ICT news

• 'We Found Subscription Menus in Our BMW Test Car. Is That Bad?'

  07-01-2023 23:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  Car & Driver reports on what they found in the menus of a 2023 BMW X1:
  BMW TeleService and Remote Software Upgrade showed a message that read Activated, while BMW Drive Recorder had options to subscribe for one month, one year, three years, or "Unlimited...." We reached out to BMW to ask about the menus we found and to learn more about its plan for future subscriptions. The company replied that it doesn't post a comprehensive list of prices online because of variability in what each car can
  
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• Two Washington Men Charged In Four Substation Attacks on Christmas That Cut Power

  07-01-2023 22:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  CNN reports:
  Two men were arrested on New Year's Eve for allegedly shutting down four Washington state power substations in late December that led to power outages for thousands across Pierce County. Matthew Greenwood and Jeremy Crahan have been charged with conspiracy to damage energy facilities and Greenwood faces a separate charge of possessing illegal short-barreled rifles.... The two cut off power to thousands of locals and caused at least $3 million worth of damage, according to charging d
  
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• Space Station Astronauts Build Objects that Couldn't Exist on Earth

  07-01-2023 21:34 via science.slashdot.org
  "Aboard the International Space Station right now is a metal box, the size of a desktop PC tower," reports Popular Mechanics. "Inside, a nozzle is helping build little test parts that aren't possible to make on Earth."
  The Washington Post reports:Backed by MIT's Space Exploration Initiative, astronauts on board the International Space Station on Friday completed a roughly 45-day experiment using a small microwave-sized box that injects resin into silicone skins to build parts, such as nuts and b
  
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• Bad News for 500M Crypto Investors: They Don't Own Their Accounts

  07-01-2023 20:34 via news.slashdot.org
  "More than half a million people who deposited money with collapsed crypto lender Celsius Network have been dealt a major blow to their hopes of recovering their funds," reports the Washington Post, "with the judge in the company's bankruptcy case ruling that the money belongs to Celsius and not to the depositors."The judge, Martin Glenn, found that Celsius's terms of use — the lengthy contracts that many websites publish but few consumers read — meant "the cryptocurrency assets beca
  
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• Bad News for 500K Crypto Investors: They Don't Own Their Accounts

  07-01-2023 20:34 via news.slashdot.org
  "More than half a million people who deposited money with collapsed crypto lender Celsius Network have been dealt a major blow to their hopes of recovering their funds," reports the Washington Post, "with the judge in the company's bankruptcy case ruling that the money belongs to Celsius and not to the depositors."The judge, Martin Glenn, found that Celsius's terms of use — the lengthy contracts that many websites publish but few consumers read — meant "the cryptocurrency assets beca
  
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• Why America's FTC Proposed Banning 'Noncompete' Agreements for Workers

  07-01-2023 19:34 via news.slashdot.org
  America's Federal Trade Commission "took an a bold move on Thursday aimed at shifting the balance of power from companies to workers," reports NPR:The agency proposed a new rule that would prohibit employers from imposing noncompete agreements on their workers, a practice it called exploitative and widespread, affecting some 30 million American workers. "The freedom to change jobs is core to economic liberty and to a competitive, thriving economy," said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan in a statement. "No
  
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• America's FTC Proposes Banning 'Noncompete' Agreements for Workers

  07-01-2023 19:34 via news.slashdot.org
  America's Federal Trade Commission "took an a bold move on Thursday aimed at shifting the balance of power from companies to workers," reports NPR:The agency proposed a new rule that would prohibit employers from imposing noncompete agreements on their workers, a practice it called exploitative and widespread, affecting some 30 million American workers. "The freedom to change jobs is core to economic liberty and to a competitive, thriving economy," said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan in a statement. "No
  
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• Vanilla OS Offers a New Take on Security for the Linux Desktop

  07-01-2023 18:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  OS News cheers the first official release of Vanilla OS, calling it "an immutable desktop Linux distribution that brings some interesting new technologies to the table, such as the Apx package manager."
  From the official release announcement:"By default, Apx provides a container based on your Linux distribution (Ubuntu 22.10 for Vanilla OS 22.10) and wraps all commands from the distribution's package manager (apt for Ubuntu). Nevertheless, you can install packages from other package distribution
  
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• Unpaid Taxes Could Destroy Porn Studio Accused of Copyright Trolling

  07-01-2023 17:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  Slashdot has covered the legal hijinx of Malibu Media over the years. Now Ars Technica reports that the studio could be destroyed by unpaid taxes:Over the past decade, Malibu Media has emerged as a prominent so-called "copyright troll," suing thousands of "John Does" for allegedly torrenting adult content hosted on the porn studio's website, "X-Art." Whether defendants were guilty or not didn't seem to matter to Malibu, critics claimed, as much as winning as many settlements as possible. As cour
  
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• Amazon Announces 'Hey Disney' Voice Assistant Using Star Wars, Pixar, and Disney Characters

  07-01-2023 16:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  "Hey Disney" is the answer to a riddle that nobody asked: What do you get when you cross Amazon's Alexa voice assistant with the voices of Disney characters?
  Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes:
  In a few months (and for a few bucks) you'll be able to purchase what Amazon calls a "first-of-its-kind voice assistant" for your Echo devices. Yes, your favorite Disney, Pixar, and Star Wars characters will be available to tell you jokes or play trivia games — whether it's Mickey Mouse, D
  
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• Apple No Longer Planning To Launch iPhone SE 4 Next Year

  07-01-2023 14:00 via mobile.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: Apple has informed suppliers that it has canceled plans to release a fourth-generation iPhone SE in 2024, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Kuo previously said that the fourth-generation iPhone SE would be canceled or postponed, but he now firmly believes that the device has been canceled. In a post on Medium today, Kuo said that Apple planned to introduce its first in-house 5G chip in the fourth-generation iPhone SE, but that is obviously no
  
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• International Nuclear Fusion Project May Be Delayed By Years, Its Head Admits

  07-01-2023 11:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An international project in nuclear fusion may face years of delays, its boss has said, weeks after scientists in the United States announced a breakthrough in their own quest for the coveted goal. The Guardian reports: The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) project seeks to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy. Installed at a site in southern France, the decades-old initiative has a long history of technical challenges and cost o
  
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• Researchers Discover Why Roman Concrete Was So Durable

  07-01-2023 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  Researchers have spent decades trying to figure out how ancient Romans were able to make concrete that's survived for two millennia. "Now, a team of investigators from MIT, Harvard University, and laboratories in Italy and Switzerland, has made progress in this field, discovering ancient concrete-manufacturing strategies that incorporated several key self-healing functionalities," reports MIT News. From the report: For many years, researchers have assumed that the key to the ancient concrete's d
  
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• In a World First, AI Lawyer Will Help Defend a Real Case In the US

  07-01-2023 04:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Interesting Engineering: A program trained with the help of artificial intelligence is set to help a defendant contest his case in a U.S. court next month, New Scientist reported. Instead of addressing the court, the program, which will run on a smartphone, will supply appropriate responses through an earpiece to the defendant, who can then use them in the courtroom. [...] In a new development, a company, DoNotPay, which has been training AI, has now clai
  
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• Razer Made a Soundbar That Tracks Your Head To Optimize Sound

  07-01-2023 03:02 via games.slashdot.org
  The popular gaming tech company just announced the Leviathan V2 Pro at CES 2023, the latest addition to its existing range of soundbars designed to provide compact, low-profile audio for PC gamers. The Verge reports: Created in partnership with THX and Audioscenic, Razer claims that the Leviathan V2 Pro can envelop a user with "3D audio" by combining beamforming surround sound with head-tracking AI technology. A built-in IR camera can detect the user's position, allowing the soundbar to optimize
  
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• Artist Banned From r/Art Because Mods Thought They Used AI

  07-01-2023 02:25 via slashdot.org
  A moderator on Reddit'sReddit's largest art forum with 22 million members went on lockdown this week after debates and accusations about what constitutes AI-generated art went viral. Motherboard reports: On December 27, a digital artist named Ben Moran tweeted that moderators of r/Art banned them from the subreddit for breaking their "no AI art" rule. Moran had posted an image of their digital illustration, titled "a muse in warzone," and moderators removed it and banned them from the subreddit.
  
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• Mercedes-Benz Gets Approval To Deploy Level 3 Driving Tech In Nevada

  07-01-2023 01:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  Mercedes-Benz will be the first automaker to launch a Level 3 automated driving system in the United States. The Drive reports: The news comes as part of a series of announcements made by Mercedes at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, noting that it has received official approval from the Nevada Department of Transportation to operate its Drive Pilot system on state roads. It expects to receive its formal certification within two weeks. In addition to Nevada, Mercedes has also appl
  
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• Virtual Twitch Streamer Is Controlled Entirely By AI

  07-01-2023 01:02 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Every day between 6 to 11 pm GMT, Neuro-sama streams herself playing Minecraft and osu, a musical rhythm game. Like many V-tubers, or virtual YouTubers, Neuro-sama appears as a Japanese anime-style character who interacts with her over 50,000 followers by responding to their comments in the chat. But there's one thing that separates Neuro-sama from her peers: she is controlled entirely by AI. [...] Vedal, the AI's pseudonymous creator, says t
  
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• Samsung Bets On MicroLED and 8K For Its Premium 2023 TVs

  07-01-2023 00:20 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Four years after introducing its MicroLED technology at CES 2018, Samsung claims the technology is ready for the masses and "will set the standard for picture quality in 2023," reports Engadget. From the report: At CES 2023, the company announced it would offer 50-, 63-, 76-, 89-, 101-, 114- and 140-inch MicroLED models, greatly expanding the amount of choice consumers have when it comes to the new display technology. Samsung didn't provide pricing and availability information for the expanded l
  
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