Author name: Ari B

report:-deepfake-porn-consistently-found-atop-google,-bing-search-results

Report: Deepfake porn consistently found atop Google, Bing search results

Bing, deepfake porn, Deepfakes, Google, Policy / /

Shocking results —

Google vows to create more safeguards to protect victims of deepfake porn.

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Report: Deepfake porn consistently found atop Google, Bing search results

Popular search engines like Google and Bing are making it easy to surface nonconsensual deepfake pornography by placing it at the top of search results, NBC News reported Thursday.

These controversial deepfakes superimpose faces of real women, often celebrities, onto the bodies of adult entertainers to make them appear to be engaging in real sex. Thanks in part to advances in generative AI, there is now a burgeoning black market for deepfake porn that could be discovered through a Google search, NBC News previously reported.

NBC News uncovered the problem by turning off safe search, then combining the names of 36 female celebrities with obvious search terms like “deepfakes,” “deepfake porn,” and “fake nudes.” Bing generated links to deepfake videos in top results 35 times, while Google did so 34 times. Bing also surfaced “fake nude photos of former teen Disney Channel female actors” using images where actors appear to be underaged.

A Google spokesperson told NBC that the tech giant understands “how distressing this content can be for people affected by it” and is “actively working to bring more protections to Search.”

According to Google’s spokesperson, this controversial content sometimes appears because “Google indexes content that exists on the web,” just “like any search engine.” But while searches using terms like “deepfake” may generate results consistently, Google “actively” designs “ranking systems to avoid shocking people with unexpected harmful or explicit content that they aren’t looking for,” the spokesperson said.

Currently, the only way to remove nonconsensual deepfake porn from Google search results is for the victim to submit a form personally or through an “authorized representative.” That form requires victims to meet three requirements: showing that they’re “identifiably depicted” in the deepfake; the “imagery in question is fake and falsely depicts” them as “nude or in a sexually explicit situation”; and the imagery was distributed without their consent.

While this gives victims some course of action to remove content, experts are concerned that search engines need to do more to effectively reduce the prevalence of deepfake pornography available online—which right now is rising at a rapid rate.

This emerging issue increasingly affects average people and even children, not just celebrities. Last June, child safety experts discovered thousands of realistic but fake AI child sex images being traded online, around the same time that the FBI warned that the use of AI-generated deepfakes in sextortion schemes was increasing.

And nonconsensual deepfake porn isn’t just being traded in black markets online. In November, New Jersey police launched a probe after high school teens used AI image generators to create and share fake nude photos of female classmates.

With tech companies seemingly slow to stop the rise in deepfakes, some states have passed laws criminalizing deepfake porn distribution. Last July, Virginia amended its existing law criminalizing revenge porn to include any “falsely created videographic or still image.” In October, New York passed a law specifically focused on banning deepfake porn, imposing a $1,000 fine and up to a year of jail time on violators. Congress has also introduced legislation that creates criminal penalties for spreading deepfake porn.

Although Google told NBC News that its search features “don’t allow manipulated media or sexually explicit content,” the outlet’s investigation seemingly found otherwise. NBC News also noted that Google’s Play app store hosts an app that was previously marketed for creating deepfake porn, despite prohibiting “apps determined to promote or perpetuate demonstrably misleading or deceptive imagery, videos and/or text.” This suggests that Google’s remediation efforts blocking deceptive imagery may be inconsistent.

Google told Ars that it will soon be strengthening its policies against apps featuring AI-generated restricted content in the Play Store. A generative AI policy taking effect on January 31 will require all apps to comply with developer policies that ban AI-generated restricted content, including deceptive content and content that facilitates the exploitation or abuse of children.

Experts told NBC News that “Google’s lack of proactive patrolling for abuse has made it and other search engines useful platforms for people looking to engage in deepfake harassment campaigns.”

Google is currently “in the process of building more expansive safeguards, with a particular focus on removing the need for known victims to request content removals one by one,” Google’s spokesperson told NBC News.

Microsoft’s spokesperson told Ars that Microsoft updated its process for reporting concerns with Bing searches to include non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) used in “deepfakes” last August because it had become a “significant concern.” Like Google, Microsoft allows victims to report NCII deepfakes by submitting a web form to request removal from search results, understanding that any sharing of NCII is “a gross violation of personal privacy and dignity with devastating effects for victims.”

In the past, Microsoft President Brad Smith has said that among all dangers that AI poses, deepfakes worry him most, but deepfakes fueling “foreign cyber influence operations” seemingly concern him more than deepfake porn.

This story was updated on January 11 to include information on Google’s AI-generated content policy and on January 12 to include information from Microsoft.

Report: Deepfake porn consistently found atop Google, Bing search results Read More »

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Astronomers found ultra-hot, Earth-sized exoplanet with a lava hemisphere

astronomy, astrophysics, exoplanets, lava worlds, Physics, Science, Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite / /
Like Kepler-10 b, illustrated above, the exoplanet HD 63433 d is a small, rocky planet in a tight orbit of its star.

Enlarge / Like Kepler-10 b, illustrated above, newly discovered exoplanet HD 63433 d is a small, rocky planet in a tight orbit of its star.

NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

Astronomers have discovered an unusual Earth-sized exoplanet they believe has a hemisphere of molten lava, with its other hemisphere tidally locked in perpetual darkness. Co-authors and study leaders Benjamin Capistrant (University of Florida) and Melinda Soares-Furtado (University of Wisconsin-Madison) presented the details yesterday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans. An associated paper has just been published in The Astronomical Journal. Another paper published today in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics by a different group described the discovery of a rare small, cold exoplanet with a massive outer companion 100 times the mass of Jupiter.

As previously reported, thanks to the massive trove of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler mission, we now have a good idea of what kinds of planets are out there, where they orbit, and how common the different types are. What we lack is a good sense of what that implies in terms of the conditions on the planets themselves. Kepler can tell us how big a planet is, but it doesn’t know what the planet is made of. And planets in the “habitable zone” around stars could be consistent with anything from a blazing hell to a frozen rock.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was launched with the intention of helping us figure out what exoplanets are actually like. TESS is designed to identify planets orbiting bright stars relatively close to Earth, conditions that should allow follow-up observations to figure out their compositions and potentially those of their atmospheres.

Both Kepler and TESS identify planets using what’s called the transit method. This works for systems in which the planets orbit in a plane that takes them between their host star and Earth. As this occurs, the planet blocks a small fraction of the starlight that we see from Earth (or nearby orbits). If these dips in light occur with regularity, they’re diagnostic of something orbiting the star.

This tells us something about the planet. The frequency of the dips in the star’s light tells us how long an orbit takes, which tells us how far the planet is from its host star. That, combined with the host star’s brightness, tells us how much incoming light the planet receives, which will influence its temperature. (The range of distances at which temperatures are consistent with liquid water is called the habitable zone.) And we can use that, along with how much light is being blocked, to figure out how big the planet is.

But to really understand other planets and their potential to support life, we have to understand what they’re made of and what their atmosphere looks like. While TESS doesn’t answer those questions, it’s designed to find planets with other instruments that could answer them.

Astronomers found ultra-hot, Earth-sized exoplanet with a lava hemisphere Read More »

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It’s a new year, and these are now the only EVs that get a tax credit

Cars, clean vehicle tax credit, Evergreen, explainer, IRS clean vehicle tax credit / /

lease instead of buy —

Strict rules about battery components from China make most plug-ins ineligible.

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concept of ev tax credit

Getty Images

It’s a new year, and while few of us still have the headache of needing to remember to write the new year on checks, 2024 brings a new annoyance of sorts. As of yesterday, tough new US Treasury Department rules concerning the sourcing of electric vehicle batteries went into effect; as a result, most of the battery and plug-in hybrid EVs that were eligible for the Internal Revenue Service’s clean vehicle tax credit until Sunday have now lost that eligibility.

Under the federal government’s previous program to incentivize the adoption of plug-in vehicles, it offered a tax credit, up to $7,500, based on the battery capacity of a BEV or PHEV, and once a car maker sold more than 200,000 plug-in vehicles, it lost eligibility for the tax credit—Only Tesla and General Motors reached this threshold.

Changes came as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and went into effect at the start of 2023. Thanks to heavy industry lobbying, credits linked to union-made EVs went by the wayside, with US Senator Joe Manchin acting as point man for companies like Toyota that sought to slow down the EV transition.

As we’ve detailed in the past, the new rules allow for a tax credit of up to $7,500 for the purchase of a new EV. But there are plenty of conditions. Final assembly must take place in North America. There are income caps for the buyer and a price cap for the vehicle—no more than $55,000 for a sedan or $80,000 for an SUV, truck, or minivan. Half of the tax credit is tied to a certain amount of domestically refined or processed minerals in the battery pack, the other half to a certain value of the pack having been assembled domestically.

While that includes countries that have free trade agreements with the United States, it significantly limited the number of new EVs that were eligible for the tax credit. (However, the IRS chose to read the law in such a way as to still allow the full $7,500 tax credit for clean vehicles that were leased, even if not assembled in North America.)

The list of eligible cars changed throughout the year as the rules were implemented in stages, and as automakers refined their supply chains as required. But toward the end of 2023, the Treasury published another new guideline. Now, any car with a battery that contains material from or made by a “foreign entity of concern”—which means Russia, Iran, North Korea, or China—cannot be eligible for the tax credit.

While the first three nations on that list are not particularly far down the road of EV battery making, the same isn’t true for China, which dominates the field, particularly in terms of processing the critical minerals used in lithium-ion batteries. The FEOC rule also applies to batteries made by Chinese-owned companies even if the cells are produced here in the US.

Consequently, the list of BEVs and PHEVs that are still eligible for the new clean vehicle tax credit now looks rather meagre. The following clean vehicles still qualify for the full $7,500, although we should note that the first two on the list (the Chevrolet Bolts) have ceased production now:

  • 2022-2023 Chevrolet Bolt EV
  • 2022-2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV
  • 2022-2024 Chrysler Pacifica PHEV
  • 2022-2024 Ford F-150 Lightning extended range battery
  • 2022-2024 Ford F-150 Lightning standard range battery
  • 2023-2024 Tesla Model 3 Performance
  • 2023-2024 Tesla Model X Long Rage
  • 2023-2024 Tesla Model Y All-Wheel Drive
  • 2023-2024 Tesla Model Y Performance
  • 2023-2024 Tesla Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive

Additionally, the following vehicles qualify for a $3,750 tax credit:

  • 2022-2024 Ford Escape Plug-In Hybrid
  • 2022-2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee PHEV 4xe
  • 2022-2024 Jeep Wrangler PHEV 4xe
  • 2022-2024 Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring
  • 2023-2024 Rivian R1S Dual Large
  • 2023-2024 Rivian R1S Quad Large
  • 2023-2024 Rivian R1T Dual Large
  • 2023-2024 Rivian R1T Dual Max
  • 2023-2024 Rivian R1T Quad Large

But there is one bright piece of news concerning the clean vehicle tax credit in 2024. From January 1, dealers are now able to pass the entire credit on to the buyer at the point of purchase. This applies to both new and used EVs, even in cases where the buyer may not have a large enough tax liability at the end of the year to claim the full credit the old-fashioned way.

It’s a new year, and these are now the only EVs that get a tax credit Read More »

2024-may-be-a-year-of-reckoning-for-apple’s-$85-billion-services-business

2024 may be a year of reckoning for Apple’s $85 billion services business

antitrust, App Store, App stories, Apple, big tech, monopoly, syndication / /

scrutinized —

US court cases and tougher EU regulation will pose challenges to Apple’s bottom line.

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2024 may be a year of reckoning for Apple’s $85 billion services business

Apple faces a legal reckoning in 2024, with a series of regulatory decisions by US and EU authorities over the coming months set to determine the future of its $85 billion-a-year services business.

The biggest hit to the iPhone maker could come from a US antitrust trial against Google, where it emerged that the fellow tech giant had paid more than $26 billion in 2021 to make its search engine the default on Apple devices and other smartphones and browsers.

Should Google lose the case, it could be forced to stop making regular payments to Apple, which Eric Seufert, an independent analyst, estimates as being worth a quarter of annual revenues earned by Apple’s services arm.

Meanwhile, Apple and other tech giants face increasing scrutiny from the Biden administration over concerns about the dominance of its App Store, which it is already being forced to change in the EU due to legislation designed to rein in the power of Big Tech.

Together, the legal and regulatory actions spanning two of Apple’s biggest markets represent the biggest threat to the company’s business in years.

Its services arm, which includes income from the App Store, video streaming arm, and Apple Music, has steadily increased as a proportion of the company’s total revenues, which is still dominated by sales of devices such as the iPhone.

The Google trial, seen as the most significant antitrust monopoly trial in more than 25 years in Washington, will hear closing arguments in May. Should Google lose, it will almost certainly file an appeal, but such a decision would raise questions about how the two tech giants work with one another into the future.

“I think the judge was intrigued with that issue during the trial,” said Bill Kovacic, a former Federal Trade Commission chair and competition professor of law and policy at George Washington University Law School. “The question in the background was: ‘if Apple is going to have an auction for that prime placement, what should Google have done?’”

The White House is at the same time intensifying its efforts to tackle what it regards as excessive corporate power. Jonathan Kanter, head of the Department of Justice’s antitrust unit since November 2021, has made no secret of his ambition to bring cases against the biggest US companies.

His department has been probing Apple’s App Store policies for years and is now, according to Kanter, “firing on all cylinders.” The window for him to bring a case is closing, however, as the US presidential election and a potential change in administration loom. The DoJ did not respond to a request for comment on the Apple probe.

Regulators, businesses, and enforcers have for years been seeking to pry apart Apple’s iOS ecosystem, a move the tech giant has always insisted would undermine the mobile operating software’s security.

Apple, however, acknowledged recently in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would have to make changes to its App Store in the EU, due to the bloc’s new Digital Markets Act, which has a March deadline for legal compliance from tech companies.

In the EU, Apple is preparing to allow “sideloading,” which enables iPhone users to bypass its store and download apps from elsewhere.

This will breach, for the first time, the walled-off ecosystem that the company has protected since Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in 2007. Apple has dragged its feet on this issue, since it maintains the practice will create security risks to its system.

Sideloading could have an impact on the App Store, where Apple charges developers as much as a 30 percent fee on digital purchases. Games account for more than half of that revenue. Google’s Play Store, which charges a similar fee, is also in the spotlight after it lost a landmark trial against Epic Games in California in December.

Apple draws between $6 billion and $7 billion in commission fees from the App Store globally each quarter, according to Sensor Tower estimates.

Competitors are pushing to earn some of that share and launch rival app stores and payment methods on Apple devices. Microsoft is talking to partners about launching its own mobile store.

Fortnite maker Epic Games, a longtime Apple foe, wants its store on iOS devices and points to its lower 12 percent fee as an incentive for consumers to switch to its platform.

While Epic broadly lost a lower court judgment into its claims against Apple in 2021, a California judge ordered Apple to put an end to App Store rules that prevent developers from steering customers outside of the store to make purchases. The appeals court upheld that injunction earlier this year. The US Supreme Court will review the case next year.

For investors, gauging the ultimate risk from the raft of regulatory and legal actions across the world is difficult. “I think there’s just a belief that there’s all this noise in the background, and ‘don’t worry about it,’” said Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management.

Investors, he said, had been “lulled to sleep” by Apple’s initial wins against Epic in particular. “But I think investors should take it seriously.”

Apple declined to comment.

© 2024 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.

2024 may be a year of reckoning for Apple’s $85 billion services business Read More »

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Juno makes its first ultra-close flyby of the volcano-covered moon Io

Io, juno, Science, Space / /

Io—not a vacation world —

“The cumulative effect of all that radiation has begun to show.”

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Juno flyby of Io on Dec. 30, 2023.

Enlarge / Juno flyby of Io on Dec. 30, 2023.

NASA

On Saturday NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter for the better part of a decade, made its closest flyby of the innermost moon in the Jovian system.

The spacecraft came to within 930 miles (1,500 km) of the surface of Io, a dense moon that is the fourth largest in the Solar System. Unlike a lot of moons around Jupiter and Saturn, which have surface ice or subsurface water, Io is a very dry world. It is also extremely geologically active. Io has more than 400 active volcanoes and is therefore an object of great interest to astronomers and planetary scientists.

Images from the December 30 flyby were posted by NASA over the New Year holiday weekend, and they provide some of the clearest views yet of this hell-hole world. The new data will help planetary scientists determine how often these volcanoes erupt and how this activity is connected to Jupiter’s magnetosphere—Io is bathed in intense radiation from the gas-giant planet.

To date Juno has mostly observed Io from afar as the spacecraft has made 56 flybys of Jupiter, studying the complex gas giant in far greater detail than ever before. Since arriving in the planetary system in July 2016, Juno has previously gotten to within several thousand miles of the moon. Juno will make another close flyby of Io on February 3, 2024, and this will allow scientists to compare changes on the moon’s surface over a short period of time.

Since its launch on an Atlas V rocket, Juno has performed very well while operating in the Jovian system, surviving extended operations in the harsh radiation of the planet. This is a significant challenge for any spacecraft bound for Jupiter, which must carry radiation-hardened instruments, including its cameras.

“The cumulative effect of all that radiation has begun to show on JunoCam over the last few orbits,” said Ed Hirst, project manager of Juno at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Pictures from the last flyby show a reduction in the imager’s dynamic range and the appearance of ‘striping’ noise. Our engineering team has been working on solutions to alleviate the radiation damage and to keep the imager going.”

Eventually, the radiation will win, so NASA has a disposal planned for Juno before it ceases being operational. Originally, the space agency planned to end the vehicle’s life in 2018, but because Juno has been such a survivor as it has probed the largest planet in the Solar System, the spacecraft now is planned to operate until September 2025.

At that point, however, it will descend into Jupiter’s atmosphere to burn up, in order to not contaminate any of the planet’s moons with any stray Earth microbes on board, unlikely though that may be.

Juno makes its first ultra-close flyby of the volcano-covered moon Io Read More »

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Here’s how the EPA calculates how far an EV can go on a full charge

Cars, EPA efficiency, EV efficiency, EV range, Evergreen, explainer, Features / /
Here’s how the EPA calculates how far an EV can go on a full charge

Aurich Lawson | Getty Images

How does the US Environmental Protection Agency decide how far an electric vehicle can go on a single charge? The simple explanation is that an EV is driven until the battery runs flat, providing the number that goes on the window sticker. In practice, it’s a lot more complicated than that, with varying test cycles, real-world simulations, and more variables than a book of Mad Libs, all in an effort to give you a number that you can count on to be consistent and comparable with other vehicles on the road.

The start of EPA mileage testing

The EPA started testing vehicle fuel economy in 1971, and that initial testing still plays a major role in how modern cars are measured.

The year before, President Richard Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (followed by the Clean Air Act of 1970) and established the EPA with a mandate that included lowering motor vehicle emissions. Part of the EPA’s plan to reduce emissions was to let buyers know just how much fuel a car would use so they could cross-shop cars effectively.

Testing started with a route called the Federal Test Procedure. The EPA adopted an 11-mile (18-km) route that was originally done on real roads in Los Angeles. The route had an average speed of 21 miles per hour (34 km/h) and a top speed of 56 mph (90 km/h). Tailpipe emissions were measured, fuel economy was calculated, and the “city” fuel economy rating was born.

By the time the 10-mile (16-km) Highway Fuel Economy Test was added in 1974, the tests were performed in a lab on a dynamometer. Running tests on the dyno made them more consistent and easier to repeat, though it wasn’t perfect.

Small changes and tweaks were made over the years, with the biggest change announced in 2005. That year, the EPA announced changes to the test to meet new highway speeds, account for heating and air conditioning use, and make the test more relevant to real-world driving. Drivers weren’t able to hit the published numbers, and the EPA wanted to fix that. The system was introduced for the 2008 model year and is largely the one we use today.

Modern range testing

Today, automakers have two different test options for EVs. The automaker can decide that it wants to perform a “single cycle” test. On that test, the car drives the EPA city cycle over and over again until the charge runs out, then does the same on the highway cycle, starting with a full charge. The process is repeated for reliability. The alternative is that the automaker can perform a multi-cycle test that has completed four city cycles, two highway cycles, and two constant speed cycles.

Getty Images

The test cycles

The city cycle

The EPA’s Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule is the official “city cycle” test loop. It is a complicated graph of time, vehicle speed, and allowable acceleration. The total test time is 1,369 seconds, the distance simulated is 7.45 miles (12 km), and the average speed is 19.59 mph (32.11 km/h). As with all of the tests, the exact speed required at each second of the test is laid out in a spreadsheet.

The highest speed reached on the test is 56.7 mph (91.25 km/h), and there are several periods where the vehicle sits stationary. Stationary seconds of the test made more sense when it was designed to measure a gas vehicle’s idle emissions and consumption, but it does still have some relevance today when it comes to climate control use and energy required to accelerate the vehicle.

The highway cycle

For higher speeds, vehicles complete the Highway Fuel Economy Driving Schedule (HFEDS). This test has a top speed of 59.9 mph (96.4 km/h) and an average of 48.3 mph (77.73 km/h), and it takes 765 seconds to complete.

Only the UDDS and HFEDS tests are required to certify an EV. But a top speed of 59.9 mph is a much lower highway speed than most drivers will experience.

Driving more quickly or using climate control can greatly impact range. More tests were introduced to help give a more realistic range, and they’re part of the 5-cycle test covered below.

Here’s how the EPA calculates how far an EV can go on a full charge Read More »

study:-the-best-free-throw-shooters-share-these-biomechanical-traits

Study: The best free-throw shooters share these biomechanical traits

12 days of Christmas, basketball, Biomechanics, Physics, Science, sports science / /

There’s rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we’re once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, highlighting one science story that fell through the cracks in 2020, each day from December 25 through January 5. Today: Using markerless motion capture technology to determine what makes the best free throw shooters in basketball.

Markerless motion-capture technology shows the biomechanics of free-throw shooters. Credit: Jayhawk Athletic Peformance Laboratory.

Basketball season is in full swing, and in a close game, the team that makes the highest percentage of free throws can often eke out the win. A better understanding of the precise biomechanics of the best free-throw shooters could translate into critical player-performance improvement. Researchers at the University of Kansas in Lawrence used markerless motion-capture technology to do just that, reporting their findings in an August paper published in the journal Frontiers in Sports and Active Living.

“We’re very interested in analyzing basketball shooting mechanics and what performance parameters differentiate proficient from nonproficient shooters,” said co-author Dimitrije Cabarkapa, director of the Jayhawk Athletic Performance Laboratory at the University of Kansas. “High-speed video analysis is one way that we can do that, but innovative technological tools such as markerless motion capture systems can allow us to dig even deeper into that. In my opinion, the future of sports science is founded on using noninvasive and time-efficient testing methodologies.”

Scientists are sports fans like everyone else, so it’s not surprising that a fair amount of prior research has gone into various aspects of basketball. For instance, there has been considerable debate on whether the “hot hand” phenomenon in basketball is a fallacy or not—that is, when players make more shots in a row than statistics suggest they should. A 1985 study proclaimed it a fallacy, but more recent mathematical analysis (including a 2015 study examining the finer points of the law of small numbers) from other researchers has provided some vindication that such streaks might indeed be a real thing, although it might only apply to certain players.

Some 20 years ago, Larry Silverberg and Chia Tran of North Carolina State University developed a method to computationally simulate the trajectories of millions of basketballs on the computer and used it to examine the mathematics of the free throw. Per their work, in a perfect free throw, the basketball has a 3 hertz backspin as it leaves the player’s fingertips, the launch is about 52 degrees, and the launch speed is fairly slow, ensuring the greatest probability of making the basket. Of those variables launch speed is the most difficult for players to control. The aim point also matters: Players should aim at the back of the rim, which is more forgiving than the front.

There was also a 2021 study by Malaysian scientists that analyzed the optimal angle of a basketball free throw, based on data gleaned from 30 NBA players. They concluded that a player’s height is inversely proportional to the initial velocity and optimal throwing angle, and that the latter is directly proportional to the time taken for a ball to reach its maximum height.

Graphic showing the contrast in release angles between proficient and nonproficient shooters.

Enlarge / Graphic showing the contrast in release angles between proficient and nonproficient shooters.

Jayhawk Athletic Performance Laboratory.

Cabarkapa’s lab has been studying basketball players’ performance for several years now, including how eating breakfast (or not) impacts shooting performance, and what happens to muscles when players overtrain. They published a series of studies in 2022 assessing the effectiveness of the most common coaching cues, like “bend your knees,” “tuck your elbow in,” or “release the ball as high as possible.” For one study, Cabarkapa et al. analyzed high-definition video of free-throw shooters for kinematic differences between players who excel at free throws and those who don’t. The results pointed to greater flexion in hip, knee, and angle joints resulting in lower elbow placement when shooting.

Yet they found no kinematic differences in shots that proficient players made and those they missed, so the team conducted a follow-up study employing a 3D motion-capture system. This confirmed that greater knee and elbow flexion and lower elbow placement were critical factors. There was only one significant difference between made and missed free-throw shots: positioning the forearm almost parallel with an imaginary lateral axis.

Study: The best free-throw shooters share these biomechanical traits Read More »

Govee Curtain Lights review: I’m obsessed

Highlights / /

TechRadar Verdict

Govee continues to wow, this time around with the Govee Curtain Lights, which are perfect addition to your holiday decorations. Don’t be fooled by its Christmas-wrapped marketing, however. These lights are perfect for year-round use, even when you’re just curled up in a cozy corner with a good book on a rainy day. Fair warning, though: this isn’t a cheap purchase, and the lights aren’t going to look as big as they do in Govee’s marketing images.

Pros

  • +Bright, vibrant and very customizable
  • +Surprisingly easy to set up with 3x ways to hang
  • +Light beads give them a cleaner look
  • +App control and voice command
  • +IP65 waterproof for outdoor use

Cons

  • –Individual strings a little far apart
  • –Lights not as big as in the product images

Smart light technology and designs just keep getting better and better, and Govee seems to be winning in that arena. The Govee Curtain Lights are another fantastic addition to our best smart lights list. And while the brand is currently promoting them as another offering in its smart Christmas light catalog, they deserve to be left up on your wall or windows – and not just ’til January, as that Taylor Swift song goes.

Truth be told, I’m kind of obsessed with the Govee Curtain Lights, and I’m not just saying that as a strong supporter of smart lights. They add a much prettier and much more romantic ambiance to any setting, whether that be my otherwise messy living room or your garden, that no other smart light – not even the recent smart string lights that recently hit the market – can replicate. 

That’s not just because these are curtain lights, made of up 20 rows of individual string lights that all hang side by side like delicate willow tree stems. Although, if I’m being perfectly honest, that really does add to their appeal. 

Basically, you don’t just get light patterns with them; you can actually create visual representations of things you see in the real world – falling leaves, pumpkin patches, Santa riding his sleigh, the face of your favorite pet, and you can do all that using your phone on the Govee app. That capability is a massive game-changer, especially to those folks who go all-out for Christmas.

They’re not just for Christmas, however. Put them up in your reading nook, and they’ll cozy up that space even more with twinkling warm lights. Set them in your dining space, and they can elevate the ambience not just for dinner parties but also during winter when morning tend to be dark and dreary.

Govee Curtain Lights review: I’m obsessed Read More »

Philips Fidelio L4 review: rich and crisp audio quality

Highlights / /

Almost a class-leading option

The Philips Fidelio L4 are almost at the level of the Sony WH-1000XM5 and other popular cans. They sound great and fit well, but some weird bugs let them slightly down and leave you wondering if the next revision will be the perfect pair.

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Pros

  • +Rich and crisp audio
  • +Reliable ANC
  • +Comfy build

Cons

  • –Disconnection issues
  • –They don’t fold
  • –Not exactly stylish

I absolutely want to love the Philips Fidelio L4. In many ways, they undercut the Sony WH-1000XM5 perfectly ensuring you get something for less while still benefiting from all the features you’d want from one of the best headphones.

The problem lies in the execution. The Philips Fidelio L4 suffers from a few too many disconnection issues. When playing, it sounds fantastic. Audio is rich, vibrant, and with just the right amount of bass to ensure you don’t miss out on crisp mids and trebles. The problem is that sometimes it simply drops out and I can’t figure out why. Instinctively, it seems like wear detection could be a problem but even when disabled, the Philips Fidelio L4 would sometimes just switch off, acting like it was doing you a favor. 

It’s frustrating because the Philips Fidelio L4 are good enough that they still deserve a high rating. Besides the exceptional sound quality, there’s also up to 50 hours of battery life which easily beats the competition. A 15 minute charge gives back 14 hours which is ridiculously good going. 

For $349 / £300, the Philips Fidelio L4 are well-priced among strong competition even if they’re not the most exciting looking. You’ll love how great it sounds until it cuts out and you’re left wondering just what you did while you restart the headphones. Still, weirdly, they sound so good, it’s a little easier to forgive than maybe it should be.

  • Released in December 2023
  • Officially priced at $349 / £300

The Philips Fidelio L4 was released in December 2023 for £300. Currently available in the UK, the Philips Fidelio L4 is also set for release in the US for $349 although, at the time of writing, isn’t currently available to buy.  

The headphones are available solely in black – a fairly traditional color for headphones – so don’t go looking for fancy colorways. 

At this price point, the Philips Fidelio L4’s biggest rivals are the Sony WH-1000XM5 and the Bose QuietComfort 45, which offer very similar features but more brand recognition and as we’ll see later – more reliability too. There’s always the Apple AirPods Max if you want to spend more too.

Header Cell – Column 0Philips Fidelio L4
Drivers40mm
Active Noise CancellationYes
Battery lifeUp to 40 hours (ANC on), up to 50 hours (ANC off)
Weight330g
ConnectivityBluetooth 5.3, 3.5mm
WaterproofingNo

The Philips Fidelio L4 packs all the key features you could need. At least when they’re working nicely. The Philips headphones app guides you through the essentials. There’s wear detection, auto on/off and an adjustable EQ. The latter comes with four presets but it’s always good to be able to adjust things for yourself too. 

Other useful features include LDAC support, voice assistant functionality, spatial audio (although no head tracking), and touch controls too. Multipoint support means it’s easy to hook the cans up to multiple devices at once too – a feature that’s fast becoming an essential given how many devices I switch between on a daily basis. There’s also Bluetooth 5.3 support and a 3.5mm jack for listening to music more crisply. 

Sounds perfect, right? Yes and no. While using the Philips Fidelio L4, I found it very prone to random disconnections. I could be idly listening to a song and then suddenly, the headphones would make a couple of shutting down style sounds and do exactly that. At first, it seemed like a battery issue but I found turning off wear detection and touch controls seemed to help matters. It’s a weird one to pin down as it doesn’t seem to be entirely down to wear detection but it’s an irritant on what we’ll soon see is an otherwise exceptional pair of cans and definitely a dealbreaker. 

Philips Fidelio L4 review: rich and crisp audio quality Read More »