Author name: DJ Henderson

grid-scale-batteries:-they’re-not-just-lithium

Grid-scale batteries: They’re not just lithium

batteries, chemistry, Science / /
A shipping container labeled with a battery symbol, set among wind turbines and solar panels.

As power utilities and industrial companies seek to use more renewable energy, the market for grid-scale batteries is expanding rapidly. Alternatives to lithium-ion technology may provide environmental, labor, and safety benefits. And these new chemistries can work in markets like the electric grid and industrial applications that lithium doesn’t address well.

“I think the market for longer-duration storage is just now emerging,” said Mark Higgins, chief commercial officer and president of North America at Redflow. “We have a lot of… very rapid scale-up in the types of projects that we’re working on and the size of projects that we’re working on. We’ve deployed about 270 projects around the world. Most of them have been small off-grid or remote-grid systems. What we’re seeing today is much more grid-connected types of projects.”

“Demand… seems to be increasing every day,” said Giovanni Damato, president of CMBlu Energy. Media projections of growth in this space are huge. “We’re really excited about the opportunity to… just be able to play in that space and provide as much capacity as possible.”

New industrial markets are also becoming active. Chemical plants, steel plants, and metal processing plants have not been able to deploy renewable energy well so far due to batteries’ fire hazards, said Mukesh Chatter, co-founder and CEO of Alsym Energy. “When you already are generating a lot of heat in these plants and there’s a risk of fire to begin with, you don’t want to deploy any battery that’s flammable.”

Chatter said that the definition of long-duration energy storage is not agreed upon by industry organizations. Still, there are a number of potential contenders developing storage for this market. Here, we’ll look at Redflow, CMBlu Energy, and BASF Stationary Energy Storage.

Zinc-bromine batteries

Redflow has been manufacturing zinc-bromine flow batteries since 2010, Higgins said. These batteries do not require the critical minerals that lithium-ion batteries need, which are sometimes from parts of the world that have unsafe labor practices or geopolitical risks. The minerals for these zinc-bromine batteries are affordable and easy to obtain.

Flow batteries contain liquid or gaseous electrolytes that flow through cells from tanks, according to the International Flow Battery Forum website:

The interconversion of energy between electrical and stored chemical energy takes place in the electrochemical cell. This consists of two half cells separated by a porous or an ion-exchange membrane. The battery can be constructed of low-cost and readily available materials, such as thermoplastics and carbon-based materials. Many parts of the battery can be recycled. Electrolytes can be recovered and reused, leading to low cost of ownership.

Building these can be quite different from other batteries. “I would say that our manufacturing process is much more akin to… an automotive manufacturing process than to [an] electronics manufacturing process… like [a] lithium-ion battery,” Higgins said. “Essentially, it is assembling batteries that are made out of plastic tanks, pumps, fans, [and] tubing. It’s a flow battery, so it’s a liquid that flows through the system that goes through an electrical stack that has cells in it, which is where most of Redflow’s intellectual property resides. The rest of the battery is all… parts that we can obtain just about anywhere.”

The charging and discharging happen inside an electrical stack. In the stack, zinc is plated onto a carbon surface during the charging process. It is then dissolved into the liquid during the discharging process, Higgins said.

The zinc-bromine electrolyte is derived from an industrial chemical that has been used in the oil and gas sector for a long time, Higgins added.

This battery cannot catch fire, and all of its parts are recyclable, Higgins told Ars. “You don’t have any of the toxic materials that you do in a lithium-ion battery.” The electrolyte liquid can be reused in other batteries. If it’s contaminated, it can be used by the oil and gas industry. If the battery leaks, the contents can be neutralized quickly and are subsequently not hazardous.

“Right now, we manufacture our batteries in Thailand,” Higgins said. “The process and wages are all fair wages and we follow all relevant environmental and labor standards.” The largest sources of bromine come from the Dead Sea or within the United States. The zinc comes from Northern Europe, the United States, or Canada.

The batteries typically use an annual maintenance program to replace components that wear out or fail, something that’s not possible with many other battery types. Higgins estimated that two to four years down the road, this technology will be “completely competitive with lithium-ion” from a cost perspective. Some government grants have helped with the commercialization process.

Grid-scale batteries: They’re not just lithium Read More »

frostpunk-2-goes-wider-and-more-political-but-keeps-the-gritty,-stressful-joy

Frostpunk 2 goes wider and more political but keeps the gritty, stressful joy

11 bit studios, city builders, frostpunk, frostpunk 2, gaming, resource management, strategy, strategy games / /

If you had a time machine, would you shoot baby Krakatoa? —

Sequel has yet again made losing your humanity to survive somehow… fun?

–

<em>Frostpunk 2</em> has you planning and building districts, rather than individual buildings or roads. You make plans, and a particularly icy god laughs.” src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/FP2_Launch_Screenshots_Districts-800×450.jpg”></img><figcaption> <p><a data-height=Enlarge / Frostpunk 2 has you planning and building districts, rather than individual buildings or roads. You make plans, and a particularly icy god laughs.

11 Bit Studios

I can’t remember every interaction I had with the advisers in Civilization games, but I don’t believe I ever had to send my guards to put down a protest one of them staged in a new settlement.

Nor could I ask any of them for “Favours” to scrape a few more heat stamps necessary for a new food district, indebting me to them at some future point when they decide they’ve had enough of some other faction’s people and ideas. In Frostpunk 2 (out today), the people who pop up to tell you how they’re feeling aren’t just helpful indicators, they’re a vital part of the strategy. To keep these people going, you’ve got to make some of them mad, some of them happy, and balance a ledger of all you’ve gained and demanded from them.

That’s the biggest difference you’ll notice in Frostpunk 2 if you’re coming from the original. The original had you making choices that affected people, but you were the Captain, in full control of your people, at least until you angered them enough to revolt. In Frostpunk 2, you manage factions and communities rather than groups of survivors. You place districts, not hospitals. Time moves in days and weeks, not hours. You play multiple chapters across a landscape in a world that is 30 years removed from its initial peril.

The challenge of Frostpunk 2 is no longer simply getting everyone through this winter. There is now some thought of what kind of people you want to be once you have enough fuel, food, and children. Are you in managed decline, or can you build something better, despite the world trying to kill you?

  • You’re still building a city in a radius around the generator, but it’s big hexes and districts, not buildings on grids.

    11 Bit Studios

  • When your city gets built up, it can be mesmerizing to just watch it glow.

    11 Bit Studios

  • Exploring the places beyond your city’s reach can be rewarding, and risky, of course.

    11 Bit Studios

  • Each Faction has their priorities (Cornerstones). You can ask favors, promise things, and track their favor.

    11 Bit Studios

  • A lot of the original Frostpunk feel remains in the game. Should we teach our perfectly pipe-sized kids how to weld inside the oil tubes? What could go wrong?

    11 Bit Studios

A beautiful grid with brutal choices

Those are the big-picture changes to Frostpunk 2. At the ground level, the general feeling is quite familiar. It’s cold, it sometimes gets colder, and there’s a furnace to feed. This time, you need to do “Icebreaking” to unlock tiles for development, but you don’t have to worry so much about the exact placement of individual bits. Your colony or city will link itself up and look beautiful in the game’s grim Victorian cryo-future style. You have to figure out how to scrimp the resources to put an extraction district on the oil reserves, making enough heat for the residents to stop getting sick so you can then send them out to recover goods from a decimated wagon and then icebreak some more toward a food source, all while planning to build a research center and council building.

The research and political trees you climb are more varied and even harder to choose in this sequel. Early in Frostpunk 2, your explorers find a body in the ice with the insignia of the first game’s city on his jacket, and they ask you if it stands for Order or Faith. However you answer, you will have more than just two ideas to choose from. At the base level are two communities, Progress-focused New Londoners and Adaptation-minded Frostlanders. Then you get Order-obsessed Stalwarts, Faithkeepers, and their respective opposition, Pilgrims and Evolvers. Playing the game’s “Utopia Builder” mode after the chapter-based story mode brings in a lot more communities and factions. You know, for this fun thing you do in your spare time.

At the Council Hall, you will need to negotiate with these factions to get votes out of the 100 members, divided up by faction influence. Most votes need 51, but votes that change your power require 66. If a faction is on the fence, you can promise them something, like future research projects or other law changes. Break that promise, and they will work against you in the future. Radicals will show up inside each faction, requiring you to either appease them or find support elsewhere. You can look at all the players and “Cornerstones” (ideologies) at play in one of the game’s beautifully informative screens. You can ponder this while, all around you, the basic needs like fuel, materials, food, and shelter keep needing to be managed.

Your settlers can now lose faith in you not because they’re starving and freezing, but because of political factions. Huzzah!

Frostpunk 2 goes wider and more political but keeps the gritty, stressful joy Read More »

starlink-imposes-$100-“congestion-charge”-on-new-users-in-parts-of-us

Starlink imposes $100 “congestion charge” on new users in parts of US

Policy, starlink congestion charge / /

Starlink congestion charge —

One-time $100 fee in congested areas, and $100 credit in excess-capacity areas.

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A Starlink satellite dish sitting on the ground outdoors.

Enlarge / Starlink satellite dish.

Starlink

New Starlink customers have to pay a $100 “congestion charge” in areas where the satellite broadband network has limited capacity.

“In areas with network congestion, there is an additional one-time charge to purchase Starlink Residential services,” a Starlink FAQ says. “This fee will only apply if you are purchasing or activating a new service plan. If you change your Service address or Service Plan at a later date, you may be charged the congestion fee.”

The charge is unwelcome for anyone wanting Starlink service in a congested area, but it could help prevent the capacity crunch from getting worse by making people think twice about signing up. The SpaceX-owned Internet service provider also seems to anticipate that people who sign up for service in congested areas may change their minds after trying it out for a few weeks.

“Our intention is to no longer charge this fee to new customers as soon as network capacity improves. If you’re not satisfied with Starlink and return it within the 30-day return window, the charge will be refunded,” the company said.

There is some corresponding good news for people in areas with more Starlink capacity. Starlink “regional savings,” introduced a few months ago, provides a $100 service credit in parts of the US “where Starlink has abundant network availability.” The credit is $200 in parts of Canada with abundant network availability.

Starlink speeds

The congestion charge was reported by PCMag on September 13, after being noticed by users of the Starlink subreddit. “The added fee appears to pop up in numerous states, particularly in the south and eastern US, such as Texas, Florida, Kansas, Ohio and Virginia, among others, which have slower Starlink speeds due to the limited network capacity,” PCMag noted.

Speed test data showed in 2022 that Starlink speeds dropped significantly as more people signed up for the service, a fact cited by the Federal Communications Commission when it rejected $886 million worth of broadband deployment grants for the company.

This isn’t the first time Starlink has varied pricing based on regional congestion. In February 2023, Starlink decided that people in limited-capacity areas would pay $120 a month, and people in excess-capacity areas would pay $90 a month.

Despite the new $100 charge, this isn’t necessarily a bad time to order Starlink service. The ISP is currently offering the standard dish for $299 instead of the usual $499. People in excess-capacity areas of the US also get the $100 regional savings credit and a $90 monthly service rate.

Starlink imposes $100 “congestion charge” on new users in parts of US Read More »

reviewing-ios-18-for-power-users:-control-center,-icloud,-and-more

Reviewing iOS 18 for power users: Control Center, iCloud, and more

Apple, control center, Features, files, ios 18, Tech / /

iOS 18 —

Never mind emojis—here’s some stuff that makes iOS more efficient.

–

Control Center in iOS 18 in its customization view

Enlarge / Control Center has a whole new customization interface.

Samuel Axon

iOS 18 launched this week, and while its flagship feature (Apple Intelligence) is still forthcoming, the new OS included two significant new buckets of customization: the home screen and Control Center.

We talked about home screen a few days ago, so for our next step in our series on iOS 18, it’s now time to turn our attention to the new ways you can adjust the Control Center to your liking. While we’re at it, we’ll assess a few other features meant to make iOS more powerful and more efficient for power users.

This is by no means the most significant update for power users Apple has released of the iPhone operating system—there’s nothing like Shortcuts, for example, or the introduction of the Files app a few years ago. But with the increasingly expensive iPhone Pro models, Apple still seems to be trying to make the case that you’ll be able to do more with your phone than you used to.

Let’s start with Control Center, then dive into iCloud, Files, external drives, and hidden and locked apps.

A revamped Control Center

Control Center might not be the flashiest corner of iOS, but when Apple adds more functionality and flexibility to a panel that by default can be accessed with a single gesture from anywhere in the operating system—including inside third-party apps—that has the potential to be a big move for how usable and efficient the iPhone can be.

That seems to be the intention with a notable control center revamp in iOS 18. Visually, it mostly looks similar to what we had in iOS 17, but it’s now paginated and customizable, with a much wider variety of available controls. That includes the option for third-party apps to offer controls for the first time. Additionally, Apple lets you add Shortcuts to Control Center, which has the potential to be immensely powerful for those who want to get that deep into things.

When you invoke it (still by swiping down from the upper-right corner of the screen on modern iPhones and iPads), it will mostly look similar to before, but you’ll notice a few additional elements on screen, including:

  • A “+” sign in the top-left corner: This launches a customization menu for reordering and resizing the controls
  • A power icon in the top-right corner: Holding this brings up iOS’s swipe-to-power-off screen.
  • Three icons along the right side of the screen: A heart, a music symbol, and a wireless connectivity symbol

Control center is now paginated

The three icons on the right represent the three pages Control Center now starts with, and they’re just the beginning. You can add more pages if you wish.

Swiping up and down on any empty part of Control Center moves between the pages. The first page (the one represented by a heart) houses all the controls that were in the older version of Control Center. You can customize what’s here as much as you want.

  • The first page resembles the old Control Center, but with more customization.

    Samuel Axon

  • By default, the second page houses a large “Now Playing” music and audio widget with AirPlay controls.

    Samuel Axon

  • The third has a tall widget with a bunch of connectivity toggles.

    Samuel Axon

  • Adding a new page gives you a grid to add custom control selections to.

    Samuel Axon

The second page by default includes a large “currently playing” music and audio widget alongside AirPlay controls, and the third is a one-stop shop for toggling connectivity features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, AirDrop, airplane mode, and whichever VPN you’re using.

This new paginated approach might seem like it introduces an extra step to get to some controls, but it’s necessary because there are so many more controls you can add now—far more than will fit on a single page.

Customizing pages and controls

If you prefer the way things were, you can remove a page completely by removing all the controls housed in it. You can add more pages if you want, or you can tweak the existing pages to be anything you want them to be.

Whereas you previously had to go into the Settings app to change what controls are included, you can now do this directly from Control Center in one of two ways: you can either tap the aforementioned plus icon, or you can long-press on any empty space in Control Center to enter customization mode.

In this view, you’re presented with a grid of circular spots where controls can go. Each control that’s already there has a “-“ button in its corner that you can tap to remove it. To move a control, you just long press on it for a split second and drag it to whichever spot in the grid you want it to live in.

  • This is the Control Center customization view, which is vastly superior to the home screen’s wiggle mode.

    Samuel Axon

  • Choosing to add a new control brings up this long, searchable, scrollable list of controls from both Apple and third-party apps you have installed.

    Samuel Axon

  • There aren’t a ton of third-party controls yet, but here are a few examples.

    Samuel Axon

  • You can resize controls, but most of them just seem to take up more space and include some text—not very helpful, if you ask me.

    Samuel Axon

There’s also a marker on the bottom-right corner of each control that you can touch and drag to increase the size of the control. The substantial majority of these controls don’t offer anything of value when you make them bigger, though, which is both strange and a missed opportunity.

To add a new control, you tap the words “Add a control” at the bottom of the screen, which are only visible in this customization mode. This brings up a vertically scrollable list of all the controls available, with a search field at the top. The controls appear in the list just as they would in Control Center, which is great for previewing your choice.

Reviewing iOS 18 for power users: Control Center, iCloud, and more Read More »

one-company-appears-to-be-thriving-as-part-of-nasa’s-return-to-the-moon

One company appears to be thriving as part of NASA’s return to the Moon

artemis, intuitive machines, Science, Space, Uncategorized / /

Talking to the Moon —

“This has really been a transformational year for us.”

–

The second Intuitive Machines lander is prepared for hot-fire testing this week.

Enlarge / The second Intuitive Machines lander is prepared for hot-fire testing this week.

Intuitive Machines

One of the miracles of the Apollo Moon landings is that they were televised, live, for all the world to see. This transparency diffused doubts about whether the lunar landings really happened and were watched by billions of people.

However, as remarkable a technical achievement as it was to broadcast from the Moon in 1969, the video was grainy and black and white. As NASA contemplates a return to the Moon as part of the Artemis program, it wants much higher resolution video and communications with its astronauts on the lunar surface.

To that end, NASA announced this week that it had awarded a contract to Houston-based Intuitive Machines for “lunar relay services.” Essentially this means Intuitive Machines will be responsible for building a small constellation of satellites around the Moon that will beam data back to Earth from the lunar surface.

“One of the requirements is a 4K data link,” said Steve Altemus, co-founder and chief executive of Intuitive Machines, in an interview. “That kind of high fidelity data only comes from a data relay with a larger antenna than can be delivered to the surface of the Moon.”

About the plan

This is part of NASA’s plan to build a more robust “Near Space Network” for communications within 1 million miles of Earth (the Moon is about 240,000 miles from Earth). Intuitive Machines’ contract is worth as much as $4.82 billion over the next decade, depending on the level of communication services that NASA chooses to purchase.

The space agency is also expected to award a ground-based component of this network for large dishes to receive signals from near space, taking some of this burden off the Deep Space Network. Altemus said Intuitive Machines has also bid on this ground component contract.

The Houston company, with its IM-1 mission, made a largely successful landing on the Moon in February. A second lunar landing mission, IM-2, is scheduled to take place in late December or January, a few months from now. Funded largely by NASA, the IM-2 mission will carry a small drill to the South Pole of the Moon to search for water ice in Shackleton Crater.

Then, approximately 15 months from now, the company is planning to launch another lander, IM-3. This mission is likely to carry the first data-relay satellite—each is intended to be about 500 kg, Altemus said, but the final design of the vehicles is still being finalized—to lunar orbit. Assuming this first satellite works well, the two following IM missions will each carry two relay satellites, making for a constellation of five spacecraft orbiting the Moon.

Two of the satellites will go into polar orbits and serve NASA’s Artemis needs at the South Pole, Altemus said. Two more are likely to go into halo orbits, and a fifth satellite will be placed into an equatorial orbit. This will provide full coverage of the Moon not just for communications, but also for position, navigation, and timing.

Intuitive Machines rising

A former deputy director of Johnson Space Center, Altemus founded Intuitive Machines in 2013 along with an investor, Kam Ghaffarian, and an aerospace engineer named Tim Crain. It hasn’t always been easy. Development of Intuitive Machines’ Nova C lander took years longer than anticipated; there were setbacks such as a propellant tank failure, and money was at times tight.

In part to address these financial difficulties, the company went public in 2023, at the tail end of the mania in which space companies were becoming publicly traded via special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs. Many space companies that went public this way have struggled mightily, and Intuitive Machines has also faced similar pressures.

“It’s been a challenge,” Altemus said. “We went public in 2023, and navigating that was the story of last year, as well as getting to the launch pad.”

But then good things started happening. Despite some technical troubles, including the failure of its altimeter, the company’s first lander managed a soft touchdown on the Moon on its side. Even with this untinended orientation, the Intuitive Machines-1 mission still managed to complete the vast majority of its science objectives. In August, the company won its fourth task order from NASA—essentially a lunar delivery mission—under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

And then the company won the massive data relay contract this week.

“This has really been a transformational year for us,” Altemus said. “The vision for the company is finally coming together.”

One company appears to be thriving as part of NASA’s return to the Moon Read More »

anker-warns-people-to-stop-using-some-of-its-iphone-power-banks,-issues-recall

Anker warns people to stop using some of its iPhone power banks, issues recall

anker, IPhone, recall, Tech / /

PSA —

“Manufacturing defect”: Anker is recalling all units “out of an abundance of caution.”

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An Anker 334 MagGo Battery (PowerCore 10K) on an iPhone.

Enlarge / An Anker 334 MagGo Battery (PowerCore 10K) on an iPhone.

Anker

Anker is recalling three models of MagSafe iPhone batteries due to a fire risk, it said yesterday.

The models being recalled are the Anker 334 MagGo Battery (PowerCore 10K, model number A1642), Anker Power Bank (model number A1647), and Anker 334 MagGo Battery (model number A1652). In its recall notice, Anker said that some of the lithium-ion batteries in the devices “may pose a fire risk due to a manufacturing defect.”

“The lithium-ion battery in the affected power banks can overheat, potentially causing melting of plastic components, smoke, and fire hazards,” the notice reads.

Anker claims that only products made from January 3 to September 17 are affected but says it’s recalling all units “out of an abundance of caution.”

Anker says that people who own one of these products should “immediately stop using” it. Owners should store the affected products “in a safe location” and use Anker’s website to verify their device’s serial number before filling out a recall form and getting a replacement.

Anker’s recall notice also included tips for safely disposing of power banks, reminding people not to toss them in the trash.

If you own an Anker battery pack and want to check if it’s being recalled, you can look at the bottom of the device for the aforementioned product names and model numbers (A1642, A1647, and A1652) as shown below:

Anker

Anker warns people to stop using some of its iPhone power banks, issues recall Read More »

microsoft-releases-a-new-windows-app-called-windows-app-for-running-windows-apps

Microsoft releases a new Windows app called Windows App for running Windows apps

Biz & IT, Remote Desktop Connection, Tech, Windows 10, Windows 11, windows app / /

heard you like apps —

Windows App replaces Microsoft Remote Desktop on macOS, iOS, and Android.

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The Windows App runs on Windows, but also macOS, iOS/iPadOS, web browsers, and Android.

Enlarge / The Windows App runs on Windows, but also macOS, iOS/iPadOS, web browsers, and Android.

Microsoft

Microsoft announced today that it’s releasing a new app called Windows App as an app for Windows that allows users to run Windows and also Windows apps (it’s also coming to macOS, iOS, web browsers, and is in public preview for Android).

On most of those platforms, Windows App is a replacement for the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, which was used for connecting to a copy of Windows running on a remote computer or server—for some users and IT organizations, a relatively straightforward way to run Windows software on devices that aren’t running Windows or can’t run Windows natively.

The new name, though potentially confusing, attempts to sum up the app’s purpose: It’s a unified way to access your own Windows PCs with Remote Desktop access turned on, cloud-hosted Windows 365 and Microsoft Dev Box systems, and individual remotely hosted apps that have been provisioned by your work or school.

“This unified app serves as your secure gateway to connect to Windows across Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, Remote Desktop, Remote Desktop Services, Microsoft Dev Box, and more,” reads the post from Microsoft’s Windows 365 Senior Product Manager Hilary Braun.

Microsoft says that aside from unifying multiple services into a single app, Windows App’s enhancements include easier account switching, better device management for IT administrators, support for the version of Windows 365 for frontline workers, and support for Microsoft’s “Relayed RDP Shortpath,” which can enable Remote Desktop on networks that normally wouldn’t allow it.

On macOS, iOS, and Android, the Windows App is a complete replacement for the Remote Desktop Connection app—if you have Remote Desktop installed, an update will change it to the Windows App. On Windows, the Remote Desktop Connection remains available, and Windows App is only used for Microsoft’s other services; it also requires some kind of account sign-in on Windows, while it works without a user account on other platforms.

For connections to your own Remote Desktop-equipped PCs, Windows App has most of the same features and requirements as the Remote Desktop Connection app did before, including support for multiple monitors, device redirection for devices like webcams and audio input/output, and dynamic resolution support (so that your Windows desktop resizes as you resize the app window).

Microsoft releases a new Windows app called Windows App for running Windows apps Read More »

creator-of-fake-kamala-harris-video-musk-boosted-sues-calif.-over-deepfake-laws

Creator of fake Kamala Harris video Musk boosted sues Calif. over deepfake laws

2024 election, Artificial Intelligence, California, campaign ads, deepfake, disinformation, election deepfake, elon musk, fake ai videos, Gavin Newsom, misinformation, Policy / /
Creator of fake Kamala Harris video Musk boosted sues Calif. over deepfake laws

After California passed laws cracking down on AI-generated deepfakes of election-related content, a popular conservative influencer promptly sued, accusing California of censoring protected speech, including satire and parody.

In his complaint, Christopher Kohls—who is known as “Mr Reagan” on YouTube and X (formerly Twitter)—said that he was suing “to defend all Americans’ right to satirize politicians.” He claimed that California laws, AB 2655 and AB 2839, were urgently passed after X owner Elon Musk shared a partly AI-generated parody video on the social media platform that Kohls created to “lampoon” presidential hopeful Kamala Harris.

AB 2655, known as the “Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act,” prohibits creating “with actual malice” any “materially deceptive audio or visual media of a candidate for elective office with the intent to injure the candidate’s reputation or to deceive a voter into voting for or against the candidate, within 60 days of the election.” It requires social media platforms to block or remove any reported deceptive material and label “certain additional content” deemed “inauthentic, fake, or false” to prevent election interference.

The other law at issue, AB 2839, titled “Elections: deceptive media in advertisements,” bans anyone from “knowingly distributing an advertisement or other election communication” with “malice” that “contains certain materially deceptive content” within 120 days of an election in California and, in some cases, within 60 days after an election.

Both bills were signed into law on September 17, and Kohls filed his complaint that day, alleging that both must be permanently blocked as unconstitutional.

Elon Musk called out for boosting Kohls’ video

Kohls’ video that Musk shared seemingly would violate these laws by using AI to make Harris appear to give speeches that she never gave. The manipulated audio sounds like Harris, who appears to be mocking herself as a “diversity hire” and claiming that any critics must be “sexist and racist.”

“Making fun of presidential candidates and other public figures is an American pastime,” Kohls said, defending his parody video. He pointed to a long history of political cartoons and comedic impressions of politicians, claiming that “AI-generated commentary, though a new mode of speech, falls squarely within this tradition.”

While Kohls’ post was clearly marked “parody” in the YouTube title and in his post on X, that “parody” label did not carry over when Musk re-posted the video. This lack of a parody label on Musk’s post—which got approximately 136 million views, roughly twice as many as Kohls’ post—set off California governor Gavin Newsom, who immediately blasted Musk’s post and vowed on X to make content like Kohls’ video “illegal.”

In response to Newsom, Musk poked fun at the governor, posting that “I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America.” For his part, Kohls put up a second parody video targeting Harris, calling Newsom a “bully” in his complaint and claiming that he had to “punch back.”

Shortly after these online exchanges, California lawmakers allegedly rushed to back the governor, Kohls’ complaint said. They allegedly amended the deepfake bills to ensure that Kohls’ video would be banned when the bills were signed into law, replacing a broad exception for satire in one law with a narrower safe harbor that Kohls claimed would chill humorists everywhere.

“For videos,” his complaint said, disclaimers required under AB 2839 must “appear for the duration of the video” and “must be in a font size ‘no smaller than the largest font size of other text appearing in the visual media.'” For a satirist like Kohls who uses large fonts to optimize videos for mobile, this “would require the disclaimer text to be so large that it could not fit on the screen,” his complaint said.

On top of seeming impractical, the disclaimers would “fundamentally” alter “the nature of his message” by removing the comedic effect for viewers by distracting from what allegedly makes the videos funny—”the juxtaposition of over-the-top statements by the AI-generated ‘narrator,’ contrasted with the seemingly earnest style of the video as if it were a genuine campaign ad,” Kohls’ complaint alleged.

Imagine watching Saturday Night Live with prominent disclaimers taking up your TV screen, his complaint suggested.

It’s possible that Kohls’ concerns about AB 2839 are unwarranted. Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon told Politico that Kohls’ parody label on X was good enough to clear him of liability under the law.

“Requiring them to use the word ‘parody’ on the actual video avoids further misleading the public as the video is shared across the platform,” Gardon said. “It’s unclear why this conservative activist is suing California. This new disclosure law for election misinformation isn’t any more onerous than laws already passed in other states, including Alabama.”

Creator of fake Kamala Harris video Musk boosted sues Calif. over deepfake laws Read More »

fitbit-users-struggle-with-“very-frustrating”-app-bugs-for-months

Fitbit users struggle with “very frustrating” app bugs for months

fitbit, Google, smartwatch, Software, Tech / /

iOS and Android —

People have been complaining about some of the issues since at least April.

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Fitbit's Charge 6.

Enlarge / Fitbit’s Charge 6.

Google

Users of Fitbit’s iOS and Android apps have been reporting problems with the apps’ ability to sync and collect and display accurate data. Some have been complaining of such problems since at least April, and Fitbit has been working on addressing syncing issues since at least September 3. However, Google’s Fitbit hasn’t said when it expects the bugs to be totally resolved.

On September 3, Fitbit’s Status Dashboard updated to show a service disruption, pointing to an incident affecting the web API.

“Some users may notice data discrepancies or syncing issues between [third-party] apps and Fitbit. Our team is currently investigating the root cause of the issue,” the dashboard reads.

On September 3, Fitbit also released version 4.24 of its mobile apps. It’s unclear if the update is related to the problems. At least some of the complaints in this story started coming to light before September.

Owners of older and newer Fitbit devices have taken to the company’s online support forum to discuss software problems they’re reportedly having. There are several threads with dozens of pages’ worth of responses pointing to issues, like the app’s dashboard “deleting steps and not syncing properly,” the app recording steps but not distance traveled, the app seemingly showing inaccurate data, and other bugs.

When reached for comment about the complaints, a Google spokesperson told Ars Technica: “We’re aware of the issue and are working hard to get it resolved.”

Monthslong problems

Some of the complaints about the apps have seemingly gone on for months. Fitbit representatives have said online that the issues are being worked on.

For example, in an 11-page thread on Fitbit’s community forum, users say the app inaccurately claims that they’ve taken about the same number of steps per day for several days in a row. The thread began on April 10. On September 8, a Fitbit moderator said that Fitbit “is aware of the situation and is working on a solution to it.”

“We haven’t received any time frame yet, how long our team still needs to solve this. Hopefully it will be fixed soon,” the Fitbit moderator going by JuanFitbit said.

The Fitbit app.

The Fitbit app.

Google

In another thread, started on July 3, a Charge 5 user claimed that their iOS is tracking steps but not kilometers traveled. On September 18, JuanFitbit posted in the thread: “We still haven’t received an update on how long this will take. But our team has this problem as one of their priorities to solve.”

“Insanely annoying”

As expected, the ongoing bugs and broken features have left users frustrated and hungry for a solution.

“This is insanely annoying,” a forum user going by MonkeyPants wrote on September 11. “The app has constant syncing issues especially with the One.”

Since acquiring Fitbit in 2021, Google has ushered sweeping changes to the platform, including removing the online dashboard, social features, and the ability to sync Fitbits with computers. Some long-time Fitbit owners have accused Google of reducing Fitbit support and quality in favor of Google Pixel Watches. For its part, Google has denied that it will stop making Fitbit products.

On Fitbit’s forum, a user called DustyStone claimed they are having problems with the app’s dashboard losing steps and not syncing properly. They said this happened with both an old Fitbit One and newly purchased Inspire 3:

It looks that Google just somehow screwed up the app. Worse yet, nothing has changed in weeks. Google is a tier 1 tech company. But their response to this issue and the deletion of the web based Fitbit platform shows that may no longer be the case.

Similarly, MBWaldo said they are “not sure how serious the fitbit team is about resolving” the app problems while lamenting the lack of an online dashboard, like countless other users we’ve seen.

“Very frustrating!!!!,” MBWaldo wrote. “I have been experiencing this for several days now. I have deleted app and reinstalled it, I have unpaired and re-paired the ONE and looked for app updates in the app store – NADA. And of course the dashboard is no longer available at fitbit.com.”

Some app problems fixed

Based on Fitbit’s forums, it seems that at least some recently reported software problems have been fixed.

For example, some customers recently pointed to a problem with the apps’ “Exercise days” tiles not loading properly being fixed. Some people have also said that they’re no longer experiencing a problem where the app was listing calorie counts for days in the future.

One only needs to go back to the recent Sonos app debacle for a reminder of the importance of ensuring that software changes won’t hurt the experience of already-purchased hardware. A company’s bad app and slow response to issues can ruin otherwise functioning hardware and discourage future purchases.

Although this is different from the Charge 5’s battery problems that were suspected to be caused by a firmware update—Google denied this was the case but didn’t provide an alternate answer—it’s an improvement to see Google at least acknowledge the app problems. But killing features combined with a broken app experience won’t help the wearables brand’s errant reputation. Fixes are reportedly in the works, but for some it may be too little too late.

Fitbit users struggle with “very frustrating” app bugs for months Read More »

life-imitates-xkcd-comic-as-florida-gang-beats-crypto-password-from-retiree

Life imitates xkcd comic as Florida gang beats crypto password from retiree

crime, crypto, Features, robbery, Security / /

intruders —

Group staged home invasions to steal cryptocurrency.

–

Sometimes this is all you need.

Enlarge / Sometimes this is all you need.

Aurich Lawson | Getty Image

Remy Ra St. Felix spent April 11, 2023, on a quiet street in a rented BMW X5, staking out the 76-year-old couple that he planned to rob the next day.

He had recently made the 11-hour drive up I-95 from southern Florida, where he lived, to Durham, North Carolina. It was a long way, but as with so many jobs, occasional travel was the cost of doing business. That was true especially when your business was robbing people of their cryptocurrency by breaking into their homes and threatening to cut off their balls and rape their wives.

St. Felix, a young man of just 25, had tried this line of work closer to home at first, but it hadn’t gone well. A September 2022 home invasion in Homestead, Florida, was supposed to bring St. Felix and his crew piles of crypto. All they had to do was stick a gun to some poor schlub’s head and force him to log in to his online exchange and then transfer the money to accounts controlled by the thieves. A simple plan—which worked fine until it turned out that the victim’s crypto accounts had far less money in them than planned.

Rather than waste the opportunity, St. Felix improvised. Court records showed that he tied the victim’s hands, shoved him into a vehicle, and drove away. Inside the car, the kidnappers filmed themselves beating the victim, who was visibly bleeding from the mouth and face. A gun was placed to the victim’s neck, and he was forced to record a plea for friends and family to send cryptocurrency to secure the man’s release. Five such videos were recorded in the car. The abducted man was eventually found by police 120 miles from his home.

A messy operation.

So St. Felix and his crew began to look out of state for new jobs. They robbed someone in Little Elm, Texas, of $150,000 and two Rolex watches, but their attention was eventually drawn to a tidy home on Wells Street in far-off Durham. The homeowner there was believed to be a significant crypto investor. (The crew had hacked into his email account to confirm this.)

After his day of surveillance on April 11, St. Felix and his partner, Elmer Castro, drove to a local Walmart and purchased their work uniforms: sunglasses, a clipboard, reflective vests, and khaki pants. Back at their hotel, St. Felix snapped a photo of himself in this getup, which looked close enough to a construction worker for his purposes.

The next morning at 7: 30 am, St. Felix and Castro rolled up to the Wells Street home once more. Instead of surveilling it from down the block, they knocked on the door. The husband answered. The men told him some story involving necessary pipe inspections. They wandered around the home for a few minutes, then knocked on the front door again.

But this time, when the wife answered, St. Felix and Castro were wearing ski masks and sunglasses—and they had handguns. They pushed their way inside. The woman screamed, and her husband came in from the kitchen to see them all fighting. The intruders punched the husband in the face and zip-tied the hands and feet of both homeowners.

Castro dragged the wife by her legs down the hallway and into the bathroom. He stood guard over her, wielding his distinctive pink revolver.

In the meantime, St. Felix had marched the husband at gunpoint into a loft office at the back of the home. There, the threats came quickly—St. Felix would cut off the man’s toes, he said, or his genitals. He would shoot him. He would rape his wife. The only way out was to cooperate, and that meant helping St. Felix log in to the man’s Coinbase account.

St. Felix, holding a black handgun and wearing a Bass Pro Shop baseball cap, waited for the shocked husband’s agreement. When he got it, he cut the man’s zip-ties and set him in front of the home office iMac.

The husband logged in to the computer, and St. Felix took over and downloaded the remote-control software AnyDesk. He then opened up a Telegram audio call to the real brains of the operation.

The actual robbery was about to begin.

Life imitates xkcd comic as Florida gang beats crypto password from retiree Read More »

30th-anniversary-limited-run-ps5-and-ps5-pro-bring-back-mid-’90s-gray-plastic

30th-anniversary limited-run PS5 and PS5 Pro bring back mid-’90s gray plastic

gaming, PlayStation 5, ps5, ps5 pro, Tech / /

u r not (red) e —

Sony launched a similar gray PlayStation 4 in 2014 for the 20th anniversary.

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  • The PS5 Pro version of the 30th anniversary bundle comes with both varieties of DualSense controller, a plate for an (optional) optical drive, and other accessories.

    Sony

  • The regular PS5 version of the limited edition console.

    Sony

  • This is still a PS5 Pro, despite the PS1-inspired casing.

    Sony

  • It’s possible that Sony should have never stopped using the multicolor PS logo.

    Sony

  • The limited-edition PlayStation Portal.

    Sony

Sony launched the original PlayStation console in Japan on December 3, 1994, and Sony isn’t letting the 30th anniversary pass by quietly. Today the company has announced limited-edition versions of both the PS5 and PS5 Pro with gray plastic shells and multicolored PlayStation logos, inspired by the gray plastic shells of the original. The retro-inspired modern consoles will be released on November 21 and will be available for preorder starting September 26 from Sony’s direct.playstation.com site.

Sony is also releasing DualSense and DualSense Edge controllers with gray shells and colorful PS logo buttons and a gray version of the Switch-esque PlayStation Portal streaming console. Sony says that the limited-edition PS5 Pro will be limited to 12,300 units—a reference to the December 3 launch date—but didn’t mention any specific manufacturing numbers for the regular PS5, either DualSense controller design, or the PlayStation Portal.

Both console bundles also come with a handful of other accessories: a PS logo sticker, a PS logo paperclip, cable ties, and (my personal favorite) a regular USB-C cable with a giant, chunky PS1-style controller connector on one end.

Though they’re inspired by the original PlayStation, neither limited edition console comes with a built-in optical drive; however, they do include the gray plastic enclosure for anyone who chooses to add an $80 optical drive after the fact.

The USB-C cable with the PS1-style connector housing on it may be my favorite part of this entire announcement.

Enlarge / The USB-C cable with the PS1-style connector housing on it may be my favorite part of this entire announcement.

Sony

Sony has, notably, announced no pricing information for either console or any of the controllers or other accessories, though it almost doesn’t matter—the nature of limited-edition gaming-related collectibles is such that enthusiasts and scalpers will snap these consoles up shortly after launch, regardless of whether Sony sells them at the usual MSRP or not.

Sony released a similar PS1-inspired version of the PlayStation 4 for the PlayStation’s 20th anniversary in 2014, and it still fetches a high price—upward of $1,000 on eBay for used versions in good condition and between $1,500 and $2,000 for mint-in-box consoles.

Listing image by Sony

30th-anniversary limited-run PS5 and PS5 Pro bring back mid-’90s gray plastic Read More »

after-20-years,-world-of-warcraft-will-now-let-players-do-solo-raids

After 20 years, World of Warcraft will now let players do solo raids

Blizzard, gaming, MMO, World of Warcraft, wow / /

No more randos —

People have been playing WoW solo for years, so this was just the final step.

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An insect queen in a video game

Enlarge / The final boss of the new WoW raid, who will now be beatable as a solo player in Story Mode.

Blizzard

After 20 years, it’s now possible for solo players to finish storylines in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft that previously required a group to do an intensive raid.

That’s thanks to “Story Mode,” a new raid difficulty that was added for the final wing of the first raid of the recently released The War Within expansion.

Over the years, developer Blizzard has expanded the difficulty options for raids to meet various players and communities where they’re at in terms of play styles. The top difficulty is Mythic, where the semi-pro hardcore guilds compete. Below that is Heroic, where serious, capital-G gamers coordinate with friends in weekly raid schedules to progress. Then there’s Normal, which still requires some coordination but isn’t nearly as challenging and can typically be completed by a pick-up group within a few tries.

The most accessible difficulty is Raid Finder, where you’re matched up with random players automatically to complete a vastly easier version of a raid. Now Story Mode has been added to the mix, and it’s even easier than Raid Finder.

How Story Mode works

In Story Mode, you fight only the raid’s final boss, which has been scaled back in stats and complexity so that it’s beatable for a single player or a very small group of friends. Challenging encounter mechanics have been removed, and the whole fight has been retooled to focus exclusively on the narrative aspects.

There are some rewards, but they’re not the same as those on more difficult raids; the goal was to avoid cheapening the experience for those who do want to go all the way.

So far, Story Mode is available exclusively for the newest raid, which is called Nerub-ar Palace. It hasn’t been made available for other encounters yet, but Blizzard has hinted that this could be the long-term goal.

Supporting new (well, actually, old) play styles

Throughout WoW‘s history, it’s been common for the conclusion of a major storyline to involve defeating the final boss of a raid or dungeon. In the earlier years, Raid Finder didn’t exist, so only a small percentage of players who were willing to take on hardcore raiding could see those narrative outcomes.

Raid Finder was added in the Cataclysm expansion, but that still required grouping with other players, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. For some players, the social aspect of WoW is simply guild chat while doing solo activities at their own pace. Some people even play WoW without interacting directly with other players at all, treating others in the game as background crowds that add immersion to the experience.

In most areas, WoW has been better than most of its peers at supporting this kind of play. I played WoW socially early on, but I’ve played almost exclusively solo for the past several years. To see the endings of storylines I encountered while questing, I often turned to YouTube to see the cutscenes players got when they beat the raids.

Story Mode is also relevant for older content; Blizzard wisely introduced a new approach to leveling new characters where players can essentially pick a past expansion to level through. It’s tuned so that the players reach the level cap and are ready for current live content at more or less the same time they finish the final story in that expansion. But it’s only during special Timewalking events that those players got the opportunity to find other players to do the raids with, so they often didn’t get to finish the stories.

Story Mode solves both of those scenarios, and it’s a fundamental philosophy shift for how WoW approaches endgame content.

A lot of players enjoy WoW‘s positive community aspects but don’t like the pressure of having to perform for others in a high-stress situation. Raid Finder addressed some of their concerns, but since some people just play for the story, there was no good reason for Blizzard not to have done this ages ago.

Story Mode might even be enough to get lapsed players back who might have left because they didn’t have time for the demanding social schedules associated with raiding. It also doesn’t take away from hardcore players’ satisfaction or enjoyment if casual solos can see some version of the final encounter and cutscene of a story arc, especially since the rewards are so distinct.

Sometimes, casual and hardcore players can play the same game without ruining each other’s experience. That’s a fine line that Blizzard has struggled to walk sometimes, but Story Mode is one of a handful of cases where it’s a win for everyone.

After 20 years, World of Warcraft will now let players do solo raids Read More »