ICT news

• Amazon Says New Warehouse Robot Can 'Feel' Items, But Won't Replace Workers

  07-05-2025 23:40 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: There's a new warehouse robot at Amazon that has a sense of touch, allowing it to handle a job previously only done by humans. Amazon unveiled the robot, called Vulcan, Wednesday at an event in Germany. CNBC got an exclusive first look at Vulcan in April, as it stowed items into tall, yellow bins at a warehouse in Spokane, Washington. An up-close look at the "hand" of the robot reveals how it can feel the items it touches using an AI-powered sensor
  
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• Samsung Acquires Masimo's Audio Business For $350 Million

  07-05-2025 23:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Harman International, a Samsung subsidiary, announced it is acquiring Masimo's consumer audio division for $350 million in cash. "The deal is expected to finalized by the end of 2025, though it's still subject to regulatory approvals," notes Engadget. From the report: Samsung purchased Harman International back in 2017 for $8 billion, though it allowed the company to operate as an independent subsidiary. Harman's brands include JBL, Harman Kardon, AKG, Mark Levinson, Arcam and Revel. If and when
  
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• Trump Will Rescind Biden-Era AI Chip Export Curbs

  07-05-2025 22:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  According to Bloomberg, the Trump administration plans to revise a set of chip trade restrictions called the "AI diffusion" rule, which were scheduled to take effect on May 15. CNBC reports: The rule, which was proposed in the last days of the Biden administration, organizes countries into three different tiers, all of which have different restrictions on whether advanced AI chips like those made by Nvidia, AMD, and Intel can be shipped to the country without a license.Chipmakers including Nvidi
  
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• Apple's Eddy Cue: 'You May Not Need an iPhone 10 Years From Now'

  07-05-2025 21:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, gave an ominous warning today that the iPhone could go the way of the iPod 10 years from now. From a report: Cue's remarks came during the Google Search antitrust remedies trial today while discussing how AI has the potential to reshape the tech industry and open the door to new entrants. Incumbents have a hard time ... we're not an oil company, we're not toothpaste -- these are things that are going to last forever ... you may not need an iPh
  
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• VMware Perpetual License Holders Receive Cease-And-Desist Letters From Broadcom

  07-05-2025 21:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Broadcom has been sending cease-and-desist letters to owners of VMware perpetual licenses with expired support contracts, Ars Technica has confirmed. Following its November 2023 acquisition of VMware, Broadcom ended VMware perpetual license sales. Users with perpetual licenses can still use the software they bought, but they are unable to renew support services unless they had a pre-existing contract enabling them to do so. The controversial
  
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• Curl Battles Wave of AI-Generated False Vulnerability Reports

  07-05-2025 20:10 via it.slashdot.org
  
  The curl open source project is fighting against a flood of AI-generated false security reports. Daniel Stenberg, curl's original author and lead developer, declared on LinkedIn that they are "effectively being DDoSed" by these submissions.
  "We still have not seen a single valid security report done with AI help," Stenberg wrote. This week alone, four AI-generated vulnerability reports arrived seeking reputation or bounties, ArsTechnica writes. One particularly frustrating May 4 report claiming
  
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• Seagate Working To Develop a 100TB Hard Drive By 2030

  07-05-2025 19:33 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Data storage firm Seagate is working to develop a 100-terabyte hard drive by 2030, touting blistering demand from data centers for the 70-year-old technology in the artificial intelligence boom. From a report: BS Teh, Seagate's chief commercial officer, told CNBC that the company is aiming to launch such a drive -- which would have about three times the capacity of the firm's top-of-the-line hard drives -- by 2030. The largest hard disk drive Seagate currently produces is the 36-terabyte Exos M
  
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• Apple Working To Move To AI Search in Browser Amid Google Fallout

  07-05-2025 18:45 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple is "actively looking at" revamping the Safari web browser on its devices to focus on AI-powered search engines, a seismic shift for the industry hastened by the potential end of a longtime partnership with Google. From a report: Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, made the disclosure Wednesday during his testimony in the US Justice Department's lawsuit against Alphabet. The heart of the dispute is the two companies' estimated $20 billion-a-year deal that makes Google the d
  
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• DEA Ends Body Camera Program

  07-05-2025 18:04 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Drug Enforcement Administration has quietly ended its body camera program barely four years after it began, ProPublica reports, citing an internal email. From the report: On April 2, DEA headquarters emailed employees announcing that the program had been terminated effective the day before. The DEA has not publicly announced the policy change, but by early April, links to pages about body camera policies on the DEA's website were broken.
  The email said the agency made the change to be "consi
  
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• AI Chatbots Are 'Juicing Engagement' Instead of Being Useful, Instagram Co-founder Warns

  07-05-2025 17:22 via slashdot.org
  
  Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom says AI companies are trying too hard to "juice engagement" by pestering their users with follow-up questions, instead of providing actually useful insights. From a report: Systrom said the tactics represent "a force that's hurting us," comparing them to those used by social media companies to expand aggressively.
  "You can see some of these companies going down the rabbit hole that all the consumer companies have gone down in trying to juice engagement," he sai
  
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• Uber Says Waymo Autonomous Vehicles Outperforming 99% of Human Drivers in Austin

  07-05-2025 16:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Waymo's autonomous vehicles operating on Uber's platform in Austin are completing more trips per day than over 99% of human drivers in the market, according to Uber's Q1 2025 earnings report [PDF] released Wednesday. The fleet of approximately 100 autonomous Waymo vehicles, launched exclusively on Uber in March, has "exceeded expectations," CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stated in the report.
  He cited the performance to "Waymo's safety record and rider experience coupled with Uber's scale and reliability
  
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• IBM CEO Says AI Has Replaced Hundreds of Workers But Created New Programming, Sales Jobs

  07-05-2025 16:03 via slashdot.org
  
  IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the tech giant has used AI, and specifically AI agents, to replace the work of a couple hundred human resources workers. As a result, it has hired more programmers and salespeople, he said. From a report: Krishna's comments on Monday come as businesses sort through the workforce impacts of AI and AI agents, the independent bots that can autonomously perform tasks like analyze spreadsheets, conduct research and draft emails.
  While there haven't yet been widespread layo
  
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• FTC Bans Hidden Fees For Live Events and Short-Term Rentals

  07-05-2025 15:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday released new documentation detailing its new "Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees." The rule, set to take effect on May 12, prohibits hidden fees for live events, hotels, and short-term rentals. It also bans practices such as "bait-and-switch pricing" and any actions that conceal or misrepresent total prices and fees.In a newly published FAQ, the FTC offers a guide for these types of businesses, p
  
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• Scientists Identify New Mutation That Enables Three-Hour Sleepers

  07-05-2025 14:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Researchers have discovered a mutation in the SIK3 gene that enables some people to function normally on just three to six hours of sleep. The finding, published this week in PNAS, adds to a growing list of genetic variants linked to naturally short sleepers.
  When University of California, San Francisco scientists introduced the mutation to mice, the animals required 31 minutes less sleep daily. The modified enzyme showed highest activity in brain synapses, suggesting it might support brain home
  
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• Pentagon Targets Open Source Security Risks in Software Procurement Overhaul

  07-05-2025 12:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Department of Defense is revamping its "outdated" software procurement systems through a new Software Fast Track initiative. The SWFT program aims to reform how software is acquired, tested, and authorized with security as the primary focus. "Widespread use of open source software, with contributions from developers worldwide, presents a significant and ongoing challenge," DoD CIO Katie Arrington wrote in the initiative memo.
  The DoD currently "lacks visibility into the origins and security
  
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• Stratolaunch's Talon-A2 Prototype Goes Hypersonic After Dropping From World's Largest Airplane

  07-05-2025 09:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Stratolaunch successfully flew its uncrewed Talon-A2 prototype to hypersonic speeds twice -- once in December and again in March. "We've now demonstrated hypersonic speed, added the complexity of a full runway landing with prompt payload recovery and proven reusability," Stratolaunch President and CEO Zachary Krevor said in a statement on Monday. "Both flights were great achievements for our country, our company and our partners." Space.com reports: Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen established St
  
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• NSO Group Must Pay More Than $167 Million In Damages To WhatsApp For Spyware Campaign

  07-05-2025 05:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Spyware maker NSO Group will have to pay more than $167 million in damages to WhatsApp for a 2019 hacking campaign against more than 1,400 users. On Tuesday, after a five-year legal battle, a jury ruled that NSO Group must pay $167,256,000 in punitive damages and around $444,719 in compensatory damages. This is a huge legal win for WhatsApp, which had asked for more than $400,000 in compensatory damages, based on the time its employees had to
  
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• New Bill Would Force Apple, Google To Open App Store Ecosystems

  07-05-2025 03:25 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) introduced the App Store Freedom Act [PDF] on Tuesday, legislation that would compel "large app store operators" with over 100 million US users to permit third-party app stores and allow them to be set as defaults. The bill directly challenges Apple's walled garden approach and Google's Play Store dominance by requiring both companies to allow developers to use alternative payment systems, bypassing the platforms' commission structures.
  It would also mandate equal access
  
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• Amazon's Zoox Robotaxi Unit Issues Software Recall After Recent Las Vegas Crash

  07-05-2025 02:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Amazon's Zoox said it has issued a software recall for 270 of its robotaxis after a crash in Las Vegas last month. CNBC reports: The recall surrounds a defect with the vehicle's automated driving system that could cause it to inaccurately predict the movement of another car, increasing "the risk of a crash," according to a report submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on May 1. Zoox submitted the recall after an April 8 incident in Las Vegas in which an unoccupied Zoox r
  
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• Trump Admin Plans To Shut Down the Energy Star Program

  07-05-2025 02:02 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  According to the Washington Post (paywalled), the Trump administration plans to eliminate the Energy Star program -- a long-standing EPA initiative that has saved Americans over $500 billion in energy costs since 1992. "The organization states that the average American saves about $450 per year on energy bills by choosing appliances that have been Energy Star-certified," adds Engadget. From the report: The EPA hasn't said when this would go into effect and when consumers would stop seeing Energy
  
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• Google Accidentally Reveals Android's Material 3 Expressive Interface

  07-05-2025 01:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google's accelerated Android release cycle will soon deliver a new version of the software, and it might look quite different from what you'd expect. Amid rumors of a major UI overhaul, Google seems to have accidentally published a blog post detailing "Material 3 Expressive," which we expect to see revealed at I/O later this month. Google quickly removed the post from its design site, but not before the Internet Archive saved it.It has been
  
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• Memory-Safe Sudo To Become the Default In Ubuntu

  07-05-2025 00:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Longtime Slashdot reader RoccamOccam shares a blog post from the Trifecta Tech Foundation, a nonprofit organization that creates secure, open source building blocks for infrastructure software. The foundation is also the developer behind Sudo-rs. From the report: Ubuntu 25.10 is set to adopt sudo-rs by default. Sudo-rs is a memory-safe reimplementation of the widely-used sudo utility, written in the Rust programming language. This move is part of a broader effort by Canonical to improve the resi
  
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• CISA Budget Faces Possible $500 Million Cut

  07-05-2025 00:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  President Trump's proposed 2026 budget seeks to cut nearly $500 million from CISA, accusing the agency of prioritizing censorship over cybersecurity and election protection. "The proposed cuts -- which are largely symbolic at this stage as they need to be approved by Congress -- are framed as a purge of the so-called 'censorship industrial complex,' a term the White House uses to describe CISA's work countering misinformation," reports The Register. From the report: In its fiscal 2024 budget req
  
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