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Nova Launcher Gets a New Owner and Ads

Nova Launcher has been acquired by Instabridge, which says it will keep the app maintained but is evaluating ad-supported options for the free version. Android Authority reports: Today, Nova Launcher announced that the Swedish company Instabridge has acquired it from Branch Metrics. Instabridge claims it wants to be a responsible owner of Nova and does not want to reinvent the launcher overnight. However, the launcher still needs a sustainable business model to support ongoing development and maintenance. To this end, Instabridge is exploring different options, including paid tiers and ad-supported options for the free version. The new owners claim that if ads are introduced, Nova Prime will remain ad-free. However, this is misleading, as ads are already here for some users. Last year, the founder and original programmer of Nova Launcher left the company, signaling its "death" as he had been the sole developer working on the launcher for the past year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ozempic is Reshaping the Fast Food Industry

New research from Cornell University has tracked how households change their spending after someone starts taking GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, and the numbers are material enough to explain why food industry earnings calls keep blaming everything except the obvious culprit.

The study analyzed transaction data from 150,000 households linked to survey responses on medication adoption. Households cut grocery spending by 5.3% within six months of a member starting GLP-1s; high-income households cut by 8.2%. Fast food spending fell 8.0%. Savory snacks took the biggest hit at 10.1%, followed by sweets and baked goods. Yogurt was the only category to see a statistically significant increase.

As of July 2024, 16.3% of U.S. households had at least one GLP-1 user. Nearly half of adopters reported taking the medication specifically for weight loss rather than diabetes management. About 34% of users discontinue within the sample period, and when they stop, candy and chocolate purchases rise 11.4% above pre-adoption levels.

Further reading: Weighing the Cost of Smaller Appetites.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

HAM Radio Operators In Belarus Arrested, Face the Death Penalty

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: The Belarusian government is threatening three HAM radio operators with the death penalty, detained at least seven people, and has accused them of "intercepting state secrets," according to Belarusian state media, independent media outside of Belarus, and the Belarusian human rights organization Viasna. The arrests are an extreme attack on what is most often a wholesome hobby that has a history of being vilified by authoritarian governments in part because the technology is quite censorship resistant.

The detentions were announced last week on Belarusian state TV, which claimed the men were part of a network of more than 50 people participating in the amateur radio hobby and have been accused of both "espionage" and "treason." Authorities there said they seized more than 500 pieces of radio equipment. The men were accused on state TV of using radio to spy on the movement of government planes, though no actual evidence of this has been produced. State TV claimed they were associated with the Belarusian Federation of Radioamateurs and Radiosportsmen (BFRR), a long-running amateur radio club and nonprofit that holds amateur radio competitions, meetups, trainings, and forums. Siarhei Besarab, a Belarusian HAM radio operator, posted a plea for support from others in the r/amateurradio subreddit. "I am writing this because my local community is being systematically liquidated in what I can only describe as a targeted intellectual genocide," Besarab wrote. "I beg you to amplify this signal and help us spread this information. Please show this to any journalist you know, send it to human rights organizations, and share it with your local radio associations."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Rotterdam - FediMeteo (@rotterdam@nl.fedimeteo.com)

Weer voor de stad Rotterdam Deze bot wordt beheerd door het FediMeteo-project. Voor informatie en contact kunt u de pagina https://fedimeteo.com raadplegen.

Weer voor Rotterdam ☁️ Huidige temperatuur (...

Weer voor Rotterdam ☁️

Huidige temperatuur (om 01:16): 3.5°C (Bewolkt)
Windsnelheid: 14.8 km/u (4.1 m/s), richting: ↖ 113°

Luchtkwaliteit:
  • AQI: 58 🟡 (Matig)
  • PM2.5: 18.4 μg/m³
  • PM10: 23.2 μg/m³

Voorspelling voor de komende dagen:

  • donderdag 22 januari: Min 1.8°, Max 6.6° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 2%, Windsnelheid: 17.3 km/u (4.8 m/s), richting: ← 110°
  • vrijdag 23 januari: Min 3.4°, Max 7.8° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 1%, Windsnelheid: 20.5 km/u (5.7 m/s), richting: ↖ 114°
  • zaterdag 24 januari: Min 0.9°, Max 5.1° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 7%, Windsnelheid: 18.0 km/u (5.0 m/s), richting: ← 97°
  • zondag 25 januari: Min -0.8°, Max 3.3° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 4%, Windsnelheid: 11.5 km/u (3.2 m/s), richting: ← 105°
  • maandag 26 januari: Min -2.2°, Max 2.0° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 7%, Windsnelheid: 11.0 km/u (3.1 m/s), richting: ← 77°
  • dinsdag 27 januari: Min -0.6°, Max 2.5° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 6%, Windsnelheid: 16.9 km/u (4.7 m/s), richting: ← 104°
  • woensdag 28 januari: Min -0.9°, Max 1.9° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 15%, Windsnelheid: 16.8 km/u (4.7 m/s), richting: ← 70°

Uurlijkse voorspelling voor de komende 12 uur:

  • 02:00: 3.2° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Windsnelheid: 15.5 km/u (4.3 m/s), richting: ← 103°
  • 03:00: 2.8° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Windsnelheid: 16.9 km/u (4.7 m/s), richting: ← 101°
  • 04:00: 2.5° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Windsnelheid: 16.6 km/u (4.6 m/s), richting: ← 103°
  • 05:00: 2.6° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Windsnelheid: 16.6 km/u (4.6 m/s), richting: ← 107°
  • 06:00: 2.4° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Windsnelheid: 15.8 km/u (4.4 m/s), richting: ← 106°
  • 07:00: 2.2° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Windsnelheid: 15.8 km/u (4.4 m/s), richting: ← 109°
  • 08:00: 2.0° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Windsnelheid: 16.2 km/u (4.5 m/s), richting: ← 104°
  • 09:00: 1.8° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Windsnelheid: 16.9 km/u (4.7 m/s), richting: ← 103°
  • 10:00: 2.2° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Windsnelheid: 16.9 km/u (4.7 m/s), richting: ← 107°
  • 11:00: 3.2° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Windsnelheid: 15.5 km/u (4.3 m/s), richting: ← 104°
  • 12:00: 4.3° (Licht bewolkt) 🌤️, Windsnelheid: 15.8 km/u (4.4 m/s), richting: ← 104°
  • 13:00: 5.5° (Bewolkt) ☁️, Windsnelheid: 16.6 km/u (4.6 m/s), richting: ← 106°
Gegevens geleverd door Open-Meteo



The Register

Biting the hand that feeds IT — Enterprise Technology News and Analysis

Future jobs in AI will come with a hardhat and boots, tech bigshots argue

Jensen Huang and Alex Karp talk up trade skills as AI datacenters multiply, while Satya Nadella says the real test comes later

The leaders of the AI world descended on Davos, Switzerland, this week for the World Economic Forum, where they took turns lobbing their best guesses about what the next phase of AI would mean for jobs, as well as whether the AI bubble was real and when it may pop.…

AI networking startup Upscale scores $200M to challenge Nvidia's NVSwitch

Plans to swing SkyHammer silicon into UALink switches later this year

AI networking startup Upscale AI on Wednesday announced it has raised $200 million in Series A funding to challenge Nvidia's dominance of switches for rack-scale AI systems, putting it in competition with the likes of Cisco and AMD.…

Groenstrook

We lopen noodgedwongen over de stoep langs de drukke autoweg. Bij het verkeersplein gaan we rechtsaf.

kottke.org

Jason Kottke's weblog, home of fine hypertext products

10 things I learned from burning myself out with AI coding agents....

10 things I learned from burning myself out with AI coding agents. “Fifty projects later, I’ll be frank: I have not had this much fun with a computer since I learned BASIC on my Apple II Plus when I was 9 years old.”

TWILIGHT

photo-tez has added a photo to the pool:

TWILIGHT

YOKOHAMA

Behance Featured Projects

The latest projects featured on the Behance

Gallop ? Children's Marionette Theater


The curtain rises... We have created a new project for the children's puppet theater "Gallop". The brand concept of this project is built on the idea of combinations ? like a narrative based on a well-known fairy tale that can be retold in countless variations. Maintaining a connection with historical roots through aesthetics and color schemes, the project is blended with a bold approach that abandons classic design techniques targeting children. Every medium associated with the project reflects the idea of modularity. The developed merchandise continues the narrative portrayed on the posters, and the toy sets invite one to complement or reinterpret it.