Author name: Ari B

everything-we-learned-today-about-vision-pro-configurations,-specs,-and-accessories

Everything we learned today about Vision Pro configurations, specs, and accessories

Apple, Apple M2, apple vision pro, M2, spatial computing, Tech / /

Spatial computing —

It’ll cost you $200 to double the storage of the base configuration.

–

Apple's Vision Pro headset.

Enlarge / Apple’s Vision Pro headset.

Samuel Axon

Apple’s Vision Pro went up for preorder this morning at 8 am ET. As expected, shipment dates for preorders quickly backed up to March as initial supply was accounted for. Regardless of whether you’re in for the start or taking a wait-and-see approach with Apple’s ultra-pricey new device, though, we have access to a little more information about the device than we did before thanks to updates to the Apple Store website.

The product page for Vision Pro reveals configurations and pricing, and a new specs page clarifies answers to some questions we’ve had for a while now.

You’ll find all the relevant new information below. We’ve also updated our “What to expect from Apple Vision Pro” roundup with new information from the specs page.

Hardware specifications

As previously rumored, the Vision Pro has a variant of the M2 chip with an 8-core CPU (4 performance cores and 4 efficiency), a 10-core GPU, and a 16-core NPU. It has 16GB of unified memory.

There’s also the new R1 chip, which Apple claims achieves “12‑millisecond photon‑to‑photon latency” and 256GB/s memory bandwidth.

As for the display, we didn’t learn too much new here. As Apple has stated before, the two displays push 23 million pixels combined. They support refresh rates of 90 Hz, 96 Hz, and 100 Hz, and support playback of 24 fps and 30 fps video. Apple claims 92 percent DCI-P3.

The specs page also reveals that Vision Pro supports AirPlay at up to 1080p on iPhones, Macs, Apple TVs, and AirPlay-capable smart TVs.

Storage comes in three configurations. The base 256GB model costs $3,499. Bumping up to 512GB adds $200, and going to 1TB adds another $200.

The device’s camera supports both spatial photo and video capture, and Apple lists the specs as an 18 mm, ƒ/2.00 aperture at 6.5 stereo megapixels.

Additionally, there are six world-facing tracking cameras, four eye-tracking cameras, a TrueDepth sensor, a lidar scanner, four inertial measurement units, a flicker sensor, and an ambient light sensor. The headset authenticates the user by looking at their iris.

On the audio front, we’re looking at a six-mic array for audio capture. Apple isn’t super specific on the specs page about the speakers, noting only that the device offers “spatial audio with dynamic head tracking” like AirPods Pro and “personalized Spatial Audio and audio ray tracing.” Vision Pro also supports low-latency, lossless audio with the second generation of AirPods Pro.

Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3.

Apple promises two hours of battery life for “general use” and says video watching can be up to 2.5 hours. The specs page also clarifies that Vision Pro can be used while charging the battery, which is something Apple had previously stated but then confusingly removed from its online documentation. This page seems to settle that.

The headset weighs between 21.2 and 22.9 ounces (600–650 g) depending on the light seal and headband used. That doesn’t include the battery pack, which weighs 353 g. That means Apple made the headset substantially lighter by pushing the battery to a separate unit.

Accessories and additional purchase options

As with its other hardware products, Apple offers AppleCare+ for Vision Pro. It’s $499 for two years, or $24.99 per month for perpetual coverage.

That price might seem awfully steep, but Apple lists the repair fees for the device on its service page and repairs without AppleCare+ will be even pricier—up to $2,399, depending on what’s broken. Any damage to the front glass panel will cost $799 to fix.

  • Apple Vision Pro Travel Case.

    Apple

  • Apple Vision Pro battery.

    Apple

  • Apple Vision Pro Solo Knit Band.

    Apple

  • Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band.

    Apple

  • Apple Vision Pro Light Seal.

    Apple

  • Apple Vision Pro Light Cushion.

    Apple

  • ZEISS Optical Inserts.

    Apple

  • Belkin Battery Holder for Apple Vision Pro.

    Apple

There are also a few optional accessories or replacement components you can buy, including:

  • Apple Vision Pro Travel Case ($199) – A pill-shaped case that contains and protects the headset along with its attachments and battery.
  • Apple Vision Pro Battery ($199) – A replacement for the battery that comes with the headset. You could also buy one of these to double your capacity while traveling, like for a long flight.
  • Apple Vision Pro Light Seal ($199) – The soft part of the headset that conforms to your face when you put the device on your head. This includes two light seal cushions, each in a different size.
  • Apple Vision Pro Light Seal Cushion ($29) – This attaches to the end of the light seal, and is intended to be removed for cleaning. It’s available in four sizes: N, N+, W, and W+.
  • Apple Vision Pro Solo Knit Band ($99) – One of two variations of the band that keeps Vision Pro on your head. This is the version that simply wraps around the back of your head. It’s available in three sizes: small, medium, and large.
  • Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band ($99) – The version that wraps around both the back of your head and the top. This also comes in small, medium, and large.
  • ZEISS Optical Inserts ($99+) – Lens inserts for those who wear glasses, as glasses won’t fit inside the device. Available in prescription and reader variations. You don’t need these if you wear soft contact lenses.
  • Belkin Battery Holder for Apple Vision Pro ($49.95) – A third-party accessory for either attaching Vision Pro’s battery to your belt or pants, or securing it with a cross-body strap.

Everything we learned today about Vision Pro configurations, specs, and accessories Read More »

convicted-murderer,-filesystem-creator-writes-of-regrets-to-linux-list

Convicted murderer, filesystem creator writes of regrets to Linux list

Biz & IT, file systems, Hans Reiser, Linux, Linux kernel, linux kernel mailing list, LKML, ReiserFS, Tech / /

Pre-release notes —

“The man I am now would do things very differently,” Reiser says in long letter.

–

Hans Reiser letter to Fredrick Brennan

Enlarge / A portion of the cover letter attached to Hans Reiser’s response to Fredrick Brennan’s prompt about his filesystem’s obsolescence.

Fredrick Brennan

With the ReiserFS recently considered obsolete and slated for removal from the Linux kernel entirely, Fredrick R. Brennan, font designer and (now regretful) founder of 8chan, wrote to the filesystem’s creator, Hans Reiser, asking if he wanted to reply to the discussion on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML).

Reiser, 59, serving a potential life sentence in a California prison for the 2006 murder of his estranged wife, Nina Reiser, wrote back with more than 6,500 words, which Brennan then forwarded to the LKML. It’s not often you see somebody apologize for killing their wife, explain their coding decisions around balanced trees versus extensible hashing, and suggest that elementary schools offer the same kinds of emotional intelligence curriculum that they’ve worked through in prison, in a software mailing list. It’s quite a document.

What follows is a relative summary of Reiser’s letter, dated November 26, 2023, which we first saw on the Phoronix blog, and which, by all appearances, is authentic (or would otherwise be an epic bit of minutely detailed fraud for no particular reason). It covers, broadly, why Reiser believes his system failed to gain mindshare among Linux users, beyond the most obvious reason. This leads Reiser to detail the technical possibilities, his interpersonal and leadership failings and development, some lingering regrets about dealings with SUSE and Oracle and the Linux community at large, and other topics, including modern Russian geopolitics.

“LKML and Slashdot.org seem like reasonable places to send it (as of 2006)”

In a cover letter, Reiser tells Brennan that he hopes he can use OCR to import his lengthy letter and asks him to use his best judgment in where to send his reply. He also asks, if he has time, Brennan might send him information on “Reiser5, or any interesting papers on other Filesystems, compression (especially Deep Learning based compression), etc.”

Then Reiser addresses the kernel mailing list directly—very directly:

I was asked by a kind Fredrick Brennan for my comments that I might offer on the discussion of removing ReiserFS V3 from the kernel. I don’t post directly because I am in prison for killing my wife Nina in 2006.

I am very sorry for my crime–a proper apology would be off topic for this forum, but available to any who ask.

A detailed apology for how I interacted with the Linux kernel community, and some history of V3 and V4, are included, along with descriptions of what the technical issues were. I have been attending prison workshops, and working hard on improving my social skills to aid my becoming less of a danger to society. The man I am now would do things very differently from how I did things then.

ReiserFS V3 was “our first filesystem, and in doing it we made mistakes, because we didn’t know what we were doing,” Reiser writes. He worked through “years of dark depression” to get V3 up to the performance speeds of ext2, but regrets how he celebrated that milestone. “The man I was then presented papers with benchmarks showing that ReiserFS was faster than ext2. The man I am now would stat his papers … crediting them for being faster than the filesystems of other operating systems, and thanking them for the years we used their filesystem to write ours.” It was “my first serious social mistake in the Linux community, and it was completely unnecessary.”

Reiser asks that a number of people who worked on ReiserFS be included in “one last release” of the README, and to “delete anything in there I might have said about why they were not credited.” He says prison has changed him in conflict resolution and with his “tendency to see people in extremes.”

Reiser extensively praises Mikhail Gilula, the “brightest mind in his generation of computer scientists,” for his work on ReiserFS from Russia and for his ideas on rewriting everything the field knew about data structures. With their ideas on filesystems and namespaces combined, it would be “the most important refactoring of code ever.” His analogy at the time, Reiser wrote, was Adam Smith’s ideas of how roads, waterways, and free trade affected civilization development; ReiserFS’ ideas could similarly change “the expressive power of the operating system.”

Convicted murderer, filesystem creator writes of regrets to Linux list Read More »

study-finds-bigfoot-sightings-correlate-with-black-bear-populations

Study finds bigfoot sightings correlate with black bear populations

bears, bigfoot, crytozoology, Science, zoology / /

Bearly believable —

The big conclusion: “If bigfoot is there, it could be a bear.”

–

A black bear standing on its hind paws surrounded by greenery in a forest with a blurry background

Enlarge / Black bears will frequently stand on their hind legs, which may increase their misidentification.

The idea that North America is home to a completely unknown primate species just doesn’t seem to go away. Years after everyone started walking around with high-quality cameras in their phones, there still haven’t been any clear images of a bigfoot. But that hasn’t stopped a steady flow of purported sightings.

Now, someone named Floe Foxon has followed up on an earlier analysis and checked for factors that could influence the frequency of bigfoot sightings throughout North America. The results suggest that there’s a strong correlation between sightings and the local black bear population—for every 1,000 bears, the frequency of bigfoot sightings goes up by about 4 percent.

Big (foot) data

It’s easy to see how black bears and bigfoot could be mistaken for each other. Despite their name, the bears come in a wide range of colors, from a golden brown through to a deep reddish one, as well as their namesake black. They’re also large animals and will frequently stand on their hind legs to get a better view of their surroundings. They also frequent the forested areas that are supposedly bigfoot’s favored terrain. Foxon even quotes a reported bigfoot sighting as saying that pictures were obtained but, “One of the pictures looks like a bear.”

Earlier work had used data from the Pacific Northwest to show that the presence of bears correlated with the frequency of bigfoot sightings. But Foxon decided to expand the analysis, bringing in the rest of the US and Canada.

The most recent comprehensive, peer-reviewed data on black bear populations dates from 2006, so the analysis was performed using data from that year. Even so, a number of states and provinces had to be excluded. Sadly for Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, there were no known black bear populations in those states in 2006. And good population numbers weren’t available for Rhode Island, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, and Nova Scotia. So, while the work is more comprehensive than the Pacific Northwest-only analysis, there were still considerable gaps.

Data for sightings came from the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, which maintains a geo-tagged database of reported sightings. National census data was used to determine the human populations in these areas, and estimates of the amount of forested area were also obtained from the Canadian and US governments.

All of these were combined into two different models. In both models, a larger human population was expected to increase the probability of sightings simply due to increased opportunity. Since bigfoot sightings tend to occur in forested areas—and it’s hard to see how a large primate could hide in most other terrains—forests and sightings were also expected to correlate.

Where the bears are

The key difference between the models was whether they included the local black bear population or not. The model with a bear variable provided a much better fit to the data, suggesting that mistaken identity is a factor in bigfoot sightings.

Overall, Foxon found that, with forested areas and the human population taken into account, there’s about one bigfoot sighting for every 5,000 black bears. Each additional 1,000 bears raises the probability of a sighting by about 4 percent. Hence, the conclusion that “if bigfoot is there, it could be a bear.”

That’s not to say bears account for everything. Foxon notes that there are states without a known breeding population of bears that still have bigfoot sightings. And the human population levels could contribute as a source of mistaken identities in addition to raising the opportunity for sightings.

The paper also suggests that this finding could be helpful for bear conservation, as the frequency of bigfoot sightings may provide a proxy measure for the number of black bears present and thus could provide an independent method of tracking population changes.

Journal of Zoology, 2024. DOI: 10.1111/jzo.13148  (About DOIs).

Study finds bigfoot sightings correlate with black bear populations Read More »

inventor-of-ntp-protocol-that-keeps-time-on-billions-of-devices-dies-at-age-85

Inventor of NTP protocol that keeps time on billions of devices dies at age 85

1985, ARPANET, Biz & IT, Dave Mills, FTP, internet history, Internet pioneers, network time protocol, NSFNET, NTP, Ping, retrotech, Tech, The Internet, Vint Cerf / /

A legend in his own time —

Dave Mills created NTP, the protocol that holds the temporal Internet together, in 1985.

–

A photo of David L. Mills taken by David Woolley on April 27, 2005.

Enlarge / A photo of David L. Mills taken by David Woolley on April 27, 2005.

David Woolley / Benj Edwards / Getty Images

On Thursday, Internet pioneer Vint Cerf announced that Dr. David L. Mills, the inventor of Network Time Protocol (NTP), died peacefully at age 85 on January 17, 2024. The announcement came in a post on the Internet Society mailing list after Cerf was informed of David’s death by Mills’ daughter, Leigh.

“He was such an iconic element of the early Internet,” wrote Cerf.

Dr. Mills created the Network Time Protocol (NTP) in 1985 to address a crucial challenge in the online world: the synchronization of time across different computer systems and networks. In a digital environment where computers and servers are located all over the world, each with its own internal clock, there’s a significant need for a standardized and accurate timekeeping system.

NTP provides the solution by allowing clocks of computers over a network to synchronize to a common time source. This synchronization is vital for everything from data integrity to network security. For example, NTP keeps network financial transaction timestamps accurate, and it ensures accurate and synchronized timestamps for logging and monitoring network activities.

In the 1970s, during his tenure at COMSAT and involvement with ARPANET (the precursor to the Internet), Mills first identified the need for synchronized time across computer networks. His solution aligned computers to within tens of milliseconds. NTP now operates on billions of devices worldwide, coordinating time across every continent, and has become a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure.

As detailed in an excellent 2022 New Yorker profile by Nate Hopper, Mills faced significant challenges in maintaining and evolving the protocol, especially as the Internet grew in scale and complexity. His work highlighted the often under-appreciated role of key open source software developers (a topic explored quite well in a 2020 xkcd comic). Mills was born with glaucoma and lost his sight, eventually becoming completely blind. Due to difficulties with his sight, Mills turned over control of the protocol to Harlan Stenn in the 2000s.

A screenshot of Dr. David L. Mills' website at the University of Delaware captured on January 19, 2024.

Enlarge / A screenshot of Dr. David L. Mills’ website at the University of Delaware captured on January 19, 2024.

Aside from his work on NTP, Mills also invented the first “Fuzzball router” for NSFNET (one of the first modern routers, based on the DEC PDP-11 computer), created one of the first implementations of FTP, inspired the creation of “ping,” and played a key role in Internet architecture as the first chairman of the Internet Architecture Task Force.

Mills was widely recognized for his work, becoming a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery in 1999 and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2002, as well as receiving the IEEE Internet Award in 2013 for contributions to network protocols and timekeeping in the development of the Internet.

Mills received his PhD in Computer and Communication Sciences from the University of Michigan in 1971. At the time of his death, Mills was an emeritus professor at the University of Delaware, having retired in 2008 after teaching there for 22 years.

Inventor of NTP protocol that keeps time on billions of devices dies at age 85 Read More »

amazon’s-purchase-of-roomba-maker-irobot-likely-to-be-blocked-by-eu

Amazon’s purchase of Roomba-maker iRobot likely to be blocked by EU

amazon irobot, amazon roomba, irobot roomba, Policy / /

Amazon/iRobot merger —

Amazon was told at meeting that deal is likely to be rejected, WSJ reports.

–

A store shelf holds several boxes that contain Roomba vacuum cleaners.

Getty Images | SOPA Images

European Union regulators intend to block Amazon’s attempt to purchase Roomba-maker iRobot, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

European Commission competition officials “met Thursday with representatives from Amazon to discuss the deal,” the Journal wrote, citing people familiar with the matter. “Amazon was told during the meeting that the deal was likely to be rejected,” according to one of the Journal’s sources.

Amazon announced the $1.7 billion deal in August 2022. The EC has a February 14 deadline to reach a decision. European officials have said that Amazon could restrict the availability of Roomba rivals on the Amazon online retail store.

A move to block the iRobot purchase “would still need formal approval from the commission’s 27 top political leaders before a final decision can be issued,” the WSJ article said. “Historically, that process is unlikely to overrule a recommendation from the bloc’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager.”

Amazon declined to comment when contacted by Ars today but pointed us toward a statement by lobby group Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA). “If the objective is to have more competition in the home robotics sector, this makes no sense,” CCIA President Matt Schruers said. “There is no plausible risk to competition from a US retailer acquiring a struggling US vacuum maker in a sector overtaken by dynamic Chinese manufacturers. Blocking this deal may well leave consumers with fewer options, and regulators cannot sweep that fact under the rug.”

EC told Amazon deal may restrict competition

In November 2023, the EC announced that it had “informed Amazon of its preliminary view that its proposed acquisition of iRobot may restrict competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners.” The EC sent a statement of objections, a formal step in the process that could lead to a merger being blocked.

“Amazon may have the ability and the incentive to foreclose iRobot’s rivals,” the EC’s November statement said. The regulatory body said that Amazon could punish rival sellers of robot vacuum cleaners (RVCs) on its online store.

Possible Amazon tactics cited by the EC included “delisting rival RVCs; reducing visibility of rival RVCs in both non-paid (i.e., organic) and paid results (i.e., advertisements) displayed in Amazon’s marketplace; limiting access to certain widgets (e.g. ‘other products you may like’) or certain commercially attractive product labels (e.g. ‘Amazon’s choice’ or ‘Works With Alexa’); and/or directly or indirectly raising the costs of iRobot’s rivals to advertise and sell their RVCs on Amazon’s marketplace.”

Last week, Amazon missed a deadline to offer European officials remedies to address their concerns about the deal’s impact on competition.

As of this writing, iRobot’s stock price was down about 27 percent today. Amazon’s stock price was up around 1 percent.

Amazon’s purchase of Roomba-maker iRobot likely to be blocked by EU Read More »

google-search-is-losing-the-fight-with-seo-spam,-study-says

Google search is losing the fight with SEO spam, study says

Google, google search, spam, Tech / /

Just wait until more AI sites arrive —

Study finds “search engines seem to lose the cat-and-mouse game that is SEO spam.”

–

Google search is losing the fight with SEO spam, study says

It’s not just you—Google Search is getting worse. A new study from Leipzig University, Bauhaus-University Weimar, and the Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence looked at Google search quality for a year and found the company is losing the war against SEO (Search Engine Optimization) spam.

The study, first spotted by 404media, “monitored Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo for a year on 7,392 product review queries,” using queries like “best headphones” to study search results. The focus was on product review queries because the researchers felt those searches were “particularly vulnerable to affiliate marketing due to its inherent conflict of interest between users, search providers, and content providers.”

Overall, the study found that “the majority of high-ranking product reviews in the result pages of commercial search engines (SERPs) use affiliate marketing, and significant amounts are outright SEO product review spam.” Search engines occasionally update their ranking algorithms to try to combat spam, but the study found that “search engines seem to lose the cat-and-mouse game that is SEO spam” and that there are “strong correlations between search engine rankings and affiliate marketing, as well as a trend toward simplified, repetitive, and potentially AI-generated content.”

The study found “an inverse relationship between a page’s optimization level and its perceived expertise, indicating that SEO may hurt at least subjective page quality.” Google and its treatment of pages is the primary force behind what does and doesn’t count as SEO, and to say Google’s guidelines reduce subjective page quality is a strike against Google’s entire ranking algorithm.

The bad news is that it doesn’t seem like this will get better any time soon. The study points out generative AI sites one or two times, but that was only in the past year. The elephant in the room is that generative AI is starting to be able to completely automate the processes of SEO spam. Some AI content farms can scan a human-written site, use it for “training data,” rewrite it slightly, and then stave off the actual humans with more aggressive SEO tactics. There are already people bragging about doing AI-powered “SEO heists” on X (formerly Twitter). The New York Times is taking OpenAI to court for copyright infringement, and a class-action suit for book publishers calls ChatGPT and LLaMA (Large Language Model Meta AI) “industrial-strength plagiarists.” Artists are in the same boat from tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. Most websites do not have the legal capacity to take on an infinite wave of automated spam sites enabled by these tools. Google’s policy is to not penalize AI-generated content in its search results.

A Google spokesperson responded to the study by pointing out that Google is still doing better than its competition: “This particular study looked narrowly at product review content, and it doesn’t reflect the overall quality and helpfulness of Search for the billions of queries we see every day. We’ve launched specific improvements to address these issues – and the study itself points out that Google has improved over the past year and is performing better than other search engines. More broadly, numerous third parties have measured search engine results for other types of queries and found Google to be of significantly higher quality than the rest.”

This post was updated at 6: 00PM ET to add a statement from Google.

Google search is losing the fight with SEO spam, study says Read More »

ford’s-ceo-gives-us-a-ride-in-the-crazy-electric-transit-supervan-4.2

Ford’s CEO gives us a ride in the crazy electric transit Supervan 4.2

Cars, electric van, Ford Performance, Ford Supervan, racing, vantime / /

Its a bird, its a train, no it’s supervan —

You don’t often get the head of the company giving rides in an EV demonstrator.

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Ford Supervan 4.2 lights up its tires in the pitlane

Enlarge / Everyone loves a good van, and Supervan 4.2 is a very good van.

Ford

Concorde, NC—On Wednesday, Ford Performance held an official launch event for the 2024 season. The new GT3 version of the Mustang makes its competition debut at next weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, marking the start of a new approach to racing for the Blue Oval, one that involves selling customer race cars as a business line, not just a factory team. While we were there, we also rode in a new electric racing truck demonstrator, but the main reason I got on the short flight down to Charlotte was to check out one of the most delightfully weird race cars of the past few years, the Ford Transit Supervan 4.2.

It’s the latest in a line of wild demonstrator vehicles based on the venerable Transit van, Ford’s commercial workhorse in Europe and, increasingly, the US. Ford started making an electric version of the Transit a couple of years ago, and when we drove that electric van, I might have driven a couple of the engineers and PR people to tears by repeatedly asking them, “So, are you going to make a Supervan version of this, too?”

The first Supervan dates back to 1970 (or maybe 1971), when someone had the bright idea to stick a Transit body shell on a Ford GT40 race car chassis as a way to promote the new van. The 1980s and 1990s saw two new Supervans, this time using Formula 1 engines. Now that EVs are the new hotness, the appeal of an electric Supervan probably seemed obvious.

  • It’s definitely Transit-shaped.

    Ford

  • Supervan has a new livery compared to its Pikes Peak run.

    Jonathan Gitlin

  • The wings and diffuser create more than 4,400 lbs (2,000 kg) of downforce.

    Jonathan Gitlin

  • OK, you get less cargo volume than in a production Transit, thanks to the aerodynamic styling.

    Jonathan Gitlin

Ford worked with an Austrian motorsports company, STARD, to develop Supervan 4, which made its debut at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Last year, a heavily revised version, now called Supervan 4.2, was built for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, one of the more challenging races still held today and an event where EVs excel—unlike internal combustion engines, electric motors and batteries don’t lose any power as they climb into thin air above 14,000 feet (4,270 m).

Like the previous Supervans, this did not start with a production vehicle that got souped up; it’s a custom spaceframe with composite body panels that just happens to look mostly Transit-shaped, albeit with some wild aerodynamic appendages to keep all four wheels pressed to the ground. It does have some cargo capacity behind the two-seat cockpit, though, and a tow hook at the back. Strapped into the passenger seat, I couldn’t help noticing an infotainment screen from a Mustang Mach-E.

Supervan 4.2 is actually a little less powerful than the 2022 version, going from a 1,973-hp (1,471 kW) four-motor arrangement to a 1,408-hp (1,050 kW) three-motor configuration for Pikes Peak. The motors draw energy from a 50 kWh battery pack, complete with a CCS fast charging port capable of up to 350 kW fast charging. (At Charlotte Motor Speedway, the mechanics and engineers used a portable 60 kW fast-charger connected to a 600 kWh storage battery in the paddock to top up Supervan between sessions.)

  • The air jack (left) and CCS (right) charging port. The native port is CCS2, because Supervan 4.2 was built in Europe, but the crew had an adapter that lets them charge at US CC1 DC charging stations if necessary.

    Jonathan Gitlin

  • I love the production infotainment screen from the Ford Mustang Mach-E, and the fact that it still uses the same user interface, even if the software modes are different.

    Jonathan Gitlin

  • Yes, that’s a tow hitch.

    Jonathan Gitlin

  • Supervan’s tires were probably warmer than the rest of us on a very chilly day in Charlotte.

    Jonathan Gitlin

Getting a ride in something cool like Supervan 4.2 is an occupational hazard in this job. What’s less common is being chauffeured for that ride by the company’s CEO. But our driver was indeed Ford CEO Jim Farley, who is rather handy behind the wheel.

“We don’t want to make generic vehicles at Ford anymore,” Farley told us that morning before explaining that the company’s new strategy is for Ford Performance to become a sustainable business and not just a marketing strategy that ebbs and flows depending on whether there are enough motorsport fans in the C-suite. After all, Ford got its start after Henry Ford proved his new creation in competition.

But Farley explained that he also learned from the late Ken Block that “he taught us… that in this world of enthusiasts, digital content is super-important for customers and brands. And so we continue to commit to doing demonstrators like the Supervan 4 and others that are there for one reason: to have fun. To generate digital content so people can just enjoy having fun in vehicles, and some of them don’t make any sense, like Supervan 4.”

My ride was brutal—1,900 lb-ft (2,576 Nm) has that effect—and rather brief—it took about 90 seconds to leave the pit lane, negotiate the relatively tight infield at Charlotte, then return back to the pits, where Farley brought us to a halt with a nicely executed 180-degree turn.

Come for a short ride with us in Ford’s Supervan 4.2 EV demonstrator.

Supervan 4.2’s next adventure is going to be a trip Down Under—Ford is taking it to Mount Panorama in Australia to put on demonstration runs ahead of this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour race. It won’t be defending its class win at Pikes Peak in June, but Farley told us to expect a different, as-yet unrevealed EV demonstrator for the 2024 event.

Ford’s CEO gives us a ride in the crazy electric transit Supervan 4.2 Read More »

youtube-appears-to-be-reducing-video-and-site-performance-for-ad-block-users

YouTube appears to be reducing video and site performance for ad-block users

ad blockers, Google, Tech, youtube / /

Surely this is an accident —

Latest consensus is that YouTube performance issues seem to be Adblock Plus’ fault.

– Updated

YouTube appears to be reducing video and site performance for ad-block users

Future Publishing | Getty Images

YouTube appeared to be continuing its war on ad blockers, with users complaining that the company was slowing down the site for users it catches running an ad blocker. 9to5Google spotted this Reddit thread filled with users seeing poor loading performance with ad blockers enabled.

A video at the top of the Reddit post shows what some users are seeing: A video with an ad blocker on can’t load quickly enough to keep up with the playback speed (which isn’t on normal; it’s maybe 2x) and has to pause at around 30 seconds. Turning off the ad blocker immediately improves loading performance, with the white line on YouTube’s progress bar showing significantly more buffering runway. Users report that the ad-block detection causes strange issues, like “lag” that makes full screen or comments not work or Chrome being unable to load other webpages while YouTube is open.

YouTube has used all sorts of tactics to get people to turn off ad blockers and subscribe to YouTube Premium. The company previously has been showing pop-up messages saying ad blockers violate YouTube terms of service. Earlier, the company was caught adding a five-second delay to the initial site load for ad blockers. The changes have kicked off a cat-and-mouse game between Google/YouTube and the ad blocker community.

But the slowdowns may be a big accident from ad blockers altering YouTube’s code: Adblock Plus has published a bug report covering “performance issues” introduced by version 3.22 and says things should be fixed in version 3.22.1. uBlock Origin developer Raymond Hill says the issue is limited to AdBlock Plus and its spinoffs and that blaming YouTube is “an incorrect diagnosis.”

Regardless of whether this is due to the updated Adblock code, it’s not the first time this has happened with YouTube. The straightforward thing would be to show more of these pop-ups and not send people on a wild goose chase after fake technical issues. Users in the thread certainly seem confused about why YouTube suddenly stopped working. The top comment says, “I thought there was something wrong with my internet connection,” while another high-ranking user’s comment was to plan to reinstall Chrome.

This post was updated on January 15 at 4: 20 pm ET with Adblock Plus’ bug report information and developer Raymond Hill’s statement.

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First streaming-only NFL Playoff game breaks records with 23 million viewers

Tech / /

Still a ratings juggernaut —

Despite griping from fans, the Peacock-exclusive game did NFL-class numbers.

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JANUARY 13: NFL Wild Card signage on field prior to an NFL Super Wild Card Weekend playoff game between the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on January 13, 2024, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Enlarge / JANUARY 13: NFL Wild Card signage on field prior to an NFL Super Wild Card Weekend playoff game between the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on January 13, 2024, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Kara Durrette/Getty Images

The NFL playoffs started this past weekend, and with it came the first streaming-only playoff game. Usually, premium NFL games like the playoffs are on one of the major TV networks nationwide, but the Dolphin/Chiefs wildcard game was exclusively available on Comcast/NBC’s Peacock streaming service outside. NFL fans weren’t particularly happy about having to sign up for some random streaming service to watch a playoff game, but that didn’t stop many people from actually signing up, with Nielsen logging 23 million average streaming viewers for the game.

NBC says that 23 million viewers make the game “the most streamed event ever in US history” and “a milestone moment in media and sports history.” Nationally, the game was exclusively on Peacock, but local TV broadcasts were still available in the Miami and Kansas City metro areas, so 27.6 million people watched the game. The NFL hasn’t announced the ratings for the other playoff games yet, but last year, the wildcard round averaged 28.4 million viewers per game, so this got in range of that. On paper, this was one of the better games of the weekend, featuring the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the high-flying Dolphins’ offense, and it was in prime time, so with a traditional broadcast, this was probably due for above-average ratings. Peacock exclusivity reduced the audience somewhat, but it still attained NFL-class numbers.

Surprisingly, Peacock managed to survive pretty well. There aren’t widespread reports out there of major problems. Previously, the service had an exclusive regular-season game, a Bills-Chargers week 16 matchup on December 23 that drew 7.2 million viewers. That game helped work out the growing pains for Peacock, with users complaining of poor streaming quality and muted colors.

The NFL is basically the only institution keeping traditional broadcast TV alive. Of the top 100 highest-rated US TV broadcasts in 2023, a staggering 93 of them were NFL games. Lucrative TV contracts will keep most games on broadcast TV for the foreseeable future, but even the NFL is slowly transitioning to streaming. The weekly Thursday Night Football game is now exclusive to Amazon Prime; ESPN+ gets one exclusive game per season, and Peacock has these two games this year. The biggest NFL package, NFL Sunday Ticket, which gives fans about 13 out-of-market games every Sunday, moved from DirecTV to YouTube TV this season. The NFL even has its own streaming platform, NFL+, though it takes a backseat to partner services.

Fans looking to watch the game on Peacock this weekend were forced to fork over $5.99 for “one month” of the service. With the numbers the game turned in, it doesn’t seem like the NFL streaming transition will be slowing down any time soon.

First streaming-only NFL Playoff game breaks records with 23 million viewers Read More »

verizon-won’t-stop-charging-$3.30-“telco-recovery”-fee,-may-raise-it-again

Verizon won’t stop charging $3.30 “Telco Recovery” fee, may raise it again

Policy, verizon administrative charge, verizon class action settlement / /
A large Verizon logo on the outside of one of the company's stores.

Enlarge / A Verizon store in New York on July 3, 2023.

Getty Images | Bloomberg

Verizon Wireless customers may get up to $100 each as part of a $100 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit over Verizon’s monthly “Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge.”

But as is typical in class-action settlements, Verizon isn’t admitting any wrongdoing. It also plans to keep charging the monthly fee and says it may raise it in the future.

Settlement notification emails with unique codes for submitting claims have been going out to eligible Verizon customers over the past week. The emails were still being distributed as of last night, so you might still be in line for a payout even if you haven’t received one yet. Postcard notices are also being sent.

Verizon’s Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge for wireless phones and other devices is $3.30 per line after being raised from $1.95 in mid-2022. It was originally called the “Administrative Charge” but was renamed to include “telco recovery” at around the same time as the price increase.

“Verizon has denied and continues to deny that it did anything wrong and that the lawsuit has any merit,” the settlement notification emails say. “Verizon states that it will continue to charge the Administrative Charge and that it has the right to increase the Administrative Charge.”

The emails direct customers to the settlement website. US-based customers “who received postpaid wireless or data services from Verizon and who were charged and paid an Administrative Charge between January 1, 2016 and November 8, 2023” are eligible and must file a claim by April 15, 2024, to receive a payment.

Verizon fee covers taxes, normal business costs

Like other vaguely explained telco fees, the Verizon charge makes the real price paid by consumers higher than the rates Verizon advertises. The fee is not mandated by the government, but Verizon tells customers that it covers regulatory obligations, taxes, and various expenses that are just part of the cost of doing business for an operator of a nationwide cellular network.

As Verizon’s website states, the charge helps cover a wide range of expenses, such as the “costs of complying with regulatory and industry obligations and programs, such as E911, wireless local number portability and wireless tower mandate costs; property taxes; and costs associated with our network, including facilities (e.g., leases), operations, maintenance and protection, and costs paid to other companies for network services.”

The class-action complaint filed in a New Jersey Superior Court alleged that “the Administrative Charge is never adequately or honestly disclosed to customers… Verizon utilizes the Administrative Charge to unlawfully charge its customers more per month for Verizon wireless services without having to advertise the higher monthly rates.”

The charge was introduced in 2005 at a rate of $0.40 per month, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit did not try to force Verizon to stop charging the fee but said Verizon should “honestly and adequately disclose the Administrative Charge and its true nature and basis in Verizon’s customer bills and in communications with Class members at or before the time the wireless services contract is created,” and reimburse users “for any and all undisclosed (or inadequately disclosed) extra-contractual fees they were forced to pay.”

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report:-black-market-keeps-nvidia-chips-flowing-to-china-military,-government

Report: Black market keeps Nvidia chips flowing to China military, government

AI chips, biden administration, china, Chinese community part, people's liberation army, Policy, semiconductors, us chips ban / /

Out of control —

Unknown suppliers keep Nvidia’s most advanced chips within China’s reach.

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An Nvidia H100 graphics processor chip.

Enlarge / An Nvidia H100 graphics processor chip.

China is still finding ways to skirt US export controls on Nvidia chips, Reuters reported.

A Reuters review of publicly available tender documents showed that last year dozens of entities—including “Chinese military bodies, state-run artificial intelligence research institutes, and universities”—managed to buy “small batches” of restricted Nvidia chips.

The US has been attempting to block China from accessing advanced chips needed to achieve AI breakthroughs and advance modern military technologies since September 2022, citing national security risks.

Reuters’ report shows just how unsuccessful the US effort has been to completely cut off China, despite repeated US attempts to expand export controls and close any loopholes discovered over the past year.

China’s current suppliers remain “largely unknown,” but Reuters confirmed that “neither Nvidia” nor its approved retailers counted “among the suppliers identified.”

An Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters that the company “complies with all applicable export control laws and requires its customers to do the same.”

“If we learn that a customer has made an unlawful resale to third parties, we’ll take immediate and appropriate action,” Nvidia’s spokesperson said.

It’s also still unclear how suppliers are procuring the chips, which include Nvidia’s most powerful chips, the A100 and H100, in addition to slower modified chips developed just for the Chinese market, the A800 and H800. The former chips were among the first banned, while the US only began restricting the latter chips last October.

Among military and government groups purchasing chips were two top universities that the US Department of Commerce has linked to China’s principal military force, the People’s Liberation Army, and labeled as a threat to national security. Last May, the Harbin Institute of Technology purchased six Nvidia A100 chips to “train a deep-learning model,” and in December 2022, the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China purchased one A100 for purposes so far unknown, Reuters reported.

Other entities purchasing chips include Tsinghua University—which is seemingly gaining the most access, purchasing “some 80 A100 chips since the 2022 ban”—as well as Chongqing University, Shandong Chengxiang Electronic Technology, and “one unnamed People’s Liberation Army entity based in the city of Wuxi, Jiangsu province.”

In total, Reuters reviewed more than 100 tenders showing state entities purchasing A100 chips and dozens of tenders documenting A800 purchases. Purchases include “brand new” chips and have been made as recently as this month.

Most of the chips purchased by Chinese entities are being used for AI, Reuters reported. None of the purchasers or suppliers provided comments in Reuters’ report.

Nvidia’s highly sought-after chips are graphic processing units capable of crunching large amounts of data at the high speeds needed to fuel AI systems. For now, these chips remain irreplaceable to Chinese firms hoping to compete globally, as well as nationally, with China’s dominant technology players, such as Huawei, Reuters suggested.

While the “small batches” of chips found indicate that China could still be accessing enough Nvidia chips to enhance “existing AI models,” Reuters pointed out that US curbs are effectively stopping China from bulk-ordering chips at quantities needed to develop new AI systems. Running a “model similar to OpenAI’s GPT would require more than 30,000 Nvidia A100 cards,” research firm TrendForce reported last March.

For China, which has firmly opposed the US export controls every step of the way, these curbs remain a persistent problem despite maintaining access through the burgeoning black market. On Monday, a Bloomberg report flagged the “steepest drop” in the value of China chip imports ever recorded, falling by more than 15 percent.

China’s black market for AI chips

The US still must confront whether it’s possible to block China from accessing advanced chips without other allied nations joining the effort by lobbying their own export controls.

In October 2022, a senior US official warned that without more cooperation, US curbs will “lose effectiveness over time.” A former top Commerce Department official, Kevin Wolf, told The Wall Street Journal last year that it’s “insanely difficult to enforce” US export controls on transactions overseas.

Part of the problem, sources told Reuters in October 2023, is that overseas subsidiaries were “easily” smuggling restricted chips into China or else providing remote access to chips to China-based employees.

On top of that activity, a black market for chips developed quickly, selling “excess stock that finds its way to the market after Nvidia ships large quantities to big US firms” or else chips imported “through companies locally incorporated in places such as India, Taiwan, and Singapore,” Reuters reported.

The US has maintained that its plan is not to ensure that China has absolutely no access but to limit access enough to keep China from getting ahead. But Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has warned that curbs could have the opposite effect. While China finds ways to skirt the bans and acquire chips to “inspire” advancements, US companies that have been impacted by export controls restricting sales in China could lose so much revenue that they fall behind competitively, Huang predicted.

One example likely worrying to Huang and other tech firms came last November, when Huawei shocked the US government by unveiling a cutting-edge chip that seemed to prove US sanctions weren’t doing much to limit China’s ability to compete.

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