ICT news

• Why Are So Many People Watching TV With Subtitles?

  02-07-2023 22:56 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  "In a 2022 survey of 1,200 people, language learning company Preply determined that 50% of Americans used subtitles and closed captions the vast majority of the time they watch content," writes IndieWire.
  They delve into the reasons why so many people want to read dialogue:The first is that, for a lot of people, it's become a lot harder to understand dialogue on the TV. That's the top reason cited in the Preply survey, with nearly 72% of respondents who use closed captions marking that as one of
  
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• Why Major Newspapers Didn't Publish 'UFO Retrieval' Story

  02-07-2023 21:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Monday U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said government workers with high security clearances had made UFO-related claims, leading to a bill's provision to halt any reverse-engineering of alien crafts. News stories at the time noted "allegations of secret UFO retrieval and reverse-engineering programs" by former intelligence official turned whistleblower, David Grusch, a story which Vanity Fair traced to a "little-known" site called The Debrief.
  But that article's authors have some serious journalistic
  
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• Apple's Future AirPods Could Take Your Temperature, Offer Hearing Tests

  02-07-2023 20:34 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  The Verge reports:Some AirPods will be gaining a new hearing health feature, supported by iOS 17, that can check yourself for potential hearing issues and may be able to determine your body temperature via your ear canal, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in today's Power On newsletter. He also says all of Apple's new headphones will include USB-C, and that the company is planning new AirPods Pro and AirPods Max models — but he doesn't think new hardware is coming soon.
  AirPods already
  
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• 100 Bands Including RATM Boycott Venues Using Facial Recognition Technology

  02-07-2023 19:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Rolling Stone reports:
  Over 100 artists including Rage Against the Machine co-founders Tom Morello and Zack de la Rocha, along with Boots Riley and Speedy Ortiz, have announced that they are boycotting any concert venue that uses facial recognition technology, citing concerns that the tech infringes on privacy and increases discrimination.
  The boycott, organized by the digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future, calls for the ban of face-scanning technology at all live events. Several sm
  
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• Microsoft's Light-Based, Transistor-less Computer Solves Complex Optimization Problems at the Speed of Light

  02-07-2023 18:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  "Picture a world where computing is not limited by the binary confines of zeros and ones, but instead, is free to explore the vast possibilities of continuous value data." That's Microsoft's research blog, describing its newly-developed Analog Iterative Machine, an analog optical computer designed for solving difficult optimization problems."For a multidisciplinary group of researchers at the Microsoft Research Lab in Cambridge, U.K., the mission was to build a new kind of computer that would tr
  
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• Despite Amazon Ban, Flipper Zero's 'Multi-Tool Device for Hackers' On Track for $80M in Sales

  02-07-2023 17:34 via it.slashdot.org
  
  The company behind Flipper Zero expects $80 million in sales this year, which ZDNet estimates at around 500,000 unit sales.
  In its Kickstarter days the company sold almost $5 million as preorders, remembers TechCrunch, and the company claims it sold $25 million worth of the devices last year:So what are they selling? Flipper Zero is a "portable gamified multi-tool" aimed at everyone with an interest in cybersecurity, whether as a penetration tester, curious nerd or student — or with more n
  
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• Linux Foundation's Yocto Project Expands LTS to 4 Years

  02-07-2023 16:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Wikipedia defines the Yocto Project as "a Linux Foundation collaborative open source project whose goal is to produce tools and processes that enable the creation of Linux distributions for embedded and IoT software that are independent of the underlying architecture of the embedded hardware."
  This week the Linux Foundation shared an update on the 12-year-old Yocto Project:
  In an effort to support the community, The Yocto Project announced the first Long Term Support (LTS) release in October 202
  
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• Could a Solar Superstorm Someday Trigger an 'Internet Apocalypse'?

  02-07-2023 13:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  "Black Swan events are hard-to-predict rare events that can significantly alter the course of our lives," begins a 2021 paper by a computer science professor at the University of California.
  Now the Washington Post revisits that exploration of the possibility that "magnetic fields unleashed by a solar superstorm rip through Earth's magnetosphere, sending currents surging through human infrastructure."A widespread internet outage could, indeed, be brought on by a strong solar storm hitting Earth
  
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• Second-Largest US EV Fast-Charging Network Will Also Add Tesla Connectors

  02-07-2023 09:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Earlier this week the Society of Automotive Engineers, a U.S.-based standards organization, announced plans to support Tesla's EV "North American Charging Standard" (or NCAS). The Verge reported Tuesday that "With SAE supporting NACS, larger EV charging company holdouts like the Volkswagen-owned Electrify America may have an easier time making the jump."
  And two days later, they did. The Associated Press reports:The second-largest electric vehicle fast-charging network in the U.S. says it will a
  
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• Could AMD's AI Chips Match the Performance of Nvidia's Chips?

  02-07-2023 06:34 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from Reuters:Artificial intelligence chips from Advanced Micro Devices are about 80% as fast as those from Nvidia Corp, with a future path to matching their performance, according a Friday report by an AI software firm.
  Nvidia dominates the market for the powerful chips that are used to create ChatGPT and other AI services that have swept through the technology industry in recent months. The popularity of those services has pushed Nvidia's value past $1 tri
  
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• Gizmodo and Kotaku Staff Furious After Owner Announces Test of AI Content

  02-07-2023 03:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Futurism reports:
  G/O Media, a major online media company that runs publications including Gizmodo, Kotaku, Quartz, Jezebel, [the Onion], and Deadspin, has announced that it will begin a "modest test" of AI content on its sites... In an email to staff, G/O Media editorial director Merrill Brown argued that the news shouldn't come as a surprise since "everyone in the media business" has been considering AI.
  The trial will include "producing just a handful of stories for most of our sites that are
  
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• Should UK Stores Use Facial Recognition Tech to Fight Shoplifting?

  02-07-2023 00:59 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The New York Times tells the story of Simon Mackenzie, a security officer at a U.K. discount store uploading security camera footage of shoplifters into a facial recognition program called Facewatch. "The next time those people enter any shop within a few miles that uses Facewatch, store staff will receive an alert."
  Facewatch — now in nearly 400 stores across Britain — licenses facial recognition software made by Real Networks and Amazon. Though it only sends alert about repeat offe
  
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