Comment Re:Must login to view (Score 1) 83
I think it's just if you're using old.reddit.com, I don't recall seeing anything about the regular reddit site (which is absolute trash compared to old reddit) requiring being logged in.
Submission + - Disable Autoplay and Infinite Scroll or Risk Massive Fines, EU Tells Meta (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The European Union is ramping up pressure on Meta to make big changes to Facebook and Instagram after the European Commission preliminarily found that features like autoplay, infinite scroll, and highly personalized content recommendations were addictive. On Thursday, the EC said its investigation indicated that “Meta did not adequately assess the risks of its addictive design on the physical and mental wellbeing of users, including minors and vulnerable adults.” “These features fuel the user’s urge to keep scrolling and shift the brain into ‘autopilot mode,’ contributing to unhealthy habits and compulsive use,” the commission said.
Over the next few months, Meta will have an opportunity to dispute the claims, and it has already taken a defensive stance. Meta’s spokesperson, Ben Walters, told Reuters that Meta disagrees with the commission’s preliminary findings, which supposedly “don’t accurately take into account the significant steps we’ve taken to protect teens.” “Since this investigation began, we rolled out Teen Accounts that automatically protect teens and put parents in control—allowing them to block access to Instagram at night and cap daily screen time at just 15 minutes,” Walters said. However, the EC emphasized that Meta’s current mitigation efforts, including time management tools activated by default for teens, “failed to effectively tackle the risks stemming from its addictive design.” Additionally, parental controls were deemed “only effective if parents and guardians possess adequate technical expertise” and dedicated “effort and time to understand them effectively.” “This undermines the efficiency of such measures in addressing the inherent risks posed by Instagram and Facebook’s addictive design,” the EC said, particularly for minors.
At this stage, the EC recommended that Meta consider “disabling key addictive features such as ‘autoplay’ and ‘infinite scroll’ by default, implementing effective ‘screen time breaks,’ and adapting its recommender system to make it less engagement-oriented.” If Meta fails to make changes to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act, the company risks fines up to 6 percent of its global annual turnover when the EC makes its final decision in the coming months. “Our starting point is that, based on our findings, this design is too addictive and changes need to be made,” Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s tech chief, told Reuters. “The next step is either that Meta changes its design or a non-compliance decision will follow,” she said, noting in the press release that the EU’s priority is “protecting the physical and mental health of Europeans.”
Over the next few months, Meta will have an opportunity to dispute the claims, and it has already taken a defensive stance. Meta’s spokesperson, Ben Walters, told Reuters that Meta disagrees with the commission’s preliminary findings, which supposedly “don’t accurately take into account the significant steps we’ve taken to protect teens.” “Since this investigation began, we rolled out Teen Accounts that automatically protect teens and put parents in control—allowing them to block access to Instagram at night and cap daily screen time at just 15 minutes,” Walters said. However, the EC emphasized that Meta’s current mitigation efforts, including time management tools activated by default for teens, “failed to effectively tackle the risks stemming from its addictive design.” Additionally, parental controls were deemed “only effective if parents and guardians possess adequate technical expertise” and dedicated “effort and time to understand them effectively.” “This undermines the efficiency of such measures in addressing the inherent risks posed by Instagram and Facebook’s addictive design,” the EC said, particularly for minors.
At this stage, the EC recommended that Meta consider “disabling key addictive features such as ‘autoplay’ and ‘infinite scroll’ by default, implementing effective ‘screen time breaks,’ and adapting its recommender system to make it less engagement-oriented.” If Meta fails to make changes to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act, the company risks fines up to 6 percent of its global annual turnover when the EC makes its final decision in the coming months. “Our starting point is that, based on our findings, this design is too addictive and changes need to be made,” Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s tech chief, told Reuters. “The next step is either that Meta changes its design or a non-compliance decision will follow,” she said, noting in the press release that the EU’s priority is “protecting the physical and mental health of Europeans.”
Submission + - County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'
An anonymous reader writes: County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to ‘Conserve Electricity’
‘On June 26, the County Manager of Henrico County, Virginia, John Vithoulkas, sent an email to thousands of county employees asking them to help the local government conserve electricity.
“Beginning July 1st, the rate we pay for electricity used in all Henrico County government and school facilities will increase dramatically — by 25%, increasing costs by an estimated $5 million next fiscal year. We anticipate more rate increases for electricity in the years ahead,” a copy of the email obtained by 404 Media said (emphasis his).’
‘On June 26, the County Manager of Henrico County, Virginia, John Vithoulkas, sent an email to thousands of county employees asking them to help the local government conserve electricity.
“Beginning July 1st, the rate we pay for electricity used in all Henrico County government and school facilities will increase dramatically — by 25%, increasing costs by an estimated $5 million next fiscal year. We anticipate more rate increases for electricity in the years ahead,” a copy of the email obtained by 404 Media said (emphasis his).’
Comment Re:Overpriced (Score 1) 204
Yes, definitely overpriced compared to a Tesla which has almost every "luxury" feature possible for $36K. The Tesla Model 3 even has practically double the driving range and higher towing capacity. The only possible reason to buy this truck is for cargo hauling - but at 205 miles range empty, maybe it's just for picking stuff up from Home Depot.
What?
Practically double the driving range? Hmm. 205 miles vs 321 for the base RWD M3, which is the $36k version. Yes, it is "more" miles, but not 100%, more like 60%. Even the Premium RWD model is 363, which is still pretty far from "double" and an additional $5500.
Higher towing capacity? Sure... for another $1300 tow package. And it's 2200 vs the Slate's 2000 - technically higher but barely worth considering it different.
I can't figure out why so many people seem to have made it their life's work to convince other people they don't want this truck.
Comment Re:No infotainment screen makes little sense (Score 1) 204
There's a small screen for the driver display that shows the speed, estimated range, odometer, etc. That is the backup camera screen. But it's tiny. Maybe 5" diagonal? And the rest of the display area in front of the driver is just indicator lights (drive selection and other stuff).
Comment Re:Added fees! (Score 1) 204
You mean, like how literally every other car is advertised in the US? OK.
Comment Re:REO Slate (Score 2) 204
Your post is actually the first I've heard of this one, so I poked around a little.
Literally nothing I found instilled any confidence this guy will be delivering any trucks. At all. It almost reads like a ploy to scam money out of people who are anti-Slate and playing up as much as possible about the differences between the gas and electric. Just reading the "how it stacks up" section on their website tells me everything I need to know about their intentions.
Somehow the "gas I4" is "proven" - but they don't say what engine it is or will be, but it's already "proven" (and never mind the 500k mile "powertrain life" claim). The REO seats "up to 6" but for the Slate, 5 "costs extra". Are they trying to imply the double cab or SUV version of the REO will be the same price as the 2-door pickup? Good luck with that. And the big-ticket repair? Surely an engine failure would be considered a big-ticket repair and not "affordable" for the REO, no? If the battery on an EV is "$$$$", so is the I4. And let's just ignore the 10 yr/110k mile battery warranty for the Slate. Are these people going to warranty their engine for 10 years (or maybe the 500k miles they claim for the powertrain life)? I also don't quite buy the 600 mile range of the REO - that would require, at a minimum, a 24 gallon tank (using their estimated 25 mpg) - which would be HUGE for a truck that size. Where do they plan to put that? That's way bigger than any current mid-size pickup and this thing is supposed to be a lot smaller than those.
And I'm just going to otherwise ignore the out-of-date other specs for the Slate. Sure, they were just officially updated yesterday - but there's no way anyone at REO doesn't already know that.
There's usual marketing speak and then there's just plain deception and bullshit.
Having said all of that, if they can manage to produce something at least close to the specs they're claiming, close to the timeline they're projecting, and close to the price they're estimating, that would be great. We need more disruption in the US auto industry, of any kind. But I just don't see a single reason to believe anything will actually happen with it - especially at $21k (more than 2 years from now). I hope they prove me wrong though.
Website: https://reotrucks.com/
Submission + - MAGAs Are Fuming After Email Confirms They Will Never Get Their $500 Trump Phone (ibtimes.co.uk)
ArchieBunker writes: Nearly 600,000 Trump supporters paid £74 ($100) each towards a gold smartphone that, nearly a year on, does not exist.
The Trump Mobile T1 phone was announced in June 2025 by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump as a patriotic alternative to Apple and Samsung, retailing at £370 ($499) and promising a 'Made in the USA' build.
An estimated 590,000 buyers paid a £74 ($100) deposit to secure one, collectively handing the venture roughly £43.7 million ($59 million). As of May 2026, not a single confirmed customer has received the device. Now, a fresh wave of anger is spreading across MAGA forums after buyers received communication making clear that their money is, for all practical purposes, gone.
Trump Mobile launched on 16 June 2025 at an announcement at Trump Tower, headlined by the president's two eldest sons and timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign launch. The T1 was marketed as a gold-coloured Android handset bearing an American flag on its back and bundled with a monthly service plan at £37.50 ($47.45) per month. Initial delivery was promised for late summer 2025.
That deadline slipped to November 2025, then December, then the first quarter of 2026. A mid-March 2026 T-Mobile carrier certification deadline also passed without resolution. By April 2026, Trump Mobile quietly redesigned its website, removing the release date entirely rather than replacing it with a new one.
NBC News, which placed its own £74 ($100) deposit in August 2025 to track the story, called Trump Mobile's support line five times between September and November 2025 and received inconsistent answers each time. A representative said in October that the phone would ship on 13 November, but it did not.
In January 2026, a call centre operator said the T1 was 'in the final stages of certification and field testing,' with a ship date 'sometime in Q1 2026.' That quarter has now passed. At one point, customer service representatives blamed a 43-day federal government shutdown for the delay, an explanation analysts quickly dismissed as irrelevant to a private-sector hardware company.
The clearest signal yet that buyers may never see either a phone or their money came with a revised terms of service published on 6 April 2026. The updated document states explicitly that paying a deposit 'does not constitute a completed purchase and does not create a binding legal contract.' The payment is described as 'a conditional opportunity to buy the device if Trump Mobile eventually chooses to sell it,' with the company retaining all control over whether a phone is produced at all.
The terms confirm that deposits will not accrue interest, are non-transferable and carry no independent cash value. Buyers who wish to cancel must submit a request through customer support before any final sale is completed. If Trump Mobile cancels the project outright, it says it will issue refunds of the original deposit amount. The fine print adds, however, that the company bears no liability for delays caused by 'parts shortages or hold-ups with regulators,' and that buyers waive any right to pursue claims beyond the original deposit figure.
Investigative journalist Joseph Cox of 404 Media, who attempted to place a deposit when pre-orders opened, found the process immediately chaotic. His card was charged the wrong amount, no shipping address was ever collected, and a confirmation email arrived promising delivery notifications that never came. Cox called it 'the worst experience I've ever faced buying a consumer electronic product.' He subsequently reported unauthorised recurring charges being levied against customers' cards.
Android Authority, which placed its own deposit in 2025 and has tracked the story since, wrote in January 2026 that it fully expected to 'never get a phone' and 'never see the $100 deposit again.'
The T1 was sold from day one on the strength of a single, politically loaded promise: it would be built in America. Within days of the June 2025 launch, that language vanished from the Trump Mobile website. 'MADE IN THE USA' became 'American-proud design,' then 'Brought to life right here in the USA,' language that supply chain experts noted was legally and commercially meaningless.
By February 2026, company executives confirmed to reporters that the T1 would not be manufactured in the United States. Final assembly of roughly the last ten components would take place in Miami, while bulk production would happen overseas. In the meantime, Trump Mobile began selling refurbished iPhones, made in China, and Samsung devices, made by a South Korean company, under the same 'American' branding umbrella.
In January 2026, Senator Elizabeth Warren and ten other Democratic lawmakers wrote formally to the Federal Trade Commission, asking the agency to investigate 'bait-and-switch tactics involving deposits for products never delivered' and to determine whether Trump Mobile's 'Made in the USA' advertising constituted false claims. The letter, co-led by Representative Robert Garcia of California, also asked the FTC to confirm whether the White House had communicated with the agency about the venture. 'The American people deserve to know that consumer protection laws apply equally to all businesses, regardless of political connections,' the lawmakers wrote.
As of May 2026, the FTC has not publicly confirmed whether a formal investigation has been opened. Trump Mobile has not responded to multiple press inquiries. California Governor Gavin Newsom's office weighed in publicly, describing the T1 project as appearing to be 'FRAUD.'
For nearly 600,000 Americans who trusted a brand built on the Trump name, the gold phone has become the latest entry in a long record of ventures that took their money and delivered nothing.
The Trump Mobile T1 phone was announced in June 2025 by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump as a patriotic alternative to Apple and Samsung, retailing at £370 ($499) and promising a 'Made in the USA' build.
An estimated 590,000 buyers paid a £74 ($100) deposit to secure one, collectively handing the venture roughly £43.7 million ($59 million). As of May 2026, not a single confirmed customer has received the device. Now, a fresh wave of anger is spreading across MAGA forums after buyers received communication making clear that their money is, for all practical purposes, gone.
Trump Mobile launched on 16 June 2025 at an announcement at Trump Tower, headlined by the president's two eldest sons and timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign launch. The T1 was marketed as a gold-coloured Android handset bearing an American flag on its back and bundled with a monthly service plan at £37.50 ($47.45) per month. Initial delivery was promised for late summer 2025.
That deadline slipped to November 2025, then December, then the first quarter of 2026. A mid-March 2026 T-Mobile carrier certification deadline also passed without resolution. By April 2026, Trump Mobile quietly redesigned its website, removing the release date entirely rather than replacing it with a new one.
NBC News, which placed its own £74 ($100) deposit in August 2025 to track the story, called Trump Mobile's support line five times between September and November 2025 and received inconsistent answers each time. A representative said in October that the phone would ship on 13 November, but it did not.
In January 2026, a call centre operator said the T1 was 'in the final stages of certification and field testing,' with a ship date 'sometime in Q1 2026.' That quarter has now passed. At one point, customer service representatives blamed a 43-day federal government shutdown for the delay, an explanation analysts quickly dismissed as irrelevant to a private-sector hardware company.
The clearest signal yet that buyers may never see either a phone or their money came with a revised terms of service published on 6 April 2026. The updated document states explicitly that paying a deposit 'does not constitute a completed purchase and does not create a binding legal contract.' The payment is described as 'a conditional opportunity to buy the device if Trump Mobile eventually chooses to sell it,' with the company retaining all control over whether a phone is produced at all.
The terms confirm that deposits will not accrue interest, are non-transferable and carry no independent cash value. Buyers who wish to cancel must submit a request through customer support before any final sale is completed. If Trump Mobile cancels the project outright, it says it will issue refunds of the original deposit amount. The fine print adds, however, that the company bears no liability for delays caused by 'parts shortages or hold-ups with regulators,' and that buyers waive any right to pursue claims beyond the original deposit figure.
Investigative journalist Joseph Cox of 404 Media, who attempted to place a deposit when pre-orders opened, found the process immediately chaotic. His card was charged the wrong amount, no shipping address was ever collected, and a confirmation email arrived promising delivery notifications that never came. Cox called it 'the worst experience I've ever faced buying a consumer electronic product.' He subsequently reported unauthorised recurring charges being levied against customers' cards.
Android Authority, which placed its own deposit in 2025 and has tracked the story since, wrote in January 2026 that it fully expected to 'never get a phone' and 'never see the $100 deposit again.'
The T1 was sold from day one on the strength of a single, politically loaded promise: it would be built in America. Within days of the June 2025 launch, that language vanished from the Trump Mobile website. 'MADE IN THE USA' became 'American-proud design,' then 'Brought to life right here in the USA,' language that supply chain experts noted was legally and commercially meaningless.
By February 2026, company executives confirmed to reporters that the T1 would not be manufactured in the United States. Final assembly of roughly the last ten components would take place in Miami, while bulk production would happen overseas. In the meantime, Trump Mobile began selling refurbished iPhones, made in China, and Samsung devices, made by a South Korean company, under the same 'American' branding umbrella.
In January 2026, Senator Elizabeth Warren and ten other Democratic lawmakers wrote formally to the Federal Trade Commission, asking the agency to investigate 'bait-and-switch tactics involving deposits for products never delivered' and to determine whether Trump Mobile's 'Made in the USA' advertising constituted false claims. The letter, co-led by Representative Robert Garcia of California, also asked the FTC to confirm whether the White House had communicated with the agency about the venture. 'The American people deserve to know that consumer protection laws apply equally to all businesses, regardless of political connections,' the lawmakers wrote.
As of May 2026, the FTC has not publicly confirmed whether a formal investigation has been opened. Trump Mobile has not responded to multiple press inquiries. California Governor Gavin Newsom's office weighed in publicly, describing the T1 project as appearing to be 'FRAUD.'
For nearly 600,000 Americans who trusted a brand built on the Trump name, the gold phone has become the latest entry in a long record of ventures that took their money and delivered nothing.
Comment Re:aka (Score 1) 133
His backing bank is probably going to lose a bunch of money by offering rates like this, which makes me think that's going to be a "promotional" rate that goes away quickly.
I suspect there will be some limitations and/or requirements to the 6% rate... kind of like T-Mobile Money has a limit to it's "higher than average" interest rate (it's 4% for the first $3k and 2.5% beyond that). So if you have more than $3k in there, you're actually getting less than a good HYSA will give you. I'm not sure if they still do, but T-Mobile also had other requirements to even qualify for the 4% rate (like a minimum number of debit transactions per month, last I recall).
Comment Re:Your money is TOTALLY safe in X (Score 4, Funny) 133
The argument will be that its not a bank
100%. They will fight tooth and nail to not be considered a bank (and therefore not have to be regulated as one). Though, really, at this point in the game of US politics, even if they do try to regulate it, he can surely just offer a "donation" to kill any potential enforcement - or even kill the regulation itself.
Comment Re: aka (Score 4, Insightful) 133
People who don't make all of life's decisions based on partisan politics.
If hating nazis and making choices to not fund their nonsense is "partisan politics"
And honestly, that's before you consider all of the lies and delays and missed deadlines and shifted goalposts of his entire "robotaxi" concept that may never actually happen at scale.
Comment Re:aka (Score 4, Insightful) 133
WeChat clone
Yes... like is specifically called out in the OP already.
I have similar thoughts about this kind of service as I do Tesla's someday "robotaxi" service... who is going to use it but a limited number of diehard fanboys? There's no way it becomes a de-facto anything if such a large portion of the population hates you and refuses to use any of your services or give you money. He might have had a chance 4-5 years ago before he REALLY went off the deep end... but now? No fucking way.
Comment Re:10 activations (Score 1) 65
Based on what I was reading in one of the reddit threads yesterday about this, if you message them when you reach the limit, they'll add more. Not sure what the point of a limit is if that's what you're going to do anyway, but that was called out by someone that supposedly formats their computer "often". I think it was in
Comment Re:Eww (Score 1) 66
Just seems like an ad pretending to be a story. There's already ways of finding this out.
This guy submits all of his own stories just spamming his own website and they keep getting posted. So it may not directly be an ad for this Little Snitch, but it's definitely "nerds.xyz" spam.
Comment Re:Not much but there are upgrades... (Score 1) 39
I was going by this: https://arstechnica.com/gadget...
Also here: https://9to5google.com/2026/02...
Gizmodo is trash anyway.
