Public domain 2026: Betty Boop, Pluto, and Nancy Drew set free
Betty Boop made her debut as an anthropomorphic dog in Dizzy Dishes. | Image: Fleischer Studios Some years ago, I was writing a science fiction short story in which I…
Tech
Meet the new tech laws of 2026
As usual, 2025 was a year of deep congressional dysfunction in the US. But state legislatures were passing laws that govern everything from AI to social media to the right…
You can’t trust your eyes to tell you what’s real anymore, says the head of Instagram
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri is closing out 2025 with a 20-images-deep dive into what a new era of “infinite synthetic content” means as it all becomes harder and harder to…
Net neutrality was back, until it wasn’t
The fight for net neutrality never seems to be truly won or lost. Federal net neutrality rules have been on and off for the past 15 years. The Federal Communications…
Leaked video shows the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new camera island
New photos and video seem to confirm previous leaks hinting that the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will sport a new camera bump. OnLeaks posted images of what look like dummy…
The Dreame X40 Ultra robovac is about $700 off, nearly matching its best price
The Dreame X40 Ultra used to be one of our robot vacuums on the market before its successor took its place. With the year coming to a close, now’s a…
Killing in the name of… nothing
In a good and just society, it would have been possible to bury Charlie Kirk without either threatening mass violence toward his enemies or making light of his death with…
Supply chains, AI, and the cloud: The biggest failures (and one success) of 2025
The past year has seen plenty of hacks and outages. Here are the ones topping the list.
From prophet to product: How AI came back down to earth in 2025
In a year where lofty promises collided with inconvenient research, would-be oracles became software tools.
Condé Nast user database reportedly breached, Ars unaffected
A serious data breach has occurred, but Ars users have nothing to worry about.