Month: March 2022

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Yuichiro Chino)

A Ukraine government official on Monday asked the nonprofit group that oversees the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) to shut down DNS root servers in Russia and revoke Russian domains such as .ru, .рф, and .su. The letter to ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) was posted here, and ICANN has confirmed that it received the letter.

Several Internet experts say that granting Ukraine’s request would be a bad idea. Executive Director Bill Woodcock of Packet Clearing House, an international nonprofit that provides operational support and security to Internet exchange points and the core of the domain name system, wrote a Twitter thread calling it “a heck of an ask on the part of Ukraine. As a critical infrastructure operator, my inclination is to say ‘heck no’ regardless of my sympathies.”

Sent days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, the letter said that Russia’s “atrocious crimes have been made possible mainly due to the Russian propaganda machinery using websites continuously spreading disinformation, hate speech, promoting violence and hiding the truth regarding the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian IT infrastructure has undergone numerous attacks from the Russian side impeding citizens’ and government’s ability to communicate.”

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

The time has come for another Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best tech deals from around the web includes a modest but notable discount on the Nintendo Switch Lite at Amazon subsidiary Woot. It’s just $10 off, and you’ll have to be an Amazon Prime member to access the deal, but since the console hardly ever receives any kind of discount, the offer is worth noting for anyone who is in the market for the console in the first place. If that includes you, Woot says the deal will be available for today only, and you’ll need to log in to Woot with your Amazon account to see the discount at checkout.

As a refresher, the Switch Lite is the smaller, portable-only version of Nintendo’s console: its 5.5-inch LCD display isn’t as big or vibrant as that of the newer Switch OLED, and it can’t be docked to a TV for use on a bigger screen. But it’s just as powerful, so it works with the same library of games, and it’s naturally easier to take on the road. It’s still well-built, too, with a genuine d-pad and slightly softer face buttons that also make less noise when pressed. Most importantly, it’s less expensive, here marked down to $190 compared to the $300 Switch and $350 Switch OLED.

If you don’t need any new video game hardware, the Dealmaster also has a sale on Fully’s Jarvis line of electric standing desks, which we’ve previously recommended in our guide to good home office gear. A number of Jarvis configurations are currently 15 percent off at Amazon and Fully’s own online store. The desks still aren’t all that cheap, and they’re generally on the heavy side, but they continue to offer high-quality builds, an appreciable range of customizations, and long warranties of five years on desktop surfaces and 15 years on desk frame components.

Enlarge (credit: Wikipedia)

It’s a question I’m sure was keeping you up at night: can you make an object spin with a sound wave? The answer, generally speaking, used to be no. Now, though, mechanical engineers have taken a look at what their colleagues who play with lasers can do, and having seen the light, they copied it. And with that, spinning objects with sound waves has been achieved… but only in simulations.

Is it really that hard to make things spin?

To get an idea of why making things spin with sound waves is difficult, picture a tube that holds a turbine. Normally, to make the turbine spin, a fluid would flow past the blades of the turbine. The force of the fluid on the blades imparts a torque, which sets the turbine spinning. If we replace that flow with a pressure wave (like a sound wave), the fluid moves back and forth. So the local motion will first impart a torque that is clockwise and then one that is counterclockwise. The result is a rocking motion.

More fundamentally, the wave carries linear momentum but not angular momentum (specifically, it’s orbital angular momentum, but we’ll drop the “orbital”). Something that spins has angular momentum. In the turbine example, the total angular momentum cannot change. If the wave has no angular momentum and the turbine has no angular momentum, nothing will change.

Enlarge / KYIV, UKRAINE – FEBRUARY 28: A mother tends to her baby under medical treatment in the bomb shelter of the pediatric ward of Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital on February 28, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (credit: Getty | Chris McGrath)

The World Health Organization on Wednesday said Russia is in violation of international humanitarian law based on several reported attacks on Ukrainian hospitals and health workers.

Several of the reports are unconfirmed, but in at least one confirmed case, a hospital came under a “heavy weapons attack” that killed four and injured 10 others, including six health workers. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency is working to confirm several other reports.

“The sanctity and neutrality of health care—including of health workers, patients, supplies, transport and facilities—and the right to safe access to care, must be respected and protected,” Tedros said in a press briefing Wednesday. “Attacks on health care are in violation of international humanitarian law.”

Enlarge / Asus PD5 with white light bars. (credit: Asus)

Asus’ ProArt Station PD5 desktop, announced Tuesday, aims to make it easier to multitask while you’re rendering, as lights on the tower’s front panel notify you when the process is complete.

An embedded smart module controls a thin pair of LED light bars, which run up parallel channels on the front panel. When the computer is rendering, the lights can flash a color or LED effect of your choosing, selected via Asus’ ProArt Creator Hub software. You’ll know the job is done when the lights revert to their standard white (or a different color of your choosing).

You can set the color or effects of the lights. (credit: Asus)

You can also set up rendering notifications through Microsoft Teams.

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

Apple will stream its next hardware event to the masses on March 8 at 10 am Pacific (1 pm Eastern), the company announced today. Invitations have already been sent to the press—though the event will be yet another prerecorded, streaming-only presentation with no media in attendance. Apple marketing SVP Greg Joswiak tweeted the now-customary Apple-logo-centric teaser video that doesn’t actually tease anything.

We never know exactly what will be announced at any given Apple event, but Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the lineup will include a refresh of the budget-friendly iPhone SE and the first iPad Air update in a little over a year.

Rumors have also circulated about updated designs and new Apple Silicon chips for the MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the high-end Intel Mac Mini, the 27-inch iMac, and the Mac Pro are all still running Intel chips. The characteristically cryptic “peek performance” tagline does at least hint at new chips for one or more Macs, whether that’s a truly next-gen Apple M2 for thin-and-light laptops or an M1 Pro/Max-focused refresh for the more powerful desktops.

Enlarge / Arc watch face on the Ionic. (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Google’s Fitbit brand is recalling 1.7 million smartwatches after dozens of reports of burns from the wearable fitness device. Apparently, the battery in the watch can overheat and burn the user’s wrist. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports that Fitbit has received 174 reports of the battery overheating worldwide, with “78 reports of burn injuries in the United States, including two reports of third-degree burns and four reports of second-degree burns.”

The CPSC says consumers should stop using the watch and contact Fitbit to receive pre-paid packaging to return the device. Just fill out the Fitbit recall form here to get the return kit. There’s also an official FAQ that describes the process. Upon receipt of your Ionic, Fitbit says you’ll get a full refund for the $299 MSRP and a coupon for 40 percent off “select Fitbit devices.” Before sending in your device, it’s a good idea to erase your data; go to “Settings -> About -> Factory reset” in the watch software.

Fitbit was a pioneer in fitness devices, but the rise of smartwatches like the Apple Watch has threatened single-use fitness devices. Fitbit’s answer was to buy the smartwatch company Pebble in 2016. A year later, the first Fitbit smartwatch, the Ionic, arrived. The device was sold from September 2017 through December 2021, though production stopped in 2020. With Google’s acquisition of Fitbit in 2021, the lineage of the “Fitbit OS” devices like the Ionic, Versa, and Versa 2 is most likely dead.