Category: Technica Aquarius

Enlarge / Tina Peters. (credit: Tina Peters’ campaign website)

A grand jury in Colorado yesterday indicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters on 10 charges related to the leak of voting-system BIOS passwords and other confidential information that ended up being published by QAnon conspiracy theorist Ron Watkins. Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley was indicted on six counts.

Arrest warrants were issued for both Peters and Knisley, and bond was set at $500,000 for each woman. Peters, a Republican, last month announced she intends to run for secretary of state, saying that “Colorado deserves a secretary of state who will stand up to the Biden administration that wants to run our country into the ground with nationalized elections.”

In April and May 2021, Peters and Knisley “devised and executed a deceptive scheme which was designed to influence public servants, breach security protocols, exceed permissible access to voting equipment, and set in motion the eventual distribution of confidential information to unauthorized people,” the indictment said. “Furthermore, these defendants, without permission or lawful authorization, also used the name and personal identifying information of Gerald ‘Jerry’ Wood to further their criminal scheme. This unlawful use of Mr. Wood’s identity by Tina Peters and Belinda Knisley also subjected Mr. Wood to various forms of liability and criminal exposure.”

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Welcome back to another Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best tech deals from all over the web includes a new deal on Sony’s excellent (if confoundingly named) WH-1000XM4 noise-canceling headphones, which are back down to $278 at several retailers. While we’ve seen these headphones fall as low as $248 over the holiday season and during events like Amazon Prime Day, this deal matches the best price we usually see outside of special occasions like those. Either way, the discount takes roughly $35 off the XM4’s usual street price and about $70 off Sony’s MSRP.

As for the headphones themselves, we’ve previously called the XM4 the best pair of noise-canceling headphones for most people. Though this pair has been out since August 2020, it still offers top-tier noise-canceling strength, a comfortable and well-padded design, 30+ hours of battery life, and a lively bass-forward sound that can be customized to your liking. Sony’s pair doesn’t sound as sharp as Apple’s competing AirPods Max out of the box, and they aren’t as light on the head as Bose’s QuietComfort 45. But they’re comfier and significantly less expensive than the former, and they last noticeably longer on a charge than the latter. We’ve seen this deal numerous times in the past, but if you’re in the market for a new pair of wireless headphones right now, the XM4 remains a top value at this discounted price.

Elsewhere, we also have a new charity bundle over at digital storefront itch.io that nets you several hundred video games—plus a few comics, e-books, and soundtracks, among other assets—for a minimum donation of $10. The “Bundle for Ukraine,” as it’s called, is hosted by developer Necrosoft Games and includes work from more than 700 creators, with all funds raised going to charities that provide medical assistance to Ukrainians affected by the ongoing conflict with Russia and psychosocial support for children impacted by war. The bundle went live on Monday and has already raised nearly $3 million as of this writing.

Enlarge / Finally, we see Ewan McGregor return to the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in… Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, debuting May 25. (credit: Disney / Lucasfilm)

Disney+ is about to fill its shortest-ever gap between live-action Star Wars TV series, thanks to a six-episode run of Obi-Wan Kenobi starting May 25. And with less than three months to go, Lucasfilm has finally dropped its first substantial look at the return of Ewan McGregor to the Star Wars universe.

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  Obi-Wan Kenobi, seen hiding in his own series. [credit:
  Disney / Lucasfilm
  ]

Tuesday’s 90-second trailer is much beefier than the tease we saw a few months ago, and the new footage straddles a solid balance between a vast look at the TV series’ environments and a tantalizing tease of plot developments to come. In terms of callbacks to familiar content, we get a particularly intriguing look at Kenobi’s inevitable cave-exile future, which includes the character spying on what looks like a childhood version of Luke Skywalker, as flanked by Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru (played by the same actors from the series’ prequel film trilogy). “Stay hidden,” Kenobi suggests in the trailer’s narration.

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  Fifth Brother, as played by Sung Kang (The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift), is on the Jedi hunt. [credit:
  Disney / Lucasfilm
  ]

Seconds later, a Palpatine-like voice makes clear that Jedi are to be hunted, as per the prequel-series mandate of Order 66, and in this Jedi’s case, certain events may compel Kenobi to leave his hiding place. “Their compassion leaves a trail,” the voice says. “The Jedi code is like an itch. They cannot help it.” And at least one familiar hunter, the Fifth Brother (a character who debuted in the CGI-animation series Star Wars Rebels), emerges in brand-new, live-action form with a wicked, super-spinning red lightsaber to get on with such a hunt. (Though this character looks much like the Grand Inquisitor in the above saber-filled image, Disney’s notes to the press say this character is Fifth Brother, as portrayed by Sung Kang of The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift fame.)

Enlarge / This is the stern of the good ship Endurance, which sank off the coast of Antarctica in 1915 after being crushed by pack ice. The Endurance22 expedition has located the shipwreck in pristine condition after nearly 107 years. (credit: Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust/NatGeo)

In 1915, intrepid British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew were stranded for months on the Antarctic ice after their ship, Endurance, was crushed by pack ice and sank into the freezing depths of the Weddell Sea. Today, the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and National Geographic announced the discovery of this famous shipwreck, nearly 107 years later, 3,008 meters down, roughly four miles (6.4 km) south of the ship’s last recorded position.

The shipwreck is in pristine condition partly because of the lack of wood-eating microbes in those waters. In fact, the Endurance22 expedition’s exploration director, Mensun Bound, told The New York Times that the shipwreck is the finest example he’s ever seen; Endurance is “in a brilliant state of preservation.” The expedition has released the first images of the wreck—the first time anyone has laid eyes on Endurance since its sinking a century ago. Bound et al. included shots of the stern (with “ENDURANCE” clearly visible), the rear deck and ship’s wheel, and parts of the deck and hull.

A survival story

Endurance set sail from Plymouth on August 6, 1914, with Shackleton joining his crew in Buenos Aires. By the time they reached the Weddell Sea in January 1915, accumulating pack ice and strong gales slowed progress to a crawl. Endurance became completely icebound on January 24, and by mid-February, Shackleton ordered the boilers to be shut off so that the ship would drift with the ice until the weather warmed sufficiently for the pack to break up. It would be a long wait. For 10 months, the crew endured the freezing conditions. In August, ice floes pressed into the ship with such force that the ship’s decks buckled.

Enlarge / A nurse waits as another staff places sand bags near the window for protection in Kramatorsk City Hospital in eastern Ukraine.
(credit: Getty | SOPA Images)

The World Health Organization has verified 18 Russian attacks on health care resources in Ukraine, including attacks on health care facilities, health workers, and ambulances, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press briefing Wednesday. The verified attacks, which are all in violation of international humanitarian law, involved 10 deaths and 16 injuries.

The latest tally came as reports circulated online that Russian forces had carried out a “direct strike” on a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted video footage of the wreckage, writing, “People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity!” The footage shows a person walking through a hallway, passing room after room in ruin. The brightly colored rooms have their windows blown out, furniture destroyed, and other rubble strewn about. The video captures glimpses of flipped beds, a crib, a pink changing table, a small child-sized cot, and a trail of blood on the debris littering the floor, though no injured people are seen.

Enlarge / Volkswagen’s ID. Buzz will have the electric minivan market to itself when it arrives in 2024. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Nostalgia is a powerful emotion, particularly when you’re selling things. That’s why automakers regularly dip into their back catalogs to dust off a beloved nameplate or silhouette and marry it to modern underpinnings.

And you can’t get much more modern than a battery-electric powertrain, as in the case of Volkswagen’s new ID. Buzz. (Yes, the name has a period in it.) The company that gave us the new Beetle based on the much-loved old Beetle has now drawn inspiration from its iconic T1 Microbus. Although we saw the initial ID. Buzz concept back in 2017, the vehicle is back as a production model. It goes on sale in Europe next year and in the US in 2024.

If you don’t want a two-tone paint job for the ID. Buzz, that’s possible. But we think the two-tone will be more popular. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Depending how you look at it, the ID. Buzz has been two decades in the making. Back in 2001, Volkswagen designed a new Microbus, which looked cool but never progressed past the concept stage. Ten years later, VW tried again with Bulli. Although Bulli looked less gainly than the Microbus, it was perhaps a more realistic representation of a production van, with a bulging nose to accommodate an engine bay and front impact protection.

(credit: Getty Images)

Amazon lied to Congress about its use of third-party seller data, the House Judiciary Committee said today. In a letter to the Department of Justice, the committee chairs asked prosecutors to investigate the company for criminal obstruction of Congress.

“Amazon lied through a senior executive’s sworn testimony that Amazon did not use any of the troves of data it had collected on its third-party sellers to compete with them,” the letter says (emphasis in the original).

The committee said that not only was Amazon’s sworn testimony knowingly false but that repeated attempts to get Amazon to correct the record or to provide evidence to substantiate its claims were either rebuffed or ignored.

Enlarge / Apple Thunderbolt 4 Pro Cable. (credit: Apple)

Thunderbolt 4 can hit speeds of up to 40Gbps and support up to two 4K displays or even an 8K panel. And with Apple’s newly listed cable, you can reap those benefits from a nearly 10-foot distance.

As spotted by The Verge today, Apple has listed a 9.8-foot-long Thunderbolt 4 Pro Cable on its online store, saying the product is “coming soon.” That length offers greater flexibility than the longest Thunderbolt 4 offerings from cable makers like Belkin (6.6 feet), Cable Matters (6.6 feet), and Plugable (6.4 feet). The extra length could be just what the doctor ordered for large offices and studios. Even the countless brands on Amazon don’t offer a Thunderbolt 4 cable at a comparable length.

As with any product from Apple, the 9.8-foot Thunderbolt 4 cable comes at a premium. Apple is selling the cable for $159, or about $16.22 per foot. For comparison, Belkin’s longest Thunderbolt 4 cable is $10.61 per foot, Cable Matters’ is $9.09 per foot, and Plugable’s is around $10.94 per foot.