Say hello to Ars Technica version 5.5!

Welcome to the new and improved Ars Technica! We've taken much of the feedback received since our January launch of v5.0, and we've talked to subscribers in the Editorial Roundtable to create what we believe is the best reading experience for you. Most of the changes are fairly obvious, but I want to walk through them with you and explain how they work and why we've made them.

The first change that meets the eye is the removal of the three large promotional boxes at the top of the page. Testing and feedback routinely told us two things: many people did not understand what was up there and why, and others felt like the size of it just led to a kind of banner blindness. We have made two adjustments to how we promote stories. From now on, only feature articles (typically multipage articles) will receive special promotion, and that promotion will happen at the top right of the front page in the new features box. It will hold the last 10 features that you can scroll back through in chronological order. By default it will scroll automatically, but that can be paused, and it will remember your preference. Of course, you will be able to easily spot features in the listing of content on the front page as well. Features will now have a slightly larger image and a feature badge, which helps them to stand out. We received a lot of complaints that it was easy to miss our features. Now with the scrolling feature box and with these new listings, we believe it will be much better.  Read more about our new front page redesign.

Top stories: Dec 11 - 18, 2009

Infinite Loop A review of the iMac 27" Core 2 Duo: yep, it's still an iMac by Jacqui Cheng The new 27" iMac is certainly a sight to be seen. Its huge screen and subtle feature improvements make it an attractive addition to Apple's lineup, but is it actually good? Ars pokes around to find out. Read More

Infinite Loop An introduction to 3D on the Mac, Part I: models & textures by Dave Girard If you're just getting into 3D rendering on the Mac and are overwhelmed by the number of packages and approaches, Ars is here to help. We take you step-by-step through rendering and texturing a 3D model, with videos and advice on tools and techniques. Read More

One Microsoft Way This time, it's different: Windows Server 2008 R2 in-depth by Warren Rumak Windows Server 2008 R2 may sound a lot like its predecessor, but in many substantial ways it's a brand new product, despite the simple "R2" tacked on the end. Ars takes a detailed look at all the new stuff that's hidden under that "R2" moniker. Read More

Nobel Intent Watery "Super Earth" spotted 40 light years from us by John Timmer The latest exoplanet find is hot and heavy, but probably has liquid water, and resides close enough to Earth that we're likely to be able to characterize its atmosphere using existing observatories. Read More

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