ICT news

• Apple Plans a Slow, Appointment-Only Rollout of Its $3,500 Vision Pro

  07-07-2023 23:50 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple plans to launch its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset in select US markets early next year, with designated sections in Apple stores offering demos, seating, and tools for sizing accessories. Bloomberg reports: The company will designate special areas in the stores with seating, headset demo units and tools to size accessories for buyers. While the device will be sold at all of Apple's roughly 270 US locations, the company is planning the sections for the Vision Pro initially at stores in m
  
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• Wisconsin Will Raise Public School Funding For the Next 400 Years

  07-07-2023 23:10 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has used his partial veto power to make a creative line-item change to the state budget, securing increased funding for public schools until 2425 instead of 2025. The BBC reports: Republicans have reacted with fury to what they call "an unprecedented brand-new way to screw the taxpayer." The move could however be undone by a legal challenge or future governor. It is the latest tussle between Mr Evers, a former public school teacher who narrowly won re-election last
  
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• Robotaxi Haters In San Francisco Are Disabling the AVs With Traffic Cones

  07-07-2023 22:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: A decentralized group of safe streets activists in San Francisco realized they can disable Cruise and Waymo robotaxis by placing a traffic cone on a vehicle's hood, and they're encouraging others to do it, too. The "Week of Cone," as the group is calling the now-viral prank on Twitter and TikTok, is a form of protest against the spread of robotaxi services in the city, and it appears to be gaining traction with residents who are sick of the ve
  
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• Film Companies Demand Names of Reddit Users Who Discussed Piracy in 2011

  07-07-2023 21:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Reddit is fighting another attempt by film companies to unmask anonymous Reddit users who discussed piracy. From a report: The same companies lost a previous, similar motion to identify Reddit users who wrote comments in piracy-related threads. Reddit avoided revealing the identities of eight users by arguing that the First Amendment protected their right to anonymous speech. Reddit is seeking a similar outcome in the new case, in which the film companies' subpoena to Reddit sought "Basic accoun
  
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• AI Tool Shows Promise For Treating Brain Cancer, Study Finds

  07-07-2023 20:09 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An artificial-intelligence tool has shown promise at helping doctors fight aggressive brain tumors by identifying characteristics that help guide surgery. From a report: The tool -- called the Cryosection Histopathology Assessment and Review Machine, or CHARM -- studies images to quickly pick out the genetic profile of a kind of tumor called glioma, a process that currently takes days or weeks, said Kun-Hsing Yu, senior author of a report released Friday in the journal Med. Surgeons use detailed
  
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• Jony Ive's First Post-Apple Hardware Project is a $60,000 Turntable

  07-07-2023 19:21 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Jony Ive has been busy since leaving Apple, with his design agency working on things like a typeface, a charity clown nose and "the future of Airbnb." LoveFrom's latest project takes Ive back to his hardware days -- it's a new model of a modular turntable that's been around for half a century. From a report: LoveFrom helped refine Linn's Sondek LP12 for a 50th anniversary edition. Ive told Fast Company it was a "very gentle and modest project" for LoveFrom that stems from his team's admiration f
  
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• Public Cloud Services Revenue Surged Past $500 Billion Last Year

  07-07-2023 18:45 via slashdot.org
  
  The public cloud services market jumped in value by nearly 23pc last year, reaching $545.8bn in global revenue. SiliconRepublic: A new report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) claims that all sections in this market saw growth last year, with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications retaining the top spot and representing more than 45pc of total revenue last year.
  The report found that revenue for foundational cloud services "that support digital-first strategies" grew by nearly of 29
  
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• Cyberpunk 2077 Players Protest Reddit By Posting Nudes

  07-07-2023 18:05 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Open-world sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077's biggest subreddit recently switched to NSFW (not safe for work,) with the explanation that the game it is focused on is a mature game filled with nudity and gore. However, Reddit allegedly demanded that mods of the subreddit quickly revert the change. From a report: The mods aren't complying and users are now posting nude images of in-game characters as part of a protest to show why the subreddit deserves to be NSFW. Since May, Reddit has been at war with i
  
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• UN Says Climate Change 'Out of Control' After Likely Hottest Week on Record

  07-07-2023 17:38 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The UN secretary general has said that "climate change is out of control," as an unofficial analysis of data showed that average world temperatures in the seven days to Wednesday were the hottest week on record. From a report: "If we persist in delaying key measures that are needed, I think we are moving into a catastrophic situation, as the last two records in temperature demonstrates," Antonio Guterres said, referring to the world temperature records broken on Monday and Tuesday. The average g
  
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• China Ends Tech Crackdown With Fines on Tencent, Ant Group

  07-07-2023 16:46 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Chinese regulators imposed more than $1 billion in fines on tech giants Ant Group and Tencent Holdings, signalling an end to a crackdown on the sector that had wiped out billions in market value and derailed the world's biggest initial public offering. From a report: The People's Bank of China fined Ant 7.12 billion yuan ($984 million), wrapping more than two years of probes into the finance technology giant founded by billionaire Jack Ma. Tencent was levied a 2.99 billion yuan fine, according t
  
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• FBI Searched the Home of Crypto Exchange Founder

  07-07-2023 16:05 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The F.B.I. searched the home of the cryptocurrency executive Jesse Powell in March as part of a criminal investigation into claims that he hacked and cyber-stalked a nonprofit that he founded, The New York Times reported this week, citing people with knowledge of the matter. From the report: The investigation focused on an allegation by the nonprofit that Mr. Powell, who also founded the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, had interfered with its computer accounts, blocking access to emails and othe
  
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• FDA Grants First Full Approval For an Alzheimer's Drug In 20 Years

  07-07-2023 15:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Politico: The FDA on Thursday granted traditional approval to an Alzheimer's drug for the first time in more than two decades. Now, the question becomes how many people will be able to access the drug, which is targeted at patients in the early stages of the debilitating disease. Medicare has said that it will reimburse the drug's costs -- more than $26,000 annually -- only for beneficiaries enrolled in a nationwide registry that tracks patient side effec
  
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• Progress Software Releases Service Pack for MOVEit Transfer Vulnerabilities

  07-07-2023 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Progress Software has released a Service Pack to address three newly disclosed vulnerabilities (CVE-2023-36934, CVE-2023-36932, CVE-2023-36933) in MOVEit Transfer. A cyber threat actor could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to obtain sensitive information. 
  CISA encourages users to review Progress Software’s MOVEit Transfer article and apply product updates as applicable for security improvements.
  
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• Inflection AI Develops Supercomputer Equipped With 22,000 Nvidia H100 AI GPUs

  07-07-2023 12:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Inflection AI, an AI startup company, has built a cutting-edge supercomputer equipped with 22,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs. Wccftech reports: For those unfamiliar with Inflection AI, it is a business that aims at creating "personal AI for everyone." The company is widely known for its recently introduced Inflection-1 AI model, which powers the Pi chatbot. Although the AI model hasn't yet reached the level of ChatGPT or Google's LaMDA models, reports suggest that Inflection-1 performs well on "common sen
  
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• India, a Growing Space Power, Is Forging Closer Ties With NASA

  07-07-2023 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Stephen Clark writes via Ars Technica: When India's ambassador to the US signed up his country to the Artemis Accords last month, it signaled the world's most populous nation -- with a growing prowess in spaceflight -- could be turning toward the United States as a partner in space exploration. India became the 27th country to sign the Artemis Accords, a non-binding set of principles among like-minded nations guiding a vision for peaceful and transparent exploration of space. The accords cover t
  
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• Tuesday Set an Unofficial Record For the Hottest Day On Earth

  07-07-2023 05:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: The planet's temperature spiked on Tuesday to its hottest day in decades and likely centuries, and Wednesday could become the third straight day Earth unofficially marks a record-breaking high. It's the latest in a series of climate-change extremes that alarm but don't surprise scientists. The globe's average temperature reached 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit (17.18 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday, according to the University of Maine's Climate
  
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• Spanish Minister Proposes $21,000 'Universal Inheritance' From Age of 18

  07-07-2023 04:02 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Yolanda Diaz, Spain's Labor Minister and candidate for Prime Minister with the progressive platform Sumar, has proposed a scheme to tackle social inequality by giving every young person in the country 20,000 euros (roughly $21,776) to spend on school, training or starting a business once they reach the age of 18. The Guardian reports: According to Diaz's Sumar platform, which announced the policy before Spain's snap general election on 23 July, the initiative would cost 10 billion euros, which w
  
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• Android Phone Hits 24GB of RAM, As Much As a 13-Inch MacBook Pro

  07-07-2023 03:25 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  The new Nubia RedMagic 8S Pro+ features support for up to 24GB of RAM -- the same amount of RAM found in a 13-inch top-spec M2 MacBook Pro. Ars Technica reports: The base model of the RedMagic 8S Pro+ starts with 16GB of RAM, but GSMArena has pictures and details of the upgraded 24GB SKU, which is the most amount of memory ever in an Android phone. Because we're all about big numbers, it also comes with 1TB of storage. This suped-up 24GB version of the phone appears to be a China-exclusive, with
  
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• Amazon's iRobot Roomba Acquisition Under Formal EU Investigation

  07-07-2023 02:45 via slashdot.org
  
  European Union regulators have opened an official investigation into Amazon's proposed $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot, the company behind the popular Roomba lineup of robot vacuum cleaners. The Verge reports: In a press release, the European Commission said it's concerned that "the transaction would allow Amazon to restrict competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners ('RVCs') and to strengthen its position as online marketplace provider." The European Commission is also looking at ho
  
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• France Passes New Bill Allowing Police To Remotely Activate Cameras On Citizens' Phones

  07-07-2023 02:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Amidst ongoing protests in France, the country has just passed a new bill that will allow police to remotely access suspects' cameras, microphones, and GPS on cell phones and other devices. As reported by Le Monde, the bill has been criticized by the French people as a "snoopers" charter that allows police unfettered access to the location of its citizens. Moreover, police can activate cameras and microphones to take video and audio recordings of
  
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• The 5G Threats To Airplanes Quietly Recedes

  07-07-2023 01:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The July 1 deadline for the US airline industry came and went, and not much happened. "We're not aware of any disruptions specifically related to 5G over the weekend," wrote Ian Petchenik, director of communications for Flightradar24, on Monday. Mike Dano writes via Light Reading: Petchenik noted the flight-tracking company does not specifically collect data on the types of issues that delay flights. Regardless, the situation is remarkable considering warnings of "major disruptions," "chaos" and
  
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• Uber, DoorDash Sue NYC Over Minimum Wage Law

  07-07-2023 00:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Uber Eats, DoorDash, and GrubHub filed lawsuits on Thursday seeking to strike down New York City's minimum wage law for delivery workers. The New York Times reports: Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub on Thursday each filed a request for a temporary restraining order in State Supreme Court in Manhattan to stop the wage changes from going into effect on July 12. Relay, a smaller, New York-based food delivery platform, did the same. The new pay standard, which was announced last month, would require gig p
  
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• Canadian Judge Says Thumbs-Up Emoji Amounts To Contract Acceptance

  07-07-2023 00:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Globe and Mail: A Saskatchewan judge says an emoji can amount to a contractual agreement and ordered a farmer to pay more than $82,000 for not delivering product to a grain buyer after responding to a text message with a thumbs-up image. The Court of King's Bench decision said a grain buyer with South West Terminal sent a text to farmers in March 2021 saying that the company was looking to buy 86 tons of flax for $17 per bushel to be delivered in the
  
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