MacBook Pro models may have been disappointed last fall when Apple released an M5 upgrade for the low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro without touching the M4 Pro or Max versions of the laptop. But the wait for M5 Pro and M5 Max models may be nearing its end.

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The tea-leaf readers at MacRumors noticed that shipping times for a handful of high-end MacBook Pro configurations have slipped into mid-to-late February, rather than being available immediately as most Mac models are. This is often, though not always, a sign that Apple has slowed down or stopped production of an existing product in anticipation of an update.

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Currently, the shipping delays affect the M4 Max versions of both the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. If you order them today, these models will arrive sometime between February 3 and February 24, depending on the configuration you choose; many M4 Pro versions are still available for same-day shipping, though adding a nano-texture display or upgrading RAM can still add a week or so to the shipping time.

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]]> - 173 + 90 - - -Getty ImagesTesla's FSD system is supposed to stop for red lights. Mostly, it does. But not always. + + +Andrew CunninghamApple's 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro. The M5 Pro and M5 Max could be coming to the higher-end MacBook Pro models soon. - Ferrari doing what it does best: The 12Cilindri review - https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/driven-the-ferrari-12cilindri-spider-is-open-top-grand-touring-bliss/ - https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/driven-the-ferrari-12cilindri-spider-is-open-top-grand-touring-bliss/#comments + Elon Musk accused of making up math to squeeze $134B from OpenAI, Microsoft + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/elon-musk-accused-of-making-up-math-to-squeeze-134b-from-openai-microsoft/ + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/elon-musk-accused-of-making-up-math-to-squeeze-134b-from-openai-microsoft/#comments - + - Fri, 16 Jan 2026 15:00:31 +0000 - - - - https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/driven-the-ferrari-12cilindri-spider-is-open-top-grand-touring-bliss/ + Mon, 19 Jan 2026 19:04:18 +0000 + + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/elon-musk-accused-of-making-up-math-to-squeeze-134b-from-openai-microsoft/ - + - It has been nearly 80 years since Ferrari unleashed its first V12-powered sports car upon the world with the 125 S. In 1947, its debut year, the 125 S secured Ferrari’s first race victory, along with five other wins in the 14 events it competed in that season.

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Although it was soon replaced by the 159 S, the success of the 125 S kick-started Ferrari’s storied history of producing some of the most desirable 12-cylinder performance cars known to man. And while the Italian automaker has come to embrace forced induction and electrification in recent years, its legacy of building stunning front-engine, rear-wheel drive machines with spectacular V12s stuffed into their engine bays continues with the 12Cilindri Spider.

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Ferrari hasn’t shied away from leveraging cutting-edge technology in the development of its latest models, but the company also understands the value of a good throwback. As the successor to the 812 Superfast, the 12Cilindri boasts clever performance technologies, like a sophisticated active aero system and a four-wheel steering system that can manage each corner independently to enhance response, but it’s ultimately an homage to the heady days of late '60s luxury grand touring. The exterior styling takes obvious inspiration from the 365 GTB Daytona, while its lack of all-wheel drive, turbocharging, and electric assistance bucks trends that have become nearly inescapable in modern performance cars.

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+ Elon Musk is going for some substantial damages in his lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its nonprofit mission and "making a fool out of him" as an early investor.

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On Friday, Musk filed a notice on remedies sought in the lawsuit, confirming that he's seeking damages between $79 billion and $134 billion from OpenAI and its largest backer, co-defendant Microsoft.

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Musk hired an expert he has never used before, C. Paul Wazzan, who reached this estimate by concluding that Musk's early contributions to OpenAI generated 50 to 75 percent of the nonprofit's current value. He got there by analyzing four factors: Musk's total financial contributions before he left OpenAI in 2018, Musk's proposed equity stake in OpenAI in 2017, Musk's current equity stake in xAI, and Musk's nonmonetary contributions to OpenAI (like investing time or lending his reputation).

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]]> - 89 + 195 - - -Bradley IgerIn the old days, they used to say Ferrari would sell you an engine and give you the car for free. The rest of the 12Cilindri is too good for that cliche, but it really is all about the engine. + + +Anadolu / Contributor | Anadolu - Mother of one of Elon Musk’s offspring sues xAI over sexualized deepfakes - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/mother-of-one-of-elon-musks-offspring-sues-xai-over-sexualized-deepfakes/ - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/mother-of-one-of-elon-musks-offspring-sues-xai-over-sexualized-deepfakes/#comments + Asus confirms its smartphone business is on indefinite hiatus + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/asus-confirms-its-smartphone-business-is-on-indefinite-hiatus/ + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/asus-confirms-its-smartphone-business-is-on-indefinite-hiatus/#comments - + - Fri, 16 Jan 2026 14:16:26 +0000 - - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/mother-of-one-of-elon-musks-offspring-sues-xai-over-sexualized-deepfakes/ + Mon, 19 Jan 2026 18:24:49 +0000 + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/asus-confirms-its-smartphone-business-is-on-indefinite-hiatus/ - + - Ashley St Clair, the influencer and mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, has sued the billionaire’s AI company, accusing its Grok chatbot of creating fake sexual imagery of her without her consent.

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In the lawsuit, filed in New York state court, St Clair alleged that xAI’s Grok first created an AI-generated or altered image of her in a bikini earlier this month.

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St Clair claims she made a request to xAI that no further such images be made, but nevertheless “countless sexually abusive, intimate, and degrading deepfake content of St. Clair [were] produced and distributed publicly by Grok.”

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+ An unconfirmed report early this month suggested Asus was pulling back on its smartphone plans, but the company declined to comment at the time. Asus chairman Jonney Shih has now confirmed during an event in Taiwan the wind-down of its smartphone business. Instead, Asus will focus on AI products like robots and smart glasses.

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Shih addressed the company's future plans during a 2026 kick-off event in Taiwan, as reported by Inside. "Asus will no longer add new mobile phone models in the future," said Shih (machine translated).

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So don't expect a new Zenfone or ROG Phone from Asus in 2026. That said, very few phone buyers were keeping tabs on the latest Asus phones anyway, which is probably why Asus is throwing in the towel. Shih isn't saying Asus won't ever release a new phone, but the company will take an "indefinite wait-and-see" approach. Again, this is a translation and could be interpreted in multiple ways.

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]]> - 146 + 62 - - -Laura Brett/ZUMA Press Wire/ShutterstockAshley St Clair, center, is a conservative influencer with about 1 million followers on X. + + +Ryan WhitwamThe ROG Phone 9 may be the last Asus gaming phone, seen here with the cooling fan accessory. - Rocket Report: Ariane 64 to debut soon; India has a Falcon 9 clone too? - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/rocket-report-ariane-64-to-debut-soon-india-has-a-falcon-9-clone-too/ - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/rocket-report-ariane-64-to-debut-soon-india-has-a-falcon-9-clone-too/#comments + Reports of ad-supported Xbox game streams show Microsoft's lack of imagination + https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/01/reports-of-ad-supported-xbox-game-streams-show-microsofts-lack-of-imagination/ + https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/01/reports-of-ad-supported-xbox-game-streams-show-microsofts-lack-of-imagination/#comments - + - Fri, 16 Jan 2026 12:00:50 +0000 - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/rocket-report-ariane-64-to-debut-soon-india-has-a-falcon-9-clone-too/ + Mon, 19 Jan 2026 17:16:38 +0000 + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/01/reports-of-ad-supported-xbox-game-streams-show-microsofts-lack-of-imagination/ - + - Welcome to Edition 8.25 of the Rocket Report! All eyes are on Florida this weekend as NASA rolls out the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to its launch site in Florida for the Artemis II mission. NASA has not announced a launch date yet, and this will depend in part on how well a "wet dress rehearsal" goes with fueling the rocket. However, it is likely the rocket has a no-earlier-than launch date of February 8. Our own Stephen Clark will be in Florida for the rollout on Saturday, so be sure and check back here for coverage.

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As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). 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.

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MaiaSpace scores a major launch deal. The ArianeGroup subsidiary, created in 2022, has inked a major new launch contract with satellite operator Eutelsat, Le Monde reports. A significant portion of the 440 new satellites ordered by Eutelsat from Airbus to renew or expand its OneWeb constellation will be launched into orbit by the new Maia rocket. MaiaSpace previously signed two contracts: one with Exotrail for the launch of an orbital transfer, and the other for two satellites for the Toutatis mission, a defense system developed by U-Space.

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+ Currently, Microsoft's long-running Cloud Gaming service is limited to players who have a Microsoft's Game Pass subscription. Now, new reporting suggests Microsoft is planning to offer non-subscribers access to game streams paid for by advertising in the near future, but only in extremely limited circumstances.

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The latest wave of rumors was set off late last week when The Verge's Tom Warren shared an Xbox Cloud Gaming loading screen with a message mentioning "1 hour of ad supported playtime per session." That leaked message comes after Windows Central reported last summer that Microsoft has been "exploring video ads for free games for quite some time," à la the two-minute sponsorships that appear before free-tier game streams on Nvidia's GeForce Now service.

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Don't get your hopes up for easy, free, ad-supported access to the entire Xbox Cloud Gaming library, though. Windows Central now reports that Microsoft will be using ads merely to slightly expand access to its "Stream your own game" program. That program currently offers subscribers to the Xbox Game Pass Essentials tier (or higher) the privilege of streaming versions of some of the Xbox games they've already purchased digitally. Windows Central's unnamed sources suggest that a "session-based ad-supported access tier" to stream those purchased games will be offered to non-subscribers as soon as "this year."

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]]> - 109 + 73 - - -SpaceXSpaceX launched the Pandora satellite for NASA on Sunday. + + +MicrosoftMicrosoft shoudl experiment with new ways to get streaming Xbox games into players' hands on these kinds of devices. - “I am very annoyed”: Pharma execs blast RFK Jr.’s attack on vaccines - https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/big-pharma-is-openly-railing-against-rfk-jr-s-anti-vaccine-agenda/ - https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/big-pharma-is-openly-railing-against-rfk-jr-s-anti-vaccine-agenda/#comments + The race to build a super-large ground telescope is likely down to two competitors + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/as-europes-large-ground-telescope-project-advances-how-is-its-us-competitor-faring/ + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/as-europes-large-ground-telescope-project-advances-how-is-its-us-competitor-faring/#comments - + - Thu, 15 Jan 2026 23:01:24 +0000 - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/big-pharma-is-openly-railing-against-rfk-jr-s-anti-vaccine-agenda/ + Mon, 19 Jan 2026 17:06:28 +0000 + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/as-europes-large-ground-telescope-project-advances-how-is-its-us-competitor-faring/ - + - Pharmaceutical executives are finally saying how they really feel about the extreme anti-vaccine agenda Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been ruthlessly implementing—and it's not pretty.

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According to reporting from Bloomberg at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference that ended today in San Francisco, pharmaceutical executives who had previously been careful to avoid criticizing the Trump administration appear to have reached a breaking point, with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla offering some of the most candid comments.

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"I am very annoyed. I'm very disappointed. I'm seriously frustrated," Bourla said. "What is happening has zero scientific merit and is just serving an agenda which is political, and then antivax."

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+ I have been writing about the Giant Magellan Telescope for a long time. Nearly two decades ago, for example, I wrote that time was "running out" in the race to build the next great optical telescope on the ground.

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At the time the proposed telescope was one of three contenders to make a giant leap in mirror size from the roughly 10-meter-diameter instruments that existed then, to approximately 30 meters. This represented a huge increase in light-gathering potential, allowing astronomers to see much further into the universe—and therefore back into time—with far greater clarity.

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Since then the projects have advanced at various rates. An international consortium to build the Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii ran into local protests that have bogged down development. Its future came further into question when the US National Science Foundation dropped support for the project in favor of the Giant Magellan Telescope. Meanwhile the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) has advanced on a faster schedule, and this 39.5-meter telescope could observe its first light in 2029.

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]]> - 142 + 109 - - -Getty | John ThysPfizer CEO Albert Bourla talks during a press conference. + + +GMTO CorporationA rendering of the Giant Magellan Telescope. - Why I’m withholding certainty that “precise” US cyber-op disrupted Venezuelan electricity - https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/unnamed-officials-tell-nyt-precise-cyber-op-took-out-venezuelas-power-grid/ - https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/unnamed-officials-tell-nyt-precise-cyber-op-took-out-venezuelas-power-grid/#comments + Meet Veronika, the tool-using cow + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/meet-veronika-the-tool-using-cow/ + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/meet-veronika-the-tool-using-cow/#comments - + - Thu, 15 Jan 2026 21:29:58 +0000 - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/unnamed-officials-tell-nyt-precise-cyber-op-took-out-venezuelas-power-grid/ + Mon, 19 Jan 2026 16:00:27 +0000 + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/meet-veronika-the-tool-using-cow/ - + - The New York Times has published new details about a purported cyberattack that unnamed US officials claim plunged parts of Venezuela into darkness in the lead-up to the capture of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.

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Key among the new details is that the cyber operation was able to turn off electricity for most residents in the capital city of Caracas for only a few minutes, though in some neighborhoods close to the military base where Maduro was seized, the outage lasted for three days. The cyber-op also targeted Venezuelan military radar defenses. The paper said the US Cyber Command was involved.

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Got more details?

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“Turning off the power in Caracas and interfering with radar allowed US military helicopters to move into the country undetected on their mission to capture Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president who has now been brought to the United States to face drug charges,” the NYT reported.

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Far Side fans might recall a classic 1982 cartoon called "Cow Tools," featuring a cow standing next to a jumble of strange objects—the joke being that cows don't use tools. That's why a pet Swiss brown cow in Austria named Veronika has caused a bit of a sensation: she likes to pick up random sticks and use them to scratch herself. According to a new paper published in the journal Current Biology, this is a form of multipurpose tool use and suggests that the cognitive capabilities of cows have been underestimated by scientists.

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As previously reported, tool use was once thought to be one of the defining features of humans, but examples of it were eventually observed in primates and other mammals. Dolphins can toss objects as a form of play, which some scientists consider to be a type of tool use, particularly when it involves another member of the same species. Potential purposes include a means of communication, social bonding, or aggressiveness. (Octopuses have also been observed engaging in similar throwing behavior.)

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But the biggest surprise came when birds were observed using tools in the wild. After all, birds are the only surviving dinosaurs, and mammals and dinosaurs hadn’t shared a common ancestor for hundreds of millions of years. In the wild, observed tool use has been limited to the corvids (crows and jays), which show a variety of other complex behaviors—they’ll remember your face and recognize the passing of their dead.

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]]> - 69 + 183 - - -Getty Images + + +Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró/CC BY-SA - Star Trek: Starfleet Academy tries something different, and I don’t hate it - https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/01/star-trek-starfleet-academy-tries-something-different-and-i-dont-hate-it/ - https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/01/star-trek-starfleet-academy-tries-something-different-and-i-dont-hate-it/#comments + 10 things I learned from burning myself out with AI coding agents + https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/10-things-i-learned-from-burning-myself-out-with-ai-coding-agents/ + https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/10-things-i-learned-from-burning-myself-out-with-ai-coding-agents/#comments - + - Thu, 15 Jan 2026 21:09:10 +0000 - - - https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/01/star-trek-starfleet-academy-tries-something-different-and-i-dont-hate-it/ + Mon, 19 Jan 2026 12:00:45 +0000 + + + + + + + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/10-things-i-learned-from-burning-myself-out-with-ai-coding-agents/ - + - This post contains some mild spoilers, mostly from the beginning of the first episode. -

Today is a good day to watch television. That's because the first two episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy hit the Paramount+ streaming service, becoming the newest addition to the long-running Star Trek franchise. It's set in the late 32nd century, 120 years after the burn that ended all warp travel, and with it, most of Starfleet in the process. Now that warp travel is once again possible—you'll have to watch Discovery's final three seasons for more on that—the Federation is putting itself back together, and that includes reopening Starfleet Academy.

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That means this show is about young people in space, like Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta), who was separated from his mother by Starfleet as a child, 15 years earlier. Mir and his mother, played by Tatiana Maslany, were traveling with a pirate—Nus Braka, played by a scenery-chewing Paul Giamatti—who killed a Federation officer while stealing food for them. The first episode opens on Braka and the Mirs being apprehended by Starfleet. Despite her misgivings, Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) carries out her order to separate mother and child. She's to go to a rehabilitation colony, he's to become a ward of the Federation and go to school on Bajor.

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At least that's the plan until he escapes a few minutes later. Then we jump forward 15 years. Ake is teaching on Bajor, having retired from the Federation, ashamed of what she'd done. Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr) shows up and asks her to become commandant at the newly reopened academy in San Francisco; for the past few decades, new recruits have been trained instead by the War College. But Starfleet needs explorers now, and having a rival school means they can show up at some point to challenge some of the show's protagonists to a Parrises Squares tournament.

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+ If you've ever used a 3D printer, you may recall the wondrous feeling when you first printed something you could have never sculpted or built yourself. Download a model file, load some plastic filament, push a button, and almost like magic, a three-dimensional object appears. But the result isn't polished and ready for mass production, and creating a novel shape requires more skills than just pushing a button. Interestingly, today's AI coding agents feel much the same way.

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Since November, I have used Claude Code and Claude Opus 4.5 through a personal Claude Max account to extensively experiment with AI-assisted software development (I have also used OpenAI's Codex in a similar way, though not as frequently). Fifty projects later, I'll be frank: I have not had this much fun with a computer since I learned BASIC on my Apple II Plus when I was 9 years old. This opinion comes not as an endorsement but as personal experience: I voluntarily undertook this project, and I paid out of pocket for both OpenAI and Anthropic's premium AI plans.

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Throughout my life, I have dabbled in programming as a utilitarian coder, writing small tools or scripts when needed. In my web development career, I wrote some small tools from scratch, but I primarily modified other people's code for my needs. Since 1990, I've programmed in BASIC, C, Visual Basic, PHP, ASP, Perl, Python, Ruby, MUSHcode, and some others. I am not an expert in any of these languages—I learned just enough to get the job done. I have developed my own hobby games over the years using BASIC, Torque Game Engine, and Godot, so I have some idea of what makes a good architecture for a modular program that can be expanded over time.

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]]> - 187 + 231 - - -Paramout+Holly Hunter plays Captain Nahla Ake, the new commandant of the newly reopened Starfleet Academy. + + +Aurich Lawson | Getty Images - NASA’s first medical evacuation from space ends with on-target splashdown - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/nasas-first-ever-medical-evacuation-from-space-ends-with-on-target-splashdown/ - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/nasas-first-ever-medical-evacuation-from-space-ends-with-on-target-splashdown/#comments + Ocean damage nearly doubles the cost of climate change + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/ocean-damage-nearly-doubles-the-cost-of-climate-change/ + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/ocean-damage-nearly-doubles-the-cost-of-climate-change/#comments - + - Thu, 15 Jan 2026 20:19:41 +0000 + Sun, 18 Jan 2026 12:00:56 +0000 - - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/nasas-first-ever-medical-evacuation-from-space-ends-with-on-target-splashdown/ + + + + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/ocean-damage-nearly-doubles-the-cost-of-climate-change/ - + - Two Americans, a Japanese astronaut, and a Russian cosmonaut returned to Earth early Thursday after 167 days in orbit, cutting short their stay on the International Space Station by more than a month after one of the crew members encountered an unspecified medical issue last week.

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The early homecoming culminated in an on-target splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 12:41 am PST (08:41 UTC) inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. The splashdown occurred minutes after the Dragon capsule streaked through the atmosphere along the California coastline, with sightings of Dragon's fiery trail reported from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

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Four parachutes opened to slow the capsule for the final descent. Zena Cardman, NASA's commander of the Crew-11 mission, radioed SpaceX mission control moments after splashdown: "It feels good to be home, with deep gratitude to the teams who got us there and back."

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+ The global cost of greenhouse gas emissions is nearly double what scientists previously thought, according to a study published Thursday by researchers at the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

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It is the first time a social cost of carbon (SCC) assessment—a key measure of economic harm caused by climate change—has included damages to the ocean. Global coral loss, fisheries disruption, and coastal infrastructure destruction are estimated to cost nearly $2 trillion annually, fundamentally changing how we measure climate finance.

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“For decades, we’ve been estimating the economic cost of climate change while effectively assigning a value of zero to the ocean,” said Bernardo Bastien-Olvera, who led the study during his postdoctoral fellowship at Scripps. “Ocean loss is not just an environmental issue, but a central part of the economic story of climate change.”

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]]> - 73 + 97 - - -NASA/Bill IngallsCrew-11 pilot and outgoing ISS commander Mike Fincke after splashdown in the Pacific Ocean early Thursday. + + +Magdalena Chodownik/Anadolu via Getty ImagesAt Xuan Dao Bay, in Vietnam, fishing boats lie destroyed in November 2025 along the shore after being swept away by Typhoon Kalmaegi, leaving many without work. - Spotify’s 3rd price hike in 2.5 years hints at potential new normal - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/spotify-to-raise-subscription-prices-by-up-to-2-in-february/ - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/spotify-to-raise-subscription-prices-by-up-to-2-in-february/#comments + Meta’s layoffs leave Supernatural fitness users in mourning + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/metas-layoffs-leave-supernatural-fitness-users-in-mourning/ + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/metas-layoffs-leave-supernatural-fitness-users-in-mourning/#comments - + - Thu, 15 Jan 2026 19:22:07 +0000 - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/spotify-to-raise-subscription-prices-by-up-to-2-in-february/ + Sat, 17 Jan 2026 12:00:11 +0000 + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/metas-layoffs-leave-supernatural-fitness-users-in-mourning/ - + - After a dozen years of keeping subscription prices stable, Spotify has issued three price hikes in 2.5 years.

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Spotify informed subscribers via email today that Premium monthly subscriptions would go from $12 to $13 per month as of users' February billing date. Spotify is already advertising the higher prices to new subscribers.

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Although not explicitly mentioned in Spotify's correspondence, other plans are getting more expensive, too. Student monthly subscriptions are going from $6 to $7. Duo monthly plans, for two accounts in the same household, are going from $17 to $19, and Family plans, for up to six users, are moving from $20 to $22.

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+ Tencia Benavidez, a Supernatural user who lives in New Mexico, started her VR workouts during the Covid pandemic. She has been a regular user in the five years since, calling the ability to work out in VR ideal, given that she lives in a rural area where it’s hard to get to a gym or work out outside during a brutal winter. She stuck with Supernatural because of the community and the eagerness of Supernatural’s coaches.

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“They seem like really authentic individuals that were not talking down to you,” Benavidez says. “There's just something really special about those coaches.”

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Meta bought Supernatural in 2022, folding it into its then-heavily-invested-in metaverse efforts. The purchase was not a smooth process, as it triggered a lengthy legal battle in which the US Federal Trade Commission tried to block Meta from purchasing the service due to antitrust concerns about Meta “trying to buy its way to the top” of the VR market. Meta ultimately prevailed. At the time, some Supernatural users were cautiously optimistic, hoping that big bag of Zuckerbucks could keep its workout juggernaut afloat.

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