The company behind WordPress, Automattic Inc., and its founder, Matt Mullenweg, continue to face backlash over a "nuclear war" started with WP Engine (WPE) that allegedly messed with maintenance and security of hundreds of thousands of websites.

In a proposed class action lawsuit filed this weekend, a WPE customer, Ryan Keller, accused Automattic and Mullenweg of "deliberately abusing their power and control over the WordPress ecosystem to purposefully, deliberately, and repeatedly disrupt contracts"—all due to a supposed trademark infringement claim. If granted, the class would include "all persons in the United States who had ongoing active WPE WordPress Web Hosting Plans on or before September 24, 2024 through December 10, 2024."

WPE had previously sued Automattic and Mullenweg, alleging that the attack on WPE was actually an attempt to extort what Keller alleged was "tens of millions of dollars" in payments from WPE for using the WordPress trademark. Mullenweg made it clear that the value of the payments was "based on what he thought WPE could afford, rather than what the value of the trademark actually was," Keller's complaint alleged.

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The price of bitcoin hit a record high of $109,114.88 during intraday trading on January 20, the day of President Trump's inauguration, but has plummeted since and went as low as $83,741.94 during today's trading.

That's a 23.3 percent drop from the intraday record to today's low, though it was back over $84,000 as of this writing. Bitcoin had been above $100,000 as recently as February 7, and was over $96,000 on Monday this week.

Bitcoin's drop is part of a wider rout in which over $800 billion of nominal value "has been wiped off global cryptocurrency markets in recent weeks, as the enthusiasm that swept the crypto industry after Donald Trump's election victory last year ebbs away," the Financial Times wrote today.

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Following up on Microsoft's announcement of a qubit based on completely new physics, Amazon is publishing a paper describing a very different take on quantum computing hardware. The system mixes two different types of qubit hardware to improve the stability of the quantum information they hold. The idea is that one type of qubit is resistant to errors, while the second can be used for implementing an error-correction code that catches the problems that do happen.

While there have been more effective demonstrations of error correction in the past, a number of companies are betting that Amazon's general approach is the best route to getting logical qubits that are capable of complex algorithms. So, in that sense, it's an important proof of principle.

Herding cats

The basic idea behind Amazon's approach is to use one type of qubit to hold data and a second to enable error correction. The data qubit is extremely resistant to one type of error, but prone to a second. Those errors are where the second type of qubit comes in; it's used to run an error-correction code that's effective at picking up the problems the data qubits are prone to. Combined, the two are hoped to allow error correction to be handled by far fewer hardware qubits.

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As Google's 2024 antitrust loss proved, the company has worked very, very hard to ensure its search engine is the primary roadmap for the Internet. Google scours the Internet for data about everything—even you. And if you don't want your personal info to wind up in Google search results, you can use the just-redesigned "Results About You" tool. The tool, which began its rollout in 2022, is easier to use now, and some of the most useful features are now better integrated with search results.

The first step in using Results About You—which has not changed—is a bit alarming when you've set out to obscure your personal information. Just head to the new hub for Results About You and enter your personal information. Google probably already knows your phone number, email, and even physical address, but this tells the tool what specific information to pluck out of search results. If that data is out there, Google has it whether or not you remove it from search results.

Before this update, most of the Results About You features were limited to this console, but the most important features are now integrated with the search results. They're not exactly prominently displayed, though. When scrolling through a Google search (after the AI overview, ads, knowledge graph, and more ads), you can use the three-dot menu next to a result to get data about it. This menu now includes options to remove the result right at the top.

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An unvaccinated, school-aged child in Texas has died of the measles amid an ongoing outbreak in the state that has so far infected at least 124 people, mostly children, sending at least 18 to the hospital. Additionally, nine measles cases have been confirmed across the border in New Mexico.

On Wednesday morning, the Lubbock health officials and the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) confirmed the death, which occurred within the last 24 hours.

It is the first death in the mushrooming outbreak in Texas, and it marks the first measles death in the country since 2015, when a woman with underlying health conditions in Washington state died amid an outbreak. The death highlighted the importance of maintaining high community vaccination rates to prevent the spread of the extremely infectious disease to vulnerable people. Prior to that, the US hadn't recorded a measles death since 2003.

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When Volvo first announced its small, all-electric EX30, I was excited. Regardless of powertrain, a brand-new Volvo starting at approximately $35,000 was a big deal to me. I might have even suggested online that the EX30 was the most important Volvo ever, full stop. There's no reason why this vehicle shouldn't be a global sales success.

Then, former-President Joe Biden gave the Volvo a reason why it wouldn't be a sales success: He attached a 100 percent tariff on all-electric vehicles coming from China. With Volvo's parent Geely manufacturing the EX30 in China, the value proposition quickly vanished. Fortunately for Volvo, there is a production facility in Ghent, Belgium, that can pick up the slack for export to the United States. The plant currently builds the EC40 and XC40 Recharge, so adding another battery-electric vehicle shouldn't take too much time.

Why do I care? Because the EX30 I was the most excited about wasn't the street-focused standard model but the off-the-beaten-path-but-not-really-off-road Cross Country variant.

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The lights may be starting to go out for NASA's Space Launch System program.

On Wednesday, one of the Republican space policy leaders most consistently opposed to commercial heavy lift rockets over the last decade—as an alternative to NASA's large SLS rocket—has changed his mind.

"We need an off-ramp for reliance on the SLS," said Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, in written testimony. He issued the statement in advance of a hearing about US space policy, and the future of NASA's Artemis Moon program, before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

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Last week, a Jeep driver turned to Reddit to do what people do best on the site—complain. Every time they hit the brakes on their Jeep, they wrote, a promotion for an extended warranty plan popped up in the center console. “Press the ‘call’ button to speak to a specialist,” they say the ad encouraged, welcoming the user to use their Bluetooth connection to complete the upsell then and there.

Ads are annoying and occasionally insidious; an ad that repeatedly appears inside one’s own car more so. According to other online posts on Reddit and Jeep forums, the issue goes back several years, affecting several models of Jeeps.

Stellantis, which owns Jeep, says the repetitive nature of the promotion was a glitch. “This is an isolated incident affecting fewer than ten vehicles at this time limited to the US,” Dan Reid, a spokesperson for the automaker, wrote in a statement. He acknowledged, though, that Stellantis shows other drivers in-vehicle promotions, too. Dodge owners, for example, get an infotainment push after 60 days of purchase offering the Dodge Complete Performance Package, a comprehensive warranty offering. Stellantis says that, on average, customers receive about two in-vehicle messages annually, containing safety, maintenance, or marketing information.

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Late last year, I published a long post that criticized the user unfriendliness of passkeys, the industry-wide alternative to logging in with passwords. A chief complaint was that passkey implementations tend to lock users into whatever platform they used to create the credential.

An example: When using Chrome on an iPhone, passkeys were saved to iCloud. When using Chrome on other platforms, passkeys were saved to a user’s Google profile. That meant passkeys created for Chrome on, say, Windows, wouldn’t sync to iCloud. Passkeys created in iCloud wouldn’t sync with a Google account.

GPM and iOS finally play nice together

That headache is finally over. Chrome on all platforms now uses the Google Password Manager, a tool built into Chrome, to seamlessly sync keys. GPM, as it’s abbreviated, will sync passkeys to all Chrome browsers logged in to the same user account. I’ve spent a few days testing the new capabilities, and they mostly work hassle free. The tool can be accessed by opening this link in Chrome.

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If you head over to the Steam Next Fest charts right now, Valve will offer you a glimpse of the 2,228 games offering free downloadable demos as part of the event through Sunday, March 3. That is way too many games to effectively evaluate in such a short time, even with the massive resources of the Ars Orbiting HQ.

But we haven't let that stop us from trying. With the assistance of some early access provided by Valve and game publishers, we've spent the last few days playing dozens and dozens of the most promising Next Fest demos in an attempt to pull out some interesting-looking needles from Valve's massive haystack. Below are the results of that search—a varied list of 11 titles we think are worth investing some time (and zero dollars of money) into a demo download.

But this is just a starting point. Please use the comments below to share any other diamonds in the rough you think your fellow Ars readers need to know about.

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On Sunday, xAI released a new voice interaction mode for its Grok 3 AI model that is currently available to its premium subscribers. The feature is somewhat similar to OpenAI's Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT. But unlike ChatGPT, Grok offers several uncensored personalities users can choose from (currently expressed through the same default female voice), including an "unhinged" mode and one that will roleplay verbal sexual scenarios.

On Monday, AI researcher Riley Goodside brought wider attention to the over-the-top "unhinged" mode in particular when he tweeted a video (warning: NSFW audio) that showed him repeatedly interrupting the vocal chatbot, which began to simulate yelling when asked. "Grok 3 Voice Mode, following repeated, interrupting requests to yell louder, lets out an inhuman 30-second scream, insults me, and hangs up," he wrote.

By default, "unhinged" mode curses, insults, and belittles the user non-stop using vulgar language. Other modes include "Storyteller" (which does what it sounds like), "Romantic" (which stammers and speaks in a slow, uncertain, and insecure way), "Meditation" (which can guide you through a meditation-like experience), "Conspiracy" (which likes to talk about conspiracy theories, UFOs, and bigfoot), "Unlicensed Therapist" (which plays the part of a talk psychologist), "Grok Doc" (a doctor), "Sexy" (marked as "18+" and acts almost like a 1-800 phone sex operator), and "Professor" (which talks about science).

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Generative AI has wormed its way into myriad products and services, some of which benefit more from these tools than others. Coding with AI has proven to be a better application than most, with individual developers and big companies leaning heavily on generative tools to create and debug programs. Now, indie developers have access to a new AI coding tool free of charge—Google has announced that Gemini Code Assist is available to everyone.

Gemini Code Assist was first released late last year as an enterprise tool, and the new version has almost all the same features. While you can use the standard Gemini or another AI model like ChatGPT to work on coding questions, Gemini Code Assist was designed to fully integrate with the tools developers are already using. Thus, you can tap the power of a large language model (LLM) without jumping between windows. With Gemini Code Assist connected to your development environment, the model will remain aware of your code and ready to swoop in with suggestions. The model can also address specific challenges per your requests, and you can chat with the model about your code, provided it's a public domain language.

At launch, Gemini Code Assist pricing started at $45 per month per user. Now, it costs nothing for individual developers, and the limits on the free tier are generous. Google says the product offers 180,000 code completions per month, which it claims is enough that even prolific professional developers won't run out. This is in stark contrast to Microsoft's GitHub Copilot, which offers similar features with a limit of just 2,000 code completions and 50 Copilot chat messages per month. Google did the math to point out Gemini Code Assist offers 90 times the completions of Copilot.

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Framework announced two new systems to its lineup today: the convertible Framework 12 and a gaming-focused (but not-very-upgradeable) mini ITX Framework Desktop PC. But it's continuing to pay attention to the Framework Laptop 13, too—the company's first upgrade-friendly repairable laptop is getting another motherboard update, this time with AMD's latest Ryzen AI 300-series processors. It's Framework's second AMD Ryzen-based board, following late 2023's Ryzen 7040-based refresh.

The new boards are available for preorder today and will begin shipping in April. Buyers new to the Framework ecosystem can buy a laptop, which starts at $1,099 as a pre-built system with an OS, storage, and RAM included, or $899 for a build-it-yourself kit where you add those components yourself. Owners of Framework Laptops going all the way back to the original 11th-generation Intel version can also buy a bare board to drop into their existing systems; these start at $449.

Framework will ship six- and eight-core Ryzen AI 300 processors on lower-end configurations, most likely the Ryzen AI 5 340 and Ryzen AI 7 350 that AMD announced at CES in January. These chips include integrated Radeon 840M and 860M GPUs with four and eight graphics cores, respectively.

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The original Framework Laptop’s sales pitch was that it wanted to bring some of the modularity and repairability of the desktop PC ecosystem to a functional, thin-and-light laptop. For nearly half a decade, the company has made good on that promise with multiple motherboard upgrades and other tweaks for the original 13-inch Framework Laptop; with the Framework Laptop 16 and Laptop 12, the company has tried to bring the same ethos to gaming/workstation laptops and budget PCs for students.

One of Framework's announcements today was for the company's first desktop PC. Unsurprisingly dubbed the Framework Desktop, it's aimed less at the general-purpose PC crowd and more at people who want the smallest, most powerful desktop they can build and will pay extra money to get it. Pre-orders for this system start today, and Framework says it should ship in Q3 of 2025.

Here was my first question: What does a company trying to build a more desktop-like laptop have to bring to the desktop ecosystem, where things are already standardized, upgradeable, and repairable?

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Framework has been selling and upgrading the upgrade-and-repair-friendly Framework Laptop 13 for nearly four years now, and in early 2024 it announced a larger, more powerful Framework Laptop 16. At a product event today, the company showed off what it called "an early preview" of its third laptop design, the convertible, budget-focused Framework Laptop 12.

This addition to Framework's lineup centers on a 12.2-inch, 1920×1200 convertible touchscreen that flips around to the back with a flexible hinge, a la Lenovo's long-running Yoga design. Framework CEO Nirav Patel said it had originally designed the systems with "students in mind," and to that end it comes in five colors and uses a two-tone plastic body with an internal metal frame rather than the mostly aluminum exterior Framework has used for the 13 and 16. Framework will also sell the laptop with an optional stylus.

For better or worse, the Framework Laptop 12 appears to be its own separate system, with motherboards, accessories, and a refresh schedule distinct from the 13-inch laptop. While the Laptop 13 already offers first-generation Intel Core Ultra-based and (as of today) AMD Ryzen AI 300-based processors, the first Framework Laptop 12 motherboard is going to use Intel's 13th-generation Core i3 and i5 processors, originally launched back in late 2022. Despite the age of these chips, Framework claims the laptop will be "unusually powerful for its class."

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The Supreme Court has once again rejected a telecom industry challenge to New York's $15 broadband law.

The court first refused the hear the case in December, which meant that an appeals court ruling upholding the law was not disturbed. New York started enforcing the law in January, but broadband industry groups made another attempt to get the Supreme Court's attention.

AT&T stopped offering its 5G home Internet service in New York entirely instead of complying with the law, and the industry hoped AT&T's exit would convince the Supreme Court to change its decision. Lobby groups filed a supplemental brief on January 17 urging the court to reconsider its denial of their petition, saying that AT&T's exit proves that "some providers will cease offering broadband service in New York rather than sell at a loss."

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Qualcomm and Google have joined forces to extend software updates on Android devices. With Google's assistance, the chipmaker has committed to providing extended vendor support to any OEM building on its most powerful chips, pushing the theoretical lifespan of Android devices to eight years. There are plenty of caveats, but this move could make your next phone more useful for longer.

The extended support window only applies to Android devices with the latest Qualcomm chipsets. To start, the eight-year support timeline will be extended to devices running the new Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile platform, which has powered devices like the OnePlus 13 and Galaxy S25. Later this year, the same policy will be applied to the company's new Snapdragon 8 and Snapdragon 7-series chips, and you can expect the same deal for at least the next five generations of Qualcomm silicon.

"Through this collaboration, OEMs can more seamlessly update the software and security on their devices, ensuring a more secure and long-lasting Android experience for our users," said Google's Android Platform manager Seang Chau.

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That comforting hot cup of tea—or refreshing glass of iced tea on a hot summer day—could help reduce the amount of toxic metals in drinking water, according to a new paper published in the journal ACS Food & Science Technology.

“We’re not suggesting that everyone starts using tea leaves as a water filter,” said co-author Vinayak Dravid, who studies sorbent materials at Northwestern University. “Our goal was to measure tea’s ability to adsorb heavy metals. By quantifying this effect, our work highlights the unrecognized potential for tea consumption to passively contribute to reduced heavy metal exposure in populations worldwide.”

Some 2 billion people drink tea on a daily basis worldwide, and numerous studies have suggested various health benefits from regular tea consumption. Most nutrition studies focus on things like polyphenols, caffeine, or other chemicals released during brewing, but such research overlooks a unique aspect of tea: unlike most food and drink, tea leaves are not directly consumed, and the brewing process allows tea leaves to adsorb chemicals as well as release them—most notably heavy metal toxins like lead, arsenic, or cadmium. (Adsorption is when a substance adheres to the surface of something; absorption is when a material takes in a substance.)

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One of the big advantages of electric vehicles is their greater freedom when it comes to packaging. Batteries go where it makes the most sense in terms of stability and safety. Electric motors are compact and don't need much cooling compared to a combustion engine, and there's no exhaust to worry about.

Putting the motors close to the wheels makes sense—in the wheel itself if possible—and it seems that a startup called Donut Lab may have solved some of the problems hub-mounted motors have faced in the past.

You can see where the name came from—the motors look like metal donuts. That originally had me thinking they used axial flux technology, as some hybrid supercars do, but I was mistaken. These are radial flux motors, just ones that make a lot of torque considering their size and mass.

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My preferred methods of organizing my schedule could be considered dated, so when I got a chance to try out a gadget meant to streamline my various digital calendars, I took it.

While I do use digital calendars and to-do lists, my go-to method for organizing my day’s tasks, goals, and upcoming events is pen and paper. I use paper calendars in agendas for a visual layout of events, including those as far away as next month. They give me a sense of control, as I'm able to highlight, circle, draw arrows, underline, erase, and so on. I also write more to-do lists than might be considered efficient (as evidenced by “make to-do list” being a frequent line on my to-do lists).

But there are many benefits to using tech for staying organized, too. With digital options, I can easily check my availability on the go with my phone and get alerts to remind me of events.

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