NASA selects SpaceX as its sole provider for a lunar lander

Enlarge / Rendering of SpaceX's Starship vehicle on the surface of the Moon. (credit: NASA) In an extraordinary announcement on Friday, NASA said that it has selected SpaceX and its Starship vehicle to serve as the lunar lander for its Artemis Program. This is NASA's plan to return humans to the Moon later this decade. About a year ago, NASA gave...

6h

21.5-inch iMac supply dwindles amid chip shortages, possible refresh

The front of the 2020 27-inch iMac. [credit: Samuel Axon ] Apple's low-end, 21.5-inch iMac appears to be in short supply at Apple Stores and in Apple's online storefront in the United States. The shortage could be a hint of an imminent change...

6h

Backdoored developer tool that stole credentials escaped notice for 3 months

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) A publicly available software development tool contained malicious code that stole the authentication credentials that apps need to access sensitive resources. It's the latest revelation of a supply chain attack that has the potential to backdoor the networks of countless organizations. The Codecov bash uploader contained...

8h

Arkansas House passes unconstitutional bill putting creationism in schools

Enlarge / The Arkansas state capitol. (credit: Daniel Schwen) Last week, the Arkansas state House of Representatives passed a bill that would amend state education law to allow teachers in public schools to teach creationism as "a theory of how the earth came to exist." As it stands, the act promotes blatantly unconstitutional behavior as made clear...

8h

Dogecoin has risen 400 percent in the last week because why not

Enlarge (credit: peng song / Getty) Dogecoin, a blockchain-based digital currency named for a meme about an excitable canine, has seen its price rise by a factor of five over the last week. The price spike has made it one of the world's 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies, with a market capitalization of $45 billion. Understanding the value of cryptocurrencies...

9h

Today’s best deals: Board games we like, indoor security cameras, and more

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica) Today's Dealmaster includes notable discounts on a couple of Ars-approved board games, with the avian-themed Wingspan down to $46 and the massive dungeon crawler Gloomhaven down to $89 at Amazon. Both deals are within $4 of the lowest prices we've tracked and a good ways below the typical street price we see for each...

10h

Valve Anti-Cheat’s “permanent” bans now have one major exception

Enlarge / Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen, seen here at Dreamhack's 2019 Winter Open, may be allowed back in Valve-sponsored events despite a VAC ban. (credit: Stephanie Lindgren / Dreamhack) If you know just one thing about Valve's Anti-Cheat system (VAC), you probably know that a ban issued through it lasts forever. As Valve's support page lays out clearly,...

11h

Google loses “Location History” court battle in Australia

Enlarge The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has ruled that Google misled Android users over its collection of location data. This ruling is in reference to the "Location History" controversy from a few years ago. The Associated Press reported at the time that turning off the Location History setting does not disable all location-tracking...

11h

Congressmen ask Biden admin to keep chip design software away from China

Enlarge (credit: China News Service | Getty Images) Don’t let American companies sell semiconductor design software to Chinese firms, two members of Congress are asking the Department of Commerce.  Sen. Tom Cotton (R- Ark.) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) yesterday requested that electronic design automation (EDA) tools be designated as “foundational...

12h

NPD: PlayStation 5’s first 5 months are best ever for a US console launch

Enlarge / The PS5 is bigger than Xbox Series X in more ways than one (at least, in the United States). (credit: Sam Machkovech) While we're still waiting on exact sales numbers for last year's newest video game consoles, select stats have begun to emerge that, at least in the US, give a clear lead to Sony's PlayStation 5. As it turns out, the lead...

13h