ICT news

• Amazon Lays Off About 100 Employees in Its Gaming Divisions

  04-04-2023 23:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Amazon laid off about 100 employees in its video-game divisions as part of its broader cutbacks, affecting workers at Prime Gaming, Game Growth and the company's San Diego studio. From a report: "Our resources will be aligned to support our focus on content," Games Vice President Christoph Hartmann wrote in a memo to employees Tuesday. "Going forward, we will continue to invest in our internal development efforts, and our teams will continue to grow as our projects progress." Amazon has struggle
  
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• American Teens Aren't Excited About Virtual Reality

  04-04-2023 22:41 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Virtual reality hasn't caught on with American teens, according to a new survey from Piper Sandler released on Tuesday. From a report: While 29% percent of teens polled owned a VR device -- versus 87% who own iPhones -- only 4% of headset owners used it daily, the investment firm found, and 14% used them weekly. In addition, teenagers didn't seem that interested in buying forthcoming VR headsets. Only 7% said they planned to purchase a headset, versus 52% of teens polled who were unsure or unint
  
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• After 11 Years, Atlassian Customers Finally Get Custom Domains They Don't Want

  04-04-2023 22:01 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Atlassian customers' eleven-year quest for custom domains continues, with the Australian upstart's proposed solution failing to satisfy. The Register: As The Register reported in 2022, Atlassian floated the idea of custom domains for its custom apps in 2011. Yes, 2011. The ticket for the change is called "CLOUD 6999" and has become infamous for the length of time it has remained unresolved. An unidentified wag has even made t-shirts bearing the CLOUD 6999 name. Atlassian promised last year to so
  
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• Branson's Virgin Orbit Files For Bankruptcy After Launch Failure Squeezed Finances

  04-04-2023 21:20 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Virgin Orbit, founded by Richard Branson, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday after the satellite launching business struggled to secure long-term funding following a failed launch in January. From a report: The filing comes less than two years after Virgin Orbit first went public at a valuation of roughly $3 billion. But the January mishap left the company scrambling for new funding and forced it to halt operations. "We believe that the Chapter 11 process represents the best path forward
  
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• Mathematicians Invent New 'Einstein' Shape

  04-04-2023 20:40 via science.slashdot.org
  
  One of mathematics' most intriguing visual mysteries has finally been solved -- thanks to a hobbyist in England. From a report: The conundrum: is there a shape that can be arranged in a tile formation, interlocking with itself ad infinitum, without the resulting pattern repeating over and over again? In nature and on our bathroom walls, we typically see tile patterns that repeat in "a very predictable, regular way," says Dr Craig Kaplan, an associate professor of computer science at the Universi
  
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• After Disrupting Businesses, Google Drive's Secret File Cap is Dead for Now

  04-04-2023 20:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Google is backtracking on its decision to put a file creation cap on Google Drive. From a report: Around two months ago, the company decided to cap all Google Drive users to 5 million files, even if they were paying for extra storage. The company did this in the worst way possible, rolling out the limit as a complete surprise and with no prior communication. Some users logged in to find they were suddenly millions of files over the new limit and unable to upload new files until they deleted enou
  
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• Amazon Launches Startup Accelerator for Generative AI Companies

  04-04-2023 19:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The newest startup accelerator from Amazon aims to attract companies building generative AI technologies. From a report: The Amazon Web Services accelerator, revealed Tuesday, is a 10-week program aims to "empower companies applying generative AI to solutions from legal and marketing, to software engineering, green energy, and life sciences, including drug discovery." It also provides up to $300,000 in AWS credits. The hybrid program is open to all startups, with two week-long in-person events i
  
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• Jamie Dimon Says Banking Crisis Not Over and Will Cause 'Repercussions For Years'

  04-04-2023 18:47 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The stress on the financial sector caused by two bank failures in the United States last month is still a threat and should be addressed by a reimagining of the regulatory process, according to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. From a report: "As I write this letter, the current crisis is not yet over, and even when it is behind us, there will be repercussions from it for years to come," the longtime CEO said in his annual letter to shareholders Tuesday. "But importantly, recent events are nothing
  
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• Microsoft Announces $299.99 Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock That Connects via USB-C

  04-04-2023 18:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has just officially unveiled the Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock hours after the device leaked. From a report: Priced at $299.99, the new Surface dock will connect over USB-C instead of the proprietary Surface Connect port. Microsoft is planning to keep selling its Surface Dock 2, complete with the Surface Connect port that's designed for Surface devices that don't have USB-C or Thunderbolt 4. This new Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock will support devices other than Surface for the first time. Yo
  
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• Apple Users Report Weather App Outage in Some Locations

  04-04-2023 17:29 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple said that some users are experiencing disruptions of its weather app on Tuesday, citing a data provider issue. From a report: The Cupertino, California-based company said on its website that issues for the app were reported at 11 p.m. New York time Monday and continued Tuesday. Apple said that precipitation forecasts for the next hour may be unavailable in Alaska "due to a data provider outage," but disruptions appear to be across various cities. All other services, such as the App Store,
  
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• AI is Entering an Era of Corporate Control

  04-04-2023 16:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An annual report on AI progress has highlighted the increasing dominance of industry players over academia and government in deploying and safeguarding AI applications. From a report: The 2023 AI Index -- compiled by researchers from Stanford University as well as AI companies including Google, Anthropic, and Hugging Face -- suggests that the world of AI is entering a new phase of development. Over the past year, a large number of AI tools have gone mainstream, from chatbots like ChatGPT to imag
  
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• Frank Founder Javice Charged With Defrauding JPMorgan

  04-04-2023 16:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Frank founder Charlie Javice was charged with fraud in the $175 million sale of her college financial planning site to JPMorgan Chase. The charges include conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud and securities fraud. From a report: JPMorgan, which acquired Frank in 2021, sued Javice and another executive, Olivier Amar, in federal court in Delaware in December, alleging they used fake customer accounts to lead the bank into completing the deal by vastly inflating the number of people using her site.Re
  
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• Xanax and Adderall Access Is Being Blocked by Secret Drug Limits

  04-04-2023 12:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Patients diagnosed with conditions like anxiety and sleep disorders have become caught in the crosshairs of America's opioid crisis, as secret policies mandated by a national opioid settlement have turned filling legitimate prescriptions into a major headache. Bloomberg reports: In July, limits went into effect that flag and sometimes block pharmacies' orders of controlled substances such as Adderall and Xanax when they exceed a certain threshold. The requirement stems from a 2021 settlement wit
  
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• US To Build $300 Million Database To Fuel Alzheimer's Research

  04-04-2023 09:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA) is funding a 6-year, up to $300 million project to build a massive Alzheimer's research database that can track the health of Americans for decades and enable researchers to gain new insights on the brain-wasting disease. Reuters reports: The NIA, part of the government's National Institutes of Health (NIH), aims to build a data platform capable of housing long-term health information on 70% to 90% of the U.S. population, officials told Reuters of the g
  
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• Physicists Created 'Slits In Time' and Discovered 'Unexpected Physics'

  04-04-2023 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Scientists have discovered "unexpected physics" by opening up "slits" in time, a new study reports, achieving a longstanding dream that can help to probe the behavior of light and pioneer advanced optical technologies. The mind-boggling approach is a time-based variation on the famous double-slit experiment, first performed by Thomas Young in 1801, which opened a window into the weird probabilistic world of quantum mechanics by revealing the
  
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• Capita, Company Providing UK's Nuclear Submarine Training, Says It's Successfully Contained 'Cyber Incident'

  04-04-2023 04:02 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Capita, the United Kingdom's largest outsourcing company, confirmed Monday that an IT outage which left staff locked out of their accounts on Friday was caused by "a cyber incident." The Record reports: Staff attempting to login were erroneously told their usual passwords were "incorrect" according to reports, fueling speculation that a cyberattack was to blame, although not all of Capita's 61,000 employees were affected. At the time, a Capita spokesperson said the company was investigating "a t
  
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• Google Now Guarantees Some Flight Prices Or Your Money Back

  04-04-2023 03:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  For flights, Google already showed you whether the flight price you were looking at was high, low, or typical compared to historical prices. Now it's going a step further by putting a guarantee on those predictions. Android Police reports: Now, whenever Google thinks a flight is priced as low as it's going to go, it will put a "Price Guarantee" badge beside the price indicating it doesn't think that price will drop any further. If you decide to book a flight with a price guarantee through Google
  
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• 120Hz ProMotion Rumored to Expand to Non-Pro iPhones in Two Years

  04-04-2023 02:45 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  Apple will expand ProMotion to the standard iPhone models in two years, according to Ross Young, CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants. ProMotion was first introduced on the iPhone 13 Pro models in 2021 and remains exclusive to Pro models for now. MacRumors reports: In a tweet today, Young provided a roadmap outlining various display-related technologies coming to future iPhones. Notably, the roadmap indicates that low-power LTPO display technology will be expanded to the standard iPhones in 2
  
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• Labor To Consider Age-Verification 'Roadmap' For Restricting Online Pornography Access

  04-04-2023 02:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The federal government is considering a "roadmap" on how to restrict access to online pornography to those who can prove they are 18 or older, but there are warnings that any system could come at the cost of Australians' privacy online. On Friday, the eSafety commissioner provided a long-awaited roadmap to the government for how to verify users' ages online, which was commissioned by the former Morrison government nearly two years ago. The c
  
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• Novel Social Engineering Attacks Soar 135% Amid Uptake of Generative AI

  04-04-2023 01:20 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Researchers from Darktrace have seen a 135% increase in novel social engineering attack emails in the first two months of 2023. IT Pro reports: The cyber security firm said the email attacks targeted thousands of its customers in January and February 2023, an increase which it said matches the adoption rate of ChatGPT. The novel social engineering attacks make use of "sophisticated linguistic techniques," which Darktrace said include increasing text volume, sentence length, and punctuation in em
  
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• Apple's Tim Cook Says AR and VR Are For 'Connection' and 'Communication'

  04-04-2023 00:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Tim Cook's vision for AR and VR hasn't changed. "For almost a decade, Apple's CEO has been banging the drum that AR is more important than VR and that AR is fundamentally about bringing people together," reports The Verge. "And he's still at it." From the report: "If you think about the technology itself with augmented reality, just to take one side of the AR/VR piece, the idea that you could overlay the physical world with things from the digital world could greatly enhance people's communicati
  
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• Free Google Play Alternative MicroG Framed In Bogus 'Vanced' DMCA Notices

  04-04-2023 00:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: MicroG is a free-as-in-freedom alternative to proprietary Google services, including the Play Store. Vanced, a popular app that provided an ad-free YouTube experience, relied on microG to operate, something also true for successor ReVanced. In a scheme to damage microG and Vanced-style apps, imposters masquerading as microG have targeted almost two dozen sites with DMCA notices.On March 30, 2023, someone claiming to be 'MicroG' sent a DMCA c
  
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