ICT news

• Putin Orders Russian Government and Top Bank To Develop AI Cooperation With China

  02-01-2025 23:20 via slashdot.org
  
  President Vladimir Putin has directed Russia's government and the country's biggest bank, Sberbank, to strengthen AI cooperation with China, aiming to overcome Western sanctions and challenge U.S. dominance in AI innovation. Reuters reports: Putin's instructions were published on the Kremlin's website on Wednesday, three weeks after he announced that Russia would team up with BRICS partners and other countries to develop AI. He told the government and Sberbank, which is spearheading Russia's AI
  
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• Siri 'Unintentionally' Recorded Private Convos; Apple Agrees To Pay $95 Million

  02-01-2025 22:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Apple has agreed (PDF) to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that its voice assistant Siri routinely recorded private conversations that were then sold to third parties for targeted ads. In the proposed class-action settlement (PDF) -- which comes after five years of litigation -- Apple admitted to no wrongdoing. Instead, the settlement refers to "unintentional" Siri activations that occurred after the "Hey, Siri" feature was intro
  
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• US Appeals Court Blocks Biden Administration Effort To Restore Net Neutrality Rules

  02-01-2025 21:07 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday the Federal Communications Commission did not have legal authority to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules. From a report: The decision is a blow to the outgoing Biden administration that had made restoring the open internet rules a priority. President Joe Biden signed a 2021 executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate the rules.
  A three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the FCC lacked authority to reinstate
  
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• Morgan Stanley Latest Major US Bank To Desert Global Climate Alliance

  02-01-2025 19:50 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Morgan Stanley withdrew from the UN-backed Net-Zero Banking Alliance on Thursday, becoming the fifth major U.S. bank to abandon the climate coalition in recent weeks. The departure follows similar moves by Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo.
  While maintaining its commitment to net-zero goals and 2030 emissions targets, Morgan Stanley joins a broader retreat from environmental initiatives by financial institutions. The bank's exit from the alliance, established in 2021 to r
  
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• Great Whales Can Live a Lot Longer Than We Thought - If We Leave Them Alone

  02-01-2025 19:10 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Scientists have discovered that great whales can live well beyond previously estimated lifespans, according to research published in Science Advances. The study found that southern right whales can survive past 130 years, while their heavily hunted northern counterparts rarely live beyond 47 years.
  The findings support earlier evidence from Arctic bowhead whales, which can reach 200 years old. Scientists determined whale ages by analyzing earplugs from specimens caught by Japanese whalers in the
  
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• UK Develops Quantum Clock To Cut Military GPS Dependence

  02-01-2025 18:33 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Britain's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory has developed a quantum atomic clock that will lose less than one second over billions of years, the Ministry of Defence announced on Thursday.
  The UK-built device aims to reduce military reliance on GPS technology, which can be disrupted by adversaries. It will be deployable in military operations within five years, supporting navigation systems, encrypted communications, and advanced weapons systems. The $34.6 million project involves partner
  
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• US Considers Potential Rules To Restrict or Bar Chinese Drones

  02-01-2025 17:42 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday it is considering new rules that would impose restrictions on Chinese drones that would restrict or ban them in the United States citing national security concerns. From a report: The department said it was seeking public comments by March 4 on potential rules to safeguard the supply chain for drones, saying threats from China and Russia "may offer our adversaries the ability to remotely access and manipulate these devices, exposing sensitive U.S. da
  
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• Babies and the Macroeconomy

  02-01-2025 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Abstract of a paper [PDF] published on National Bureau of Economic Research: Fertility levels have greatly decreased in virtually every nation in the world, but the timing of the decline has differed even among developed countries. In Europe, Asia, and North America, total fertility rates of some nations dipped below the magic replacement figure of 2.1 as early as the 1970s. But in other nations, fertility rates remained substantial until the 1990s but plummeted subsequently.
  This paper addresse
  
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• Nearly All New Cars Sold in Norway Were Electric in 2024

  02-01-2025 16:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Electric vehicles dominated Norway's new car sales in 2024, capturing 88.9% market share versus 82.4% in 2023, the Norwegian Road Federation said. Tesla led sales, followed by Volkswagen and Toyota, as the Nordic nation approaches its 2025 goal of selling only zero-emission vehicles.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Samsung, Asus, MSI Unveil First 27-inch 4K OLED 240Hz Gaming Monitors

  02-01-2025 15:41 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Leading monitor manufacturers Asus, Samsung, and MSI unveiled the world's first 27-inch 4K OLED gaming monitors with 240Hz refresh rates, all featuring Samsung Display's fourth-generation QD-OLED panel technology.
  Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27UCDM and MSI MPG 272URX QD-OLED models include DisplayPort 2.1a support, enabling 4K resolution at 240Hz without compression. Both offer DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification and three-year burn-in protection warranties. Samsung's Odyssey OLED G8 specification
  
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• LA County Sheriff's Computer Dispatch System Crashes on New Year's Eve

  02-01-2025 15:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Bruce66423 writes: A few hours before the ball dropped on New Year's Eve, the computer dispatch system for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department crashed, rendering all patrol car computers nearly useless and forcing deputies to handle all calls by radio, according to officials and sources in the department. Department leaders first learned of the problem around 8 p.m., when deputies at several sheriff's stations began having trouble logging onto their patrol car computers, officials told T
  
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• Boring Cities Are Bad for Your Health

  02-01-2025 14:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Studies using new brain-mapping and wearable devices have shown that unstimulating urban architecture can harm residents' health, leading to increased rates of depression, cancer and diabetes. Research projects across Europe and North America, including the EU-funded eMOTIONAL Cities project and studies at the University of Waterloo's Urban Realities Laboratory, are measuring people's physiological responses to their surroundings. The findings are pushing architects and city planners to prioriti
  
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• Apple Offers iPhone Discounts in China as Competition Intensifies

  02-01-2025 11:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple is offering rare discounts of up to 500 yuan ($68.50) on its latest iPhone models in China, as the U.S. tech giant moves to defend its market share against rising competition from domestic rivals like Huawei. From a report: The four-day promotion, running from Jan. 4-7, applies to several iPhone models when purchased using specific payment methods, according to its website.
  The flagship iPhone 16 Pro with a starting price of 7,999 yuan and the iPhone 16 Pro Max with a starting price of 9,9
  
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• Number of US Venture Capital Firms Falls as Cash Flows To Tech's Top Investors

  02-01-2025 08:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The number of active venture capital investors, firms that invest in startups, has dropped more than a quarter from a peak in 2021 [non-paywalled source], as risk-averse financial institutions focus their money on the biggest firms in Silicon Valley. From a report: The tally of VCs investing in US-headquartered companies dropped to 6,175 in 2024 -- meaning more than 2,000 have fallen dormant since a peak of 8,315 in 2021, according to data provider PitchBook.
  The trend has concentrated power amo
  
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• Exercise May Be the 'Most Potent Medical Intervention Ever Known'

  02-01-2025 06:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Exercise is the most potent medical intervention known, according to Stanford University researchers who mapped its molecular effects across body tissues. In a study examining sedentary and exercising rats over eight weeks, scientists found comprehensive changes in every tissue examined, from fat cells to mitochondria, with exercise often reversing disease-related molecular changes. The findings explain how exercise reduces heart disease and cancer risks by 50%.Read more of this story at Slashdo
  
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• Scientists Pin Down the Origins of a Fast Radio Burst

  02-01-2025 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  MIT scientists have pinpointed the origin of a fast radio burst (FRB) to within 10,000 kilometers of a neutron star, settling a long-standing debate about these cosmic phenomena. Using a novel technique analyzing signal scintillation, researchers determined that FRB 20221022A, detected in 2022 from a galaxy 200 million light-years away, emerged from the star's turbulent magnetosphere rather than from a distant shockwave.
  The findings, published in Nature, provide the first conclusive evidence th
  
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• SvarDOS: DR-DOS is Reborn as an Open Source OS

  02-01-2025 02:55 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  SvarDOS, a compact open-source operating system derived from DR-DOS, has switched to using the EDRDOS kernel, marking a shift from its FreeDOS distribution roots. The change allows the operating system to fit on a single 1.4MB floppy disk while offering a network-capable package manager that can fetch from a repository of over 400 packages.
  Unlike its rival FreeDOS, SvarDOS can run Microsoft Windows 3.1 natively, though the capability currently requires additional configuration. The system maint
  
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• People Are Playing a New DOOM-Themed CAPTCHA

  02-01-2025 00:59 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader writes: Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel, a frontend-as-a-service product, just used the company's AI site builder to come up with a new twist on CAPTCHAs, one that invites users to play the classic single-player game DOOM and killing at least three monsters. You can check it out here.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• How AI is Unlocking Ancient Texts

  02-01-2025 00:00 via slashdot.org
  
  AI is unlocking ancient texts previously thought unreadable, potentially revolutionizing historical research, according to a Nature article. Neural networks have successfully decoded burned Roman scrolls from Herculaneum, deciphered ancient Chinese oracle bones, and translated vast Korean royal archives.
  In a breakthrough achievement, researchers used AI to reveal 16 columns of Greek philosophical text from a charred Herculaneum scroll that had been unreadable for 2,000 years. The technology cou
  
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