ICT news

• iFixit Now Sells Microsoft Surface Parts For Repair

  26-10-2023 23:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  iFixit has started selling genuine replacement parts for Microsoft Surface devices. From a report: The company now offers SSDs, batteries, screens, kickstands, and a whole bunch of other parts for 15 Surface products. Some of the devices on that list include the Surface Pro 9, Surface Laptop 5, Surface Go 4, Surface Studio 2 Plus, and others. You can check out the entire list of supported products and parts in this post on Microsoft's website. In addition to supplying replacement parts, iFixit a
  
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• UK Regulator Trying To Block Release of Shell North Sea Documents

  26-10-2023 22:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The UK's oil and gas regulator is coming under fire from environmental groups for using lawyers to try to prevent the publication of five key documents relating to the environmental impact of Shell's activities in the North Sea. From a report: At a hearing in December, a legal representative for the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) is expected to argue against the publication of documents that contain details about the risk of pollution as a result of decommissioning the Brent oilfield, whi
  
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• Google Adds Generative AI Threats To Its Bug Bounty Program

  26-10-2023 22:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google has expanded its vulnerability rewards program (VRP) to include attack scenarios specific to generative AI. From a report: In an announcement shared with TechCrunch ahead of publication, Google said: "We believe expanding the VRP will incentivize research around AI safety and security and bring potential issues to light that will ultimately make AI safer for everyone." Google's vulnerability rewards program (or bug bounty) pays ethical hackers for finding and responsibly disclosing securi
  
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• Hyundai To Hold Software-Upgrade Clinics Across the US For Vehicles Targeted By Thieves

  26-10-2023 21:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Hyundai said this week that it will set up "mobile clinics" at five U.S. locations to provide anti-theft software upgrades for vehicles now regularly targeted by thieves using a technique popularized on TikTok and other social media platforms. From a report: The South Korean automaker will hold the clinics, which will run for two to three days on or adjacent to weekends, in New York City; Chicago; Minneapolis; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Rochester, New York. The clinics will take place between Oct.
  
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• OpenAI Forms Team To Study 'Catastrophic' AI Risks, Including Nuclear Threats

  26-10-2023 20:41 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  OpenAI today announced that it's created a new team to assess, evaluate and probe AI models to protect against what it describes as "catastrophic risks." From a report: The team, called Preparedness, will be led by Aleksander Madry, the director of MIT's Center for Deployable Machine Learning. (Madry joined OpenAI in May as "head of Preparedness," according to LinkedIn, ) Preparedness' chief responsibilities will be tracking, forecasting and protecting against the dangers of future AI systems, r
  
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• Google Exec Testifies Innovation Key To Avoid Becoming 'Next Road Kill'

  26-10-2023 20:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google executive Prabhakar Raghavan on Thursday detailed challenges the search and advertising giant faces from smaller rivals, describing efforts to avoid becoming "the next road kill." From a report: Raghavan testified at the ongoing antitrust trial in the suit brought by the U.S. Justice Department and a coalition of state attorneys general, alleging Alphabet's Google unlawfully abused its dominance in the search-engine market to maintain monopoly power. Raghavan, asked about a 1998 article a
  
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• The UK's Controversial Online Safety Bill Finally Becomes Law

  26-10-2023 19:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The UK's Online Safety Bill, a wide-ranging piece of legislation that aims to make the country "the safest place in the world to be online" received royal assent today and became law. The bill has been years in the making and attempts to introduce new obligations for how tech firms should design, operate, and moderate their platforms. Specific harms the bill aims to address include underage access to online pornography, "anonymous trolls," scam ads, the nonco
  
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• Infosys Founder Says India's Work Culture Must Change: 'Youngsters Should Work 70 Hours a Week'

  26-10-2023 18:40 via slashdot.org
  
  NR Narayana Murthy, the founder of software consultancy giant Infosys, urged youngsters in India to work 70 hours a week if they want the nation to compete with other economies. From a report: Narayana Murthy, in conversation with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai, said that India's work productivity is among the lowest in the world. In order to compete with countries like China, India's youngsters must put in extra hours of work -- like Japan and Germany did after World War 2.
  He also blamed othe
  
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• Western Digital and Kioxia Scrap Memory Chip Merger Talks

  26-10-2023 18:06 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Negotiations to merge Western Digital's semiconductor memory business and Japan's Kioxia Holdings have been terminated, Nikkei reported Thursday. From the report: The companies were aiming to reach an agreement by the end of October. U.S.-based Western Digital by Thursday had notified Kioxia that it would exit the talks after the merger failed to secure approval from SK Hynix, an indirect shareholder in Kioxia. The companies were also unable to agree on the merger's conditions with Bain Capital,
  
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• Bloomsbury Chief Warns of AI Threat To Publishing

  26-10-2023 17:21 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The chief executive of Bloomsbury Publishing has warned of the threat of artificial intelligence to the publishing industry, saying tech groups are already using the work of authors to train up generative AI programmes. From a report: Nigel Newton, who signed Harry Potter author JK Rowling to Bloomsbury in the 1990s, also said ministers needed to act urgently to address competition concerns between large US tech groups and the publishing industry given their increasing market dominance in sellin
  
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• JPMorgan Says JPM Coin Now Handles $1 Billion Transactions Daily

  26-10-2023 16:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  JPMorgan Chase's digital token JPM Coin now handles $1 billion worth of transactions daily and the bank plans to continue widening its usage, Global Head of Payments Takis Georgakopoulos said. From a report: "JPM Coin gets transacted on a daily basis mostly in US dollars, but we again intend to continue to expand that," Georgakopoulos said Thursday in an interview on Bloomberg Television. JPM Coin enables wholesale clients to make dollar and euro-denominated payments through a private blockchain
  
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• Inside Google's Plan To Stop Apple From Getting Serious About Search

  26-10-2023 16:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Google has worried for years that Apple would one day expand its internet search technology, and has been working on ways to prevent that from happening. From a report: For years, Google watched with increasing concern as Apple improved its search technology, not knowing whether its longtime partner and sometimes competitor would eventually build its own search engine. Those fears ratcheted up in 2021, when Google paid Apple around $18 billion to keep Google's search engine the default selection
  
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• AI Risk Must Be Treated As Seriously As Climate Crisis, Says Google DeepMind Chief

  26-10-2023 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The world must treat the risks from artificial intelligence as seriously as the climate crisis and cannot afford to delay its response, one of the technology's leading figures has warned. Speaking as the UK government prepares to host a summit on AI safety, Demis Hassabis said oversight of the industry could start with a body similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Hassabis, the British chief executive of Google's AI
  
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• VMware Releases Security Advisory for vCenter Server

  26-10-2023 14:00 via cisa.gov
  VMware released a security advisory for a vulnerability (CVE-2023-34048) affecting the VMware vCenter Server and (CVE-2023-34056) affecting [VMware Cloud Foundation]. A remote cyber actor could exploit these vulnerabilities to obtain information or take control of an affected system.
  CISA encourages users and administrators to review the VMware vCenter Server Out-of-Bounds Write Vulnerability VMSA-2023-0023 advisory and apply the necessary updates. 
  
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• Apple Releases Security Advisories for Multiple Products

  26-10-2023 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Apple has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in multiple products. A cyber threat actor could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected device.
  CISA encourages users and administrators to review the following advisories and apply the necessary updates:
  iOS 17.1 and iPadOS 17.1
  iOS 16.7.2 and iPadOS 16.7.2
  iOS 15.8 and iPadOS 15.8
  macOS Sonoma 14.1
  macOS Ventura 13.6.1
  macOS Monterey 12.7.1
  tvOS 17.1
  watchOS 10.1
  Safari 17.1
  
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• The Apple Watch's Double Tap Gesture Points At a New Way To Use Wearables

  26-10-2023 12:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Apple has introduced a completely new way to interact with the Apple Watch without ever needing to use the touchscreen. It's called Double Tap and it arrives today via the watchOS 10.1 update. The Verge reports: With a quick pinching motion, you can use it to scroll through the new smart stack of widgets in watchOS 10, pause or end timers, skip music tracks, and answer phone calls. It's the sort of feature that you might read about and scoff at -- until you're unloading groceries from your car,
  
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• Mars Has a Surprise Layer of Molten Rock Inside

  26-10-2023 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Alexandra Witze reports via Nature: A meteorite that slammed into Mars in September 2021 has rewritten what scientists know about the planet's interior. By analysing the seismic energy that vibrated through the planet after the impact, researchers have discovered a layer of molten rock that envelops Mars's liquid-metal core. The finding, reported today in two papers in Nature, means that the Martian core is smaller than previously thought. It also resolves some lingering questions about how the
  
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• Can Humans Have Babies In Space? SpaceBorn United Wants To Find Out

  26-10-2023 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: Egbert Edelbroek was acting as a sperm donor when he first wondered whether it's possible to have babies in space. Curious about the various ways that donated sperm can be used, Edelbroek, a Dutch entrepreneur, began to speculate on whether in vitro fertilization technology was possible beyond Earth -- or could even be improved by the conditions found there. Could the weightlessness of space be better than a flat laboratory petri di
  
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• Volkswagen To Stop Selling Combustion Vehicles In Norway From 2024

  26-10-2023 04:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The Norwegian Volkswagen importer Moller Mobility Group has confirmed that it will stop selling combustion vehicles in Norway from 2024. Electricdrive.com reports: The farewell to the combustion engine in Norway is only logical: already today, e-cars regularly account for more than 80 percent of new registrations in the Scandinavian country, and the government wants them to reach a full 100 per cent by 2025. "It may seem strange to celebrate the milestone by removing model icons from our portfol
  
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• GM Offers Chevy Bolt Owners $1,400 For Dealing With Software-Limited, Fire-Prone Batteries

  26-10-2023 03:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Jameson Dow reports via Electrek: As the latest step in the saga of recalled Chevy Bolts, GM is offering owners of '20-'22 Bolts early payment of $1,400 of an anticipated class action settlement in exchange for installing a piece of diagnostics software that the company says will detect whether batteries require a full replacement. [...] In June, GM announced that it would stop replacing 2020-2022 Chevy Bolt Batteries and would instead verify the integrity of the battery with software over a per
  
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• Network State Conference Announced in Amsterdam for October 30

  26-10-2023 02:55 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase and author of the Network State, has announced his first Network State Conference.This is a conference for people interested in founding, funding, and finding new communities.Topics include startup societies, network states, digital nomadism, competitive government, legalizing innovation, and building alternatives. Speakers include Glenn Greenwald, Vitalik Buterin, Anatoly Yakovenko, Garry Tan, the Winklevosses, and Tyler Cowen. See presentations by star
  
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• Amazon Alexa IFTTT Automations Are About To Stop Working

  26-10-2023 02:45 via slashdot.org
  
  IFTTT in a blog post said that Amazon is removing the service from Alexa beginning October 31st. "Once the integration is severed, users won't be able to ask Alexa to trigger IFTTT applets," reports The Verge. "Certain automations will stick around in the IFTTT app, but some will be archived on November 1st unless you take action." From the report: If your IFTTT applets use a specific phrase or question as the trigger ("Alexa, trigger..." or "Alexa, what's on my to-do list?"), that will convert
  
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• Amazon Discloses 181 Million Users In EU In First Store Transparency Report

  26-10-2023 02:02 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Amazon has more than 181 million users in the European Union and directly employs more than 150,000 people in the region, the company said on Wednesday, in its first store transparency report as required by the EU Digital Services Act (DSA). In August, the Digital Services Act (DSA) imposed new rules on content moderation, user privacy and transparency for platforms and search engines labelled as very large online platforms (VLOP), which were def
  
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• Twitter Alternative Pebble, Previously Known As T2, Is Shutting Down

  26-10-2023 01:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Pebble, the first of the would-be Twitter replacements to emerge after Elon Musk bought Twitter, is shutting down. The social media platform -- previously known as T2 to indicate a desire to build a Twitter clone -- was founded by former Twitter employees Sarah Oh and Gabor Cselle. Steven Vaughan-Nichols writes via ZDNet: Pebble was an early-stage, Twitter-like social network. Its goal was to become the "place to have the authentic conversations we've always wanted to have." Its founders, who we
  
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• Motorola Demos Smartphone That Can Wrap Around Your Wrist (Again)

  26-10-2023 00:40 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  At Lenovo Tech World '23 in Austin, Texas, yesterday, Motorola demoed a bendable, bracelet-like smartphone that can wrap around your wrist. Ars Technica reports: On stage at the event, Lexi Valasek, 312 Labs innovation strategy and product research Lead for Motorola Mobility, proudly held a prototype. The smartphone looked ordinary to start: a slab of OLED with a chassis that's a bold orange on the backside. But Valasek quickly bent the phone into an arch shape, where it stood on her hand before
  
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• Ukrainian Hackers and Intel Officers Partner Up In Apparent Hack of a Top Russian Bank

  26-10-2023 00:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Two Ukrainian hacktivist groups are claiming to have broken into Russia's largest private bank, Alfa-Bank. In a blog post last week, the hackers from groups called KibOrg and NLB shared screenshots of what appears to be an internal database belonging to Alfa-Bank, as well as personal details of several Russian individuals as "confirmation" of the breach. Within the database, the hackers say there are over 30 million records including names, birthdate
  
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