Sci-Tech news

• Honda unveils a disaster relief robot and other news

  06-10-2017 09:12 via bbc.co.uk
  BBC Click's Lara Lewington looks at some of the best of the week's technology news stories.
  
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• French dev aims to solve bots' blindness so they can understand GUIs

  28-09-2026 20:19 via theregister.com
  
  Most LLMs are great at answering prompts, but fall short when it comes to navigating around the desktop in Windows or Linux. French AI model dev H unveiled a pair of computer use models on Monday aimed at handling graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Throughout computing history, computer use largely falls into three categories: command line interfaces (CLIs), application programming interfaces (APIs), and GUIs. AI agents can easily plug into the first two, but navigating desktop environments and a
  
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• How many times are you paying for the same file?

  28-09-2026 18:45 via theregister.com
  
  EVENT: Count the copies. The one on the NAS. The one somebody pulled over the VPN to work on at home. The one in the sync folder, which may or may not still match the one on the NAS. The one attached to an email because the sync was slow that morning. Four copies of one file, four places paying to store it, and one person, eventually, working out which is current. That is the cost most organizations have stopped noticing. Distributed teams produce more unstructured file data than ever, and most
  
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• Massive SpaceX rocket explodes in a fireball as it hits ocean following test flight

  28-09-2026 18:34 via dailymail.com
  
  SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful rocket in the world, exploded moments after slamming into the Pacific Ocean following an orbital flight on Monday.
  
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• Microsoft's Copilot super app comes with a meter attached

  28-09-2026 17:36 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft has unveiled its shiny new Copilot super app alongside an “evolved” pricing model to go with it, which means that customers will keep paying for a subscription and then cough up more when they want the really clever stuff. The company outlined the changes alongside its expanded vision for Copilot, which is being turned into a single AI work hub spanning chat, Office apps, coding, and increasingly autonomous agents. Microsoft calls the new pricing setup a combination of a Us
  
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• SpaceX's Starship rocket suffers alarming mid-flight scare on first attempt to reach orbit

  28-09-2026 17:33 via dailymail.com
  
  SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful rocket in the world, suffered an alarming mid-flight scar as it soared into space for its first orbital launch.
  
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• Earth's cities are changing COLOUR: Astronaut photos taken just 13 years apart reveal how night lights have morphed from yellow to white across the globe

  28-09-2026 17:26 via dailymail.com
  
  Incredible photos taken from space reveal how street lights have changed colour across the globe, morphing from yellow to white.
  
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• Dutch government turns to NixOS for a sovereign desktop

  28-09-2026 17:05 via theregister.com
  
  The Dutch government is backing an effort to build a FOSS workplace for public administration, including a desktop operating system based on NixOS. The DAWO Project has been gestating for some months, but it just got a lot more visible thanks to an in-depth report on Dutch tech news site Tweakers.net. DAWO stands for "Digitaal Autonome Werkomgeving Overheid," or "Digital Autonomous Government Work Environment." Rather than a single product, its blueprint combines replaceable components for the o
  
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• You can swim, but you can't hide! Sharks can hear sounds nearly 250ft away - and hunt down the source, study finds

  28-09-2026 16:35 via dailymail.com
  
  Scientists have discovered sharks can hear underwater sounds from nearly 250 feet (75 metres) away and even work out exactly where they're coming from.
  
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• Europe's AI ambitions rest on somebody else's supply chain

  28-09-2026 16:16 via theregister.com
  
  Europe is one of the world's largest markets for AI datacenter infrastructure, but its own local companies capture only a fraction of the value, because overseas suppliers dominate chips, servers, and cloud infrastructure. According to the Global Electronics Association (GEA), EU-headquartered companies account for only six percent of the bloc's datacenter semiconductor market, seven percent of server manufacturing and assembly, and eight percent of cloud infrastructure. Its report, "From Chips
  
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• OpenAI agents went the long way round for UN data

  28-09-2026 15:31 via theregister.com
  
  OpenAI agents apparently spent two months hammering a United Nations (UN) data API, trying increasingly creative ways to bypass the barriers they encountered. Researcher Rowan H-J uncovered the activity by analyzing roughly 16,500 scans of the UN Conference on Trade and Development's UNCTADstat API recorded between April 13 and June 19, 2026. Rowan claims it’s "highly likely" the traffic came from OpenAI agents, based on links to previously documented OpenAI "wiki swarms," overlapping Azur
  
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• Elon Musk claims he sleeps with a pile of BOOKS under his head to 'help with digestion' - but does it really work?

  28-09-2026 14:59 via dailymail.com
  
  Although he's best known for his rockets and electric cars, Elon Musk has taken to social media to hand out some highly unusual medical advice.
  
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• Microsoft tells nonprofits their deleted M365 data isn't coming back

  28-09-2026 14:55 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft accidentally wiped some nonprofit customers' M365 data before their retention period expired – and now says it cannot tell them what disappeared, or even whether they lost anything. The cockup followed Microsoft's retirement of its Microsoft 365 Business Premium grant, which gave eligible nonprofits ten free licenses for the productivity suite. Microsoft announced in May 2025 that the grant would not renew after July 1 that year. It offered eligible nonprofits up to 300 free Micr
  
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• Ex-soldier's telecom hacking spree earns him 70 months

  28-09-2026 14:25 via theregister.com
  
  A former US Army soldier has been sentenced to 70 months in prison for hacking telecoms companies, stealing sensitive records, and trying to extort more than $1 million from his victims. Cameron John Wagenius, 22, carried out the campaign while serving on active duty. He pleaded guilty in March 2025 to unlawfully transferring confidential phone records, then admitted conspiracy to commit wire fraud, computer-related extortion, and aggravated identity theft in a separate case that July. Court doc
  
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• UK government vows to reclaim services from outsourcing giants

  28-09-2026 13:55 via theregister.com
  
  The UK government is setting up a new unit it promises will "bring forward the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation." Government outsourcing has long attracted criticism over value for money and service quality, with technology-heavy business processes among the contracts coming under scrutiny. The government said the new unit, based within the Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet, would "coordinate departmental insourcing activity, unblock barriers to delivery and identify cross-gove
  
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• Ofcom pulls the plug on Openreach's aggressive fiber discount

  28-09-2026 13:02 via theregister.com
  
  Ofcom has blocked an Openreach discount for bringing customers onto its fiber network, warning that rivals might be unable to match the price and recover their costs. The "Incremental New to Openreach Customer Offer" was one of several pricing changes due to take effect on October 1. It is the first Openreach commercial offer the regulator has rejected; the others can proceed. Openreach, BT's functionally separate network division and Britain's largest fixed-line infrastructure provider, notifie
  
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• Meet Casper, the one-in-100 million 'ghost' lobster! Incredibly rare crustacean is bright white thanks to rare genetic mutation

  28-09-2026 12:58 via dailymail.com
  
  The crustacean, named Casper, is startlingly white, with pale blue dots scattered across its hard shell.
  
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• Jev is rapidly rising to challenge the LLM for enterprise AI supremacy

  28-09-2026 12:00 via theregister.com
  
  As AI is reshaping the tech world, so it in turn waits for something greater to come along and reshape it, and that unstoppable force might just be TypeSafe AI's new model, Jev. You can listen to the latest episode of The Kettle on this page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. You can also subscribe on those platforms to be notified when a new episode goes live. Jev's not chatty, it doesn't want to tell you a story, and it won't really do much besides answering multiple choice, ranking, and bi
  
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• Your next parcel could be delivered by a two-legged robot: Evri starts using bots that can zip along at 4mph - and can even walk up stairs

  28-09-2026 11:38 via dailymail.com
  
  Your next parcel could be delivered by a two-legged robot, as Evri starts Europe's first trial of bipedal bots.
  
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• And you thought the iPhone Duo was expensive! 'Liquid metal' version of Apple's foldable goes on sale for $21,000

  28-09-2026 11:23 via dailymail.com
  
  Apple's most expensive iPhone, iPhone Duo, was revealed to the world earlier this month, costing between £1,999 and £3,199. But these costs pale in comparison to a custom version by Caviar.
  
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• HMRC vowed to break up with Capgemini then paid it another £4.2B

  28-09-2026 11:15 via theregister.com
  
  As the UK government promises to use public spending to back British business, research indicates that the tax collector has paid French tech giant Capgemini at least £4.2 billion since it began dismantling their flagship outsourcing arrangement. When Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July, he said in his first speech that public procurement would "back British industry." The government later said businesses winning government contracts would need to show they were creating high-qualit
  
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• Say goodbye to brown bananas! Gene-edited fruits could soon be sold in UK supermarkets

  28-09-2026 11:13 via dailymail.com
  
  Experts at Tropic Biosciences, a UK company based in Norfolk, used a technique known as CRISPR-Cas9 to edit three genes that cause bananas to brown.
  
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• Could your power bank cause an in-flight fire? The latest rules on carrying and charging them on planes after another mid-flight incident

  28-09-2026 10:34 via dailymail.com
  
  Following a string of incidents regarding power banks on board, we tell you everything you need to know about the risks, rules and regulations.
  
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• Open source datacenters and open source thinking will undo self-inflicted DC damage

  28-09-2026 10:30 via theregister.com
  
  It's hard to make big sheds symbols of oppression, but the datacenter industry's having a jolly good crack at it. Its big boxes of semi-sentient sand are increasingly seen as satanic sandcastles, environmental disasters that inflict drought while boiling oceans. Their role as dark cathedrals of the equally demonic AIs has done nothing to soften attitudes. A new contract of candour is needed between those who build datacenters and those who despise them. Shrugging off concerns, or offering shiny
  
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• Do YOU have a 'velcro dog'? How to tell if your pet's clingy behaviour is normal - or something to worry about

  28-09-2026 09:10 via dailymail.com
  
  Is your pup always desperate to be by your side? If so, you might have a 'velcro dog'. Although this behaviour might seem adorable, experts say it could be a sign of deeper issues.
  
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• Late September warmth before wind and rain return this week

  28-09-2026 08:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Temperatures remain above the average at the start of the week but wetter conditions are on the way for some
  
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• Certainties in life: Death, taxes, and critical Citrix vulns under attack

  28-09-2026 08:49 via theregister.com
  
  Death and taxes are said to be the only certainties in life. Perhaps it’s time to add attackers targeting newly discovered critical flaws in Citrix’s NetScaler application delivery controller and gateway products to that grim list. On Sunday, the company published a bulletin warning of eight CVEs, the worst of which – CVE-2026-88771 and CVE-2026-88772 – are rated critical with 9.5 CVSS scores. CVE-2026-88771 allows remote code execution and can allow an unauthenticated at
  
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• Techie assumed boss knew what they were talking about and killed Exchange by deleting data

  28-09-2026 08:35 via theregister.com
  
  Monday mornings can be filled with trepidation and tension, which is why The Register kicks them off with a little light-hearted fun in the form of a new instalment of “Who, Me?" It’s the reader-contributed column in which you admit to your errors, and reveal the consequences. This week, meet a reader who asked to be Regomized as “Phil” and told us that many years ago he started a new job that, among other things, involved maintaining Microsoft’s magnificent Exchang
  
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• Nature spaces 'need to be next to where people live'

  28-09-2026 07:40 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Campaigners are pushing for more wildlife-rich green spaces to be created within urban communities.
  
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• OpenAI pauses some training amid allegations its rogue agents behaved more badly than first thought

  28-09-2026 07:30 via theregister.com
  
  The AI safety debate advanced at high speed over the weekend, amid new allegations that rogue agents have behaved more badly than first thought – and in greater numbers. The fun started on Friday when OpenAI quietly disclosed it had paused training of its most advanced models. The AI upstart buried that news in a “misalignment report” – that’s OpenAI-speak for its reports on rogue agents – titled “An agent used DNS to reach an external chatbot.” Th
  
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