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Ars Technica
Polestar CEO says the brand’s tech makes the US a “great market for us”
In a move that will no doubt upset some of the more... orderly minded out there, Polestar is temporarily deviating from its otherwise most logical naming convention. Instead of giving its cars numbers based on some theoretical measurement of performance or their position in the showroom hierarchy, the numbers are chronological. Polestar 1 was the first, then Polestar 2, and so on.
That remains true for the last couple of Polestars we drove—the big Polestar 3 SUV and the slightly smaller, slightly cheaper, Porsche Macan-rivaling Polestar 4. And later this year we should see the Polestar 5. But then it will jump to the Polestar 7, a new compact SUV, which undoubtedly has more sales potential than the drop-top Polestar 6 two-seater, no matter how sharp that car might end up looking.
"I brought in and changed the sequence, because I wanted to bring in the Polestar 7 because I think it's an important car," explained Michael Lohscheller, who became Polestar's CEO last fall.
Categories: Technology News
What the weak yen might mean for Switch 2 pricing
Since our first glimpse of the Switch 2 last month, we've been left guessing on many crucial hardware details, including the all-important launch price. Now, Nintendo has hinted that the unsteady state of the international money market may play an outsize role in that pricing decision.
Addressing a question about Switch 2 hardware pricing during an investor Q&A session Wednesday, Nintendo president Shintaro Furukawa said (via machine translation):
In addition to the current inflation, we are aware that the exchange rate environment has changed significantly since the launch of the Nintendo Switch in 2017. We also need to consider the affordable price that customers expect from Nintendo products. When considering the price of a product, we believe that it is necessary to consider these factors from multiple angles.
At this time, we cannot disclose the specific price of the Nintendo Switch 2, but we are considering it while taking various points into consideration. At this time, we do not plan to change the price of the Nintendo Switch hardware.
Most of that is the usual polite executive-speak shorthand for "we're not ready to answer that yet." But the bit about exchange rates and inflation got us wondering just how vulnerable a Japanese company like Nintendo might be to the yen's historic weakness, and what this might mean for the Switch 2.
Categories: Technology News
Let’s Encrypt is ending expiration notice emails—for some very good reasons
Let's Encrypt has been providing free "wildcard" certificates for websites for nearly seven years, enabling HTTPS connections for millions of domains and doing the whole Internet a real solid.
Now the nonprofit is ending a useful service, but in an exceedingly rare happenstance, it's probably a good thing for everyone. Starting June 4, 2025, Let's Encrypt will no longer notify its subscribers that their certification is about to expire and needs renewal. Some hosting providers automatically obtain and manage certificates from Let's Encrypt, so there's not much for them to do. Everyone else will have to do something, and likely it will still be free and automated.
Let's Encrypt is ending automated emails for four stated reasons, and all of them are pretty sensible. For one thing, lots of customers have been able to automate their certificate renewal. For another, providing the expiration notices costs "tens of thousands of dollars per year" and adds complexity to the nonprofit's infrastructure as they are looking to add new and more useful services.
Categories: Technology News
Chaos and confusion as USPS halts, then resumes parcels from China
It's been a confusing 24 hours at the US Postal Service (USPS) after the Trump administration imposed new tariffs on China that eliminated a loophole allowing low-value Chinese packages into the US duty-free.
On Tuesday, the USPS abruptly stopped accepting all inbound packages from Hong Kong and China. This briefly halted personal shipments from China, as well as online deliveries from China-based companies. That included blocking orders from online marketplaces increasingly popular with Americans like Alibaba, Temu, and Shein, as well as China-based retailers selling cheap goods on Amazon.
But by Wednesday morning, the USPS reversed the temporary policy, posting an international service notice clarifying that the USPS and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) "are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery."
Categories: Technology News
Jurassic World Rebirth roars into theaters this July
Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali star in Jurassic World Rebirth.
The raptors are back with a host of ravenous friends in the official trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth, the fourth installment in the Jurassic World series and seventh film overall in the franchise spawned by 1993's Jurassic Park.
(Some spoilers for Jurassic World Dominion below.)
The franchise has been lumbering along for over 20 years now with mixed success, but Jurassic World Dominion (2022) at least gave Universal a bona fide box office hit to counter all the negative reviews, grossing just over $1 billion worldwide. (It has a mere 29 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.) That film ended with dinosaurs and humans figuring out how to co-exist, the establishment of a dino sanctuary by the United Nations, and the evil corporation BioSyn in disgrace.
Categories: Technology News
Teslas turn toxic as sales crash in Europe and the UK
Early car sales data for January is starting to arrive from countries across the pond, and they paint an alarming picture for Tesla. Sales are crashing in France, Germany, and the UK—all affluent countries that are key markets for Tesla's electric vehicles. Coming on the heels of a large financial miss, it's just one more problem for the automaker.
Tesla sales dropped around 13 percent across Europe in 2024, but so far this year, the scale of the problem is far greater. In France, sales of new Teslas fell by 63 percent, while total car sales in the country fell by just 6 percent, with EV sales dropping just half a percent.
Germany was already looking like lost ground for Tesla—its 41 percent drop in 2024 accounted for most of Tesla's lost sales across Europe. That must make the 59 percent drop in German Tesla sales recorded during January even more painful on the profit and loss statements.
Categories: Technology News
After a wrenching decision by NASA, private lunar lander finds a new customer
Last year was not a good one for a lunar lander company based in Pittsburgh named Astrobotic.
In January, the company's first spacecraft finally launched after years of delays, carrying dozens of payloads, scientific instruments, and time capsules. But within hours of launch, the Peregrine spacecraft developed a propellant leak in its propulsion system. Although the Astrobotic engineering team fought valiantly, they could not control the leak long enough to attempt a lunar landing. Instead, operators returned it to Earth's atmosphere, where it burned up.
This immediately raised questions about Astrobotic's next mission. Its second spacecraft, Griffin, would be larger. The company had received a large "task order" from NASA to use this lander to deliver the VIPER robotic rover to the south pole of the Moon in 2025 worth more than $300 million. However, NASA officials were concerned that, after Peregrine's problems, the significantly more ambitious Griffin lander might fail.
Categories: Technology News
$58 billion Honda-Nissan merger is in deep trouble
A proposed $58 billion merger to create the world’s fourth-largest carmaker appears on the verge of collapse after Honda made an unexpected proposal to turn Nissan into a fully owned subsidiary, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The two rivals announced discussions on a combination in December, but just over 40 days later the talks have already soured, as Honda faces shareholder and internal pressure to take full control of Nissan to turn around the ailing carmaker.
The latest proposal, delivered to Nissan at the weekend, deviates from initial plans to bring the two companies under a jointly owned holding company, a structure that would have provided room to retain Nissan’s brand and decision-making powers.
Categories: Technology News
Scientists found a faster way to brew sour beer—with peas
Do you long for that tart fruity flavor of a sour beer but wish the complicated brewing process were faster? Norwegian scientists might have the answer: field peas, as well as beans and lentils. According to a new paper published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, experimental beers made with the sugars found in these foods had similar flavor profiles to your average Belgian-style sour beer, yet the brewing process was shorter with simpler steps.
“Sour beer is the beer enthusiast’s alternative to champagne," said co-author Bjørge Westereng of the Norwegian University of Life Science. "By using sugars derived from peas that yeast cannot metabolize, we promote the growth of bacteria essential for producing sour beer.”
As previously reported, sour beer has been around for centuries and has become a favorite with craft brewers in recent years, although the brewing process can be both unpredictable and time-consuming. Brewers of standard beer carefully control the strains of yeast they use, taking care to ensure other microbes don't sneak into the mix, lest they alter the flavor during fermentation.
Categories: Technology News
Go Module Mirror served backdoor to devs for 3+ years
A mirror proxy Google runs on behalf of developers of the Go programming language pushed a backdoored package for more than three years until Monday, after researchers who spotted the malicious code petitioned for it to be taken down twice.
The service, known as the Go Module Mirror, caches open source packages available on GitHub and elsewhere so that downloads are faster and to ensure they are compatible with the rest of the Go ecosystem. By default, when someone uses command-line tools built into Go to download or install packages, requests are routed through the service. A description on the site says the proxy is provided by the Go team and “run by Google.”
Caching inSince November 2021, the Go Module Mirror has been hosting a backdoored version of a widely used module, security firm Socket said Monday. The file uses “typosquatting,” a technique that gives malicious files names similar to widely used legitimate ones and plants them in popular repositories. In the event someone makes a typo or even a minor variation from the correct name when fetching a file with the command line, they land on the malicious file instead of the one they wanted. (A similar typosquatting scheme is common with domain names, too.)
Categories: Technology News
As Internet enshittification marches on, here are some of the worst offenders
Two years ago, a Canadian writer named Cory Doctorow coined the phrase "enshittification" to describe the decay of online platforms. The word immediately set the Internet ablaze, as it captured the growing malaise regarding how almost everything about the web seemed to be getting worse.
"It’s my theory explaining how the Internet was colonized by platforms, why all those platforms are degrading so quickly and thoroughly, why it matters, and what we can do about it," Doctorow explained in a follow-up article. "We’re all living through a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit. It’s frustrating. It’s demoralizing. It’s even terrifying."
Doctorow believes there are four basic forces that might constrain companies from getting worse: competition, regulation, self-help, and tech workers. One by one, he says, these constraints have been eroded as large corporations squeeze the Internet and its denizens for dollars.
Categories: Technology News
Many Americans still don’t understand how easily IoT devices can get bricked
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but your connected gadgets need software updates to retain not just their security but also, frequently, key features. If you read Ars Technica regularly, you probably don’t need to hear that. You already know that smart device manufacturers have a reputation for ending support for often-expensive devices, making them insecure and/or not work as intended. But, per a survey from Consumer Reports of 2,130 consumers, many Americans are buying into the Internet of Things (IoT) without understanding the risks involved in losing vendor support: wasted money when devices are bricked and cyber and physical security threats.
Consumer Reports’ American Experiences Survey, taken from December 6–16, claims the margin of error for its survey is +/- 2.59 percentage points, with 95 percent confidence. The publication said that 36 percent of respondents were four-year college graduates, 63 percent have a household income of at least $50,000, and the median age of respondents was 47 (you can find more information about Consumer Reports’ methodology here).
Consumer Reports' subsequent report, released today, revealed a worrying potential education gap around IoT devices and the importance of ongoing software support:
Categories: Technology News
Drones are now launching drones to attack other drones in Ukraine
Last time we checked in on terrifying drone developments in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainians were dropping molten thermite along Russian trench lines and attaching surface-to-air missiles to naval drones.
Possessing a far smaller population than Russia, Ukraine has pinned its hopes in significant part on drone warfare, and hundreds of companies and organizations across the country are building everything from tiny aerial attack drones to massive ground-crawling, machine gun-toting minelayers. (And this is to say nothing of all the innovation happening in Western defense companies like AeroVironment.)
Here are just a few of the drone warfare innovations that have appeared in public sources over the last few months.
Categories: Technology News
Internet Archive played crucial role in tracking shady CDC data removals
When thousands of pages started disappearing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website late last week, public health researchers quickly moved to archive deleted public health data.
Soon, researchers discovered that the Internet Archive (IA) offers one of the most effective ways to both preserve online data and track changes on government websites. For decades, IA crawlers have collected snapshots of the public Internet, making it easier to compare current versions of websites to historic versions. And IA also allows users to upload digital materials to further expand the web archive. Both aspects of the archive immediately proved useful to researchers assessing how much data the public risked losing during a rapid purge following a pair of President Trump's executive orders.
Part of a small group of researchers who managed to download the entire CDC website within days, virologist Angela Rasmussen helped create a public resource that combines CDC website information with deleted CDC datasets. Those datasets, many of which were previously in the public domain for years, were uploaded to IA by an anonymous user, "SheWhoExists," on January 31. Moving forward, Rasmussen told Ars that IA will likely remain a go-to tool for researchers attempting to closely monitor for any unexpected changes in access to public data.
Categories: Technology News
Framework Laptop’s RISC-V board for open source diehards is available for $199
We've covered the Framework Laptop 13 primarily as a consumer Windows laptop, reviewing versions with multiple Intel and AMD processors. But the system's modular nature makes it possible to expand it beyond Windows PC hardware, as we've seen with experiments like the (now-discontinued) Chromebook Edition of the laptop.
Today Framework is expanding to something even more experimental: a DeepComputing RISC-V Mainboard targeted primarily at developers. RISC-V is a fully open source and royalty-free instruction set, making it possible for anyone to adopt and use it without having to license it (unlike x86, which is a maze of cross-licensed Intel and AMD technologies that other companies can't really buy into; or Arm, which is licensed by the company of the same name).
First announced in June 2024, the board is available to order today for $199. The board is designed to fit in a Framework Laptop 13 chassis, which means that people who would prefer a desktop can also put it into the $39 Cooler Master Mainboard Case that Framework offers.
Categories: Technology News
Europe has the worst imaginable idea to counter SpaceX’s launch dominance
It is not difficult to understand the unease on the European continent about the rise of SpaceX and its controversial founder, Elon Musk.
SpaceX has surpassed the European Space Agency and its institutional partners in almost every way when it comes to accessing space and providing secure communications. Last year, for example, SpaceX launched 134 orbital missions. Combined, Europe had three. SpaceX operates a massive constellation of more than 7,000 satellites, delivering broadband Internet around the world. Europe hopes to have a much more modest capability online by 2030 serving the continent at a cost of $11 billion.
And Europe has good reasons for being wary about working directly with SpaceX. First, Europe wants to maintain sovereign access to space, as well as a space-based communication network. Second, buying services from SpaceX undermines European space businesses. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Musk has recently begun attacking governments in European capitals such as Berlin and London, taking up the "Make Europe Great Again" slogan. This seems to entail throwing out the moderate coalitions governing European nations and replacing them with authoritarian, hard-right leaders.
Categories: Technology News
$42B broadband grant program may scrap Biden admin’s preference for fiber
US Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been demanding an overhaul of a $42.45 billion broadband deployment program, and now his telecom policy director has been chosen to lead the federal agency in charge of the grant money.
"Congratulations to my Telecom Policy Director, Arielle Roth, for being nominated to lead NTIA," Cruz wrote last night, referring to President Trump's pick to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Roth's nomination is pending Senate approval.
Roth works for the Senate Commerce Committee, which is chaired by Cruz. "Arielle led my legislative and oversight efforts on communications and broadband policy with integrity, creativity, and dedication," Cruz wrote.
Categories: Technology News
Irony alert: Anthropic says applicants shouldn’t use LLMs
When you look at the "customer stories" page on Anthropic's website, you'll find plenty of corporations reportedly using Anthropic's Claude LLM to help employees communicate more effectively. When it comes to Anthropic's own employee recruitment process, though, the company politely asks users to "please ... not use AI assistants," so that Anthropic can evaluate their "non-AI-assisted communication skills."
The ironic application clause—which comes before a "Why do you want to work here?" question in most of Anthropic's current job postings—was recently noticed by AI researcher Simon Willison. But the request appears on most of Anthropic's job postings at least as far back as last May, according to Internet Archive captures.
"While we encourage people to use AI systems during their role to help them work faster and more effectively, please do not use AI assistants during the application process," Anthropic writes on its online job applications. "We want to understand your personal interest in Anthropic without mediation through an AI system, and we also want to evaluate your non-AI-assisted communication skills."
Categories: Technology News
Why it makes perfect sense for this bike to have two gears and two chains
The Buffalo Bicycle Utility S2 has won an award from Eurobike and earned a German Design Award. With components designed by cycling industry giant SRAM and made from heavy steel, the bike has rim brakes, two gears, two chainrings, and two separate chains. And that makes total sense.
The S2 is the second bike developed by World Bicycle Relief, which aims to bring bicycle-based mobility to the nearly 1 billion people who otherwise must walk long distances for basic needs. YouTube channel Berm Peak recently featured (and rode) an S2 (as first seen at Hackaday) and explains why a bike with two chains makes sense. Short answer: redundancy, reliable shifting, and far more simple repair.
Berm Peak's tour and explainer on the Buffalo Bicycle S2 Utility.Buffalo bicycles are meant to take people a long way over tough terrain, hauling whatever they need to haul. Given that the rear rack is rated for 200 pounds, that "whatever" can range from cargo to humans. The original Buffalo bike had a single gear and coaster brakes, which as both kids and minimalist bike fans can attest, make it simple to stop and go. Buffalo bikes can generally be fixed with the single included wrench, but World Bicycle Relief has also been training mechanics (over 3,300 now) and setting up some 200 Buffalo-focused bike shops.
Categories: Technology News
The Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance is quite a name, quite a car
More than ever, automakers are clamoring to be part of Formula 1. Buoyed by Drive to Survive, the sport's reach rivals its popularity at any time in the past, despite having to compete with myriad more demands for our time. The carmakers get cachet from their participation, and just occasionally, something they build for the racetrack trickles down into something you can buy in the showroom. Such is the case with today's car, the (deep breath) Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance four-door.
Although the team hasn't had the same amount of success since the introduction of ground effects in 2022, Mercedes-AMG won seven championships on the trot between 2014 and 2020. High Performance Powertrains, based in Brixworth, got the hybrid formula just right, eclipsing the power and drivability of rivals at Ferrari, Renault, and Honda and helping Lewis Hamilton secure more Grands Prix wins than anyone else in history.
The boffins at Brixworth got together with their counterparts at Affalterbach, where the AMG gets applied to Mercedes. The result: This plug-in hybrid powertrain uses the same 2170 cylindrical cells in its battery pack as cars like the Mercedes AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+, albeit slightly more of them, as the road car has a capacity of 6.1 kWh (4.8 kWh net). The pack feeds an electric motor with a nominal 94 hp (70 kW) and 236 lb-ft (310 Nm), but it's capable of 201 hp (150 kW) for 10-second bursts.
Categories: Technology News
