Author name: Tim Belzer

camera-owner-asks-canon,-skies:-why-is-it-$5/month-for-webcam-software?

Camera owner asks Canon, skies: Why is it $5/month for webcam software?

canon, DSLR, Tech / /

Comparison of webcam software features available to Canon’s “PRO” and “Free” users.

Credit: Roman Zipp/Canon

Comparison of webcam software features available to Canon’s “PRO” and “Free” users. Credit: Roman Zipp/Canon

“Software development isn’t free, and I’m happy to pay for software I use regularly,” Zipp writes. “However, Canon is a hardware company, not a software company, and they should—due to the lack of standards—provide software that allows you to use their cameras as intended. Aside from development costs, there’s no justification for a subscription model, particularly from a company earning nearly $3 billion in profit.”

Zipp’s pointed complaint made the front page of Hacker News, where commenters immediately got sidetracked into a discussion of UK tariff laws on video equipment, sneakers, cookies, and ethanol. But further in, recommendations appear for the open source Magic Lantern camera add-on software, or possibly CHDK (Canon Hack Development Kit) firmware. Whether or not Zipp can better use his camera as a webcam is somewhat beside the point, or at least the point he’s making.

Many higher-end (or at least better-than-smartphone) cameras output video in formats that computers and web conferencing software cannot natively accept. HDMI output is an option, but using that typically requires a capture device and specialty software to mix and use it and that the camera provide “clean” HDMI out, with no overlays. The G5 X Mark II does seem to offer that and has a USB-C port. It also seems to work fine once the software is paid for. It’s an open question whether Canon should provide this as part of the cost of the camera, one for which Zipp and many commenters have an answer.

Ars has reached out to Canon for comment and will update this post if the company responds.

Camera owner asks Canon, skies: Why is it $5/month for webcam software? Read More »

switch-2-sports-~7.9-inch-screen,-33%-bigger-tablet-surface—ars-video-analysis

Switch 2 sports ~7.9-inch screen, 33% bigger tablet surface—Ars video analysis

gaming, nintendo switch 2 / /

A scaled comparison between the Switch 2 and the Steam Deck OLED shows Nintendo’s system has a larger screen despite being narrower.

Credit: Nintendo / Valve / Ars Technica

A scaled comparison between the Switch 2 and the Steam Deck OLED shows Nintendo’s system has a larger screen despite being narrower. Credit: Nintendo / Valve / Ars Technica

This measurement method requires some judgment calls to decide where the edges of certain Switch 2 elements begin and end in the relevant frames. Issues of distortion associated with the camera lens (or video editing on Nintendo’s part) might also affect the precision of the measurements. Still, the results of this calculation should be close enough for a first-order estimate.

Overall, the Switch’s expanded screen size would give it something of a leg up over portable PC competition like the Steam Deck (or Steam Deck OLED) and ROG Ally X. To get a significantly bigger screen on a gaming handheld, you have to look to the Lenovo Legion Go or monsters like the upcoming Acer Nitro Blaze 11. Yet despite the larger screen, the Switch 2 still comes in significantly narrower than competition like the Steam Deck (10.48-inch width with Joy-Cons for the Switch 2 versus 11.7 inches for the Steam Deck).

As for the new Joy-Cons, a lengthening of roughly 13 to 18 percent along either axis should make holding them a little less cramp-inducing for adult hands. And the additional surface area on the joysticks (~43 percent larger) and buttons (~60 percent larger) should make them significantly more comfortable under the thumbs.

We won’t really know how the comparative hardware battle will shake out, though, until we get crucial details from Nintendo about things like the Switch 2’s thickness, weight, screen resolution, and hardware power (not to mention the price, of course). For now, though, at least we can look at these images and measurements and imagine how the next Nintendo console will feel in our hands.

Switch 2 estimated dimensions

(As calculated by Ars Technica, based on freeze frames from the teaser trailer)

Google Docs embed

HTML table

A B C D E F G H I
Switch 2 (approx.) Switch Switch OLED
mm in mm in S2 % + mm in S2 % +
Tablet width 196.1 7.72 173 6.81 13.35% 176 6.93 11.42%
w/ Joy-Cons 266.3 10.48 239 9.41 11.42% 242 9.53 10.04%
Tablet height 115.7 4.56 102 4.02 13.43% 102 4.02 13.43%
Tablet footprint area 22,689 35.17 17,054 26.43 33.04% 17,952 27.82 26.39%
w/ Joy-Cons 30,811 47.75 24,378 37.78 26.39% 24,684 38.26 24.82%
Screen width 175 6.89 137 5.39 27.74% 155 6.10 12.90%
Screen height 98.5 3.88 77 3.03 27.92% 87 3.43 13.22%
Screen diagonal 201 7.91 157.5 6.20 27.62% 177.8 7.00 13.05%
Screen area (^2) 17,237 26.72 10,549 16.35 63.40% 13,485 20.90 27.82%
Joy-Con height 116 4.57 102 4.02 13.73%
Joy-Con width 42.4 1.67 35.9 1.41 18.11%
Joy-Con footprint area (^2) 4918 7.62 3,662 5.68 34.32%
Joystick diameter 17.94 0.71 15 0.59 19.60%
Joystick surface area (^2) 253 0.39 177 0.27 43.04%
Face button diameter 9.15 0.36 7.24 0.29 26.38%

Face button surface area (^2)

 66 0.10 41 0.06 59.73%

Switch 2 sports ~7.9-inch screen, 33% bigger tablet surface—Ars video analysis Read More »

wegovy-and-ozempic-top-list-of-15-drugs-up-for-next-price-negotiations

Wegovy and Ozempic top list of 15 drugs up for next price negotiations

health / /

Blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drugs Wegovy and Ozempic top the list of 15 drugs selected for the second round of federal price negotiations, which are scheduled to begin this year, with resulting bargained prices going into effect in 2027.

The first round of negotiations, involving 10 high-cost drugs, wrapped up in August, with resulting prices being 38 percent to 79 percent lower than list prices. Those negotiated prices will go into effect in 2026 and are expected to save people with Medicare prescription drug coverage $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs.

“Last year we proved that negotiating for lower drug prices works,” Xavier Becerra, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said in a statement. “Now we plan to build on that record by negotiating for lower prices for 15 additional important drugs for seniors.”

The list of 15 drugs in the next round is below, in the order provided by HHS. According to the health department, about 5.3 million people with Medicare prescription drug coverage used at least one of these drugs between 2023 and 2024. In that time frame, they collectively accounted for about $41 billion in total gross covered prescription drug costs, or about 14 percent.

1 Ozempic; Rybelsus; Wegovy Weight loss, Type 2 diabetes
2 Trelegy Ellipta Asthma and COPD
3 Xtandi Prostate cancer
4 Pomalyst Multiple myeloma and Kaposi sarcoma
5 Ibrance Breast cancer
6 Ofev Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
7 Linzess IBS and chronic constipation
8 Calquence Blood cancers
9 Austedo; Austedo XR Huntington’s disease
10 Breo Ellipta Asthma and COPD
11 Tradjenta Type 2 diabetes
12 Xifaxan Diarrhea and irritable bowel syndrome
13 Vraylar Mental health and mood disorders
14 Janumet; Janumet XR Type 2 diabetes
15 Otezla Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis

Topping the list are three versions of semaglutide drugs sold by Novo Nordisk: Wegovy, used for weight loss and to reduce the risks of cardiovascular disease; Ozempic, used for Type 2 diabetes; and Rybelsus, used for Type 2 diabetes. The drugs are as costly as they are popular. Wegovy has a list price of around $1,350, while Ozempic’s is nearly $1,000.

Wegovy and Ozempic top list of 15 drugs up for next price negotiations Read More »

girl-strangled-by-her-own-wheelchair-as-bus-monitor-texted,-checked-instagram

Girl strangled by her own wheelchair as bus monitor texted, checked Instagram

distracted driving, New Jersey, Policy, texting / /

Cell phones are magnets for our attention, but you can, of course, face significant legal jeopardy for giving them that attention. Just ask the “safety driver” of an Uber self-driving vehicle, which hit and killed a pedestrian in Arizona in 2018. According to authorities, the driver was watching The Voice on Hulu just before the crash—and was then charged with negligent homicide.

These kinds of cases are always tragic because they feel so easily avoidable, but they also happen with enough regularity that it’s easy to tune them out. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,308 people were killed by distracted drivers in 2022 alone—and “texting is the most alarming distraction.”

That’s why states continue to crack down on cell phone use while driving. A Colorado law that went into effect on January 1, for instance, bans a driver from using any mobile electronic device unless it is hands-free. Thirty US states now have such bans in place.

But a trial that wrapped up in New Jersey this week caught my attention, because it is one of the sadder and stranger examples of cell phone-mediated distraction while in a vehicle. A young girl died, and a 28-year-old woman is probably going to jail, but this is not your typical tale of texting while driving. Texting was involved—34 times, in fact—but driving had nothing to do with what happened.

Child endangerment

The trial was about an incident in Franklin Township, New Jersey, on July 17, 2023, when a 6-year-old girl named Fajr Williams got on a bus to attend a summer program. Williams had disabilities and was confined to her wheelchair. The bus had a spot for anchoring wheelchairs to the ground, and it had a ride-along bus monitor named Amanda Davila, 28, who was supposed to watch and assist kids like Williams.

According to state prosecutors, Williams was properly strapped into her wheelchair and had been taken down to the bus by her older sister. Williams was then loaded onto the bus, but her chair was not allegedly attached to the floor correctly, nor were the proper seatbelts used. As a result, while the bus drove its route to school that morning, Williams began to slide down the seat of her wheelchair. (She could not control her trunk movements normally, and so she was unable to sit back up.) At some point in the ride, she slid low enough that her chair’s own four-point harness, which was meant to keep her upright, began to choke her. By the time the bus arrived at school, William had been strangled to death.

Girl strangled by her own wheelchair as bus monitor texted, checked Instagram Read More »

new-glenn-to-make-another-launch-attempt-early-thursday

New Glenn to make another launch attempt early Thursday

blue origin, new glenn, Space / /

However, weather at the launch site remained a concern. According to forecasters at the 45th Space Wing, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, there was a 70 percent chance unfavorable launch conditions. Concerns include cumulus clouds, thick clouds, and liftoff winds.

For one or both of these reasons, shortly after 8 pm ET on Monday the company waved off a launch attempt for later that night. This necessitated a 48-hour delay because a Falcon 9 rocket carrying two private lunar landers, one built by Firefly and the other ispace, is due to launch during a similar early morning window on Wednesday.

Therefore Blue Origin is now targeting a window from 1 am ET (06: 00 UTC) to 4 am ET on Thursday for the much-anticipated debut of the New Glenn rocket. Blue Origin again plans to provide a webcast carrying live coverage of New Glenn’s launch attempt on the company’s website.

Note: This story was updated after Blue Origin’s decision to forego a Tuesday morning launch attempt.

New Glenn to make another launch attempt early Thursday Read More »

biofilms,-unwashed-hands:-fda-found-violations-at-mcdonald’s-ex-onion-supplier

Biofilms, unwashed hands: FDA found violations at McDonald’s ex-onion supplier

E. coli, fda, food safety, health, inspection, mcdonalds, onions, outbreak, taylor farms / /

Perhaps most concerning, FDA inspectors noted that employees were never seen washing their hands. Instead, they wore gloves, and if they touched dirty surfaces or items, they would simply put hand sanitizer on their dirty gloves and carry on. What they should have been doing was removing their dirty gloves, washing their hands, and getting clean gloves. However, the FDA inspectors never saw this happen, and managers confirmed that hand sanitizing gloves was common practice.

The inspectors also noted that the facility’s equipment was always wet. Employees applied sanitizing solutions on knives and other equipment used to dice and chop fresh produce. The sanitizing solution is meant to be air-dried before use, but Taylor Farms employees immediately used the equipment—still dripping with sanitizing solution—to cut RTE produce.

On one day of the inspection, FDA agents saw employees chop RTE lettuce with equipment that was wet with sanitizing solution at the maximum concentration, which was 200 ppm. In another instance, the inspectors saw an employee mix cleaning chemicals together to make a sanitizing solution, which the employee said was done “routinely.” When inspectors asked about the mixture, Taylor Farms “could not find the source of this recipe,” nor could they find the manufacturer label or other information stating the mixture was designed for use.

“Highest expectations”

In a statement to CBS, Taylor Farms said that it “immediately took steps to address” the problems found in the FDA’s inspection, which resulted in no “administrative or regulatory action” against the company.

“Taylor Farms is confident in our best-in-class food safety processes, and in turn, the quality and safety of our products,” the company said in the statement. “As is common following an inspection, FDA issued observations of conditions that could be improved at one of our facilities.” The company added that “no illnesses or public health threat has been linked to these observations” in the inspection.

McDonald’s, meanwhile, said it had stopped getting onions from the facility.

“We hold our suppliers to the highest expectations and standards of food safety. Prior to this inspection, and unrelated to its findings, McDonald’s stopped sourcing from Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility,” McDonald’s said in a statement.

Biofilms, unwashed hands: FDA found violations at McDonald’s ex-onion supplier Read More »

although-it’s-‘insane’-to-try-and-land-new-glenn,-bezos-said-it’s-important-to-try

Although it’s ‘insane’ to try and land New Glenn, Bezos said it’s important to try

Uncategorized / /

“We would certainly like to achieve orbit, and get the Blue Ring Pathfinder into orbit,” Bezos said. “Landing the booster would be gravy on top of that. It’s kind of insane to try and land the booster. A more sane approach would probably be to try to land it into ocean. But we’re gonna go for it.”

Blue Origin has built a considerable amount of infrastructure on a drone ship, Jacklyn, that will be waiting offshore for the rocket to land upon. Was Bezos not concerned about putting that hardware at risk?

A view inside the New Glenn rocket factory in Florida.

Credit: Blue Origin

A view inside the New Glenn rocket factory in Florida. Credit: Blue Origin

“I’m worried about everything,” he admitted. However, the rocket has been programmed to divert from the ship if the avionics on board the vehicle sense that anything is off-nominal.

And there is, of course, a pretty good chance of that happening.

“We’ve done a lot of work, we’ve done a lot of testing, but there are some things that can only be tested in flight,” Bezos said. “And you can’t be overconfident in these things. You have to real. The reality is, there are a lot of things that go wrong, and you have to accept that, if something goes wrong, we’ll pick ourselves up and get busy for the second flight.”

As for that flight, the company has a second booster stage deep in development. It could be seen on the factory floor below Sunday, and should be ready later this spring, Limp said. There are about seven upper stages in the flow as the company works to optimize the factory for production.

A pivotal moment for spaceflight

Bezos founded Blue Origin a little more than 24 years ago, and the company has moved slowly compared to some of its competitors, most notably SpaceX. However, when Blue Origin has built products, they’ve been of high quality. Bezos himself flew on the first human mission of the New Shepard spacecraft in 2021, a day he described as the ‘best’ in his life. Of all the people who have ever flown into space, he noted that 7 percent have now done so on a Blue Origin vehicle. And the company’s BE-4 rocket engine has performed exceptionally well in flight. But an orbital mission, such a touchstone for launch companies, has eluded Bezos until now.

Although it’s ‘insane’ to try and land New Glenn, Bezos said it’s important to try Read More »

the-8-most-interesting-pc-monitors-from-ces-2025

The 8 most interesting PC monitors from CES 2025

CES, CES 2025, corsair, dell, Features, lg, Monitors, samsung, Tech / /

Monitors worth monitoring

Here are upcoming computer screens with features that weren’t around last year.

Yes, that’s two monitors in a suitcase.

Yes, that’s two monitors in a suitcase.

Plenty of computer monitors made debuts at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this year, but many of the updates at this year’s event were pretty minor. Many could have easily been a part of 2024’s show.

But some brought new and interesting features to the table for 2025—in this article, we’ll tell you all about them.

LG’s 6K monitor

Pixel addicts are always right at home at CES, and the most interesting high-resolution computer monitor to come out of this year’s show is the LG UltraFine 6K Monitor (model 32U990A).

People seeking more than 3840×2160 resolution have limited options, and they’re all rather expensive (looking at you, Apple Pro Display XDR). LG’s 6K monitor means there’s another option for professionals needing extra pixels for things like developing, engineering, and creative work. And LG’s 6144×3456, 32-inch display has extra oomph thanks to something no other 6K monitor has: Thunderbolt 5.

This is the only image LG provided for the monitor. Credit: LG

LG hasn’t confirmed the refresh rate of its 6K monitor, so we don’t know how much bandwidth it needs. But it’s possible that pairing the UltraFine with a Thunderbolt 5 PC could trigger Bandwidth Boost, a Thunderbolt 5 feature that automatically increases bandwidth from 80Gbps to 120Gbps. For comparison, Thunderbolt 4 maxes out at 40Gbps. Thunderbolt 5 also requires 140 W power delivery and maxes out at 240 W. That’s a notable bump from Thunderbolt 4’s 100–140 W.

Considering that Apple’s only 6K monitor has Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 5 is a differentiator. With this capability, the LG UltraFine is ironically better equipped in this regard for use with the new MacBook Pros and Mac Mini (which all have Thunderbolt 5) compared to Apple’s own monitors. LG may be aware of this, as the 32U990A’s aesthetic could be considered very Apple-like.

Inside the 32U990A’s silver chassis is a Nano IPS panel. In recent years, LG has advertised its Nano IPS panels as having “nanometer-sized particles” applied to their LED backlight to absorb “excess, unnecessary light wavelengths” for “richer color expression.” LG’s 6K monitor claims to cover 98 percent of DCI-P3 and 99.5 percent of Adobe RGB. IPS Black monitors, meanwhile, have higher contrast ratios (up to 3,000:1) than standard IPS panels. However, LG has released Nano IPS monitors with 2,000:1 contrast, the same contrast ratio as Dell’s 6K, IPS Black monitor.

LG hasn’t shared other details, like price or a release date. But the monitor may cost more than Dell’s Thunderbolt 4-equipped monitor, which is currently $2,480.

Brelyon’s multi-depth monitor

Brelyon Ultra Reality Extend.

Someone from CNET using the Ultra Reality Extend. Credit: CNET/YouTube

Brelyon is headquartered in San Mateo, California, and was founded by scientists and executives from MIT, IMAX, UCF, and DARPA. It’s been selling display technology for commercial and defense applications since 2022. At CES, the company unveiled the Ultra Reality Extend, describing it as an “immersive display line that renders virtual images in multiple depths.”

“As the first commercial multi-focal monitor, the Extend model offers multi-depth programmability for information overlay, allowing users to see images from 0.7 m to as far as 2.5 m of depth virtually rendered behind the monitor; organizing various data streams at different depth layers, or triggering focal cues to induce an ultra immersive experience akin to looking out through a window,” Brelyon’s announcement said.

Brelyon says the monitor runs 4K at 60 Hz with 1 bit of monocular depth for an 8K effect. The monitor includes “OLED-based curved 2D virtual images, with the largest stretching to 122 inches and extending 2.5 meters deep, viewable through a 30-inch frame,” according to the firm’s announcement. The closer you sit, the greater the field of view you get.

The Extend leverages “new GPU capabilities to process light and video signals inside our display platforms,” Brelyon CEO Barmak Heshmat said in a statement this week. He added: “We are thinking beyond headsets and glasses, where we can leverage GPU capabilities to do real-time driving of higher-bandwidth display interfaces.”

Brelyon says this was captured from the Extend, with its camera lens focus changing from 70 cm to 2,500 cm. Credit: Brelyon

Advancements in AI-based video processing, as well as other software advancements and hardware improvements, purportedly enable the Extend to upscale lower-dimension streams to multiple, higher-dimension ones. Brelyon describes its product as a “generative display system” that uses AI computation and optics to assign different depth values to content in real time for rendering images and information overlays.

The idea of a virtual monitor that surpasses the field of view of typical desktop monitors while allowing users to see the real world isn’t new. Tech firms (including many at CES) usually try to accomplish this through AR glasses. But head-mounted displays still struggle with problems like heat, weight, computing resources, battery, and aesthetics.

Brelyon’s monitor seemingly demoed well at CES. Sam Rutherford, a senior writer at Engadget, watched a clip from the Marvel’s Spider-Man video game on the Extend and said that “trees and light poles whipping past in my face felt so real I started to flinch subconsciously.” He added that the monitor separated “different layers of the content to make snow in the foreground look blurry as it whipped across the screen, while characters in the distance” still looked sharp.

The monitor costs $5,000 to $8,000 depending on how you’ll use it and whether you have other business with Brelyon, per Engadget, and CES is one of the few places where people could actually see the display in action.

Samsung’s 3D monitor

Samsung Odyssey 3D

Samsung’s depiction of the 3D effect of its 3D PC monitor. Credit: Samsung

It’s 2025, and tech companies are still trying to convince people to bring a 3D display into their homes. This week, Samsung took its first swing since 2009 at 3D screens with the Odyssey 3D monitor.

In lieu of 3D glasses. the Odyssey 3D achieves its 3D effect with a lenticular lens “attached to the front of the panel and its front stereo camera,” Samsung says, as well eye tracking and view mapping. Differing from other recent 3D monitors, the Odyssey 3D claims to be able to make 2D content look three-dimensional even if that content doesn’t officially support 3D.

You can find more information in our initial coverage of Samsung’s Odyssey 3D, but don’t bet on finding 3D monitors in many people’s homes soon. The technology for quality 3D displays that work without glasses has been around for years but still has never taken off.

Dell’s OLED productivity monitor

With improvements in burn-in, availability, and brightness, finding OLED monitors today is much easier than it was two years ago. But a lot of the OLED monitors released recently target gamers with features like high refresh rates, ultrawide panels, and RGB. These features are unneeded or unwanted by non-gamers but contribute to OLED monitors’ already high pricing. Numerous smaller OLED monitors were announced at CES, with 27-inch, 4K models being a popular addition. Most of them are still high-refresh gaming monitors, though.

The Dell 32-inch QD-OLED, on the other hand, targets “play, school, and work,” Dell’s announcement says. And its naming (based on a new naming convention Dell announced this week that kills XPS and other longstanding branding) signals that this is a mid-tier monitor from Dell’s entry-level lineup.

Dell 32-inch QD-OLED,

OLED for normies. Credit: Dell

The monitor’s specs, which include a 120 Hz refresh rate, AMD FreeSync Premium, and USB-C power delivery at up to 90 W, make it a good fit for pairing with many mainstream laptops.

Dell also says this is the first QD-OLED with spatial audio, which uses head tracking to alter audio coming from the monitor’s five 5 W speakers. This is a feature we’ve seen before, but not on an OLED monitor.

For professionals and/or Mac users that prefer the sleek looks, reputation, higher power delivery and I/O hubs associated with Dell’s popular UltraSharp line, Dell made two more notable announcements at CES: an UltraSharp 32 4K Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U3225QE) coming out in February 25 for $950 and an UltraSharp 27 4K Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U2725QE) coming out that same day for $700.

The suitcase monitors

Before we get into the Base Case, please note that this product has no release date because its creators plan to go to market via crowdfunding. Base Case says it will launch its Indiegogo campaign next month, but even then, we don’t know if the project will be funded, if any final product will work as advertised, or if customers will receive orders in a timely fashion. Still, this is one of the most unusual monitors at CES, and it’s worth discussing.

The Base Case is shaped like a 24x14x16.5-inch rolling suitcase, but when you open it up, you’ll find two 24-inch monitors for connecting to a laptop. Each screen reportedly has a 1920×1080 resolution, a 75 Hz refresh rate, and a max brightness claim of 350 nits. Base Case is also advertising PC and Mac support (through DisplayLink), as well as HDMI, USB-C, USB-A, Thunderbolt, and Ethernet ports. Telescoping legs allow the case to rise 10 inches so the display can sit closer to eye level.

Ultimately, the Base Case would see owners lug around a 20-pound product for the ability to quickly create a dual-monitor setup equipped with a healthy amount of I/O. Tom’s Guide demoed a prototype at CES and reported that the monitors took “seconds to set up.”

In case you’re worried that the Base Case prioritizes displays over storage, note that its makers plan on adding a front pocket to the suitcase that can fit a laptop. The pocket wasn’t on the prototype Tom’s Guide saw, though.

Again, this is far from a finalized product, but Base Case has alluded to a $2,400 starting price. For comparison to other briefcase-locked displays—and yes, doing this is possible—LG’s StanbyME Go (27LX5QKNA) tablet in a briefcase currently has a $1,200 MSRP.

Corsair’s PC-mountable touchscreen

A promotional image of the touchscreen.

If the Base Case is on the heftier side of portable monitors, Corsair’s Xeneon Edge is certainly on the minute side. The 14.5-inch LCD touchscreen isn’t meant to be a primary display, though. Corsair built it as a secondary screen for providing quick information, like the song your computer is playing, the weather, the time, and calendar events. You could also use the 2560×720 pixels to display system information, like component usage and temperatures.

Corsair says its iCue software will be able to provide system information on the Xeneon, but because the Xeneon Edge works like a regular monitor, you could (and likely would prefer to) use your own methods. Still, the Xeneon Edge stands out from other small, touchscreen PC monitors with its clean UI that can succinctly communicate a lot of information on the tiny display at once.

Specs-wise, this is a 60 Hz IPS panel with 5-point capacitive touch. Corsair says the monitor can hit 350 nits of brightness.

You can connect the Xeneon Edge to a computer via USB-C (DisplayPort Alt mode) or HDMI. There are also screw holes, so PC builders could install it via a 360 mm radiator mounting point inside their PC case.

Alternatively, Corsair recommends attaching the touchscreen to the outside of a PC case through the monitor’s 14 integrated magnets. Corsair said in a blog post that the “magnets are underneath the plastic casing so the metal surface you stick it to won’t get scratched.” Or, in traditional portable monitor style, the Xeneon Edge could also just sit on a desk with its included stand.

Corsair Xeneon Edge

Corsair demos different ways the screen could attach to a case. Credit: TechPowerUp/YouTube

Corsair plans to release the Xeneon Edge in Q2. Expected pricing is “around $249,” Tom’s Hardware reported.

MSI’s side panel display panel

Why attach a monitor to your PC case when you can turn your PC case into a monitor instead?

MSI says that the touchscreen embedded into this year’s MEG Vision X AI 2nd gaming desktop’s side panel can work like a regular computer monitor. Similar to Corsair’s monitor, the MSI’s display has a corresponding app that can show system information and other customizations, which you can toggle with controls on the front of the case, PCMag reported.

MSI used an IPS panel with 1920×1080 resolution for the display, which also has an integrated mic and speaker. MSI says “electric vehicle control centers” inspired the design. We’ve seen similar PC cases, like iBuyPower’s more translucent side panel display and the touchscreen on Hyte’s pentagonal PC case, before. But MSI is bringing the design to a more mainstream form factor by including it in a prebuilt desktop, potentially opening the door for future touchscreen-equipped desktops.

Considering the various locations people place their desktops and the different angles at which they may try to look at this screen, I’m curious about the monitor’s viewing angles and brightness. IPS seems like a good choice since it tends to have strong image quality when viewed from different angles. A video PC Mag shot from the show floor shows images on the monitor appearing visible and lively:

Hands on with MSI’s MEG Vision X AI Desktop: Now, your PC tower’s a monitor, too.

World’s fastest monitor

There’s a competitive air at CES that lends to tech brands trying to one-up each other on spec sheets. Some of the most heated competition concerns monitor refresh rates; for years, we’ve been meeting the new world’s fastest monitor at CES. This year is no different.

The brand behind the monitor is Koorui, a three-year-old Chinese firm whose website currently lists monitors and keyboards. Koorui hasn’t confirmed when it will make its 750 Hz display available, where it will sell it, or what it will cost. That should bring some skepticism about this product actually arriving for purchase in the US. However, Koorui did bring the display to the CES show floor.

The speedy display had a refresh rate test running at CES, and according to several videos we’ve seen from attendees, the monitor appeared to consistently hit the 750 Hz mark.

World’s first 750Hz monitor???

For those keeping track, high-end gaming monitors—namely ones targeting professional gamers—hit 360 Hz in 2020. Koorui’s announcement means max monitor speeds have increased 108.3 percent in four years.

One CES attendee noticed, however, that the monitor wasn’t showing any gameplay. This could be due to the graphical and computing prowess needed to demonstrate the benefits of a 750 Hz monitor. A system capable of 750 frames per second would give people a chance to see if they could detect improved motion resolution but would also be very expensive. It’s also possible that the monitor Koorui had on display wasn’t ready for that level of scrutiny yet.

Like many eSports monitors, the Koorui is 24.5 inches, with a resolution of 1920×1080. Perhaps more interesting than Koorui taking the lead in the perennial race for higher refresh rates is the TN monitor’s claimed color capabilities. TN monitors aren’t as popular as they were years ago, but OEMs still employ them sometimes for speed.

They tend to be less colorful than IPS and VA monitors, though. Most offer sRGB color gamuts instead of covering the larger DCI-P3 color space. Asus’ 540 Hz ROG Swift Pro PG248QP, for example, is a TN monitor claiming 125 percent sRGB coverage. Koorui’s monitor claims to cover 95 percent of DCI-P3, due to the use of a quantum dot film. Again, there’s a lot that prospective shoppers should confirm about this monitor if it becomes available.

For those seeking the fastest monitors with more concrete release plans, several companies announced 600 Hz monitors coming out this year. Acer, for example, has a 600 Hz Nitro XV240 F6 (also a TN monitor) that it plans to release in North America this quarter at a starting price of $600.

Photo of Scharon Harding

Scharon is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica writing news, reviews, and analysis on consumer gadgets and services. She’s been reporting on technology for over 10 years, with bylines at Tom’s Hardware, Channelnomics, and CRN UK.

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New Glenn rocket is at the launch pad, waiting for calm seas to land

Space / /

COCOA BEACH, Fla.—As it so often does in the final days before the debut of a new rocket, it all comes down to weather. Accordingly, Blue Origin is only awaiting clear skies and fair seas for its massive New Glenn vehicle to lift off from Florida.

After the company completed integration of the rocket this week, and rolled the super heavy lift rocket to its launch site at Cape Canaveral, the focus turned toward the weather. Conditions at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base have been favorable during the early morning launch windows available to the rocket, but there have been complications offshore.

That’s because Blue Origin aims to recover the first stage of the New Glenn rocket, and sea states in the Atlantic Ocean have been unsuitable for an initial attempt to catch the first stage booster on a drone ship. The company has already waived one launch attempt set for 1 am ET (06: 00 UTC) on Friday, January 10.

Conditions have improved a bit since then, but on Saturday evening the company’s launch officials canceled a second attempt planned for 1 am ET on Sunday. The new launch time is now 1 am ET on Monday, January 13, when better sea states are expected. There is a three-hour launch window. The company will provide a webcast of proceedings at this link beginning one hour before liftoff.

Seeking a nominal flight

According to a mission timeline shared by Blue Origin on Saturday, it will take several hours to fuel the New Glenn rocket. Second stage hydrogen loading will begin 4.5 hours before liftoff, followed by the booster stage and second stage liquid oxygen at 4 hours, and methane for the booster stage at 3.5 hours to go. Fueling should be complete about an hour before liftoff.

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Did Hilma af Klint draw inspiration from 19th century physics?

Hilma af Klint, Physics, Science, science and art, science illustrations, Thomas Young / /

Diagrams from Thomas Young’s 1807 Lectures bear striking resemblance to abstract figures in af Klint’s work.

Hilma af Klint’s Group IX/SUW, The Swan, No. 17, 1915. Credit: Hilma af Klimt Foundation

In 2019, astronomer Britt Lundgren of the University of North Carolina Asheville visited the Guggenheim Museum in New York City to take in an exhibit of the works of Swedish painter Hilma af Klint. Lundgren noted a striking similarity between the abstract geometric shapes in af Klint’s work and scientific diagrams in 19th century physicist Thomas Young‘s Lectures (1807). So began a four-year journey starting at the intersection of science and art that has culminated in a forthcoming paper in the journal Leonardo, making the case for the connection.

Af Klint was formally trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and initially focused on drawing, portraits, botanical drawings, and landscapes from her Stockholm studio after graduating with honors. This provided her with income, but her true life’s work drew on af Klint’s interest in spiritualism and mysticism. She was one of “The Five,” a group of Swedish women artists who shared those interests. They regularly organized seances and were admirers of theosophical teachings of the time.

It was through her work with The Five that af Klint began experimenting with automatic drawing, driving her to invent her own geometric visual language to conceptualize the invisible forces she believed influenced our world. She painted her first abstract series in 1906 at age 44. Yet she rarely exhibited this work because she believed the art world at the time wasn’t ready to appreciate it. Her will requested that the paintings stay hidden for at least 20 years after her death.

Even after the boxes containing her 1,200-plus abstract paintings were opened, their significance was not fully appreciated at first. The Moderna Museum in Stockholm actually declined to accept them as a gift, although it now maintains a dedicated space to her work. It wasn’t until art historian Ake Fant presented af Klint’s work at a Helsinki conference that the art world finally took notice. The Guggenheim’s exhibit was af Klint’s American debut. “The exhibit seemed to realize af Klint’s documented dream of introducing her paintings to the world from inside a towering spiral temple and it was met roundly with acclaim, breaking all attendance records for the museum,” Lundgren wrote in her paper.

A pandemic project

Lundgren is the first person in her family to become a scientist; her mother studied art history, and her father is a photographer and a carpenter. But she always enjoyed art because of that home environment, and her Swedish heritage made af Klint an obvious artist of interest. It wasn’t until the year after she visited the Guggenheim exhibit, as she was updating her lectures for an astrophysics course, that Lundgren decided to investigate the striking similarities between Young’s diagrams and af Klint’s geometric paintings—in particular those series completed between 1914 and 1916. It proved to be the perfect research project during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Lundgren acknowledges the inherent skepticism such an approach by an outsider might engender among the art community and is sympathetic, given that physics and astronomy both have their share of cranks. “As a professional scientist, I have in the past received handwritten letters about why Einstein is wrong,” she told Ars. “I didn’t want to be that person.”

That’s why her very first research step was to contact art professors at her institution to get their expert opinions on her insight. They were encouraging, so she dug in a little deeper, reading every book about af Klint she could get her hands on. She found no evidence that any art historians had made this connection before, which gave her the confidence to turn her work into a publishable paper.

The paper didn’t find a home right away, however; the usual art history journals rejected it, partly because Lundgren was an outsider with little expertise in that field. She needed someone more established to vouch for her. Enter Linda Dalrymple Henderson of the University of Texas at Austin, who has written extensively about scientific influences on abstract art, including that of af Klint. Henderson helped Lundgren refine the paper, encouraged her to submit it to Leonardo, and “it came back with the best review I’ve ever received, even inside astronomy,” said Lundgren.

Making the case

Young and af Klint were not contemporaries; Young died in 1829, and af Klint was born in 1862. Nor are there any specific references to Young or his work in the academic literature examining the sources known to have influenced the Swedish painter’s work. Yet af Klint had a well-documented interest in science, spanning everything from evolution and botany to color theory and physics. While those influences tended to be scientists who were her contemporaries, Lundgren points out that the artist’s personal library included a copy of an 1823 astronomy book.

Excerpt from Plate XXIX of Young’s Lectures Niels Bohr Library and Archives/AIP

Af Klint was also commissioned to paint a portrait of Swedish physicist Knut Angstrom in 1910 at Uppsala University, whose library includes a copy of Young’s Lectures. So it’s entirely possible that af Klint had access to the astronomy and physics of the previous century and would likely have been particularly intrigued by discoveries involving “invisible light” (electromagnetism, x-rays, radioactivity, etc.).

Young’s Lectures contain a speculative passage about the existence of a universal ether (since disproven), a concept that fascinated both scientists and those (like af Klint) with certain occult interests in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In fact, Young’s passage was included in a popular 1875 spiritualist text, Unseen Universe by P.G. Tait and Balfour Stewart, that was heavily cited by Theosophical Society founder Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Blavatsky in turn is known to have influenced af Klint around the time the artist created The Swan, The Dove, and Altarpieces series.

Lundgren found that “in several instances, the captions accompanying Young’s color figures [in the Lectures] even seem to decode elements of af Klint’s paintings or bring attention to details that might otherwise be overlooked.” For instance, the caption for Young’s Plate XXIX describes the “oblique stripes of color” that appear when candlelight is viewed through a prism that “almost interchangeably describes features in af Klint’s Group X., No. 1, Altarpiece,” she wrote

(a) Excerpt from Young's Plate XXX. (b) af Klint, Parsifal Series No. 68. (c and d) af Klint, Group IX/UW, The Dove, No. 12 and No. 13.

(a) Excerpt from Young’s Plate XXX. (b) af Klint, Parsifal Series No. 68. (c and d) af Klint, Group IX/UW, The Dove, No. 12 and No. 13. Credit: Niels Bohr Library/Hilma af Klint Foundation

Art historians had previously speculated about af Klint’s interest in color theory, as reflected in the annotated watercolor squares featured in her Parsifal Series (1916). Lundgren argues that those squares resemble Fig. 439 in the color plates of Young’s Lectures, demonstrating the inversion of color in human vision. Those diagrams also “appear almost like crude sketches of af Klint’s The Dove, Nos. 12 and 13,” Lundgren wrote. “Paired side by side, these paintings can produce the same visual effects described by Young, with even the same color palette.”

The geometric imagery of af Klint’s The Swan series is similar to Young’s illustrations of the production and perception of colors, while “black and white diagrams depicting the propagation of light through combinations of lenses and refractive surfaces, included in Young’s Lectures On the Theory of Optics, bear a particularly strong geometric resemblance to The Swan paintings No. 12 and No.13,” Lundgren wrote. Other pieces in The Swan series may have been inspired by engravings in Young’s Lectures.

This is admittedly circumstantial evidence and Lundgren acknowledges as much. “Not being able to prove it is intriguing and frustrating at the same time,” she said. She continues to receive additional leads, most recently from an af Klint relative on the board of the Moderna Museum. Once again, the evidence wasn’t direct, but it seems af Klint would have attended certain local lecture circuits about science, while several members of the Theosophy Society were familiar with modern physics and Young’s earlier work. “But none of these are nails in the coffin that really proved she had access to Young’s book,” said Lundgren.

Photo of Jennifer Ouellette

Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban.

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Only 5 percent of US car buyers want an EV, according to survey

Cars, EV adoption / /

Only 5 percent of US consumers want their next vehicle to be a battery electric vehicle, according to a new survey by Deloitte. The consulting company gathered data from more than 31,000 people across 30 countries as part of its 2025 Global Automotive Consumer Study, and some of the results are rather interesting, as they pertain to technologies like new powertrains, connectivity, and artificial intelligence.

Among US consumers, internal combustion engines (ICE) remain number one, with 62 percent indicating that their next car will not be electrified. Another 1 in 5 would like a hybrid for their next vehicle, with a further 6 percent desiring a plug-in hybrid. (The remaining survey respondents either did not know or wanted some other powertrain option.)

By contrast, only 38 percent of Chinese consumers want to stick with ICE; meanwhile, 27 percent of them want a BEV next. That’s a far higher percentage than in other large nations—in Germany, only 14 percent want a BEV; in the UK and Canada, only 8 percent are BEV-bound; and in Japan, the number is a mere 3 percent.

Meanwhile, hybrids are far more attractive to consumers in most countries. While only 16 percent of Chinese and 12 percent of German consumers indicated this preference, 23 percent of Canadians, 24 percent of UK consumers, and 35 percent of Japanese consumers replied that they were looking for a hybrid for their next car.

Deloitte suspects that some of this reticence toward BEVs “could be due, in part, to lingering affordability concerns.” The hoped-for parity in the cost of a BEV powertrain and an ICE powertrain has still not arrived, and fully 45 percent of US consumers said they did not want to pay more than $34,999 for their next car (11 percent said less than $15,000, 9 percent said $15,000–$19,999, and the remaining 25 percent said $20,000–$34,999.)

Why the reticence?

Despite popular sentiment, there are actually quite a few electric vehicles available for much less than the average new vehicle price of $47,000. But other than the Nissan Leaf, all of them have prices starting with a “3.” (Meanwhile, 75 percent of car buyers in the US buy used cars, and the transition to electrification will not change that underlying reality.)

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