ICT news

• ChatGPT App Can Now Search the Web Via Bing

  28-06-2023 23:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  If you're a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, you can now use a new feature on the ChatGPT app called Browsing to have ChatGPT search Bing for answers to questions. TechCrunch reports: Browsing can be enabled by heading to the New Features section of the app settings, selecting "GPT-4" in the model switcher and choosing "Browse with Bing" from the drop-down list. Browsing is available on both the iOS and Android ChatGPT apps. OpenAI says that Browsing is particularly useful for queries relating to curren
  
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• WhatsApp Kills Off the Electron-Based Desktop App

  28-06-2023 22:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  WhatsApp has announced it is retiring its Electron-based desktop app, forcing users to switch to the native app for their OS to continue using WhatsApp. Android Police reports: Back when WhatsApp was in the early stages of development, the developers created an app for desktop, based on the Electron JavaScript framework. This allowed them to share a code base between WhatsApp Web and the new, platform-agnostic desktop app that worked on both Windows and macOS. Around four weeks ago, a countdown
  
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• 2,200 Forgotten Vintage Computers Are Being Liberated From a Barn In Massachusetts

  28-06-2023 22:13 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  A collection of over 2,200 new old stock computers from the 1980s, manufactured by a company called NABU and featuring a groundbreaking pre-internet network, are being liberated from a barn in Massachusetts. "In a way, this is two stories: The first, of a breakthrough network from Canada, a consumer-friendly 1983 version of the internet decades ahead of its time," writes Ernie Smith via Motherboard. "The other story, of the man who got a hold of these machines, held onto them for 33 years, and m
  
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• Minecraft's Devs Exit its 7 Million-Strong Subreddit After Reddit's Ham-Fisted Crackdown on Protest

  28-06-2023 20:49 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: If you want official updates from the Minecraft dev team, you better not look on Reddit. A post from a Reddit user bearing the name sliced_lime and a flair indicating they are the Minecraft Java Tech Lead (almost certainly Mojang's Mikael Hedberg) announced yesterday that Mojang would no longer be posting official content to Reddit, in the wake of that platform's response to protests over changes to its API. "As you have no doubt heard by now, Reddit manageme
  
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• Activision Will Be Jilted if Microsoft Deal Blocked, CEO Kotick Says

  28-06-2023 20:05 via slashdot.org
  
  Activision Blizzard will likely abandon a $69 billion takeover bid by Microsoft if the US Federal Trade Commission wins a ruling pausing the deal, the game maker's chief executive officer told a judge. From a report: Microsoft called Activision CEO Bobby Kotick to testify in San Francisco federal court Wednesday to reinforce its claim that the acquisition won't hurt competition in the markets for console and subscription-based games. US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley must decide whether
  
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• Planet That Shouldn't Exist Found

  28-06-2023 19:28 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The exoplanet 8 Ursae Minoris b should not exist. It orbits its host star at just half the Earth-Sun distance, and by all indications, the star should have gone through a phase in which it bloated up enough to engulf that entire orbit and then some. Yet 8 Ursae Minoris b definitely appears to exist. From a report: There is a handful of potential explanations, none of them especially likely. The people who discovered the planet are suggesting that it survived because its host star got distracted
  
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• US Patent and Trademark Office Notifies Filers of Years-Long Data Leak

  28-06-2023 18:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The federal government agency responsible for granting patents and trademarks has confirmed it inadvertently exposed about 61,000 filers' private addresses in a years-long data spill. From a report:The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) said in a notice sent to affected trademark applicants that their private domicile address -- often their home address -- inadvertently appeared in public records between February 2020 and March 2023. U.S. law requires applicants to include their private ad
  
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• Canada Plans Brain Drain of H-1B Visa Holders, With No-Job, No-Worries Work Permits

  28-06-2023 18:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Canada has launched a bid to attract techies working in the USA on the notorious H-1B visa, by offering them the chance to move north. From a report: The offer, announced on Wednesday as part of the nation's first ever tech talent strategy, means H-1B visa holders can move to Canada without having a job waiting for them. The H-1B visa is contentious in the USA. Its purpose is to attract skilled people whose talents are in short supply stateside, thus adding flexibility to the economy, but the vi
  
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• The EU Wants To Crack Down on Rogue Efforts To Alter the Atmosphere

  28-06-2023 17:21 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: It's surprisingly easy for someone to mess with the makeup of Earth's atmosphere, regardless of the consequences that could have for our planet. Now, as part of its plans to address security risks posed by climate change, the European Union is calling for talks on a potential international framework on how to treat deliberately atmosphere-altering technologies, AKA geoengineering.
  The issue is that scientists aren't quite sure how much good that would do or w
  
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• Y Combinator's Latest Batch Is 35% AI Startups

  28-06-2023 16:41 via slashdot.org
  
  More than one-third of the famed startup accelerator Y Combinator's latest batch of companies are focused specifically on artificial intelligence. From a report: Y Combinator received a record 24,000 applications for its latest cohort, and accepted just under 1% of those, Garry Tan, president and chief executive officer of the accelerator, said Tuesday in an interview on Bloomberg Television. About 35% of the companies selected for the program are AI-focused, he said, and as many as half involve
  
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• Google Violated Its Standards in Ad Deals, Research Finds

  28-06-2023 16:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google violated its promised standards when placing video ads on other websites, according to new research that raises questions about the transparency of the tech giant's online-ad business. From a report: Google's YouTube runs ads on its own site and app. But the company also brokers the placement of video ads on other sites across the web through a program called Google Video Partners. Google charges a premium, promising that the ads it places will run on high-quality sites, before the page's
  
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• Congress Doubles Down On Explosive Claims of Illegal UFO Retrieval Programs

  28-06-2023 15:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: Asked June 26 about allegations of secret UFO retrieval and reverse-engineering programs, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) made several stunning statements. In an exclusive interview, Rubio told NewsNation Washington correspondent Joe Khalil that multiple individuals with "very high clearances and high positions within our government" "have come forward to share" "first-hand" UFO-related claims "beyond the realm o
  
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• CISA and NSA Release Joint Guidance on Defending Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) Environments

  28-06-2023 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Today, CISA, together with the National Security Agency (NSA), released a Cybersecurity Information Sheet (CSI) to provide recommendations and best practices for organizations to strengthen the security of their CI/CD pipelines against the threat of malicious cyber actors (MCAs).
  Recognizing the various types of security threats that could affect CI/CD operations and taking steps to defend against each one is critical in securing a CI/CD environment. Organizations will find in this guide a list
  
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• Apple Posts Entire First Episode of 'Silo' On Twitter

  28-06-2023 12:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Apple has uploaded the entire first episode of its sci-fi series "Silo" to Twitter, allowing anyone there to watch the opening installment for free. Engadget reports: Silo is based on the science fiction novel Wool by American author Hugh Howey. It takes place on a post-apocalyptic version of Earth, where what remains of humanity is confined to the Silo, a 144-story underground bunker that serves as a self-sufficient underground community. The citizens are told that the world outside the Silo is
  
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• NASA Locks 4 Volunteers Into 3D-Printed Virtual 'Mars' For Over a Year

  28-06-2023 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Four volunteers will spend the next 378 days in a simulation of Mars, facing harsh, realistic challenges in tight quarters under NASA's watchful eye in preparation for a real-life mission to the red planet. From a report: Research scientist Kelly Haston, structural engineer Ross Brockwell, emergency medicine physician Nathan Jones and US Navy microbiologist Anca Selariu were locked into the virtual planet at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on Sunday as part of the first of a three-ye
  
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• First US Malaria Cases Diagnosed In Decades In Florida and Texas

  28-06-2023 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Five cases of malaria have been confirmed in Florida and Texas, the first time the potentially fatal mosquito-borne disease has been locally acquired in the United States in 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. The four Florida cases, along with one in Texas, have been diagnosed over a period of two months, the agency said. The state of Florida said that its first case was diagnosed on May 26 in Sarasota County, w
  
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• OpenAI and Microsoft Want To Record Your Next Doctor's Visit

  28-06-2023 03:50 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft's speech recognition subsidiary, Nuance Communications, is integrating its AI-powered clinical notes application into Epic Systems. The collaboration aims to reduce physicians' administrative workload by automatically generating draft clinical notes within seconds using real-time conversation recording and advanced AI models, ultimately saving time for doctors and improving patient engagement. CNBC reports: Epic is a health-care software company that helps hospitals and other health sy
  
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• Bitcoin Briefly Pushes Above $31K After Fidelity Spot ETF Filing

  28-06-2023 03:10 via slashdot.org
  
  Asset management giant Fidelity is preparing to submit its own filing for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund. The news helped push bitcoin above the $31,000 mark earlier today. The Block reports: The launch of a spot bitcoin ETF has been described as a gamechanger among market pundits since it can provide a way for investors to get exposure to the market without having to deal with the underlying asset. BlackRock's filing specifically has been pointed out as significant given the firm's size an
  
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• Volvo Is Latest Automaker To Agree To Adopt Tesla's Charge Port

  28-06-2023 02:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Volve has joined Ford, General Motors, and Rivian in adopting Tesla's proprietary charging port. Car and Driver reports: Volvo says that starting in 2025 all of its electric vehicles will be equipped with a North American Charging Standard (NACS) port. This will allow them to charge at Tesla's far-reaching Supercharger network in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The charging network is currently said to consist of 12,000-plus fast-chargers and is expected to continue to keep growing. "One
  
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• LetMeSpy, a Phone Tracking App Spying On Thousands, Says It Was Hacked

  28-06-2023 01:50 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: A hacker has stolen the messages, call logs and locations intercepted by a widely used phone monitoring app called LetMeSpy, according to the company that makes the spyware. The phone monitoring app, which is used to spy on thousands of people using Android phones around the world, said in a notice on its login page that on June 21, "a security incident occurred involving obtaining unauthorized access to the data of website users." "As a resul
  
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• SiriusXM To Shut Down Stitcher Podcast App

  28-06-2023 01:10 via news.slashdot.org
  
  SiriusXM will shut down its podcast app Stitcher at the end of August. The Hollywood Reporter reports: In a memo sent to employees, executives from the satellite radio and audio company said SiriusXM will not be backing away from podcasting, but rather will be trying to move more listeners over to its SXM app in order to grow subscriber numbers ahead of new "streaming experience" launching this fall. The SiriusXM Podcast Network, which includes content production hubs Stitcher Studios and Earwol
  
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