Amazon brings back browser-based Alexa but will eventually add a paywall. Anyone can now try Alexa+, Amazon’s generative AI assistant, through a free early access program at Alexa.com. The website frees the AI, which Amazon released via early access in February, from hardware and makes it as easily accessible…
Optimus SSDs will continue with the same model numbers that the WD SSDs used. In late 2023, storage company Western Digital announced plans to split itself into two companies. One, which would still be called Western Digital, would focus on spinning hard drives, which are no longer used much…
Replay the troubled jetpack shooter before the servers shut down for good on Jan. 12. We’ll admit that we weren’t paying enough attention to the state of Anthem—BioWare’s troubled 2019 jetpack-powered open-world shooter—to notice EA’s July announcement that it was planning to shut down the game’s servers. But with…
Google TV will let you generate and watch AI content on the big screen. Soon, even loafing around on the couch won’t help you steer clear of AI. TV makers are busily integrating AI models into the experience, and Google is no different. At CES, the company announced a…
New findings prompt a rethinking of group labor and ritual in ancient hunter-gatherer communities. Archaeologists have discovered Africa’s oldest known cremation pyre at the base of Mount Hora in Malawi. According to a paper published in the journal Science Advances, radiocarbon testing dates the site to about 9,500 years…
The European Union now prohibits desflurane’s use during most procedures. Desflurane is a common anesthetic used in hospital operating rooms worldwide. It’s also a climate super pollutant. Now, several decades after the drug was first introduced, a growing number of US hospitals have stopped using the anesthetic because of…
Ars’ total charity haul since 2007 now tops $585,000. Last month, we asked readers to donate to a couple of good causes in our 2025 Charity Drive sweepstakes. And boy, did you deliver. With the drive now complete and the donations all tallied, we can report that Ars Technica…
It’s like Tesla Autopilot, but made by a company with a culture of safety. There’s some debate as to when adaptive cruise control first showed up, but if you ask Mercedes-Benz, it will say in 1999 with that year’s S-Class. Instead of just keeping a set speed, radar-enabled adaptive…
Rogue, free-floating planets appear to have two distinct origins. Most of the exoplanets we’ve discovered have been in relatively tight orbits around their host stars, allowing us to track them as they repeatedly loop around them. But we’ve also discovered a handful of planets through a phenomenon that’s called…
Today is your last chance to add to this year’s charity haul of nearly $38,000. If you’ve been too busy replaying all of Ars’ top games of 2025 to take part in this year’s Ars Technica Charity Drive sweepstakes, don’t worry. You still have until the end of the…
