ICT news

• Intel Stock Drops Toward 50-Year Low Amid Mass Layoffs

  02-08-2024 23:30 via slashdot.org
  
  Intel's stock plunged as much as 30% on Friday after the company issued disappointing guidance and announced plans for a substantial workforce reduction. According to Bloomberg, it was the company's biggest single-day drop since at least 1982. Markets Insider reports: The decline comes after the software company announced quarterly revenue of $12.83 billion, down 1% from the previous year and missing analyst expectations of $12.94 billion, according to LSEG estimates. The company also lowered it
  
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• Edge-Lit LCD TV Durability Concerns Emerge in New Test

  02-08-2024 22:50 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  A recent investigation by consumer electronics testing site RTINGs has raised concerns about the long-term durability of edge-lit LCD-LED televisions, a popular choice among consumers for their slim profiles and aesthetic appeal. The study, which simulated approximately six years of use through 10,000 hours of extreme testing on dozens of TVs, revealed a troubling trend of uniformity issues in edge-lit models, particularly affecting Samsung and LG products.
  According to RTINGs' findings, 64% of
  
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• Intel Will Give Two Years of Additional Warranty on Crash-Prone 13th and 14th Gen CPUs

  02-08-2024 22:10 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  After months of back and forth, Intel has finally agreed to extend the warranty on all affected 13th- and 14th-generation desktop CPUs by an additional two years. This extension increases the warranty period for new boxed Intel CPUs from three to five years. For CPUs pre-installed in systems, Intel directs users to contact their PC's manufacturer for support, maintaining its established channels for warranty claims. The Verge adds: Intel has said that a primary cause of the instability issues fo
  
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• Secret Service's Tech Issues Helped Shooter Go Undetected At Trump Rally

  02-08-2024 21:30 via politics.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The technology flaws of the U.S. Secret Service helped the gunman who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month evade detection. An officer broadcast "long gun!" over the local law enforcement radio system, according to congressional testimony from the Secret Service this week, the New York Times reported. The radio message should have travelled to a command center shared between local police an
  
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• Google Hires Character.AI Cofounders and Licenses Its Models

  02-08-2024 20:51 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Google has agreed to pay a licensing fee [non-paywalled link] to chatbot maker Character.AI for its models and will hire its cofounders and many of its researchers, Character's leaders told staff on Friday. The leaders told Character staff that investors would be bought out at a valuation of about $88 per share, the leaders said in a meeting. That's about 2.5 times the value of shares in Character's 2023 Series A, which valued the company at $1 billion, they
  
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• The Best ROM Hack Website is Shutting Down After Nearly 20 Years

  02-08-2024 20:10 via games.slashdot.org
  
  ROMhacking.net, a prominent platform for fan translations and modifications of classic games, is shutting down after nearly two decades of operation. The site's administrator, who goes by the name Nightcrawler, said the website will remain accessible in a read-only format, but all new submissions have been halted and the site's extensive database has been transferred to the Internet Archive for preservation.
  ROMhacking.net has long served as a crucial resource for gaming enthusiasts, according t
  
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• GameStop Shuts Down Game Informer

  02-08-2024 19:28 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Game Informer, the longest-running gaming magazine in the U.S., is officially dead and GameStop killed it. Kotaku: It began publishing in 1991 and has been one of the last remaining physical gaming magazines in the world, with cover stories that continued to share deep dives and exclusive interviews on the biggest games coming out, from Final Fantasy: VII Rebirth to Star Wars Outlaws. No more.
  Staff at the magazine, which also publishes a website, weekly podcast, and online video documentaries a
  
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• UK Government Shelves $1.66 Billion Tech and AI Plans

  02-08-2024 18:52 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The new Labour government has shelved $1.66 bn of funding promised by the Conservatives for tech and Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects, the BBC has learned. It includes $1 bn for the creation of an exascale supercomputer at Edinburgh University and a further $640m for AI Research Resource, which funds computing power for AI. Both funds were unveiled less than 12 months ago.
  The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said the money was pr
  
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• US Court Blocks Biden Administration Net Neutrality Rules

  02-08-2024 18:05 via news.slashdot.org
  
  schwit1 writes: A U.S. appeals court on Thursday blocked the Federal Communications Commission's reinstatement of landmark net neutrality rules, saying broadband providers are likely to succeed in a legal challenge. The agency voted in April along party lines to reassume regulatory oversight of broadband internet and reinstate open internet rules adopted in 2015 that were rescinded under then-President Donald Trump.
  The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which had temporarily delayed the rules
  
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• Rediff, Once an Internet Pioneer in India, Sells Majority Stake for $3M

  02-08-2024 17:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Payments infrastructure firm Infibeam Avenues has acquired a majority 54% stake in Rediff.com for up to $3 million, a dramatic twist of fate for the 28-year-old business that was the first Indian internet firm to list on Nasdaq back in the year 2000.
  Founded in 1996, Rediff rode the initial dot-com wave to become one of India's leading web portals, offering email, news, and e-commerce services. At its peak, Rediff was valued at over $600 million on the Nasdaq
  
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• Elliott Says Nvidia is in a 'Bubble' and AI is 'Overhyped'

  02-08-2024 16:51 via slashdot.org
  
  Hedge fund Elliott Management has told investors that Nvidia is in a "bubble," and the AI technology driving the chipmaking giant's share price is "overhyped." From a report: The Florida-based firm, which manages about $70bn in assets, said in a recent letter to clients seen by the Financial Times that the megacap technology stocks, particularly Nvidia, were in "bubble land." [non-paywalled link] It added that it was "sceptical" that Big Tech companies would keep buying the chipmaker's graphics
  
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• Antarctic Temperatures Rise 10C Above Average in Near Record Heatwave

  02-08-2024 16:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Ground temperatures across great swathes of the ice sheets of Antarctica have soared an average of 10C above normal over the past month, in what has been described as a near record heatwave. From a report: While temperatures remain below zero on the polar land mass, which is shrouded in darkness at this time of year, the depths of southern hemisphere winter, temperatures have reportedly reached 28C above expectations on some days. The globe has experienced 12 months of record warmth, with temper
  
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• Google Gemini 1.5 Pro Leaps Ahead In AI Race, Challenging GPT-4o

  02-08-2024 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: Google launched its latest artificial intelligence powerhouse, Gemini 1.5 Pro, today, making the experimental "version 0801" available for early testing and feedback through Google AI Studio and the Gemini API. This release marks a major leap forward in the company's AI capabilities and has already sent shockwaves through the tech community. The new model has quickly claimed the top spot on the prestigious LMSYS Chatbot Arena leaderboard (bui
  
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• China's Wind and Solar Energy Surpass Coal In Historic First

  02-08-2024 12:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  According to China's National Energy Administration (NEA), wind and solar energy have collectively eclipsed coal in capacity for the first time ever. By 2026, analysts forecast solar power alone will surpass coal as the country's primary energy source, with a cumulative capacity exceeding 1.38 terawatts (TW) -- 150 gigawatts (GW) more than coal. Oil Pricereports: This shift stems from a growing emphasis on cleaner energy sources and a move away from fossil fuels for the nation. Despite coal's ea
  
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• Fully-Automatic Robot Dentist Performs World's First Human Procedure

  02-08-2024 09:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  For the first time, an AI-controlled autonomous robot performed an entire dental procedure on a human patient, completing the task eight times faster than a human dentist could. New Atlas reports: The system, built by Boston company Perceptive, uses a hand-held 3D volumetric scanner, which builds a detailed 3D model of the mouth, including the teeth, gums and even nerves under the tooth surface, using optical coherence tomography, or OCT. This cuts harmful X-Ray radiation out of the process, as
  
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• More Evidence Links Ultraprocessed Foods To Dementia

  02-08-2024 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: People who regularly eat processed red meat, like hot dogs, bacon, sausage, salami and bologna, have a greater risk of developing dementia later in life. That was the conclusion of preliminary research presented this week at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference. The study tracked more than 130,000 adults in the United States for up to 43 years. During that period, 11,173 people developed dementia. Those who consumed abo
  
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• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Called Out For 'Worker Surveillance'

  02-08-2024 03:30 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft Dynamics 365's "field service management" tools enable employers to monitor mobile workers via smartphone apps -- "allegedly to the detriment of their autonomy and dignity," reports The Register. From the report: According to a probe by Cracked Labs - an Austrian nonprofit research group -- the software is part of a broader set of applications that disempowers workers through algorithmic management. The case study [PDF] summarizes how employers in Europe actually use software and smart
  
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• Bungie CEO Faces Backlash After Announcing 220 Employees Will Be Laid Off

  02-08-2024 02:50 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Rob Thubron reports via TechSpot: It's a sad case of another day, another round of mass layoffs at a game studio. On this occasion, Destiny developer Bungie has announced it is letting go of 220 employees, or 17% of its workforce. CEO Pete Parsons said the eliminations were due to "financial challenges," which isn't going down well, especially after it was discovered he may have spent over $2.4 million on classic cars after Sony acquired the company, and continued buying them even after the prev
  
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• US Progressives Push For Nvidia Antitrust Investigation

  02-08-2024 02:10 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Progressive groups and Senator Elizabeth Warren are urging the Department of Justice to investigate Nvidia for potential antitrust violations due to its dominant position in the AI chip market. The groups criticize Nvidia's bundling of software and hardware, claiming it stifles innovation and locks in customers. Reuters reports: Demand Progress and nine other groups wrote a letter (PDF) this week, opens new tab urging Department of Justice antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter to probe business practi
  
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• Broken Fisker Ocean Lures In Buyer With Its $10,000 Price Tag

  02-08-2024 01:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Longtime Slashdot reader ArchieBunker shares a report from Jalopnik: YouTube's Rich Rebuilds has been taking electric vehicles apart to see what makes them tick for years, so when a bargain-priced Fisker Ocean came on his radar, he had to buy it. Even if it was totally bricked. This car was purchased new for over $70,000, had several thousand dollars of paint protection and tint applied, was driven for 300 miles, and traded in. It sat on the dealer lot for long enough for the battery to die, and
  
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• San Francisco Supervisors Approve Ban on Rent-Setting Software

  02-08-2024 00:50 via news.slashdot.org
  
  San Francisco's Board of Supervisors has approved a first-in-the-nation ordinance banning landlords from using certain software and algorithms to set rents. The measure, proposed by Board President Aaron Peskin, passed with a 10-0 vote and targets companies like RealPage and Yardi.
  The ordinance prohibits the sale or use of "algorithmic devices" that analyze non-public competitor data to recommend rents or occupancy levels for residential units in San Francisco. Violators could face civil penalt
  
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• 'Venmo and Zelle May Not Be Free For Much Longer'

  02-08-2024 00:10 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes an op-ed, written by former hedge fund manager Marc Rubinstein: With new technologies come new rules governing how they are used. Often, policy is framed via analogy: Are social media platforms publishers or are they town squares? Are instant messages water-cooler chatter or are they formal communication? So it is with peer-to-peer electronic payments. Last week a US Senate committee joined the debate over whether they're analogous to cash or to bank-payment channels.
  
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