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On Monday, Los Angeles news station KTLA aired a segment about celebrities' responses to the protests over George Floyd's murder. The channel included a clip from a video Cardi B posted, with reporter Doug Kolk commenting, "rapper Cardi B used her massive platform to promote the violence." … More »View the full article

Enlarge / The iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. (credit: Samuel Axon) Along with other retailers big and small, Apple Stores have been subject to looting by opportunists amid the ongoing protests around the United States. In response, Apple has again closed all of its stores in the US. Stores had only recently reopened after closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic. But looters who brought stolen iPhones home, or people who end up buying those phones in person-to-person transactions, are in for what may be a surprise: it appears that the stolen iPhones don't work and may even be tracked by Apple or authorities. This could pose a challenge for regular consumers who buy second-hand iPhones—as well as repair shops—in the coming weeks and months. Individuals with iPhones allegedly looted from Apple stores found that the phones were automatically disabled and had messages like the following (via Twitter) displayed on-screen: Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

It’s only been a year since singer-songwriter Bob Mould’s 2018 album Sunshine Rock, but today he announced he’s already on to album 14. The 49-year-old guitarist, also known for his work in bands Hüsker Dü and Sugar, announced his latest LP, Blue Hearts, is slated for release on Sept. 25. The record announcement comes along with Wednesday’s release of his explosive debut single, “American Crisis.” “‘American Crisis’ is a tale of two times,” Mould said in a release. “Past Time and Present Time. The parallels between 1984 and 2020 are a bit scary for me: telegenic, charismatic leaders, praised and propped up by extreme Evangelicals, either ignoring an epidemic (HIV/AIDS) or being outright deceitful about a pandemic (COVID-19).” From now until June 7, all sales from the single will benefit OutFront Minnesota and Black Visions Collective Mould calls his upcoming 14-track album — which he produced at Chicago’s Electrical Audio with engineer Beau Sorenson — “the catchiest batch of protest songs I’ve ever written in one sitting.” You can preorder the record here and check out the tracklist below. 1. Heart on My Sleeve 2. Next Generation 3. American Crisis 4. Fireball 5. Forecast of Rain 6. When You Left 7. Siberian Butterfly 8. Everyth!ng to You 9. Racing to the End 10. Baby Needs a Cookie 11. Little Pieces 12. Leather Dreams 13. Password to My Soul 14. The Ocean View the full article

Enlarge / Penguins and sharks, living together in perfect harmony—what a wonderful world it will be! (credit: FreeNAS / Ars Technica) To the surprise—and likely consternation—of BSD fans everywhere, FreeNAS vendor iXsystems is building a new version of its core product, TrueNAS, on top of Debian Linux. This week's TrueNAS Scale announcement builds on the company's March announcement that its commercial project TrueNAS and its community project FreeNAS would be merging into a common base. Effectively, all the NAS projects from iXsystems will be TrueNAS variants moving forward, with the free-to-use version being TrueNAS Core, the new Debian-based project becoming TrueNAS Scale, and the commercial project remaining simply TrueNAS. The company is still being coy about the overall goals of the new project, with the major clue being that "SCALE" is used as an acronym. Morgan Littlewood, iXsystems' senior vice president of project management and business development, expanded on this to Ars a little further in an email exchange today: Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Bob Mould has shared a new song, "American Crisis." It's the lead single from his new album Blue Hearts, the follow-up to last year's Sunshine Rock, that'll be out in the fall. The song's a fired-up ripper with lines like "Here's the latest American crisis / Thanks to evangelical ISIS" and "Silence was … More »View the full article

It's beautiful out. That's one of the fucked up things. From all available evidence, we've been blessed with a nationwide wave of sunny spring-into-summer weather. At this point, I've seen dozens of videos of police beating and manhandling and pepper-spraying and tear-gassing demonstrators while wispy clouds drift lazily across clear blue skies. I wasn't out … More »View the full article

Amidst countless reports of New York police brutalizing and escalating confrontations with protesters over the past week, including the incident where police rammed vans into crowds of demonstrators, NYC mayor Bill De Blasio has tirelessly praised and defended the NYPD. The NYPD has long been hostile to De Blasio, supposed progressive and More »View the full article

Run The Jewels have released their new album, RTJ4, a couple days early. (It was scheduled to come out on Friday.) "Fuck it, why wait," the duo wrote in a statement alongside a link directing to a free download of the album. "The world is infested with bullshit so here's something raw to … More »View the full article

The members of the straight-edge metallic hardcore band Rain Of Salvation come from up and down the East Coast -- Long Island, Delaware, Connecticut -- and they also play in groups like Typecaste and Atonement. Today, Rain Of Salvation have followed up their 2019 debut EP A War Outside And Within with a … More »View the full article

Back in 2017, the Brooklyn quartet Model/Actriz released a debut EP called No. Then they went quiet for a while, going off to reimagine their sound a bit. Recently, they reemerged with a single called "Suntan," a roiling track that boasted a brooding aesthetic drawing equally from punk, dance, and noise. Now, the band is … More »View the full article

Iggy Pop is urging Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott to co-sponsor the Big Cat Public Safety Act, proposed federal legislation that would prohibit private ownership, direct public contact, and dangerous interactions like cub petting with tigers and other big cats. More »View the full article

Yesterday, Eagles frontman Don Henley spoke to Congress about a truly important issue currently affecting the world: People putting videos of Eagles songs up on YouTube. As the Associated Press reports, Henley, speaking from his home in California, testified remotely before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, arguing for changes in the Digital Millennium Copyright … More »View the full article

Jay-Z and Team Roc, the social justice arm of Jay-Z's Roc Nation management company, took out full-page advertisements in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and other newspapers around the US in dedication to George Floyd, as Rolling Stone reports. More »View the full article

Enlarge / On the left, we have the XPS 13 Developer Edition running Ubuntu 18.04. On the right, a regular XPS 13 running Windows 10 Pro. (credit: Jim Salter) We spent this weekend going hands-on with a pair of 2020 model Dell XPS 13 laptops—one standard edition running Windows 10 Pro, and one Developer Edition running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. The XPS 13 is among Dell's most popular models, and for good reason—it's a sleek, solid-feeling laptop that usually has top-of-the-line hardware and good battery life. Unfortunately, both of the XPS 13 models we tested had driver issues—particularly the Windows laptop, which has a Killer AX1650 Wi-Fi card. Hardware Specs at a glance: Dell XPS 13 2020 model, as reviewed XPS 13 XPS 13 Developer Edition OS Windows 10 Home Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Screen 13.4-inch FHD+ (1920×1200) touchscreen 13.4-inch UHD+ (3840×2400) touchscreen CPU Intel Core i7-1065G7 GPU Intel Iris+ RAM 16GiB 32GiB HDD Intel 512GB NVMe SSD Hynix 512GB NVMe SSD Networking Killer AX1650 Wi-Fi 6 (2×2), Bluetooth 4.2 Ports 2 x Thunderbolt 3, 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack, 1 x microSD card reader Size 11.6×7.8×0.58 inches (296×199×15mm) Weight 2.7 pounds (1.2kg) 2.8 pounds (1.3kg) Battery 52Wh battery Warranty 1 year on-site (after remote diagnosis) Extras Fingerprint reader (in power button), 720P IR camera, backlit keyboard Price as tested $1,617 at Dell $2,000 at Dell The XPS 13 is a small, sleek, very solid-feeling laptop with a bright screen and very narrow bezels. It doesn't offer much in the way of connectivity—there's no Ethernet jack, no HDMI port, and no USB-A port either. Read 31 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Enlarge (credit: Akram Kennis / Flickr) Accounts for Google’s Nest line of smart home devices are now covered by the company’s Advanced Protection Program, which traditionally has provided enhanced security for journalists, politicians, elections workers, and other people who are frequently targeted by hackers. Google rolled out APP in 2017. It requires users to have at least two physical security keys, such as those available from Yubico, Google’s Titan brand, or other providers. Typically, keys connect through USB slots or Near-field Communication or Bluetooth interfaces. Once registered, the keys provide cryptographic secrets that are unphishable and, at least theoretically, impossible to intercept through malware attacks or other types of hacking. APP also limits the apps that can connect to protected accounts, although registering Thunderbird to connect to Gmail is relatively easy. Pulling up your account by the bootstraps Once an account is enrolled and each device (including a phone) is authenticated through the physical-key process Google calls bootstrapping, people can use their iOS or Android devices as a security key. That’s usually easier, faster, and more convenient than using physical security keys. Typically, users must bootstrap only rarely after the bootstrapping process, such as when Google detects suspicious behavior. APP also pushes alerts to users’ devices and registered email accounts each time a new device connects. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Bandcamp has announced that it will be donating 100% of its share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund on this coming Juneteenth and every 6/19 hereafter. In a statement, the company writes that this move is in response to "the ongoing state-sanctioned violence against black people in the US." … More »View the full article

Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande's "Rain On Me" has debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. More »View the full article

When Alec Benjamin sings, people listen. This isn't necessarily because he has something meaningful to say, though I'd argue that Benjamin is a more substantial lyricist than your average lite-pop singer-songwriter. No, the initial reason folks stop what they're doing and pay attention when this guy opens his mouth is because his voice is kind … More »View the full article

The new power menu has way, way more buttons. [credit: Mishaal Rahman ] Android 11 has had four preview releases so far, but they've been stripped of many features that we know are in development and just haven't seen in a public build yet. One such feature is a revamp to the power menu, which has been getting code drops for smart home controls and credit cards for some time now. The near-final design of the new power menu appears to have leaked, thanks to XDA Developer's Mishaal Rahman. Android 11 Android 11 power menu leak shows new smart home integration Google delays Android 11 Beta, announces I/O replacement event for June 3 Android 11 Preview 3 hands-on—Strange changes to Recent Apps and notifications Google makes seamless update support mandatory in Android 11 Android 11 Preview 2 hands-on: More polish and a new install method View more stories Rahman shared two low-res screenshots showing a dramatically different power menu than what Android has typically had. What was just a simple four-option overlay has become a full-screen interface packed with buttons. The usual "Power," "Restart," "Screenshot," and "Emergency" buttons have shifted to the top of the screen, and below that is a carousel of credit cards from Google Pay. Below that are "Quick controls" which are smart home controls that are most likely sourced from the Google Home app. The Quick Controls are the major new feature on the power menu. The screenshots appear to show options for smart lights, door locks, thermostats, cameras, and smart blinds, all of which are products you can currently access through the Google Assistant, the Google Home app, and Google Smart Displays. If you're on a phone and don't want to use voice commands, your only other option is to dig through the Google Home App, which can be cumbersome. This menu, which would be brought up just by long-pressing the power button, would be considerably faster. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

Following Killer Mike’s impassioned speech and offering up their upcoming album, RTJ4, for free to anyone who needs it, El-P shared Run The Jewel’s album closer, “A Few Words for the Firing Squad (Radiation).” The beats roll in and grow as the hip-hop duo get on the mic. “When they got you you feeling like a fox running from another pack a dogs/ Put the pistol and the fist up in the air, we are there, swear to God,” El-P delivers. Meanwhile, Killer Mike’s bars build with intensity as a saxophone comes in. “This is for the do-gooders that the no-gooders, used and then abused/ For the truth-tellers tied to the whipping post, left beaten, battered, bruised/ For the ones whose body hung from a tree like a piece of strange fruit/ Go hard, last words to the firing squad was, “Fuck you too,'” he raps. Run the Jewels previously released “OOH LA LA” and “The Yankee and The Brave.” On Friday, Killer Mike delivered an impassioned plea to protestors in Atlanta to not burn down their own houses in anger following George Floyd’s death. Listen to “A Few Words for the Firing Squad (Radiation)” below. RTJ4 releases on June 5. View the full article

Terrace Martin has teamed up with Denzel Curry, Daylyt, Kamasi Washington, and G Perico for a new track called "PIG FEET" that was recorded in reaction to George Floyd's murder and the protests that have happened across the country over the last few days over police brutality. More »View the full article

Griselda crew member Conway The Machine is prepping a new album called From King To A God -- he teased a tracklist for it featuring Drake and 2 Chainz a couple days ago -- and today he's releasing a new song called "Front Lines" that was inspired by the protests following George Floyd's … More »View the full article

Two Minutes To Late Night is back with another all-star metal cover. Hosted by Jordan Olds as "Gwarsenio Hall" and affiliated with the Brooklyn venue Saint Vitus, the series has been getting one-off bands together for some pretty fun covers during quarantine. A couple months back there was a "Weird Al" Yankovic rendition, … More »View the full article

Oh Sees leader John Dwyer has yet another new project. The one's called Bent Arcana and Dwyer ran down the group's many members on a new Bandcamp page -- one of them is TV On The Radio's Kyp Malone. Their debut album, also called Bent Arcana, is coming out in August. More »View the full article

The Fredericksburg, Virginia screamo monsters Infant Island have been absolutely on fire lately. In the past two months, they've released two convulsive and brilliant records, the EP Sepulcher and the album Beneath. Also, singer/guitarist Alexander Rudenshiold has unveiled another new band called Mattachine and shared their own ferocious first song "More »View the full article