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Submission + - Developer Unlocks Echelon Exercise Bikes But Can't Legally Release Software (404media.co)

Submitted by samleecole
samleecole writes: An app developer has jailbroken Echelon exercise bikes to restore functionality that the company put behind a paywall last month, but copyright laws prevent him from being allowed to legally release it.

Last month, Peloton competitor Echelon pushed a firmware update to its exercise equipment that forces its machines to connect to the company’s servers in order to work properly. Echelon was popular in part because it was possible to connect Echelon bikes, treadmills, and rowing machines to free or cheap third-party apps and collect information like pedaling power, distance traveled, and other basic functionality that one might want from a piece of exercise equipment. With the new firmware update, the machines work only with constant internet access and getting anything beyond extremely basic functionality requires an Echelon subscription, which can cost hundreds of dollars a year.

Submission + - Google AIO in Violation of it's Own Spam Policies? (x.com)

Submitted by TheWho79
TheWho79 writes: A viral post on Twitter/X by Nate Hake points out that Google AI overviews violates most of Google content guidelines.

-No first-hand experience -Uses extensive automation -No expertise -Primarily summarizes what others have written

Screen shots from the Google guidelines, paint a damning picture of Google AIO as spam. In fact, many commentors said that Google AIO actually violate most — if not all — Googles own guidelines.

Submission + - Worms can't solve PVC problem: Analysis finds no sign of biochemical degradation (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: In a study led by Ph.D. student Zahra Mohammadizadeh Tahroudi, researchers from UWA's School of Molecular Sciences tested whether mealworms and superworms (insect larvae of Tenebrio molitor and Zophobas morio) could metabolize polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a highly chlorinated plastic widely used in pipes, flooring and consumer goods.

While the larvae readily consumed PVC, especially when it was softened with the common plasticizer dioctyl phthalate, detailed chemical analysis revealed no signs of biochemical degradation. Instead, the PVC proved actively toxic, with larvae showing reduced growth and survival.

Submission + - Reading For Fun Is Plummeting in The US, And Experts Are Concerned (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: When's the last time you settled down with a good book, just because you enjoyed it? A new survey shows reading as a pastime is becoming dramatically less popular in the US, which correlates with an increased consumption of other digital media, like social media and streaming services.

The survey was carried out by researchers from the University of Florida and the University of London, and charts a 40 percent decrease in daily reading for pleasure across the years 2003-2023, based on responses from 236,270 US adults.

"This is not just a small dip – it's a sustained, steady decline of about 3 percent per year," says Jill Sonke, director for the Center for the Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida. "It's significant, and it's deeply concerning."

The number of US people reading for pleasure every day peaked in 2004 at 28 percent, the researchers found, but by 2023 this was down to 16 percent. There was a silver lining though: those people who are still reading are reading for slightly longer on average.

Submission + - SpaceX succesfully launches Starship Test Flight 10 (spacex.com) 1

Submitted by Zitchas
Zitchas writes: After stopping the launch on Sunday due to a problem with ground systems, and then not being allowed to start on Monday due to storms; Starship flight 10 successfully launched and landed as planned in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday. The flight included a whole range of test items, including different tile configurations and new internal systems. There were some concerning moments, but the ship made it through. A fair amount of fire, but it successfully landed right next to the buoy cam.

Submission + - Scientists just created spacetime crystals made of knotted light (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Researchers have developed a blueprint for weaving hopfions—complex, knot-like light structures—into repeating spacetime crystals. By exploiting two-color beams, they can generate ordered chains and lattices with tunable topology, potentially revolutionizing data storage, communications, and photonic processing.

Submission + - New Sni5Gect Attack Crashes Phones + Downgrades 5G to 4G w/o rogue base station (thehackernews.com)

Submitted by beadon
beadon writes: A team of academics has devised a novel attack that can be used to downgrade a 5G connection to a lower generation without relying on a rogue base station (gNB).

The attack, per the ASSET (Automated Systems SEcuriTy) Research Group at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), relies on a new open-source software toolkit named Sni5Gect (short for "Sniffing 5G Inject") that's designed to sniff unencrypted messages sent between the base station and the user equipment (UE, i.e., a phone) and inject messages to the target UE over-the-air.

The framework can be used to carry out attacks such as crashing the UE modem, downgrading to earlier generations of networks, fingerprinting, or authentication bypass, according to Shijie Luo, Matheus Garbelini, Sudipta Chattopadhyay, and Jianying Zhou.

Submission + - Cupertino Must Stop Calling Apple Watches 'Carbon Neutral,' German Court Rules (theregister.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A German court has told Apple to stop advertising its Watches as being carbon-neutral, ruling that this was misleading and could not fly under the country's competition law. Apple has been marketing its newest smartwatches as being carbon-neutral for nearly two years now, with an array of rationales. It claims that clean energy for manufacturing, along with greener materials and shipping, lop around three-quarters off the carbon emissions for each model of the Apple Watch. The remaining emissions are offset by the purchase of carbon credits, according to Apple.

Deutsche Umwelthilfe (well, DUH – that's the acronym), a prominent environmental group, begged to differ on that last point. It applied for an injunction in May and Tuesday's ruling (in German), which will only be published in full later this week, led it to claim victory. The ruling means Apple can't advertise the Watch as a "CO2-neutral product" in Germany. [...] The ruling revolved around the Paraguayan forestry program that Apple claimed was offsetting some of the Watch's production emissions. The project involves commercial eucalyptus plantations on leased land, where the leases for three-quarters of the land will run out in 2029 with no guarantee of renewal.

According to the court, consumers' expectations of carbon compensation schemes are shaped by the prominent 2015 Paris Agreement, which commits countries to achieving carbon neutrality by the second half of this century. It said consumers would therefore "assume" that the carbon-neutrality claims around the Apple Watch would mean neutrality was assured through 2050. That leaves a 21-year gap of uncertainty in this case. The Verified Carbon Standard program, in which Apple is participating, has a "pooled buffer account" scheme to hedge against this sort of uncertainty. However, the German court was not impressed, saying it would only allow Apple to monitor the situation after the leases run out, which is a far cry from definitely being able to keep offsetting those emissions if the plantation gets cleared.

Submission + - Imgur, an image sharing website, community revolts against Medialab (imgur.com) 2

Submitted by karolgajewski
karolgajewski writes: Over the past little while, Medialabs has enshittified their latest acquisition, Imgur, to the point where the community has revolted. Overwhelming ads some with sound, have made the site more annoying to use, the notification system has failed to notify users of responses to comments, and so on. The straw that broke the community's back was heavy handed censorship of anything critical of Medialabs. This led to a user revolt using a John Oliver meme with middle fingers that is currently overwhelmingly being posted by imgurians.

Submission + - They're coming for Tor (theguardian.com) 3

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: Showing a limited understanding of what Tor is, the article blames it for allowing paedophiles to share images...

'Millions of child predators are forming sprawling online communities on the dark web using the Tor network, where criminal behavior escalates through the sharing of child sexual abuse material, grooming strategies and normalization of exploitation, experts say. Despite repeated warnings of a growing number of predators taking advantage of it, Tor’s developers have taken no action to curb the spread of this content, critics say.

'According to experts, these anonymous communities normalise child abuse, making it more likely that participants will go on to commit contact offenses against children they can access in real life.

“People will say ‘this particular victim is what has made me want to violate my own daughter’ and things like that,” said Richardson of C3P. “There’s definitely, by their own admission, this sort of escalation, and they egg each other on in these communities.”

'"Tor has a board of directors that makes decisions surrounding this, and I don’t think they’ve ever been held to account for any of this. They’re the only people who can essentially intervene, and they refuse to do so.”

Seriously?

Submission + - Gen Z and millennials struggle to pay rent, could it slow iPhone and laptop sale (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: A new Redfin report paints a troubling picture of housing affordability in America, particularly for Gen Z and millennial renters and homeowners. Seven in 10 renters in those generations say they struggle to make their regular housing payments. Even homeowners in the same age group are feeling the pressure, with 41 percent saying the same.

The study, based on a May 2025 survey of more than 4,000 U.S. adults, shows just how widespread the crunch has become. Younger generations were hit hardest, though baby boomers and Gen Xers are also affected. Over half of baby boomer renters and more than two-thirds of Gen X renters said they have a hard time making monthly payments.

To make ends meet, young renters are cutting back on eating out, with 40 percent saying they dine at restaurants less often. Nearly one-third are skipping vacations, 27 percent borrow money from family or friends, and 25 percent pick up extra shifts. Some of the most drastic measures include selling belongings, delaying medical treatments, and in more than one in five cases, skipping meals.

Millennials and Gen Zers who own their homes report similar adjustments. They are more likely than renters to cut luxuries like eating out and traveling, but fewer said they are skipping meals or putting off doctor visits to make mortgage payments. Older Americans also trim back on non-essentials. Roughly 45 percent of baby boomer and Gen X homeowners said they cut back on restaurants, and two in five reported taking no or fewer vacations.

The backdrop is a basic affordability problem. Home prices are up more than 40 percent since before the pandemic, mortgage rates have doubled, and rents have climbed more than 20 percent. Wages, on the other hand, have grown about 28 percent in the same period. Younger workers typically earn less because they are earlier in their careers. Many are also burdened with student loans and do not have equity from a previous home sale to help.

“Many Gen Zers and millennials are making real sacrifices, picking up side gigs, selling their possessions, even delaying doctor’s appointments just to pay for the basic need of housing,” said Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist. She added that “a lot of the young people who can easily afford housing can do so because they have major financial support from their parents, with roughly one-quarter of the young Americans who recently bought a home using family money for their down payments.”

Fairweather warned that with home costs rising much faster than wages, “people without access to family money are much more likely to struggle to pay for housing, which could widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots in the future.”

There are a few encouraging signs, however. Mortgage rates recently dropped to a 10-month low. Buyers now have more purchasing power and sellers are more willing to negotiate. Affordability has even improved in 11 major metro areas, including parts of California and Florida.

Jim Fletcher, a Redfin Premier agent in Tampa, Florida, explained that “the local market is slow, with builders offering incentives to entice people to buy and individual sellers willing to negotiate because there’s so much supply on the market.” He suggested that for people early in their careers, “it’s a good time to start building equity. They can get homes for less than they could have a few years ago, especially if they’re open to condos or townhouses.”

But the report also raises a larger question. If so many young people are skipping meals and delaying medical care just to afford rent, how are they still buying the latest smartphones, tablets, and laptops?

Look, folks, flagship devices now range from $800 to more than $2,000 nowadays. Even so-called budget laptops and tablets remain a serious expense. If housing continues to strain budgets, younger buyers may finally cut back on yearly gadget upgrades. That could ripple into the consumer tech industry, which depends heavily on these same demographics for steady sales.

Submission + - The impact of cannabis use on aging and longevity: a research review (biomedcentral.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Preclinical studies have shown promising results regarding the potential benefits of cannabinoids including improved lifespan, cognitive function, inflammation, memory, sleep quality, and social interaction. The effects of THC appear more complex, with potential benefits at low doses and drawbacks at higher doses, highlighting their complex role in aging.

Submission + - Young people neither in employment nor in education: 11% of youth in EU (euronews.com) 1

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Young people are key drivers of social and economic change. They are the human capital of every country. Yet, in Europe, many young people are ‘neither in employment nor in education or training’ (NEET).

In 2024, 11% of people aged 15 to 29 in the EU were NEET. The EU wants to cut this figure to below 9% by 2030. Yet, as of 2024, only 11 out of 34 European countries have already met this target.

Submission + - US Govt buys 10% stake in Intel (nytimes.com)

Submitted by timeOday
timeOday writes:

President Trump said on Friday that Intel, the troubled Silicon Valley chipmaker, had agreed to sell the U.S. government a 10 percent stake in its business, worth $8.9 billion, in one of the largest government interventions in a U.S. company since the rescue of the auto industry after the 2008 financial crisis.

At a news conference, Mr. Trump said the agreement had come out of negotiations last week with Lip-Bu Tan, Intel’s chief executive.

“I said, ‘I think it would be good having the United States as your partner.’ He agreed, and they’ve agreed to do it,” Mr. Trump said. “And I think it’s a great deal for them"

...

The government will not take a board seat or have other governance rights at Intel.

It seems surprising, only days after calling on the CEO to resign. This is on top of Biden's CHIPS act. Is the chip industry in such dire straits?

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