ICT news

• Google Introduces End-to-End Encryption for Gmail

  19-12-2022 23:40 via it.slashdot.org
  Google Workspace is rolling out a new security update on Gmail, adding end-to-end encryption that aims to provide an added layer of security when sending emails and attachments on the web. From a report: The update is still in the beta stages, but eligible Workspace customers with Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, and Education Plus accounts can fill out an application to test the program through Google's support center. Once the encryption update has been completed, Gmail Workspace customers
  
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• Lobbyists Have Held Up Nation's First Right-To-Repair Bill In New York

  19-12-2022 23:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Digital Fair Repair Act, the first right-to-repair bill to entirely pass through a state legislature, is awaiting New York Governor Kathy Hochul's signature. But lobbying by the nation's largest technology interests seems to have kept the bill parked on her desk for months, where it could remain until it dies early next year. Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of the Repair Association, said that "opposition has not backed off" despite
  
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• Scientists Freeze Great Barrier Reef Coral in World-First Trial

  19-12-2022 22:21 via news.slashdot.org
  Scientists working on Australia's Great Barrier Reef have successfully trialled a new method for freezing and storing coral larvae they say could eventually help rewild reefs threatened by climate change. Reuters: Scientists are scrambling to protect coral reefs as rising ocean temperatures destabilise delicate ecosystems. The Great Barrier Reef has suffered four bleaching events in the last seven years including the first ever bleach during a La Nina phenomenon, which typically brings cooler te
  
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• Ubisoft Has Started Transferring Games From Google Stadia To PC

  19-12-2022 21:41 via games.slashdot.org
  Ubisoft has started handing out PC versions of games originally purchased on Google Stadia in preparation for Stadia's shutdown on January 18th, 2023. From a report: Ubisoft previously announced back in September that any Ubisoft titles purchased on the cloud gaming platform would be eligible to transfer over to PC, promising to share "specific details as well as the impact for Ubisoft+ subscribers at a later date." 9to5Google now reports that this migration process quietly started on Friday, De
  
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• Who Really Invented the Thumb Drive?

  19-12-2022 21:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  IEEE Spectrum: In 2000, at a trade fair in Germany, an obscure Singapore company called Trek 2000 unveiled a solid-state memory chip encased in plastic and attached to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector. The gadget, roughly the size of a pack of chewing gum, held 8 megabytes of data and required no external power source, drawing power directly from a computer when connected. It was called the ThumbDrive. That device, now known by a variety of names -- including memory stick, USB stick, flash
  
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• Facebook's Meta Will Devote 20% of Costs To Metaverse Next Year

  19-12-2022 20:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  Facebook parent company Meta Platforms will continue to devote about 20% of its overall costs and expenses to Reality Labs in 2023, despite questions about the business division focused on augmented and virtual reality and the so-called metaverse. From a report: The projection, given by CTO Andrew Bosworth in a blog post Monday, is little changed from the 18% of spending Meta devoted to Reality Labs in the third quarter. Meta stock is down nearly 65% this year, and some have questioned Meta CEO
  
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• IRS Accidentally Releases 112,000 Taxpayers' Private Data Again

  19-12-2022 19:40 via news.slashdot.org
  Confidential data of about 112,000 taxpayers inadvertently published by the IRS over the summer was mistakenly republished in late November and remained online until early December, the IRS disclosed last week. From a report: Form 990-T data that was supposed to stay private had been taken offline but made its way back to the IRS site when a contractor uploaded an old file that still included most of the private information, a letter sent Thursday to congressional leaders said. The agency is req
  
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• How Amazon Put Ukraine's 'Government in a Box'

  19-12-2022 19:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Since Februrary, Amazon has been playing Santa Claus to Ukraine, delivering planeloads of goods, including blankets, hygiene kits, diapers, food and toys, for the war-torn nation and refugees in Poland and other parts of Europe. But long term, what's more important to Ukrainians than the gifts coming in is what's going out: massive amounts of government, tax, banking and property data vulnerable to destruction and abuse should Russian invaders get their hands
  
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• Corsair Says Bug, Not Keylogger, Behind Some K100 Keyboards' Creepy Behavior

  19-12-2022 18:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  Keylogger-like behavior has some Corsair K100 keyboard customers concerned. Several users have reported their peripheral randomly entering text into their computer that they previously typed days or weeks ago. However, Corsair told Ars Technica that the behavior is a bug, not keylogging, and it's possibly related to the keyboard's macro recording feature. From a report: A reader tipped us off to an ongoing thread on Corsair's support forum that a user started in August. The user claimed that the
  
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• Epic Games, Maker of 'Fortnite,' To Pay $520 Million To Resolve FTC Allegations

  19-12-2022 17:40 via games.slashdot.org
  Epic Games has agreed to pay $520 million to resolve Federal Trade Commission allegations that the "Fortnite" videogame developer violated online privacy protections for children and tricked players into making unintended purchases. From a report: The FTC said the agreement consisted of two record-breaking settlements that resolve a pair of civil complaints it was filing against Epic. One, filed in federal court, alleged the company violated the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act b
  
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• Nations Promise To Protect 30% of Planet To Stem Extinction

  19-12-2022 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Close to 200 countries reached a watershed agreement early Monday to stem the loss of nature worldwide, pledging to protect nearly a third of Earth's land and oceans as a refuge for the planet's remaining wild plants and animals by the end of the decade. From a report: A room of bleary-eyed delegates erupted in applause in the wee hours after agreeing to the landmark framework at the U.N. biodiversity summit, called COP15. The hope is to turn the tide on an ongoing extinction crisis. About a mil
  
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• Google Can Now Read Doctors' Bad Handwriting

  19-12-2022 16:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A large number of doctors write medicine prescriptions in haste, making it nearly impossible for their patients to understand what they scribbled. This problem has been around for decades and many tech firms have attempted to solve it with little to no success. Now Google is having a go at translating those unfathomable texts.
  The search giant announced at its annual conference in India Monday that it is working with pharmacists to work out the handwriting of
  
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• Meta Hit With EU Antitrust Charges Over Marketplace Service

  19-12-2022 15:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  Meta Platforms was hit with a formal complaint from European Union antitrust watchdogs for allegedly squeezing out classified ad rivals by tying the Facebook Marketplace to its own social network. From a report: The European Commission said Monday it issued a so-called statement of objections to Meta, paving the way for potential fines or changes to the firm's business model. "With its Facebook social network, Meta reaches globally billions of monthly users and millions active advertisers," EU A
  
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• Binance US To Buy Bankrupt Voyager Digital's Assets for $1 Billion

  19-12-2022 15:00 via slashdot.org
  Binance US will buy Voyager Digital's assets out of bankruptcy in a deal worth $1.022 billion. From a report: Voyager selected Binance US as the highest and best bidder after reviewing options, the company said in a statement Monday. The bid "sets a clear path forward for Voyager customer funds to be unlocked as soon as possible," according to the statement, and the company will aim to return crypto to its customers in kind. The deal values Voyager's crypto portfolio at just over $1 billion, and
  
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• Could Aspartame Be Linked to Increased Anxiety in Generations of Mice?

  19-12-2022 13:34 via science.slashdot.org
  Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Science Alert:Could the sweetened drinks we're consuming be making us feel a little more anxious? A new study looking at the effects of the artificial sweetener aspartame on mice suggests that it's a possibility that's worth investigating further.
  Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1981, aspartame is widely used in low-calorie foods and drinks. Today, it's found in nearly 5,000 different products, consumed by adults and
  
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• US Senate Banking Committee's Chairman Says 'Maybe' to Banning Cryptocurrency

  19-12-2022 09:34 via news.slashdot.org
  The U.S. Senate's Banking Committee chairman "said federal agencies need to address the cryptocurrency market and 'maybe' ban it," reports the Hill, "after the high-profile collapse of cryptocurrency market FTX last month."Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), told NBC's "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd that the Treasury Department and "all the different agencies" need to get together and assess any possible action related to the cryptocurrency market. "Maybe banning it, although banning it is very
  
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• Streaming Services Are Ordering Fewer Series - Except for Amazon and Apple TV+

  19-12-2022 05:55 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  "Peak TV has peaked," reports the new York Times:The never-ending supply of new programming that helped define the streaming era — spawning shows at a breakneck pace but also overwhelming viewers with too many choices — appears to finally be slowing. The number of adult scripted series ordered by TV networks and streaming companies aimed for U.S. audiences fell by 24 percent in the second half of this year, compared with the same period last year, according to Ampere Analysis, a rese
  
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• New Nonprofit 'Flickr Foundation' Hopes to Preserve Its Billions of Photos For 100 Years

  19-12-2022 03:55 via hardware.slashdot.org
  "Content of every type disappears from the internet all the time..." writes Popular Photography's long-time "gear editor" (for photography equipment).
  But someone's doing something about it: the newly-founded Flickr Foundation, which has announced plans "to make sure Flickr will be preserved for future generations." Or, as Popular Photography puts it, to stop photos "from suffering the same ill fate as our MySpace photos" — providing the example of important historical photos.
  One particul
  
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• Op-Ed Argues 'Put Down the Burger' to Protect Earth's Biodiversity

  19-12-2022 01:38 via news.slashdot.org
  "Earth is in the midst of the worst mass extinction since an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago — and this time, the asteroid is us." So says Michael Grunwald, an environmentalist, in an opinion piece for the New York Times.
  But his larger point is that "biodiversity loss is not that complicated a mystery." The amount of area on planet earth devoted ot agriculture is now more than twice the size of North America.We're destroying and degrading the habitats of other specie
  
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