The Cross Heads

Z-Wave Long Range and its mile-long capabilities will arrive next year

Z-Wave can be a very robust automation network, free from the complications and fragility of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Just how robust, you ask? More than a mile long, under the right circumstances, as hardware soon to hit the market promises. All claims of radio distances should be taken with amounts of salt unhealthy for consumption. […]

December 18, 2024 | home automation, shelly, Smart Home, Tech, z-wave, z-wave long range, z-wave lr | No comments

After decades of talk, Seagate seems ready to actually drop the HAMR hard drives

How do you fit 32 terabytes of storage into a hard drive? With a HAMR. Seagate has been experimenting with heat-assisted magnetic recording, or HAMR, since at least 2002. The firm has occasionally popped up to offer a demonstration or make yet another “around the corner” pronouncement. The press has enjoyed myriad chances to celebrate the […]

December 17, 2024 | e-pmr, HAMR, hdd, hdds, mozaic, mozaic 3+, Seagate, Storage, Tech, toshiba, Western Digital | No comments

Companies issuing RTO mandates “lose their best talent”: Study

Still, the study provides insight into how employees respond to RTO mandates and the effect it has on corporations and available talent at a time when entities like Dell, Amazon, and the US government are getting stricter about in-office work. Higher turnover rates The researchers concluded that the average turnover rates for firms increased by […]

December 17, 2024 | Policy, return-to-office, Tech | No comments

Nvidia partners leak next-gen RTX 50-series GPUs, including a 32GB 5090

Rumors have suggested that Nvidia will be taking the wraps off of some next-generation RTX 50-series graphics cards at CES in January. And as we get closer to that date, Nvidia’s partners and some of the PC makers have begun to inadvertently leak details of the cards. According to recent leaks from both Zotac and […]

December 17, 2024 | Blackwell, Gaming, geforce rtx, NVIDIA, rtx 5070, rtx 5070 ti, rtx 5080, rtx 5090, Tech | No comments

Buying a TV in 2025? Expect lower prices, more ads, and an OS war.

While Ars readers may be more guarded about Google having an insider look at their data, many web users have a more accepting attitude. This has opened the door for TVs to test users’ max tolerance for ads and tracking to deliver more relevant ads. That said, there’s a fine line. “Companies have to be […]

December 16, 2024 | ads, Features, roku, software, Tech, TVs, Vizio, walmart | No comments

The optical disc onslaught continues, with LG quitting Blu-ray players

Speaking of things staying the same, Blu-rays and DVDs also won’t have their content altered after purchase, as we’ve seen happen to digital versions of media. While certainly in decline, the US Blu-ray and DVD disc market made $1.34 billion in the year ending in March 2023, according to market research group Circana. Data from […]

December 12, 2024 | Blu-ray, dvd, LG, streaming, Tech | No comments

Google steps into “extended reality” once again with Android XR

Citing “years of investment in AI, AR, and VR,” Google is stepping into the augmented reality market once more with Android XR. It’s an operating system that Google says will power future headsets and glasses that “transform how you watch, work, and explore.” The first version you’ll see is Project Moohan, a mixed-reality headset built […]

December 12, 2024 | android, android xr, Apple, extended reality, Google, Google Glass, Tech, VR, XR | No comments

Intel Arc B580 review: A $249 RTX 4060 killer, one-and-a-half years later

GPU power consumption numbers under load. Credit: Andrew Cunningham Power consumption is another place where the Battlemage GPU plays a lot of catch-up with Nvidia. With the caveat that software-measured power usage numbers like ours are less accurate than numbers captured with hardware tools, it looks like the B580’s power consumption, when fully loaded, consumes somewhere […]

December 12, 2024 | Alchemist, battlemage, Gaming, Intel, Intel Arc, intel arc b580, Tech | No comments

YouTube TV is hiking prices again after denying “erroneous” report days ago

YouTube TV, now one of the country’s leading cable (or cable-ish) television providers, is starting to act like it. The service told customers in an email this morning that prices are going up in the new year, from $73 per month for the Base Plan to $83 on January 13, 2025—just days after suggesting that […]

December 12, 2024 | Google, Tech, youtube TV | No comments

Back where it started: “Do Not Track” removed from Firefox after 13 years

DNT now more liability than help That moment, when every major browser had a Do Not Track option, was perhaps the height of DNT, and even then, there was a feeling that it could never work. Lorrie Faith Cranor, leader of the Privacy Preferences Project (P3P) that predated DNT, told Ars in 2012 that “every […]

December 12, 2024 | Tech | No comments

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