Apple CEO Tim Cook speaking during a September 2012 media event. Nathan Mattise / Ars Technica

After years of speculation and debate about the seemingly open secret of Apple CEO Tim Cook's sexuality, Cook himself finally addressed the matter in an editorial in Bloomberg Businessweek Thursday. "I’ve come to realize that my desire for personal privacy has been holding me back from doing something more important. That’s what has led me to today," Cook wrote.

"While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven’t publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me."

Cook has long been a focal point in discussions about powerful gay CEOs. He's also been in the middle of a meta-discussion about titans of industry and their right to privacy versus the powerful position Cook is in as a member of the LGBT community. For a long time, Cook wrote, many Apple colleagues knew he was gay, but he refrained from publicly defining himself as such.

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The newly formed HP Inc took the wraps off a fairly unique PC. The Sprout is a traditional all-in-one computer that has been coupled with a 3D camera system, a 20-point touch mat, and a DLP projector to form a new PC system to “unleash your creativity like never before.” This unique combination allows a person to experience what HP is calling “Blended Reality.” The Sprout is the first product available in HP’s Blended Reality ecosystem, and is also backed up by a new 3D printer from HP Inc.

First off is the all-in-one PC, which features a 23” 1920x1080 display. Behind the screen is the Intel Core i7-4790S CPU, which is a four core, eight thread 65 watt Haswell part, and 8 GB of memory. Graphical duties are handled by the Intel HD 4600 integrated GPU as well as the NVIDIA GeForce GT 745A with 2 GB of DDR3, which is a fairly low end GPU. It almost makes no sense as to why the GPU is even in there, but it is for graphic-intensive tasks like gaming according to HP. It will be better than the integrated GPU but it would be nice to see a more powerful GPU or at least the 745M which has much more memory bandwidth to run games at the native resolution of the panel. Storage for the all-in-one is handled by a 1 TB hybrid drive, which only has 8 GB of flash acceleration. The Sprout features both 1000 Base-T Ethernet and 802.11n 2x2:2 dual band wifi. As just an all-in-one, there would be little to talk about here, but the Sprout is more than that.

HP Blended Reality HP Sprout All-In-One CPU Intel Core i7-4790S (4 core, 8 thread, 3.2 GHz to 4.0 GHz, HD 4600 GPU, 65 W TDP) GPU NVIDIA GeForce GT 745A (GK107 MXM, 384 Stream Processors, 128 bit bus, 2 GB DDR3) RAM 8GB PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 SDRAM memory 2x4GB (expandable to 16GB) Storage 1TB SATA 6G Solid State Hybrid Drive with 8GB SSD cache Display 23" 1920x1080 w/10 point touch Network 10/100/1000 Base-T Network and Integrated Bluetooth® 4.0 and Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n featuring Dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) 2x2 MIMO technology HP Illuminator HP Illuminator, powered by the HP DLP Projector, the HP High-Resolution Camera with up to 14.6 megapixel resolution and the Intel® RealSense™ 3D Camera for instant capture of 2D and 3D objects, along with an LED desk lamp HP Touch Mat 20" diagonal, 20-point touch-enabled touch mat with an ultra-resistant top coating Web Camera HP High Definition 1MP Webcam Stylus Adonit Jot Pro stylus to write and draw. It can be attached magnetically to the upper-right side of the Sprout display. OS Windows 8.1 Sound DTS Sound

The first part of the Sprout which differentiates it from a normal all-in-one is the camera system, which combines a scanner, a depth sensor, and a 14.6 MP camera, and utilizes Intel RealSense 3D Camera technology to allow the Sprout to capture 3D objects and allow the user to manipulate them after the fact. Once scanned, the Sprout can display the object on the computer display, or it can use the built in DLP projector to display the object on the 20” 20-point touch-enabled mat as seen in this video from HP:

Also included is an Adonit Jot Pro stylus, which can be used to write or draw with on the mat. The stylus can be magnetically attached to the side of the Sprout display when not in use.

While not an ultra-powerful PC, you can certainly see some use cases for a device like this. Many creative professionals already use stylus and touch enabled pads, such as the ones from Wacom. The Sprout adds to this with the DLP projector so that you can directly manipulate the items on the pad, rather than use the pad in an abstract way. HP also adds to the experience with custom software to enable this hybrid approach for object manipulation in the digital space. HP is advocating the Sprout Marketplace, which will allow for easier discovery of applications which are optimized for the platform.

HP is committing to the Blended Reality ecosystem, with the Sprout as only the first device in the line. To further flesh out the ecosystem, they are also announcing the HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D printer. They are claiming that the output of the new printer has better overall strength, accuracy, resiliency, and finish than that of other 3D printers in the price range, as well as the HP version being up to ten times faster. As well, the Multi Jet Fusion printer will also allow for full-color 3D print solutions.

Is Blended Reality going to be a new buzz word? It is too early to tell, but certainly this is a fairly unique take on a creative focused personal computer.  The combination of the DLP projector, touch pad, and all-in-one computer may be a compelling integrated solution for some. The Sprout is available for pre-order now starting at $1899, with availability scheduled for November 9th. The new 3D printer is not currently listed and no price was given, other than it would be more affordable that similar devices on the market today.

Source: HP Inc

Stockmonkeys.com

Since 1998, breaking most types of digital locks, often called Digital Rights Management (DRM), is against the law. Even well-lawyered companies that tried to plead fair use, as RealPlayer did in 2008, have been crushed. What chance does a regular Joe have?

But if you have a legal use for copyrighted content, there is an "out." Every three years, the Copyright Office accepts petitions on what activities should get an "exemption" under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The sixth tri-annual rulemaking is now upon us, and the deadline is this Monday, November 3.

"It's not a heavy lift to file a petition," said Sherwin Siy, VP of legal affairs at Public Knowledge, an advocacy group that's long been active on copyright issues. "Five pages, max, short and sweet."

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Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock

Welcome to Ars UNITE, our week-long virtual conference on the ways that innovation brings unusual pairings together. Today, a look at how virtual reality excitement is happening beyond the world of gaming. Join us this afternoon for a live discussion on the topic with article author Kyle Orland and his expert guests; your comments and questions are welcome.

When Oculus almost single-handedly revived the idea of virtual reality from its ‘90s vaporware grave, it chose the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo as the place to unveil the first public prototype of the Rift headset. The choice of a gaming convention isn’t that surprising, as the game industry has been the quickest and most eager to jump on potential applications for VR. Gaming has already demanded the majority of the attention and investments in the second VR boom that Oculus has unleashed.

But just as the Rift itself is the result of what Oculus calls a “peace dividend from the smartphone wars,” other fields are benefiting from virtual reality’s gaming-driven growth. Creators all over the world are looking beyond entertainment to adapting head-mounted displays for everything from psychotherapy, special-needs education, and space exploration to virtual luxury car test drives, virtual travel, and even VR movies. The well-worn idea of “gaming on the holodeck” may be driving much of the interest in virtual reality, but the technology’s non-gaming applications could be just as exciting in the long term.

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Back towards the start of this year, Lenovo announced that it would be acquiring Motorola Mobility from Google. Motorola Mobility, the phone and gadget arm of Motorola, would be sold to Lenovo for just under $3 billion. Motorola Mobility would come as the latest in a string of acquisitions for Lenovo, who in recent years has picked up IBM’s desktop and x86 server businesses, among other major purchases.

This morning Lenovo sends word that the deal has closed, and the acquisition of Motorola is complete. The final value of the deal has been placed at $2.91 billion, notably just a fraction of the price that Google purchased the complete Motorola for back in 2012.

With the closure of the deal and as part of the announcement, Lenovo has reiterated that they intend to keep the Motorola brand and their Chicago headquarters. The recent launch of the Moto X, Moto 360, and Motorola powered DROID Turbo have kept Motorola in the spotlight, and Lenovo seems eager to continue building off of that.

At the same time however the real challenge has just begun for Lenovo. Motorola Mobility has been a money-losing operation for Google, and while their launches have been high profile they’re still fighting for a spot of stability in a market where it’s Samsung who is the dominant (and most profitable) player. As we noted back when the acquisition was announced, Lenovo has earned a name in being able to turn around low margin device businesses. So if there is any chance of Motorola Mobility being back into the black, Lenovo stands a good chance of finding it.

Synology recently launched the DS415+, their first Intel Rangeley-based NAS. This 4-bay NAS, targeted towards SMBs and SOHOs, finally brings about hardware accelerated encryption capabilities to DSM in the desktop tower form factor. The Rangeley platform also provides a host of other advantages in a storage device. Read on for our review of the DS415+ to identify what Synology's DSM can do in conjunction with one of the latest Atom-based storage platform SoCs from Intel.

Today Microsoft launched a new platform called Microsoft Health, and to accompany this they are officially launching the long rumored health and fitness band, called, well, Microsoft Band. And to satisfy the new cross platform initiatives by the company, Microsoft Health is compatible with several fitness tracking services such as UP by Jawbone, MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, and Runkeeper. The Microsoft Band will be compatible with iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, which should satisfy most smartphone owners, and there is a Heath app available for each platform as well.

Microsoft Health is described as a cloud based service which can unite data from different health and fitness devices and services into a single secure location. This will allow a more holistic picture of your health and fitness activities to be monitored. Microsoft Health will track things such as steps, calories, heart rate, and other data, where it can then be analyzed by the Microsoft Intelligence Engine which will let the user know things such as which exercise they performed that burned the most calories during a workout, and how much restful versus restless sleep they are getting. Over time, and if you allow it access to more data, it will be able to extrapolate if eating breakfast helps you run faster, or if the number of meetings during a day impacts how you sleep, as examples. You can also opt in to connect Microsoft Health data with the already existing HealthVault to share your data with a medical provider. It is early days yet, but as a platform this seems to be where the health and fitness industry is heading. If you can get over the big brother aspects of having all of your movements and activities tracked, there may be some real insights gained in how your work, fitness, and leisure activities affect your health and wellbeing.

Microsoft is planning a steady release of information regarding Microsoft Health over the next while, including additional device and service partnerships and SDK availability.

It has long been rumored that Microsoft would re-enter the smart watch game, but over time the rumors morphed into a fitness band. The Microsoft Band is a smart band designed to be worn continuously, 24 hours a day. It includes 10 smart sensors for heart rate monitoring, calorie burn measurement, sleep quality tracking, and more. It will also include guided workouts which are curated by well-known fitness experts. In addition, it will provide some of the smart watch capabilities such as notifications as well as access to Cortana if you are connected to Windows Phone 8.1. The Microsoft Band is available starting October 30th for $199 from the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft Health Microsoft Band Band Material Thermal plastic elastomer with adjustable fit clasp Display 11mm x 33mm 1.4" TFT Capacitive full color display, 320 x 106 resolution Battery Life 48 hours of normal use; advanced functionality like GPS use will impact battery performance Average Charge Time Full chage in less than 1.5 hours Battery Type Dual 100mAh rechargeable lithium-ion polymer batteries Operating temperature ranges -10°C to 40°C (14°F to 104°F) Maximum operating altitude approximately 12,000m Sensors Optical heart rate sensor
3-axis accelerometer/gyro
Gyrometer
GPS
Ambient light sensor
Skin temperature sensor
UV sensor
Capacitive sensor
Galvanic skin response
Microphone Additional technology Haptic vibration motor Connectivity Bluetooth 4.0 LE Operating System Support Windows Phone 8.1
iOS 7.1 and later
Android 4.3-4.4 phones with Bluetooth Water Resistance Dust and Splash resistant Warranty 1 year limited Price $199

The wearables market is certainly in its infancy, so it is exciting to see the different array of devices appearing. Whether the market will tolerate them has yet to be decided, but companies such as Fitbit have proven that there is certainly a market for the health and fitness band. Microsoft has a relatively affordable offering here which is both cross platform, and a capable smart device. Microsoft Health as a platform is the bigger play here. Allowing access from many vendors is a great way to get initial buy-in from users, and once the fitness data is up in the Microsoft Cloud, I am sure Microsoft is hoping to capture some of these users for their other cloud offerings.

Microsoft

After being leaked just a few hours ago, it's now official: Microsoft's first entry into the wearable space is Microsoft Band, a fitness band.

The gadget isn't a smartwatch and isn't intended to replace your watch. It's a Bluetooth fitness band packed full of sensors: optical heart rate sensing, 3-axis accelerometers with a gyroscope to track movement, GPS to track your runs even if you leave your phone at home, skin temperature, galvanic skin response presumably to measure sweating, ambient light and UV light, and a microphone so it can be used with Cortana on Windows Phone.

Microsoft

The 1.4-inch touch screen with its 320×106 resolution can deliver alerts, and there's a vibration motor too. Twin 100mAh batteries give it 48 hours of what Microsoft calls "normal use" though GPS can shorten this. The charge time is 1.5 hours, using a magnetically attached USB charger. There are three different sizes, so it should fit on most wrists.

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Rumors that Microsoft was coming up with its own cross-platform fitness band appear to have been validated with the perhaps accidental disclosure of apps for OS X, Windows Phone, Android, and iOS designed to support the gadget. Windows Central was first to spot the early publication.

The OS X app

5 more images in gallery

The device will be called "Microsoft Band." Thanks to the app in the Mac App Store, we have a good idea of what it will look like: a black wristband with a screen. Functionally, it looks like it's going to be a pretty standard fitness band: it'll count footsteps (and use this information to attempt to count calories burned) and appears to monitor heart rates day and night to tell you how well you're sleeping.

The Windows Phone app. The apps for iOS and Android look all but identical.

5 more images in gallery

As we should expect, there will also be a cloud service for accumulating and analyzing the data the band collects.

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Not content with launching five Yoga-branded tablets earlier this month, Lenovo has added a sixth device to its range.

The new device almost rounds out the range announced before. The new lineup has 8-inch and 10-inch tablets in both Android and Windows variants, and a 13-inch Android tablet, the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro, that also includes an integrated projector that can cast a 50-inch picture.

Lenovo

4 more images in gallery

Today, the company has announced a 13-inch Windows tablet, the Yoga Tablet 2 Windows. This is almost a counterpart to the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro, matching its 13.3 inch 2560×1440 screen, quad core Intel Atom Z3745 processor at up to 1.86GHz, 802.11a/b/g/n dual-band Wi-Fi, 15-hour battery life, and a 2.27lb weight. But it's not quite identical. The Windows tablet doesn't have the integrated projector. It does, however, double the RAM to 4GB and double the storage to 64GB.

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The latest version of the Android operating system, Lollipop, adds encryption by default, along with a variety of easy-to-use ways to lock and unlock the phone and a more secure foundation to help protect devices against current threats.

In a blog post published on Tuesday, Google described the features, which will begin shipping with the Lollipop operating system in new Android devices in the coming weeks. While some of the capabilities, such as encryption, are already included in the current Android OS, the new version will turn them on by default.

Many of the security features were born of Android’s open-source foundations and the fact that other researchers and companies can create and test new security features for the operating system, Adrian Ludwig, lead security engineer for Android at Google, said during a briefing on the security features.

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University of Virginia

Early in my training, I learned one rule: loss is not your friend. In laser physics, loss means that every photon that goes missing is a photon that no longer stimulates emission. And, with every lost photon, it becomes just that little bit harder to keep a laser going. So, when Science published a paper showing that this rule doesn't always hold, I was intrigued.

Also it gives me the chance to talk about lasers, which I never tire of.

Gain, loss, and lasers

Before we get to the experiment, let's talk about lasers in general. Lasers emit light through a process called stimulated emission. Stimulated emission only dominates under two conditions: there have to be more emitters ready to emit light instead of to absorb light. This is referred to as population inversion and provides the gain (or the source of light amplification). The other requirement is that there is light present to stimulate emission. To put it slightly incorrectly, the amplifier needs something to amplify.

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Some 2011 MacBook Pros with AMD GPUs are experiencing graphical corruption issues. Apple Support Communities poster abelliveau

Last week three men filed a class action lawsuit in Northern California District Court alleging that Apple's 2011 MacBook Pro laptops were defective and that Apple did not take proper steps to compensate customers whose hardware broke.

The lawsuit specifically addresses 15” and 17” MacBook Pros from 2011, which the plaintiffs claim suffered from “random bouts of graphical distortion, system instability, and system failures.” The plaintiffs also assert that the problem is widespread, with an online survey conducted by the plaintiffs receiving over 3,000 responses from 2011 MacBook Pro owners in a single week.

In the complaint, the plaintiffs blame the solder used to connect the dedicated GPU in the laptops to the main circuit board, saying that the solder was lead-free to comply with EU regulations, and made its way into US products so Apple could save on manufacturing costs.

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After listening to our resident alien life form and cable industry sleuth Jon Brodkin lament yesterday evening that he hadn’t been invited to join Verizon’s funded cadre of tech writers over at SugarString, I popped over to the site and flipped through the articles, wondering what Brodkin was missing out on. SugarString's layout isn’t afflicted with what StackExchange developer Jeff Atwood once referred to as "Pinterest Cancer," so I scrolled through and clicked on a few things to get a feel for what kind of reporting—or possibly "reporting"—the Verizon-controlled site was producing.

This story caught my eye:

Not sure if entitlement or just hyperbole. SugarString

In the piece, author Meredith Haggerty reached out to three different professionals and gauged their reaction to the idea of being made to work in an office where the employer disallows the use of Google Chat (informally, "GChat"). Haggerty’s first interview subject drew a line in the sand, responding strongly in the negative when asked whether or not he would work in such an office:

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Today was the third day of Ars UNITE, our virtual conference, and the topic of the day was the advent of the self-driving car.

Our self-driving car feature this morning looked at the technological solutions that will soon allow our cars to drive themselves under certain circumstances, assuming the regulations and other policy issues are in place. That piece has seen a lively discussion covering a number of different areas. Ars reader mexaly suggested that “[t]o succeed, robots need only drive better than average humans. That's not a high bar.”

Some were skeptical that self-driving cars would be safer. caldron writes, “I think it is a big leap to assume a self-drive is better than a human at driving. Sure in certain conditions and in terms of reaction time, but no computers have been able to reach our level of decision making and ability to react in abstract and unpredictable situations, and there is none in the foreseeable future. We make constant micro-decisions all the time. When there is a grey-area situation that requires deduction I am not so sure a computer will be able to react properly.”

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It's never a good day when the Halon discharges in the server room. Keith4048

It all began when the monitors started bursting into flames. Well, at least that’s when I knew I had walked into a tech support horror story.

Back in the day when the cathode-ray tube was still the display of choice and SVGA really was super, I was working as a network engineer and tech support manager for a government contractor at a large military research lab. I spent two years on the job, and I learned in the process that Murphy was an optimist. The experience would provide me with enough tech horror stories and tales of narrow escape through the most kludged of hardware and software hacks ever conceived to last a lifetime—and to know that I would much rather be a writer than work in tech support ever again.

Of course, all of us have tech horror stories to tell, especially those of us who were “early adopters” before the term was de rigueur. So we’re looking for you, our readers, to share yours. The most bone-chilling and entertaining of which we’ll publish tomorrow in honor of Halloween—that day each year when some people change their Twitter handles to pseudo-spooky puns, and others just buy bags of candy to have ready for the traditional wave of costumed home invaders.

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redditmade

reddit has launched its own crowdfunding platform dubbed "redditmade" as of Wednesday, according to a post on the site. redditmade focuses on campaigns for T-shirts and knick-knacks associated with subreddit communities, but the boundaries expand as far as "the best designs and products by the community."

redditmade joins platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but with a more specific focus on redditors and items they want to see made. Sample projects on the redditmade front page currently include a "Not A Cocktail" book associated with r/cocktails, a t-shirt for r/redditblack, and bumper stickers for the r/camping subreddit.

While anyone can open any project for funding, the redditmade FAQ clarifies that "Official subreddit campaigns are distinguished on redditmade as featured campaigns, and they can also receive complimentary ads on reddit for the subreddit they are associated with." The ads are auto-generated but are not shown if the ad space has already been sold, reddit says.

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Our enterprise storage coverage has mainly been focused on individual enterprise SSDs from the likes of Intel and Micron, but there's a lot of interesting action in the storage array space. I met with most of the big names in the array business at Flash Memory Summit this year, so with a better understanding of the market and with the right contacts, I think it's logical that we expand our enterprise storage content to cover arrays as well.

Since we haven't covered storage arrays or the companies involved in the past, I'll start with a brief introduction of Skyera. While Skyera is a relatively new company, the company is filled with experience and knowledge of storage and non-volatile memory industries. The founders of Skyera, Radoslav Danilak and Rod Mullendore, both worked at SandForce before founding Skyera in 2010. Mr. Danilak was actually the co-founder and CTO of SandForce, whereas Mr. Mullendore served as the Chief Hardware Architect. 

While Mr. Danilak and Mr. Mullendore bring a lot of system-level hardware design knowledge to the company, what really separates Skyera from the rest is the NAND expertise. This is especially thanks to the CEO, Frankie Roohparvar, who was one of the founders of Micron Quantum Technologies in the early 90s. Micron Quantum Technologies was a manufacturer of NOR flash that was then acquired by Micron and basically formed the foundation of Micron's NAND business. Before joining Skyera in 2012, Mr. Roohparvar served at Micron for 13 years with his most recent position being the Vice President and General Manager of the OEM Division of Micron's NAND Solutions Group. 

Skyera's approach to flash array design is to start from the lowest level, i.e. the NAND silicon. Obviously the company doesn't manufacture its own NAND but Micron, Toshiba, and SK Hynix are all investors in the company, which ensures a steady supply of NAND and also gives Skyera much deeper access to NAND than what typical customers get. What this means is that Skyera can run its own validation and 'trimming' (optimizing the read/write parameters etc.) process on the NAND to boost the endurance. The benefit is lower cost because Skyera's own process can increase the endurance of normal MLC NAND from ~3,000 P/E cycles to over 30,000 P/E cycles (or so I was told), whereas most companies are limited to buying off-the-shelf NAND, which either means cheap but low endurance cMLC or expensive eMLC. 

With the brief introduction of Skyera out of the way, let's focus on the skyHawk FS. It's offered in raw capacities of 16, 32, 68 and 136TB with all models utilizing the same 1U form factor. The final usable capacity depends on the provisioning of the array as well as the compressibility of the data since the skyHawk FS does compression in hardware (similar to what SandForce does). For comparison, Pure Storage, which is one of the leading all-flash array suppliers, only offers up to 11TB in 2U form factor, so Skyera has an enormous advantage in terms of density.  

EDIT: Skyera doesn't actually do de-duplication like I initially said, so sorry for the mix up. The compression is still there, though.

The density advantage comes from Skyera's NAND expertise because the company builds its own drives (or blades as they are usually called) and can utilize the latest NAND lithographies available. While Skyera didn't specify the exact NAND that is used in the skyHawk FS due to the fact that there are multiple suppliers, I was told that the die capacity is 128Gbit and Micron's 16nm is one of the processes that is used. For the record, Crucial's MX100 and Micron's M600 are the only other products that I know of that use 16nm NAND right now and I know for sure that 16nm isn't available to the public in volume yet, so Skyera has an enormous advantage thanks to the close relations with the NAND manufacturers.

Software wise the skyHawk FS uses Skyera's own SEoS that has been designed solely for NAND. The vertically integrated business model allows Skyera to build the whole software stack around NAND, which enables a more global and adaptive Flash Translation Layer (FTL) for instance (i.e. the FTL can be managed at the system level instead of drive level). The design also allows the load to be split between the master controllers and the individual controllers in the blades for higher and more efficient performance, whereas with third party drives the drives would be doing their own management and the global/host management would be left for the master controller, resulting in a less efficient design. 

In terms of performance, Skyera is rating the skyHawk FS at 2.4GB/s throughput and 400K IOPS with microsecond latencies, but unfortunately the IO sizes and queue depth are unspecified, so it's hard to draw any conclusions or comparisons from the numbers. The skyHawk FS has three 10Gbit Ethernet ports for connectivity and both iSCSI and NFS v3 protocols are supported. The skyHawk FS carries a 3-year warranty with no write endurance limitation, which is yet another advantage of Skyera's NAND knowhow. 

The skyHawk FS is available immediately and is priced at $2.99 per raw gigabyte (i.e. with compression the real cost per gigabyte will come down).

Since this was our first flash array news post, I'd like to hear your feedback in the comments below. Would you like to see more content like this from us in the future? And if so, are there any specific topics or companies that you would like us to cover? The enterprise storage space is rather complex and there are a lot of companies involved, but we want to do our best to cover it (even in a limited matter) in the future, so let us know your thoughts.

Biblioteca de Art

A movie theater industry group and the Motion Picture Association of America updated their anti-piracy policies and said that "wearable devices" must be powered off at show time.

"Individuals who fail or refuse to put the recording devices away may be asked to leave. If theater managers have indications that illegal recording activity is taking place, they will alert law enforcement authorities when appropriate, who will determine what further action should be taken," said a joint statement from the MPAA and the National Association of Theatre Owners, which maintains 32,000 screens across the United States.

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A very SCARY Wednesday to you, fellow Arsians! On this fine fall day, our partners at TechBargains have lined up a truly BOO-TIFUL selection of FRIGHTENING deals, sure to make your HAIR STAND ON END! (Cue maniacal laughter here!)

Yeah, OK, jumping the gun on Halloween a bit, but we watched the Tales from the Crypt intro on YouTube a few minutes ago and are feeling the vibe. OR SHOULD WE SAY... THE... knife... vibe? No, that doesn't work. TERRIFYING GHOST SOUNDS! OOOooooOOOO!

Below are our most HAUNTING bargains, featuring a Dell Inspiron with a Haswell i5 for just $549—a price guaranteed to make anyone SCREAM! But in delight, not terror, because it's a pretty good deal.

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