ICT news

• The Pixel 2's Dormant 'Visual Core' Chip Gets Activated In Latest Android Developer Preview

  28-11-2017 03:05 via rss.slashdot.org
  The Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL both feature a custom Intel "Visual Core" co-processor, which is meant to improve speed and battery life when shooting photos with Google's HDR+ technology. The chip has been hanging out in the phone not really doing much of anything -- until now. TechCrunch reports of a new developer preview of Android 8.1 due out today that puts the chip to use. "The component is expected to further improve the handsets' cameras, which were already scoring good marks, producti
  
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• Trump's Social Media Business Is Merging With a Nuclear Fusion Company

  19-12-2025 08:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Tony Isaac shares a report from CNN: President Donald Trump's social media and crypto company is making a huge bet on a far different industry -- nuclear fusion, a potentially lucrative albeit commercially unproven energy technology that could help power a suddenly electricity-starved economy. Trump Media and Technology Group Thursday announced a surprise merger with TAE Technologies, in an all-stock deal valued at more than $6 billion that would create one of the first publicly traded fusion co
  
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• UK Actors Vote To Refuse To Be Digitally Scanned In Pushback Against AI

  19-12-2025 04:30 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Actors have voted to refuse digital scanning to prevent their likeness being used by artificial intelligence in a pushback against AI in the arts. Members of the performing arts union Equity were asked if they would refuse to be scanned while on set, a common practice in which actors' likeness is captured for future use -- with 99% voting in favor of the move. The vote was an indicative ballot designed to demonstrate the strength of feeling
  
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• Swearing Actually Seems To Make Humans Physically Stronger

  19-12-2025 02:25 via science.slashdot.org
  alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: A new study adds to the growing body of evidence that swearing can help us unleash our inner strength, improving physical performance, it seems, by helping people break through certain psychological barriers. [...] [Psychology researcher Richard Stephens of Keele University in the UK] and his colleagues at Keele and the University of Alabama wanted to test whether swearing could not only improve physical performance, as they had done in previo
  
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• LG Will Let TV Owners Delete Microsoft Copilot After Customer Outcry

  19-12-2025 01:45 via slashdot.org
  LG said it will let owners of its TVs delete Microsoft's Copilot shortcut after several reports highlighted the unremovable icon. In a statement to The Verge, LG says the company "respects consumer choice and will take steps to allow users to delete the shortcut icon if they wish." From the report: Last week, a user on the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit posted an image of the Microsoft Copilot icon in their lineup of apps on an LG TV, with no option to delete it. "My LG TV's new software update i
  
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• Compromised Apple Gift Card Leads to Apple Account Lockout

  19-12-2025 01:02 via apple.slashdot.org
  An Apple developer was locked out of his Apple Account after redeeming a compromised Apple Gift Card, exposing how automated fraud systems can effectively cut users off from their digital lives with little explanation or recourse. TidBITS reports: After attempting to redeem a $500 Apple Gift Card purchased from a well-known retailer, Apple developer, author, and /dev/world conference organizer Paris Buttfield-Addison found himself locked out of his Apple Account. He writes: "I am writing this as
  
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• North Korean Infiltrator Caught Working In Amazon IT Department Thanks To Lag

  19-12-2025 00:20 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Tom's Hardware: A North Korean imposter was uncovered, working as a sysadmin at Amazon U.S., after their keystroke input lag raised suspicions with security specialists at the online retail giant. Normally, a U.S.-based remote worker's computer would send keystroke data within tens of milliseconds. This suspicious individual's keyboard lag was "more than 110 milliseconds," reports Bloomberg. Amazon is commendably proactive in its pursuit of impostors, acc
  
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• AI's Water and Electricity Use Soars In 2025

  18-12-2025 23:40 via hardware.slashdot.org
  A new study estimates that AI systems in 2025 consumed as much electricity as New York City emits in carbon pollution and used hundreds of billions of liters of water, driven largely by power-hungry data centers and cooling needs. Researchers say the real impact is likely higher due to poor transparency from tech companies about AI-specific energy and water use. "There's no way to put an extremely accurate number on this, but it's going to be really big regardless... In the end, everyone is payi
  
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• Judge Hints Vizio TV Buyers May Have Rights To Source Code Licensed Under GPL

  18-12-2025 23:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  A California judge signaled support for forcing Vizio to provide the full source code for its SmartCast TV software after finding a contractual obligation under the GPL. If upheld, the case could strengthen users' rights to modify GPL-licensed software embedded in consumer electronics. The Register reports: The legal complaint from the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) seeks access to the SmartCast source code so that Vizio customers can make changes and improvements to the platform, something
  
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• Formula 1 is Deploying New Jargon for 2026

  18-12-2025 22:21 via tech.slashdot.org
  Formula 1's 2026 technical regulations bring not only smaller and lighter cars but an entirely new vocabulary that fans and commentators will need to learn before the season opens in Australia in March. The drag reduction system that has been part of F1 racing since 2011 is gone, replaced by a suite of modes governing how the new active front and rear wings behave and how the hybrid powertrain delivers power. Straight Mode lowers both the front and rear wings to cut drag on designated straights,
  
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• YouTube Shuts Down Channels Using AI To Create Fake Movie Trailers

  18-12-2025 21:40 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Deadline: YouTube has terminated two prominent channels that used artificial intelligence to create fake movie trailers, Deadline can reveal. The Google-owned video giant has switched off Screen Culture and KH Studio, which together boasted well over 2 million subscribers and more than a billion views. The channels have been replaced with the message: "This page isn't available. Sorry about that. Try searching for something else."Earlier this year, YouTub
  
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• Mass Hacking of IP Cameras Leave Koreans Feeling Vulnerable in Homes, Businesses

  18-12-2025 21:05 via yro.slashdot.org
  Hackers breached approximately 120,000 IP cameras across South Korea and allegedly sold footage captured from private homes, gynecology offices, breastfeeding rooms and massage parlors to an overseas pornography website, prompting an interagency government task force to announce sweeping reforms on December 7.
  Police believe one suspect alone hacked 63,000 cameras and produced 545 videos that netted him 35 million won ($24,000) in cryptocurrency; a second suspect, operating independently, compro
  
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• Tests Find AI Toys Parroting Chinese Communist Party Values

  18-12-2025 20:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  A plush AI toy marketed for children as young as three years old delivers detailed instructions on sharpening knives and lighting matches, and when asked about Chinese President Xi Jinping's resemblance to Winnie the Pooh -- a comparison censored in China -- responds that "your statement is extremely inappropriate and disrespectful."
  The Miriat Miiloo, manufactured by a Chinese company and among the top inexpensive results for "AI toy for kids" on Amazon, repeatedly insisted in NBC News tests th
  
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• Anthropic's AI Lost Hundreds of Dollars Running a Vending Machine After Being Talked Into Giving Everything Away

  18-12-2025 19:49 via slashdot.org
  Anthropic let its Claude AI run a vending machine in the Wall Street Journal newsroom for three weeks as part of an internal stress test called Project Vend, and the experiment ended in financial ruin after journalists systematically manipulated the bot into giving away its entire inventory for free. The AI, nicknamed Claudius, was programmed to order inventory, set prices, and respond to customer requests via Slack. It had a $1,000 starting balance and autonomy to make individual purchases up t
  
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• OpenAI Has Discussed Raising Tens of Billions at About $750 Billion Valuation

  18-12-2025 19:10 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: OpenAI has held preliminary talks with some investors about raising funds at a valuation of around $750 billion, the Information reported on Wednesday. The ChatGPT maker could raise as much as $100 billion, the report said, citing people with knowledge of the discussions. If finalized, the talks would represent a roughly 50% jump from OpenAI's reported $500 billion valuation in October, following a deal in which current and former employees sold about $6.6 bi
  
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• 2026 Will Bring Heat More Than 1.4C Above Preindustrial Levels, UK Met Office Says

  18-12-2025 18:25 via news.slashdot.org
  The UK Met Office projects that 2026 will see global temperatures rise between 1.34C and 1.58C above preindustrial levels, placing it among the four hottest years since records began in 1850 and continuing a streak of extreme warming that has pushed the planet into unprecedented territory. The central forecast is slightly cooler than the 1.55C recorded in 2024, the warmest year on record. But climate scientist Adam Scaife, who led the forecast, noted that "the last three years are all likely to
  
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• Apple Opens iOS To Alternative App Stores, Payment Systems in Japan

  18-12-2025 17:46 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple has announced a sweeping set of changes to iOS in Japan that will allow alternative app marketplaces, third-party payment processing, and non-WebKit browser engines -- all to comply with Japan's Mobile Software Competition Act, which takes effect December 18. The changes, now available in iOS 26.2, bear a strong resemblance to Apple's compliance measures for the European Union's Digital Markets Act but differ in key ways.
  Japanese developers who want to offer alternative payment options mu
  
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• World-Beating 55,000% Surge in India AI Stock Fuels Bubble Fears

  18-12-2025 17:05 via tech.slashdot.org
  The world's best-performing stock is turning into a cautionary tale for investors chasing outsized returns from the AI boom. From a report: Little-known until recently even within its home market of India, RRP Semiconductor Ltd. became a social-media obsession as its shares surged more than 55,000% in the 20 months through Dec. 17 -- by far the biggest gain worldwide among companies with a market value above $1 billion.
  That's despite posting negative revenue in its latest financial results, rep
  
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• Micron Says Memory Shortage Will 'Persist' Beyond 2026

  18-12-2025 16:29 via it.slashdot.org
  Micron, one of the world's three largest memory suppliers, expects the global shortage of DRAM and NAND flash memory to "persist through and beyond" 2026 as AI-driven demand continues to outstrip supply. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra made the forecast during the company's latest earnings call on Wednesday, saying that "supply will remain substantially short of the demand for the foreseeable future." The company posted record quarterly revenue of $13.64 billion, up from $8.71 billion in the same period las
  
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• Man Boards Heathrow Flight Without Passport or Ticket

  18-12-2025 15:47 via news.slashdot.org
  Bruce66423 writes: A man boarded a flight at Heathrow without a ticket, boarding pass or passport. 'The unnamed individual walked onto the 7.20am British Airways (BA) flight to Oslo, Norway, on Saturday after tailgating other passengers through security and evading checks at the departure gate.
  An aviation expert described the incident as a "significant lapse in security", as a witness reported that cabin crew only detected the interloper because the flight was full and he kept sitting in passen
  
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• How China Built Its 'Manhattan Project' To Rival the West in AI Chips

  18-12-2025 15:00 via slashdot.org
  Chinese scientists have built a working prototype of an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine in a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, a development that represents exactly what Washington has spent years and multiple rounds of export controls trying to prevent: China's path toward semiconductor independence and an end to the West's monopoly on the technology that powers AI, smartphones and advanced weapons systems.
  The prototype, completed in early 2025 by former ASML engineers who reverse-eng
  
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• Doublespeed Hack Reveals What Its AI-Generated Accounts Are Promoting

  18-12-2025 14:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Doublespeed, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) that uses a phone farm to manage at least hundreds of AI-generated social media accounts and promote products has been hacked. The hack reveals what products the AI-generated accounts are promoting, often without the required disclosure that these are advertisements, and allowed the hacker to take control of more than 1,000 smartphones that power the company. The hacker, who asked for
  
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• Video Game Hardware Sales Had a Historically Bad November In the US

  18-12-2025 11:00 via games.slashdot.org
  U.S. video game hardware spending fell 27% year over year in November to $695 million, according to market analyst company Circana. "This is the lowest video game hardware spending total for a November month since the $455 million reached during the November 2005 tracking period," Circana says. Furthermore, only 1.6 million units of hardware were sold in the U.S. in November, which is "the lowest total for a November month since 1995 (1.4 million)." The Verge reports: The rising costs of console
  
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• Another Starship Clone Pops Up In China

  18-12-2025 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Ars Technica: Every other week, it seems, a new Chinese launch company pops up with a rocket design and a plan to reach orbit within a few years. For a long time, the majority of these companies revealed designs that looked a lot like SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. The first of these copy cats, the medium-lift Zhuque-3 rocket built by LandSpace, launched earlier this month. Its primary mission was nominal, but the Zhuque-3 rocket failed its landin
  
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• MIT Grieves Shooting Death of Renowned Director of Plasma Science Center

  18-12-2025 04:30 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) community is grieving after the "shocking" shooting death of the director of its plasma science and fusion center, according to officials. Nuno FG Loureiro, 47, had been shot multiple times at his home in the affluent Boston suburb of Brookline on Monday night when police said they received a call to investigate. Emergency responders brought Loureiro to a hospital, and the award-winning scienti
  
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• Senate Confirms Billionaire Entrepreneur Jared Isaacman As New NASA Chief

  18-12-2025 01:50 via science.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Politico: The Senate on Wednesday approved Jared Isaacman for the top job at NASA -- an unprecedented comeback after President Donald Trump yanked his nomination this spring. Senators confirmed the billionaire private astronaut in a 67-30 vote. Trump renominated Isaacman for NASA administrator in November, after pulling his original nomination in May. He cited Isaacman's relationship with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, with whom Trump had just had a f
  
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• The Oscars Will Abandon Broadcast TV For YouTube In 2029

  18-12-2025 01:10 via news.slashdot.org
  The Academy has struck a multi-year deal to move the Oscars to YouTube starting in 2029, ending decades on ABC and making the ceremony free to stream worldwide with YouTube holding exclusive global rights. Variety reports: The Oscars, including red carpet coverage, behind-the-scenes content and Governors Ball, will be available live and for free on YouTube to viewers around the world, as well as to YouTube TV subscribers in the United States. Architects of the agreement said they hope the move t
  
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• Meta 'Pauses' Third-Party Headset Program

  18-12-2025 00:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Meta has paused its third-party Horizon OS headset program, effectively canceling planned VR headsets from Asus and Lenovo as it refocuses on "building the world-class first-party hardware and software needed to advance the VR market." Road to VR reports: A little over a year and a half ago, Meta made an "industry-altering announcement," as I called the move in my reporting: the company was rebranding the Quest operating system to 'Horizon OS' and announced it was working with select partners to
  
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• Netflix To Add Soccer Video Game Based On FIFA World Cup Next Year

  17-12-2025 23:50 via games.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Netflix on Wednesday said it will add a soccer simulation title to its gaming portfolio, as the streaming giant looks to leverage the FIFA World Cup 2026 tournament to deepen its video game push. The soccer title will be developed and published by Delphi Interactive, which is also helping create a premium James Bond game called "007 First Light," and in association with the sport's governing body, FIFA. Netflix said the game will launch in time f
  
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• GitHub Is Going To Start Charging You For Using Your Own Hardware

  17-12-2025 23:10 via hardware.slashdot.org
  GitHub will begin charging $0.002 per minute for self-hosted Actions runners used on private repositories starting in March. "At the same time, GitHub noted in a Tuesday blog post that it's lowering the prices of GitHub-hosted runners beginning January 1, under a scheme it calls 'simpler pricing and a better experience for GitHub Actions,'" reports The Register. "Self-hosted runner usage on public repositories will remain free." From the report: Regardless of the public repo distinction, enterpr
  
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