CarPlay Slows Driver Reactions Even More Than Alcohol, Study Finds

CarPlay is fantastically useful, but new research reported on by AppleInsider suggests that it could severely limit your reaction time.  The study for UK road safety charity IAM RoadSmart showed that in-vehicle infotainment systems can impair drivers’ reactions even more than cannabis or alcohol do.

Regardless of the infotainment system, all users showed significantly slowed reaction time. Undistracted drivers typically showed a one-second reaction time. Those who used the voice-controlled Apple CarPlay saw a 36% increase in their reaction time, which rose to 57% when they used the touch interface. Android Auto users faired only slightly better—a 30% increase in reaction time when using voice control, and 53% when using touch controls. For comparison, those who drive under the influence at the drink-drive limit showed a 12% increase in reaction time, and those who used cannabis saw a 21% increase.

Netflix And YouTube Reducing Streaming Quality in Europe to Help Reduce Network Strain

Netflix and YouTube are going to reduce their streaming quality for the next month, CNN reported. They are aiming to help reduce strain on networks as more-and-more people are forced to work from home due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Both companies said the measures will affect all video streams for 30 days. “We estimate that this will reduce Netflix traffic on European networks by around 25% while also ensuring a good quality service for our members,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement. A spokesperson for Google (GOOGL), which owns YouTube, said: “We will continue working with member state governments and network operators to minimize stress on the system, while also delivering a good user experience.” The changes follow appeals from EU officials for streaming services and individual users to ditch high definition video to prevent the internet from breaking. With so many countries on forced lockdowns to fight the spread of the virus, hundreds of millions working from home and even more children out of school, the officials were concerned about the huge strain on the internet.

NordPass Password Manager 1-Year Subscription: $25.49

We have a deal on a 1-year subscription to NordPass Password Manager for Mac, Windows, or Linux devices. The subscription is good on up to 6 devices, and it will remember and autosave all your complex passwords, autofill online forms, generate strong passwords when needed, and more. This subscription is $29.99 through our deal, but coupon code SPRINGSAVE15 brings the checkout price down to $25.49.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkYUSeAs4mE&feature=emb_logo

Google: “We Don’t Sell Your Data, We Just Monetize It”

One way to avoid the California Consumer Privacy Act is to claim that you don’t sell data. This is what Google has seemingly done.

Google monetizes what it observes about people in two major ways: It uses data to build individual profiles with demographics and interests, then lets advertisers target groups of people based on those traits. It shares data with advertisers directly and asks them to bid on individual ads.

As I tweeted yesterday, there is no difference between selling “access” to data and selling data “directly.” In both scenarios, people are products for advertisers. Although I’m sure lawsuits have been won and lost on lesser technicalities.

Watch This Full Bruce Springsteen Set on Apple Music For The First Time

Bruce Springsteen’s entire 2009 London Calling: Live In Hyde Park set is available in entirety for the first time on Apple Music. The set was filmed at the Hard Rock Calling festival. It kicks-off, naturally, with The Clash’s London Calling, before plowing through a host-of Springsteen classics. For those without an Apple Music subscription, you can now also watch the whole thing on YouTube.

Comparing the PS5 and the Xbox Series X

Time at home making you fancy a new games console? Wired has put what we know about the forthcoming devices head-to-head.

Several of the Xbox Series X and PS5 specs sound similar. They have fast all-SSD storage, 16GB GDDR6 RAM and both a CPU and GPU made by AMD. But if you a little deeper, their differences become apparent. To simmer it down to a reductive analogy: the PS5 is nimble while the Xbox Series X is out to win with brute force power. The PS5 uses incredibly intelligent hardware optimisation and custom silicon to tease remarkable performance out of its core components. But the Xbox Series X has a more powerful GPU, which is the first metric by which any console is usually judged. Their hardware belongs to the same family, though. They have AMD Zen 2 generation CPUs and AMD Navi-based graphics chipsets. The latter will share some hardware with PC graphics cards not even released yet.