Over the last few days, reports have resurfaced that the EU will mandate that phones have replaceable batteries. These reports are based on 2023 legislation with an implementation date of 2027. I won’t go into the full details here, but that legislation covers removable batteries, and many phones are exempt anyway.
Before we dismiss everything, this kind of coverage presents an opportunity to talk about a different type of replaceable battery: the humble alkaline battery. The non-rechargeable, disposable batteries have been part and parcel of our lives for years, powering everything from game controllers to toys, torches, clocks, scales, smart locks and more.
According to Market Reports World, as of 2023, 8.5 billion AA alkaline batteries were sold (50% of the alkaline market), with AAA coming second and other sizes following.
These batteries will all end up, at some point, being disposed of, which is a huge amount of waste. Sadly, a lot of batteries are just thrown away. According to Business Waste, the UK has a battery recycling rate of just 33-35%.
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Cheap to buy, but still disposable
One of the things that the aforementioned EU regulation (New Battery Regulation 2023/1542) covers is alkaline batteries, with improved waste collection targets, restrictions on hazardous ingredients and improved life-cycle assessments.
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That’s all well and good, but the question should be, why are so many alkaline batteries out there?
Part of the reason is that manufacturers routinely include a set of batteries with their remote controls, so you can get going right away.
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These giveaways are a drop in the ocean, but alkaline batteries are given away because they have a long shelf life, holding their charge for years. Typically, alkaline batteries are sold with a promise of a five-plus-year shelf life, and some even have a ten-year shelf life.
That gives a degree of reliability that the rechargeable alternatives just can’t compete with.
That kind of shelf life means that alkaline batteries are super convenient to have at home, too. When a device runs out of power, a quick swap for batteries in the cupboard and you’re good to go.
And, alkaline batteries are cheap to buy, particularly in bulk. In fact, bulk online sales have grown (24- and 48-pack variants saw 17% year-on-year increases according to Market Reports World). Looking on Amazon, for example, a 40-pack of AA batteries costs £9.03, which is 23p per battery.
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Switch to rechargeables and standard NiMH batteries will cost you over £1 per battery. Smaller packs are available, as you don’t need as many batteries.
Over their lifetime, one of our best rechargeable batteries will handle many charge cycles (that is, charging them, using them, and then starting all over again). Say, for example, you get 1000 charge cycles (that’s about average, but some offer 1500 cycles or more), that means that each rechargeable battery does the work of 1000 alkaline batteries; effectively, that’s like paying less than 0.1p per battery.
There’s a cost to having a battery charger and some inconvenience waiting for batteries to charge. NiMH batteries also don’t hold their charge for as long as alkaline batteries (although most will hold 80-90% of their charge for months, so you can have a spare set charged and ready to go). These factors are partly why rechargeable batteries aren’t just routinely used everywhere, but there are other factors.
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Some devices just hate rechargeable batteries
Taking the example of AA batteries, NiMH rechargeable and alkaline versions might be the same size (well, give or take a few mm), but internally they are different.
Alkaline batteries are rated at 1.5V, but the voltage drops as the battery is drained, with a faster drop under high loads and a slower drop under low loads (a clock, remote control, or even a smart lock, where the device largely sits idle). NiMH batteries produce a sustained 1.2V until the battery is almost exhausted, so they are better for continuous loads.
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The issue is that some devices just hate rechargeable batteries. My Yale Linus Smart Door Lock runs on four AA batteries, but it constantly complains about low battery life whenever I try to put four rechargeable batteries in it.
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Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Similarly, I bought a radio-controlled alarm clock. Stick two rechargeable AA batteries in it, and the clock comes to life, but it refuses to set the time automatically.
Then there are devices like smoke alarms, which, for safety, need alkaline cells, more for longevity.
Li-ion batteries could be the future, but compatibility issues are still there.
More recently, rechargeable Li-ion batteries have become available, such as the Paleblue AA USB-C Rechargeable Batteries. More expensive than NiMH batteries, these ones can be recharged via USB, produce a constant 1.5V, and hold their charge better.
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On paper, these seem the ideal replacement for alkaline batteries. And, in many cases, they are. My Yale Linus lock no longer complains about low batteries and is very happy with a set of Li-ion batteries.
The range of rechargeables is very good, too: Paleblue and other manufacturers make AA, AAA, 9V, C, D and CR123A versions. As most charge via USB-C, you don’t even need fancy compatible chargers for them, either.
Prices are higher than for NiMH batteries, but with around 1000 charge cycles per battery, the lifetime cost is much lower than that of equivalent alkaline batteries. A typical set of four AA Li-ion batteries may cost around £20, but over 1000 charge cycles, that’s the equivalent of 2p per battery.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that some devices are still super finicky about which batteries they will work with. The aforementioned clock also won’t set its time automatically with a set of Li-ion batteries in it; switch to alkaline batteries, and it works perfectly.
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I tried to go green by using some Type-C Li-ion batteries in my SureFlap Microchip Pet Door Connect. It all seemed to work, but the door would only unlock for two of my three cats.
Sureflap Pet Door Connect inside Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
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It appears the microchip sensor wasn’t operating at full power, and the chip in my cat may be in a slightly different location or buried a little deeper. For whatever reason, I can’t use rechargeable batteries with this product.
In some cases, manufacturers specifically state that rechargeable batteries should not be used. In fact, Paleblue has a warning to that effect on its 9V page stating that “Most smoke detector and carbon dioxide detector manufacturers do not recommend using rechargeable batteries in their products.”
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Devices should be required to work with rechargeable batteries
Whether it’s by design, by mistake or by requirement, too many devices simply don’t work with rechargeable batteries at all, and that’s not good enough. The default position should be that all devices be manufactured to work with rechargeables, even if a requirement is added that a device is only compatible with Li-ion.
We banned disposable vapes in this country (partly due to environmental concerns and also youth addiction), but disposable batteries still seem fair game. Given how many battery-powered devices there are, it’s time more was done to ensure compatibility and reduce the amount of waste that we produce.
Intelligence operatives have used some innovative techniques to snoop on information without ever having to step foot inside a target building. A simple approach that involves lasers has been around for eons, and transforms a standard window into a makeshift bug.
The Soviets got onto this kind of thing way back in the 1940s. They dubbed it Buran, and it basically shined an invisible infrared beam onto embassy windows in Moscow, detecting minuscule movements made by voices within. American agencies then took up on this idea and refined it using actual lasers, which produced far crisper results and had a much longer range.
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A laser microphone works by converting sound to light and then bouncing it back, causing the very small area it strikes to vibrate. These minuscule movements are invisible, but they exist and are very little, only a fraction of the thickness of a sheet of paper. These vibrations then alter the distance the beam needs to travel on its return voyage. A person with a receiver nearby collects the reflected light and transmits it via an optical system that converts changes in path length into brightness fluctuations. The variations are then converted into an electrical signal that corresponds to the original audio you heard.
Typically, you’d set everything up from the luxury of a parked automobile or an office building nearby. You’d aim the beam in at an angle so that the reflection landed perfectly on the sensor. The infrared versions are undetectable to anyone gazing out the window, but by carefully filtering out noise from traffic and wind, you may get a rather clear picture.
If DIY projects are your thing, you can actually create a working version using parts that can be purchased online. One recent project used a basic red laser pointer, a photodiode to catch the returning light, and a small amplifier circuit wired to a computer It took some care to get the alignment just right, but once he did, the reflection was slightly off center on the sensor for the greatest results. When music was played inside a sealed test box, the recovered audio came through loud and clear, despite some static in the background caused by equipment vibration.
Governments, on the other hand, just achieve a much clearer sound by stabilizing the beam and employing some quite clever signal processing. Sometimes the places they’re seeking to listen in on will try to outsmart them by hanging thick curtains or installing little motors that provide random vibrations to drown out the real voice. Nonetheless, this method leaves no wires or bugs behind and completes the task from a safe distance. [Source]
An anonymous reader shared this report from the Associated Press:
The 1986 Chernobyl disaster fueled global fears about nuclear power and slowed its development in Europe and elsewhere. Four decades later, however, there’s a revival around the world, a trend that has been given a big boost by war in the Middle East. Over 400 nuclear reactors are operational in 31 countries, while about 70 more are under construction. Nuclear power accounts for producing about 10% of the world’s electricity, equivalent to about a quarter of all sources of low-carbon power.
Nuclear reactors have seen steady improvements, adding more safety features and making them cheaper to build and operate. While Chernobyl and the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan diminished the appetite for such power sources, it was clear years ago that there probably would be a revival, said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency. With the war in the Middle East, “I am 100% sure nuclear is coming back,” he added…
The United States is the world’s largest producer of nuclear power, with 94 operational reactors accounting for about 30% of global generation of nuclear electricity. And it is increasing efforts to develop nuclear energy capacity with a goal to quadruple it by 2050… China operates 61 nuclear reactors and is leading the world in building new units, with nearly 40 under construction with a goal to surpass the U.S. and become the global leader in nuclear capacity. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has acknowledged that it was Europe’s “strategic mistake” to cut nuclear energy and outlined new initiatives to encourage building power plants. [In 1990, nuclear energy accounted for roughly a third of Europe’s electricity, the article points out, but it’s now only about 15%.] Russia, meanwhile, has taken a strong lead in exporting its nuclear know-how, building 20 reactors worldwide…
Japan has restarted 15 reactors after reviewing the lessons of the earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima plant, and 10 more are in the process of getting approval to restart. South Africa has the only nuclear power plant on the African continent, although Russia is building one in Egypt, and several other African nations are exploring the technology… With 57 reactors at 19 plants, France relies on nuclear power for nearly 70% of its electricity. The article includes an interactive graphic that shows the growth in the world’s nuclear capacity slowing down soon after the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown — with that capacity broken down by country. But it’s still increased by roughly 50%.
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Even Ukraine — the site of the accident — now “still relies heavily on nuclear plants to generate about half of its electricity,” the article points out. But Germany “switched off its last three nuclear reactors in 2023.”
Snabbit, an Indian instant house-help startup, is close to raising fresh funding at a valuation of around $400 million in a round led by Susquehanna Venture Capital, TechCrunch has learned.
The Bengaluru-based startup is in talks to raise around $50 million in the round, according to three people with knowledge of the deal. One of the people added that the round could be around $55 million or higher, as strong investor demand may prompt the company to raise more than initially planned.
The round is expected to include participation from Mirae Asset, FJ Labs, and existing investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Bertelsmann India Investments, the people told TechCrunch. It would mark a significant jump from the $180 million valuation at which Snabbit raised $30 million in October 2025. The deal could be announced as early as next week.
Founded in 2024, Snabbit connects households with on-demand domestic help for cleaning, dishwashing, laundry, and other chores, offering quick turnaround times through a managed network of workers. Before this round, the startup had raised $55 million in total funding.
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The fundraise comes amid growing investor interest in instant house help startups in India. Rival Pronto is finalizing a funding round led by tech investor Lachy Groom at about a $200 million valuation. Urban Company, a top player in this space, said its instant home services offering crossed one million bookings in March.
The rising demand is partly driven by India’s young, urban workforce, which has grown accustomed to ordering services such as groceries on demand through apps.
Snabbit founder and CEO Aayush Agarwal said in a recent LinkedIn post that the company had completed more than one million jobs in March alone. He had earlier told TechCrunch that it recorded over 10,000 daily jobs and more than 300,000 total orders in October.
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The startup worked with about 5,000 professionals on its platform at the time, all of whom were women, he added.
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Snabbit and its investors did not respond to requests for comment.
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Tesla completely ended its free lifetime Supercharging offer way back in 2018, but it has given customers the perk for certain promotions since then. It brought back free Supercharging for Model S and X a couple of times in 2019, for instance. The automaker’s latest offer is for new purchases for a Model 3 Premium or Performance vehicle in North America. On its website, Tesla has announced that it’s including one year of free supercharging with a Model 3 Premium or Performance, though the offer is “subject to change or end at any time.”
As Electrek notes, this is a nice freebie to have but most likely not a deciding factor for people who charge at home. For those who don’t have access to a home charger, however, this could represent significant savings.
The free Supercharging offer starts at delivery and cannot be postponed or redeemed for cash. Owners will also still have to pay certain fees, such as congestions fees that the automaker adds if a vehicle remains plugged into a Supercharger after its battery reaches 80 percent when a site is busy. The offer doesn’t apply to vehicles used for commercial purposes, such as ridesharing, taxi and delivery services, as well. As for those who traded in their gas vehicles to get the 2,000-mile Supercharging incentive, they can enjoy this freebie first and redeem those miles after their first year of ownership.
The financial pressures stem from a fundamental shift in smartphone bill of materials. DRAM and NAND used to be minor costs but now dominate device expenses. Read Entire Article Source link
A lot has been made about a post-quantum computer future in which traditional encryption methods have suddenly been rendered obsolete. With this terrifying idea in mind, it’s reassuring to see some recent pushback to the idea with some factual evidence. In a recent blog post by [Filippo Valsorda] – a cryptography engineer – the point is raised that 128-bit symmetric keys like AES-128 and SHA-256 are at risk of being obliterated in a post-quantum future.
Rather than just taking [Filippo]’s word for it, he takes us through a detailed explanation of the flawed understanding of Grover’s algorithm that underlies much of the panic. While it’s very true that this quantum search algorithm can decrease the amount of time required to find a solution, the speed-up with a single thread is quadratic, not exponential. While asymmetric cryptography systems like ECDH, RSA, and kin are very much at risk courtesy of Shor’s algorithm, the same is not true for symmetric systems.
An interesting detail with Grover’s is also that you cannot simply run a search in parallel to get a corresponding speed-up, as it’s not a parallel problem. Barring a breakthrough that replaces Grover’s with something that lends itself better to such a parallel search, it would seem that we won’t have to abandon classical encryption any time soon.
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Incidentally, even for Shor’s algorithm, there are still some hold-ups. Current quantum computers are not even able to factor 21 yet. Meanwhile, supposed quantum computing breakthroughs are being trolled with a Commodore 64.
Recently observed Trigona ransomware attacks are using a custom, command-line tool to steal data from compromised environments faster and more efficiently.
The utility was emplayed in attacks in March that were attributed to a gang affiliate, likely in an effort to avoid publicly available tools, such as Rclone and MegaSync, that typically trigger security solutions.
Researchers at cybersecurity company Symantec believe that the shift to a custom tool may indicate that the attacker is “investing time and effort in proprietary malware in a bid to maintain a lower profile during a critical phase of their attacks.”
In a report today, the researchers say that the tool is named “uploader_client.exe” and connects to a hardcoded server address. Its performance and evasion capabilities include:
Support for five simultaneous connections per file for faster data exfiltration via parallel uploads.
Rotation of TCP connections after 2GB of traffic to evade monitoring.
Option for selective file type exfiltration, excluding large, low-value media files.
Use of an authentication key to restrict access to stolen data by outsiders.
In one incident, the exfiltration tool was used to steal high-value documents such as invoices and PDFs on network drives.
Trigona ransomware was launched in October 2022 as a double-extortion operation that demanded its victims to pay ransoms in the Monero cryptocurrency.
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Although Ukrainian cyber activists disrupted the Trigona operation in October 2023, hacking its servers and stealing internal data such as source code and database records, Symantec’s report suggests that the threat actors resumed operations.
According to Symantec’s observations of recent Trigona attacks, threat actor installs the Huorong Network Security Suite tool HRSword as a kernel driver service.
This phase is followed by deploying additional tools that can disable security-related products (e.g., PCHunter, Gmer, YDark, WKTools, DumpGuard, and StpProcessMonitorByovd).
“Many of these leveraged vulnerable kernel drivers to terminate endpoint protection processes,” Symantec says.
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Some of the utilities were executed with PowerRun, a product that can launch apps, executables, and scripts with elevated privileges, thus bypassing user-mode protections.
AnyDesk was used for direct remote access on the breached systems, while Mimikatz and Nirsoft utilities were executed for credential theft and password recovery operations.
Symantec has listed indicators of compromise (IoCs) associated with the latest Trigona activity at the bottom of its report to help with the timely detection and blocking of these attacks.
AI chained four zero-days into one exploit that bypassed both renderer and OS sandboxes. A wave of new exploits is coming.
At the Autonomous Validation Summit (May 12 & 14), see how autonomous, context-rich validation finds what’s exploitable, proves controls hold, and closes the remediation loop.
You know that old meme with the angry looking little kid posed behind the words, “Congrats”; “Happy for you”; “Nice”? That was me reading Caroline Bicks’ Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King. Here’s a snippet of the synopsis: “After Caroline Bicks was named the University of Maineʼs inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature, she became the first scholar to be granted extended access by King to his private archives, a treasure trove of manuscripts that document the legendary writerʼs creative process—most of them never before studied or published.”
You hate to see someone else living your dream. (Just kidding). In all seriousness, this book was an absolute delight to read, both as a lifelong Stephen King fan and as a writer who is ever-fascinated by how the greats approach their craft. Bicks picks apart the early works — Pet Sematary, The Shining, Night Shift, ‘Salem’s Lot and Carrie — comparing the changes across multiple drafts for each, and highlighting King’s notes and correspondences with editors that shaped these drafts into the legendary horror stories we know today.
Monsters in the Archives makes for an insightful companion to King’s own On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, and while you don’t need to be a superfan to enjoy it, anyone who is will surely eat it up.
Microsoft says IT administrators can now uninstall the AI-powered Copilot digital assistant from enterprise devices using a new policy setting, which has become broadly available after the April 2026 Patch Tuesday.
RemoveMicrosoftCopilotApp is available as a Policy CSP and Group Policy after deploying this month’s Windows security updates on endpoints managed via Microsoft Intune or System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).
This policy will only apply to Windows 11 25H2 devices where the Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Copilot are both installed, the user did not install the Microsoft Copilot app, and the Microsoft Copilot app was not launched in the last 28 days.
“The new RemoveMicrosoftCopilotApp policy setting allows you to uninstall Copilot from devices in your organization in a non-disruptive way,” Microsoft said.
“If this policy is enabled, the Microsoft Copilot app will be uninstalled. Users can still re-install if they choose to. This setting applies to Enterprise, Professional and Education client SKUs only,” it added.
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To enable it, open the Group Policy Editor, and go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows AI > Remove Microsoft Copilot App.
As BleepingComputer previously reported, the RemoveMicrosoftCopilotApp policy first rolled out in early January to Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Insider channels who installed Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7535 (KB5072046).
The company is also reportedly canceling plans to ship several other Copilot-powered features introduced almost two years ago, which would have embedded the Copilot assistant into Windows 11 system notifications, the Settings app, and the File Explorer.
AI chained four zero-days into one exploit that bypassed both renderer and OS sandboxes. A wave of new exploits is coming.
At the Autonomous Validation Summit (May 12 & 14), see how autonomous, context-rich validation finds what’s exploitable, proves controls hold, and closes the remediation loop.
Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is a fun mix of topics. I especially loved the blue category, which harkens back to a very simple and iconic children’s book. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.
The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
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