Industry
The Busy Bar Is a Gadget to Get People to Leave You Alone
Flipper Devices, a company that built a banned hacking device, now wants to hack your attention span. Focus and productivity apps abound, all to help you stave off the many distractions coming from your phone. Digital well-being tools can silence notifications, limit apps like TikTok and Instagram, and help you focus on the task at hand. But you can also turn them off very easily as soon as you feel like you haven't endlessly scrolled enough. This is where Flipper's Busy Bar comes in, a hardware clock with an LED screen that doubles as a clock and a dedicated timer.
The Pink Planet has a salty secret
More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Discovered in 2013, the Pink Planet orbits a sun-like star located 57 light-years from Earth. At roughly 25 times the mass of Jupiter, it sits near the fuzzy boundary between giant planets and brown dwarfs. So, astronomers refer to it as a "planetary-mass companion," meaning that it's a planet-sized object orbiting a star. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week.
The 200 lie: Why nobody needs an expensive gaming mouse
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Then why not go for the latest flagship mouse with 50,000 DPI! Add to that an 8,000 Hz polling rate, third-generation optical switches, and a whole host of buzzwords that sound like they've come straight out of a NASA lab, a World Cup, or an influencer's lifestyle. The most important question isn't even being asked amidst all this consumer voodoo: who actually needs this? Fifteen or twenty years ago, expensive gaming mice really were a noticeable upgrade. Back then, many standard devices still had imprecise sensors, suffered from "angle snapping" (unintended line straightening), or simply refused to work at all during fast movements - a sure-fire virtual death sentence for ambitious gamers.
The Download: metric weaknesses and AI elephant warnings
Plus: The US has allowed Anthropic to release Mythos 5 to "trusted" orgs. There are plenty of useful things a metric can reveal. There are even more that it can obscure or corrupt. Like a lot of people bitten by the self-quantifying bug, I started gathering personal data to pursue a nebulous collection of goals and desires. I wanted to feel better physically and emotionally, get outside more, and bring order to the messiness and uncertainty of my daily existence. But external metrics and data can never capture what's truly important.
'A very good gadget': taking delivery from the robots of Milton Keynes
The Starship Technologies six-wheelers have been roaming the streets of the city for more than eight years. The Starship Technologies six-wheelers have been roaming the streets of the city for more than eight years. D riving down an endless string of identical roundabouts in the dead heat with hardly a human in sight, you see robots roving around on grassy pavements, whizzing past obstacles to hurriedly reach their final destination. The robots aren't a new arrival to the Buckinghamshire city, the UK's largest new town and a longtime marvel for city planning enthusiasts fascinated by its American-influenced layout and postwar history. They've roamed its streets since 2018 - and could soon be coming to a town or city near you.
'Free' World Cup streams are spreading scams, not soccer
PCWorld reports that'free' World Cup streaming sites are often scams delivering malicious ads, malware, and unwanted subscriptions instead of legitimate soccer content. Cybercriminals exploit these fake streams to trick users into clicking hidden malicious links, while legitimate alternatives include official streaming trials and reputable international services. Users should verify free services by checking for clear business models, established company histories, and proper terms of service before accessing any content.
Ford rehires human engineers after AI fails to match quality checks
Ford says it has hired back some human engineers after AI failed to match their skills and experience. In a bid to reap the benefits of the tech, which developers claim can cut costs and boost productivity, the US carmaker adopted it across some parts of its operations including for quality checks. But, according to Bloomberg, external, its executives said the firm has rehired more than 300 veteran quality inspectors in recent years to make up for the pitfalls of automated systems. Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it's only as good as the information you use to train it, Charles Poon, vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, told reporters. Over prior years, we didn't pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers that have been with us through many product cycles, he said.
Drone relayers off: Ukraine's diplomatic triumph over Russia ally Belarus
Is the war entering a new phase? It was, perhaps, Ukraine's quietest victory over Russia's oldest and closest ally. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged neighbouring Belarus to shut down four Moscow-installed relay stations that help guide Russian drone attacks on Ukraine. The stations - originally cellular communication towers - relay signals for Russian drone operators and allow their unmanned aircraft to exchange information with each other and fly deep into western Ukraine, which has few drone interceptors and NATO-supplied air defence systems. The relayers did "make the signal stronger" and the Russian attacks "more precise", Andriy Pronin, one of the pioneers of drone warfare in Ukraine, told Al Jazeera.
Reform panel calls for easing data center building standards
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi emphasized that the government will promote reforms of regulations and systems that fit the artificial intelligence era. The government's regulatory reform panel Monday called for easing building standards for data centers amid the rapid development of artificial intelligence. In response, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi emphasized that the government will promote reforms of regulations and systems that fit the AI era. Lithium-ion batteries, crucial for data centers' stable operation, are regarded as hazardous materials under the fire service law and the building standards law, making it difficult to install them in sufficient numbers. The panel's proposal urged the government to exclude lithium-ion batteries from the restrictions by introducing safety standards for batteries. It also mentioned the type of AI that control robots that walk, seen as helpful in covering labor shortages in logistics, construction and elderly care services.