Month: March 2022

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Christopher Ames)

Netflix is suspending its streaming service inside Russia amid the country’s war against Ukraine and a new law that would require it to carry Russian state-owned channels.

“Given the circumstances on the ground, we have decided to suspend our service in Russia,” Netflix told Ars and other media outlets. Netflix stopped letting people in Russia sign up for new subscriptions and will prevent renewal of any existing subscriptions, a Netflix spokesperson told Ars. Once a subscriber’s monthly billing period ends, the person’s service will be halted.

Netflix previously said it would not comply with Russia’s “Vitrina TV law,” which would require it to carry 20 free-to-air Russian channels. “Given the current situation, we have no plans to add these channels to our service,” Netflix told media outlets last week.

Enlarge / Go on, leave your Switch OLED on nonstop for 3,000 hours and more. It may not be the best idea, but at least one tester in the wild has found it takes that many hours before the screen is negatively impacted. (credit: Aurich Lawson)

For many Nintendo fans, the launch of the Switch OLED in late 2021 was a welcome upgrade that provided a bigger screen and richer colors. But some people were concerned with the company putting an OLED panel on a portable system due to fears of image retention or outright image burn-in.

Thankfully, my prerelease testing of Switch OLED, which included hours-long tests of static Zelda images, didn’t permanently burn any Zelda heart icons onto the screen, and anecdotal testing in the months since has looked positive. But what if that isn’t comforting enough? What if you need an extreme test to know exactly how well the Samsung-manufactured panels in the Switch OLED consoles resist all forms of burn-in and image retention?

Seen by the eyes of a Wulff

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  Wulff’s test, split halfway between a frozen image and what impact it has on an all-white screen. [credit:
  Bob Wulff
  ]

On the system’s launch day, YouTube tech critic and Twitch host Bob “WulffDen” Wulff began an experiment to conclusively answer this question, and five months later, he has published the latest video in his series on the topic. The console he tested, as put through an extreme test case that average gamers would never approach, needed 3,600 hours of nearly nonstop projection of a single image to show any signs of OLED burn-in.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

With sanctions against Russia starting to bite, the Kremlin is mulling ways to keep businesses and the government running. The latest is a creative twist on state asset seizures, only instead of the government taking over an oil refinery, for example, Russia is considering legalizing software piracy.

Russian law already allows for the government to authorize—“without consent of the patent holder”—the use of any intellectual property “in case of emergency related to ensuring the defense and security of the state.” The government hasn’t taken that step yet, but it may soon, according to a report from Russian business newspaper Kommersant, spotted and translated by Kyle Mitchell, an attorney who specializes in technology law. It’s yet another sign of a Cyber Curtain that’s increasingly separating Russia from the West.

The plan would create “a compulsory licensing mechanism for software, databases, and technology for integrated microcircuits,” the Kommersant said. It would only apply to companies from countries that have imposed sanctions. While the article doesn’t name names, many large Western firms—some of which would be likely targets—have drastically scaled back business in Russia. So far, Microsoft has suspended sales of new products and services in Russia, Apple has stopped selling devices, and Samsung has stopped selling both devices and chips.

Enlarge / Storm surge barriers, like these in the Netherlands, can play a role in adaptation. (credit: Mischa Keijser)

Last Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a new report that followed August’s initial portion of this massive, three-part effort. Much of the immediate news coverage has focused on the latest attempts to communicate the seriousness of the impacts of climate change. The report concludes, “The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”

There is a great deal in this report on our understanding of climate change impacts, which are worsening as warming progresses. These topics should be familiar unless you’ve just stepped out of a time machine (and are not arriving from the future, or they’d be even more familiar). They include everything from sea level rise and weather extremes to food security and direct human health risks.

But the other focus of this portion of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report is adaptation to climate change. It’s easy to throw this term around as if it’s an alternative to halting global warming or some painless thing that will happen of its own accord. Both ideas would be mistaken.

Enlarge (credit: Future Publishing | Getty Images)

YouTube is still gearing up for a big podcast push. After hiring an executive in charge of podcasting last year, YouTube is now offering cash to popular podcasts that are willing to make the jump to video.

Bloomberg is reporting that YouTube’s content push works out to “offers of $50,000 to individual shows and $200,000 and $300,000 to podcast networks.” The report says these “grants” are meant to help with the high start-up costs of producing video, which requires cameras, lighting, a studio, and a lot of other equipment you don’t need to just do audio.

We still don’t know the extent of YouTube’s podcasting plans. The project sounds like another instance of YouTube developing a specific content vertical with a specialized interface and custom branding. We’ve already seen this play out when YouTube’s plethora of gaming content led to YouTube Gaming, when all the company’s music deals created YouTube Music, and when kids’ content got a “YouTube Kids” vertical. If podcasting follows a similar playbook, expect a “YouTube Podcasts” app and website, or at least a special section in the Music app.