Gamers who prefer physical copies of their favorite titles may be getting a major win with the Switch 2. In an unexpected announcement from retro video game publisher ININ Games, Nintendo reportedly has “two new smaller cartridge sizes” for its Switch 2 console. For ININ Games, these rumored game cartridges with smaller storage capacity allow the publisher to recalculate production costs and pursue a physical Switch 2 release of its upcoming R-Type Dimensions III.

ININ Games later deleted its posts mentioning these smaller Switch 2 cartridges and issued a correction on its website and social media pages. However, the publisher reiterated that R-Type Dimensions III will be released on a physical cartridge, but that “no further technical details regarding cartridge specifications have been officially confirmed.”

“There has been no official announcement or confirmation from Nintendo concerning cartridge storage capacities,” ININ Games said in a statement. “Any references to specific storage sizes should not be interpreted as official information from Nintendo.”

If we’re reading between the lines, ININ Games may have been early to tease a crucial detail about Switch 2 cartridges that Nintendo wasn’t officially ready to reveal yet. For more context, Nintendo reportedly only offers physical game cartridges for Switch 2 with a 64GB capacity. With less demanding games like R-Type Dimensions III, that much storage capacity could be unnecessary and raise production costs. Nintendo still hasn’t made an announcement about these potential smaller cartridges, but we could see a lot more game publishers opting for physical copies of their upcoming games if they are indeed an option.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/game-publisher-says-cheaper-switch-2-cartridges-are-coming-in-since-deleted-post-191145230.html?src=rss

A reporter at Mother Jones writes about a $169 alarm clock with special lighting and audio effects. But to use the features, “you need to pay an additional $4.99 per month, in perpetuity.”

“Welcome to the age of subscription captivity, where an increasing share of the things you pay for actually own you.”

What vexes me are the companies that sell physical products for a hefty, upfront fee and subsequently demand more money to keep using items already in your possession. This encompasses those glorified alarm clocks, but also: computer printers, wearable wellness devices, and some features on pricey new cars.

Subscription-based business models are great for businesses because they amount to consistent revenue streams. They’re often bad for consumers for the same reason: You have to pay companies, consistently. We’re effectively being $5 per month-ed (or more) to death, and it’s only going to get worse. Industry research suggests the average customer spent $219 per month on subscriptions in 2023. In 2024, the global subscription market was an estimated $492 billion. By 2033, that figure is expected to triple.

Companies would argue these models benefit consumers, not just their bottom lines. For example, HP’s Instant Ink program suggests you will never again find your device out of ink when you need it most. The printer apparently knows when it’s running low, spurring automatic deliveries of ink to your home for $7.99 per month if you select the company-recommended plan. But if you cancel the subscription, the printer will literally hold hostage the half-full cartridges already sitting in your printer. The ransom to use it? Re-enroll… The company has added firmware to its technology that deliberately blocks cheaper, off-brand cartridges from working at all…

“There’s even a subscription service that enables you to track and cancel your piling subscriptions — for just $6 to $12 per month.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In 2023 Slashdot covered a battery-swapping startup that promised to give EVs a full charge in about the same time it takes to fill a tank of gas.

They just filed for bankruptcy, reports Inc:

Ample was founded in 2014 with a goal of “solving slow charging times and infrastructure incompatibility” for commercial EV fleets such as those in logistics, ride-hailing, and delivery, the filing states. To-date, Ample has raised more than $330 million across five rounds of funding to finance research and development and deployment. Rather than tackling fast charging, its strategy involved developing “fully autonomous modular battery swapping,” capable of delivering a fully charged battery in just five minutes. The technology requires purpose-built “Ample stations” that look a little like carwashes. A car is guided into the bay and elevated on a platform. A robot then identifies the location of a car’s battery module, removes it, and replaces it with a charged module, Canary Media reported.

The company also boasts partnerships with Uber, Mitsubishi, and Stellantis, and notes it has deployed its technology — or is pursuing deployment — in San Francisco, Madrid and Tokyo. Even so, it ran up against funding issues. In its filing, Ample attributed its bankruptcy to macroeconomic and industry headwinds, such as “severe supply chain disruptions,” “contraction in both public and private investment in renewable energy” and the “reduction, delay, or redirection of government incentives intended to accelerate EV adoption.” The filing notes that regulatory and permitting delays slowed its launch in international markets, after which access to capital foiled its scaling efforts. The company eliminated all but two full-time, non-executive employees after formerly employing about 200…

Electrek noted that Ample is the second battery swapping startup to go bankrupt after California-based Better Place in collapsed in 2013 amid financial issues related to how capital intensive it was to build infrastructure, Reuters reported. And Tesla briefly pursued the concept, building a station in California, before ditching the idea altogether.

Ample “claimed to have designed autonomous battery swapping stations that would be rapidly deployable, cheap to build, and could adapt to any EV design with a modular battery which would be easy for manufacturers to use,” notes Electrek’s article:

Where this bankruptcy leaves Ample’s technology is unclear. Another company could snap it up and try to do something with it, if they find that the technology is real and useful. Ample had gotten investments and partnerships with Shell, Mitsubishi and Stellantis, for example, so the company wasn’t alone in touting its tech. Or, it could just disappear, as other EV battery swapping plans have before…

That’s not to say that nobody has been successful at at implementing battery swap, though. NIO seems to be successful with its battery swapping tech in China, though the company did miss its 2025 scaling goals by a longshot. But as of yet, this is the only notable example of a successful battery swap initiative, and it was done by an automaker itself, rather than a startup claiming to work for every automaker.

Electrek’s writer is “just not bullish on battery swapping as a solution in general. Currently, the fastest-charging vehicles can charge from 10-80% in about 18 minutes. While that’s longer than 5 minutes, it’s not really a terrible amount of time to spend during most stops.”

Plus, if cars come and go in 5 minutes instead of 18 minutes, “then you’re going to have more than triple the throughput at peak utilization.” And Ample’s prices would be about the same as normal EV quick-charging prices…

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you still haven’t bought into the Steam Deck craze, it’ll cost you a little extra to take the plunge now since Valve is only offering OLED models. Valve announced in a note on its Steam Deck page that it’s “no longer producing the Steam Deck LCD 256GB model,” adding that “once sold out, it will no longer be available.” As of this article’s publishing, the $399 Steam Deck with LCD and 256 GB of storage, which we ranked as the best gaming handheld for most, is out of stock. Even Valve’s refurbished stock of LCD models has been cleared out.

The OLED version of the Steam Deck is a worthy upgrade since it comes with a longer battery life and a larger display with a higher refresh rate. However, the LCD model offered an impressive entry price for the Steam Deck and the world of affordable gaming handhelds. Fortunately for existing owners, Valve said it plans to continue supporting the LCD models with future software updates.

For now, potential buyers will have to choose between the new entry-level pricing of $549 for the OLED model with 512GB of storage or upgrading to 1TB and paying at least $649. Valve’s choice to discontinue its last remaining LCD model isn’t surprising after it did the same with the 512GB version and the 64GB option that was available when the Steam Deck was first released in 2022.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/valve-discontinued-the-last-remaining-lcd-model-of-the-steam-deck-171548195.html?src=rss

“Super PAC aims to drown out AI critics in midterms,” the Washington Post reported in August, noting its intial funding over $100 million from “some of Silicon Valley’s most powerful investors and executives” including OpenAI president Greg Brockman, his wife, and VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. The group’s goal was “to quash a philosophical debate that has divided the tech industry on the risk of artificial intelligence overpowering humanity,” according to the article — and to support “pro-AI” candidates in America’s next election in November of 2026 and “oppose candidates perceived as slowing down AI development.”

Their first target? State assemblyman Alex Bores, now running to be a U.S. representative. While in the state legislature Bores sponsored a bill that would “require large AI companies to publish safety data on their technology,” notes the Washington Post. So the attack ad charges that Bores “wants Albany bureaucrats regulating AI,” excoriating him for sponsoring a bill that “hands AI to state regulators and creates a chaotic patchwork of state rules that would crush innovation, cost New York jobs, and fail to keep people safe! And he’s backed by groups funded by convicted felon Sam Bankman-Fried. Is that really who should be shaping AI safety for our kids? America needs one smart national policy that sets clear stands for safe AI not Albany politicians like Alex Bores.”

The Post calls it “the opening skirmish in a battle set to play out across the country” as tech moguls (and an independent effort receiving “tens of millions” from Meta) “try to use the 2026 midterms to reengineer Congress and state legislatures in favor of their ambitions for artificial intelligence” and “to wrest control of the narrative around AI, just as politicians in both parties have started warning that the industry is moving too fast.”

By knocking down candidates such as Bores, who favor regulations, and boosting industry sympathizers, the tech-backed groups could signal to incumbents and candidates nationwide that opposing the tech industry can jeopardize their electoral chances. “Bores just happened to be first, but he’s not the last, and he’s certainly not the only,” said Josh Vlasto, co-head of Leading the Future, the bipartisan super PAC behind the ad.

The group plans to support and oppose candidates in congressional and state elections next year. It will also fund rapid response operations against voices in the industry pushing for more oversight… The strategy aims to replicate the success of the cryptocurrency industry, which used a super PAC to clear a path for Congress this summer to boost the sector’s fortunes with the passage of the Genius Act… But signs that voters are increasingly wary of AI suggest that approach may be challenging to replicate. More than half of Americans believe AI poses a high risk to society, Pew Research Center found in a June survey. As AI usage continues to grow, more people are being warned by chief executives that AI will disrupt their jobs, seeing power-hungry data centers spring up in their towns or hearing claims that chatbots can harm mental health.

The article also notes there’s at least two other groups seeking to counter this pro-AI push, raising money through a nonprofit called “Public First.”

CNN calls the new pro-AI ads “a likely preview of the vast amounts of money the technology industry could spend ahead of next year’s elections,” noting that the ads are first targeting the candidate-choosing primary elections

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google wanted to remove Assistant from most Android phones by the end of 2025 and replace it with Gemini. But now the company has announced that it needs a bit more time to make its AI assistant the new default digital helper for most of its users. Google said that it’s adjusting its previously announced timeline to “make sure [it delivers] a seamless transition” and that updates to convert Assistant to Gemini on Android devices will continue into the next year. The company also said that it’s sharing more details in the “coming months,” so it’s possible that the transition will go past early 2026.

Assistant’s retirement was pretty much expected the moment Google launched Gemini and started giving it Assistant’s capabilities, such as the ability to control smart devices connected to your phone. It launched the Pixel 9 Series with Gemini as the default assistant back in 2024. The company has also been putting Gemini in all of its products and previously said that it plans to upgrade all “tablets, cars and devices that connect to your phone, such as headphones and watches” with the AI-powered chatbot. Devices do have to meet a few minimum requirements to get the upgrade, however, and must be running Android 10 and come with 2GB of RAM at the very least.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-assistant-will-stick-around-a-bit-longer-than-expected-for-some-android-users-130000178.html?src=rss

For people living in the European Union, the price of their next car, home renovation, and even local produce may soon reflect a climate policy that many have never even heard of. This new regulation, which comes fully into force on New Year’s Day, does not just target heavy industry—it affects everyday goods which now face an added carbon cost when they enter Europe.

The carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) puts a carbon price on many imported goods—meaning that EU-based importers will pay for the greenhouse gases emitted during the production of certain carbon-intensive materials.

If goods come from countries with weaker climate rules, then the charge will be higher. To sell to the EU, producers will effectively need to show their goods aren’t too carbon-intensive.

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echo123 shares a report from PBS: The Trump administration is dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, moving to dissolve a research lab that a top White House official described as “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.” White House budget director Russ Vought criticized the lab in a social media post Tuesday night and said a comprehensive review of the lab is underway. “Vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location, Vought said.

The research lab, which houses the largest federal research program on climate change, supports research to predict, prepare for and respond to severe weather and other natural disasters. The research lab is managed by a nonprofit consortium of more than 130 colleges and universities on behalf of the National Science Foundation. A senior White House official cited two instances of the lab’s “woke direction” that wastes taxpayer funds on what the official called frivolous pursuits and ideologies. One funded an Indigenous and Earth Sciences center that aimed to “make the sciences more welcoming, inclusive, and justice-centered,” while another experiment traced air pollution to “demonize motor vehicles, oil and gas operations.” The lab “is quite literally our global mothership,” said Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist and Distinguished Professor at Texas Tech University, in a post on X. “Nearly everyone who researches climate and weather — not only in the U.S., but around the world — has passed through its doors and benefited from its incredible resources.”

She continued: “NCAR supports the scientists who fly into hurricanes, the meteorologists who develop new radar technology, the physicists who envision and code new weather models, and yes — the largest community climate model in the world. That too. Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Space.com: Astronomers have made a truly mind-boggling discovery using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): a runaway black hole 10 million times larger than the sun, rocketing through space at a staggering 2.2 million miles per hour (1,000 kilometers per second). That not only makes this the first confirmed runaway supermassive black hole, but this object is also one of the fastest-moving bodies ever detected, rocketing through its home, a pair of galaxies named the “Cosmic Owl,” at 3,000 times the speed of sound at sea level here on Earth. If that isn’t astounding enough, the black hole is pushing forward a literal galaxy-sized “bow-shock” of matter in front of it, while simultaneously dragging a 200,000 light-year-long tail behind it, within which gas is accumulating and triggering star formation. “It boggles the mind!” discovery team leader Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University told Space.com. “The forces that are needed to dislodge such a massive black hole from its home are enormous. And yet, it was predicted that such escapes should occur!”

“This is the only black hole that has been found far away from its former home,” van Dokkum said. “That made it the best candidate [for a] runaway supermassive black hole, but what was missing was confirmation. All we really had was a streak that was difficult to explain in any other way. With the JWST, we have now confirmed that there is indeed a black hole at the tip of the streak, and that it is speeding away from its former host.”

The research is currently available as a pre-peer-reviewed paper on arXiv.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Search Engine Land: Google said today that it is suing SerpApi, accusing the company of bypassing security protections to scrape, harvest, and resell copyrighted content from Google Search results. The allegations: Google said SerpApi:

-Circumvented Google’s security measures and industry-standard crawling controls.
-Ignored website directives that specify whether content can be accessed.
-Used cloaking, rotating bot identities, and large bot networks to scrape content at scale.
-Took licensed content from Search features, including images and real-time data, and resold it for profit.

What Google is saying. “Stealthy scrapers like SerpApi override [crawling] directives and give sites no choice at all,” Google wrote, calling the alleged scraping “brazen” and “unlawful.” Google said SerpApi’s activity “increased dramatically over the past year.” […] If Google wins, reliable SERP data could become harder to get, more expensive, or both — especially for teams that rely on tools powered by services like SerpApi. As AI already reduces clicks and transparency, Google now appears intent on making it even harder for brands to understand how Search works, how they appear in results, and how to measure success.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Airbus is preparing to tender a major contract to move mission-critical systems like ERP, manufacturing, and aircraft design data onto a digitally sovereign European cloud, citing national security concerns and fears around U.S. extraterritorial laws like the CLOUD Act. “I need a sovereign cloud because part of the information is extremely sensitive from a national and European perspective,” Catherine Jestin, Airbus’s executive vice president of digital, told The Register. “We want to ensure this information remains under European control.” The Register reports: The driver is access to new software. Vendors like SAP are developing innovations exclusively in the cloud, pushing customers toward platforms like S/4HANA. The request for proposals launches in early January, with a decision expected before summer. The contract — understood to be worth more than 50 million euros — will be long term (up to ten years), with price predictability over the period. […] Jestin is waiting for European regulators to clarify whether Airbus would truly be “immune to extraterritorial laws” — and whether services could be interrupted.

The concern isn’t theoretical. Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan reportedly lost access to his Microsoft email after Trump sanctioned him for criticizing Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, though Microsoft denies suspending ICC services. Beyond US complications, Jestin questions whether European cloud providers have sufficient scale. “If you asked me today if we’ll find a solution, I’d say 80/20.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Elite computer science degrees are no longer a guaranteed on-ramp to tech jobs, as AI-driven coding tools slash demand for entry-level engineers and concentrate hiring around a small pool of already “elite” or AI-savvy developers. The Los Angeles Times reports: “Stanford computer science graduates are struggling to find entry-level jobs” with the most prominent tech brands, said Jan Liphardt, associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford University. “I think that’s crazy.” While the rapidly advancing coding capabilities of generative AI have made experienced engineers more productive, they have also hobbled the job prospects of early-career software engineers. Stanford students describe a suddenly skewed job market, where just a small slice of graduates — those considered “cracked engineers” who already have thick resumes building products and doing research — are getting the few good jobs, leaving everyone else to fight for scraps.

“There’s definitely a very dreary mood on campus,” said a recent computer science graduate who asked not to be named so they could speak freely. “People [who are] job hunting are very stressed out, and it’s very hard for them to actually secure jobs.” The shake-up is being felt across California colleges, including UC Berkeley, USC and others. The job search has been even tougher for those with less prestigious degrees. […] Data suggests that even though AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic are hiring many people, it is not offsetting the decline in hiring elsewhere. Employment for specific groups, such as early-career software developers between the ages of 22 and 25 has declined by nearly 20% from its peak in late 2022, according to a Stanford study. […]

A common sentiment from hiring managers is that where they previously needed ten engineers, they now only need “two skilled engineers and one of these LLM-based agents,” which can be just as productive, said Nenad Medvidovic, a computer science professor at the University of Southern California. “We don’t need the junior developers anymore,” said Amr Awadallah, CEO of Vectara, a Palo Alto-based AI startup. “The AI now can code better than the average junior developer that comes out of the best schools out there.” […] Stanford students say they are arriving at the job market and finding a split in the road; capable AI engineers can find jobs, but basic, old-school computer science jobs are disappearing. As they hit this surprise speed bump, some students are lowering their standards and joining companies they wouldn’t have considered before. Some are creating their own startups. A large group of frustrated grads are deciding to continue their studies to beef up their resumes and add more skills needed to compete with AI.

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An independent review found that at least ten technical and process failures during a routine firewall upgrade at Australia’s Optus prevented emergency calls from reaching Triple Zero for 14 hours, during which 455 calls failed and two callers died. The Register reports: On Thursday, Optus published an independent report (PDF) on the matter written by Dr Kerry Schott, an Australian executive who has held senior management roles at many of the country’s most significant businesses. The report found that Optus planned 18 firewall upgrades and had executed 15 without incident. But on the 16th upgrade, Optus issued incorrect instructions to its outsourced provider Nokia. […] Schott summarized the incident as follows: “Three issues are clear during this incident. The first is the very poor management and performance within [Optus] Networks and their contractor, Nokia. Process was not followed, and incorrect procedures were selected. Checks were inadequate, controls avoided and alerts given insufficient attention. There appeared to be reticence in seeking more experienced advice within Networks and a focus on speed and getting the task done, rather than an emphasis on doing things properly.”

The review also found that Optus’ call center didn’t appreciate it could be “the first alert channel for Triple Zero difficulties.” The document also notes that Australian telcos try to route 000 calls during outages, but that doing so is not easy and is made harder by the fact that different smartphones behave in different ways. Optus does warn customers if their devices have not been tested for their ability to connect to 000, and maintains a list of known bad devices. But the report notes Optus’s process “does not capture so-called ‘grey’ devices that have been bought online or overseas and may not be compliant.” “To have a standard firewall upgrade go so badly is inexcusable,” the document states. “Execution was poor and seemed more focussed on getting things done than on being right. Supervision of both network staff and Nokia must be more disciplined to get things right.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

There are warning signs that your home network may have been compromised, such as unusual traffic patterns and slowdowns in system performance, but now there’s a simple tool to help determine if your router or connected devices are being used to conduct malicious activity. IP Check, from threat monitoring firm GreyNoise, will alert you if your IP address has been observed scanning the internet as part of a botnet or residential proxy network.

As GreyNoise outlines, residential IP compromise often isn’t obvious to the user because you’re still able to conduct business as usual, such as streaming, emailing, and web browsing. All the while, though, threat actors are routing malicious activity through your home IP address and can potentially exploit your network for everything from account takeovers to malware distribution.

Check your IP address for suspicious activity

To use IP Check, you simply need to open the tool in a browser window, and you’ll get one of several results. If your IP is clean, that means that your network hasn’t been caught scanning the internet (nor does it belong to any known business service infrastructure).

Credit: Emily Long

Your IP may also be flagged as being in the GreyNoise database, which is not a sign of compromise—this is likely because you’re using a VPN, corporate network, or cloud provider, and the tool can distinguish between an IP belonging to a data center and one that’s being exploited. (Note that Apple users browsing in Safari with Private Relay enabled will likely see “Possible Spoofed Traffic Detected,” which also is not necessarily cause for alarm. Try checking your real IP in a different browser like Chrome or Firefox to confirm.)

Credit: Emily Long

If your IP is identified as malicious or suspicious, you should investigate further. If you toggle open the Observed Activity section of the scanner, you can see when the first and last instances of the scanning behavior occurred and what types were detected along with actionable next steps.

As BleepingComputer notes, you can get into the weeds with detecting malicious activity by reviewing device logs, network traffic, and activity patterns, but checking your IP address is the simplest place to start.

The White House says it’s investigating how a personal-finance YouTuber’s livestream briefly appeared on the White House’s official live video page. The creator says he has no idea how his video ended up there. The Associated Press reports: The livestream appeared for at least eight minutes late Thursday on whitehouse.gov/live, where the White House usually streams live video of the president speaking. It’s unclear if the website was breached or the video was linked accidentally by someone in the government. The White House said in a statement that it was “aware and looking into what happened.” The video that appeared on the government-run website featured some of a more than two-hour livestream from Matt Farley, who posts as @RealMattMoney, as he answered financial questions.

Farley told The Associated Press on Friday that he had no idea what happened and learned about it after the fact. He said he had not been contacted by the government and didn’t have any theories about how his livestream ended up on the website. He joked that he hoped President Donald Trump and his youngest son, Barron Trump, “are watching my streams and taking advice.”

“Had I known it would have been on the White House website, I probably would have had other things to talk about than personal finance,” Farley said. When asked what other things he would discuss, Farley responded with a laugh and said: “What would you talk about with the world for eight minutes if you had an opportunity? I’m just some guy making YouTube videos about stocks.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Anthropic is finally letting more people use Claude in Google Chrome. The company’s AI browser plugin is expanding beyond $200-per-month Max subscribers and is now available to anyone who pays for a Claude subscription. 

The Claude Chrome plugin allows for easy access to Anthropic’s AI regardless of where you are on the web, but its real draw is how it lets Claude navigate and use websites on your behalf. Anthropic says that Claude can fill out forms, manage your calendar and email and complete multi-step workflows based on a prompt. The latest version of the plugin also features integration with Claude Code, Anthropic’s AI coding tool, and allows users to record a workflow and “teach” Claude how to do what they want it to do.

Before agents were the buzzword du jour, “computer use,” the ability for AI models to understand and interact with computer interfaces, was a major focus at Anthropic and other AI companies. Now computer use is just one tool in the larger tool bag for agents, but that understanding of what digital buttons to click and how to click them is what makes Claude’s Chrome plugin possible.

OpenAI and Perplexity offer similar agentic capabilities in their respective ChatGPT Atlas and Comet browsers. At this point the only AI company not fully setting its AI models loose on a browser is Google. You can access Gemini in Google Chrome and ask questions about a webpage, but Google hasn’t yet let its AI model navigate or use the web on a user’s behalf. Those features, first demoed in Project Mariner, are presumably on the way.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/claudes-chrome-plugin-is-now-available-to-all-paid-users-221024295.html?src=rss

The trade-off between quality and quantity is a fundamental economic dilemma. Now, a team of British, American, and Japanese researchers describes how it applies to biology, as well. They have discovered that this dilemma most likely shaped the evolutionary trajectory of ants, one of Earth’s most successful groups of organisms.

Their study reveals that, as ant societies grew in complexity and numbers, they didn’t just make their workers smaller—they also made them cheaper.

The cost of armor

In the insect world, the exoskeleton known as the cuticle serves as a protective barrier against predators, pathogens, and desiccation, while providing the structural framework for muscle attachment. But this protection comes at a price. Building a robust cuticle requires significant amounts of nitrogen and rare minerals like zinc and manganese. While skimping on armor for an individual insect may be a death sentence, the evolution of ants apparently found a way around it.

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My concentration is shot. I know this because I’ve checked my phone four times while writing this opening paragraph. I’m addicted to my phone in a way that feels both embarrassing and completely normal, which is perhaps the most damning part. My phone feels essential for everything: my job requires Slack and email responsiveness, my hobbies live in apps and group chats, and even my downtime involves scrolling through feeds I don’t actually enjoy.

These days, we tend to think of upgrades (in life, in tech, wherever) as adding features, but sometimes the real upgrade is eliminating. So I did something a little radical this year: I bricked my iPhone. Well, sort of. And it’s been the best tech decision I’ve made in years.

What I actually did to fix my concentration

We talk about phone addiction like it’s a personal failing, but cut yourself some slack. Every app, every notification, every infinite scroll is designed by engineers whose job is to keep us locked in. As such, we’ve eliminated almost all empty space from our lives, filling every waiting moment with content consumption. Waiting for the train? Scroll. In line at the store? Scroll. Between tasks at work? Scroll.

I can’t afford to go full “dumb-phone”, so I took a middle path: “demoting” my smartphone, so it functions like a dumb phone while retaining genuinely useful features like navigation, ride shares, and FaceTime. Here’s what I did:

I turned on grayscale mode. It’s amazing how boring your phone becomes when it looks like an old newspaper. That dopamine-triggering red notification badge? Just gray. Instagram’s carefully curated visual feast? Gray. Suddenly my phone looked as exciting as a filing cabinet.

I deleted the time-consuming apps. I got rid of the primary social media apps, any news apps that were really just anxiety delivery systems, and more social media apps. If I wanted to check something, I’d have to do it on my computer, which added just enough friction to make me reconsider whether I actually cared.

I turned off non-essential notifications. Actually, I turned off almost all notifications. No badges, no banners, no sounds. My phone became silent unless someone was actually calling me or texting me directly.

I started physically separating myself from my phone during focused work. It went in another room, face down in a drawer, anywhere but within arm’s reach. Out of sight, out of the dopamine loop.

How bricking my iPhone was the ultimate life hack

This might sound embarrassing, but it’s honest: at first, it felt like phantom limb syndrome. My thumb kept reaching for apps that weren’t there. I’d pull out my phone in line at the coffee shop only to stare at a blank screen and think, “Now what?” The answer, it turned out, was nothing. And that nothing was exactly what I needed.

The first week was genuinely uncomfortable. My brain kept expecting hits that weren’t coming. I felt anxious, ashamed, humbled, understimulated, almost itchy—which pretty much told me everything I needed to know about how deep the addiction ran.

Luckily, the benefits rolled in faster than I expected. Within two weeks, I noticed I could read for longer stretches. I also think my work as a creative improved. Deep work—the kind where you’re tackling genuinely hard problems—requires getting into a flow state. I need at least 20 minutes of uninterrupted focus to even enter that zone, and for me, an Instagram notification shatters it instantly. By removing the interruption infrastructure from my phone, I suddenly had whole mornings where I could think clearly.

Along with dumbing down my phone, I set an intention to become more observational again. I’d be waiting somewhere and instead of reaching for my phone, I’d just…look around. Watch people. Notice architectural details. Eavesdrop on conversations. Observe the weather shifting. It sounds small, but it completely changed my relationship with being in public spaces.

I believe boredom is where creativity lives. When your mind isn’t being constantly fed, it starts generating its own entertainment. I had ideas in the shower again. Real ideas, not just fragments borrowed from something I read online; I had original thoughts that surprised me, connections my brain made when it wasn’t being force-fed content. This sounds mundane, but I promise, it’s the opposite. This is how thinking actually works when you let it.

Especially with social media, I’d settled into this constant need to perform my life. While I still find this performance necessary to “make it” as a creative these days, I learned that most of my FOMO was an algorithm problem. You’re not actually missing out on anything important; you’re being shown a curated highlight reel designed to make you feel inadequate. Once you step out of that stream, you realize how much of it was manufactured anxiety. The things I thought I needed to keep up with turned out to be completely forgettable.

The bottom line

My bricked iPhone is a downgrade in features and an upgrade in life quality. That’s the whole story, really.

We frame phone usage as a personal responsibility issue, but that’s like blaming people for getting hooked on substances that were engineered to be addictive. Companies build their algorithms around persuasive technologies. They run A/B tests on features to maximize engagement. They know exactly what they’re doing, and what they’re doing is turning your attention into profit.

Look, I’d love to go more radical with it, but I have limits. For work, I need to be responsive—Slack messages can’t wait three hours. And I genuinely adore getting laughs in a group chat, which is a timely thing. Those moments of connection matter, and I’m not interested in becoming a total digital hermit.

But going forward, I’m desperate to keep getting my brain back. My ability to think deeply, pay attention, create meaningfully, and connect authentically—these aren’t optional luxuries. They’re the whole point.

If your phone feels like it owns you more than you own it, maybe your next upgrade isn’t a new model. Maybe it’s just making your current one a little more boring, a little less exciting, and a lot more brick-like. Your brain will thank you for it.