DJI puts us at risk in a new way

January 16, 2025

DJI puts us at risk in a new way: Ten years ago, drone-maker DJI added automatic geofencing to its models after a drone landed on the White House lawn. This feature automatically stopped drones from flying over airports, power plants and emergencies like wildfires, too. Now that the U.S. is talking openly about banning Chinese tech, DJI is retaliating by cutting its geofenced “No-Fly Zones” from its software and leaving it up to the good judgment of the folks flying their drones. Frightening.

Tags: Feature, tech

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“Thank you, God”

After Casey Colvin’s home burned down in the Pacific Palisades fire, he went looking for his rescue dogs. A firefighter found Tika Tika Tika, but little Oreo ran away. Luckily, Casey was smart and had an AirTag on the pup’s collar. He tracked her down near the rubble of his home. Grab some tissues before you watch the heartwarming video.

$70 a month

For DirecTV’s sports-only subscription. MySports, available in 24 metro areas, includes 40 sports from ESPN and Fox Sports, plus local channels, the NFL and MLB networks, NBA TV, and lots more. There’s golf, too. Tee-riffic!

$3,600 Hermès bag

Up for grabs in a claw machine in Queens, New York. It’s the game you remember (move the claw, drop it down, pray), except there’s a $50 buy-in (paywall link). Other prizes ripe for the plucking include $549 AirPods Max headphones and a $600 Chanel wallet. Why can’t anybody win at a “Frozen” claw machine? Because it will always let it go.

Below 90%

Google’s hold on search traffic. For the first time in a decade, more than one in 10 folks search the web some other way. It’s not ChatGPT taking over just yet. Bing, Yandex (a Russian search engine) and Yahoo all saw market share increases. Yeah, Google’s AI Overview stinks.

$1,875,000 severance

For Patrick Spence, the canned Sonos CEO. Spence also will get $7,500 a month for “strategic advisory” until June. The drama started in May 2024 with Sonos’ buggy app that got pushed out way too early so they could sell fancy headphones. Sales numbers were awful, employees quit, and it spiraled into a full-on PR disaster. Way to go, Mr. CEO!

Almost $1,600 a year

What Gen Z adults pay on average for basic DIY tasks. A survey of 2,000 18- to 27-year-olds showed they’d rather pay someone to clean their car or hang a picture frame. About 30% can’t even identify a flathead screwdriver. How many Gen Zers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Just one … to call the handyman.

60 new stores

Opening this year for Barnes & Noble. You read that correctly — opening, not closing. Last year, they opened 57 stores in the U.S. Hey, even in the Kindle age, people love books they can hold. Now I want to go browse.

$50 per month

Starlink’s cheaper internet service plan. The catch? You have to keep your data usage under 50GB, then you’re cut off. The regular plan is $120 per month, so it’s a good price if you use it as a backup and don’t do much that’s data-heavy. Starlink is my backup, and I’d be over 50GB way too fast with my show and podcast recordings!

41% lower risk

Of head and neck cancer by drinking three to four cups of coffee per day. Researchers dug into 14 studies with over 25,000 people. They found heavy coffee drinkers had a 30% lower risk of oral cancer. Even decaf helps. For tea drinkers like me, there’s a 9% risk reduction for both and 29% lower for hypopharyngeal (lower throat) cancer. I hate cancer.

157 million users

Watching ads on Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. About half of all new Disney+ subscribers picked the cheaper ad-supported option. That’s helping the streamer rake in $321 million in operating income, a huge turnaround from their reported $387 million loss a year ago.