Free Republic

Wired Americans spend nearly half their day online — splitting that time almost evenly between watching videos or TV shows and working, browsing and shopping, according to a new survey. “This new survey was eye-opening,” said Eric Bruno, senior vice president of product management for Optimum, whose telecommunications firm interviewed 2,000 US residents who have a home Internet subscription with any company for the poll. “We were amazed to see how many hours folks are watching, shopping and browsing online on a daily basis,” Bruno told The Post. “It underscores how important a strong, affordable, and reliable Internet has become...

The data centers required for Big Tech are driving up electricity demand — and prices.This summer, across a vast stretch of the eastern United States, monthly home electric bills jumped. In Trenton, New Jersey, the bill for a typical home rose $26. In Philadelphia, it increased about $17. In Pittsburgh, it went up $10. And in Columbus, Ohio, it spiked $27.Few customers were happy, of course, but even fewer knew exactly why the rates had climbed so quickly.“I never know why it goes up,” said Vicki Miller, a retired secretary in Columbus. “But I can adjust the thermostat to save...

Quantum computing developments over the past 12 months, including Google Willow, IBM Majorana 1, and innovations at IBM, PsiQuantum and Atom Computing. Quantum Computing 2025 Update | 17:04 ExplainingComputers | 1.12M subscribers | 3,935 views | July 27, 2025

A dating safety app that allows women to do background checks on men and anonymously share "red flag" behaviour has been hacked, exposing thousands of members' images, posts and comments. Tea Dating Advice, a US-based women-only app with 1.6 million users, said there had been "unauthorised access" to 72,000 images submitted by women. Some included images of women holding photo identification for verification purposes, which Tea's own privacy policy promises are "deleted immediately" after authentication. Tea said the breach affected members who signed up before February 2024. Tea lets women check whether potential partners are married or registered sex offenders...

LMAO! The Tea app, which is meant for women to dox and “rate” men who they go on dates with, has been HACKED.. And the women using the app look EXACTLY as you’d expect them to look 🤣 This is an evil app meant to destroy men’s lives. These women are all co-conspirators.

David Letterman has backed his successor Stephen Colbert and suggested CBS canceled The Late Show because he was 'always shooting his mouth off' about Donald Trump. The 78-year-old late-night legend created The Late Show in 1993 after NBC denied him the chance to succeed Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. Colbert took over for Letterman in 2015 and took the show in a decidedly more political direction but despite leading in the ratings, a shrinking late-night landscape led CBS to claim losses in the tens of millions of dollars. In his first comment on the show's cancellation, Letterman noted that...

They’re vibe coding. They’re eschewing huge payrolls for AI assistants. And it’s dramatically changing their workdays.Krista Fabregas never saw herself as a coder. But when she built an AI-powered content automation pipeline to publish an article that outranked Forbes in Google search results—driving visitors to her site instead of the media giant’s— she knew she was onto something. “That article was fully AI-generated from the start,” she admitted. “I just entered a keyword and sent it to my automation tool.” A longtime content strategist, e-commerce consultant, and fiction writer, Krista joins a new wave of users building software and automations...

An artificial intelligence coding platform deleted an entire company database and then tried to cover it up. Replit “Panicked”Tom’s Hardware, a three-decade-old technology-news website, reported the news early this week. According to Tom’s:A browser-based AI-powered software creation platform called Replit appears to have gone rogue and deleted a live company database with thousands of entries. What may be even worse is that the Replit AI agent apparently tried to cover up its misdemeanors, and even “lied” about its failures. The Replit CEO has responded, and there appears to have already been a lot of firefighting behind the scenes to rein...

Sofia Baig was shocked when she visited San Francisco open houses last month that were so crowded, she was physically bumping into people. There wasn't enough space for the dozens vying for one rental unit. Baig, her husband and newborn have to move to the city by mid-August as their Stanford student housing expired. Their search felt like a flashback to the 2010s, with bidding wars, an inventory desert and applicants writing "love letters" to landlords on their merits with attached resumes. Dark Sky Weather Live Accurate Weather Forecast Ad Dark Sky Weather Live Accurate Weather Forecast appnado.com call to...

Apple has rolled out its first public betas for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26, inviting users to experience the forthcoming features ahead of the official release. With a notable shift in branding, Apple has opted for a year-based numbering system to align its software versions with the calendar year, trading in the previous chronological format. As a result, the latest updates will be labeled accordingly, reflecting their primary visibility in 2026. One of the standout features across Apple’s platforms is a significant cosmetic overhaul dubbed Liquid Glass. This redesign aims to create a cohesive...

SpaceX's Starlink suffered one of its biggest international outages on Thursday when an internal software failure knocked tens of thousands of users offline, a rare disruption for Elon Musk's powerful satellite internet system. Users in the U.S. and Europe began experiencing the outage at around 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), according to Downdetector, a crowdsourced outage tracker that said as many as 61,000 user reports to the site were made. Starlink, which has more than 6 million users across roughly 140 countries and territories, later acknowledged the outage on its X account and said "we are actively implementing a solution."...

The software optimized hundreds of stealth and aerodynamic parameters in one go. The X‑47B drone served as a benchmark model to validate the capabilities of the new Chinese design platform. - U.S. Navy/Getty Chinese engineers say they have cracked a fundamental bottleneck in stealth aircraft design with a new software platform that lets designers juggle hundreds of variables without piling on computing costs. The team, led by Huang Jiangtao at the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Centre, demonstrated the method on the US Navy’s X‑47B stealth drone, long cited as a case study in design trade-offs, and reported “dramatic improvements”...

The NEA described the Holocaust as having '12 million victims' from 'different faiths' without mentioning the attempted extermination of the Jewish people The nation's largest teachers' union plans to promote a version of Holocaust remembrance that does not mention Jews, according to its 2025 handbook, which references "victims of the Holocaust from different faiths" and teaches that Israel was founded through "forced, violent displacement and dispossession," its most recent guide for members shows. The National Education Association, which represents nearly three million public school teachers and education workers, outlined the priorities in its 2025 handbook. The NEA publishes the document...

Amazon is buying AI bracelet maker Bee in a major move to dominate the next wave of personal tech. The wristbands — which cost $50 — record everything you say, even when you're talking to yourself, and sync with your phone via Bluetooth. Powered by AI models from Anthropic, Google and Meta, Bee turns your day into a searchable database, creating personalized to-do lists and even tracking how many times you swear.

KSBW is taking you on a rare test flight of Joby Aviation's electric air taxi on the Central Coast.Santa Cruz-based startup Joby Aviation, an air taxi, gave KSBW an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at one of its test flights at the Marina Municipal Airport. Its aircraft, powered by six electric motors, are special because of their vertical takeoff and landing capabilities and are 100 times quieter than a helicopter. Advertisement They've flown more than 40,000 miles and expect to fit up to four passengers, a pilot, plus some luggage. "This is like flying in a helicopter. It's a fun thing to...

Microsoft warns patched systems remain vulnerable as attackers find new ways to infiltrate SharePoint servers. Microsoft has issued a critical warning about Chinese state-backed hackers exploiting security flaws in its SharePoint software. These vulnerabilities have been used to compromise a growing list of government agencies and private organizations worldwide, including the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). In a detailed blog post, Microsoft identified three hacking groups with ties to China. The groups, known as Linen Typhoon, Violet Typhoon, and Storm-2603, are believed to have taken advantage of SharePoint weaknesses that mainly affect customers who operate the software on their...

Futurehome (zigby Z wave) goes bankrupt, new owner ransoms everyone's House? Belkin Wemo doing it too - "smarthome" devices bricked by the Mfgrs.? BE VERY CAREFUL OF "SMART DEVICES" in HOMES (don't let them connect to the Internet - local API only)! Louis Rossman offers $5000 BOUNTY to fix it NOW! The CEO threatens to call the cops on Rossmann.

In A Nutshell Scientists achieved a record 4 Gbps data transmission using custom-built OLEDs, marking the fastest speed ever for OLED-based visible light communication. The system maintained high-speed performance over 2 meters (4.0 Gbps) and 10 meters (2.9 Gbps), dramatically surpassing previous VLC distance records for OLEDs. Key to the breakthrough was the use of highly stable organic materials, allowing OLEDs to operate under high current without degrading. VLC systems like this could offer secure, interference-free alternatives to WiFi, with future applications in smart homes, hospitals, and integrated display devices. =============================================================================== UNITED KINGDOM — Forget fiber optic cables and radio...

There are many weird and wonderful humanoid robots out there, but one of the most eye-catching machines launched this year can change its own battery pack — making it capable of running autonomously for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Walker S2 robot, made by the Chinese company UBTECH, is 5 foot 3 inches (162 centimeters) tall and weighs 95 pounds (43 kilograms) — making it the size and weight of a small adult. Using a 48-volt lithium battery in a dual-battery system, the robot can walk for two hours or stand for four hours before its...

President Donald Trump posted an AI video of Barack Obama being arrested by FBI agents and tossed in prison this week, igniting a firestorm on social media. In the video, FBI agents can be seen arresting Barack Obama during an Oval Office meeting with Trump, cuffing him, and placing him in prison. Trump also posted mugshots of the Deep State coup plotters involved in the Russia collusion hoax. Over the weekend, Trump floated prosecuting Barack Obama and the Deep State operatives involved in the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. Tulsi Gabbard declassified a December 2016 presidential briefing revealing Barack Obama knew the...