ICT news

• Final Fantasy iOS Game Shuts Down Over Unfixable Bug

  14-02-2025 23:40 via it.slashdot.org
  
  The Verge's Jay Peters reports: Square Enix has shut down the iOS version of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and removed it from the App Store following an unfixable bug that blocked people from accessing content they had paid for. [...] The company says that if you made in-app purchases in January 2024 or later, you're eligible to request a refund by contacting Apple Support. Square Enix says that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles will continue to be supported on other platforms. The game is al
  
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• OpenAI Eases Content Restrictions For ChatGPT With New 'Grown-Up Mode'

  14-02-2025 23:00 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Wednesday, OpenAI published the latest version of its "Model Spec," a set of guidelines detailing how ChatGPT should behave and respond to user requests. The document reveals a notable shift in OpenAI's content policies, particularly around "sensitive" content like erotica and gore -- allowing this type of content to be generated without warnings in "appropriate contexts." The change in policy has been in the works since May 2024, when th
  
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• Meta To Build World's Longest Undersea Cable

  14-02-2025 22:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Meta unveiled on Friday Project Waterworth, a 50,000-kilometer subsea cable network that will be the world's longest such system. The multi-billion dollar project will connect the U.S., Brazil, India, South Africa, and other key regions. The system utilizes 24 fiber pairs and introduces what Meta describes as "first-of-its-kind routing" that maximizes cable placement in deep water at depths up to 7,000 meters.
  The company developed new burial techniques for high-risk areas near coasts to protect
  
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• The Whole World Is Going To Use a Lot More Electricity, IEA Says

  14-02-2025 21:42 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Electricity demand is set to increase sharply in the coming years as people around the world use more power to run air conditioners, industry and a growing fleet of data centers. From a report: Over the next three years, global electricity consumption is set to rise by an "unprecedented" 3,500 terawatt hours, according to a report by the International Energy Agency. That's an addition each year of more than Japan's annual electricity consumption.
  The roughly 4% annual growth in that period is th
  
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• Western Digital Aims For 100TB Hard Drives by 2030

  14-02-2025 21:01 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Western Digital plans to introduce its first heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) drives in late 2026, with 36TB conventional magnetic recording (CMR) and 44TB shingled UltraSMR variants. Volume production won't begin until the first half of 2027, following qualification by cloud data center providers in late 2026.
  The company projects that HAMR technology, combined with OptiNAND, increased platter count, and mechanical improvements, will enable drives reaching 80TB CMR and 100TB UltraSMR cap
  
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• Hedge Fund Startup That Replaced Analysts With AI Beats the Market

  14-02-2025 20:22 via slashdot.org
  
  A hedge fund startup that uses AI to do work typically handled by analysts has outperformed the global stock market in its first six months while slashing research costs. From a report: The Sydney-based firm, Minotaur Capital, was founded by Armina Rosenberg and Thomas Rice. Rosenberg previously managed a global equities portfolio for tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and ran Australian small-company research for JPMorgan Chase & Co. when she was 25. Rice is a former portfolio manager at
  
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• Lead Asahi Linux Developer Quits Days After Leaving Kernel Maintainer Role

  14-02-2025 19:42 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Hector Martin has resigned as the project lead of Asahi Linux, weeks after stepping down from his role as a Linux kernel maintainer for Apple ARM support. His departure from Asahi follows a contentious exchange with Linus Torvalds over development processes and social media advocacy. After quitting kernel maintenance earlier this month, the conflict escalated when Martin suggested that "shaming on social media" might be necessary to effect change.
  Torvalds sharply rejected this approach, stating
  
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• China To Develop Gene-Editing Tools, New Crop Varieties

  14-02-2025 19:03 via science.slashdot.org
  
  China issued guidelines on Friday to promote biotech cultivation, focusing on gene-editing tools and developing new wheat, corn, and soybean varieties, as part of efforts to ensure food security and boost agriculture technology. From a report: The 2024-2028 plan aims to achieve "independent and controllable" seed sources for key crops, with a focus to cultivate high-yield, multi-resistant wheat, corn and high-oil, high-yield soybean and rapeseed varieties. The move comes as China intensifies eff
  
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• James Bond in Battle To Keep Hold of 007 Super Spy's Name

  14-02-2025 18:22 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The owners of the multibillion-pound James Bond franchise are embroiled in a fight to keep control of the super spy's name, after a Dubai-based property developer filed claims in the UK and Europe that they are not using the trademark across a range of goods and services. From a report: The Austrian businessman Josef Kleindienst, who is building a $5 billion luxury resort complex called the Heart of Europe on six human-made islands just off the coast of Dubai, has filed a slew of what are known
  
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• Reddit Plans To Lock Some Content Behind a Paywall This Year, CEO Says

  14-02-2025 17:42 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Reddit is planning to introduce a paywall this year, CEO Steve Huffman said during a videotaped Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Thursday. Huffman previously showed interest in potentially introducing a new type of subreddit with "exclusive content or private areas" that Reddit users would pay to access.
  When asked this week about plans for some Redditors to create "content that only paid members can see," Huffman said: "It's a work in progress right now, so
  
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• 'The Unicorn Boom Is Over, and Startups Are Getting Desperate'

  14-02-2025 17:01 via slashdot.org
  
  More than $1 trillion in value remains locked in venture-backed startups with dwindling prospects as the Silicon Valley unicorn bubble deflates, according to a new Bloomberg Businessweek report. Of the 354 companies that reached billion-dollar valuations in 2021, only six have completed initial public offerings, Stanford Business School professor Ilya Strebulaev said.
  Four others went public via SPACs and 10 were acquired, some below their unicorn status. Several prominent startups have already
  
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• How a Computer That 'Drunk Dials' Videos is Exposing YouTube's Secrets

  14-02-2025 16:22 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: How many YouTube videos are there? What are they about? What languages do YouTubers speak? As of 14 February 2025, the platform's will have been running for 20 years. That is a lot of video. Yet we have no idea just how many there really are. Google knows the answers. It just won't tell you.
  Experts say that's a problem. For all practical purposes, one of the most powerful communication systems ever created -- a tool that provides a third of the world's popul
  
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• Nvidia Delays the RTX 5070 Till After AMD's Reveal

  14-02-2025 15:42 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: As always, the most important Nvidia graphics card is the one you can actually buy, and Nvidia's talked a big game for its RTX 5070, making the dubious but nuanced claim it can deliver RTX 4090 performance for just $549. On February 28th, AMD will get its chance to intercept with the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT, in a streaming event it just announced today. But Nvidia has now made its own wiggle room, delaying the launch of the RTX 5070 from February to March
  
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• How AI Will Disrupt Outsourced Work

  14-02-2025 15:00 via slashdot.org
  
  AI startups are poised to disrupt the $300 billion business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, as advances in language models and voice technology enable automation of tasks traditionally handled by human workers.
  The BPO market, which reached $300 billion in 2024 and is projected to hit $525 billion by 2030, faces mounting pressure from AI companies offering faster, more scalable alternatives to manual processing of customer support, IT services and financial claims, venture capital firm a16z
  
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• UK Drops 'Safety' From Its AI Body, Inks Partnership With Anthropic

  14-02-2025 14:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The U.K. government wants to make a hard pivot into boosting its economy and industry with AI, and as part of that, it's pivoting an institution that it founded a little over a year ago for a very different purpose. Today the Department of Science, Industry and Technology announced that it would be renaming the AI Safety Institute to the "AI Security Institute." (Same first letters: same URL.) With that, the body will shift from primarily expl
  
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• Alibaba To Partner With Apple On AI Features, Sending Shares To 3-Year High

  14-02-2025 11:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Alibaba will partner with Apple to support AI features on iPhones in China, sending Alibaba's shares surging over 9% to a three-year high. Reuters reports: "They talked to a number of companies in China. In the end they chose to do business with us. They want to use our AI to power their phones. We feel extremely honored to do business with a great company like Apple," Tsai said at the World Government Summit in Dubai. Apple continues to work with Baidu on AI features for iPhones in China, The I
  
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• US Wildfire Suppressants Rife With Toxic Heavy Metals, Study Finds

  14-02-2025 08:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A new study reveals that widely used pink wildfire suppressants contain high levels of toxic heavy metals like cadmium, arsenic, and chromium, with concentrations up to 3,000 times above drinking water limits. While the government and chemical makers have long concealed up to 20% of the suppressants' ingredients as "trade secrets," researchers have confirmed their role in environmental pollution, raising concerns over their extensive use in residential areas. The Guardian reports: The suppressan
  
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• Brain Implant That Could Boost Mood By Using Ultrasound To Go Under NHS Trial

  14-02-2025 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A groundbreaking NHS trial will attempt to boost patients' mood using a brain-computer-interface that directly alters brain activity using ultrasound. The device, which is designed to be implanted beneath the skull but outside the brain, maps activity and delivers targeted pulses of ultrasound to "switch on" clusters of neurons. Its safety and tolerability will be tested on about 30 patient in the 6.5 million-pound trial, funded by the UK's
  
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• Amazon Is Closing a Kindle Loophole That Makes It Easy To Remove DRM

  14-02-2025 02:40 via slashdot.org
  
  Amazon is removing the "Download & Transfer via USB" feature for Kindle e-books starting February 26th, closing a loophole that allowed users to download older, easily crackable DRM formats."At the very least, you'll still be able to transfer your e-books over Wi-Fi, and of course, transferring your e-books through Calibre will still work, too," notes Android Police. "[S]o it's not like we are losing access to dragging and dropping files onto a Kindle, we are simply losing access to a tool t
  
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• Arm Is Launching Its Own Chip This Year With Meta As a Customer

  14-02-2025 02:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Arm will reportedly start making its own chips this year after signing Meta as a customer, according to the Financial Times (paywalled). TechCrunch reports: The chip is expected to be a CPU for servers in large data centers and can be customized for various customers. Arm will outsource its production. The first in-house Arm chip will be unveiled as early as this summer, the Financial Times also reported.This is a notable change in strategy for the semiconductor company, which usually licenses i
  
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• Apple To Restore TikTok To US App Store Following Justice Department Letter

  14-02-2025 01:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple will restore TikTok to the U.S. App Store on Thursday (source paywalled; alternative source), following a letter from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. From the report: Apple, along with Alphabet's Google, removed TikTok in the US to comply with a law passed last year. In a Jan. 20 executive order, Trump said he instructed the attorney general "not to take any action to enforce the act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my administration an opp
  
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• AI Licensing Deals With Google and OpenAI Make Up 10% of Reddit's Revenue

  14-02-2025 01:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Reddit's recent earnings report revealed that AI licensing deals with Google and OpenAI account for about 10% of its $1.3 billion revenue, totaling approximately $130 million. With Google paying $60 million, OpenAI is estimated to be paying Reddit around $70 million annually for content licensing. Adweek reports: "It's a small part of our revenue -- I'll call it 10%. For a business of our size, that's material, because it's valuable revenue," [said the company's COO Jen Wong]. The social platfor
  
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• News Orgs Say AI Firm Stole Articles, Spit Out 'Hallucinations'

  14-02-2025 00:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Conde Nast and several other media companies sued the AI startup Cohere today, alleging that it engaged in "systematic copyright and trademark infringement" by using news articles to train its large language model. "Without permission or compensation, Cohere uses scraped copies of our articles, through training, real-time use, and in outputs, to power its artificial intelligence ('AI') service, which in turn competes with Publisher offerings
  
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• US Releases Russian Cybercriminal As Part of Prisoner Swap

  14-02-2025 00:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. released Russian cybercriminal Alexander Vinnik, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering through his cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e, as part of a prisoner swap that freed American schoolteacher Marc Fogel from Russian custody. The Guardian reports: Vinnik, who arrived in Moscow on a flight from Turkey on Tuesday after having been released from custody in California, is accused of owning and operating one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, BTC-e, whi
  
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