There’s no shortage of reasons to stay off the Meta ecosystem, which includes Facebook and Instagram, but there are some places where WhatsApp remains the main form of text-based communication. The app is a great alternative to SMS, since it offers end-to-end encryption and was one of the go-to methods to send uncompressed photos and videos between iPhone and Android users before Apple adopted RCS. Even though Facebook, which later rebranded to Meta, acquired WhatsApp in 2014, it doesn’t require a Facebook or Instagram account to get on WhatsApp — just a working phone number.

How to create a WhatsApp account without Facebook or Instagram

To start, you need to download WhatsApp on your smartphone. Once you open the app, you can start the registration process by entering a working phone number. After entering your phone number, you’ll receive a unique six-digit code that will complete the registration process. From there, you can sort through your contacts on your attached smartphone to build out your WhatsApp network, but you won’t have to involve Facebook or Instagram at any point.

Alternatively, you can request a voice call to deliver the code instead. Either way, once you complete the registration process, you have a WhatsApp account that’s not tied to a Facebook or Instagram account.

How to link WhatsApp to other Meta accounts 

If you change your mind and want more crossover between your Meta apps, you can go into the app’s Settings panel to change that. In Settings, you can find the Accounts Center option with the Meta badge on it. Once you hit it, you’ll see options to “Add Facebook account” and “Add Instagram account.” Linking these accounts means Meta can offer more personalized experiences across the platforms because of the personal data that’s now interconnected.

You can always remove your WhatsApp account from Meta’s Account Center by going back into the same Settings panel. However, any previously combined info will stay combined, but Meta will stop combining any personal data after you remove the account.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/how-to-set-up-a-whatsapp-account-without-facebook-or-instagram-210024705.html?src=rss

NPR looks at the “high-quality, climate-friendly apartments” in Vienna, asking if it’s a model for addressing both climate change and the housing crisis.
About half the city’s 2 million people live in the widespread (and government-supported) apartments, with solar panels on top and very thick, insulated walls that reduce the need for heating and cooling. (One resident tells NPR they don’t even need an air conditioner because “It’s not cold in winter times. It’s not hot in summer times.”)

Vienna council member Nina Abrahamczik, who heads the climate and environment committee, says as the city transitions all of its buildings off planet-heating fossil fuels, they’re starting with the roughly 420,000 housing units they already own or subsidize…. As Vienna makes an aggressive push to completely move away from climate-polluting natural gas by 2040, it’s starting with much of this social housing, says Jürgen Czernohorszky, executive city councilor responsible for climate and environment. City-owned buildings are now switching from gas to massive electric heat pumps, and to geothermal, which involves probing into the ground to heat homes. Another massive geothermal project that drills even deeper into the earth to heat homes is also underway.
The city is also powering housing with solar energy. As of a year and a half ago, Vienna mandates all new buildings and building extensions to have rooftop solar. And Vienna’s older apartment buildings are getting climate retrofits, says Veronika Iwanowski, spokesperson for Vienna’s municipal housing company, Wiener Wohnen. That includes new insulation, doors and windows to prevent the city’s wind from getting in the cracks. The increase in energy efficiency and switching from gas to renewables doesn’t just have climate benefits from cutting fossil fuel use. It also means housing residents are paying less on electric bills…
With city-subsidized housing, housing developers can compete to get land and low-interest loans from the city. Officials say those competitions are a critical lever for climate action. “As we can control the contents of the competitions, we try to make them fit to the main goals of the city,” says Kurt Hofstetter, city planner for Vienna, “which is of course also ecological….” Now the housing judges give out points for things like increased energy efficiency, green roofs and sustainable building materials… Now the climate innovations in subsidized housing are inspiring the private market as well, Hofstetter says…
The article notes that most of the city’s funding is provided in the form of low-interest loans, according to a researcher at the Austrian Federation of Limited-Profit Housing Associations. (And the average social housing rents are about $700 for a large one-bedroom apartment, says Gerald Kössl, researcher at the Austrian Federation of Limited-Profit Housing Associations.)

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Most of us have seen a nature documentary or two (or three) at some point in our lives, so it’s a familiar format: sweeping majestic footage of impressively regal animals accompanied by reverently high-toned narration (preferably with a tony British accent). Underdogs, a new docuseries from National Geographic, takes a decidedly different and unconventional approach. Narrated by with hilarious irreverence by Ryan Reynolds, the five-part series highlights nature’s less cool and majestic creatures: the outcasts and benchwarmers, more noteworthy for their “unconventional hygiene choices” and “unsavory courtship rituals.” It’s like The Suicide Squad or Thunderbolts*, except these creatures actually exist.

Per the official premise, “Underdogs features a range of never-before-filmed scenes, including the first time a film crew has ever entered a special cave in New Zealand—a huge cavern that glows brighter than a bachelor pad under a black light thanks to the glowing butts of millions of mucus-coated grubs. All over the world, overlooked superstars like this are out there 24/7, giving it maximum effort and keeping the natural world in working order for all those showboating polar bears, sharks and gorillas.” It’s rated PG-13 thanks to the odd bit of scatalogical humor and shots of Nature Sexy Time

Each of the five episodes is built around a specific genre. “Superheroes” highlights the surprising superpowers of the honey badger, pistol shrimp, and the invisible glass frog, among others, augmented with comic book graphics; “Sexy Beasts” focuses on bizarre mating habits and follows the format of a romantic advice column; “Terrible Parents” highlights nature’s worst practices, following the outline of a parenting guide; “Total Grossout” is exactly what it sounds like; and “The Unusual Suspects” is a heist tale, documenting the supposed efforts of a macaque to put together the ultimate team of masters of deception and disguise (an inside man, a decoy, a fall guy, etc.).  Green Day even wrote and recorded a special theme song for the opening credits.

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A revealing demonstration with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving mode is raising concerns about whether fully autonomous cars are ready to hit the streets. Tesla has reportedly pushed back the rollout of its upcoming all-electric, fully autonomous car called the Cybercab, while a recent demonstration in Austin, Texas showed a Tesla Model Y running through a school bus’ flashing lights and stop signs, and hitting child-size mannequins. The tests were conducted by The Dawn Project, along with Tesla Takedown and ResistAustin, and showed Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software repeating the same mistake eight times.

It’s worth noting that Tesla’s autonomous driving feature is formally known as Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and “requires a fully attentive driver and will display a series of escalating warnings requiring driver response.” Tesla even has a warning that says, “failure to follow these instructions could cause damage, serious injury or death.” However, it’s not the first time that Tesla’s FSD software has found itself in hot water. The Dawn Project, whose founder Dan O’Dowd is the CEO of a company that offers competing automated driving system software, previously took out ads warning about the dangers of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving and how it would fail to yield around school buses. In April 2024, a Model S using Full Self-Driving was involved in a crash in Washington, where a motorcyclist died.

With anticipation building up for an eventual Cybercab rollout on June 22, the company’s CEO posted some additional details on X. According to Elon Musk, Tesla is “being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift.” Beyond that, Musk also posted that the “first Tesla that drives itself from factory end of line all the way to a customer house is June 28.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/tesla-blows-past-stopped-school-bus-and-hits-kid-sized-dummies-in-full-self-driving-tests-183756251.html?src=rss

A chain of stores called Home Bargains installed facial recognition software to spot returning shoplifters. Unfortunately, “Facewatch” made a mistake.
“We acknowledge and understand how distressing this experience must have been,” an anonymous Facewatch spokesperson tells the BBC, adding that the store using their technology “has since undertaken additional staff training.”

A woman was accused by a store manager of stealing about £10 (about $13) worth of items (“Everyone was looking at me”). And then it happened again at another store when she was shopping with her 81-year-old mother on June 4th:

“As soon as I stepped my foot over the threshold of the door, they were radioing each other and they all surrounded me and were like ‘you need to leave the store’,” she said. “My heart sunk and I was anxious and bothered for my mum as well because she was stressed….”
It was only after repeated emails to both Facewatch and Home Bargains that she eventually found there had been an allegation of theft of about £10 worth of toilet rolls on 8 May. Her picture had somehow been circulated to local stores alerting them that they should not allow her entry. Ms. Horan said she checked her bank account to confirm she had indeed paid for the items before Facewatch eventually responded to say a review of the incident showed she had not stolen anything. “Because I was persistent I finally got somewhere but it wasn’t easy, it was really stressful,” she said. “My anxiety was really bad — it really played with my mind, questioning what I’ve done for days. I felt anxious and sick. My stomach was turning for a week.”
In one email from Facewatch seen by the BBC, the firm told Ms Horan it “relies on information submitted by stores” and the Home Bargains branches involved had since been “suspended from using the Facewatch system”. Madeleine Stone, senior advocacy officer at the civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said they had been contacted by more than 35 people who have complained of being wrongly placed on facial recognition watchlists.

“They’re being wrongly flagged as criminals,” Ms Stone said.
“They’ve given no due process, kicked out of stores,” adds the senior advocacy officer. “This is having a really serious impact.” The group is now calling for the technology to be banned. “Historically in Britain, we have a history that you are innocent until proven guilty but when an algorithm, a camera and a facial recognition system gets involved, you are guilty.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said: “While commercial facial recognition technology is legal in the UK, its use must comply with strict data protection laws. Organisations must process biometric data fairly, lawfully and transparently, ensuring usage is necessary and proportionate.

“No one should find themselves in this situation.”

Thanks to alanw (Slashdot reader #1,822) for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The state of New York is “asking companies to disclose whether AI is the reason for their layoffs,” reports Entrepreneur:
The move applies to New York State’s existing Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) system and took effect in March, Bloomberg reported. New York is the first state in the U.S. to add the disclosure, which could help regulators understand AI’s effects on the labor market.

The change takes the form of a checkbox added to a form employers fill out at least 90 days before a mass layoff or plant closure through the WARN system. Companies have to select whether “technological innovation or automation” is a reason for job cuts. If they choose that option, they are directed to a second menu where they are asked to name the specific technology responsible for layoffs, like AI or robots.

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It turns out that region-locking your games makes it harder to sell more copies. First discovered by Wario64, Sony has lifted regional restrictions for several of its titles that are available to play on PC through Steam. Sony hasn’t officially announced the removal of these region locks, nor the reason why, but God of War Ragnarok, The Last of Us Part II Remastered, Spider-Man 2, and the hit co-op shooter Helldivers 2 can be purchased once again in 177 countries that were previously prohibited, as seen in database changelogs.

To understand why Sony decided to limit sales of its games in certain countries, we have to revisit when the video game publisher announced it would require Helldivers 2 PC players to link their Steam accounts to the PlayStation Network. This controversial decision prohibited players in countries that didn’t have access to the PSN, so Sony also removed Helldivers 2 from being on sale in those locations. The publisher quickly backtracked on that move, even later removing the PSN requirements for other titles like Spider-Man 2.

More recently, the PC release of Stellar Blade on June 11 resurfaced Sony’s PSN login requirement debacle. The game’s developer, Shift Up, was able to work with Sony to loosen restrictions and make a PSN login optional, allowing for an explosive launch where the game saw a peak of nearly 200,000 players in its opening week. Now, PC gamers across the world can play Stellar Blade and Helldivers 2 without needing a PSN account. However, there are still some Sony titles on Steam that are heavily restricted, like Ghost of Tsushima and Until Dawn.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-unlocks-regional-restrictions-for-some-pc-games-in-more-than-100-countries-162228948.html?src=rss

“Cooper Taylor is only 17 years old, but he’s already trying to revolutionize the drone industry,” writes Business Insider:

His design makes the drone more efficient, customizable, and less expensive to construct, he says. He’s built six prototypes, 3D printing every piece of hardware, programming the software, and even soldering the control circuit board. He says building his drone cost one-fifth of the price of buying a comparable machine, which sells for several thousand dollars. Taylor told Business Insider he hopes that “if you’re a first responder or a researcher or an everyday problem solver, you can have access to this type of drone.”

His innovation won him an $8,000 scholarship in April at the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, funded by the Defense Department. Then, on May 16, he received an even bigger scholarship of $15,000 from the US Navy, which he won after presenting his research at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair…

It all started when Taylor’s little sister got a drone, and he was disappointed to see that it could fly for only about 30 minutes before running out of power. He did some research and found that a vertical take-off and landing, or VTOL, drone would last longer. This type of drone combines the multi-rotor helicopter style with the fixed wings of an airplane, making it extremely versatile. It lifts off as a helicopter, then transitions into plane mode. That way, it can fly farther than rotors alone could take it, which was the drawback to Taylor’s sister’s drone. Unlike a plane-style drone, though, it doesn’t need a runway, and it can hover with its helicopter rotors.
Taylor designed a motor “that could start out helicopter-style for liftoff, then tilt back to become an airplane-style motor,” according to the article.
And now this summer he’ll be “working on a different drone project through a program with the Reliable Autonomous Systems Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”

Thanks to Slashdot reader Agnapot for sharing the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

America’s federal government is building a website and API called ai.gov to “accelerate government innovation with AI”, according to an early version spotted by 404 Media that was posted on GitHub by the U.S. government’s General Services Administration.

That site “is supposed to launch on July 4,” according to 404 Media’s report, “and will include an analytics feature that shows how much a specific government team is using AI…”
AI.gov appears to be an early step toward pushing AI tools into agencies across the government, code published on Github shows….
The early version of the page suggests that its API will integrate with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic products. But code for the API shows they are also working on integrating with Amazon Web Services’ Bedrock and Meta’s LLaMA. The page suggests it will also have an AI-powered chatbot, though it doesn’t explain what it will do… Currently, AI.gov redirects to whitehouse.gov. The demo website is linked to from Github (archive here) and is hosted on cloud.gov on what appears to be a staging environment. The text on the page does not show up on other websites, suggesting that it is not generic placeholder text…

In February, 404 Media obtained leaked audio from a meeting in which [the director of the GSA’s Technology Transformation Services] told his team they would be creating “AI coding agents” that would write software across the entire government, and said he wanted to use AI to analyze government contracts.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It’s the technology “Google tried (and failed at) more than a decade ago,” writes CNN. (And Meta and Amazon have also previously tried releasing glasses with cameras, speakers and voice assistants.)
Yet this week Snap announced that “it’s building AI-equipped eyewear to be released in 2026.”

Why the “renewed buzz”? CNN sees two factors:
– Smartphones “are no longer exciting enough to entice users to upgrade often.”
– “A desire to capitalize on AI by building new hardware around it.”
Advancements in AI could make them far more useful than the first time around. Emerging AI models can process images, video and speech simultaneously, answer complicated requests and respond conversationally… And market research indicates the interest will be there this time. The smart glasses market is estimated to grow from 3.3 million units shipped in 2024 to nearly 13 million by 2026, according to ABI Research. The International Data Corporation projects the market for smart glasses like those made by Meta will grow from 8.8 in 2025 to nearly 14 million in 2026….

Apple is also said to be working on smart glasses to be released next year that would compete directly with Meta’s, according to Bloomberg. Amazon’s head of devices and services Panos Panay also didn’t rule out the possibility of camera-equipped Alexa glasses similar to those offered by Meta in a February CNN interview. “But I think you can imagine, there’s going to be a whole slew of AI devices that are coming,” he said in February.”

More than two million Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses have been sold since their launch in 2023, the article points out. But besides privacy concerns, “Perhaps the biggest challenge will be convincing consumers that they need yet another tech device in their life, particularly those who don’t need prescription glasses. The products need to be worth wearing on people’s faces all day.”
But still, “Many in the industry believe that the smartphone will eventually be replaced by glasses or something similar to it,” says Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager covering wearable devices for market research firm IDC.
“It’s not going to happen today. It’s going to happen many years from now, and all these companies want to make sure that they’re not going to miss out on that change.”

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The Federal Aviation Administration may soon levy fees on companies seeking launch and reentry licenses, a new tack in the push to give the agency the resources it needs to keep up with the rapidly growing commercial space industry.

The text of a budget reconciliation bill released by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) last week calls for the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, known as AST, to begin charging licensing fees to space companies next year. The fees would phase in over eight years, after which the FAA would adjust them to keep pace with inflation. The money would go into a trust fund to help pay for the operating costs of the FAA’s commercial space office.

The bill released by Cruz’s office last week covers federal agencies under the oversight of the Senate Commerce Committee, which he chairs. These agencies include the FAA and NASA. Ars recently covered Cruz’s proposals for NASA to keep the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and Gateway lunar space station alive, while the Trump administration aims to cancel Gateway and end the SLS and Orion programs after two crew missions to the Moon.

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