ICT news

• Alphabet Back In Talks To Buy Wiz For $30 Billion

  17-03-2025 23:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google's parent company Alphabet is reportedly in talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz for approximately $30 billion. Last July, negotiations had advanced on a $23 billion deal, but the talks were put on hold to prioritize Wiz's IPO. Around the same time, Alphabet also walked away from a potential acquisition of online marketing software company HubSpot. Reuters reports: The startup provides cloud-based cybersecurity solutions powered by artificial intelligence that help companies identify
  
  Read more

• Apple To Launch Thinner iPhone 17 'Air' as Step Toward Port-Free Design

  17-03-2025 23:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple will introduce a slimmer iPhone 17 "Air" this fall, marking a strategic shift toward potentially port-free devices in future product lines, according to a Bloomberg report.
  The new model will feature a 6.6-inch display with ProMotion scrolling, Dynamic Island interface, and a Camera Control button while measuring approximately 2 millimeters thinner than current models -- roughly a 20% reduction in depth, the report said.Despite its slimmer profile, the device will maintain battery life com
  
  Read more

• GIMP 3.0 Released

  17-03-2025 22:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  GIMP 3.0 has been released after over a decade of development. Highlights include a refined GTK3 interface with scroll wheel tab navigation, a new splash screen, improved HiDPI icon support, enhanced color management, a stable public API, and support for more file formats. 9to5Linux reports: GIMP 3.0 also brings improvements to non-destructive editing by introducing an optional "Merge Filters" checkbox at the bottom of NDE filters that merges down the filter immediately after it's committed, alo
  
  Read more

• Sobering Revenue Stats of 70K Mobile Apps Show Why Devs Beg For Subscriptions

  17-03-2025 21:42 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Most mobile apps fail to reach $1,000 in monthly revenue within their first two years, according to a new report from RevenueCat examining data from over 75,000 mobile apps. Across all categories, only about 20% of apps achieve the $1,000 threshold, while just 5% reach $10,000 monthly.
  In 2025, the top 5% of apps generate 500 times more revenue than the remaining 95% -- up from 200 times in 2024. After one year, elite performers in gaming, photo and video, health and fitness, and social categori
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• People Are Using Google's New AI Model To Remove Watermarks From Images

  17-03-2025 21:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Last week, Google expanded access to its Gemini 2.0 Flash model's image generation feature, which lets the model natively generate and edit image content. It's a powerful capability, by all accounts. But it also appears to have few guardrails. Gemini 2.0 Flash will uncomplainingly create images depicting celebrities and copyrighted characters, and -- as alluded to earlier -- remove watermarks from existing photos.As several X and Reddit users
  
  Read more

• Huawei To Pivot To Linux, HarmonyOS as Microsoft Windows License Expires

  17-03-2025 20:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Huawei will no longer be able to produce or sell Windows-based PCs as Microsoft's supply license to the Chinese tech company expires this month, according to Chinese tech site MyDrivers. The restriction comes as Huawei remains on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Entity List, requiring American companies to obtain special export licenses to conduct business with the firm.
  Richard Yu, executive director of Huawei's consumer business unit, said the company is preparing to pivot to alternative oper
  
  Read more

• Xbox 360 Consoles Can Now Be Hacked With Just a USB Key

  17-03-2025 19:42 via games.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Xbox 360 modders have discovered a new way to get homebrew apps and games running on the console. A new software-only exploit known as BadUpdate allows you to use a USB key to hack past Microsoft's Hypervisor protections and run unsigned code and games.
  Modern Vintage Gamer has tested BadUpdate and found that you don't even have to open up your Xbox 360 console to get it running. Unlike the RGH or JTAG exploits for the Xbox 360, this BadUpdate method just req
  
  Read more

• Harvard Says Tuition Will Be Free For Families Making $200K or Less

  17-03-2025 19:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Harvard University on Monday announced that tuition will be free for students from families with annual incomes of $200,000 or less starting in the 2025-26 academic year. From a report: "Putting Harvard within financial reach for more individuals widens the array of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives that all of our students encounter, fostering their intellectual and personal growth," Harvard University President Alan M. Garber said in a statement. "By bringing people of outstanding pro
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Alphabet Spins Off Laser-Based Internet Project Taara From 'Moonshot' Unit

  17-03-2025 18:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Alphabet is spinning out Taara, a laser-based internet company from its X "moonshot" incubator, securing backing from Series X Capital while retaining a minority stake.
  Taara's technology transmits data at 20 gigabits per second over 20km by firing pencil-width light beams between traffic light-sized terminals, extending traditional fiber-optic networks with minimal construction costs.
  Based in Sunnyvale, California, the company operates in 12 countries, including India and parts of Africa, wher
  
  Read more

• European Tech Firms Push EU for 'Buy European' Tech Mandate

  17-03-2025 17:40 via slashdot.org
  
  More than 80 signatories representing about 100 European tech organizations have urged EU leaders to take "radical action" to reduce reliance on foreign digital infrastructure, according to a letter sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
  The coalition, including Airbus, Proton, and OVHCloud, warns Europe "will lose out on digital innovation" and become almost completely dependent on non-European technologies "in less than three years at current rates."
  The group calls for pu
  
  Read more

• Have Humans Passed Peak Brain Power?

  17-03-2025 17:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Across high-income countries, humans' ability to reason and solve problems appears to have peaked in the early 2010s and declined since. Despite no changes in fundamental brain biology, test scores for both teenagers and adults show deteriorating performance in reading, mathematics and science. In an eye-opening statistic, 25% of adults in high-income countries now struggle to "use mathematical reasoning when reviewing statements" -- rising to 35% in the US.
  This cognitive decline coincides with
  
  Read more

• Should Friday be the New Saturday?

  17-03-2025 16:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Abstract of a paper published on National Bureau of Economic Research: This paper investigates self-reported wedges between how much people work and how much they want to work, at their current wage. More than two-thirds of full-time workers in German survey data are overworked -- actual hours exceed desired hours. We combine this evidence with a simple model of labor supply to assess the welfare consequences of tighter weekly hours limits via willingness-to-pay calculations. According to counte
  
  Read more

• Heat Can Age You As Much As Smoking, a New Study Finds

  17-03-2025 15:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Prolonged exposure to extreme heat accelerates biological aging in older adults, increasing the risk of age-related illnesses, according to research published in Science Advances.
  In a nationally representative study of 3,686 U.S. adults over age 56, scientists found that long-term exposure to high heat days was associated with accelerated epigenetic aging - molecular changes that affect how genes function without altering DNA itself.
  Researchers from the University of Southern California discov
  
  Read more

• HR Tech Firm Rippling Sues Rival Deel for Corporate Espionage

  17-03-2025 15:06 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  HR software provider Rippling has sued competitor Deel for allegedly planting a spy in its Dublin office to steal trade secrets, court documents [PDF] showed on Monday. Rippling claims the employee, identified as D.S., systematically searched internal Slack channels for competitor information, including sales leads and pitch decks.
  The company discovered the alleged scheme through a "honeypot" trap -- a specially created Slack channel mentioned in a letter to Deel executives. When served with a
  
  Read more

• FSF's Memorabilia Silent Auction Begins Today

  17-03-2025 12:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  This week the Free Software Foundation published memorabilia items for an online silent auction — part of their big 40th anniversary celebration. "Starting March 17, the FSF will unlock items each day for bidding on the LibrePlanet wiki at 12:00 EDT.. Bidding on all items will conclude at 15:00 EDT on March 21, 2025...
  "During the auction, the FSF welcomes everyone who supports user freedom to bid on historical and symbolic free software memorabilia," they annouced this week:The auction is
  
  Read more

• BlueSky Proposes 'New Standard' for When Scraping Data for AI Training

  17-03-2025 08:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this article from TechCrunch:
  Social network Bluesky recently published a proposal on GitHub outlining new options it could give users to indicate whether they want their posts and data to be scraped for things like generative AI training and public archiving.
  CEO Jay Graber discussed the proposal earlier this week, while on-stage at South by Southwest, but it attracted fresh attention on Friday night, after she posted about it on Bluesky. Some users reacted with alarm
  
  Read more

• Google's AI 'Co-Scientist' Solved a 10-Year Superbug Problem in Two Days

  17-03-2025 04:44 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Google collaborated with Imperial College London and its "Fleming Initiative" partnership with Imperial NHS, giving their scientists "access to a powerful new AI designed" built with Gemini 2.0 "to make research faster and more efficient," according to an announcement from the school. And the results were surprising..."José Penadés and his colleagues at Imperial College London spent 10 years figuring out how some superbugs gain resistance to antibiotics," writes LiveScience. "But w
  
  Read more

• Consumer Groups Push New Law Fighting 'Zombie' IoT Devices

  17-03-2025 02:55 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader chicksdaddy writes:
  A group of U.S. consumer advocacy groups on Wednesday proposed legislation to address the growing epidemic of "zombie" Internet of Things (IoT) devices that have had software support cut off by their manufacturer, Fight To Repair News reports.The Connected Consumer Product End of Life Disclosure Act is a collaboration between Consumer Reports, US PIRG, the Secure Resilient Future Foundation (SRFF) and the Center for Democracy and Technology. It requi
  
  Read more

• Remote Working Saved Zillow Money, Helped Recruiting, and Maintained Productivity

  17-03-2025 00:36 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman "recently told Entrepreneur magazine that almost five years of remote work has 'been fantastic for us,'" writes the Seattle Times.
  Zillow shifted to allowing people to work fully remote during the pandemic. It's been a recruiting and retention tool for Zillow as they "now see four times the number of job applicants for every job we have versus what we did before the pandemic," Wacksman said.
  While Zillow still lists its corporate headquarters as Seattle, the company bi
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!