Tesla has stopped using the term “Autopilot” to sell its cars in California, thereby avoiding a 30-day sales and manufacturing ban in the state. If you’ll recall, a California administrative law judge ruled in December that the automaker misled consumers by using the terms “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving.” The judge recommended the suspension, but the California DMV gave Tesla 60 days to remove any untrue and misleading language in its marketing materials. In its announcement, the DMV said Tesla has taken corrective action and has stopped using Autopilot for marketing. Prior to that, the automaker has already clarified that driver supervision is still needed with Full Self-Driving.

The judge was ruling on a complaint the DMV made back in 2022, wherein the agency accused Tesla of making and disseminating misleading statements. It argued that starting in May 2021, Tesla used deceptive marketing materials with the labels “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving Capability,” as well as claimed that the “system is designed to be able to conduct short and long-distance trips with no action required by the person in the driver’s seat.” In reality, the vehicles equipped with those features “could not at the time of those advertisements, and cannot now, operate as autonomous vehicles,” the DMV said.

A ban in California could have had a huge effect on the company, seeing as the state accounts for nearly a third of its sales in the country. Tesla also recently announced that it will stop the production of its Model S and X cars to turn its Fremont, California factory where they were being manufactured into a space for the production of its Optimus humanoid robots. Tesla has huge plans for Optimus and intends to start selling the robot to the public by the end of 2027.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/tesla-stops-using-autopilot-to-promote-its-evs-in-california-112533060.html?src=rss

Meta just announced a deal to buy “millions” of NVIDIA Blackwell and Rubin GPUs in a new long-term partnership. As part of that, the social media giant will deploy NVIDIA’s Confidential Computing for WhatsApp, “enabling AI-powered capabilities across the messaging platform while ensuring user data confidentiality and integrity.”

As part of the deal, Meta committed to using NVIDIA’s Confidential Computing for WhatsApp messaging to allow AI inside the app while guaranteeing user data confidentiality. That technology will let Meta secure data during computation, not just when it’s being shuttled to a server. It also allows software creators like Meta or third-party AI agent providers “to preserve their intellectual property,” NVIDIA wrote on a blog about the technology.  

Meta will also be the first to deploy NVIDIA’s Grace CPUs in a standalone way, instead of incorporating them with GPUs. They’re designed to run inference and agentic workloads when running in this fashion. Meta will also be using NVIDIA’s Spectrum-X Ethernet switches. 

Meta announced earlier this year that it would spend up to $135 billion on AI in 2026, so it’s not a surprise that a big chunk of that is going toward NVIDIA. However the numbers involved, likely in the “tens of billions” according to analysts, represent a significant expansion of the partnership between the two companies. Meta plans to build up to 30 data centers, including 26 in the US, by 2028 as part of a $600 billion commitment.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-will-run-ai-in-whatsapp-through-nvidias-confidential-computing-110002283.html?src=rss

In a small double-blind clinical trial, a single intravenous dose of DMT produced rapid and clinically meaningful reductions in symptoms of major depressive disorder within a week, with effects lasting up to three months in some patients. “Unlike psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide ( LSD), whose effects can last for hours, intravenous DMT has a half-life of around five minutes,” notes ScienceAlert. “Its psychedelic effects are correspondingly brief, potentially making it more practical to administer in clinical settings.” From the report: “A single dose of DMT with psychotherapeutic support produced a rapid, significant reduction in depressive symptoms, sustained up to three months,” writes a team led by neuroscientists David Erritzoe and Tommaso Barba of Imperial College London. […] They recruited 34 participants with major depression and divided them into two groups of 17 for a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

In the first stage of the trial, one group received an intravenous dose of DMT, while the other received an active placebo. Neither the researchers nor the participants were informed which participants received the DMT. The doses took around 10 minutes to administer, and a therapist sat with each participant to ensure comfort and safety while the psychedelic effects were active, remaining silent throughout the treatment. The treatment was generally well tolerated. Most side effects were mild to moderate, and included nausea, temporary anxiety, and pain at the injection site. No serious adverse events related to the treatment were reported, although brief increases in heart rate and blood pressure were observed immediately after dosing.

In the second, open-label stage, two weeks after the first dose, all participants were given the opportunity to receive a dose of DMT. Participants were assessed before and at intervals after each dose using the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale. Just a week after the first dose, participants who had received DMT had improved scores compared to the placebo group, and improvements were sustained during follow-up assessments.

Two weeks after the first dose, the participants who received DMT scored about seven points lower, on average, than those who received a placebo. On this commonly used clinical scale, a drop of that size is generally considered a meaningful reduction in symptom severity. There was no significant difference between patients who received one or two doses of DMT, suggesting a single dose may be sufficient. These effects persisted for up to three months, and some patients remained in remission for at least six months following the treatment. The findings have been published in Nature Medicine.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Longtime Slashdot reader walterbyrd shares a report from ABC News: In a study of nearly 28 million older Americans, long-term exposure to fine particle air pollution raised the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. That link held even after researchers accounted for common conditions like high blood pressure, stroke and depression. Fine particle air pollution, known as PM2.5, consists of tiny particles in the air that come from car exhaust, power plants, wildfires, and burning fuels, according to the American Lung Association. They are small enough to travel deep into the lungs and even reach the bloodstream.

The research, conducted at Emory University and published in PLOS Medicine, tracked health data over nearly two decades to explore whether air pollution harms the brain indirectly by causing high blood pressure or heart disease, which, in turn, leads to dementia. However, these “middleman” conditions accounted for less than 5% of the connection between pollution and Alzheimer’s, the research found. The researchers say this suggests that over 95% of the Alzheimer’s risk comes from the direct impact of breathing in dirty air, likely through inflammation or damage to brain cells. “The relationship between PM2.5 and AD [Alzheimer’s disease] has been shown to be pretty much linear,” said Kyle Steenland, a professor in the departments of environmental health and epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and senior author of the study. “The reason this is particularly important is that PM2.5 is known to be associated with high blood pressure, stroke and depression — all of which are associated with AD. So, from a prevention standpoint, simply treating these diseases will not get rid of the problem. We have to address exposure to PM2.5.”

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Agrochemical maker Bayer and attorneys for cancer patients announced a proposed $7.25 billion settlement Tuesday to resolve thousands of U.S. lawsuits alleging the company failed to warn people that its popular weedkiller Roundup could cause cancer. The proposed settlement comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to hear arguments in April on Bayer’s assertion that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of Roundup without a cancer warning should invalidate claims filed in state courts. That case would not be affected by the proposed settlement.

But the settlement would eliminate some of the risk from an eventual Supreme Court ruling. Patients would be assured of receiving settlement money even if the Supreme Court rules in Bayer’s favor. And Bayer would be protected from potentially larger costs if the high court rules against it. Germany-based Bayer, which acquired Roundup maker Monsanto in 2018, disputes the assertion that Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, can cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But the company has warned that mounting legal costs are threatening its ability to continue selling the product in U.S. agricultural markets. “Litigation uncertainly has plagued the company for years, and this settlement gives the company a road to closure,” Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said Tuesday. The proposed settlement could total up to $7.25 billion over 21 years and resolve most of the remaining U.S. lawsuits surrounding the cancer-related harms of Roundup. The report notes that more than 125,000 claims have been filed since 2015, and while many have already been settled, this deal aims to cover most outstanding and future claims tied to past exposure.

Individual payouts would vary widely based on exposure type, age at diagnosis, and cancer severity. Bayer can also cancel the deal if too many plaintiffs opt out.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

YouTube is experiencing an outage across the United States, with users in other countries like Canada, India, the Philippines, Australia and Russia also having problems with accessing the website. The issue seems to have started at around 8 PM Eastern time and reached 338,000 reports on Downdetector before starting to taper down. More users reported having issues accessing the app, but I personally lost access to the web homepage first.

As of 9:22 PM, users are still reporting being unable to access YouTube on Reddit. As of 9:33 PM, users are complaining that they still can’t access the service, though others say it’s back up for them. Some people are reporting partial restoration of service, with the homepage now being accessible but not seeing any recommended videos.

Downdetector also got thousands of reports of Google being down at around 8 PM Eastern time. As of 9:53 PM, Engadget Managing Editor Cherlynn Low reports that both YouTube and Google Home Assistant are still inaccessible for her. As of 10:12PM Eastern, Team YouTube posted on X that the issue has been completely fixed. While it didn’t say why YouTube went down, the team acknowledged the problem before 9PM and posted an update 20 minutes later that its recommendation system was having issues, even though its homepage was back.

Update, February 17, 2026, 10:27 PM ET: YouTube says the issue has been completely fixed.

Update, February 17, 2026, 10:08 PM ET: Updated with reports that certain Google services are also down for some users.

Update, February 17, 2026, 9:34 PM ET: Updated with reports from users.

Update, February 17, 2026, 9:26 PM ET: Updated to correct time of outage, added new countries where it’s out and added new reports of YouTube still being inaccessible.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/youtube-was-down-for-thousands-of-users-in-the-us-020718788.html?src=rss

YouTube is experiencing an outage across the United States, with users in other countries like Canada, India, the Philippines, Australia and Russia also having problems with accessing the website. The issue seems to have started at around 8 PM Eastern time and reached 338,000 reports on Downdetector before starting to taper down. More users reported having issues accessing the app, but I personally lost access to the web homepage first. As of 9:22 PM, users are still reporting being unable to access YouTube on Reddit. As of 9:33 PM, users are complaining that they still can’t access the service, though others say it’s back up for them.

Update, February 17, 2026, 9:34 PM ET: Updated with reports from users.

Update, February 17, 2026, 9:26 PM ET: Updated to correct time of outage, added new countries where it’s out and added new reports of YouTube still being inaccessible.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/youtube-is-down-for-thousands-of-users-in-the-us-020718165.html?src=rss

Anthropic has released Claude Sonnet 4.6, the first upgrade to its mid-tier AI model since version 4.5 arrived in September 2025. The new model features a “1M token context window” and delivers a “full upgrade of the model’s skills across coding, computer use, long-context reasoning, agent planning, knowledge work, and design.” From Anthropic: Sonnet 4.6 brings much-improved coding skills to more of our users. Improvements in consistency, instruction following, and more have made developers with early access prefer Sonnet 4.6 to its predecessor by a wide margin. They often even prefer it to our smartest model from November 2025, Claude Opus 4.5.

Performance that would have previously required reaching for an Opus-class model — including on real-world, economically valuable office tasks — is now available with Sonnet 4.6. The model also shows a major improvement in computer use skills compared to prior Sonnet models. The free tier now uses Sonnet 4.6 by default and with “file creation, connectors, skills, and compaction” included.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (paywalled), Apple is reportedly developing AI-powered smart glasses, a wearable pendant, and camera-equipped AirPods that connect to the iPhone and use “visual context” to let Siri perform real-world actions. The Verge reports: Apple is reportedly aiming to start production of its smart glasses in December, ahead of a 2027 launch. The new device will compete directly with Meta’s lineup of smart glasses and is rumored to feature speakers, microphones, and a high-resolution camera for taking photos and videos, in addition to another lens designed to enable AI-powered features.

The glasses won’t have a built-in display, but they will allow users to make phone calls, interact with Siri, play music, and “take actions based on surroundings,” such as asking about the ingredients in a meal, according to Bloomberg. Apple’s smart glasses could also help users identify what they’re seeing, reference landmarks when offering directions, and remind wearers to complete a task in specific situations, Bloomberg reports.

The company is reportedly planning to develop the frames for the smart glasses in-house, instead of partnering with a third-party company like Meta does with Ray-Ban and Oakley. Prototypes of the glasses use a cable to connect to a battery pack and an iPhone, but Bloomberg reports that “newer versions have the components embedded in the frame.” Apple reportedly wants to make its smart glasses stand out by offering a high-quality build and advanced camera technology. The company is still working on AI-powered smart glasses with a display, though their launch “remains many years away,” Bloomberg says.

Apple’s plans for AI hardware don’t end there, as the company is expected to build upon its Google Gemini-powered Siri upgrade with an AirTag-sized AI pendant that people can either wear as a necklace or a pin. This device would “essentially serve as an always-on camera” for the iPhone and has a microphone for prompting Siri, Bloomberg reports. The pendant, which The Information first reported on last month, is rumored to come with a built-in chip, but will mainly rely on the iPhone’s processing power. The device could arrive as early as next year, according to Bloomberg.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Following backlash over Discord’s global rollout of strict age-verification checks, users are flocking to rival platform TeamSpeak and overwhelming its servers. According to PC Gamer, the Discord alternative said its hosting capacity has been maxed out in a number of regions including the U.S. From the report: [A]s I saw for myself while testing out free Discord alternatives, it’s hard to deny the appeal of TeamSpeak. It’s quick and easy to make an account, join or start a group chat, or join a massive, game-based community voice server, and at no point does TeamSpeak cheekily ask if it can scan your wizened visage.

During my testing, I was able to dive into 18+ group chats without tripping over an age gate. However, there’s no guarantee TeamSpeak won’t have to deploy its own age verification mechanism in the future. In the UK at least, the Online Safety Act makes those sorts of checks a legal obligation, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently stating “No social media platform should get a free pass when it comes to protecting our kids.”

Besides all of that, if you’d rather not chat to randoms who also happen to have an unhealthy obsession with Arc Raiders, you’ll likely need to pay an admittedly small subscription fee to rent your own ten-person community voice server. By that point, you’re handing over card details and essentially fulfilling an age assurance check anyway. If you’d rather limit how much info your chat platform of choice has about you, there are arguably better options out there.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Washington Post: David Greene had never heard of NotebookLM, Google’s buzzy artificial intelligence tool that spins up podcasts on demand, until a former colleague emailed him to ask if he’d lent it his voice. “So… I’m probably the 148th person to ask this, but did you license your voice to Google?” the former co-worker asked in a fall 2024 email. “It sounds very much like you!”

Greene, a public radio veteran who has hosted NPR’s “Morning Edition” and KCRW’s political podcast “Left, Right & Center,” looked up the tool, listening to the two virtual co-hosts — one male and one female — engage in light banter. “I was, like, completely freaked out,” Greene said. “It’s this eerie moment where you feel like you’re listening to yourself.” Greene felt the male voice sounded just like him — from the cadence and intonation to the occasional “uhhs” and “likes” that Greene had worked over the years to minimize but never eliminated. He said he played it for his wife and her eyes popped.

As emails and texts rolled in from friends, family members and co-workers, asking if the AI podcast voice was his, Greene became convinced he’d been ripped off. Now he’s suing Google, alleging that it violated his rights by building a product that replicated his voice without payment or permission, giving users the power to make it say things Greene would never say. Google told The Washington Post in a statement on Thursday that NotebookLM’s male podcast voice has nothing to do with Greene. Now a Santa Clara County, California, court may be asked to determine whether the resemblance is uncanny enough that ordinary people hearing the voice would assume it’s his — and if so, what to do about it. Greene’s lawsuit cites an unnamed AI forensic firm that used its software to compare the artificial voice to Greene’s. It gave a confidence rating of 53-60% that Greene’s voice was used to train the model, which it considers “relatively high” confidence.

“If I was David Greene I would be upset, not just because they stole my voice,” but because they used it to make the podcasting equivalent of AI “slop,” said Mike Pesca, host of “The Gist” podcast and a former colleague of Greene’s at NPR. “They have banter, but it’s very surface-level, un-insightful banter, and they’re always saying, ‘Yeah, that’s so interesting.’ It’s really bad, because what do we as show hosts have except our taste in commentary and pointing our audience to that which is interesting?”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Anyone who’s been paying even a little bit of attention to tech news lately could have made a reasonable guess that AI will be a big topic at Samsung’s Unpacked next week. Ahead of the event, Samsung teased some of what’s to come for AI in terms of the Galaxy S26 smartphone lineup’s photography tools. 

The S26 phones will feature a new camera system using Galaxy AI that combines capturing, editing and sharing of photos and videos. “Users will be able to turn a photo from day to night in seconds, restore missing parts of objects in images, capture detailed photos in low light, and seamlessly merge multiple photos into a single, cohesive result,” a company rep said. The video clips Samsung shared demonstrated the before and after results of using its AI tools, which will all be housed in a single app rather than needing to switch between multiple image editing programs.

Updated cameras are just part of what will be on the schedule for Samsung’s big mobile showcase. The expected Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+ and Galaxy S26 Ultra will likely have a lot of AI-centric features.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-teases-mobile-ai-photography-tools-ahead-of-unpacked-233000358.html?src=rss

Longtime Slashdot reader jrepin writes: KDE Plasma is a popular desktop (and mobile too) environment for GNU/Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems. Among other things, it also powers the desktop mode of the Steam Deck gaming handheld. The KDE community today announced the latest release: Plasma 6.6.

In this new major release, Spectacle can recognize texts from screenshots, a new on-screen keyboard and new login manager are available for testing, and a first-time wizard Plasma Setup was added. Your current theme can be saved as a new global theme, which can also be used for the day and night theme-switching feature. Emoji selector got a new easier way to select skin tone. If your computer has a camera available, you can now connect to a Wi-Fi network by scanning a QR code. Application sound volume can now be changed by scrolling over an application taskbar button via mouse wheel. When screencasting and sharing your desktop, you can now filter windows so they are not shared. A setting was added to enable having virtual desktops only on the primary screen. If your device has an ambient light sensor, you can enable automatic screen brightness adjustment. Game controllers can now be used as regular input devices.

For complete list of new features and changes, check out the KDE Plasma 6.6 release announcement and the complete changelog.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

iOS 26.3 was a decidedly small update. It introduced a new tool to transfer data to Android, and gave some iPhones the ability to hide precise location data from cellular networks. But beyond some other small changes and security patches, that’s all there was to write home about. iOS 26.4 is a different story. The update, which is currently in beta testing, adds a number of interesting new features to compatible iPhones, especially if you’re an Apple Music user.

As with all beta software, iOS 26.4 is currently in testing, which means these features are subject to change at any time. It’s possible some won’t make it to the official release of iOS 26.4, while others could look different than they do now. While you can install the iOS 26.4 beta at any time by enrolling your device in the beta program, do so at your own discretion. I’d recommend using a secondary device to test this software if you can, but either way, make sure the device in question is fully backed up to a computer before installing the beta.

Playlist Playground lets you generate playlists with AI

The latest trend in streaming services seems to be AI-generated playlists. YouTube Music recently rolled out the option, while Spotify offers a couple different takes on the feature. The idea is to tell the AI what type of music you want to listen to, whether that be a specific artist or genre, or just a concept or mood (e.g., “Make me a playlist for drinking coffee on a lazy Sunday morning”).

Now Apple Music is the latest service to introduce such a feature. The first iOS 26.4 beta comes with “Playlist Playground,” which works about how you’d expect. You tell Apple Music’s AI what you want to hear, and it generates a playlist with 25 different songs. You can adjust the playlist if you don’t like the result, as well as edit the title, cover image, and description.

Apple Music gets a visual overhaul

In addition to Playlist Playground, Apple Music’s UI is also changing in iOS 26.4. You’ll see new full-page artwork when listening to music, as well as redesigned albums and playlists that adjust their colors based on the artwork. Plus, there’s now a “Concerts Near You” feature that helps you find shows in your area, based on the music you like to listen to.

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iOS 26.4 finally introduces end-to-end encryption for RCS

RCS support is the best thing to happen to the iPhone in a long time. It makes texting Android users about the same as texting iPhone users, which has not been the case for most of iMessage’s history. But while most of the standard perks rolled in with the update, including functioning group chats and high-quality image sharing, one key feature did not: end-to-end encryption (E2EE).

Without (E2EE), your messages can be intercepted and read by those with the skills to do so. With E2EE, they cannot. It’s a major security feature that’s key to both iMessage and RCS, and one of the reasons you shouldn’t send messages over SMS, as it doesn’t support E2EE. Not all Android setups support E2EE over RCS, but it’s still a bummer that the iPhone’s Messages app doesn’t either.

That’s now changing. With the first iOS 26.4 beta, Apple is now testing E2EE for RCS. You’ll find the option in Settings, though Apple notes that not all devices or carriers support it. Someday soon, however, iPhone users texting Android users over RCS will be able to enjoy the added security benefits of E2EE.

Apple changed how you choose wallpaper packs on iPhone

With iOS 26.4, Apple changed the Wallpapers settings menu. Before, you could select from pre-downloaded wallpaper packs on your iPhone; now, you can choose which packs you want to download instead. It’s a small change, but an interesting one at that. It seems Apple doesn’t want to assume you’re interested in all of its wallpaper options anymore, and instead would rather pick and choose the ones you want to try. Apple also made similar changes to picking watch faces in the Apple Watch app.

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Your iPhone’s Reminders now has an “Urgent” section

If you ever label reminders as “urgent” on your iPhone, you’ll find them in a new location. Now, when you open Reminders, you’l find an Urgent section, alongside other options like Today, All, and Scheduled.

macOS 26.4 introduces a Charge Limit feature on Mac

While this isn’t an iOS feature, it is a key new change in the first macOS 26.4 beta. Apple is now testing a “charge limit” feature on Mac, similar to the charge limit feature that already exists on iOS; when your device is plugged in for a long period of time, it will limit how much the battery can charge to. You can set the cap as low as 80%, or as high as 100%. The idea is, by limiting the charge level, you reduce how often the battery completes a full charge cycle, which can prolong its lifespan and delay aging. The “younger” your battery is, the longer it’ll last between charges, so enthusiasts like to use these features to maximize how much battery life they can get out of their devices.

If you use Google Chrome, you should install the latest update ASAP. Google has issued a patch for a high-severity flaw that has been actively exploited in the wild—the first Chrome zero-day in 2026.

What the Google Chrome patch fixes

The latest flaw, catalogued as CVE-2026-2441, is a use-after-free vulnerability in CSSFontFeatureValuesMap, Chrome’s CSS font feature implementation. A use-after-free vulnerability is a flaw in which an application attempts to use memory after it has been released back to the system. This type of bug allows attackers to execute code, escalate privileges, cause app or system crashes, and leak sensitive data.

CVE-2026-2441 would allow “a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code inside a sandbox via a crafted HTML page.” Essentially, this means malicious HTML content could run code inside a Chrome tab, extension, or plugin. As Malwarebytes explains, this is dangerous because attackers can see or modify whatever the isolated browser tab (sandbox) can access, allowing actions like credential harvesting and traffic rerouting—even if it cannot escape to impact the whole operating system.

Google said that this vulnerability has been exploited in the wild but hasn’t provided any specific details as to how. The discovery has been attributed to Shaheen Fazim.

What Chrome users need to do

Google released a Stable channel update on Feb. 13 with a patch for this flaw. The latest versions of Chrome are 145.0.7632.75/76 for Windows and macOS and 144.0.7559.75 for Linux, so you’ll want to ensure you are up to date. Go to the Chrome menu and select About Google Chrome to check which version you’re on.

Chrome updates automatically when you close and reopen the browser, but if you don’t do that regularly, keep an eye out for pending updates in the top-right corner of your browser window. Apply these updates immediately by tapping the three dots and selecting the first menu item. Chrome will need to restart to complete the update.

A US law firm has accused Lenovo of violating Justice Department strictures about the bulk transfer of data to foreign adversaries, namely China. From a report: The case filed by Almeida Law Group on behalf of San Francisco-based “Spencer Christy, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated” centers on the Data Security Program regulations implemented by the DOJ last year. According to the suit, these were “implemented to prevent adversarial countries from acquiring large quantities of behavioral data which could be used to surveil, analyze, or exploit American citizens’ behavior.”

The complaint states the DOJ rule “makes clear that sending American consumers’ information to Chinese entities through automated advertising systems and associated databases with the requisite controls is prohibited.” The case states the threshold for “covered personal identifiers” is 100,000 US persons or more and lists a range of potential identifiers, from government and financial account numbers to IMEIs, MAC, and SIM numbers, demographic data, and advertising IDs.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Last-minute Presidents’ Day sales are the perfect time to stock up on gaming monitors that normally have a much higher price tag, and right now, an award-winning model from Alienware (dubbed “one of the best curved gaming monitors on the market” by PCMag) is $200 off. The Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor is 28% off at $499.99 (originally $699.99), marking its lowest price ever as the holiday discounts wind down.

Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor

$499.99
at Amazon

$699.99
Save $200.00

$499.99
at Amazon

$699.99
Save $200.00

This Alienware monitor, which earned a PCMag Editor’s Choice Award, sits on a sturdy V-shaped stand and has a curved 34-inch monitor with a 3440 by 1440 resolution and a 21:9 aspect ratio. Its curve isn’t as pronounced as some gaming monitors, such as the Corsair Xeneon Flex’s 800R curve; this one is 1800R, which reduces glare while deepening blacks and is ideal for those who don’t want overly dramatic curvature. It also features Alienvision, which lets you switch between four visual modes to tweak settings and maximize gameplay.

Brightness is rated up to 1000 nits, and with a 165Hz refresh rate (10Hz less than its predecessor, but still excellent) and a competitive input lag of 1.4ms, it’s a popular choice for gamers seeking an immersive experience. Compared to its predecessor, this model swaps Nvidia G-Sync for AMD’s FreeSync Premium Pro. QD-OLED picture quality is this monitor’s main draw, giving users impressive contrast, true blacks, and dazzling colors for HDR gaming and strong performance in darker rooms. That said, it doesn’t have an HDMI 2.1 port.

For anyone seeking a sleek OLED monitor that’s not excessively curved, with top-tier picture quality in both SDR and HDR, vibrant colors, and low input lag,  the Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor remains one of the best ultrawide gaming and media monitors on the market. And at almost 30% off in a last-minute President’s Day deal, this Amazon deal might not last long. 

Residents of Potters Bar, a small town just north of London, are trying to block what would be one of Europe’s largest data centers from being built on 85 acres of rolling farmland that separates their community from the neighboring village of South Mimms. Multinational operator Equinix acquired the land last October after the local council granted planning permission in January 2025, and the company intends to break ground this year on a development it estimates will cost more than $5 billion.

The UK government’s decision to classify data centers as “critical national infrastructure” and a new “gray belt” land designation that loosens building restrictions on underperforming greenbelt parcels helped clear the path for approval — even though objections from locals outweighed signatures of support by nearly two-to-one during the public consultation. A protest group of more than 1,000 residents has since appealed to a third-party ombudsman and the UK’s Office of Environmental Protection, but has so far failed to overturn the decision.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Resistance bands and dumbbells are both great for strength training at home, since they don’t require much storage space and tend to be a lot cheaper than a full setup with a barbell and plates. But they each have pros and cons, so let’s talk about how to choose.

Resistance bands can offer more total weight

If you buy beefy enough resistance bands, they offer a lot of resistance. A pair of “strong” bands from EliteFTS will pull on a barbell with the same force as 122 to 275 pounds of weights, depending on how far you stretch them. During the time gyms were closed because of COVID, coach Greg Nuckols told us that a set of bands would be his pick for training as heavy as possible without traditional gym equipment.

EliteFTS Pro resistance band pair

$28.99
at Amazon

$28.99
at Amazon

Dumbbells are more versatile

If you truly love resistance bands, you can probably figure out how to do almost anything with them. But for most of us, dumbbells are a little more intuitive and it’s easier to find exercises that work appropriate muscles.

If you use a resistance band, for many exercises you’ll need to find a place to anchor it. Sometimes you step on the band, so it’s pulling on your feet (not always comfortable if you work out barefoot). Other times you’ll need an appropriate anchor at floor level, or overhead, or straight in front of you. Depending on where you work out, there may not be anything strong enough to do the job with the right placement.

This means it’s easier to put together a routine with dumbbells: you just pick them up. Plenty of staple gym exercises use dumbbells, and you probably already know some: bicep curls, shoulder presses, bench presses, lunges, and so on. Just hold the weights and do the exercise, no planning needed.

CAP Barbell 20 LB Pair Coated Hex Dumbbell Weight

$46.97
at Amazon

$46.97
at Amazon

Resistance bands wear out over time

Iron is forever, but rubber degrades over time. Check the manufacturer’s directions, but most will tell you to replace your bands after a year, or for thinner bands, sometimes just a few months.

The way you use the bands can affect their lifespan. If the band rubs against its anchor point, for example, that can wear it out more quickly. (Follow manufacturers’ instructions for properly anchoring the band or attaching it to accessories.) When a band snaps, it may end up hitting you, which is why some trainers advise against moves like face pulls in which you’re pulling a band toward yourself.

The tension on bands depends on their length

This, I think, is the most important difference between bands and dumbbells. When you pick up something from the floor, you have to support its entire weight as soon as it leaves the ground. But if you’re getting the resistance from a band, the resistance will feel very light when you’re closer to the floor, and get progressively harder as you stand up with it.

This means you may be working harder than you want at the top of the lift, but not being challenged at all at the bottom. You can still work all your muscles if you choose and combine exercises appropriately, but you have to carefully choose exercises to make sure you’re working every part of the range of movement. This factor means that bands aren’t a drop-in replacement for dumbbell or barbell work.

You’ll outgrow fixed dumbbells

People often start with a pair of dumbbells that come stamped with a number on one end (a five-pound pair, for example), but if you actually train with dumbbells consistently, pretty soon you’ll need more. You’ll also notice that different exercises require different weights: Something that’s challenging to curl will probably still be too light to press overhead.

A way around this is to buy adjustable dumbbells. You slide plates on and off, or with the fancy (expensive) brands you place them back on their rack and select the next weight. I have some picks for good adjustable dumbbells here.

You can still outgrow adjustable dumbbells. The affordable ones that come in 40-pound sets might seem huge to you at first, but 20 pounds per hand is not that much if you’re strong. “I can always buy more of the little plates,” you’ll say to yourself, forgetting to check how much room the dumbbell handle has for little plates. Often, not much.

The bottom line is that dumbbells and resistance bands each have their pros and cons. It’s cheaper to buy several sizes of resistance bands than to buy a full lineup of dumbbells, but the bands won’t necessarily give you the same workout. This is another case where the ideal answer is probably: Why not both?