Category: Technica Aquarius

Enlarge / FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington testifies during a House committee hearing on March 31, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Federal Communications Commission member Nathan Simington says the FCC should “applaud” Elon Musk for buying Twitter, arguing that Musk’s “stated intention to ease Twitter’s restrictions on speech… would almost certainly enhance competition and better serve those Americans, the majority, who value free speech.”

“The FCC cannot, and should not, block this sale,” Simington, one of two Republican commissioners on the FCC, said in a statement issued Monday. “We should instead applaud Mr. Musk for doing something about a serious problem that government has so far failed to address.” Simington was nominated to the FCC by then-President Donald Trump in 2020 to replace a Republican commissioner who objected to Trump’s demand that the FCC crack down on social media “censorship.”

There’s not much reason to think the FCC would try to block Musk’s pending $44 billion purchase of Twitter, as the commission’s authority over mergers and acquisitions is centered on transactions that involve FCC licenses. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, hasn’t issued any statements on the Twitter sale. However, a group called the Open Markets Institute last week claimed that the FCC, Department of Justice, and Federal Trade Commission all have “ample authority” to block the sale.

Enlarge / In this illustration, SpaceX’s Starship vehicle is seen landing on the Moon. (credit: NASA)

As part of its Artemis program to return humans to the Moon this decade, NASA has a minimum requirement that its “human landing system” must be able to deliver 865 kg to the lunar surface. This is based on the mass of two crew members and their equipment needed for a short stay.

However, in selecting SpaceX’s Starship vehicle to serve as its human lander, NASA has chosen a system with a lot more capability. Starship will, in fact, be able to deliver 100 metric tons to the surface of the Moon—more than 100 times NASA’s baseline goal.

“Starship can land 100 tons on the lunar surface,” said Aarti Matthews, Starship Human Landing System program manager for SpaceX. “And it’s really hard to think about what that means in a tangible way. One hundred tons is four fire trucks. It’s 100 Moon rovers. My favorite way to explain this to my kids is that it’s the weight of more than 11 elephants.”

Enlarge (credit: Luke Miani/YouTube)

Apple’s Studio Display is much less expensive than its $5,000 Pro Display XDR. But with a starting price of $1,600, it’s not cheap. For those who need 14,745,600 pixels, though, like video editors and graphic designers, there are few options besides Apple’s costly monitor, especially since Apple discontinued its 27-inch 5K iMac desktop upon announcing the Studio Display in March.

That didn’t stop YouTuber Luke Miani from finding an old iMac and turning it into a makeshift Studio Display for about $870, webcam and 5K included.

In a video describing the process, Miani noted that the panel performance of the Studio Display is similar to what Apple has been offering for years, so he opted to use a 2014 iMac rather than the most recent 2020 27-inch iMac for his project. The iMac cost Miani $620, he said.

Enlarge / European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager speaks to reporters on May 2, 2022, in Brussels, Belgium. (credit: Getty Images | Thierry Monasse )

Apple has “abused its dominant position” to give Apple Pay an advantage over competitors on iPhones and other iOS devices, the European Commission said Monday. The EC informed Apple of its view in a Statement of Objections.

The preliminary finding “takes issue with the decision by Apple to prevent mobile wallets app developers from accessing the necessary hardware and software (‘NFC input’) on its devices, to the benefit of its own solution, Apple Pay,” the EC said. “We have indications that Apple restricted third-party access to key technology necessary to develop rival mobile wallet solutions on Apple’s devices,” said EC Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager.

“Tap and go” technology that uses near-field communication (NFC) “enables communication between a mobile phone and payments terminals in stores,” the EC noted. But “Apple Pay is the only mobile wallet solution that may access the necessary NFC input on iOS. Apple does not make it available to third-party app developers of mobile wallets,” the announcement said.

When a rare species is a product.

Alive or dead, rare or mundane, bugs are weirdly easy to find for sale online. However, in some cases, the insects or spiders sold through the various e-commerce sites, both niche and large-scale, may be of dubious provenance. Some may be bred and reared in sustainable programs. Others might be taken from wild populations that are at risk, according to new research out of Cornell University that was published last week.

“It’s not always clear… if they’re sustainable or not,” John Losey, a Cornell entomology professor and one of the paper’s authors, told Ars. “There are sites out there that are definitely not providing documentation that what they’re selling is being done sustainably.”

According to Losey, some websites will provide no documentation or proof showing that a rare pinned butterfly specimen or pet tarantula was collected in a way that doesn’t pose a risk for wild populations. Some of them could very well have been reared in a sustainable program, Losey said—there’s just no way to tell.

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

A couple of years ago, Microsoft reformulated its Edge web browser with a backend based on Google’s Chromium codebase. Since then, the company has tried to make Edge stand out primarily by adding on extra features, mostly related to privacy, security, and online shopping.

One interesting new experimental feature that could be coming to Edge soon is a Cloudflare-powered VPN feature, according to a support document published last week. A VPN (or virtual private network) provides an encrypted tunnel for all of your network traffic, shielding it from the view of other devices on the same network.

Using the VPN service, dubbed the “Microsoft Edge Secure Network,” requires you to be signed in with a Microsoft account, just like cross-device syncing of bookmarks and extensions and plenty of other features. It provides up to 1GB of data per month, with no option to get more data if you want or need it—Edge will track your data usage and let you know when you’re getting close to your limit.