ICT news

• Royal Navy Successfully Tests Quantum-Sensing Technology

  01-11-2024 23:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Royal Navy: The Royal Navy has successfully demonstrated the capabilities of ground-breaking cold atom technology. P2000 vessel HMS Pursuer hosted the trial, which unlocks new possibilities in areas such as covert monitoring, which require precise signals for accurate positioning, navigation and timing. The Office of the Chief of Technology Officer (OCTO) for the RN worked with UK quantum technology company Aquark Technologies. The trial involved the
  
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• Disney Forms Dedicated AI, XR Group To Coordinate Company-Wide Adoption

  01-11-2024 23:10 via slashdot.org
  
  Disney's recently formed Office of Technology Enablement will coordinate the company's exploration, adoption and use of artificial intelligence, AR and VR tech. Engadget reports: It has tapped Jamie Voris, previously the CTO of its Studios Technology division, to oversee the effort. Before joining Disney in 2010, Voris was the chief technology officer at the National Football League. More recently, he led the development of the company's Apple Vision Pro app. Voris will report to Alan Bergman, t
  
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• US Plans $825 Million Investment For New York Semiconductor R&D Facility

  01-11-2024 22:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The Biden administration is investing $825 million in a new semiconductor research and development facility in Albany, New York. Reuters reports: The New York facility will be expected to drive innovation in EUV technology, a complex process necessary to make semiconductors, the U.S. Department of Commerce and Natcast, operator of the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NTSC) said. The launch of the facility "represents a key milestone in ensuring the United States remains a global leader
  
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• Rivian's Chief Software Officer Says In-Car Buttons Are 'An Anomaly'

  01-11-2024 21:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The trend of big touchscreens in cars has left many yearning for the not-so-distant days when most user interactions happened with physical buttons. But Rivian's chief software officer Wassym Bensaid believes using buttons in a car is an "anomaly." "It's a bug. It's not a feature," Bensaid said Wednesday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. "Ideally, you would want to interact with your car through voice. The problem today is that most voice assistants
  
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• Kremlin Says It Hopes $20.6 Decillion Fine Got Google's Attention

  01-11-2024 20:22 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An enormous fine levied by a Russian court on Google caught the attention of the Kremlin -- which hopes Google will notice in turn. From a report: President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, commented on the sum on Thursday. It came after a court demanded payment equivalent of $20.6 decillion -- an almost incomprehensible figure that exceeds the world's GDP. The sum came from a penalty for suspending the YouTube accounts of various Russian outlets. It has been regularly doubling for yea
  
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• Intel's Future Laptops Will Have Memory Sticks Again

  01-11-2024 19:42 via slashdot.org
  
  Intel is rolling back one of the biggest changes to its laptop chips in years. The Verge: Remember how this fall's Lunar Lake laptops ditched the idea of memory sticks, putting a fixed amount of RAM on the processor package instead? Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger now says that turned out to be a financial mistake, and Intel won't do it again. Oh, and he may be axing desktop GPUs, too. Future Intel generations of chips, including Panther Lake and Nova Lake, won't have baked-on memory. "It's not a good w
  
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• More Than 60% of CEOs Are 'Digitally Illiterate', According To Their Own Employees

  01-11-2024 19:05 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Corporate resistance to AI tools is costing employees six hours per week in manual tasks that could be automated, according to research by recruitment firm SThree. Sixty-three percent of workers blame management's "digital illiteracy" for slow AI adoption, despite major companies rushing to tout AI initiatives since ChatGPT's launch. A 2023 tech.io study found two-thirds of business leaders barely use AI tools due to limited understanding.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Apple is Buying 20% of Its iPhone Satellite Services Partner

  01-11-2024 18:22 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple is taking a 20 percent stake in its iPhone satellite connectivity partner GlobalStar -- a stake worth $400 million -- as part of an expansion of its deal with the company. From a report: GlobalStar will also receive a prepayment of $1.1 billion from Apple that is intended to improve satellite infrastructure.
  Apple relies on GlobalStar's satellites to enable to send emergency text messages, iMessage reactions, and more through the skies in areas with no cell signal. GlobalStar disclosed the
  
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• Tech Giants Are Set To Spend $200 Billion This Year Chasing AI

  01-11-2024 17:41 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Three months ago, Wall Street punished the world's largest technology firms for spending enormous amounts to develop artificial intelligence, only to deliver results that failed to justify the costs. Silicon Valley's response this quarter? Plans to invest even more. Bloomberg: The capital expenditures of the four largest internet and software companies -- Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet -- are set to total well over $200 billion this year, a record sum for the profligate collective.
  Executi
  
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• Apple Acquires Photo Editing App Maker Pixelmator

  01-11-2024 17:01 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple has reached an agreement to acquire Pixelmator, the maker of popular photo and image editing apps Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator. Financial terms of the deal wasn't disclosed.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Inside a Firewall Vendor's 5-Year War With the Chinese Hackers Hijacking Its Devices

  01-11-2024 16:20 via it.slashdot.org
  
  British cybersecurity firm Sophos revealed this week that it waged a five-year battle against Chinese hackers who repeatedly targeted its firewall products to breach organizations worldwide, including nuclear facilities, military sites and critical infrastructure. The company told Wired that it traced the attacks to researchers in Chengdu, China, linked to Sichuan Silence Information Technology and the University of Electronic Science and Technology.
  Sophos planted surveillance code on its own d
  
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• Indonesia Bans Google Pixel Phones Over Local Rules

  01-11-2024 15:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Indonesia has banned sales of Google Pixel smartphones for failing to meet a 40% local content requirement, days after blocking Apple's iPhone 16 in Southeast Asia's biggest phone market. Google must obtain local content certification before resuming sales in Indonesia, Industry Ministry spokesman Febri Hendri Antoni Arief said. The move follows last week's iPhone 16 ban after Apple failed to fulfill a $95 million investment pledge.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Australian Mathematicians Debunk 'Infinite Monkey Theorem'

  01-11-2024 15:01 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Australian mathematicians have proven the famous "infinite monkey theorem" impossible within the universe's lifespan. The theorem suggests monkeys typing randomly would eventually produce Shakespeare's complete works. Scientists Stephen Woodcock and Jay Falletta calculated that even 200,000 chimpanzees typing one character per second until the universe's heat death would fail to reproduce Shakespeare's writings.
  A single chimp has only a 5% chance of typing "bananas" in its lifetime, with more c
  
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• US Experts Say Headlights Aren't Bright Enough

  01-11-2024 14:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Complaints about the brightness of modern headlights have become commonplace. On X, thousands of users have tweeted about headlights being too bright. The subreddit r/fuckyourheadlights has over 35,000 members who post blurry photos of offending high beams and LED headlights. Outlets like the New York Times and NBC News have written about the risks of headlight glare. Advocacy groups have called for bans on LED headlights. And the UK governm
  
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• Pixel Phones Are Getting an Actual Weather App In 2024

  01-11-2024 11:00 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  Google is rolling out a dedicated weather app on Pixel phones (model 6 and newer with Android 15) that integrates AI-generated summaries and customizable widgets. Ars Technica reports: There's a prominent "AI generated weather report" on top of the weather stack, which is a combination of summary and familiarity. "Cold and rainy day, bring your umbrella and hold onto your hat!" is Google's example; I can't provide another one, because an update to "Gemini Nano" is pending. You can see weather ra
  
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• Uranus' Moon Miranda May Have an Ocean Beneath Its Surface, Study Finds

  01-11-2024 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  A new study suggests Uranus' moon Miranda may harbor a vast subsurface ocean, challenging previous assumptions about its frozen state and positioning it as a potential ocean world alongside other icy moons. Phys.Org reports: Among the moons in the solar system, Miranda stands out. The few images Voyager 2 captured in 1986 show Miranda's southern hemisphere (the only part we've seen) is a Frankenstein-like hodgepodge of grooved terrain quartered off by rough scarps and cratered areas, like square
  
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• Sellafield Cleanup Cost Rises To $175 Billion Amid Tensions With Treasury

  01-11-2024 04:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The cost of cleaning up Sellafield is expected to spiral to 136 billion pounds ($175 billion USD) and Europe's biggest nuclear waste dump cannot show how it offers taxpayers value for money, the public spending watchdog has said. Projects to fix buildings containing hazardous and radioactive material at the state-owned site on the Cumbrian coast are running years late and over budget. Sellafield's spending is so vast -- with costs of more th
  
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• US Army Should Ditch Tanks For AI Drones, Says Eric Schmidt

  01-11-2024 01:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Former Google chief Eric Schmidt thinks the US Army should expunge "useless" tanks and replace them with AI-powered drones instead. From a report: Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative in Saudi Arabia this week, he said: "I read somewhere that the US had thousands and thousands of tanks stored somewhere," adding, "Give them away. Buy a drone instead."
  The former Google supremo's argument is that recent conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine, have demonstrated how "a $5,000 drone can destro
  
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• Burning Man Is Desperate For Cash

  01-11-2024 01:01 via news.slashdot.org
  
  AzWa Snowbird writes: Burning Man is urgently calling for millions more in donations amid faltering ticket sales and staff layoffs. The nonprofit's CEO, Marian Goodell, primarily blamed flagging higher-priced ticket sales and increased operating costs since the pandemic.
  The festival has sold a tier of higher-priced tickets since at least 2016. In 2023, a limited number of more expensive advance tickets were available between Feb. 1 and Feb. 3, with 1,000 tickets costing $2,750 each and 3,000 co
  
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• Android 16 Will Launch Earlier Than Usual

  01-11-2024 00:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google is advancing the release timeline for Android 16, shifting it to the second quarter of 2025 to better align with new device launches and accelerate access to its latest AI and machine learning resources. It should also "enable app creators and phone companies to prepare their products for the new software more quickly," reports CNET. From the report: [I]n a big-picture sense, the change could help facilitate a new wave of apps with more AI integration, considering developers will get acce
  
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