Over the past 15 years, password managers have grown from a niche security tool used by the technology savvy into an indispensable security tool for the masses, with an estimated 94 million US adults—or roughly 36 percent of them—having adopted them. They store not only passwords for pension, financial, and email accounts, but often cryptocurrency credentials, payment card numbers, and other sensitive data.

All eight of the top password managers have adopted the term “zero knowledge” to describe the complex encryption system they use to protect the data vaults that users store on their servers. The definitions vary slightly from vendor to vendor, but they generally boil down to one bold assurance: that there is no way for malicious insiders or hackers who manage to compromise the cloud infrastructure to steal vaults or data stored in them. These promises make sense, given previous breaches of LastPass and the reasonable expectation that state-level hackers have both the motive and capability to obtain password vaults belonging to high-value targets.

A bold assurance debunked

Typical of these claims are those made by Bitwarden, Dashlane, and LastPass, which together are used by roughly 60 million people. Bitwarden, for example , says that “not even the team at Bitwarden can read your data (even if we wanted to).” Dashlane, meanwhile, says that without a user’s master password, “malicious actors can’t steal the information, even if Dashlane’s servers are compromised.” LastPass says that no one can access the “data stored in your LastPass vault, except you (not even LastPass).”

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Talk show host Stephen Colbert said CBS forbade him from interviewing Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico because of a Federal Communications Commission threat to enforce the equal-time rule on late-night and daytime talk shows.

Talarico "was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network's lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast," Colbert said on last night's episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert . "Then I was told in some uncertain terms that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on, and because my network clearly doesn't want us to talk about this, let's talk about this."

Colbert went on to describe some of the background Ars readers are already familiar with. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr recently issued a warning to late-night and daytime talk shows that they may no longer qualify for the bona fide news exemption to the equal-time rule, and subsequently opened an investigation into ABC’s The View after an interview with Talarico.

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More than two years after Broadcom took over VMware, the virtualization company’s customers are still grappling with higher prices, uncertainty, and the challenges of reducing vendor lock-in.

Today, CloudBolt Software released a report, " The Mass Exodus That Never Was: The Squeeze Is Just Beginning, " that provides insight into those struggles. CloudBolt is a hybrid cloud management platform provider that aims to identify VMware customers’ pain points so it can sell them relevant solutions. In the report, CloudBolt said it surveyed 302 IT decision-makers (director-level or higher) at North American companies with at least 1,000 employees in January. The survey is far from comprehensive, but it offers a look at the obstacles these users face.

Broadcom closed its VMware acquisition in November 2023, and last month, 88 percent of survey respondents still described the change as “disruptive.” Per the survey, the most cited drivers of disruption were price increases (named by 89 percent of respondents), followed by uncertainty about Broadcom’s plans (85 percent), support quality concerns (78 percent), Broadcom shifting VMware from perpetual licenses to subscriptions (72 percent), changes to VMware’s partner program (68 percent), and the forced bundling of products (65 percent).

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Imagine turning the key or pressing the start button of your car—and nothing happens. Not because the battery is dead or the engine is broken but because a server no longer answers. For a growing number of cars, that scenario isn’t hypothetical.

As vehicles become platforms for software and subscriptions, their longevity is increasingly tied to the survival of the companies behind their code. When those companies fail, the consequences ripple far beyond a bad app update and into the basic question of whether a car still functions as a car.

Over the years, automotive software has expanded from performing rudimentary engine management and onboard diagnostics to powering today’s interconnected, software-defined vehicles. Smartphone apps can now handle tasks like unlocking doors, flashing headlights, and preconditioning cabins—and some models won’t unlock at all unless a phone running the manufacturer’s app is within range.

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Earlier this month, Valve announced it was delaying the release of its new Steam Machine desktop and Steam Frame VR headset due to memory and storage shortages that have been cascading across the PC industry since late 2025. But those shortages are also coming for products that have already launched.

Valve had added a note to its Steam Deck page noting that the device would be "out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages." None of Valve's three listed Steam Deck configurations are currently available to buy, nor are any of the certified refurbished Steam Deck configurations that Valve sometimes offers.

Valve hasn't announced any price increases for the Deck, at least not yet—the 512GB OLED model is still listed at $549 and the 1TB version at $649. But the basic 256GB LCD model has been formally discontinued now that it has sold out, increasing the Deck's de facto starting price from $399 to $549. Valve announced in December that it was ending production on the LCD version of the Deck and that it wouldn't be restocked once it sold out.

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Warner Bros. Discovery is giving Paramount one more week to make its best and final offer, leaving the door open for a deal that could upend its merger agreement with Netflix.

Officially, Warner Bros. is still committed to Netflix. The company today scheduled a special meeting date of March 20 and recommended that shareholders vote for the Netflix merger. But Warner Bros. is simultaneously opening negotiations with Paramount despite calling all of its previous offers deficient.

"Netflix has provided WBD a limited waiver under the terms of WBD’s merger agreement with Netflix, permitting WBD to engage in discussions with Paramount Skydance for a seven-day period ending on February 23, 2026 to seek clarity for WBD stockholders and provide PSKY the ability to make its best and final offer," Warner Bros. said today .

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No one will supplant American and Chinese dominance in the space launch arena anytime soon, but several longtime US allies now see sovereign access to space as a national security imperative.

Taking advantage of private launch initiatives already underway within their own borders, several middle and regional powers have approved substantial government funding for commercial startups to help them reach the launch pad. Australia, Canada, Germany, and Spain are among the nations that currently lack the ability to independently put their own satellites into orbit but which are now spending money to establish a domestic launch industry. Others talk a big game but haven't committed the cash to back up their ambitions.

The moves are part of a wider trend among US allies to increase defense spending amid strained relations with the Trump administration. Tariffs, trade wars, and threats to invade the territory of a NATO ally have changed the tune of many foreign leaders. In Europe, there's even talk of fielding a nuclear deterrent independent of the nuclear umbrella provided by the US military.

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At long last, we have the official full trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu , a feature film spinoff from Disney's megahit Star Wars series The Mandalorian .

Grogu (fka "Baby Yoda") won viewers’ hearts from the moment he first appeared onscreen in the first season of The Mandalorian , and the relationship between the little green creature and his father-figure bounty hunter, the titular Mandalorian, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), has only gotten stronger. With the 2023 Hollywood strikes delaying production on season 4 of the series, director Jon Favreau got the green light to make this spinoff film.

Per the official logline:

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The electric car transition isn't going great for America's domestic automakers, but it's far from over. Ford may have ended production of the full-size F-150 Lightning pickup truck , but next year, it will debut a new "Universal EV Platform," beginning with a midsize truck that it says will start at a much more reasonable $30,000, should all go to plan. The company seems serious about the idea, having created an internal "skunkworks" several years ago to design this new affordable platform from first principles.

Doing more with less is the key: fewer components and using less energy to go the same distance. Now, the company has given us a clearer picture of how it plans to make that happen.

A few years ago, Ford and its crosstown rival bet that full-size pickup truck customers would be wowed enough by instant torque and minuscule running costs to overlook how towing heavily diminished range. They created electric versions of their best-selling behemoths, packed with clever features like power sockets for job sites and the ability to power a home during an emergency.

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