An anonymous reader shares a report: In a recent support document, Apple states that putting wet devices in a bag of rice could "allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone," although it doesn't go into further detail. The company also recommended against using other well-known hacks, such as using an external heat source to dry the pho ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shares a report: In a recent support document, Apple states that putting wet devices in a bag of rice could "allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone," although it doesn't go into further detail. The company also recommended against using other well-known hacks, such as using an external heat source to dry the pho ... ⌘ Read more
Encrypted messaging app Signal has launched new feature allowing users to conceal their phone numbers and instead use usernames, in a move aimed at boosting privacy protections long sought by cybersecurity experts and privacy advocates. From a report: Rather than give your phone number to other Signal contacts as the identi ... ⌘ Read more
A trio of Google engineers recently came up with a futuristic way to help anyone who stumbles through presentations on video calls. They propose that when algorithms detect a speaker's pulse racing or "umms" lengthening, a generative AI bot that mimics their voice could simply take over. That cutting-edge idea wasn't revealed at a big c ... ⌘ Read more
Cox, the cable television and internet service provider, convinced a U.S. appeals court to throw out a $1 billion jury verdict in favor of several major record labels that had accused it of failing to curb user piracy, setting the stage for a new trial on the matter. From a report: The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmon ... ⌘ Read more
The first human patient implanted with a brain-chip from Neuralink appears to have fully recovered and is able to control a computer mouse using their thoughts, the startup's founder Elon Musk said late on Monday. From a report: "Progress is good, and the patient seems to have made a full recovery, with no ill e ... ⌘ Read more
The brightest known object in the universe, a quasar 500tn times brighter than our sun, was "hiding in plain sight," researchers say. From a report: Australian scientists spotted a quasar powered by the fastest growing black hole ever discovered. Its mass is about 17bn times that of our solar system's sun, and it devours the equivalent of a sun a day. The light from the celest ... ⌘ Read more
Google's "Nest Aware" camera subscription is going through another round of price increases. From a report: This time it's for international users. There's no big announcement or anything, just a smattering of email screenshots from various countries on the Nest subreddit. 9to5Google was nice enough to hunt down a pile of the announcements. Ne ... ⌘ Read more
Adobe is adding a new generative AI experience to its Acrobat PDF management software, which aims to "completely transform the digital document experience" by making information in long documents easier to find and understand. From a report: Announced in Adobe's press release as "AI Assistant in Acrobat," the new tool is described as a "conversatio ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shares a report: Sony's new PlayStation Portal has been hacked by Google engineers to run emulated games locally. The $199.99 handheld debuted in November but was limited to just streaming games from a PS5 console and not even titles from Sony's cloud gaming service. Now, two Google engineers have managed to get the PPSSPP emulator running ... ⌘ Read more
Walmart has agreed to buy TV maker Vizio, the companies announced Tuesday, as the largest U.S. retailer grows its high-profit ad business. From a report: Walmart will acquire Vizio for $2.3 billion, or $11.50 per share, in cash. Vizio shares, which spiked after reports of the deal first emerged last week, closed at $9.53 on Friday. Walmart and its Sam's Club warehouse chain ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shares a report: Lawyers for Julian Assange have launched what could be his final bid to avoid extradition to the US to face trial over leaking military secrets. The two-day hearing at the High Court in London is hearing his team argue he should be allowed a full appeal. Edward Fitzgerald KC told the court his client was being prosecute ... ⌘ Read more
A coalition of global law enforcement agencies including the FBI and UK National Crime Agency have taken control of the LockBit ransomware gang's dark web site, replacing it with a notice saying their services had been disrupted by joint international action. The "Operation Cronos" task force includes Europol and enforcement agencies from a dozen countries across ... ⌘ Read more
Andrew Feinberg, writing for Slate: If you wanted to design a financial channel that would cause investors to underperform the stock market, you'd create CNBC, NBC's financial counterpart that runs on cable news and ostensibly tries to make viewers better investors. You'd make it sober and rational (well, there is Jim Cramer, but we'll get to him later), no need to feature anyone foaming at the mouth about stocks that could triple in six ... ⌘ Read more
Puneet Chandok, Microsoft India and South Asia head, at an event this week: "People say AI is overhyped, but I think it's not hyped enough. The next generation who will use this in the next few years will have a much higher bar on what technology can do for them. So how you build it for that generation, how you build it for that future will be really interesting to see. AI is truly a general purpose ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shared an news report: Microsoft has fixed an issue where its Edge browser was again misbehaving, this time by automatically importing browsing data and tabs from Chrome without consent. I personally experienced the bug last month, after I rebooted my PC for a regular Windows update and Microsoft Edge automatically ... ⌘ Read more
Meizu is quitting the smartphone business. The company, owned by car maker Geely, said AI is the future and will invest "All in AI". From a report: According to a post on Weibo, the FlymeOS team will be restructured into working on new AI terminal devices that will use globally available LLM (large language model) such as Open AI. Meizu already ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shares a report: "The first one, I'll be honest, probably took seven or eight hours," says TJ Gardner. "But the subsequent ones -- Stroke the Beaver, for example -- would have taken about half an hour." Gardner is the creator of the "Stroke" video games, available to download from the PlayStation Store for $4 a pop. Each one ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shares a report: In a concession to automakers and labor unions, the Biden administration intends to relax elements of one of its most ambitious strategies to combat climate change, limits on tailpipe emissions that are designed to get Americans to switch from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles, accordin ... ⌘ Read more
Capital One is buying Discover Financial in a deal that would marry two of the largest credit-card companies in the U.S. WSJ: The all-stock deal could be announced Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter. Discover has a market value of $28 billion, and the takeover would be expected to value it at a premium to that. Buying Discover will give Capital One, a credit-card lender with a market value of a ... ⌘ Read more
VGC: Nintendo's next console could launch later than expected, in early 2025, it's claimed. That's according to Brazilian journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe, who claims in a new OX do Controle video that he received the information from five separate sources. According to the sources, they are also working on games targeting Q1 2025, to launch alongside the conso ... ⌘ Read more
Apple is probably at least 18 months away from launching a second-generation Vision Pro. Based on the early response to the first version, that may be a long time for some people to wait. Bloomberg: Since the Vision Pro debuted on Feb. 2, it's become clear that the mixed-reality headset is still a work in progress. Despite the dazzling demos -- a ... ⌘ Read more
Founders and investors who moved to Miami and elsewhere are returning to a boom in AI and an abundance of tech talent. From a report: In 2020, venture capitalist Keith Rabois urged startup founders to join him in ditching San Francisco for Miami, praising the city's safety, lower taxes and tech-friendly mayor. The self-proc ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shares a report: Wyze's problems with letting its security camera customers briefly see into other customer homes is a lot worse than we thought. Last week, co-founder David Crosby said that "so far" the company had identified 14 people who were able to briefly see into a stranger's property be ... ⌘ Read more
The FBI is "laser focused" on Chinese efforts to insert malicious software code into computer networks in ways that could disrupt critical US infrastructure, according to the agency's director Christopher Wray. From a report: Wray said he was acutely concerned about "pre-positioning" of malware. He said the US recently disrupted a Chinese ha ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shared this post from Phoronix:
With Linux 6.8 the kernel's Rust code was brought up to Rust 1.75 while new patches posted this weekend port the code over to Rust 1.76 and then the upcoming Rust 1.77...
With Rust 1.77 they have now stabilized the single-field "offset\\_of" feature used by the kernel's Rust code. Rust 1.77 also adds a "--check-cfg" option that t ... ⌘ Read more_
"After years of rapid expansion, California's booming EV market may be showing signs of fatigue," reports the Los Angeles Times, "as high vehicle prices, unreliable charging networks and other consumer headaches appear to dampen enthusiasm for zero-emission vehicles.
"For the first time in more than a decade, electric vehicle sales dropped significantly in the last half of 2023..."
Sales of all- ... ⌘ Read more
By 2022 the VC firm Sequoia Capital had about $85 billion in assets under management, according to Wikipedia. Its successful investments include Google, Apple, PayPal, Zoom, and Nvidia.
And now the VC firm "plans to fund up to three open source software developers annually," according to TechCrunch, which notes it "a continuation of a prog ... ⌘ Read more
A few years ago, MIT researchers invented a cryptographic ID tag — but like traditional RFID tags, "a counterfeiter could peel the tag off a genuine item and reattach it to a fake," writes MIT News.
"The researchers have now surmounted this security vulnerability by leveraging terahertz waves to develop an antitampering ID tag that ... ⌘ Read more
"Apple will reportedly have to pay around €500 million (about $539 million USD) in the EU," reports the Verge, "for stifling competition against Apple Music on the iPhone.
Financial Times reported this morning that the fine comes after regulators in Brussels, Belgium investigated a Spotify complaint that Apple prevented apps from telling use ... ⌘ Read more
The great libraries of the ancient classical world are "legendary... said to have contained stacks of texts," writes ScienceAlert. But from Rome to Constantinople, Athens to Alexandria, only one collection survived to the present day.
And here in 2024, "we can now start reading its ... ⌘ Read more
"I feel things fraying," says Nick Hilton, host of a neo-luddite podcast called The Ned Ludd Radio Hour.
But he's one of the more optimistic tech skeptics interviewed by the Guardian:
Eliezer Yudkowsky, a 44-year-old academic wearing a grey polo shirt, rocks slowly on his office chair and explains with real patience — taking things slowly for a n ... ⌘ Read more
High-capacity DNA data storage "is closer than you think," Slashdot wrote in 2019.
Now IEEE Spectrum brings an update on where we're at — and where we're headed — by a participant in the DNA storage collaboration between Microsoft and the Molecular Information Systems Lab of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineerin ... ⌘ Read more
"For nearly a year now, a bizarre heating event has been unfolding across the world's oceans," reports Wired.
"In March 2023, global sea surface temperatures started shattering record daily highs and have stayed that way since..."
Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami. "It's really getting to be strange that we're just seeing the records break by this much, and for this long ... ⌘ Read more
"Dutch motorist Tim Hansenn was fined 380 euros for using his phone while driving," reports the Jerusalem Post. "But there was one problem: He wasn't using his phone at all..."
Hansenn, who works with AI as part of his job with the firm Nippur, found the photo taken by the smart cameras. In it, he was ... ⌘ Read more
From a blog post by Greg Kroah-Hartman:
As was recently announced, the Linux kernel project has been accepted as a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) for vulnerabilities found in Linux.
This is a trend, of more open source projects taking over the haphazard assignments of CVEs against their project by bec ... ⌘ Read more
In the high-stakes world of AI, "The fundamental agreement behind robots.txt [files], and the web as a whole — which for so long amounted to 'everybody just be cool' — may not be able to keep up..." argues the Verge:
For many publishers and platforms, having their data crawled for training data felt less like trading and more like stealing. "What we found pretty quickly with the AI co ... ⌘ Read more
This week the non-profit Rust Foundation announced the release of a report on what their Security Initiative accomplished in the last six months of 2023. "There is already so much to show for this initiative," says the foundation's executive director, "from several new open source security projects to several completed and publicly available security threat models."
From t ... ⌘ Read more
Tech workers are accused of driving up rents in America's major cities — but in fact, the problem may be everywhere. Half of America's renters "are paying more than a third of their salary in housing costs," reports NPR's Weekend Edition, "and for those looking to buy, scant few homes on the market are affordable for a typical household.
"To ramp ... ⌘ Read more
"A new chatbot called Goody-2 takes AI safety to the next level," writes long-time Slashdot reader klubar. "It refuses every request, responding with an explanation of how doing so might cause harm or breach ethical boundaries."
TechCrunch describes it as the work of Brain, "a 'very serious' LA-based art studio that has ribbed the industry ... ⌘ Read more
Japanese scientists plan to launch a satellite made of magnolia wood this summer on a U.S. rocket, reports the Observer.
Experiments carried out on the International Space Station showed magnolia wood was unusually stable and resistant to cracking — and "when it burns up as it re-enters the atmosphere after completi ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shared this report from Reuters:
Reddit has signed a contract allowing an AI company to train its models on the social media platform's content, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter... The agreement, signed with an "unnamed large AI company", could be a model for future contracts of a similar nature, ... ⌘ Read more
The Tiobe index tries to gauge the popularity of programming languages based on search results for courses, programmers, and third-party vendors, according to InfoWorld.
And by that criteria, "Google's Go language, or golang, has reached its highest position ever..."
The language, now in the eighth ranked position for language popularity, has been on the rise fo ... ⌘ Read more
"It appears that Apple Pay is down — particularly for Chase customers," reports the Verge:
Verge staffers have had their cards declined while trying to pay with Chase cards using Apple Pay, while using the same physical card works just fine. Several people on Threads confirmed the same issue when I asked — although people with non-Chase banks like Citi appear to be using Apple Pay just fine...
For ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shared this report from PCWorld:
The Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation, better known as SPEC, has invalidated over 2600 of its own results testing Xeon processors in the 2022 and 2023 version of its popular industrial SPEC CPU 2017 test. After investigating, SPEC found that Intel had used compilers that were, quote, "performing a c ... ⌘ Read more
Some ZFS news from Phoronix this week. "At the end of last year OpenZFS 2.2.2 was released to fix a rare but nasty data corruption issue, but it turns out there are other data corruption bug(s) still lurking in the OpenZFS file-system codebase."
A Phoronix reader wrote in today about an OpenZFS data corruption bug when employing native encryption ... ⌘ Read more
"Would you like to live on Mars?" NASA asked Friday on social media.
"You can help us move humanity toward that goal by participating in a simulated, year-long Mars surface mission at NASA's Johnson Space Center."
NASA is seeking applicants to participate in its next simulated one-year Mars surface mission to help inform the agency's ... ⌘ Read more
An article in the Washington Post remembers a 1980s-era "glass box with metal water pipes running through it" that "converted sunlight into hot water. By trapping solar energy like a greenhouse, it heated the water to a scorching 180 degrees Fahrenheit.
"[T]oday, hardly anyone is using these solar water heaters even as photovoltaic panels have popped up on the roofs of nearly 4 m ... ⌘ Read more
Slashdot reader ffkom shared this report from Tom's Hardware:
When AMD formally introduced its Ryzen 8000G-series accelerated processing units for desktops in early January, the company mentioned that they supported ECC memory capability. Since then, the company has quietly removed mention of the technology from its website, as not ... ⌘ Read more
"We're currently witnessing a rapid expansion in the abuse of these new AI tools by bad actors," writes Microsoft VP Brad Smith, "including through deepfakes based on AI-generated video, audio, and images.
"This trend poses new threats for elections, financial fraud, harassment through nonconsensual pornography, and the next g ... ⌘ Read more
Modern U.S. farming is being transformed by precision agriculture, writes Paul Roberts, the founder of securepairs.org and Editor in Chief at Security Ledger.
Theres autonomous tractors and "smart spraying" systems that use AI-powered cameras to identify weeds, just for starters. "Among the critical components of precision agriculture: Internet- and GPS connected agricultu ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: SoftBank Group Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son is looking to raise up to $100 billion for a chip venture that will rival Nvidia, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The project, code named Izanagi, will supply semiconductors essential for artificial intellige ... ⌘ Read more
Connor Jones reports via The Register: A Ukrainian cybercrime kingpin who ran some of the most pervasive malware operations faces 40 years in prison after spending nearly a decade on the FBI's Cyber Most Wanted List. Vyacheslav Igorevich Penchukov, 37, pleaded guilty this week in the US to two charges related to his leadership role in both the Zeus and IcedID malware ope ... ⌘ Read more
For the first time, scientists say they've detected water molecules on the surface of an asteroid. Space.com reports: Scientists studied four silicate-rich asteroids using data gathered by the now-retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a telescope-outfitted plane operated by NASA and the German Aerospace Center. Observations by SOFIA's Faint O ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco's leaders have spent the past few years desperately trying to figure out how to deal with a glut of empty offices, shuttered retail and public safety concerns plaguing the city's once vibrant downtown. Now, a California lawmake ... ⌘ Read more
A paper (PDF) from researchers at the University of Cambridge, supported by voices from numerous academic institutions including OpenAI, proposes remote kill switches and lockouts as methods to mitigate risks associated with advanced AI technologies. It also recommends tracking AI chip sales globally. The Register reports: The paper highlights numerous ways policymakers might a ... ⌘ Read more
Lauren Feiner reports via The Verge: Reps. Mark Takano (D-CA) and Dwight Evans (D-PA) reintroduced the Justice in Forensic Algorithms Act on Thursday, which would allow defendants to access the source code of software used to analyze evidence in their criminal proceedings. It would also require the National Institute of Stand ... ⌘ Read more
According to Bloomberg (paywalled), Apple plans to release a generative AI tool for iOS app developers as early as this year. Insider reports: The tech giant is working on a tool that will use artificial intelligence to write code as part of its plans to expand the capabilities of Xcode, the company's main programming software. The revamped system will compete ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: A new iOS and Android trojan named 'GoldPickaxe' employs a social engineering scheme to trick victims into scanning their faces and ID documents, which are believed to be used to generate deepfakes for unauthorized banking access. The new malware, spotted by Group-IB, is part of a malware ... ⌘ Read more
After a 6-1 vote by the district board, San Francisco middle schools will teach Algebra I again this fall. Axios reports: Roughly a third of SFUSD middle schools this fall will begin offering the course to eighth graders at about a third of its 13 middle schools as well as six of its K-8 schools, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Students at other ca ... ⌘ Read more
Lindsay Clark reports via The Register: In a statement on the Azure console, Microsoft confirmed the Azure IoT Central service is being retired on March 31, 2027. "Starting on April 1, 2024, you won't be able to create new application resources; however, all existing IoT Central applications will continue to function and be managed. Subscription {{subscriptionld} is ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Epic is one step closer to opening its iOS games store in the European Union. As part of its 2023 year in review, Epic Games announced Apple has reinstated its developer account, which means it will finally be able to let users download Fortnite on iPhones again. Epic first announced plans to bri ... ⌘ Read more
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is proposing legislation that would criminalize some deceptive and abusive uses of AI and require disclosure of AI in election campaign materials, her office told Axios. From the report: Hochul's proposed laws include establishing the crime of "unlawful dissemination or publication of a fabricated photographic, videographic, or audio record." Making unautho ... ⌘ Read more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has denied OpenAI's attempt to trademark "GPT," ruling that the term is "merely descriptive" and therefore unable to be registered. From a report: [...] The name, according to the USPTO, doesn't meet the standards to register for a trademark and the protections a "TM" after the name affords. (Incidentally, they refused once back in October, and this is a "FINAL" in all caps denial ... ⌘ Read more
Apple is officially cutting support for progressive web apps for iPhone users in the European Union. While web apps have been broken for EU users in every iOS 17.4 beta so far, Apple has confirmed that this is a feature, not a bug. Commenting on Apple's move, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney tweeted: I suspect Apple's real ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shares a report: More than 1,000 Ubiquiti routers in homes and small businesses were infected with malware used by Russian-backed agents to coordinate them into a botnet for crime and spy operations, according to the Justice Department. That malware, which worked as a botnet for the Russian hacking group ... ⌘ Read more
Twenty tech companies working on AI said Friday they had signed a "pledge" to try to prevent their software from interfering in elections, including in the United States. From a report: The signatories range from tech giants such as Microsoft and Google to a small startup that allows people to make fake voices -- the kind ... ⌘ Read more
Amazon has joined rocket maker SpaceX and grocery chain Trader Joe's in claiming that a U.S. labor agency's in-house enforcement proceedings violate the U.S. Constitution, as the retail giant faces scores of cases claiming it interfered with workers' rights to organize. From a report: Amazon in a filing made with the National Labor Relations Bo ... ⌘ Read more
schwit1 writes: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. won a preliminary injunction against the White House and other federal defendants in his suit alleging government censorship of his statements against vaccines on social media. The injunction, however, will be stayed until the US Supreme Court rules in a related case brought by Missouri and Louisiana. An injunction is warrant ... ⌘ Read more
The European Union is expanding its strict digital rulebook on Saturday to almost all online platforms in the bloc, in the next phase of its crackdown on toxic social media content and dodgy ecommerce products that began last year by targeting the most popular services. From a report: The EU's trailblazing Digit ... ⌘ Read more
A core developer of Nginx, currently the world's most popular web server, has quit the project, stating that he no longer sees it as "a free and open source project... for the public good." From a report: His fork, freenginx, is "going to ... ⌘ Read more
Every OpenAI release elicits awe and anxiety as capabilities advance, evident in Sora's strikingly realistic AI-generated video clips that went viral while unsettling industries reliant on original footage. But the company is again being secretive in all the wrong places about AI that can be used to spread misinformation. From a report: As usual, OpenAI won't talk about t ... ⌘ Read more
Microsoft announced this week that four of Xbox's previously-exclusive games are going cross-platform to PlayStation and Switch. Xbox head Phil Spencer says in a new interview that he'd like to see Sony and Nintendo bring their games to Xbox -- but that he isn't holding his breath. From a report: In an interview fo ... ⌘ Read more
Google Search Labs is testing a "Talk to a Live Representative" feature where it will "help you place the call, wait on hold, and then give you a call once a live representative is available." From a report: When you search for customer service numbers, which Google recently started surfacing for Knowledge Panels, you might see a ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Broadcom has made a lot of changes to VMware since closing its acquisition of the company in November. On Wednesday, VMware admitted that these changes are worrying customers. With customers mulling alternatives and partners complaining, VMware is trying to do damage control and convince people t ... ⌘ Read more
Jordan Pearson reports via Motherboard: A peer-reviewed science journal published a paper this week filled with nonsensical AI-generated images, which featured garbled text and a wildly incorrect diagram of a rat penis. The episode is the latest example of how generative AI is making its way into academia with concerning effects. The paper, ... ⌘ Read more
According to NASA, the OSIRIS-REx mission has successfully collected 121.6 grams, or almost 4.3 ounces, of rock and dust from the asteroid Bennu. Universe Today reports: These samples have been a long time coming. The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) was approved by NASA back in 2011 and launc ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC.ca: Air Canada has been ordered to pay compensation to a grieving grandchild who claimed they were misled into purchasing full-price flight tickets by an ill-informed chatbot. In an argument that appeared to flabbergast a small claims adjudicator in British Columbia, the airline attempted to distance i ... ⌘ Read more
samleecole shares a report from 404 Media: A trove of leaked emails shows how administrators of one of the most prestigious awards in science fiction censored themselves because the awards ceremony was being held in China. Earlier this month, the Hugo Awards came under fire with accusations of censorship when several authors were excluded from the awa ... ⌘ Read more
Apple has now offered an explanation for why iOS 17.4 removes support for Home Screen web apps in the European Union. Spoiler: it's because of the Digital Markets Act that went into effect last August. 9to5Mac reports: Last week, iPhone users in the European Union noticed that they were no longer able to install and run web apps on their iPhone's Hom ... ⌘ Read more
Following a hoax bomb threat sent via ProtonMail to schools in Chennai, India, police in the state of Tamil Nadu put in a request to block the encrypted email service in the region since they have been unable to identify the sender. According to Hindustan Times, that request was granted today. From the report: The decision to block Proton Mail was taken at a ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Thursday, AMC notified subscribers of a proposed $8.3 million settlement that provides awards to an estimated 6 million subscribers of its six streaming services: AMC+, Shudder, Acorn TV, ALLBLK, SundanceNow, and HIDIVE. The settlement c ... ⌘ Read more
Google said it will allow businesses to install ChromeOS Flex on their Windows devices, "potentially preventing millions of PCs from hitting landfills after Microsoft ends support for Windows 10 next year," reports Reuters. The Chrome operating system will ultimately allow users to keep using their Windows 10 systems, while also pro ... ⌘ Read more
Tom Warren reports via The Verge: Microsoft is teasing the potential for unique Xbox hardware in the future and a powerful next-gen console. Four previously exclusive Xbox games are officially coming to the PS5 and Nintendo Switch soon, and Microsoft wants to reassure Xbox fans that it's still very much invest ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: We already know thatOpenAI's chatbots can pass the bar exam without going to law school. Now, just in time for the Oscars, a new OpenAI app called Sora hopes to master cinema without going to film school. For now a research product, Sora is going out to a few select creators and a number of security experts who will re ... ⌘ Read more
Texas-based Intuitive Machines' inaugural moon mission began early Thursday morning, heading toward what could be the first U.S. lunar landing in more than 50 years. From a report: Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander launched from Florida on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, beginning the IM-1 mission. "It is a profoundly humbling moment ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shares a report: For some Apple Vision Pro buyers, the honeymoon is already over. It's no coincidence that there's been an uptick on social media of Vision Pro owners saying they're returning their $3,500 headsets in the past few days. Apple allows you to return any product within 14 days of purchase -- and for the first wave of Vision Pro buyers, we' ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shares a report: Applying to some of the most common customer and food service jobs in the country now requires a long and bizarre personality quiz featuring blue humanoid aliens, which tells employers how potential hires rank in terms of "agreeableness" and "emotional stability." If you've applied to a job at FedEx, McDonald's, ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader shares a report: Alphabet's Google is rolling out a new version of its powerful artificial intelligence model that it says can handle larger amounts of text and video than products made by competitors. The updated AI model, called Gemini 1.5 Pro, will be available on Thursday to cloud customers and developers so ... ⌘ Read more
OpenAI has been developing a web search product that would bring the Microsoft-backed startup into more direct competition with Google, The Information reports, citing a person with knowledge of OpenAI's plans. From the report: The search service would be partly powered by Bing, this person said. The move to launch a search app comes a year after Microsoft CEO ... ⌘ Read more
Dumping chemicals in the ocean? Spraying saltwater into clouds? Injecting reflective particles into the sky? Scientists are resorting to once unthinkable techniques to cool the planet because global efforts to check greenhouse gas emissions are failing. From a report: These geoengineering approaches were once considered taboo by scientists ... ⌘ Read more
The UK has entered a recession after GDP contracted 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday. This follows a 0.1% GDP decline in Q3. The data shows meager 0.1% growth for the full year, the worst performance since 2009 barring 2020. All main sectors declined in Q4, with manufacturing, construction and wholesale facing the biggest drops, only partially offset by upticks in rentals and ... ⌘ Read more
The UK has entered a recession after GDP contracted 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday. This follows a 0.1% GDP decline in Q3. The data shows meager 0.1% growth for the full year, the worst performance since 2009 barring 2020. All main sectors declined in Q4, with manufacturing, construction and wholesale facing the biggest drops, only partially offset by upticks in rentals and ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader quotes a report from SFGate: Cisco, the San Jose-based networking and telecommunications giant, is laying off 5% of its workforce. The company announced the cuts in a Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, alongside its quarterly earnings report. Based on the company's reported head count, the layoffs will hit at least 4,000 workers. Cisc ... ⌘ Read more
Nvidia is now the third most valuable company in the U.S., surpassing Google parent Alphabet and Amazon. It's only behind Apple and Microsoft in terms of market cap. CNBC reports: Nvidia rose over 2% to close at $739.00 per share, giving it a market value of $1.83 trillion to Google's $1.82 trillion market cap. The move comes one day after Nvidia surpassed Amazon
in terms of market ... ⌘ Read more
Andrew Cunningham reports via Ars Technica: For around three years now, the team of independent developers behind the Asahi Linux project has worked to support Linux on Apple Silicon Macs, despite Apple's total lack of involvement. Over the years, the project has gone from a "highly unstable experiment" to a "sur ... ⌘ Read more
"A lot of that AI chatbots that you spend days talking to push hard on getting more and more private information from you," writes longtime Slashdot reader michelcultivo, sharing a report from Gizmodo.
"To be perfectly blunt, AI girlfriends and boyfriends are not your friends," says Misha Rykov, a Mozilla Researcher from the company's \\*Privacy Not Included project. "Alth ... ⌘ Read more*
Devin Coldeway reports via TechCrunch: Researchers at Amazon have trained the largest ever text-to-speech model yet, which they claim exhibits "emergent" qualities improving its ability to speak even complex sentences naturally. The breakthrough could be what the technology needs to escape the uncanny valley. These models were always going to grow and impro ... ⌘ Read more
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a lawsuit against four of the nation's largest social media companies, accusing them of fueling a "national youth mental health crisis." From a report: The lawsuit was filed to hold TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube Accountable for their damaging influence on the mental health of children, Ada ... ⌘ Read more
After missing its sales target in the last quarter, Sony says it plans to emphasize the PlayStation 5's profitability over unit sales as the console approaches its fourth birthday. "Looking ahead, PS5 will enter the latter stage of its life cycle," said Sony senior vice president Naomi Matsuoka. "As such, we will put more emphasis on the balance between profitability and sales ... ⌘ Read more
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The U.S. Department of Defense is notifying tens of thousands of individuals that their personal information was exposed in an email data spill last year. According to the breach notification letter sent out to affected individuals on February 1, the Defense Intelligence Agency -- the DOD's mil ... ⌘ Read more