New Halo TV series trailer: The good, the bad, and the Cortana

Enlarge / Master Chief leads Silver Team through the series' new "Silver" timeline. (credit: Paramount+)

After years of teases, announcements, and false starts, a Halo TV series starring Master Chief is finally on the verge of existing—and its first substantial, dialogue-filled trailer landed on Sunday with equal parts clarification and confusion.

The flashy, two-minute trailer arrived days after a major announcement last week from Halo's narrative handlers at 343 Industries: this new TV series, exclusive to Paramount+, will not be part of the game series' official canon. That might have been good information to flash on the trailer itself, as fans otherwise may have missed the memo and wondered why this trailer rewrites a couple of plot cornerstones.

This clearly looks like an authentic Halo battle sequence, right down to the details on the sniper rifle. But many, many plot elements will be shuffled for the sake of translating the game to a TV series. (credit: Paramount+)

Longtime series scribe Frank O'Connor described the creative decision behind moving the TV series forward with a mix of familiar and brand-new plot elements. "We want to use the existing Halo lore, history, canon, and characters wherever they make sense for a linear narrative but also separate the two distinctly so that we don’t invalidate the core canon or do unnatural things to force a first-person video game into an ensemble TV show," he wrote. O'Connor clarified that all things Halo up until this point, including games, comics, novels, and online errata, count as "core canon" for the series, while the TV show will exist as a "parallel, similar, but separate timeline," officially dubbed the "Silver timeline."

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Review: MNT Reform laptop has fully open hardware and software—for better or worse

Enlarge / The MNT Reform, a boxy laptop built around maximally open-source hardware and software. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Specs at a glance: MNT Reform
Screen	1920×1080 12.5-inch (176PPI) IPS screen
OS	Debian Linux
CPU	NXP/Freescale i.MX8MQ (1.5GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A53)
RAM	4GB
GPU	Vivante GC7000Lite
Storage	32GB SD card, NVMe SSD optional
Networking	Optional 802.11n Wi-Fi, gigabit Ethernet
Ports	3x USB-A 3.0, HDMI (optional), SD card slot
Camera	None
Size	11.42×8.07×1.57 inches (290×205×40 mm)
Weight	4.2 pounds (1.9 kg)
Battery	8x 18650 LiFePO4 battery cells
Starting price	$1,358 (not assembled, with trackpad or trackball); $1,550 assembled with trackball

If you’re a Linux fan or open source advocate looking for a decent laptop, you actually have some solid options right now—much better, at least, than buying a Windows laptop, installing Linux on it, and hoping for the best.

Dell has offered Ubuntu editions of some of its XPS laptops and other PCs for years now, and Lenovo sells a respectable collection of desktops and laptops with Linux. System76 sells a selection of Linux-friendly laptops preloaded with Ubuntu or its own Pop!_OS distribution. The repair-friendly Framework Laptop doesn’t ship with Linux, but it can be configured without an OS, and Framework promises robust Linux support from multiple distributions.

But those laptops all have something in common with run-of-the-mill Windows PCs: a reliance on closed-source hardware and, often, the proprietary software and drivers needed to make it function. For some people, this is a tolerable trade-off. You put up with the closed hardware because it performs well, and it supports the standard software, development tools, and APIs that keep the computing world spinning. For others, it’s anathema—if you can’t see the source code for these “binary blobs,” they are inherently untrustworthy and should be used sparingly or not at all.

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We’ve driven Ford’s other electric workhorse: the 2022 E-Transit

Enlarge / A trio of E-Transits in high and low roof configurations. (credit: Ford)

Ford provided two nights in a hotel and a flight from Washington DC to San Francisco so we could drive the new E-Transit. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

SONOMA, Calif.—The US commercial pickup market is often dominated by the many variations of Ford's F-series. But since 2014, Ford has had an alternative for commercial drivers who prefer something more van-like. That's when the company started building Transit vans in Kansas City, Missouri. Since then, Ford has built a million of them.

Now, Ford has created an electric version of the Transit—or rather I should say versions, since the E-Transit comes in eight different body styles, just like its dinosaur-powered predecessor. In fact, the ladder chassis is identical, which means that the E-Transit is entirely compatible with the vast ecosystem of upfitters out there. Ford says to think beyond last-mile delivery vans, which only account for 10 percent of the commercial van market—a not-so subtle dig at startup rivals, perhaps.

From this distance, you'd be hard-pressed to tell the E-Transit from any other Transit, and that means any upfitter will know what to do with it. (credit: Ford)

And Ford's not just here to sell your business an electric van, either. The company has come up with a whole plug-and-play telematics solution which will manage not just E-Transits but any other vehicles, electric or internal combustion, Ford or otherwise.

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Kia’s new EV6 electric crossover goes straight to the head of the pack

Enlarge / This is Kia's distinctively styled EV6, a new electric crossover that's one of the best we've tested. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Kia provided two nights in a hotel and a flight from San Francisco to Washington DC so we could drive the new EV6. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

HEALDSBURG, Calif.—Remember how, a few decades ago, the Japanese car industry came and ate everyone's lunch? History doesn't repeat, the aphorism goes, but it does rhyme. And this time around, the lunch-eating is courtesy of Korea's automakers.

That's especially true with electric vehicles. The second-generation EVs from Kia and parent company Hyundai were some of the few to get close to Tesla-levels of powertrain efficiency. The companies applied that knowledge to create E-GMP, a purpose-built 800 V platform for larger rear- and all-wheel-drive EVs.

The first vehicle to get that powertrain was the Hyundai Ioniq 5, which went straight to the top of the class when we tested it in late 2021. Today, we drive the Ioniq 5's cousin, the Kia EV6. If the Ioniq 5 is all pixels and angles, the EV6 starts with a similar bone structure but drapes it in a much curvier crossover body. Everyone's tastes differ, so I try not to dwell on a car's looks, but from some angles the EV6 is a better-looking Lamborghini Urus. And its rear styling definitely reminds me of the Aston Martin DBX.

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HP wins huge fraud case against Autonomy founder and CEO Mike Lynch

Enlarge / Mike Lynch, former chief executive officer of Autonomy Corp., departs from his extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, UK., on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021. (credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images)

After years of wrangling, HP has won its civil fraud case against Autonomy founder and chief executive Mike Lynch. The ruling, the biggest civil fraud trial in UK history, came just hours before UK home secretary approved Lynch’s extradition to the United States, where he faces further fraud charges.

The UK’s High Court found that HP had “substantially succeeded” in proving that Autonomy executives had fraudulently boosted the firm’s reported revenue, earnings, and value. HP paid $11 billion for the firm back in 2011 and later announced a $8.8 billion write-down of its value. In court, HP claimed damages of $5 billion, but the judge said the total amount due would be “considerably less” and announced at a later date. Kelwin Nicholls, Lynch’s lawyer and a partner at law firm Clifford Chance, said his client intends to appeal the High Court ruling. In a later statement, Nicholls said his client would also appeal the extradition order in the UK’s High Court.

This week’s events are the latest twist in an extradition process that began in November 2019, when the US Embassy in London submitted a request for Lynch to face trial in the United States on 17 counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy, and securities fraud. Lynch denies all charges against him. Nicholas Ryder, professor in financial crime at the University of the West of England describes it as the “Colt-45 for the US Department of Justice”—an all-pervasive and powerful move. “That’s their go-to charge. The ramifications for Mr. Lynch are significant.”

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The weekend’s best deals: Steam Lunar New Year Sale, Fitbit trackers, and more

Enlarge

It's the weekend, which means it's time for another Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best deals from around the web includes a number of sales for Lunar New Year across video game storefronts. Steam looks to have the most sweeping selection of deals for PC gamers, but the Epic Games Store is running its own sale as well, and some of the deals from those promotions are also available at competing stores like GOG and Humble. And on the console side, Microsoft has discounted several Xbox games for the occasion.

In general, these sales aren't quite as extensive as the ones we saw around the holidays, but they still include several notable discounts on games we like. Past Ars game of the year winners Psychonauts 2, Hades, and Celeste are all available for less than their average going rates, as are several of the lesser-hyped gems we recommended during Steam's summer sale last year. We've noted a few more highlights—including deals on Half-Life: Alyx, Untitled Goose Game, and Halo Infinite, among others—below.

End dates for these sales vary, but Steam says its promotion will end on February 3, while Epic says its sale will wrap up on February 10. If you shop through the latter, note that you can use the $10 coupon offer the company has rolled out for previous sales—but you'll need to sign up for Epic's emails and alerts program (or already be signed up) to access it. If you can live with that, you'll get a coupon that'll take an additional $10 off the deals already in place, provided your cart totals $14.99 or more. This means you could get, say, Hades for $6 instead of its current discounted price of $16. Unlike the Epic sale we saw last month, however, this coupon is one-time use only.

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Ubisoft execs: “Gamers are always right”—yet they somehow “misunderstand” NFTs

Enlarge / This galaxy brain image is still working out Ubisoft's apparent "piece-by-piece" puzzle explanation of its NFT plans. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

In the weeks since Ubisoft rolled out non-fungible tokens in one of its video games, critics—particularly those here at Ars Technica—have shot back with questions about their purpose. While Ars is still waiting for a formal response to our December questions, the closest we're likely to get comes from a Thursday interview with Ubisoft executives that included a bold assertion that players' "resistance" to NFTs is "based on misunderstanding." (We hope Ubisoft isn't saying that to anyone who has read Ars' lengthy guide to NFTs.)

In the interview, conducted by Australian tech site Finder, two Ubisoft executives (Didier Genevois, head of Ubi's blockchain team, and Nicolas Pouard, lead on Ubi's "Quartz" and "Digits" NFT systems) fail to clarify how an online game's NFT implementation differs on a gameplay basis from existing digital rights management (DRM) solutions, particularly those baked into storefronts like Steam and Ubisoft Connect.

When pressed directly on what benefit a player might expect from engaging with Ubisoft Digits, Pouard first said that "gamers don't get what a digital secondary market can bring to them." Eventually, Pouard answered with one potential benefit: "the opportunity to resell their items once they're finished with them or they're finished playing the game itself."

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Did eating meat really make us human?

Enlarge (credit: Kryssia Campos | Getty Images)

Twenty-four years ago, Briana Pobiner reached into the north Kenyan soil and put her hands on bones that had last been touched 1.5 million years ago. Pobiner, a paleoanthropologist, was digging up ancient animal bones and searching for cuts and dents, signs that they had been butchered by our early ancestors trying to get at the fatty, calorie-rich bone marrow hidden within. “You are reaching through a window in time,” says Pobiner, who is now at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. “The creature who butchered this animal is not quite like you, but you’re uncovering this direct evidence of behavior. It’s really exciting.”

That moment sparked Pobiner’s lasting interest in how the diets of our ancestors shaped their evolution and eventually the emergence of our own species, Homo sapiens. Meat, in particular, seems to have played a crucial role. Our more distant ancestors mostly ate plants and had short legs and small brains similar in size to a chimpanzee’s. But around 2 million years ago, a new species emerged with decidedly humanlike features. Homo erectus had a larger brain, smaller gut, and limbs proportioned similarly to those of modern humans. And fossils from around the same time, like those excavated by Pobiner in Kenya, show that someone was butchering animals to separate lean meat from the bone and dig out the marrow. For decades, paleontologists have theorized that the evolution of humanlike features and meat eating are strongly connected.

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Keychron Q2 mechanical keyboard review: Enthusiast luxury at a decent price

Enlarge / The Keychron Q2. (credit: Scharon Harding)

Not everyone appreciates the luxury of a mechanical keyboard. Many are happy with the flat keys that come with their laptop; they don't need to deal with the price premiums, varieties, and complexities of mechanical switches. Among those who do make the leap to mechanical switches, plenty are happy to settle on a keyboard preloaded with a specific switch type. But the Keychron Q2 is for those wiling to go an inch or two further down the rabbit hole.

I say "an inch or two" because the Q2 comes completely assembled (or with just the switches and keycaps missing), letting you pick your level of customization—and it offers options that only a mechanical keyboard enthusiast would consider.

Specs at a glance: Keychron Q2
	Cheapest	Most expensive	As reviewed
Switches	None, hot-swappable	Gateron G Pro Red, Blue, or Brown, hot-swappable
Keycaps	Doubleshot PBT
Connectivity options	USB-C to USB-C cable, USB-C to USB-A adapter
Backlighting	RGB
Size (without keycaps)	12.89 x 4.76 x 0.79-1.33 inches (327.5 x 121 x 20-33.8 mm)
Weight	~3.13 lbs (1,420 g)	3.63 ± 0.02 lbs (1,645 ± 10 g)
Warranty	1 year
Price (MSRP)	$149	$179
Other perks	Barebones kit; keycap puller; switch puller; screwdriver; hex key; 4x extra gaskets; 2x extra rubber feet; 2x extra hex screws; 2x extra Philips screws	Pre-assembled with volume knob; keycap puller; switch puller; screwdriver; hex key; 4x extra gaskets; 2x extra rubber feet; 2x extra hex screws; 2x extra Philips screws

Those options include a gasket-mounted design, sound-dampening foam, and pre-lubricated switches, which should eliminate pinging noises or cheap stabilizer rattling. The Q2 is a surprisingly hefty 65% keyboard built for the long haul, and while the starting price of $150 isn't cheap, it's more digestible than other high-end rivals.

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The US plans to reduce roadway deaths with smarter road design

Enlarge / The intersection of Interstates 10 and 610 in Houston, Texas, during evening rush hour. (credit: Getty Images)

Statistics help tell stories, and one often touted by technologists and engineers and police officers and even the federal government told a tale. The statistic: 94 percent of US traffic crashes are the result of human error. The number felt right. It also appealed to a very American idea: that individuals are in charge of their own destinies. Rather than place the burden of road safety on systems—the way roads are built, the way cars are designed, the way streets are governed—it placed it on the driver, or the walker, or the cyclist.

The statistic was based on a misunderstanding of a 2015 report from the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is in charge of US road safety. The report studied crashes between 2005 and 2007 and determined that the driver was the “critical reason” behind the vast majority of crashes. But a driver’s actions were typically the last in a long chain of events. The driver's fiddly movement of the wheel, in other words, was the final thing to go wrong—a process that started with, perhaps, the surveying of the highway, or the road design laid out on the desk of an engineer, or the policy crafted by lobbyists decades ago that made it impossible for anyone to get across town without a car.

Earlier this month, after pleas from researchers, advocates, and another Biden administration official, the US DOT nixed that 94 percent statistic from its website. And on Thursday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg began to tell a very different story about US road deaths. “Human fallibility should not lead to human fatalities,” he said during a press conference in Washington, DC. His goal, he said, is zero road deaths.

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