News from the web

Enlarge / Map of Antarctica today showing rates of retreat (2010-2016) of the “grounding lineî where glaciers lose contact with bedrock underwater, along with ocean temperatures. The lone red arrow in East Antarctica is the Totten Glacier, which alone holds ice equivalent to ~3m (10ft) of sea level rise. (credit: Hannes Konrad et al, University of Leeds UK. ...   Ars Technica

The web browser is by far the most important piece of software on your PC—at least for most users. Unless you’re at a workstation crunching numbers or editing the next Star Wars you probably spend the majority of your computer time staring at a web app or a website. ...   PC World

Garmin On the heels of announcing thoughtful updates to its Vivoactive 3 device, Garmin is bringing some of the same new wearable features to the Fenix line. The new Fenix 5S Plus, Fenix 5 Plus, and Fenix 5X Plus devices finally have Garmin Pay and music storage now, and they include advanced biometric and routing features that serious athletes will appreciate. ...   Ars Technica

Back in Android's early days, the system's open-source generosity offered a huge advantage to phone manufacturers. In the Android Eclair and Froyo eras, there was palatable whimsy in interface design. Owning an Android phone was fun, and manufacturers developed identity by interpreting the system in their own special ways. ...   PC World

Crosley’s Star Wars Cruiser portable turntable is ostensibly an easy-to-operate record player for vinyl newbs who also happen to have a Star Wars-geek streak. As a first-gen Star Wars fan who started collecting records the same year that movie came out, I found the idea as seductive as the dark side of the Force. ...   PC World

Enlarge / LONDON: A President Trump impersonator poses in a mock-up of the Oval Office to promote the global release of James Patterson and Bill Clinton's book, The President is Missing at Waterloo Station. (credit: Eamonn M. ...   Ars Technica

Enlarge (credit: Bethesda) LOS ANGELES—The first Rage didn't generate much buzz amongst fans of first-person shooters when it shipped in 2010, but one of id Software's later titles (the 2016 Doom reboot) made a big splash. With Rage 2, publisher Bethesda is hoping that some of the post-Doom goodwill can elevate this low-profile franchise to popularity. ...   Ars Technica

Tammy Perez / ATX TV Festival AUSTIN, Texas—If you ask Graham Yost—prolific TV producer with a resume including Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Justified—accuracy in on-screen military portrayals is a relatively new phenomenon, similar to how tech ranging from the latest hacker tools to futuristic autonomous bots have recently become increasingly grounded in reality. ...   Ars Technica

Eric Bangeman CHICAGO—When you think of Land Rover, what comes to mind? For me, it’s two things: ancient off-roaders trekking about the African savannah in the nature documentaries of my youth, and modern, well-appointed luxury SUVs. Nearly 50 years later, Land Rover is trying to meld the two worlds with a large, two-door SUV that can drive through three feet of water. ...   Ars Technica

Enlarge / A LEGO app using Apple's new ARKit features. (credit: Apple) Augmented reality (AR) has played prominently in nearly all of Apple's events since iOS 11 was introduced, Tim Cook has said he believes it will be as revolutionary as the smartphone itself, and AR was Apple’s biggest focus in sessions with developers at WWDC this year. ...   Ars Technica

Enlarge / The Facebook logo is displayed at the 2018 CeBIT technology trade fair on June 12, 2018 in Hanover, Germany. (credit: Alexander Koerner/Getty Images) Earlier this week, Facebook submitted nearly 500 pages worth of written responses to dozens of US senators’ questions stemming from CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s April 2018 testimony before two committees. ...   Ars Technica

Enlarge (credit: Bethesda) LOS ANGELES—A true The Elder Scrolls game on mobile? Not exactly. Recently-announced The Elder Scrolls Blades from Bethesda Game Studios is not a massive, free-roaming, systems-based super RPG. Instead, it's a casual dungeon crawler with a gorgeous presentation—and more bells and whistles than your typical mobile RPG. ...   Ars Technica

Enlarge / Founder & CEO of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes. (credit: Getty | Gilbert Carrasquillo) Federal prosecutors have indicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and the company’s former president Ramesh “Sunnyî Balwani with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. ...   Ars Technica

Enlarge / Michael Cohen leaving the United States District Court Southern District of New York on May 30, 2018 in New York City. A letter today revealed that the FBI had recovered over 700 pages of messages and call logs from encrypted messaging apps on one of two BlackBerry phones belonging to Cohen. ...   Ars Technica

You don't have to go home, but you can't stay at the NIH. (credit: Maya83) The National Institutes of Health has terminated a controversial $100-million study on the health effects of daily drinking that was largely funded by the alcohol industry. ...   Ars Technica

Enlarge (credit: Disney) Apple announced today that it signed a multi-year content partnership with actress, philanthropist, and talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. The partnership is the latest in a series of moves Apple has made to bolster its original programming efforts. ...   Ars Technica

(credit: Aurich Lawson) The Department of Justice announced Friday that Ross Ulbricht’s alleged right-hand man—Roger Thomas Clark, also known as 'Variety Jones'—has been extradited to the United States after being in custody in Thailand for more than 2.5 years. ...   Ars Technica

Enlarge (credit: PA Images via Getty Images) Several members of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity at the University of Central Florida, along with that chapter at large, have been sued by a woman who says her former romantic partner published nude photos of her on Facebook without permission. ...   Ars Technica

Enlarge / Brad Parscale, Donald Trump's campaign digital director, arrives at Trump Tower, December 6, 2016. (credit: y Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Data Propria, a brand-new 'data and behavioral science company' run by former staff at Cambridge Analytica, has been 'quietly working' for the president’s 2020 re-election campaign, according to the Associated Press. ...   Ars Technica

Enlarge (credit: Jonathan Gitlin) Things aren't looking great for the family sedan here in the US. The car-buying public has turned against the traditional three-box silhouette, preferring the crew-cab truck, SUV, and crossover instead. Sedan sales are down for most automakers, and Ford has even taken the drastic step of abandoning it altogether in the very near future. ...   Ars Technica

Enlarge / More than 200 medications list depression as a potential adverse effect. (credit: Getty | ullstein bild) More than a third of Americans are estimated to be taking at least one prescription medication that carries the risk of depression, including suicidal symptoms, as a possible adverse effect—and they may have no idea—according to a study published this week in JAMA. ...   Ars Technica

Enlarge (credit: Valentina Palladino) Those who attempted to use Apple Maps this morning during their commutes were met with a frustrating situation—Apple's navigation app hasn't been working properly for much of the day. Problems appeared around 7am PT/10am ET, resulting in errors when users searched for route directions and for specific locations. ...   Ars Technica

Enlarge / 'Did you feel that?' (credit: OIST) There are enough seismometers around these days to detect and locate nearly all earthquakes on land, except the most minuscule ones. The seafloor is another story. It’s expensive and difficult to maintain seismometers at the bottom of the ocean, so our coverage is pretty sparse. ...   Ars Technica

Ever bitten into an apple and then realized it’s rotten inside? That’s The City during the day. It looks empty, or at least mostly empty. A few zombies shamble around, weak and defenseless. You might catch a few survivors outside too, looking for supplies. But to the casual observer, it would look calm. Peaceful, even. Quiet.But inside every building, they wait. The Infected. ...   PC World

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson) AT&T yesterday completed its acquisition of Time Warner Inc., two days after a federal judge ruled against a Department of Justice (DOJ) attempt to block the deal. The DOJ could still appeal the ruling, but it agreed not to seek a stay pending appeal, allowing the merger to be completed. ...   Ars Technica

Remember when those gigantic VR treadmills were all the rage a few years back? Cybershoes are like kind of like that, but without the treadmill.Cybershoes straps ski-like sleds onto your feet, with rollers on the bottom that track where you’re moving, and in what direction. ...   PC World

Your monitor is the window to your entire computing experience. More premium displays usually cost a pretty penny, but today’s a great day to upgrade your monitor on the cheap. Newegg’s gone wild with a “Coupon Frenzyî sale, and Staples is selling a 28-inch 4K monitor from Dell for more than half off. ...   PC World

These days, it can seem like there are never enough outlets for everything we need to plug in. One easy way to solve this problem? A power strip. And right now, you can get Anker's loaded PowerPort power strip for $28, the lowest we've seen it and down from a previous low price of $35 and a list price of $60.To read this article in full, please click here   PC World

Enlarge Friday morning was going pretty well, all things considered. I was at my desk, editing some photos and having breakfast. Then Ars editor Lee Hutchinson pinged me on Slack and ruined it all. 'It’s even worse than we could have possibly imagined,' said my boss. 'And, as Han Solo said, I can imagine a lot. ...   Ars Technica

I didn’t want Rage 2. I didn’t think anyone wanted Rage 2. I don’t, quite honestly, know why Bethesda decided to make a Rage 2.But after playing it for 20-odd minutes at E3 2018, I’m... ...   PC World

Sinevibes has updated three of its Audio Unit plugins for Mac: Corrosion multi-algorithm distortion, Droplet raindrop-delay and Fraction audio slicing workstation. The highlight of these updates [Read More]   KVR Audio

Independent developer Will Savin has released his first sample instrument Music Box, a VST and AudioUnit plugin for Windows and macOS. This plugin features a 34 note range, with 8 samples per [Read More]   KVR Audio

Shattered Glass Audio has updated Inferno to version 1.1.0. Version 1.1.0 adds two transistor circuits, for a total of seven circuits. By popular demand the auto gain control is now off by default. [Read More]   KVR Audio

A.O.M. has updated all their plugins to version 1.9.2. New Features and Enhancements: [Sakura Dither] Support 64f detection. [All plugins] Show license end date in status bar. [All plugins] Support [Read More]   KVR Audio

VCV Rack 0.6.1, the open-source virtual modular synthesizer, has been released with the following new features: Added gamepad MIDI driver. Added computer keyboard MIDI driver. Added JACK support [Read More]   KVR Audio

Fuse Audio Labs has released the VCL-373 Vintage Compressor/Limiter plug-in which is a recreation of an early 60s broadcasting limiter/compressor that eventually found its way into many mastering [Read More]   KVR Audio

BlueLab has announced the release of updates, including a new design. There are many new plug-ins, such as gain riding, stereo imaging, and impulse responses (IR) processing, and the previous [Read More]   KVR Audio

Native Instruments has released Effects Series – Crush Pack, featuring three plug-ins, covering a wide array of tonal distortion effects – bit-crushing, stompbox-style distortion, ring modulation, [Read More]   KVR Audio

LVC-Audio has released version 2.0.0 of Limited-Z. The normal price is $39.95, but an introductory price is set at $19.95. For existing users of Limited-Z, the upgrade is free and your current [Read More]   KVR Audio

IK has released a new AmpiTube 4 (Mac/PC) update that adds Live mode for use with iRig Stomp I/O, IK's USB pedalboard controller and audio interface that lets you stomp effects, change presets, [Read More]   KVR Audio

Direct Approach has released SpecTrend, a Pink-Noise Weighted Spectrum Analyzer. SpecTrend is designed to provide a pink-noise weighted view of the audio spectrum of a track. With pink-noise [Read More]   KVR Audio

The Roland Cloud 5.4 update is now live. Not only does this release see a new instrument hit your DAW in the form of Resin, but there are some fundamental additions to the Roland Cloud Concerto [Read More]   KVR Audio

iPhone, iPad / Education / Courses: Download MusicTech today and check out our brand new mobile edition! MusicTech is the magazine for producers, engineers and recording musicians. Every issue is packed with: Hands-on features written by professional producers and engineers Software workshops...   440Software

iPhone, iPad / Instruments / Strings: This application allows you to play the Turkish and Arabic classical instrument UD on your iphone. Ä°t is very easy to use and is just the same as playing the classical instrument in real life. the sound effects used are taken from a UD played live and...   440Software

iPhone, iPad / Tools / Music Writing: The easiest way to write a melody and hear it played on the piano. Instantly transpose it to any key. Play along on your transposing instrument. Notate your melody and instantly transpose it to another clef and root, keeping its theoretical relationships; Fb...   440Software

iPhone, iPad / Education / Courses: Whenever new audio editing software is released itâ€ôs a big deal, especially one as agile and deep as Audiofile Engineeringâ€ôs Triumph. Join Matt Vanacoro, in this 23-tutorial course, and see just what Triumph can do! Think of Triumph as Photoshop...   440Software