ICT news

• Former Pirated Anime Site Turns Into Sony's Global Money Maker

  13-07-2023 23:20 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: When top anime streaming platform Crunchyroll was first gaining popularity as a pirated-video site in the mid-2000s, Japanese animation was considered a niche form of entertainment, appealing mainly to enthusiasts known as otaku. Today, it's a $20 billion industry spanning streaming, games and merchandise, and the company's hit series, such as One Piece and Demon Slayer, have drawn millions of US and European subscribers. Crunchyroll, now owned by Sony Group,
  
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• The Mac Sure is Starting To Look Like the iPhone

  13-07-2023 22:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The general trend of macOS releases over the past few years is that it has been moving closer and closer to the look and feel of iOS. The icons have become iOS icons, and their shape has become the iOS shape, and you can now use your iPhone as the Mac's webcam, etc. etc. This occasionally comes at the expense of other functionality (ask me how I feel about the new Settings menu), but it is the direction that Apple has clearly been heading in since (arguably)
  
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• Meet Microsoft Office's New Default Font: Aptos

  13-07-2023 22:01 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft is replacing its Calibri default font with Aptos, a new sans-serif typeface that's inspired by mid-20th-century Swiss typography. From a report: Previously known as Bierstadt, Microsoft has been on the hunt for its new Aptos default font over the past couple of years. The software giant commissioned five new custom fonts for Office in 2021, and the Aptos font was picked as the default after years of feedback.
  "Today we begin the final phase of this major change where Aptos will start a
  
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• FTC Chair Defends Tenure as Lawmakers Battle Over Consumer Agency's Impact

  13-07-2023 21:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Lina Khan, the progressive head of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), faced tough questions on Thursday from a Republican-led House committee about court fights over multi-billion dollar mergers the agency opposed and lost. From a report: Representative Kevin Kiley, Republican from California, asked Khan about the cases that the agency had lost. "We fight hard when we believe there was a law violation, and unfortunately things don't always go our way," responded Khan. "Are you bringing cas
  
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• Ripple's Open Market Sales of XRP Cryptocurrency Aren't Securities, Court Rules in Landmark Decision

  13-07-2023 20:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  It was the court case the entire crypto industry was waiting for -- the showdown between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Ripple, an early digital assets firm behind the popular XRP token. From a report: The SEC alleged that sales of XRP constituted offering unregistered securities, while Ripple defended its $25 billion market, chiding the SEC's lack of clear guidance. On Thursday, a federal judge agreed partly in favor of both parties, with Ripple -- and the broader crypto industry --
  
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• Ohio Plastic Surgeon Loses Medical License After TikTok Livestreams

  13-07-2023 20:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An Ohio plastic surgeon lost her medical license after the state medical board investigated her for livestreaming operations on TikTok and surgical complications reported by patients. From a report: The State Medical Board of Ohio voted at a hearing on Wednesday to permanently revoke Dr. Katharine Roxanne Grawe's medical license and to fine her $4,500 "based on her failure to meet standard of care." At the hearing, doctors on the board said that Dr. Grawe, known online as "Dr. Roxy," had previou
  
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• Co-founder of Stability AI, Worth Billions, Says He Was Tricked Into Selling Stake for $100

  13-07-2023 19:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Stability AI is being sued by a co-founder, who claims he was deceived into selling his 15% stake in one of the hottest startups in the sector for $100 to CEO Emad Mostaque, months before the company raised millions at a $1 billion valuation. From a report: Cyrus Hodes accused Mostaque, who is also named in a lawsuit filed in a U.S. federal court on Thursday, of convincing him that Stability AI was worthless and hiding the company's work on what became the popular image generator, Stable Diffusi
  
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• UK Announces In-Depth Probe of Adobe's $20 Billion Figma Deal

  13-07-2023 18:40 via slashdot.org
  
  Britain's antitrust regulator on Thursday announced an in-depth probe of Adobe's $20 billion bid for cloud-based designer platform Figma, after the Photoshop owner said it would not offer any remedies to ease the regulator's concerns. From a report: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said late last month it had found the deal could lead to less choice for designers of digital apps, websites and other products, and identified concerns in the supply of screen design software, where the co
  
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• Telly Starts Shipping Free, Ad-Supported 4K TVs

  13-07-2023 18:05 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Telly's free 55-inch 4K dual-screen TV sets are set to arrive at users' homes this week -- but of course, there's a catch. From a report: The start-up, which plans to ship some 500,000 free, ad-supported TVs in 2023 in the U.S., is calling the initial wave a "public beta program." The company says the new Telly households represent a diverse cross-section of the U.S. population, although the initial user base overindexes on education level and household income -- and also skews toward Gen Zers a
  
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• Who Employs Your Doctor? Increasingly, a Private Equity Firm.

  13-07-2023 17:20 via science.slashdot.org
  
  In recent years, private equity firms have been gobbling up physician practices to form powerful medical groups across the country, according to a new report. The New York Times: In more than a quarter of local markets -- in places like Tucson, Ariz.; Columbus, Ohio; and Providence, R.I. -- a single private equity firm owned more than 30 percent of practices in a given specialty in 2021. In 13 percent of the markets, the firms owned groups employing more than half the local specialists. The medi
  
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• Alex Mashinsky, Ex-CEO of Bankrupt Celsius, Arrested

  13-07-2023 16:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The former chief executive officer of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network was arrested following a probe into the company's collapse, Bloomberg reported Thursday. From the report: The arrest took place Thursday morning, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the criminal case isn't public. The Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a lawsuit against Mashinsky and the company Thursday, according to court records. Celsius was one of several high-profile crypto fi
  
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• OpenAI's ChatGPT Under Investigation by FTC

  13-07-2023 15:52 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether OpenAI's ChatGPT artificial-intelligence system has harmed individuals by publishing false information about them, according to a letter the agency sent to the company. WSJ: The letter, reported earlier by The Washington Post and confirmed by a person familiar with the matter, also asked detailed questions about the company's data-security practices, citing a 2020 incident in which the company disclosed a bug that allowed users to see informa
  
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• Australian Trial of Seaweed Cow Feed Fails To Achieve Hoped-For Methane Cuts

  13-07-2023 15:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: One of the world's longest commercial trials of a seaweed supplement that the global meat industry hopes could slash methane from beef cattle has recorded much lower reductions in the potent greenhouse gas than previous studies. Putting the supplement into the diets of 40 wagyu cattle in an Australian feedlot for 300 days cut the methane they produced by 28%. The supplement was derived from the red seaweed species Asparagopsis, which has bee
  
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• Juniper Releases Multiple Security Updates for Juno OS

  13-07-2023 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Juniper has released updates to address multiple vulnerabilities in Juno OS. An attacker can exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.
  CISA encourages users and administrators to review Juniper’s Support Portal and apply the necessary updates.
  
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• Cisco Releases Security Update for SD-WAN vManage API

  13-07-2023 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Cisco has released a security update to address a critical vulnerability affecting SD-WAN vManage API. A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system.
  CISA encourages users and administrators to review the Cisco security release Cisco SD-WAN vManage Unauthenticated REST API Access Vulnerability and apply the necessary updates.
  
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• CISA Adds Two Known Vulnerabilities to Catalog

  13-07-2023 14:00 via cisa.gov
  CISA has added two new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation.
  CVE-2023-37450 Apple Multiple Products WebKit Code Execution Vulnerability
  CVE-2022-29303 SolarView Compact Command Injection Vulnerability
  These types of vulnerabilities are frequent attack vectors for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risks to the federal enterprise. Note: To view other newly added vulnerabilities in the catalog, click on the arro
  
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• Google Launches AI-Powered Notes App Called NotebookLM

  13-07-2023 12:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google is launching its AI-backed note-taking tool to "a small group of users in the US," the company said in a blog post. Formerly referred to as Project Tailwind at Google I/O earlier this year, the new app is now known as NotebookLM (the LM stands for Language Model). The Verge reports: The core of NotebookLM seems to actually start in Google Docs. ("We'll be adding additional formats soon," the blog post says.) Once you get access to the app, you'll be able to select a bunch of docs and then
  
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• China Beats Rivals To Successfully Launch First Methane-Liquid Rocket

  13-07-2023 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  A private Chinese company launched into orbit on Wednesday the world's first methane-liquid oxygen rocket, beating U.S. rivals in sending what could become the next generation of launch vehicles into space. Reuters reports: The Zhuque-2 carrier rocket blasted off at 9 a.m. (0100 GMT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China and completed its flight according to plan, state media reported. It was the second attempt by Beijing-based LandSpace, one of the earliest firms in China'
  
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• Rover Sampling Finds Organic Molecules In Water-Altered Rocks

  13-07-2023 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The Perseverance rover's Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC) instrument, designed to analyze organic chemicals on Mars, has provided valuable insights into the presence and distribution of potential organic materials on the surface of Mars. The findings have been published in the journal Nature. An anonymous reader shares a report from Ars Technica: SHERLOC comes with a deep-UV laser to excite molecules into fluorescing, and the wa
  
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• Disney, Netflix, and More Are Fighting FTC's 'Click To Cancel' Proposal

  13-07-2023 04:02 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Disney, Netflix, and other media and entertainment giants are pushing back against the FTC's "click to cancel" proposal (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source) that would make it easier for people to cancel streaming, gaming, and other services. Insider reports: Companies of all stripes have angered consumers by making services all too easy to sign up for but often confoundingly difficult to cancel, with gyms and news outlets considered among the worst offenders. The FTC has gone after i
  
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• Chipotle Tests Robot That Can Prepare Avocados To Make Guacamole Faster

  13-07-2023 03:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Chipotle has developed a robot that can cut the 50-minute process of making guacamole in half. "The fast-casual chain developed the collaborative robot, or cobot, in partnership with Vebu Labs, a California-based robotics startup," reports CNBC. "Chipotle also announced Wednesday that its $50 million venture arm, Cultivate Next, is investing in Vebu. Financial terms weren't disclosed." From the report: To prepare avocados using the Autocado, Chipotle employees load up the device with a full case
  
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• Salesforce Raises Prices For the First Time In 7 Years

  13-07-2023 02:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader Ammalgam shares a report from CRM Rank: Salesforce, the leading provider of software for customer relations management, announced that it will implement a price increase for some of its cloud and marketing tools starting in August. The company's decision to raise prices, the first in seven years, was met with a positive market response as its shares surged nearly 4% during early trading on Tuesday.This move by Salesforce aligns with the current trend among technology co
  
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• macOS Sonoma Brings Apple Password Manager To Third-Party Browsers

  13-07-2023 02:02 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: The macOS Sonoma update that is in testing allows Mac owners who opt to use Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or another browser to use Apple's Password Manager for filling passwords. Developers and public beta testers running macOS Sonoma can use their iCloud Keychain passwords with non-Safari browsers at this time, autofilling passwords and one-time codes. Third-party browsers can also save new passwords.Apple has made an iCloud Passwords Chrome
  
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• TikTok Videos Are Coming To 3,000 Redbox Kiosks

  13-07-2023 01:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, the parent company of Redbox, has partnered with TikTok to stream the platform's short-form videos on screens atop approximately 3,000 Redbox kiosks across the United States. Deadline reports: Third-party brands will also have their ads run alongside the TikTok videos via Chicken Soup's ad platform Crackle Connex. The agreement covers roughly 10% of the total network of Redbox kiosks, which are generally located outside of grocery, convenience and big box
  
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• Democrats Call On DOJ To Investigate Tax Sites For Sharing Financial Information With Meta

  13-07-2023 00:40 via politics.slashdot.org
  
  Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, are calling (PDF) for an investigation into popular online tax filing companies, accusing them of sharing sensitive taxpayer data with Meta and Google without user consent. The Verge reports: On Tuesday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and others asked the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, Treasury Department, and the IRS to investigate whether TaxSlayer, H&R Block, and TaxAct violated taxpa
  
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• US Ranks 32nd Worldwide On Broadband Affordability, Study Finds

  13-07-2023 00:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: One recent study found that the U.S. was currently ranked somewhere around 32nd globally, behind countries like Russia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria [on broadband affordability] (you can find the full breakdown here): "The United States and Canada both have one of the highest internet costs," Alex Tofts, the Broadband Expert for Broadband Genie, said in a summary. "It's driven by a lack of competition and bigger distances to connect, with lower popul
  
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