Though Marie Antoinette would be hard-pressed to care, the French Revolution of 1789 set its sights on more than simply toppling the monarchy. Revolutionaries sought to break the nation free from its past, specifically from the clutches of the Catholic church, and point France towards a more glorious and prosperous future. They did so, in part, by radically transforming their measurements of the passage of time.

Throughout the 18th century, most French folks were Catholic as that was the only religion allowed to be openly practiced in the country, and had been since the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. As such, the nation had traditionally adhered to the 12-month Gregorian calendar — itself based on even older, sexagesimal (6-unit) divisible systems adapted from the Babylonians and Egyptians — while French clocks cycled every 60 minutes and seconds.

But if there was little reason to continue using the established chronology system aside from tradition, the revolutionaries figured, why not transmute it into a more rational, scientifically-backed method, just as the revolution itself sought to bring stability and new order to French society as a whole? And what better system to interpose than that of the decimal, which already governed the nation’s weights and measures. So, while it wasn’t busy abolishing the privileges of the First and Second Estate, eliminating the church’s power to levy taxes or just drowning nonjuring Catholic priests en masse, France’s neophyte post-revolution government set about reforming the realm’s calendars and clocks.

The concept of decimal time, wherein a day is broken down into multiples of 10, was first suggested more than thirty years prior when French mathematician, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, argued in 1754, “It would be very desirable that all divisions, for example of the livre, the sou, the toise, the day, the hour, etc. would be from tens into tens. This division would result in much easier and more convenient calculations and would be very preferable to the arbitrary division of the livre into twenty sous, of the sou into twelve deniers, of the day into twenty-four hours, the hour into sixty minutes, etc.”

By the eve of the Revolution, the idea had evolved into a year split into 12 months of 30 days apiece, their names inspired by crops and the prevailing weather in Paris during their occurrences. That there are 365 days in a year is an immutable fact dictated by the movement of the Earth around our local star. So, 12 months of 30 days apiece resulted in 5 days (6 in a leap year!) left over. These, the revolutionaries reserved for national holidays.

Each week was divided into 10 days, every day was split into 10 equal hours, those were split into 100 minutes, with each minute divided into 100 seconds (roughly 1.5 times longer than conventional minutes) and each second into 1000 “tierces.” Individual tierces could also be divided into 1000 even tinier units, called “quatierces.” The implementation of tierces would also lead to the creation of a new unit of length, called the “half-handbreadth,” which is the distance the twilight zone travels along the equator over the course of one tierce, and equal to one billionth of the planet’s circumference — around 4 centimeters.

Decimal time was formally adopted by National Convention decree in 1793, “The day, from midnight to midnight, is divided into ten parts, each part into ten others, and so forth until the smallest measurable portion of duration.” As such, midnight would be denoted as 00:00 while noon would be 5:00.

Public Domain

At midnight of the autumn equinox on September 22nd of that year, France’s Gregorian calendar ushered in 1st Vendémiaire Year II of the French Republican calendar. From there on, every new year would begin at midnight of the Autumn equinox, as observed by the Paris Observatory.

“The new calendar was based on two principles,” a 2017 exhibition at the International Museum of Watches, Looking for Noon at Five O’Clock, noted. “That the Republican year should coincide with the movement of the planets, and that it should measure time more accurately and more symmetrically by applying the decimal system wherever possible. Non-religious, it advocated a rational approach and honored the seasons and work in the fields.”

The main advantage of a decimal time system is that, since the base used to divide the time is the same as the one used to represent it, the whole time representation can be handled as a single string.

On one hand, this system offered the clear advantage that both the numerical base used to define the time and the numerical base used to divide it are the same number. For example, quick, how many seconds are there in three hours? The answer, most people will Google, is 10,800 — 60 seconds/minute x 60 minutes/hour x 3 hours. In decimal time, you simply get 30,000 — 3 hours x 10,000 seconds/hour.

However, due to an oversight in its otherwise logical design on account of gaps in astronomical knowledge, the Republican calendar struggled to properly accommodate leap years. “The four-year period, after which the addition of a day is usually necessary, is called the Franciade in memory of the revolution which, after four years of effort, led France to republican government, National Convention decreed. “The fourth year of the Franciade is called Sextile.”

Problem is that leap years, if we’re counting new years by midnights on the autumnal equinox in Paris, don’t consistently happen every four years. By equinox measure, the first leap year of the Republican calendar would actually have to occur in year III while the leaps in years XV and XX would happen half a decade apart.

There were also more practical issues with swapping the nation’s chronology over to an entirely new system, like the fact that people already had perfectly good clocks which they’d have to replace, were decimal time to remain in effect. It was also wildly unpopular with the working class who would only receive one day of rest out of 10 using the Republican calendar (plus a half day on the fifth), rather than the existing Gregorian one-day-in-seven, not to mention that the ten-day week played havoc with traditional Sunday religious services, seeing as how Sunday would cease to exist.

Overall, the idea simply failed to capture public support — despite edicts demanding the creation of decimal-based clocks — and was officially suspended on April 7th, 1795. The French then took a quick crack at metric time, which similarly measured time’s passage in factors of ten but based its progression in conventional seconds (aka 1/86400th of a day). Of course all of these efforts were rendered moot when Napoleon declared himself emperor in 1804, made peace with the Vatican and reinstituted the Gregorian calendar, thereby relegating both the Republican calendar and decimal time to the dustbin of history. The lesson here being, unless you’ve TNG’d yourself into a temporal loop, don’t try to fix what isn’t already broken, especially when it might earn you a trip to the guillotine.

Apple's "Noise Cancellation" accessibility feature has been a staple on past iPhones, but may have been permanently removed from the iPhone 13 series, 9to5Mac has reported. The feature is designed to "reduce ambient noise on phone calls when you are holding the receiver to your ear," a feature that can help make calls easier to hear. 

"Phone Noise Cancellation is not available on iPhone 13 models, which is why you do not see this option in [the Accessibility] settings," Apple support told one of 9to5Mac's readers. When the reader asked for clarification, the support team confirmed that the feature is "not supported."

Questions about noise cancellation came up on Reddit and Apple support pages shortly after the phone went on sale, with readers noticing that it was no longer available on the Accessibility page. The feature is still available with iOS 15 on past iPhone models, but is nowhere to be found on the iPhone 13. 

"Noise Cancellation" normally uses an iPhone's camera microphone to detect and remove ambient noise around you, so you can more easily hear the other person on a phone or FaceTime call — something that can be valuable for the hard of hearing. The issue only applies if you use the handset by itself without, say, Apple's AirPods noise-cancelling earphones. (It does not affect what others hear; for that, Apple introduced the Voice Isolation feature with iOS 15.)  

Apple has yet to officially confirm that the feature has been permanently removed on iPhone 13 devices; so far, the only word about it has come indirectly from Apple Support. As such, Engadget has reached out to Apple for further clarification. 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as well as several states, including New York, Tennesse and North Carolina, are reportedly investigating Meta’s virtual reality division in relation to potential anti-competitive behavior. According to Bloomberg, the FTC and involved state attorneys general began interviewing third-party developers last year to find out if the company has put them at a disadvantage when they’ve tried to compete against its own software.

Some third-party developers claim Meta frequently copies their best ideas and then makes it harder for their apps to function on its headsets. Among other developers, the outlet points to the experience of Virtual Desktop creator Guy Godin. In 2019, he added a feature to his app that allowed Oculus Quest owners to stream PC games to their headsets. Meta, then known as Facebook, reportedly threatened to delist the app if Godin didn’t remove the feature. That same year, the company released Oculus Link, a feature that allows Quest users to connect the headset to their PC via a USB-C cable.

It’s unclear how close the FTC may be to filing formal charges against Meta. The agency declined to comment on the matter for Bloomberg. However, what is clear is that Meta is firmly in the FTC’s crosshairs over its various acquisitions. In December, The Information reported the agency had opened a probe into its proposed $400 million deal to buy Supernatural studio Within. Separately, this week a federal judge allowed the FTC to proceed with an amended antitrust lawsuit that seeks to undo the company’s acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram.

New players will be able to purchase digital copies of Final Fantasy XIV again starting on January 25th, the game's director and producer Naoki Yoshida has announced in a lengthy post. Square Enix suspended the game's physical and digital sales in mid-December last year, because it was doing too well for what the company could handle at the time. People have had to wait hours to get in when they try to play at peak times, because the "dense concentration of play hours... far exceed [the game's] server capacity." Unfortunately, the developer wasn't able to add more servers before the Endwalker expansion was released due to the global semiconductor shortage. 

In his post, Yoshida explained the steps the company is taking to address the game's high levels of congestion. To start with, Square Enix is bringing its Oceanian Data Center online also on January 25th and opening five new Worlds from the start so that everyone in Oceania can transfer over for a better experience. The world transfer service is currently suspended, but it will resume on January 26th — further, those transferring to the new Oceanian Worlds will be able to do so for free. 

Yoshida has also revealed that Square Enix has been working on expanding its Japanese, European and North American data centers. The company explained that due to the global semiconductor shortage, it took some time to procure the needed components to be able to bring them online. In fact, it has to establish the new data centers in phases, because it's still having a tough time securing the necessary server equipment. 

For North America, the first phase of the expansion will happen sometime in August 2022, and it will see four new Worlds go online. The second phase will be implemented in the summer of 2023 and will open four more Worlds. For Japan, the developer plans to add one more logical data center to the current three in order to lower the number of Worlds for each of them. The European expansion will also happen in two phases, the first of which is scheduled for July 2022 and will bring four new Worlds online. In the summer of 2023, Square Enix will establish one new logical data center with eight new Worlds in Europe. 

"Once again, I wish to apologize for the delays to server expansion caused by the global semiconductor shortage," Yoshida wrote. He also asked for players' understanding in resuming sales of the game, even though some may consider the decision to be premature. Square Enix will monitor server stability following the resumption of sales and could restart free trials if everything goes well. However, in case servers "continue to experience extreme levels of congestion" despite all the steps it's taking, the developer may consider suspending digital sales once again. 

It’s no secret Meta employs contract laborers to do much of the hard work of enforcing its content moderation policies. And despite assisting one of the most valuable companies in the world, those workers have frequently complained of their jobs involving poor compensation and anxiety-inducing work. Some are now also saying they’re being treated worse than other workers.

According to BuzzFeed News, Genpact, a Meta subcontractor that has previously been accused of fostering poor working conditions, has required the Spanish-language moderators out of its Richardson, Texas office to report for in-person work since April 2021. Those workers have had to put their health at risk against both the delta and omicron coronavirus variants while their English-language counterparts have been allowed to cycle through the office in three-month rotations.

The news of the situation at Genpact comes just one week after workers at Accenture, another Meta subcontractor, successfully protested to force the company to scrap a requirement it had in place for hundreds of Facebook moderators to return to in-person work on January 24th.

Contractors who spoke to BuzzFeed News claim Genpact also holds them to unreasonable standards. They say they’re expected to make moderation decisions in about a minute while maintaining an 85 percent accuracy rate. Complicating everything is the fact that Meta reportedly doesn’t disseminate guidelines on how to apply Facebook’s Community Standards in a language other than English, leaving those workers in a situation where they’re forced to first translate that guidance before applying it. 

And there’s the scale of the problem the team has to tackle. Genpact’s Spanish-language moderation team is named after Mexico but in addition to moderating content posted by people living in the North American country, they’re also responsible for Facebook and Instagram posts from Spanish-speaking users in most Latin American countries as well. In Mexico alone, Facebook has more than 84 million users. By contrast, the Genpact Mexican market team consists of approximately 50 individuals.

“We use the combination of technology and people to keep content that breaks our rules off of our platform, and while AI has made progress in this space, people are a key part of our safety efforts,” a Meta spokesperson told Engadget. “We know these jobs can be difficult, which is why we work closely with our partners to constantly evaluate how to best support these teams.”

The Federal Communications Commission is the next US regulator hoping to hold companies more accountable for data breaches. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has shared a rulemaking proposal that would introduce stricter requirements for data breach reporting. Most notably, the new rules would require notifications for customers affected by "inadvertent" breaches — companies that leave data exposed would have to be just as communicative as victims of cyberattacks.

The requirements would also scrap a mandatory one-week waiting period for notifying customers. Carriers, meanwhile, would have to disclose reportable breaches to the FCC in addition to the FBI and Secret Service.

Rosenworcel argued the tougher rules were necessary to account for the "evolving nature" of breaches and the risks they posed to victims. People ought to be protected against larger and more frequent incidents, the FCC chair said — that is, regulations need to catch up with reality.

The FCC didn't say when the proposal might come up for a vote, although the FCC's next open meeting is slated for January 27th. There's no guarantee the Commission will greenlight the new requirements. It won't be surprising if the rulemaking moves forward, however. While companies are now more likely to disclose breaches, there have been multiple high-profile incidents where those firms took too long to alert customers or didn't notify them at all. The new measures could cut that wait time, giving people a better chance of securing their data and preventing fraud.

WFH didn’t just mean working from home. For those with the drive, it also stood for workouts from home. Many companies boomed as they adjusted to many of us shifting our training and exercise from gym to living room / spare room / that corner of the bedroom. Now, the pendulum is swinging back as some gyms tentatively reopen, and we return to the squat rack that didn’t quite fit into our tiny studio apartment. But that won’t stop fitness companies from introducing new blends of gear with tech tricks, hoping you’ll be willing to upgrade your gear.

NordicTrack’s Adjustable Dumbbells can connect to any Amazon Alexa-capable third-party device to quickly adjust the weight from 5lbs to 50lbs (in 5lb increments) with just your voice. The voice assistant, sadly, won’t cajole you into a few extra reps.

There’s a subscription training service to go along with the $429 dumbbells — available now — but it’s thankfully not required.

— Mat Smith

'Horizon Forbidden West' may have leaked a month early

Another spoiler minefield.

Sony

Horizon Forbidden West is one of the most-anticipated games coming to PS5. But just over a month before the action RPG arrives on February 18th, it appears an unfinished version of the game has leaked. It’s another problem for Sony. Months before The Last of Us Part II was released, a large portion of the game, including cutscenes with major story spoilers, leaked online.

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China's lunar probe finds on-site evidence of water on the Moon's surface

NASA had previously remotely confirmed the presence of the substance.

China Daily CDIC / reuters

China’s Chang’e-5 lunar lander has found water on the surface of the Moon, marking the first-ever time scientists have found on-site evidence of the substance on Earth’s satellite. Chinese researchers claim the lander detected signs of water molecules or hydroxyl, a close chemical cousin of H2O.

Chinese scientists believe most of the molecules came to the Moon through a process called solar wind implantation. Charged particles from the sun drove hydrogen atoms to the lunar surface where they later bonded with oxygen to form water and hydroxyl. The study builds on findings NASA published in 2018 when it found evidence of water on the sunlit surfaces of the Moon using an airborne infrared telescope.

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LAPD fired two officers who ignored robbers to play 'Pokémon Go'

To catch a Snorlax.

The LAPD has fired two police officers for ignoring a robbery on April 15th, 2017, deciding instead to play Pokémon Go. Rather than respond to a radio call demanding backup for a theft at Macy's in the Crenshaw Mall, the officers reportedly spent the next 20 minutes driving around to catch a Snorlax.

Lozano and Mitchell denied playing Pokémon Go and insisted they were only “having a conversation” about the game, but the in-car camera revealed they discussed the robbery call and chose to ignore it. Another officer also witnessed the cruiser leave the area after the call.

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The Associated Press will turn its photojournalism into NFTs

It will launch on January 31st.

The Associated Press (AP) will start selling its "award-winning contemporary and historic photojournalism" as non-fungible tokens on January 31st. The news agency teamed up with blockchain technology provider Xooa to develop a marketplace for its NFTs, which will debut with an initial collection it will release after opening.

AP's initial collection includes digitally enhanced Pulitzer Prize-winning images across categories such as space, climate and war. Each one will include the image's original metadata that shows its location, the time and date it was taken and the equipment and settings the photographer used for the shot.

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The biggest news stories you might have missed

A Nintendo Switch Online and microSD bundle is half off on Amazon

Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike steps down as CEO

Roku offers easy access to live TV with a new hub

Uber no longer supports ride-hailing via the Apple Watch

'Wordle' clones are taking over the App Store

Rapid COVID tests will soon be fully covered by insurance in the US

GM recognizes California's authority to set its own vehicle emissions standards

'Attack on Titan' gear is coming to 'Call of Duty'

'Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection' heads to Nintendo Switch on February 17th

The early Pokémon Go frenzy apparently led to poor choices from two police officers. As Axios' Stephen Totilo and BBC News report, the LAPD is now known to have fired officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell for ignoring a robbery on April 15th, 2017 to play Niantic's augmented reality blockbuster. Rather than respond to a radio call demanding backup for a theft at Macy's in the Crenshaw Mall, the policemen reportedly spent the next 20 minutes driving around to catch a Snorlax (an uncommon find in the game) and a Togetic.

Lozano and Mitchell denied playing Pokémon Go and insisted they were only "having a conversation" about the game, but the in-car camera revealed they discussed the robbery call and chose to ignore it. Another officer also witnessed the cruiser leave the area after the call. The details came to light when the ex-cops lost an appeal that would have tossed out the damning footage over alleged rights violations.

The incident came months after Niantic started discouraging drivers from playing, and it's safe to say moments like this are less likely when Pokémon Go demand has cooled down. Still, this highlights the dangers of both AR metaverses and addictive gameplay — it can be all too tempting to shirk real-life duties when the virtual world beckons.

January has arrived, and with it, new entries to Netgear’s long list of wireless routers for both gamers and professionals. This year, the major talking point is likely to be the new Nighthawk RAXE300, which sits a little below the flagship RAXE500 in the company’s high-end line. The RAXE300 offers a combined top WiFi speed of 7.8Gbps, plus the benefit of being able to leverage the 6GHz band for faster connectivity. Netgear promises that you’ll get around 2,500 square feet of coverage from the device, plus enough gigabit ethernet ports to connect the rest of your smart home to.

At the same time, Netgear wanted to take the opportunity to remind the world of the Orbi 5G WiFi 6 Mesh NBK752, which was released late last year. It’s the first 5G tri-band mesh system, which can leverage the 5G modem inside for always-on mobile broadband or as a backup should a standard wired connection fail. Not to mention that, as like many of Netgear’s tri-band products, the backhaul network between the router and its satellite(s) should ensure a stronger, more reliable connection.

Rounding out the list is the Orbi Pro, SXK50, the company’s new mid-range device for small businesses and professional types working from home. It’s a little behind the top-tier SK80, with a cap of 75 concurrent devices, down from 100 for the flagship, as well as a slightly slower WiFi 6 speed, but it’s likely to be an ideal option for some businesses looking for faster and more reliable connectivity.

Netgear

Rounding out the announcements for this year is Game Booster, a paid-for add-on service for Orbi users so that they cam get the same lag-banishing features found in the Nighthawk routers. That includes the ability to track pings and pick the fastest server for specific online games, as well as a built-in ad-and-tracking blocker. Unfortunately, such features will set you back $50 per year after a 30-day free trial, and only if you currently own the Orbi series 750, 850 and 960.

The Netgear Nighthawk RAXE300 will be available in the first quarter of 2022, and will set you back $400, while the Orbi 5G is already available, priced at $1,099.99. The Orbi Pro SXK50, meanwhile, will be available in the US at some point in January 2022, and can be pre-ordered now for $450.

Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here!

AT&T and Verizon aren't delaying their 5G expansions any further after all. Bloombergnotes the two carriers' CEOs have issued a joint letter rejecting a request from the FAA and Transportation Department to stall their C-band service rollouts beyond January 5th to address concerns of interference with aircraft systems. The companies argued that the government's proposed plan would effectively give oversight of the network expansions to the FAA for an "undetermined number of months or years," and wouldn't cover rivals like T-Mobile.

The move would represent an "irresponsible abdication" of network control, the CEOs said. They also believed honoring the request would be to the "detriment" of customers.

Instead, AT&T and Verizon tried to negotiate a compromise. They vowed not to deploy C-band 5G towers near some airports for six months, but only so long as the aviation industry and regulators didn't do more to halt C-band deployments. American transportation agencies had asked on December 31st for a general delay no longer than two weeks, but called for a gradual deployment of service near "priority" airports through March to safeguard important runways.

It's not clear how the FAA and Transportation Department will respond. The rejection isn't shocking, mind you. C-band service promises to deliver more of the long-touted speed advantages of 5G without the short range and poor indoor service of millimeter wave technology. It could also add capacity to keep 5G networks running smoothly as more users upgrade their devices. However, officials and the aviation industry have a lot to lose as well —they're worried C-band 5G could disrupt flights and put passengers at risk. You might not see either side capitulate quickly.