You Can Turn Them OFF…

YouTube has introduced a new feature allowing users to disable Shorts on mobile devices by setting a daily watch time limit of zero minutes, effectively pausing the feed. This change is rolling out to both iPhone and Android users, though it remains unavailable on desktop. Public reception has been largely positive, especially after a December study revealed that over half of Shorts recommendations for new users consisted of low-quality or "brain rot" content. Despite this, with Shorts garnering 200 billion daily views, this move represents a significant decision for YouTube. In other tech news, the European Union launched an age verification app, which its President Ursula von Lean stated met the highest privacy standards, eliminating excuses for online platforms not to verify children's ages. However, security researchers quickly reported being able to bypass the app's security in under two minutes. Security consultant Paul Moore highlighted several flaws, including an unencrypted PIN not cryptographically linked to the identity vault, an easily resettable rate limiting counter, and a biometric authentication feature that could be simply disabled. Telegram CEO Pavl Durof further criticized the app, calling it "hackable by design." The EU has since confirmed a new version is being deployed to address these vulnerabilities. Adobe's dominance in the creative app market is facing challenges as competitors offer more affordable or free alternatives. Canva made its professional motion graphics app, Calvary, free, following a similar move with the Affinity Suite. Maxon also relaunched Autograph, a former After Effects competitor, as a free option for individual artists. Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve 21 update further intensified competition, adding a full photo editing page that supports RAW files, imports Lightroom catalogs, and allows camera tethering for live capture. This directly competes with Adobe's Lightroom, which costs $10 a month. In quick bits, Nvidia is reportedly re-releasing the RTX 3060 12 GB in June due to delays with the RTX 5050 9 GB. Microsoft is running a sweepstakes offering $2 million, including a $1 million cash prize and three Mercedes-Benzes, to users who set Edge as their default browser and perform a Bing search. Meta is increasing the prices of the Quest 3 and Quest 3S, attributing it to a global RAM shortage. Europol's "Operation Power Off" led to four arrests and the takedown of 53 domains as part of a crackdown on "DOS for hire" services, with 75,000 users receiving warning letters. Lastly, a new study found that sperm whale language contains vowels, which function similarly to human vowels, despite the species diverging 90 million years ago.