Net neutrality finally has an official expiration date. Announced Thursday morning, May 10, the Obama-era regulations that ensured an open internet are now set to end on June 11, 2018. This will mark the first date that internet service providers in the United States will be legally allowed to obstruct or alter internet traffic according to their whims, but the fight’s not over yet.
“The agency failed to listen to the American public and gave short shrift to their deeply held belief that internet openness should remain the law of the land,” FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel told Reuters. “The FCC is on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the American people.”
The announcement of net neutrality’s expiration date comes right after a bipartisan group of Senators introduced a discharge petition, officially challenging the FCC’s rollback of the Obama-era net neutrality rules. The petition will require a majority vote in the Senate and House of Representatives, along with the signature of President Donald Trump, so it has a long way to go, but the vote could take place as early as next week.
Supporters of the petition have no illusions about the uphill battle they face, however. An important component of the discharge petition fight, which could overturn the FCC’s decision to end the Obama-era net neutrality regulations, is simply making sure the American public knows where their representatives stand on the issue.
“We don’t know how this is going to end, but this is part of an effort to get every member of Congress on the record either supporting or opposing Net Neutrality,” Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told The Verge. “With this piece of legislation there is nowhere to hide and there are no excuses.”
The discharge petition currently has the support of 47 Senate Democrats, along with senator Angus King (I-Maine) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). That means they need at least one more Republican vote for the petition to pass the Senate and be sent to the House of Representatives.
After Thursday’s announcement, Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and congressional supporters took to Twitter to call for the Senate and the public to support his discharge petition.
BREAKING: The Trump FCC has announced that #NetNeutrality protections will officially end on June 11th. The Senate must act NOW and pass my resolution to save the internet as we know it. #RedAlerthttps://t.co/RMjJPU88ee
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) May 10, 2018
The @FCC just announced it will officially revoke #NetNeutrality rules on June 11! The Senate needs just #OneMoreVote to pass @SenMarkey’s resolution (SJRes 52), and then the House must pass my companion bill (HJRes 129) to #SaveTheInternet. #RedAlert
— Mike Doyle (@USRepMikeDoyle) May 10, 2018
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.