Friday, August 29, 2025

You Can Lose That Weight (and Keep It Off) by Avoiding These 6 Habits

If your weight loss journey has stalled, these six habits could be to blame.

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Latest Tech News

  • SK Telecom suffered a data breach that was discovered in April 2025
  • It affected roughly 27 million people
  • The company was fined for it, and will need to make significant changes to its operations

SK Telecom (SKT), one of the biggest telecommunications services providers in South Korea, was fined almost $100 million for failing to protect user data.

In April 2025, the company discovered a malware breach that allowed threat actors to lurk within its systems for years. Some researchers even claim the attack started in August 2021.

The miscreants targeted SKT’s Home Subscriber Server (HSS) and other critical infrastructure, exposing sensitive subscriber data, including USIM authentication keys (KI), International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) numbers, IMEI device identifiers, phone numbers, email addresses, and possibly other personal data.

"Very weak condition"

Approximately 27 million people were affected by the breach.

Now, Reuters reports that the government-run Personal Information Protection Commission issued a statement, confirming the fine of about 134 billion won ($96.53 million) for “neglecting its duty to take safety measures” and for “delays in notifying the leak to customers”.

The statement also claims SKT’s systems were in a “very weak condition” which allowed threat actors to access the company’s intranet. There were no passwords, or other safety measures, defending the servers from outside influence, and operating systems were outdated and running without the latest security patches.

Besides being forced to pay the fine, the company will also have to “strengthen safety rules on information protection” and revamp its governance.

Responding to a Reuters inquiry, SK Telecom said it “felt a grave responsibility” and will make protecting customer information a “top priority”.

In response, it launched an “Information Security Innovation Plan”, that includes implementing zero-trust architecture, expanding encryption, forming a red team, elevating the CISO role to report directly to the CEO, and adding cybersecurity experts to the board.

Customers received free USIM card replacements, and were offered 50% off August subscription fees. Furthermore, whoever wanted to cancel their contract prematurely was allowed to do so without extra fees.

Via Reuters

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Thursday, August 28, 2025

I Tried Netflix's Zodiac Hub and Found a Fun New Show That Matched My Astrological Sign

Yes, I'm a Sagittarius with chaotic, action-oriented tastes. Netflix's astrologically based recommendations worked for me.

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The Console Wars Are Officially Ending

Console game exclusivity is slowly waning. It's time to let go of the toxicity and play something fun.

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Latest Tech News

  • Nvidia Jetson Thor is framed as the robot brain for physical AI
  • Major robotics companies are already listed as early adopters worldwide
  • Nvidia Jetson Thor offers 2,070 FP4 teraflops within a 130-watt power envelope

Nvidia has released the Jetson AGX Thor developer kit, calling it the next step toward robotics systems which can function in real time.

The system, built on the Blackwell GPU line, is framed as a platform for “physical AI” and advanced robotic functions across manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, farming, retail, and transport.

Nvidia says it can deliver up to 7.5 times more AI compute and over three times the energy efficiency of its Jetson Orin line, which has been in wide use since 2022.

Offers supercomputer-level capacity

Nvidia went on to describe Jetson Thor as “the ultimate supercomputer to drive the age of physical AI and general robotics.”

“We’ve built Jetson Thor for the millions of developers working on robotic systems that interact with and increasingly shape the physical world,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia.

“With unmatched performance and energy efficiency, and the ability to run multiple generative AI models at the edge, Jetson Thor is the ultimate supercomputer to drive the age of physical AI and general robotics.”

With a quoted figure of 2,070 FP4 teraflops in a 130-watt envelope, it is positioned as powerful enough to run multiple generative models at once.

It supports vision-language-action models like Isaac GR00T N1.5, along with other LLM systems.

The device also integrates 128GB of memory, which is expected to make it capable of handling larger AI workflows at the edge.

Several robotics players are already listed as early adopters, including Agility Robotics, Amazon Robotics, Boston Dynamics, Caterpillar, Hexagon, and Medtronic.

Meta has also been named as an early partner, while companies such as John Deere, OpenAI, and Physical Intelligence are said to be testing the system.

“Nvidia Jetson Thor offers the computational horsepower and energy efficiency necessary to develop and scale the next generation of AI-powered robots that can operate safely and effectively in dynamic, real-world environments, transforming how we move and manage goods globally,” said Tye Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics.

Nvidia notes more than two million developers already use its robotics stack, with over 7,000 customers having deployed Jetson Orin hardware in edge AI projects.

Jetson Thor runs on the Nvidia Jetson software platform, which is designed to support multiple AI tools at once.

The package integrates with Nvidia Isaac for simulation, Metropolis for vision AI, and Holoscan for real-time sensor processing.

This arrangement is intended to allow one system-on-module to support many AI writer models and workflows, rather than requiring several separate chips.

The developer kit is available now at $3,499 and the production systems, including carrier boards, will be distributed worldwide through its partners.

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Wednesday, August 27, 2025

I Went to the Dollar Store for Cheap Tech, and the Results Were Surprising

Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Five Below and Daiso all sell tech, but is any of it worth the money? I decided to check it out and see.

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Best Desks of 2025: I've Spent Nearly 4,000 Hours Testing Desks. These Are the Ones You Want

We tested many kinds of desks to find the best for various needs.

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Latest Tech News

  • Nvidia’s H20 chip became collateral in a heated geopolitical clash
  • Nvidia’s revenue stream risks serious disruption with the Chinese market tightening
  • Chinese tech giants hesitate to abandon Nvidia hardware for weaker alternatives

China’s recent decision to tighten restrictions on Nvidia’s H20 chip sales has drawn attention not only because of the technology involved, but also because of the circumstances which triggered it.

Reports indicate comments made by U. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in mid-July 2025 were viewed as both “insulting” and brash by China's government.

In a televised interview, Lutnick stated Washington’s strategy was to ensure Chinese developers became “addicted” to the American technology stack.

Rising tensions after controversial remarks

“We don’t sell them our best stuff, not our second-best stuff, not even our third-best,” Lutnick had told CNBC.

“You want to sell the Chinese enough that their developers get addicted to the American technology stack, that’s the thinking,” he added.

The Chinese considered this remark unnecessarily arrogant, and it is now engineering a move that presents sustained sales headwinds for Nvidia, a company that has long viewed the country as a major market.

The H20 chip, developed specifically for China after export controls restricted access to more advanced models, had become a key product for local AI firms.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited Beijing recently, and stressed the firm’s commitment to staying competitive in the region.

Still, with China accounting for at least 15% of Nvidia’s total revenue, any disruption to H20 orders represents a serious challenge.

Washington and Beijing had previously struck a framework agreement earlier in 2025 allowing H20 sales to resume in China while Beijing restored some rare earth exports.

That deal was interpreted as a step toward stabilizing relations. Yet by late July 2025, Chinese regulators such as the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Industry and Technology began advising firms to halt new H20 orders.

This guidance, framed as a response to Lutnick’s remarks, highlights the fragility of recent progress.

Alongside the restrictions, Beijing has promoted the use of domestic chips, including those from Huawei.

However, doubts remain about their effectiveness, and DeepSeek had to delay the launch of its new R2 model after difficulties training with Huawei Ascend processors.

Chinese tech giants like Alibaba, Baidu, and ByteDance have also been reluctant to fully switch, citing stronger performance from Nvidia hardware compared with local alternatives.

The episode illustrates how political statements can rapidly alter corporate fortunes, especially when national security and technology leadership are at stake.

While Nvidia has disputed claims of security risks tied to its products, Beijing’s regulators appear determined to limit reliance on US-made chips.

Whether Chinese firms can scale up to fill the gap remains uncertain, but what is clear is that Lutnick’s words have accelerated a process of decoupling that may unfold far quicker than industry analysts initially expected.

Via Financial Times

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Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Apple TV Plus Offers 54% Discount After Uptick in Cancellations

That's $6 for two months.

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Latest Tech News

  • Google has rolled out a Messages feature in beta that lets you use QR codes to verify the device of the person you're texting
  • It's Google Messages' new security measure, which is designed to prevent impersonation scams
  • Google revealed last year that it would be rolled out to users in 2025

It seems as though a new security measure is on the way to Google Messages, as the company has begun rolling out a new QR code feature in the latest beta, which verifies the device of the person you’re chatting with.

First spotted by 9to5Google, Google’s new verification tool in Messages aims to prevent impersonation scams. Before, you could verify contacts by tapping ‘Verify encryption’, presenting an 80-digit code that you can share with the other person to verify your device and vice versa.

While Google Messages has always had a verification feature, its new QR code approach provides a more convenient way to prove the identity of the person you’re texting with. In that case, if someone were to break into a conversation pretending to be a contact, Google can check if their device is verified and alert you if it’s suspicious of odd activity.

The outlet also states that Google will be bringing it to Android 9+ devices this year, but where can you find it in the beta?

Three screenshots showing how to access the QR verifying tool in Google Messages

(Image credit: 9to5Google)

If you have access, open the Google Messages app and click into a conversation. When you tap the contact’s name, it will open the Details page, which displays the ‘End-to-end encryption’ section – and you’ll want to tap ‘Verify encryption’.

In addition to the existing 80-digit code option, there’ll also be an option to scan your contact’s QR code. Messages will also prompt you to ask the other person to scan your QR code in return, allowing Google to verify each device. To view the verification status, you can view them in the ‘Connected apps’ section of your device’s Contacts app; however, this integration hasn’t gone live yet, according to 9to5Google.

Recently, the company has been working around the clock to give its Messages service much-needed upgrades – like its new ‘Delete for everyone’ function – and now it’s doubling down on its security measures.

In October last year, Google unveiled plans to improve spam protection in Messages, following the addition of an unsubscribe button to prevent unwanted spam messages and a sensitive content warning tool, both of which rolled out in April. We’d expect the QR function to arrive before the end of the year, but an exact date hasn’t been revealed yet.

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Monday, August 25, 2025

Waymo Gets the Green Light to Test in New York City. Everything to Know About the Robotaxi

The company has been granted a permit to test its self-driving vehicles in the Big Apple. Here's everywhere Waymo operates now, and where it's set to arrive soon.

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Sunday, August 24, 2025

Today's Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Aug. 25, #1528

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for Aug. 25, No. 1,528.

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Latest Tech News

  • State-backed rivals have made open source 3D printing nearly impossible
  • Chinese subsidies shift global competition in desktop 3D printer production
  • Cheap Chinese patents create obstacles far beyond Europe’s market borders

The open source movement in 3D printing once thrived on shared designs, community projects, and collaboration across borders.

However, Josef Prusa, head of Prusa Research, has announced, “open hardware desktop 3D printing is dead.”

The remark stands out because his company long championed open designs, sharing files and innovations with the wider community.

Economic support and patent challenges

Prusa built his early business in a small basement in Prague, packing frames into pizza boxes while relying on contributions from others who shared his philosophy.

What has changed, he now argues, is not consumer demand but the imbalance created when the Chinese government labeled 3D printing a “strategic industry” in 2020.

In his blog post, Prusa cites a study from the Rhodium Group which describes how China backs its firms with grants, subsidies, and easier credit.

This makes it much cheaper to manufacture machines there than in Europe or North America.

The issue grows more complicated when looking at patents. In China, registering a claim costs as little as $125, while challenging one ranges from $12,000 to $75,000.

This gap has encouraged a surge of local filings, often on designs that trace back to open source projects.

Prusa’s earlier machines, such as the Original i3, proudly displayed components from partners like E3D and Noctua, embodying a spirit of community, but were also easy to copy, with entire guides appearing online just months after release.

The newest Prusa printers, including the MK4 and Core ONE, now restrict access to key electronic designs, even while offering STL files for printed parts.

The Nextruder system is fully proprietary, marking a clear retreat from total openness.

Prusa argues Chinese firms are effectively locking down technology the community meant to share - as while a patent in China does not block his company from selling in Europe, it prevents access to the Chinese market.

A bigger risk emerges when agencies like the US Patent Office treat such patents as “prior art,” creating hurdles that are expensive and time-consuming to clear.

Prusa cited the case of the Chinese company, Anycubic, securing a US patent on a multicolor hub that appears similar to the MMU system his company first released in 2016.

Years earlier, Bambu Lab introduced its A1 series, also drawing inspiration from the same concept.

Anycubic now sells the Kobra 3 Combo with this feature, raising questions about how agencies award patents and who holds legitimate claims.

Meanwhile, Bambu Lab faces separate legal battles with Stratasys, the American pioneer whose patents once kept 3D printing confined to costly industrial use.

Declaring the end of open hardware may be dramatic, but the pressures are real.

Between state subsidies, permissive patent rules, and rising disputes, the foundation of open collaboration is eroding.

Via Toms Hardware

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Latest Tech News

  • Data centers in England use far less water than many expected
  • TechUK survey shows nearly two-thirds of facilities consume modest water amounts
  • Closed-loop cooling systems reduce dependence on traditional water-intensive methods

The world's expanding network of data centers has often been linked with heavy environmental costs, especially when it comes to water.

These facilities form the base for cloud services, LLM training, and the many AI tools now embedded across industries.

However a new survey by techUK, conducted with the UK Environment Agency, has claimed data centers are “not intensive water users” as many people think.

Very few sites with industry-level water usage

The report found nearly two-thirds (64%) of commercial sites in England consume less than 10,000 cubic meters of water per year.

This level of demand is described as lower than that of a “typical leisure center” and similar to the water requirements of a Premier League football club.

Only 4% of facilities reported usage over 100,000 cubic meters annually, a figure associated more with industrial production.

Cooling has long been considered the driver of data center water consumption, although the industry is now moving toward alternatives such as waterless and closed-loop systems.

More than half of the facilities surveyed already rely on waterless cooling, while many others use direct-to-chip techniques that recycle water within sealed systems.

In fact, 89% of operators said they no longer track consumption because their systems use “no water beyond the regular functioning of any building.”

While the report stresses operators are “actively innovating” to cut demand, skepticism remains.

Questions also remain over whether reported figures capture the full lifecycle of water use, including indirect impacts from energy generation.

TechUK argues that data centers are vital for the UK economy, contributing billions in annual value and enabling ambitions in AI and digital innovation.

The trade body is calling for stronger planning frameworks, including a proposed “water exploitation index” to track local stress levels.

“I am encouraged by the work techUK has undertaken to better understand water usage, and the findings suggest UK data centers are using a range of cooling technologies and becoming more water conscious,” said Richard Thompson, Deputy Director for Water Resources at the Environment Agency.

“It is vital the sector puts sustainability at its heart, and minimizes water use in line with evolving standards."

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Saturday, August 23, 2025

Latest Tech News

  • Geekom mini PC combines AMD Ryzen AI 9 processor with Radeon 890M graphics
  • Ships with 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD, expandable to 128GB RAM and 8TB storage
  • Wide port selection includes USB4, HDMI 2.1, and support for four 8K monitors

Geekom has launched the A9 Max, a compact desktop usually priced at $1,199 but currently available for $999.

The PC combines AMD’s latest Ryzen AI 9 HX370 processor with Radeon 890M graphics, 32GB of DDR5 memory, a 2TB PCIe Gen4 SSD, and support for up to four 8K monitors.

The HX370, based on AMD’s Zen 5 architecture, is built on TSMC’s 4nm FinFET process and features 12 cores and 24 threads, a maximum boost clock of 5.1GHz, and 24MB of L3 cache, with a configurable TDP of up to 54W.

Plenty of ports

It integrates a dedicated AI engine capable of 80 TOPS, making the A9 Max well suited for on-device AI acceleration in workflows such as content creation and professional applications that benefit from local processing power.

The Radeon 890M integrated GPU is based on RDNA 3.5 and offers performance typically beyond what most mini PCs have provided in the past.

It comes with 32GB of dual-channel DDR5 RAM (expandable up to 128GB) and a 2TB PCIe Gen4 SSD. Two PCIe 4.0 slots allow storage expansion up to 8TB.

As you'd expect from a modern mini PC, the A9 Max offers a good selection of ports. On the front panel, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack, three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, and one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A that remains powered even when the system is off.

The rear panel includes two HDMI 2.1 ports, two USB4 Type-C ports with DisplayPort Alt-mode and power delivery, another USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, and one USB 2.0 Type-A.

It also includes dual 2.5Gbps RJ45 Ethernet ports, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, as well as an SD card reader and a Kensington lock.

The chassis is built from metal, keeping the form factor small while maintaining durability. Geekom says it can endure up to 200kg of pressure without bending.

The IceBlast 2.0 Cooling System with a large copper heatsink, dual heat pipes, and high- performance fan, should keep things cool even when under load or during prolonged use.

Compact systems like the A9 Max show how mini PCs are now powerful enough to replace traditional desktops for many users.

They save space, reduce clutter, and still provide the memory, storage, and processing power needed for both professional and everyday work.

A9 Max comes with Windows 11 Pro installed, a three-year warranty, and 24/7 support. It is available to buy from Geekom’s site and Amazon now.

Geekom A9 Max mini PC

(Image credit: Geekom)

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Latest Tech News

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