ICT news

• Microsoft Poised To Deliver Improved Combat Goggles, US Army Says

  20-07-2023 23:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft is on track to deliver an improved version of its combat goggles by July 31 for intensive soldier testing that will help the US Army decide whether to deploy the devices by 2025 or cancel the troubled program, according to the service. From a report: After delivery, the first 20 prototype IVAS 1.2 goggles will be assessed by two squads of solders in late August to check for improvements in reliability, low-light performance and how well they fit soldiers without repeats of the nausea a
  
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• Google Starts the GA Rollout of Its Privacy Sandbox APIs To All Chrome Users

  20-07-2023 22:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google continues the rollout of its Privacy Sandbox APIs -- its replacement for tracking cookies for the online advertising industry. From a report: Today, right on schedule and in time for the launch of Chrome 115 into the stable release channel, Google announced that it will now start enabling the relevance and measurement APIs in its browser. This will be a gradual rollout, with Google aiming for a 99% availability by mid-August. At this point, Google doesn't expect to make any major changes
  
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• The Best IMAX Movies Still Need a Palm Pilot To Work

  20-07-2023 22:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Ahead of the Oppenheimer release, IMAX's TikTok showed the massive 70mm film print and special IMAX extensions. The video interestingly featured an emulated Palm m130, commonly known as a Palm Pilot, a 2002 device running on a Motorola 33MHz DragonBall VZ processor and Palm OS 4.1. From a report: In an IMAX theater, the m130's job is to control the quick turn reel unit, or QTRU for short. (For many years, it appears, a non-emulated m130 sat holstered in most theaters.) The QTRU's job is to contr
  
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• Chinese Billionaires Throw Weight Behind Private Sector Push

  20-07-2023 21:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Billionaire Tencent co-founder Pony Ma has penned a lengthy op-ed backing Chinese pledges to resuscitate the private sector, becoming the most prominent entrepreneur to endorse Beijing's promises to unshackle a giant swath of the economy. From a report: China's third-wealthiest person echoed many of the sentiments in an official policy document published Wednesday that called for the revival of private businesses, at a time the world's No. 2 economy is struggling to gain momentum. He was joined
  
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• Amazon's Palm-Scanning Payment System Coming To All Whole Foods Stores

  20-07-2023 20:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Amazon has announced that its palm-scanning payment technology, called Amazon One, will roll out to all 500-plus Whole Foods locations by the end of 2023. From a report: Amazon first introduced the contactless Amazon One payment system in 2020, but its expansion by the end of 2023 will be its largest to date. Amazon One works by the user scanning their palm above a reader -- in other words, it's another form of contactless biometric authentication, like Apple's Face ID. But instead of reading yo
  
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• Google Raising Price of YouTube Premium To $14 Per Month

  20-07-2023 20:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The price of an individual YouTube Premium subscription is increasing by $2 to $13.99 per month in the US for new and current customers. From a report: This price increase is live for new subscribers as seen on youtube.com/premium. Instead of $11.99, YouTube Premium now costs $13.99/month. Meanwhile, it's $18.99 if you're subscribing from the iOS YouTube app. Toward the end of last year, family Premium plans saw a big hike to $22.99/month. That remains the same today. The annual subscription, wh
  
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• Google Tests AI Tool That Is Able To Write News Articles

  20-07-2023 19:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google is testing a product that uses artificial intelligence technology to produce news stories, pitching it to news organizations including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal's owner, News Corp, The Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The tool, known internally by the working title Genesis, can take in information -- details of current events, for example -- and generate news copy, the people said, speaking on the condition
  
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• Netflix Expands Password-Sharing Crackdown To Every Market

  20-07-2023 18:40 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Netflix is bringing password-sharing crackdown to consumers in India and every other market starting today, the global streaming giant said after a limited rollout of the restriction helped the firm sign up nearly 6 million subscribers in the quarter ending June. From a report: The streaming giant said it will start to address account sharing between households in almost all of its remaining countries starting Thursday. Netflix, which once supported the practice of account password-sharing, now
  
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• Apple Slams UK Surveillance-bill Proposals, Threatens To Remove FaceTime and iMessage

  20-07-2023 18:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple says it will remove services such as FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than weaken security if new proposals are made law and acted upon. From a report: The government is seeking to update the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) 2016. It wants messaging services to clear security features with the Home Office before releasing them to customers. The act lets the Home Office demand security features are disabled, without telling the public.
  Under the update, this would have to be immediate
  
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• Fed Launches Long-Awaited Instant Payments Service, Modernizing System

  20-07-2023 16:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. Federal Reserve has launched a long-awaited service which will aim to modernize the country's payment system by eventually allowing everyday Americans to send and receive funds in seconds, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the central bank announced on Thursday. From a report: The "FedNow" service, which has been in the works since 2019, will seek to eliminate the several-day lag it commonly takes cash transfers to settle, bringing the U.S. in line with countries including the United K
  
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• US Suspends Federal Funding To Wuhan Lab Over Non-Compliance

  20-07-2023 16:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. has suspended federal funding to China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) for failing to provide documentation related to concerns over biosafety protocol violations at the facility that has faced questions for years over the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. From a report: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also said it wants to bar the Chinese research body from participating in government procurement and non-procurement programs going forward. WIV has not receive
  
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• Tesla Starts Production of Dojo Supercomputer To Train Driverless Cars

  20-07-2023 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Tesla says it has started production of its Dojo supercomputer to train its fleet of autonomous vehicles. In its second quarter earnings report for 2023, the company outlined "four main technology pillars" needed to "solve vehicle autonomy at scale: extremely large real-world dataset, neural net training, vehicle hardware and vehicle software." "We are developing each of these pillars in-house," the company said in its report. "This month, we a
  
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• CISA Releases Cybersecurity Advisory on Threat Actors Exploiting Citrix CVE-2023-3519

  20-07-2023 14:00 via cisa.gov
  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA), Threat Actors Exploiting Citrix CVE-2023-3519 to Implant Webshells, to warn organizations about threat actors exploiting CVE-2023-3519, an unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability affecting NetScaler (formerly Citrix) Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and NetScaler Gateway. In June 2023, threat actors exploited this vulnerability as a zero-day to drop a webshell on a critical
  
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• Electric Air Taxi Completes Maiden Flight At 70kph

  20-07-2023 12:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  UK startup Vertical Aerospace has achieved a significant milestone as its electric flying taxi, the VX4, successfully completed its first fully detached flight at Cotswold Airport in southwest England. The prototype flew at a speed of approximately 70 km/h and was remotely controlled using electric batteries. From a report: The flight marks another milestone for Vertical, which completed a smaller tethered hover test with the VX4 in September last year. Vertical said it will continue to test the
  
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• Something In Space Has Been Lighting Up Every 20 Minutes Since 1988

  20-07-2023 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Researchers have announced the discovery of an astronomical object called GPM J1839-10, which emits regular bursts of radio energy similar to a pulsar but with a much longer interval between pulses of 21 minutes. The nature and physics behind this behavior remain unknown, as it does not fit into any existing astronomical categories or explanations, making it a unique and enigmatic phenomenon that requires further study and observation. Ars Technica reports: GPM J1839-10 was discovered in a searc
  
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• Kevin Mitnick, Hacker Who Once Eluded Authorities, is Dead at 59

  20-07-2023 07:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Kevin Mitnick, once the so-called "most wanted computer criminal in US history," died on Sunday. He was 59. The New York Times adds: The cause was complications from pancreatic cancer. He had been undergoing treatment at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center following his diagnosis more than a year ago, according to the King David Memorial Chapel & Cemetery in Las Vegas. After serving prison time for breaking into and tampering with corporate computer networks, he was released in 2000
  
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• 'Breakthrough' Geothermal Tech Produces 3.5 Megawatts of Carbon-Free Power

  20-07-2023 05:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: Fervo Energy says it has achieved a breakthrough in geothermal technology. It carried out a 30-day well test at its site in northern Nevada and says it was able to achieve a "flowrate of 63 liters per second at high temperature that enables 3.5 megawatts of electric production." The company says the test resulted in flow and power output records for an enhanced geothermal system (EGS) and that it was completed without incident. A megawatt can po
  
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• Hollywood Movie Aside, Just How Good a Physicist Was Oppenheimer?

  20-07-2023 03:40 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  sciencehabit shares a report from Science: This week, the much anticipated movie Oppenheimer hits theaters, giving famed filmmaker Christopher Nolan's take on the theoretical physicist who during World War II led the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bomb. J. Robert Oppenheimer, who died in 1967, is known as a charismatic leader, eloquent public intellectual, and Red Scare victim who in 1954 lost his security clearance in part because of his earlier associations with suspected Commun
  
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• Nissan Is the Next Automaker To Adopt Tesla-Style EV Charging Plugs

  20-07-2023 03:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Today, Nissan announced it's adopting Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) in its electric vehicles, following in the footsteps of Ford, GM, Rivian, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and Polestar. Ars Technica reports: "Adopting the NACS standard underlines Nissan's commitment to making electric mobility even more accessible as we follow our Ambition 2030 long-term vision of greater electrification," said Jeremie Papin, chairperson of Nissan Americas. "We are happy to provide access to thousands
  
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• Netflix Gains Nearly 6 Million Subscribers As Paid Sharing Soars

  20-07-2023 02:20 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  A year after its largest quarterly loss and a significant drop in subscribers, Netflix has made a remarkable recovery by adding 5.9 million global subscribers in the second quarter of 2023, surpassing analyst expectations. TechCrunch reports: The subscriber addition far exceeds industry guidance; analysts forecasted an increase of 1.7 million subs. Netflix ended Q1 with 232.5 million users. Netflix's quarterly earnings results arrive a few hours after news broke out that the streamer dropped its
  
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• More Than 1,300 Experts Call AI a Force For Good

  20-07-2023 01:40 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: An open letter signed by more than 1,300 experts says AI is a "force for good, not a threat to humanity." It was organized by BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, to counter "AI doom." Rashik Parmar, BCS chief executive, said it showed the UK tech community didn't believe the "nightmare scenario of evil robot overlords." In March, tech leaders including Elon Musk, who recently launched an AI business, signed a letter calling for a pause in develo
  
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• Senators Unveil Measure To Ban Stock Ownership By Lawmakers, Administration Officials

  20-07-2023 01:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  A bipartisan pair of senators unveiled a bill Wednesday to ban stock ownership by lawmakers and administration officials. The Hill reports: The bill, introduced by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), would establish firmer stock trading bans and disclosure requirements for lawmakers, senior executive branch officials and their spouses and dependents. The bill would ban congressional members, the president, vice president, senior executive branch members, and their spouses
  
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• Google Releases Nearby Share, Its Android AirDrop Clone for Windows

  20-07-2023 00:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  You now have a new way to connect your Windows PC to an Android device to share files: Nearby Share, an app Google released Wednesday and which will be bundled with upcoming PCs. From a report: As the name suggests, Nearby Share allows you to share files back and forth between Android devices and PCs. It's similar to Apple's AirDrop, with the key difference being that Nearby Share connects devices from two different companies, rather than iPhones and Macs. Google released the beta version of Nea
  
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