ICT news

• PlayStation 5 Launches Nov 12 For $500; Discless Digital Edition Priced at $400

  16-09-2020 23:20 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  The PlayStation 5 will cost $499 for the standard version of Sony's next-gen console and $399 for the PS5 Digital Edition -- the system without an optical disc drive -- when it launches Nov. 12, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced Wednesday during its PlayStation 5 Showcase livestream. From a report: The Nov. 12 release date is for the consoles' launches in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. They'll become available on Nov. 19 for the rest of the world, Sony
  
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• Amazon Providing CS Education For 550,000+ Schoolchildren Amid Pandemic

  16-09-2020 22:45 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  theodp writes: Amazon on Monday issued a press release noting it will provide Computer Science Education for 550,000+ K-12 students annually across 5,000+ schools nationwide amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "Amazon Future Engineer coursework can be done virtually to help ensure students stay on track and continue to prepare for the jobs of the future," Amazon explained. Amazon Future Engineer also launched the Amazon Cyber Robotics Challenge, a virtual coding competition that teaches students in grad
  
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• E-scooter Trial Put on Hold in Coventry Five Days After Rollout

  16-09-2020 22:05 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  A 12-month trial of e-scooters has been paused five days into the scheme due to people riding them on pavements. Coventry City Council has raised safety concerns amid reports they were being used in pedestrianised areas -- against guidelines. From a report: Some residents also complained about them being discarded across the city and people going the wrong way. The authority made the decision to put the trial on hold while it reviews how e-scooters can be used "appropriately." The 200 e-scooters
  
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• USB-C Was Supposed To Simplify Our Lives. Instead, It's a Total Mess.

  16-09-2020 21:25 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  USB-C is near-ubiquitous: Almost every modern laptop and smartphone has at least one USB-C port, with the exception of the iPhone, which still uses Apple's proprietary Lightning port. For all its improvements, USB-C has become a mess of tangled standards -- a nightmare for consumers to navigate despite the initial promise of simplicity. From a report: Anyone going all-in on USB-C will run into problems with an optional standard called Power Delivery. The standard allows devices to charge at a mu
  
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• Why Goodreads is Bad For Books

  16-09-2020 20:46 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  After years of complaints from users, Goodreads' reign over the world of book talk might be coming to an end. From a report: Goodreads started off the way you might think: two avid readers, in the mid-Noughties, wanting to build space online for people to track, share, and talk about books they were reading. Husband and wife Otis and Elizabeth Chandler say they initially launched the platform in 2007 to get recommendations from their literary friends. But it was something many others wanted, too
  
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• Facebook Will Release Its First AR Glasses in 2021

  16-09-2020 20:03 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  During Facebook Connect -- the replacement for the AR/VR event previously known as Oculus Connect -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today that the company is planning to release its first pair of augmented reality glasses in 2021. From a report: While the company's Oculus unit has become a leading provider of VR headsets, Facebook has touted AR as the next major frontier for computing, and this release date could spread the next-generation technology to the masses earlier than expected. Zucke
  
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• Congressional Inquiry Faults Boeing And FAA Failures For Deadly 737 Max Plane Crashes

  16-09-2020 19:24 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  A sweeping congressional inquiry into the development and certification of Boeing's troubled 737 Max airplane finds damning evidence of failures at both Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration that "played instrumental and causative roles" in two fatal crashes that killed a total of 346 people. From a report: The House Transportation Committee released an investigative report produced by Democratic staff on Wednesday morning. It documents what it says is "a disturbing pattern of technical
  
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• How Microsoft is Looking To MetaOS To Make Microsoft 365 a 'Whole Life' Experience

  16-09-2020 18:45 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Earlier this year, some leaks about Microsoft's "MetaOS" had a lot of us Microsoft watchers scrambling to figure out what this foundational layer is and how it will affect Microsoft's various products and services in the future. Recently, I've unearthed some more details about the company's high-level goals and lower-level product plans around MetaOS. MetaOS has a lot to do with what's next for Microsoft Teams, Office, Edge, and more. I don't know when or if
  
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• Chip Industry Wants $50 Billion To Keep Manufacturing in US

  16-09-2020 18:12 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. chip industry said as much as $50 billion in federal incentives will be needed to halt a decades-long trend of manufacturing moving overseas as China spends heavily to become a leading semiconductor producer. From a report: The federal government needs to deploy $20 billion to $50 billion to make the U.S. as attractive a location for plants as Taiwan, China, South Korea, Singapore, Israel and parts of Europe, the Semiconductor Industry Association said in a study released Wednesday. Fai
  
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• Amazon Music Now Has Podcasts

  16-09-2020 17:28 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Amazon Music now offers podcasts. The company issued an update today that brings more than 70,000 shows to the platform, including some major titles, like Serial and Pod Save America, as well as new exclusive deals like a show with DJ Khaled called The First One, where he'll interview artists about their breakthrough hits and the stories behind them. Disgraceland, a popular show from iHeartMedia, will also become exclusive to the platform starting in February 2021. From a report: Podcasts can be
  
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• Adobe Releases Security Update for Media Encoder

  16-09-2020 17:28 via us-cert.cisa.gov
  Original release date: September 16, 2020
  Adobe has released a security update to address vulnerabilities in Media Encoder. An attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities to obtain sensitive information.The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) encourages users and administrators to review the Adobe Security Bulletin and apply the necessary update. This product is provided subject to this Notification and this Privacy & Use policy.
  
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• Developers Frustrated at Apple for Just One Day's Notice To Submit Apps Ahead of iOS 14 Release Today

  16-09-2020 16:51 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  While developers have had access to beta versions of the software updates since June, many were caught off guard by Apple's much shorter notice of the final releases. By comparison, Apple started accepting apps built for iOS 13 on September 10 last year, over one week before the software update was released on September 19. From a story yesterday: "I think a lot of developers won't be sleeping tonight or will instead just give up and opt to release [their app] when they want to, instead of along
  
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• Apple Says Epic Is 'Saboteur, Not a Martyr' in App Store Battle

  16-09-2020 16:05 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Apple is asking a court to reject Epic Games's latest bid to get Fortnite back on the App Store, saying the game maker is acting as "a saboteur, not a martyr" in its challenge to Apple's payment system. From a report: In an overnight filing, Apple said "Epic started a fire, and poured gasoline on it, and now asks this court for emergency assistance in putting it out." Epic can fix the problem "by simply adhering to the contractual terms that have profitably governed its relationship with Apple f
  
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• Cambridge Staff 'Fobbed Off' At Meeting Over ARM Sale To Nvidia, Says Union

  16-09-2020 15:00 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Opposition to the $40 billion sale of the UK's largest tech firm, Arm Holdings, is mounting, as the trade union Unite said staff concerned about their future had been "fobbed off" and the company's local MP urged the government to act. The government has so far declined to say whether it will consider deploying powers to block the deal or attach conditions, despite pressure from Labour, trade unions and Arm's outspoken co-founder Hermann Hau
  
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• French President Emmanuel Macron Compares 5G Opponents To Amish

  16-09-2020 12:00 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  neutrino38 writes: "France is the country of the Enlightenment, it is the country of innovation [...] We are going to debunk all false ideas. Yes, France is going to take the 5G turning point because it is the turning point of innovation," Macron insisted in front of a hundred French Tech entrepreneurs gathered at the Elysee. "I hear a lot of voices saying that the complexity of contemporary problems should be addressed by returning to the oil lamp! I don't think that the Amish model can solve t
  
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• ESA Awards $153 Million Contract For Its First Planetary Defense Mission

  16-09-2020 09:00 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  The European Space Agency (ESA) is awarding a $153 million contract to an industry consortium led by German space company OHB. "The contract covers the 'detailed design, manufacturing and testing' of a mission codenamed 'Hera,' after the Greek goddess of marriage and the hearth, which will support NASA's Double Asteroid Redirect Test mission and help provide a path towards future planetary defense operations in space," reports TechCrunch. From the report: ESA's Hera mission will launch a desk-si
  
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• Zerologon Attack Lets Hackers Take Over Enterprise Networks Within 3 Seconds

  16-09-2020 05:30 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader writes: Researchers have developed and published a proof-of-concept exploit for a recently patched Windows vulnerability that can allow access to an organization's crown jewels -- the Active Directory domain controllers that act as an all-powerful gatekeeper for all machines connected to a network. CVE-2020-1472, as the vulnerability is tracked, carries a critical severity rating from Microsoft as well as a maximum of 10 under the Common Vulnerability Scoring System. Exploits
  
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• Apple Researching Apple Watch Bands That Can Provide Information In Braille

  16-09-2020 03:30 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  According to Apple Insider, Apple is researching an Apple Watch band that could contain controllable protrusions to present tactile information on the surface. From the report: Apple has famously always researched providing accessibility features in its devices, whether or not it's profitable. However, so far there has been a limit to what the Apple Watch can do -- and its bands could have no accessibility features at all. "Tactile output for wearable device," is a newly granted US patent which
  
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• Europe's Top Court Says Net Neutrality Rules Bar 'Zero Rating'

  16-09-2020 02:50 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  The European Union's top court has handed down its first decision on the bloc's net neutrality rules -- interpreting the law as precluding the use of commercial 'zero rating' by Internet services providers. TechCrunch reports: 'Zero rating' refers to the practice of ISPs offering certain apps/services 'tariff free' by excluding their data consumption. It's controversial because it can have the effect of penalizing and/or blocking the use of non-zero-rated apps/services, which may be inaccessible
  
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• Microsoft Submits Linux Kernel Patches For a 'Complete Virtualization Stack' With Linux and Hyper-V

  16-09-2020 02:10 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has submitted a series of patches to the Linux kernel with its aim being "to create a complete virtualization stack with Linux and Microsoft Hypervisor." The Register reports: The patches are designated "RFC" (Request for comments) and are a minimal implementation presented for discussion. The key change is that with the patched kernel, Linux will run as the Hyper-V root partition. In the Hyper-V architecture, the root partition has direct access to hardware and creates child partition
  
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• Personal Information of Roughly 46,000 Veterans Exposed In VA Hack

  16-09-2020 01:30 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: The Department of Veterans Affairs said Monday that roughly 46,000 veterans had their personal information, including Social Security numbers, exposed in a data breach in which "unauthorized users" gained access to an online application used for making health care payments. A preliminary review of the incident indicated that the hackers accessed the application "to change financial information and divert payments from VA by using social engineering t
  
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• A Bug In Joe Biden's Campaign App Gave Anyone Access To Millions of Voter Files

  16-09-2020 00:50 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  schwit1 shares a report from TechCrunch: A privacy bug in Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's official campaign app allowed anyone to look up sensitive voter information on millions of Americans, a security researcher has found. The campaign app, Vote Joe, allows Biden supporters to encourage friends and family members to vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential election by uploading their phone's contact lists to see if their friends and family members are registered to vote. The app up
  
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• Francisco-Backed Sandvine Cancels Belarus Deal, Citing Abuses

  16-09-2020 00:11 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Sandvine, the technology company backed by private equity firm Francisco Partners, canceled a deal with Belarus, saying the government used its technology to violate human rights. From a report: The company's technology, which is used to filter and manage internet networks, was used by a state-run internet agency in Belarus to block thousands of websites in the country amid nationwide protests over a disputed election, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 28. Sandvine said in a statement on Tuesday that a
  
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