All posts tagged: Cutting

These 3 buried Android Auto settings stopped my phone from cutting out in the car

These 3 buried Android Auto settings stopped my phone from cutting out in the car

Published by skeptic

Driving through a tunnel or under a lot of trees should not turn your car’s dashboard into a strobe light. When your dashboard system constantly flickers between light and dark modes, it becomes an active distraction that pulls your attention away from the road. This is just one of many ways Android Auto fails when it tries to be too smart for its own good. By letting the car and phone fight over sensor data, resolution, and wireless signals, you get a system that stutters or disconnects at the worst possible moments. You can take back control with a few tweaks in some hidden menus you can tweak. Related I fixed my Android Auto lag and the cause was embarrassingly simple I spent months blaming my car for Android Auto lag — it was my USB cable, and you’re probably making the same mistake. Pick a mode and stick to it Day or night mode, not in between By default, Android Auto lets your car decide whether to show light or dark mode, based on …

Magistrates courts are already under huge amounts of pressure – cutting jury trials will make things worse

Magistrates courts are already under huge amounts of pressure – cutting jury trials will make things worse

Published by Sam Flores

Proposals to cut the use of jury trials for most offences would be one of the most significant legal reforms in UK history. The government’s plans have prompted much debate in legal circles and beyond – mainly around whether they go against the UK’s democratic principles. The government’s hope is that reducing jury trials will address the growing backlog of cases in the Crown Court. But the proposals included in the courts and tribunals bill suggest that many more cases would be dealt with in magistrates courts instead of Crown Courts. The bill proposes removing people’s ability to choose a jury trial in certain types of cases. It also introduces a new tier of Crown Court, in which cases will be tried by one judge alone. To further restrict the number of cases reaching Crown Courts, the bill proposes significantly increasing magistrates’ sentencing powers, and restricting the ability to appeal magistrates court decisions. Why magistrates courts are under pressure Magistrates courts are already the workhorses of the English and Welsh criminal justice system. Cases are …

Free streaming apps that replace YouTube TV for cord cutting in 2026

Free streaming apps that replace YouTube TV for cord cutting in 2026

Published by skeptic

YouTube TV offered a lot, including a clean interface, a solid channel lineup, and unlimited DVR storage for $82.99 a month. But as costs rose, I realized I needed to seriously weigh whether what I got was worth it. I was paying nearly $1,000 a year for a service I used mainly for background noise, some live sports, and network TV shows available elsewhere. So I canceled it. That was four months ago, and I haven’t looked back. Here are the three free apps I use now — and how they stack up against what I gave up. Related I replaced my entire streaming setup with a $30 device and free apps Embracing a simpler streaming setup can save you money and reduce subscription fatigue without sacrificing high-quality entertainment. YouTube TV kept getting more expensive — and I kept watching less of it The subscription audit that changed my mind The price was the main reason, but I also kept watching the same few channels, most of which were available for free with some effort. …

Ukraine Regained Territory After Cutting Russia’s Black Market Starlink Terminals

Ukraine Regained Territory After Cutting Russia’s Black Market Starlink Terminals

Published by Jenni Sidey

According to a newly declassified U.S. defense intelligence assessment first reported by Bloomberg, Moscow’s frontline command-and-control structures suffered a catastrophic blackout earlier this year due largely to coordinated crackdown that disabled thousands of black market Russian Starlink terminals. The Pentagon document highlights just how deeply Russian forces had come to rely on Elon Musk’s commercial satellite terminals to patch over their own spotty military communication systems. For months, Russian units bypassed international sanctions via shadow supply networks to source the hardware. The Friday Bloomberg report claims that a “Ukrainian offensive against Russia earlier this year retook about 400 square kilometers after thousands of portable Starlink internet terminals operated by Russian forces were deactivated,” citing analysis from the US Defense Intelligence Agency.  The document, authored jointly by the DIA and US European Command, states that “Russian military capabilities in Ukraine were temporarily yet significantly degraded following Ukrainian officials’ efforts in February to deactivate thousands of Starlink terminals that were illicitly used by Russian forces to coordinate movements and unmanned aircraft strikes in areas where communications were …

Electric Company Says It’s Cutting Off an Entire Town So It Can Sell All Its Power to Data Centers

Electric Company Says It’s Cutting Off an Entire Town So It Can Sell All Its Power to Data Centers

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech The data center scramble feeding off the AI boom is no longer just raising utility prices for nearby civilians — it’s rerouting their utilities entirely. Bombshell new reporting by Fortune details the plight of residents in Lake Tahoe, on the border of California and Nevada, whose electrical supplier is cutting them off in order to supply more energy to nearby data centers. According to the magazine, Nevada-based utility company NV Energy gave residents notice that they’ll stop providing power after May of 2027. That leaves California-based energy transmission company Liberty Utilities with a major gap in its supply chain, because NV Energy supplied 75 percent of its total power. To understand exactly what’s going on, we have to untangle the mess of transmission lines and energy suppliers that makes up the US electrical grid. Taking a look on Open Infrastructure Map, an open source tool for mapping the world’s utility infrastructure, it’s clear NV Energy supplies the bulk …

Eurovision Defends Cutting Pro-Palestine Protests From Israel YouTube Clip

Eurovision Defends Cutting Pro-Palestine Protests From Israel YouTube Clip

Published by Sam Flores

Noam Bettan on stage during this year’s Eurovision semi-final Eurovision bosses have spoken out after fans noticed that pro-Palestine protests had been cut from the Israeli act’s performance video on the contest’s official YouTube channel. On Tuesday night, Israel’s Eurovision representative Noam Bettan sang his entry Michelle during the live semi-finals in Basel, Austria. During the opening section of his live performance, chants of “stop the genocide” – and, reportedly, “free Palestine” – could be heard coming from the audience. However, when footage of Noam’s rendition was uploaded to YouTube, it was quickly noticed that Eurovision had removed the audio of these protests. A spokesperson for the contest told Middle Eastern Eye that this decision was made as they “believe the focus of the Eurovision Song Contest should be on artists and music”. Earlier this week, a rep confirmed: “[Austrian’s national broadcaster] ORF is broadcasting a clean audio feed live from audience microphones before and during every performer’s song. “One audience member, close to a microphone, loudly expressed their views as the Israeli artist began …

Data centers are cutting power to homes, driving homeowners to solar and batteries

Data centers are cutting power to homes, driving homeowners to solar and batteries

Published by skeptic

A Nevada utility just told 49,000 Lake Tahoe residents that it’s redirecting 75% of their electricity supply to data centers — and they have less than a year to find a new power source. It’s one of the starkest examples yet of the AI boom’s impact on everyday Americans. The case is extreme, but the pattern is not. Across the country, data center electricity demand is reshaping the grid, driving up rates, and pushing a growing number of homeowners toward solar and battery systems — not as complementary power, but as essential infrastructure. Data centers are eating the grid NV Energy, the Nevada utility that has supplied the bulk of Lake Tahoe’s electricity for decades, told Liberty Utilities — the small California company that services the region — that it will stop providing power after May 2027. The reason: NV Energy needs the capacity for data centers being built by Google, Apple, and Microsoft around the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center east of Reno, according to Fortune. The numbers are staggering. Data centers consumed 22% of Nevada’s …

Home batteries: a ‘gamechanger’ for cutting energy bills? | Energy bills

Home batteries: a ‘gamechanger’ for cutting energy bills? | Energy bills

Published by Sam Flores

Consumers across the UK are bracing for the war in the Middle East to deliver a sharp rise in home energy bills from this summer. The looming energy cost crisis has prompted a record number of households to investigate green home upgrades to try to keep bills down, including heat pumps, solar panels and electric vehicles. However, it is the falling cost of home batteries that is expected to be key to unlocking the greatest possible cost savings from these green investments. “For the right home, [home batteries] can cut bills, increase flexibility and make everyday energy use smarter and more resilient,” according to Tom Pakenham, a director at Hive, a subsidiary of British Gas owner Centrica. The promise of greater control over energy costs has piqued the interest of consumers as typical dual fuel bills are forecast to climb to almost £2,000 a year under the next government price cap taking effect from July. This is the second time in four years that households have braced for the impact of volatile fossil fuel markets …

Exclusive-US officials weigh cutting deadlines to fix digital flaws amid worries over AI-powered hacking, sources say

Exclusive-US officials weigh cutting deadlines to fix digital flaws amid worries over AI-powered hacking, sources say

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON, May 1 : U.S. cybersecurity officials are considering sharply shorter deadlines for fixing critical flaws in government IT systems, amid concerns hackers could exploit them using artificial‑intelligence tools such as Anthropic’s Mythos, people familiar with the matter said.  The move, which has not been previously reported, would slash the deadline for responding to actively exploited vulnerabilities from an average of two or three weeks to three days, the people said. Anxiety over the power and proliferation of AI models like Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT‑5.4‑Cyber has been building for weeks. Although hackers have been deploying AI since at least 2023, these newer models are said to be able to easily identify previously unknown vulnerabilities or seize on freshly disclosed ones to enable complex hacking operations. So while it previously might have taken hackers several months, weeks, or days to take advantage of software flaws, that timeframe has been compressed, in at least some cases, to a matter of hours. That in turn is putting pressure on defenders to kick into high gear, said Stephen Boyer, …

Trump’s threat: Why cutting US troops in Europe won’t be easy | Donald Trump News

Trump’s threat: Why cutting US troops in Europe won’t be easy | Donald Trump News

Published by Sam Flores

Donald Trump has, over the past 48 hours, said that he is considering withdrawing American troops stationed in Germany, Italy and Spain, amid mounting tensions with European nations over their criticism of his handling of the war with Iran. Earlier in the week, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that the US was being “humiliated” by Iran in the ongoing war, adding the Trump administration had “no truly convincing strategy” to bring the conflict to an end. Speaking to students in the German town of Marsberg on Monday, Merz said: “It is costing us a great deal of money. This conflict, this war against Iran, has a direct impact on our economic output”. On Tuesday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Merz “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” The next day, Trump followed up with another Truth Social post: “The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short …