ICT news

• Mozilla Is Shutting Down Pocket

  22-05-2025 20:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  BrianFagioli writes: In a surprising move that will frustrate longtime fans, Mozilla has announced it will shut down Pocket on July 8, 2025. The once-popular read-it-later service, which helped users save and organize web content for later reading, will no longer function as normal after that date. While existing users can continue saving and reading articles until July, the service will switch to export-only mode afterward, with all user data permanently deleted on October 8. The Firefox-maker
  
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• US Treasury Unveils Plan To Kill the Penny

  22-05-2025 19:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader writes: The US Treasury is phasing out production of the penny and will stop putting new one-cent coins into circulation. The US Treasury has made its final order of penny blanks this month, and the mint will continue to manufacture pennies as long as its supply of penny blanks exist.
  President Donald Trump stated that production of pennies are wasteful, as the coins cost more to produce than their one-cent value.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Anthropic Releases Claude 4 Models That Can Autonomously Work For Nearly a Full Corporate Workday

  22-05-2025 19:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Anthropic launched Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4 today, positioning Opus 4 as the world's leading coding model with 72.5% performance on SWE-bench and 43.2% on Terminal-bench. Both models feature hybrid architecture supporting near-instant responses and extended thinking modes for complex reasoning tasks.
  The models introduce parallel tool execution and memory capabilities that allow Claude to extract and save key facts when given local file access. Claude Code, previously in research previe
  
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• Russia To Enforce Location Tracking App On All Foreigners in Moscow

  22-05-2025 18:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The Russian government has introduced a new law that makes installing a tracking app mandatory for all foreign nationals in the Moscow region. From a report: The new proposal was announced by the chairman of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, who presented it as a measure to tackle migrant crimes. "The adopted mechanism will allow, using modern technologies, to strengthen control in the field of migration and will also contribute to reducing the number of violations and crimes in this area," st
  
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• Verizon Asks For An End To Its Phone Unlocking Requirements

  22-05-2025 18:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Verizon is officially asking for a waiver of the FCC's phone unlocking requirements. From a report: "Given the substantial and growing harms to consumers, competition and Verizon from this obligation -- and the lack of offsetting benefits -- the commission should waive this rule," the operator wrote.
  Verizon faces phone unlocking requirements stemming from its acquisition of 700MHz spectrum in 2008, and also from conditions the FCC placed on the operator's acquisition of prepaid provider TracFon
  
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• Google Has a Big AI Advantage: It Already Knows Everything About You

  22-05-2025 17:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google's expansion of Gemini's data access through "personal context" represents a fundamental shift in how AI assistants operate. Unlike competitors that start from scratch with each new user, Gemini can immediately tap into years of accumulated user data across Google's ecosystem. The Verge adds: Google first started letting users opt in to its "Gemini with personalization" feature earlier this year, which lets the AI model tap into your search history "to provide responses that are uniquely i
  
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• Signal Deploys DRM To Block Microsoft Recall's Invasive Screenshot Collection

  22-05-2025 16:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  BrianFagioli writes: Signal has officially had enough, folks. You see, the privacy-first messaging app is going on the offensive, declaring war on Microsoft's invasive Recall feature by enabling a new "Screen security" setting by default on Windows 11. This move is designed to block Microsoft's AI-powered screenshot tool from capturing your private chats.
  If you aren't aware, Recall was first unveiled a year ago as part of Microsoft's Copilot+ PC push. The feature quietly took screenshots of eve
  
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• OpenAI Targets 100 Million AI Device Shipments in Record Time After $6.5 Billion Deal

  22-05-2025 16:06 via slashdot.org
  
  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees Wednesday the company plans to ship 100 million AI "companion" devices as part of what he called "the chance to do the biggest thing we've ever done as a company here," according to WSJ.
  Speaking at an internal meeting, Altman said the $6.5 billion acquisition of former Apple designer Jony Ive's startup has the potential to add $1 trillion in value to OpenAI. The pocket-sized, screen-free devices will be contextually aware of users' surroundings and designed
  
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• Usage of Semicolons In English Books Down Almost Half In Two Decades

  22-05-2025 15:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: "Do not use semicolons," wrote Kurt Vonnegut, who averaged fewer than 30 a novel (about one every 10 pages). "All they do is show you've been to college." A study suggests UK authors are taking Vonnegut's advice to heart; the semicolon seems to be in terminal decline, with its usage in English books plummeting by almost half in two decades -- from one appearing in every 205 words in 2000 to one use in every 390 words today. Further research
  
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• New Best Practices Guide for Securing AI Data Released

  22-05-2025 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Today, CISA, the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and international partners released a joint Cybersecurity Information Sheet on AI Data Security: Best Practices for Securing Data Used to Train & Operate AI Systems. 
  This information sheet highlights the critical role of data security in ensuring the accuracy, integrity, and trustworthiness of AI outcomes. It outlines key risks that may arise from data security and integrity issues across all phases of the
  
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• Advisory Update on Cyber Threat Activity Targeting Commvault’s SaaS Cloud Application (Metallic)

  22-05-2025 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Commvault is monitoring cyber threat activity targeting their applications hosted in their Microsoft Azure cloud environment. Threat actors may have accessed client secrets for Commvault’s (Metallic) Microsoft 365 (M365) backup software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, hosted in Azure. This provided the threat actors with unauthorized access to Commvault’s customers’ M365 environments that have application secrets stored by Commvault.
  See the following resource for more infor
  
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• Wisk Aero, NASA Sign 5-Year Partnership To Advance Sustainable Autonomous Flights

  22-05-2025 12:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Wisk Aero and NASA have signed a new five-year partnership to advance the safe integration of autonomous, all-electric aircraft into U.S. airspace, focusing on urban air mobility and regulated eVTOL flight. Electrek reports: Wisk Aero shared details of its refreshed partnership with NASA this week. The autonomous aviation specialist has signed a new five-year Non-Reimbursable Space Act Agreement (NRSAA) with the renowned space administration. Per Wisk, this new agreement focuses on critical rese
  
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• New Bacteria Have Been Discovered on a Chinese Space Station

  22-05-2025 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Scientists have discovered a previously unknown bacterium aboard China's Tiangong space station. "It has been named Niallia tiangongensis, and it inhabited the cockpit controls on the station, living in microgravity conditions," reports Wired. From the report: According to China Central Television, the country's national broadcaster, taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) collected swab samples from the space station in May 2023, which were then frozen and sent back to Earth for study. The aim of this
  
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• Denver Detectives Crack Deadly Arson Case Using Teens' Google Search Histories

  22-05-2025 07:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Three teenagers nearly escaped prosecution for a 2020 house fire that killed five people until Denver police discovered a novel investigative technique: requesting Google search histories for specific terms. Kevin Bui, Gavin Seymour, and Dillon Siebert had burned down a house in Green Valley Ranch, mistakenly targeting innocent Senegalese immigrants after Bui used Apple's Find My feature to track his stolen phone to the wrong address.
  The August 2020 arson killed a family of five, including a to
  
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• Brembo's New Brakes Cut Particulate Emissions By 90 Percent

  22-05-2025 05:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As electric vehicles reduce car exhaust as a source of particulate emissions, people are increasingly focusing on other vehicular sources of pollution that won't go away with electrification. Tires are one of them, particularly as we grapple with overweight EVs with tire-shredding torque. And brakes are another -- even an EV with regenerative braking will occasionally need to use its friction brakes, after all. Over in Europe, the people res
  
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• Phone Companies Failed To Warn Senators About Surveillance, Wyden Says

  22-05-2025 04:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) revealed in a new letter to Senate colleagues Wednesday that AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile failed to create systems for notifying senators about government surveillance on Senate-issued devices -- despite a requirement to do so. From a report: Phone service providers are contractually obligated to inform senators when a law enforcement agency requests their records, thanks to protections enacted in 2020. But in an investigation, Wyden's staff found that none of the three
  
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• SEC Sues Crypto Startup Unicoin and Its Executives For Fraud

  22-05-2025 02:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  The SEC on Wednesday said it has charged cryptocurrency startup Unicoin and three of its top executives for false and misleading statements that raised more than $100 million from thousands of investors. "We allege that Unicoin and its executives exploited thousands of investors with fictitious promises that its tokens, when issued, would be backed by real-world assets including an international portfolio of valuable real estate holdings," said Mark Cave, Associate Director in the SEC's Division
  
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• Quebec To Impose French-Language Quotas On Streaming Giants

  22-05-2025 01:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  Quebec Culture Minister Mathieu Lacombe has introduced Bill 109, which would require streaming platforms like Netflix and Spotify to feature and prioritize French-language content. CBC.ca reports: Bill 109 has been in the works for over a year. It marks the first time that Quebec would set a "visibility quota" for French-language content on major streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney and Spotify. [...] The legislation, titled An Act to affirm the cultural sovereignty of Quebec and to enact
  
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• The Information: Microsoft Engineers Forced To Dig Their Own AI Graves

  22-05-2025 00:40 via slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: In what reads a bit like a Sopranos plot, The Information suggests some of those in the recent batch of terminated Microsoft engineers may have in effect been forced to dig their own AI graves. The (paywalled) story begins: "Jeff Hulse, a Microsoft vice president who oversees roughly 400 software engineers, told the team in recent months to use the company's artificial intelligence chatbot, powered by OpenAI, to generate half the computer code they write,
  
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• Most AI Chatbots Easily Tricked Into Giving Dangerous Responses, Study Finds

  22-05-2025 00:00 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Hacked AI-powered chatbots threaten to make dangerous knowledge readily available by churning out illicit information the programs absorb during training, researchers say. [...] In a report on the threat, the researchers conclude that it is easy to trick most AI-driven chatbots into generating harmful and illegal information, showing that the risk is "immediate, tangible and deeply concerning." "What was once restricted to state actors or or
  
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