Also seeing a lot of bots in the last few days. If you have a Telegram client that shows their registration date,many of them have the same one (3rd March 2025). It's got to the point where if an account has no profile pic and that join date,they're getting thrown out and can appeal if they're human

When the TV is not, in fact, ready for dé HD

the fucking AI slop cows, every time. I think I saw that either Aldi or Lidl have them in the middle aisle for some reason currently, as if even more are needed

From the foxes community on Reddit: Fox with victory pose Explore this post and more from the foxes community

It's been around since at least 2021: www.reddit.com/r/foxes/comm...

I don't think AI was good enough for this then? The image on reddit does look lower res though, so perhaps it's been badly upscaled with AI.

Weather map showing a phallic-shaped rain formation

Must be the weather again

A lot of the episodes with bad ratings aren't actually terrible, much of it was a pile-on for reasons other than quality.

There are some pretty bad episodes, but the majority of them probably don't deserve the rating they have.

Me when I see my wallpaper 🫵

A group of small baby minecraft animal: An orange cat, a custom fox, a wolf, a normal red fox, and a custom wolf that layed down.

With the new #minecraft #tinytakeover update, all those #cute baby animals got loose!
Imagine getting a #Lego one for your desk?

I can make #fox #cat or #wolf in your fursonas colors: Instructions+partlist!😊
Just message me if interested (PWYW basis). -->

#furry #furryart

"sorry boss I can't join the Teams call the cat is being a shit and running away so I can't use the 2 factor"

Seems like a good place to build Lego

To revert back, just long press and open the search settings, then select the Google app. Note that unfortunately only the search box check is bypassed, this wouldn't allow a third party app to replace the Discover feed yet (not without root anyway).

With this method you can set any app as the provider, but the widget must be set as "configuration optional", ie. if you add it to the home screen it doesn't open a configuration UI before being added. It also takes the first widget for a package, so apps with several widgets may show the wrong one.

Screenshot showing the Pixel Search as the search box on the home screen of the Pixel Launcher

And my personal favourite, Pixel Search (play.google.com/store/apps/d...), which looks like the old search box but is more customisable. It opens a similar UI to the old search interface too.

adb shell settings put secure selected_search_engine rk.android.app.pixelsearch

Screenshot showing the Chrome as the search box on the home screen of the Pixel Launcher

Chrome (looks a bit weird with broken scaling):

adb shell settings put secure selected_search_engine com.android.chrome

Screenshot showing the Firefox as the search box on the home screen of the Pixel Launcher

Here's Firefox:

adb shell settings put secure selected_search_engine org.mozilla.firefox

Will this change in the future to allow third party apps to replace Discover? Maybe, who knows. But what use would that be anyway when the list of allowed apps is server-controlled? Well...

The setting is writable using ADB and can be set to any app, bypassing the check (also enabling the settings)

Command line query showing the hardcoded list of packages from a Pixel device, showing just one result: the Google app.

Interestingly, this setting is also used to control which app to use for the "overlay" (minus one / Discover feed), but the selected app must be on a hardcoded list of packages (see the code: cs.android.com/android/plat...). Querying this on a device reveals the list only allows the Google app.

This suggests that the change is actually more to do with antitrust, and also at the same time will finally allow people to change the search box - something that's been asked for for a long time.

The list of apps that are "allowed" here is server-controlled, it reads from www.gstatic.com/android_sear... (download and drop into protobuf-decoder.netlify.app to read this), and seems to be a similar list (if not the same one) to previous antitrust requirements.

Screenshot showing the search box long pressed, revealing two options: Search settings and Widget settings. Search settings is new.

The settings UI opened when search settings is selected, showing options to select a search engine, and a link to two existing Google-specific options for web search preferences and to control search results.

The search engine picker, showing two options: DuckDuckGo and Google. DuckDuckGo has been selected instead of Google.

The home screen again, but now showing the DuckDuckGo search box as it was selected.

This is an intentional change, but the claims that it's being done to push AI mode don't seem to be (entirely) true. There's actually a hidden settings UI that only appears if you change the setting (presumably this will change later), which allows you to pick a search provider for the search box.

Screenshot showing the old search box on the home screen of the Pixel Launcher

Screenshot showing the "new" search box on the home screen of the Pixel Launcher, which is the Google widget

In the first Android 17 beta, there's a change to the search box in the Pixel Launcher. Some sites are reporting this as "similar to the Google widget" - but it acually *is* just the Google widget. The methods to revert back to the old search box (internally called "one" search) also don't work

screenshot of my quiz results: “Congratulations! You are a Quiz Destroyer. You answered 20 questions and didn’t break a sweat.” badges say: “Hydrated…?”, “Breakfast Appreciator”, “Behaves Unprofessionally”, “Burger Supplier”, “No Mayo”, “Fun Guy”, “Inbox Zero”

Do you like taking unscientific personality tests? I have developed one that will definitely tell you something about yourself. Guaranteed free of malware! Extremely shareable results!! It’s free and online!!!!

wuffs.org/quiz/

Do you have one of those cinema passes or are you paying to see Nick every time?

Queueing up at the landlord's house at 5am on boxing day for the best deal

Yeah I think it's this, it's quite common to get it with 50Hz displays here since most phones will default to 60Hz refresh rate in videos. Lights get detected and adjusted to quickly, but smaller screens you end up with the scan effect.

Old Fridges Can Kill Public Information Film PIF 1971 CLIP YouTube video by Retro Pixels

We had this: youtu.be/A4aVU3LFq_E

It's so very '70s that the correct thing to do is the last mentioned option, after smashing the shit out of it to prevent a child from getting stuck when you've dumped it in the local woods

Entrance to a Royal Mail sorting office, with a fence topped in razor wire

Spotted while visiting the world's most approachable Royal Mail sorting office

Graffiti on an underpass reading "your a furry" [sic]

Salford graffiti hits different

Hate this shit so much, I've done all the ID crap for Bluesky, Discord and Reddit and yet I'm still having to VPN to France more and more because I can't even scroll Reddit without being blocked.

Imgur isn't even the Online Safety Act, they just got fined and decided to block the entire country.

I hope the same for the apple.news links, though at least that was limited to news sites