ICT news

• Google 'Doubles Down' on Pixel Hardware, Cuts Google Assistant Support

  18-10-2022 23:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  A new report from The Information details more changes Google CEO Sundar Pichai's budget cuts are having across the company, with some divisions surviving and others getting ominous resource cuts. From a report: First, we have news that the hardware division, other than losing laptops, seems mostly safe. Google's biggest Android partner, Samsung, is in decline in many established markets, and Apple is hitting an all-time high in US market share last quarter. The report says Google views Apple as
  
  Read more

• Tensions Rise in India Over Claim That Instagram Let Ruling Party Tamper With Posts

  18-10-2022 22:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  News outlet The Wire is investigating its own reporting amid an explosive dispute with Meta. From a report: Last week, The Wire, a small but gutsy Indian news outlet, seemed to land one explosive punch after another on Meta, the social media giant that owns Instagram and Facebook. The California company had given an influential official from India's ruling party the extraordinary power to censor Instagram posts that he didn't like, The Wire reported, citing a document leaked by a Meta insider. A
  
  Read more

• Amazon's Attrition Costs $8 Billion Annually - Leaked Documents

  18-10-2022 22:05 via slashdot.org
  Amazon churns through workers at an astonishing rate, well above industry averages. From a report: According to a tranche of documents marked "Amazon Confidential" provided to Engadget and not previously reported on, that staggering attrition now has an associated cost. "[Worldwide] Consumer Field Operations is experiencing high levels of attrition (regretted and unregretted) across all levels, totaling an estimated $8 billion annually for Amazon and its shareholders," one of the documents, auth
  
  Read more

• Ubuntu's New Terminal 'Ad' is Angering Users

  18-10-2022 21:20 via news.slashdot.org
  Joey Sneddon, reporting at OMG! Ubuntu: In September I tweeted a screenshot of something unexpected that has started to show up in the terminal when I ran system updates. It didn't enrage me at the time (and it kinda still doesn't) but I did find it a little ... Off. Now, if you're suitably tuned-in to the Linux newswire and/or an avid attendee of social media you'll probably heard about the drama in question. If you haven't, then allow me to... Yes, the furore is over an "ad" for Ubuntu Pro, Ca
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• FTC Wants To Add Right To Repair To Existing Energy Saving Rules

  18-10-2022 20:42 via news.slashdot.org
  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced this week that it's thinking about updating its energy labeling rules to require manufacturers to provide people with repair instructions. From a report: According to the press release on the FTC website, the commission wants to revise its energy-saving Energy Guide Rules, and is looking for public comment. "We look forward to hearing from the public on our initiative to reduce energy costs, promote competition, and strengthen repairability," Samuel L
  
  Read more

• Apple Restores Russian Social Network Webmail Provider To App Store

  18-10-2022 20:05 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple has restored Russian social network VKontatke and webmail provider Mail.Ru to the App Store, three weeks after removing them both for sanctions violations. From a report: The two services, home-grown versions of Facebook and Gmail with domestic market share to match, were removed from Apple's platforms in late September, following a wave of British sanctions that targeted the financial organisations that own them. At the time of removal, Apple had said it was complying with the sanctions i
  
  Read more

• Memory Study Induces Sleeping People To Forget Word Associations

  18-10-2022 19:25 via science.slashdot.org
  Playing sounds while you slumber might help to strengthen some memories while weakening others, research suggests, with experts noting the approach might one day help people living with traumatic recollections. From a report: Previous work has shown that when a sound is played as a person learns an association between two words, the memory of that word association is boosted if the same sound is played while the individual sleeps. Now researchers have found fresh evidence the approach could also
  
  Read more

• Apple Will Release macOS Ventura and iPadOS 16 on October 24

  18-10-2022 18:45 via apple.slashdot.org
  The next versions of macOS and iPadOS will be released to the general public on October 24, Apple announced today. From a report: The iPadOS 16 update runs on all iPad Pros, the 5th-generation iPad and later, the fifth-generation iPad mini and later, and the 3rd-generation iPad Air and later, dropping support for the venerable iPad Air 2 and a handful of other models (it will also ship on all the new iPads Apple announced today). The macOS Ventura update generally requires a Mac released in 2017
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Microsoft Becomes Latest Tech Firm To Cut Staff

  18-10-2022 18:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Microsoft announced layoffs across multiple divisions on Monday. From a report: Microsoft declined to say how many jobs had been cut, but a source said the layoffs numbered under 1000. The cuts occurred across a variety of levels, teams and parts of the world. Multiple laid-off workers turned to Twitter and Blind, among other online forums, to share that their job had been cut.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  Read more

• Apple Announces New iPad Pro with M2 chip and Wi-Fi 6E

  18-10-2022 17:21 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple has just announced the new sixth-generation iPad Pro. The company's latest flagship tablet is powered by the M2 chip that first debuted in the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro earlier this year. From a report: It'll be available in the same two screen sizes as before: you can choose between 12.9-inch and 11-inch sizes. Preorders open today and it'll be in stores on October 26th starting at $799 for the 11-inch and $1,099 for the 12.9-inch model. As with the 2021 refresh, the 12.9-inch i
  
  Read more

• DuckDuckGo's Privacy-Focused Mac Browser is Now Available for Public Beta Testing

  18-10-2022 16:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  DuckDuckGo is rolling out its web browsing app for Mac users as an open beta test. Designed for privacy, the app was announced back in April as a closed beta, but is now available for all Mac users to try before its official public launch. From a report: The desktop browser includes the same built-in protections we've seen already featured in DuckDuckGo's mobile apps, combining DuckDuckGo's search engine, defenses against third-party tracking, cookie pop-up protection, and its popular one-click
  
  Read more

• Meta To Sell Giphy After UK Regulator Blocks $315 Million Deal

  18-10-2022 16:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Meta has been ordered to sell gif platform Giphy for the second time by the UK competition regulator, bringing an end to the $315mn deal following a two-year antitrust battle. From a report: The Competition and Markets Authority said on Tuesday that Meta's purchase of New York-based Giphy -- the biggest provider of animated images known as gifs to social networks -- would "limit choice for UK social media users and reduce innovation in UK display advertising." The CMA first told Meta to unwind t
  
  Read more

• Over 45,000 VMware ESXi Servers Just Reached End-of-Life

  18-10-2022 15:00 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: Over 45,000 VMware ESXi servers inventoried by Lansweeper just reached end-of-life (EOL), with VMware no longer providing software and security updates unless companies purchase an extended support contract. Lansweeper develops asset management and discovery software that allows customers to track what hardware and software they are running on their network. As of October 15, 2022, VMware ESXi 6.5 and VMware ESXi 6.7 reached end-of-life
  
  Read more

• Google Announces KataOS

  18-10-2022 12:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Last Friday, Google announced the release of KataOS, a security-minded operating system focused on embedded devices running ambient machine learning workloads. As Phoronix notes, it uses the Rust programming language and is "built atop the seL4 microkernel as its foundatin." From Google's Open-Source Blog: As the foundation for this new operating system, we chose seL4 as the microkernel because it puts security front and center; it is mathematically proven secure, with guaranteed confidentiality
  
  Read more

• Germany Pushes To Extend Lifespan of Three Nuclear Plants

  18-10-2022 09:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has asked the economy, environment and finance ministries to lay the legal framework to keep the country's three nuclear power plants operational until as late as April 15, 2023, a letter seen by Reuters showed on Monday. Reuters reports: Germany had planned to complete a phase-out of nuclear power by the end of this year, but a collapse in energy supplies from Russia because of the war in Ukraine has prompted the government to keep two plants on standby. Lengthy di
  
  Read more

• 20 Nations At High Risk From Global Warming Might Halt Debt Payments

  18-10-2022 05:30 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Twenty countries most vulnerable to climate change are considering halting their repayment of $685 billion in collective debt, loans that they say are an "injustice," Mohamad Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives, said on Friday. When the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund conclude their annual meetings in Washington on Sunday, Mr. Nasheed said he would tell officials that the nations were weighing whether to stop p
  
  Read more

• Linus Torvalds To Kernel Devs: Grow Up and Stop Pulling All-Nighters Just Before Deadline

  18-10-2022 04:02 via linux.slashdot.org
  Linux kernel boss Linus Torvalds has released the first release candidate for version 6.1 of the project and added an appeal for developers to make his life easier by adding code earlier in the development cycle. The Register reports: "Let me just say that after I got my machine sorted out and caught up with the merge window, I was somewhat frustrated with various late pull requests. I've mentioned this before, but it's _really_ quite annoying to get quite a few pull requests in the last few day
  
  Read more

• Apple Bows To Pressure, Drops Plan To Buy Chinese Memory Chips

  18-10-2022 03:25 via apple.slashdot.org
  Following increased U.S. export controls against working with Chinese companies, Apple has halted plans to use YMTC chips in the iPhone. AppleInsider reports: According to Nikkei Asia, YMTC flash memory is at least 20% cheaper than that of rivals, and the company's 128-layer 3D NAND chips are the most advanced by a Chinese company. They remain reportedly one or two generations behind the chips made by Micron and Samsung, both of which are known to be working with Apple. Nikkei Asia claims that A
  
  Read more

• Fintech Giant 'The Clearing House' Joins Open-Source Patent Protection Powerhouse OIN

  18-10-2022 02:45 via news.slashdot.org
  The Clearing House, a banking association and payments company owned by the largest commercial banks in the U.S., has joined the Open Invention Network (OIN) -- the world's largest patent nonaggression consortium. ZDNet reports: The OIN has long protected Linux and Linux-related software from patent aggression by rival companies. With the increase in patent troll attacks, the OIN is also defending companies from these assaults. You may not think financial companies and banks are subject to such
  
  Read more

• Former WSJ Reporter Says Law Firm Used Indian Hackers To Sabotage His Career

  18-10-2022 02:02 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: A former Wall Street Journal reporter is accusing a major U.S. law firm of having used mercenary hackers to oust him from his job and ruin his reputation. In a lawsuit filed late Friday, Jay Solomon, the Journal's former chief foreign correspondent, said Philadelphia-based Dechert LLP worked with hackers from India to steal emails between him and one of his key sources, Iranian American aviation executive Farhad Azima. Solomon said the messages,
  
  Read more

• Bitcoin Fails To Produce 1 Block For Over An Hour

  18-10-2022 01:20 via slashdot.org
  It took more than an hour to mine a block of bitcoin (BTC) on Monday, leaving thousands of transactions stuck in an unconfirmed state. CoinDesk reports: According to on-chain data from several block explorers, the interval between the two latest blocks mined by Foundry USA and Luxor was 85 minutes. According to Mempool, over 13,000 transactions were pending before the latest block was mined.Last week Bitcoin underwent a difficulty adjustment to ensure block confirmations kept taking place every
  
  Read more

• Datacenter Fire Takes Out South Korea's Top Two Web Giants

  18-10-2022 00:40 via hardware.slashdot.org
  South Korea's two largest domestic internet companies, Naver and Kakao, have experienced significant service interruptions after the datacenter that hosts much of their infrastructure was shut down by a Sunday fire. The Register reports: The datacenter in question is operated by SK C&C, one of the many arms of South Korean conglomerate SK. SK C&C offers a range of cloud and tech infrastructure services, bills itself as a "total digital transformation partner" and operates three datacente
  
  Read more

• World's Second Richest Man Sells Jet So People On Twitter Won't Track Him Anymore

  18-10-2022 00:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Bernard Arnault, the CEO of luxury brand LVMH -- known for expensive labels like Louis Vuitton -- is the world's second-richest man according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. He currently clocks in at a net worth of $133 billion, beating out Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' paltry $130 billion. He's also been harangued on Twitter for his consistent use of private jets. French accounts that use planes' transponder signals and publicly accessible infor
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!