ICT news

• Mark Zuckerberg Says He Enjoys 'Being Doubted'

  12-10-2022 23:21 via tech.slashdot.org
  Mark Zuckerberg said he enjoys "being doubted" in a new interview. From a report: The Meta CEO talked about where the company is now, and what's new for the metaverse, the big pivot he's currently leading his company through. Compared to building Facebook from the ground up, which he noted reached a billion users 10 years ago, growing the metaverse on top of an already built platform is "a lot easier."
  "I enjoy being doubted," Zuckerberg said, talking about building something over time. When Hea
  
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• Microsoft's Edge Browser Gets Shared Workspaces, New Security Features

  12-10-2022 22:40 via it.slashdot.org
  Microsoft today announced a few user-facing updates to its Edge browser. The most important of these is likely Edge Workspaces, a new feature (currently in preview) that will allow teams to share browser tabs. From a report: Microsoft argues that this feature can be useful when bringing on new team members to an existing project. Instead of sharing lots of links and files, the team can simply share a single like to an Edge Workspace (which will then likely consist of lots of links and files, but
  
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• CNN Accused of Rug Pull as It Abandons Its NFT Project

  12-10-2022 22:01 via news.slashdot.org
  CNN has ended its big Web3 project by announcing, "we have decided that it's time to say goodbye to the Vault by CNN." From a report: You may have already forgotten about it, but Vault by CNN launched in the summer of 2021 as a marketplace for its own NFTs (non-fungible tokens) that would "offer collectors the opportunity to own a piece of history." Sort of like NBA Top Shot except for media nerds instead of basketball nerds, it minted CNN reports of key events or artistic interpretations inspir
  
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• Google Starts Testing Holographic Video Chats at Real Offices

  12-10-2022 21:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  Project Starline, Google's experimental technology using holographic light field displays to video chat with distant co-workers, is moving out of Google's offices and into some real corporate locations for testing starting this year. From a report: Google's Project Starline tech, announced last year at the company's I/O developer conference, uses giant light field displays and an array of cameras to record and display 3D video between two people at two different remote locations. Starline protot
  
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• Roblox Says Policing Virtual World is Like 'Shutting Down Speakeasies'

  12-10-2022 20:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  As online gaming platform Roblox confronts a lawsuit alleging it enabled a California girl's exploitation, its chief scientist said finding dangerous content in the company's virtual world is nothing like spotting it in video. From a report: "It's such a challenge to moderate 3D," said Morgan McGuire in an interview at the Reuters Momentum conference in Austin on Tuesday. He had no comment on the recent lawsuit but said Roblox was built with safety and civility at the forefront. San Mateo, Calif
  
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• Older Samsung Phones Are Blowing Up

  12-10-2022 20:40 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: In case you follow the smartphone industry, particularly on YouTube and Twitter, you'd know that there have been recent reports of Samsung phones that are ... "blowing up", or at least about to. Of course, to most, that'd probably bring immediate Galaxy Note 7 flashbacks - we all remember when Samsung's 2016 flagship phone became the subject of universal entry checks, jokes, and legitimate fires. Despite trying, in the end Samsung wasn't able to handle the No
  
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• Google is Bringing Passkey Support To Android and Chrome

  12-10-2022 19:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  Android Developers Blog: Passkeys are a significantly safer replacement for passwords and other phishable authentication factors. They cannot be reused, don't leak in server breaches, and protect users from phishing attacks. Passkeys are built on industry standards and work across different operating systems and browser ecosystems, and can be used for both websites and apps. Passkeys follow already familiar UX patterns, and build on the existing experience of password autofill. For end-users, us
  
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• Amazon To Launch First of Its Kuiper Internet Satellites on ULA Rocket

  12-10-2022 18:41 via tech.slashdot.org
  The first two satellites of Amazon's space-based internet constellation will be launched early next year on the maiden flight of a new rocket being developed by one of the U.S. Space Force's biggest contractors. In an announcement Wednesday, Amazon said it would hitch a ride on the new Vulcan rocket being developed by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. From a report: The prototype satellites, part of Amazon's Kuiper system that would beam the internet to s
  
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• Damien Hirst Just Burned 1,000 of His Paintings and Will Soon Burn Thousands More

  12-10-2022 18:01 via news.slashdot.org
  British artist Damien Hirst is among the many art-world giants who have set fire to their work, having burned 1,000 of his artworks Tuesday. From a report: He streamed the event on Instagram and is set to burn thousands more works of art. It's part of his project "The Currency." It consists of a collection of 10,000 NFTs. Each non-fungible token corresponds to a physical painting featuring his signature multicolored dots, made from enamel paint on handmade paper. The pieces were initially availa
  
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• Federal Officials Trade Stock in Companies Their Agencies Oversee

  12-10-2022 17:21 via news.slashdot.org
  schwit1 shares a report: A Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that thousands of officials across the U.S. government's executive branch disclosed owning or trading stocks that stood to rise or fall with decisions their agencies made. Across 50 federal agencies ranging from the Commerce Department to the Treasury Department, more than 2,600 officials reported stock investments in companies while those companies were lobbying their agencies for favorable policies, during both Republican an
  
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• Microsoft Brings DALL-E 2 To the Masses With Designer and Image Creator

  12-10-2022 16:44 via tech.slashdot.org
  Microsoft is making a major investment in DALL-E 2, OpenAI's AI-powered system that generates images from text, by bringing it to first-party apps and services. During its Ignite conference this week, Microsoft announced that it's integrating DALL-E 2 with the newly announced Microsoft Designer app and Image Creator tool in Bing and Microsoft Edge. From a report: With the advent of DALL-E 2 and open source alternatives like Stable Diffusion in recent years, AI image generators have exploded in p
  
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• Microsoft's Surface Studio 2 Plus Ships With an RTX 3060 for $4,299

  12-10-2022 16:14 via devices.slashdot.org
  It's been a long time since Microsoft updated its Surface Studio line of all-in-one PCs. While rumors had suggested a Surface Studio 3 was on the way, Microsoft is debuting its Surface Studio 2 Plus today instead -- an upgrade on the Surface Studio 2 that launched four years ago. It includes some important upgrades on the inside, but the exterior is practically the same, and it all starts at an eye-watering $4,299. From a report: The Surface Studio 2 Plus will ship with Intel's 11th Gen Core i7-
  
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• New York Changes Gun Buyback After Seller Gets $21,000 For 3D-Printed Parts

  12-10-2022 15:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The attorney general of New York has changed the rules of a state gun buyback program, after a participant exploited the system by using a 3D printer to make firearm parts in bulk that he then exchanged for $21,000 in gift cards. The seller, who identified himself by a pseudonym, said he traveled from West Virginia to a gun buyback on August 27 in Utica, New York, to take advantage of a loophole in the program -- and to demonstrate that buyb
  
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• Google Reveals 'First Laptops Built For Cloud Gaming' Just After Killing Stadia

  12-10-2022 12:00 via games.slashdot.org
  Google has announced what it's calling "the world's first laptops built for cloud gaming," less than two weeks after announcing plans to shut down Stadia. Forbes reports: Google says the Acer Chromebook 516 GE, ASUS Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip and Lenovo Ideapad Gaming Chromebook all have refresh rates of at least 120Hz, displays with up to 1600p resolution, immersive audio and, critically for cloud gaming, WiFi 6 or 6E connectivity. Some models have RGB keyboards too. Subject to availability, you
  
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• A Supersmeller Can Detect the Scent of Parkinson's, Leading To An Experimental Test For the Illness

  12-10-2022 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  Diana Kwon writes via Scientific American: A Scottish woman named Joy Milne made headlines in 2015 for an unusual talent: her ability to sniff out people afflicted with Parkinson's disease, a progressive neurodegenerative illness that is estimated to affect nearly a million people in the U.S. alone. Since then a group of scientists in the U.K. has been working with Milne to pinpoint the molecules that give Parkinson's its distinct olfactory signature. The team has now zeroed in on a set of molec
  
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• Fake Joe Rogan Interviews Fake Steve Jobs in an AI-powered Podcast

  12-10-2022 07:15 via slashdot.org
  A voice synthesis company based in Dubai has published a fictional podcast interview between Joe Rogan and Steve Jobs using realistic voices digitally cloned from both men. It takes place during the "first episode" of a purported podcast series called "Podcast.ai," created by Play.ht, which sells voice synthesis services.
  Further reading: ArsTechnica.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Intel Plans Thousands of Job Cuts In Face of PC Slowdown

  12-10-2022 05:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Intel is planning a major reduction in headcount, likely numbering in the thousands, to cut costs and cope with a sputtering personal-computer market, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The layoffs will be announced as early as this month, with the company planning to make the move around the same time as its third-quarter earnings report on Oct. 27, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are
  
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• Westinghouse To Be Sold For $7.9 Billion In Sign of Nuclear Power Revival

  12-10-2022 04:02 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Cameco and Brookfield Renewable Partners said on Tuesday they would acquire nuclear power plant equipment maker Westinghouse Electric in a $7.9-billion deal including debt, amid renewed interest in nuclear energy. Reuters reports: The deal for one of the most storied names in the American power industry at an equity value of $4.5 billion comes at a time when nuclear power is seeing an uptick in interest amid an energy crisis in Europe and soaring crude oil and natural gas prices. Nuclear power i
  
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• Microsoft Partners With Meta To Bring Teams, Office, Windows, and Xbox To VR

  12-10-2022 03:25 via meta.slashdot.org
  During Meta Connect today, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company is partnering with Meta to bring its biggest services -- Teams, Office, Windows, and even Xbox Cloud Gaming -- to Meta's Quest VR headsets. The Verge reports: It's a surprise partnership that will see Microsoft and Meta combine their strengths. Microsoft sees an opportunity to bring Teams and its other productivity experiences to a capable VR headset, and Meta gets a key partner in its grand metaverse plan. [...] The Teams e
  
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• Lufthansa Says Passengers Can't Use Apple AirTags to Track Checked Bags

  12-10-2022 02:45 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Citing rules issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), German airliner Lufthansa says it is banning activated Apple AirTags from luggage "as they are classified as dangerous and need to be turned off." Slashdot reader AmiMoJo first shared the news with us. The New York Times reports: Lufthansa, a German airline, set off confusion recently after telling passengers that they could not use trackers like Apple AirTags in checked baggage because of international guidelines for p
  
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• Many US Drivers Treat Partially Automated Cars As Self-Driving

  12-10-2022 02:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Drivers using advanced driver assistance systems like Tesla Autopilot or General Motors Super Cruise often treat their vehicles as fully self-driving despite warnings, a new study has found. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), an industry funded group that prods automakers to make safer vehicles, said on Tuesday a survey found regular users of Super Cruise, Nissan/Infiniti ProPILOT Assist and Tesla Autopilot "said they were more li
  
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• 'Ask Apple' Launches As the Company's Newest Support Series For Developers

  12-10-2022 01:20 via apple.slashdot.org
  A new resource featuring interactive Q&A's and one-on-ones for developers has launched today called "Ask Apple." 9to5Mac reports: Apple announced the new developer series in a newsroom post today: "Developers participating in Ask Apple can inquire about a variety of topics, such as testing on the latest seeds; implementing new and updated frameworks from Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC); adopting new features like the Dynamic Island; moving to Swift, SwiftUI, and accessibility; and pre
  
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• YouTube Is Introducing Handles, With Unique Human-Readable URLs For Every Channel

  12-10-2022 00:40 via news.slashdot.org
  YouTube is finally going to give @uniquenames -- that are comprehensible to human beings -- to every single channel on the platform. Variety reports: On Monday, the video giant announced that it is introducing handles, which it described as "a new way for people to easily find and engage with creators and each other on YouTube." The YouTube handles will appear on channel pages and Shorts, which will make it "simpler and faster to mention each other in comments, community posts, video description
  
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• Meta Launches $1,4999 Quest Pro Headset

  12-10-2022 00:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Meta has finally announced the Meta Quest Pro: a $1,499 virtual reality headset it's been teasing for the past year. The Quest Pro is a new branch of the Quest VR headset lineup, featuring a new processor and screen, a dramatically redesigned body and controllers, inward-facing cameras for eye and face tracking, and a color video feed for mixed reality apps. Preorders open today in 22 countries, and devices will ship on October 25th. From a report: The Quest Pro will sit alongside the $399 Quest
  
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