ICT news

• Tech Exec's Videos Spark Clash Over China's Work Culture

  10-05-2024 23:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Search giant Baidu fires its head of public relations after she outraged Gen Z workers. From a report [non-paywalled link]: The head of public relations at a major Chinese tech firm gained hundreds of thousands of followers seemingly overnight after posting a series of viral videos laying out her unapologetically tyrannical management style. The videos also earned her a pink slip from her employer after they set off an explosion of criticism among Gen Z Chinese fed up with the intense work cultu
  
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• India Unable To Impose Caps on Mobile Payments Market Share, Four Years On

  10-05-2024 22:40 via slashdot.org
  
  Eight years ago, a coalition of retail banks in India built a mobile payments system called the UPI. The system is interoperable, allowing users to make instant peer-to-peer transactions between them -- across all participating banks -- and to merchants at zero cost. Today, it processes more than 12 billion transactions each month -- more than all card payments combined in India -- and has become the most popular way Indians transact online. Many U.S. giants have cited UPI as an example that oth
  
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• Canadian Petition That Games Must Remain Functional At EOL

  10-05-2024 22:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Zitchas writes: The practice of having games require a connection to a publisher's server -- whether it is to check for a license or to access plug-ins and DLC -- is an increasingly common thing in computer software; and many people are concerned that at some point in the future the publisher will shut down their server, and effectively render the person who paid for the game left with something that no longer functions. This has already happened to some games and software
  Concerned citizens in
  
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• Tornadoes Are Coming in Bunches. Scientists Are Trying To Figure Out Why.

  10-05-2024 21:24 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The number of tornadoes so far in the United States this year is just above average. But their distribution is changing. From a report: Tornadoes tend to travel in packs these days, often with a dozen or more forming in the same region on the same day. On the worst days, hundreds can form at once. More than a dozen tornadoes were reported on both Monday and Tuesday this week across the Great Plains and the Midwest, according to the Storm Prediction Center run by the National Oceanic and Atmosphe
  
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• Apple Might Bring AI Transcription To Voice Memos and Notes

  10-05-2024 20:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple's plans for AI on the iPhone could bring real-time transcription to its Voice Memos and Notes apps, according to a report from AppleInsider. The Verge: The new feature is expected to arrive with iOS 18 and will reportedly let you see a running transcription of your audio recordings in either app. While Notes currently doesn't let you record audio, a separate rumor from AppleInsider suggests Apple plans on adding this capability in iOS 18 as well. Audio transcription in either app sounds es
  
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• CEO of World's Biggest Ad Firm Targeted By Deepfake Scam

  10-05-2024 20:03 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The head of the world's biggest advertising group was the target of an elaborate deepfake scam that involved an AI voice clone. From a report: The CEO of WPP, Mark Read, detailed the attempted fraud in a recent email to leadership, warning others at the company to look out for calls claiming to be from top executives. Fraudsters created a WhatsApp account with a publicly available image of Read and used it to set up a Microsoft Teams meeting that appeared to be with him and another senior WPP ex
  
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• EA Weighs Putting In-game Ads in AAA Games

  10-05-2024 19:20 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed the company is considering putting ads in traditional AAA games, which players purchase for around $70 apiece. During EA's latest earnings call, Wilson said, "Advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us," and that teams are looking at how to thoughtfully implement ads within game experiences.
  In-game advertising is not new, with the first recorded instance dating back to 1978. As the gaming industry is expected to grow to
  
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• Japan is Fighting Against the Entire Investing World in the Currency Market

  10-05-2024 18:40 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Japan's Ministry of Finance spent nearly $50 billion on April 29 and May 1 trying to prop up the value of the currency by selling US dollars and buying yen. Who was on the other side of this trade? Data from Deutsche Bank's foreign exchange trading platform suggests: literally everyone. "Nearly all client categories saw record USD/JPY buying during the assumed intervention days," writes George Saravelos, global head of FX research at the German bank, in a not
  
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• UK Economy Emerges From Recession

  10-05-2024 18:02 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The U.K. economy has emerged from recession as gross domestic product rose 0.6% in the first quarter, official figures showed Friday, beating expectations. From a report: Economists polled by Reuters had forecast growth of 0.4% on the previous three months of the year. The U.K. entered a shallow recession in the second half of 2023, as persistent inflation continued to hurt the economy.
  Although there is no official definition of a recession, two straight quarters of negative growth is widely co
  
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• FBI Working Towards Nabbing Scattered Spider Hackers, Official Says

  10-05-2024 17:23 via it.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. FBI is working towards charging hackers from the aggressive Scattered Spider criminal gang who are largely based in the U.S. and western countries and have breached dozens of American organisations, a senior official said. From a report: The young hackers grabbed headlines last year when they broke into the systems of casino-operators MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment locking up the companies' systems and demanding hefty ransom payments. From health and telecom compani
  
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• Will Chatbots Eat India's IT Industry?

  10-05-2024 16:42 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Economist: What is the ideal job to outsource to AI? Today's AIs, in particular the Chatgpt-like generative sort, have a leaky memory, cannot handle physical objects and are worse than humans at interacting with humans. Where they excel is in manipulating numbers and symbols, especially within well-defined tasks such as writing bits of computer code. This happens to be the forte of giant existing outsourcing businesses -- India's information-technology companies. Seven of them, including the two
  
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• Streaming is Cable Now

  10-05-2024 16:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max are teaming up for a new bundle this summer, Netflix is focused on the WWE and celebrity boxing, Disney Plus is getting ESPN, and Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Max could get a price hike. A familiar refrain emerged around all this news: streaming is becoming cable TV all over again and getting crummier in the process.
  And it's true! When streaming first emerged, it was a beautiful alternative to piracy, which was very co
  
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• The Most Detailed 3D Reconstruction of Human Brain Tissue

  10-05-2024 15:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Interesting Engineering: Imagine exploring the intricate world within a single cubic millimeter of human brain tissue. It might seem insignificant, but within that tiny space lies a universe of complexity -- 57,000 individual cells, 230 millimeters of blood vessels, and a staggering 150 million synapses, the junctions where neurons communicate. All this information translates to a mind-boggling 1,400 terabytes of data. That's the kind of groundbreaking ac
  
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• CISA and Partners Release Advisory on Black Basta Ransomware

  10-05-2024 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Today, CISA, in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) released joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) #StopRansomware: Black Basta to provide cybersecurity defenders tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and indicators of compromise (IOCs) used by known Black Basta ransomware affiliates and identified through FBI investigations and third-party reporting.
  
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• NASA's Proposed Plasma Rocket Would Get Us to Mars in 2 Months

  10-05-2024 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Last week, NASA announced it is working with a technology development company on a new propulsion system that could transport humans to Mars in only two months -- down from the current nine month journey required to reach the Red Planet. Gizmodo reports: NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program recently selected six promising projects for additional funding and development, allowing them to graduate to the second stage of development. The new "science fiction-like concepts," as describ
  
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• Apple Apologizes For Tone-Deaf Ad That Crushed Human Creativity To Make an iPad

  10-05-2024 06:50 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple has apologized for its tone-deaf "Crush!" ad that sparked a furious backlash with artists, musicians and other creators. AdAge reports that Apple said the video "missed the mark" and has scrapped plans to run the cutesy-turned-cringey commercial on TV. From a report: It's clear that Apple intended for the ad to serve as a metaphor for all the myriad creative tools one has when they throw down $1,000 or more for a new iPad Pro. Run during Tuesday's event, the video shows a series of musical
  
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• Chemicals In Car Interiors May Cause Cancer, and They're Required By US Law

  10-05-2024 05:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: Tens of millions of Americans each day breathe in carcinogenic chemicals that are woven into the interiors of their cars, a new study has found. While opening a window can help reduce the risk, only reforms can keep people safe, researchers wrote in a study in Environmental Science and Technology. Approximately 124 million Americans commute each day, spending an average of an hour in their cars. By federal law, the interior of these vehicles are
  
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• Microsoft Is Launching a Mobile Game Store

  10-05-2024 03:00 via games.slashdot.org
  
  During a Bloomberg event today, Xbox president Sarah Bond said the company plans to launch a mobile gaming store to rival Apple and Google. "According to Bond, the as-yet-unnamed store will launch in July on web browsers, rather than a designated app, with Microsoft's recently-acquired Candy Crush Saga serving as a day-one tentpole franchise," reports GeekWire. From the report: Microsoft's entry into the mobile gaming market -- the most lucrative arm of the games industry -- has been anticipated
  
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• Neuralink's First Implant Partly Detached From Patient's Brain

  10-05-2024 01:20 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Ancient Slashdot reader jd shares a report from The Guardian: Neuralink's first attempt at implanting its chip in a human being's skull hit an unexpected setback after the device began to detach from the patient's brain, the company revealed on Wednesday. The patient, Noland Arbaugh, underwent surgery in February to attach a Neuralink chip to his brain, but the device's functionality began to decrease within the month after his implant. Some of the device's threads, which connect the miniature c
  
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• FDA Recalls Defective iOS App That Injured Over 200 Insulin Pump Users

  10-05-2024 00:40 via slashdot.org
  
  Jess Weatherbed reports via The Verge: At least 224 people with diabetes have reported injuries linked to a defective iOS app that caused their insulin pumps to shut down prematurely, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On Wednesday, the agency announced that California-based medical device manufacturer Tandem Diabetes Care has issued a recall for version 2.7 of the iOS t:connect mobile app, which is used in conjunction with the company's t:slim X2 insulin pump. Specifically,
  
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• T-Mobile, Verizon In Talks To Buy Parts of US Cellular

  10-05-2024 00:00 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  T-Mobile and Verizon are in talks to buy parts of U.S. Ceullar in separate transactions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Reuters reports: T-Mobile is closing in on a deal to buy a chunk of U.S. Cellular for more than $2 billion, taking over some operations and wireless spectrum licenses, the report said citing people familiar with the matter. Verizon's talks with the regional carrier is expected to take longer and might not result in an agreement, the report added.Read more of this
  
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