Author: easyfilo

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

It’s time for another Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best deals from around the web includes a nice discount on Google’s Chromecast with Google TV, as the 4K media streamer is currently down to $40 at various retailers. This discount has popped up a few times in the past, but it matches the deal price we saw around Black Friday and comes in $10 below Google’s MSRP. We’ve only seen the device available for less once, but that deal also required you to sign up for Sling TV service.

In any event, the latest Chromecast is the top pick in our guide to the best streaming sticks. Its interface is better at organizing and surfacing content you might actually like than alternatives from Amazon and Roku, it supports all the requisite apps and HDR standards (along with Dolby Atmos), and its remote is compact with a sensible layout. Recent reports suggest that Google may launch a successor later this year, but if you need a new streaming player today, this is a good price for what we think is still the best value in this market. If you prefer a less personalized approach from your media streamer, though, note that Roku’s Streaming Stick 4K is currently on sale for $30; its UI is far more basic, but it performs just as well.

Besides that, our roundup has the return of a few all-time low prices on Amazon’s Fire HD 8 tablets, which remain worth considering for those who want a competent tablet for the lowest price possible. Amazon has discounted its latest set of Kindle Paperwhite e-readers as well: the standard model, which our review called the best option for most people, is now $30 off at $110. That’s within $5 of that device’s lowest-ever price. We also have a couple of sweeping “buy two, get one free” sales at Amazon and Target, a “buy one, get one 15 percent off” sale on gaming digital gift cards at the latter, plus deals on LG’s C1 OLED TV, a few first-party Nintendo Switch games, and the highly recommended Logitech MX Master 3, among items. You can see our full curated list below.

Enlarge / Illustration of a coronal mass ejection impacting the Earth’s atmosphere. These events can cause geomagnetic storms. (credit: Getty Images | Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library)

SpaceX had to ditch most of its latest batch of Starlink satellites because they were disrupted by a geomagnetic storm after being launched from the Falcon 9 rocket. Up to 40 of the 49 satellites will re-enter the atmosphere or have already done so because they were unable to reach their intended orbits.

In an update posted yesterday, SpaceX said that on February 3, the Falcon 9’s second stage deployed 49 “satellites into their intended orbit, with a perigee of approximately 210 kilometers above Earth, and each satellite achieved controlled flight.” SpaceX initially deploys satellites into lower altitudes than they ultimately orbit in “so that in the very rare case any satellite does not pass initial system checkouts, it will quickly be deorbited by atmospheric drag,” the company said. SpaceX has licenses for altitudes of 540 km to 570 km and 335 km to 346 km.

Last week’s geomagnetic storm hit a day after launch, SpaceX explained:

Enlarge / The Galaxy S22 Ultra. It has a pen. (credit: Samsung)

February is officially new phone season, and Samsung is kicking things off with the launch of the Galaxy S22. After all the leaks, the big news items today are the prices and release date. The phones cost the same as last year: $799.99 for the S22, $999.99 for the S22+, and $1,199.99 for the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Preorders for the phones start today, and the ship date is February 25.

On the base and “Plus” models, there aren’t many design changes to talk about. The Ultra model is getting a big change, though—it’s basically turning into the Galaxy Note. Samsung killed the stylus-equipped Note line in 2020, choosing instead to focus on foldable smartphones rather than launching two nearly identical slab smartphones every year. The Galaxy S22 Ultra isn’t called a Note, but it’s picking up the design and features of one, with taller corners and an integrated S-Pen. The Ultra model also has a new look for the camera bump, which goes with individual lenses instead of last year’s big corner bump.

Figuring out the differences from year to year is mostly a game of millimeters. The base-model S22 is a bit smaller than last year’s version; it has a 6.1-inch, 120 Hz, 2340×1080 display and a 146×70.6×7.6 mm body (down from 6.2 inches and 151.7×71.2×7.9 mm from last year). It also has a smaller battery—3700 mAh versus the 4000 mAh battery of the S21. The phone has 8GB of RAM and 128 or 256GB of storage. You get three rear cameras on the base and plus models: a 50 MP main camera, a 12 MP ultra-wide, and a 10 MP 3X optical zoom camera. There’s a 10 MP front camera.

Enlarge / The small light-absorbing portions (labeled 12 in this diagram) are key to Sony’s solution to the “god ray” problem. (credit: Sony / USPTO)

If you’ve spent any significant amount of time in virtual reality, you’ve probably encountered issues with “god rays,” a specific type of lens flare that looks a bit like a sunbeam shining through the clouds and right on your eye. Now, a recently unearthed patent from Sony suggests the PlayStation VR maker may have solved that problem for its upcoming PlayStation VR2 headset.

The presence of god rays (or crepuscular rays, to use a more technical and less religious term) in virtual reality is an artifact from the use of Fresnel lenses in most headsets. Unlike a traditional dome-shaped lens, a Fresnel lens uses precisely angled concentric grooves on the surface of a clear flat panel to focus light on a specific point.

This lets Fresnel lenses operate at a much smaller focal length and with a thinner and lighter profile than a traditional lens, making them ideal for virtual reality headsets. But the downside is that the edges of those concentric grooves sometimes throw a ray of light sideways rather than focusing it, which can show up as a crepuscular ray when it hits your eye.

Enlarge / The iPhone XS, the oldest iPhone that will support Tap to Pay on iPhone. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Today, Apple announced a limited new feature coming to iOS. With “Tap to Pay on iPhone,” merchants and vendors will be able to accept contactless payments from customers at point-of-sale using just an app on the iPhone. No additional hardware will be necessary.

Up to this point, point-of-sale apps like Stripe have had to use additional hardware that connects to the iPhone either wirelessly or over the Lightning or headphone port. Now, no additional hardware will be needed—but developers will have to build this functionality into their apps using the tools Apple provides.

At least for now, Tap to Pay will only work on apps from Apple’s participant partners. Right now, that means Stripe, a giant in the mobile point-of-sale industry. More partners are coming later, Apple says.

Enlarge / Two formerly paralyzed individuals go for a stroll in Lausanne, Switzerland. (credit: EPFL)

Spinal cord injuries are life-altering, as they prevent the transmission of nerve impulses past the point of injury. That means no sensory inputs make it to the brain, and no signals from the brain make it to the muscles normally controlled by the brain. But improvements in our understanding of neurobiology have raised the hope that we can eventually restore some control over paralyzed limbs.

Some of these efforts focus purely on nerve cells, attempting to get them to grow through the damage at the site of injury and restore a functional spinal cord. Others attempt to use electronics to bypass the injury entirely. Today, there was very good news for the electronics-focused effort: researchers have designed a spinal implant that can control the leg muscles of paralyzed individuals, allowing them to walk with assistance within hours of the implant being activated.

Skipping the brain

Much of the spinal cord is composed of long extensions made by nerve cells, termed axons. These axons allow nerve impulses to travel long distances, which is necessary for information to travel back and forth to the brain. Sensory inputs, like pain in your elbow or tickling of your feet, ride axons up the spinal cord into the brain. The brain in turn sends signals back down the spinal cord, controlling your breathing or moving your arms.