Mercedes-Benz is pausing the roll-out of Drive Pilot, an “eyes off” conditionally automated driving feature that was available in Europe and the US. From a report: As first reported by German publication Handelsblatt, the revised S-Class will not have the Level 3 system when it arrives at the end of this month. Mercedes was one of the first automakers to offer a Level 3 driving system to its customers when it launched Drive Pilot with the electric EQS sedan and the gas-powered S-Class in the fall of 2023. At up to 40mph in traffic jam situations on highways, Drive Pilot provided hands-free, eyes-off driving that allows the driver to look away from the road at something else, like a game or a movie.

It was big leap up from hands-free Level 2 systems — Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) included — which still require the driver to be in full control, looking ahead and paying attention while the system is active. But now Mercedes says it is temporarily scrapping the feature, citing middling demand and the high production costs of developing the technology.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

President Trump asked Elon Musk to get Starlink working more reliably in Iran to thwart the Iranian government’s Internet shutdown. Starlink operator SpaceX was apparently already working on the problem before Trump reached out to Musk.

Iran severed Internet connections and phone lines last week as the government conducted a violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrators, according to numerous reports, which say that thousands of people have been killed.

Starlink hasn’t been completely disabled. The government’s jamming technology has reportedly caused Starlink packet loss of anywhere from 30 to 80 percent.

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I have taught spin classes for four years, but the majority of my friends have never taken one—they’re just not “class” people. Everyone works out differently and classes are a very specific kind of experience. I take a class nearly every day, whether in-person or using my Peloton, so obviously I am firmly in the pro-class category, but I can understand why being blabbed at by an instructor wouldn’t motivate some people. I learned recently, though, that Peloton offers a solution to those who don’t enjoy all the yap: You can actually customize how much of their in-app instructors you hear, so whether you want to pay close attention to cues or hear practically nada from the teacher, you can make it happen, creating a truly custom “class” experience.

How to customize instructor volume on Peloton

If you’re using a Peloton machine, like the Bike or the Tread, locate the volume buttons on your touchscreen. When you press them, not only can you control the overall volume output of the class you’re taking, but you get options like Boost instructor and Customize. When you tap Customize, you’re presented with a slider that can reduce the volume of the instructor down to practically nothing or boost them so they’re significantly louder than the music in the class’s playlist.

On the mobile app, you have a similar option for classes that don’t require the brand’s proprietary cardio equipment, though it’s not always as customizable. First, load up a class (like stretching or yoga). The video of the instructor walking you through it will start to play. Tap the video itself and you’ll get a menu of icons that show what appears to be a phone turning on its side (to play the video full-screen), a volume slider, a Bluetooth caster to enable AirPlay across other devices in the area, and a speech bubble for subtitles. Tap that volume slider, the second icon from the left. It opens an Audio Mix box that allows you to choose whether you want Music Boosted or Instructor Boosted. You can’t control the mix between the music and the instructor as precisely as you can when you’re using the equipment, but you can at least prioritize the music or the teacher.

Credit: Peloton/Lindsey Ellefson

Why you’d want to do this and what to keep in mind

Some of Peloton’s instructors are notoriously chatty. Personally, I think it’s endearing and I see nothing wrong with the parasocial relationships it creates if those motivate someone to hop on their Bike more often. The instructors are beamed into hundreds of thousands of homes every month and are akin to celebrities, so it’s good for marketing and engagement if users feel connected to them, especially because at-home workouts are otherwise pretty isolating (although Peloton offers plenty of other ways to replicate the feeling of connectedness you get from in-person classes, like Teams competitions).

Still, some people aren’t trying to replicate that feeling; they just want to work out by themselves with no chatter. Usually, that means loading up your own music or taking one of Peloton’s scenic rides, but the trade-off there is that you don’t get a well-planned workout designed by a professional trainer, like you do when you take an instructor-led class. You trade the suggested resistance and speed for something self-paced, which can be detrimental to motivation or effort. By cutting down the volume of the instructor’s mic and amplifying the playlist, you get to take a real class, follow along with the resistance and speed cues on the screen, and listen to a playlist you don’t have to bother curating. If you don’t care what a teacher had for breakfast but do care to follow along with a 45-minute progressive push because it aligns with your fitness goals, turning down the instructor volume could be for you.

That said, there is a reason these classes are instructor-led. Teachers are certified for a reason and the ones on high-profile platforms like Peloton are well-credentialed. They provide safety cues, insights into why playlists and rides are structured the way they are, and helpful information you can carry into your self-led workouts—plus motivation when you need it. I wouldn’t recommend cutting out the instructor volume if you’re a beginner. There is value in hearing what a pro has to say about form, speed, and self-pacing. You should only cut it out if you’re a seasoned rider with good form and a solid understanding of your own abilities and limits. That said, if you’re just getting started with Peloton and have concerns about your form or understanding of the workouts, it might even be worth it for you to use this feature the opposite way, prioritizing the instructor feed and deprioritizing the music. Riding to the beat will come in time, but doing it safely and effectively is most important.

If you’re a newbie and you don’t like instructor chatter, I recommend filtering your classes so you only take ones from the less-talkative teachers, like Ben Alldis, Sam Yo, Matt Wilpers, and Leanne Hainsby. It might take you some time to find the instructor whose methods align best with your interests and motivators, but it’s worth it. You can also take specialty Metrics classes, which are designed to focus more heavily on performance metrics like cadence, resistance, and output. Those have less talking overall.

If you were to do a cost-benefit analysis of your lunch, it would be pretty difficult to do the calculation without the sandwich. But it appears that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving in this same direction—removing the benefit—when it comes to air pollution regulations.

According to a New York Times report based on internal emails and documents—and demonstrated by a recently produced analysis on the EPA website—the EPA is changing its cost-benefit analysis process for common air pollutants. Instead of comparing the economic cost of a certain pollution limit to an estimate of the economic value of the resulting improvements in human health, the EPA will just qualitatively describe health benefits while carefully quantifying economic costs.

Cost-benefit analysis has been a key component of EPA regulations. Any decision to raise or lower air quality standards or pollution limits includes evaluations of the cost that change, like the addition of new pollution control equipment at power plants, would incur, for example.

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Taiwanese officials have issued an arrest warrant for OnePlus CEO Pete Lau on allegations of illegally employing workers in Taiwan. Two Taiwanese citizens who worked for Lau have also been indicted. The China-based smartphone company has been accused of illegally recruiting more than 70 engineers from Taiwan. 

Members of the Shilin District Prosecutors Office claim that OnePlus reportedly set up a shell company in Hong Kong with a distinct name, then launched a branch in Taiwan in 2015 without government approval. The branch reportedly worked on research and development for OnePlus mobile phones. Taiwanese officials claim these actions by OnePlus violated the Cross-Strait Act, which is designed as a guide for relations between Taiwan and mainland China. One of the act’s provisions requires Chinese companies to obtain permission from the Taiwanese government to hire workers from Taiwan.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/taiwan-issues-arrest-warrant-for-pete-lau-ceo-of-oneplus-185400997.html?src=rss

The internet is a wild place, and not particularly kid-friendly. Unfortunately, it’s highly impractical to keep your kids entirely off the web. That’s where family accounts come in handy: Parents can set their kids up with supervised accounts, giving them access to essential apps and services, without allowing unfettered access to the entire net. It’s often imperfect, and kids find workarounds for the guardrails, but still; it’s better than nothing.

Every company that offers a family account handles things differently. Meta, for example, continues to update their policies in the wake of criticism surrounding how addictive and harmful their apps can be for children. These days, teens have to deal with a number of limitations they didn’t previously have: While users 16 and older can remove these limitations if they wish, those under 16 need a parent’s consent to do so. That means things like screen time, going live on Instagram, and DMs are all blocked and controlled by the parent for users 15 and under.

If you’re the administrator of a Google Family Account, you might assume you have a similar level of control over your kids’ Google accounts. Perhaps you imagine it’s like Meta: When they’re old enough, maybe something like 16, they can decide for themselves what level of access they have on their account, but until then, you’d have the final say. As it turns out, that’s not the case. In fact, you really only have that control until your kid turns 13.

Google Accounts are available for users 13 and up

I first came across this issue from this LinkedIn post from user Melissa McKay. McKay, frustrated, shared how she received an email from Google, alerting her that her youngest child will soon have the option to remove supervision on their Google Account once they turn 13. According to the attached screenshots, the email says that once the child turns 13, they’ll be able to access more Google apps and services, and customize their Google Account to make it their own. McKay summed up her discontent with the following: “Call it what it is. Grooming for engagement. Grooming for data. Grooming minors for profit.”

The post currently has over 6,400 reactions on LinkedIn, which is relatively viral for the platform. Since I don’t have kids, this is the first I’m hearing about these rules. But a quick search pulls up Google’s official support doc on the subject. Indeed, when a child turns 13 (or an applicable age due to the law of the country or region) they are given the choice to either continue on with parental supervision, or manage their own Google Account.

Here’s what that means for your child:

• They’ll no longer have access to YouTube Kids, but will have access to general YouTube. Google will also disable supervised YouTube experiences.

• They’ll be able to add payment cards to Google Wallet or Google Pay, and can remove cards from their phone or watch, as well.

• They’ll be able to use these cards for tap to pay, in-app payments, website payments via Google Pay, autofill, as well as various payments across Google services, like the Play Store and YouTube.

And here’s what that means for you, as their parent:

• You can no longer set up supervision features like downtime, app blocking, or mandatory location sharing. (Your child can choose to share their location, if they want to.)

• You can no longer see your child’s transactions or get notifications when they make new purchases.

• You can’t add or remove payment cards for your kid.

• You can’t block their access to Wallet passes.

Of course, these changes are contingent on your child’s decision to remove the supervision. They can choose to keep it on, and, as such, you can continue to monitor and administer your kid’s account. However, I can imagine many 13 year olds will choose to remove supervision, unless they’re particularly agreeable. As such, you effectively lose control when your child does turn 13.

Interestingly, Google says that once a child removes supervision without your permission, their device is locked “temporarily.” It’s not clear whether this means that the parent device needs to unlock the device, or if this just a cool down period, and the device will unlock on its own. I’ve reached out to Google for clarity here.

Not all Google services are available for minors

Even though Google allows kids to lift restrictions when they turn 13, they don’t have total access to all of Google’s services. According to this support doc, there are some key age-restricted content and services that require users to be 18 or older, including:

• Age-restricted YouTube videos

• AdSense

• Google Ads

That’s it, at least according to Google’s safety doc. I’ve reached out to Google again for clarity on what other restrictions are in place on accounts between ages 13 and 18, and will update this article when I know more.

Google is changing its family link age policy

This is all changing, however. Kate Charlet, Google’s head of global privacy, safety, and security, posted on LinkedIn as well, acknowledging the current policy and asserting that Google has changes in the works. Soon enough, Google will require both the child and the parent to agree to lift supervision. That should help parents who aren’t ready to let their 13 year old access standard YouTube and other Google services without their permission.

Of course, for parents that have already received an email about their kids reaching “the age of digital consent,” this might not offer much solace.

Apple’s professional creative apps have been slower to jump on the subscription bandwagon than those from Adobe or some of its other competitors, but the company is taking a step in that direction today. Starting on January 28, Apple will offer an Apple Creator Studio subscription for $13 a month, or $130 a year. Subscribers will get access to the Mac and (where applicable) iPad versions of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage, as well as “intelligent features and premium content” for the Mac, iPad, and iPhone versions of Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and Freeform.

Apple says it will also offer a one-month free trial for the subscription and a discounted version for students at $3 a month, or $30 a year.

Most of the apps also seem to be getting small feature updates to go along with the Creator Studio announcement. Final Cut will get a new Transcript Search feature that will allow you to dig through video footage by searching for specific dialogue, and a new Montage Maker feature “will analyze and edit together a dynamic video based on the best visual moments within the footage.” An updated Logic Pro “helps creators deliver original music for their video content” and adds a synth player to the app’s lineup of “AI Session Players.”

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Every self-respecting DIYer eventually buys a tool box—a sturdy place to store, organize, and protect your valuable tools. A quality metal tool box instantly ups your home maintenance and repair game—suddenly, you no longer have to spend twenty minutes rooting around for that pair of pliers or that box of random screws, because everything is in its place. And that place can often roll around and follow you to wherever you need to work.

Tool boxes are terrific, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be improved and augmented. Whether your tool box is a small, efficient unit or a behemoth with deep drawers and pull-out trays, you could be getting more out of it with a few simple additions. If you’re looking to squeeze a little more juice out of your tool box set-up, here are the tool box accessories you should be considering.

Spray can caddies

I used to keep all the spray cans in my life—the lubricants, adhesives, and paints—on a little shelf in my work room, and they kept being knocked off onto the floor. And, inevitably, I would already be knee-deep in a project when I realized I needed one of them, and I would have to troop back to my tool closet to grab them. Instead of doing that, invest in a spray can caddy like these. They slap onto the side of your metal tool box and hold all your cans of paint or WD-40 so they’re always at hand and never lost.

Power tool holders

You often need more than one drill, driver, or blower for a job, and having them scattered all over the work site is never ideal. This magnetic power tool holder slaps onto the side of your tool box and makes it easy to slot in up to three tools for easy access. This also keeps those bulky tools out of the tool box itself, freeing up space for more tools while ensuring that your power tools are always in the same spot when you need them.

Wrench and plier organizers

We all know what happens to wrenches and pliers in your standard tool box: They get shoved into a drawer and jumbled up, and you spend more time picking through them trying to find the size you need than you do actually using them. A magnetic organizer like this one solves that problem, at least for your wrenches, keeping them easily accessible and organized. Interior organizers like this also make sense, and can accommodate pliers as well as wrenches, keeping things tidy in your tool box’s drawers and saving you a little time whenever you grab one—time that adds up over the course of a project.

KZKOO 52-Tool Modular Wrench Organizer Wrench Holder, 1-Pack Plier Organizer Rack Set, Wrench Storage Set with Metric SAE Label, Extendable Design,Customizable Wrench Organizer Set for Tool Box

$19.99
at Amazon

$19.99
at Amazon

Shelves and towel holders

Nothing is more useful on a tool box than accessories that let you temporarily store stuff. A folding shelf like this one designed for Milwaukee’s popular Packout Tool Box is incredibly useful when you need to have hand tools or fasteners in reach. If you can’t find a shelf designed for your specific tool box, there are magnetic kits like this that will work with any metal tool box, giving you some quick storage when you need it. One genius thing included in that kit is the towel holder—the simple convenience of being able to grab a paper towel as needed is worth every penny. You can also find magnetic towel holders on their own if that’s the only thing your tool box lacks.

Power strips

Cordless power tools may have mostly freed us from the outlet—but not every tool can (or should) be cordless, and sometimes you need a handy power source. Adding a magnetic power strip to the exterior or interior of your tool box means you can plug in that legacy corded tool, charge up batteries, or plug in anything else you might need, from lights to your dying phone.

Tool strips

You probably have a magnetic tool holder in your workshop or tool closet already, so why not add one to your tool box? Aside from giving you more storage options, a magnetic strip lets you slap your tools into place as you need them, without losing them in the depths of a drawer or leaving them behind when you drop them on the floor and move away as you work.

Cup holder

Honestly, cup holders should be built into everything. Having a beverage at hand while you work—whether it’s water to hydrate, coffee to wake and warm up, or a beer to settle your nerves after discovering yet another disaster brewing in your house, a simple magnetic cup holder for your tool box just makes every DIY project a little nicer.

CRAFTSMAN Garage Organizer, Magnetic Cup Holder (CMST82694)

$17.30
at Amazon

$17.30
at Amazon

Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip, died today of prostate cancer at 68.

Adams satirized the world of cubicle-based IT and engineering in Dilbert, which at its height appeared in 2,000 daily newspapers and was later anthologized in numerous books.

Dilbert was an engineer with few social skills, but he always knew more than his pointy-haired boss, a caricature of terrible supervisors everywhere who managed to make the life of those who actually knew what they were doing—the engineers—much harder than it needed to be.

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When it comes to gaming monitors, having an ultra-wide curved screen takes the experience to the next level, with a more immersive experience than a regular monitor. Unfortunately, that improved experience tends to come at a much higher price. But there are budget monitors that go on sale, making it much more affordable to upgrade your gaming without hurting your wallet too much. Samsung is currently selling its 34-inch Samsung Odyssey G5 for $279.99 (originally $399.99).

Samsung 34-Inch Odyssey G5 Ultra-Wide Gaming Monitor

$279.99
at Amazon

$399.99
Save $120.00

$279.99
at Amazon

$399.99
Save $120.00

The Samsung Odyssey G5 is a great ultra-wide monitor for those who haven’t used one before, with all the important specs you’d want while keeping the price relatively low. Other high-end, bigger ultra-wide monitors go upwards of $700, like the Odyssey OLED G9. Those are much bigger and offer OLED quality visuals, though.

The Odyssey G5 comes with a 1000R curve, which Samsung claims is optimal to avoid eye strain. Your media will be displayed on a 21:9 aspect ratio and 3440×1440 resolution, which means if you watch videos that are not compatible with that ratio, it’ll have some black space on the sides to prevent it from looking stretched. You also get a 165Hz refresh rate and native FreeSync variable refresh rate (VRR) support, helping fast games look smoother. The input lag is 1ms, which is very fast for a budget gaming monitor. It’s also compatible with HDR10, so watching movies or shows will look good, but mostly in dark rooms since the HDR peak brightness isn’t very high.