ICT news

• PS5 Has Now Officially Outsold Every Xbox Console Ever Released

  11-11-2025 23:50 via games.slashdot.org
  Sony reported that PlayStation 5 sales have reached 84.2 million units, officially surpassing every Xbox console ever released. IGN reports: The PlayStation 5 is now up to 84.2 million copies sold after shifting an additional 3.9 million units during the three-month period ending September 30, Sony has announced. That's a slight increase on the 3.8 million PS5 units Sony sold during the same quarter last year, but it's an impressive result given the price of the console has actually gone up over
  
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• OpenAI Used Song Lyrics In Violation of Copyright Laws, German Court Says

  11-11-2025 23:10 via yro.slashdot.org
  A Munich court ruled that OpenAI violated German copyright law by training its models on lyrics from nine songs and allowing ChatGPT to reproduce them. OpenAI now faces damages as it considers an appeal. Reuters reports: The regional court in Munich found that the company trained its AI on protected content from nine German songs, including Groenemeyer's hits "Maenner" and "Bochum." The case was brought by German music rights society GEMA, whose members include composers, lyricists and publisher
  
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• Google Announces Even More AI In Photos App, Powered By Nano Banana

  11-11-2025 22:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Big G is finally making good on its promise to add its market-leading Nano Banana image-editing model to the app. The model powers a couple of features, and it's not just for Google's Android platform. Nano Banana edits are also coming to the iOS version of the app. [...] The Photos app already had conversational editing in the "Help Me Edit" feature, but it was running an older non-fruit model that produced inferior results. Nano Banana
  
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• FFmpeg To Google: Fund Us or Stop Sending Bugs

  11-11-2025 21:48 via news.slashdot.org
  FFmpeg, the open source multimedia framework that powers video processing in Google Chrome, Firefox, YouTube and other major platforms, has called on Google to either fund the project or stop burdening its volunteer maintainers with security vulnerabilities found by the company's AI tools. The maintainers patched a bug that Google's AI agent discovered in code for decoding a 1995 video game but described the finding as "CVE slop."
  The confrontation centered on a Google Project Zero policy announ
  
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• US Senator Challenges Defense Industry on Right-to-Repair Opposition

  11-11-2025 21:09 via news.slashdot.org
  Democratic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is escalating pressure on the defense industry to stop opposing military right-to-repair legislation, as House and Senate negotiators work to finalize the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. From a report: In a sharply-worded November 5 letter to the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) obtained by Reuters, Warren accused the industry group of attempting to undermine bipartisan efforts to give the Pentagon greater ability to repair w
  
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• China's New Scientist Visa is a 'Serious Bid' For the World's Top Talent

  11-11-2025 20:30 via slashdot.org
  China has introduced a visa that will allow young foreign researchers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to move there without having to secure a job first. From a report: Before the introduction of the K visa, most foreign STEM researchers hoping to move to China had to find a job in advance and then apply for a work visa. The Chinese government is making "a serious bid" to attract the world's brightest minds in STEM, says Jeremy Neufeld, the director of immigration policy at t
  
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• UK Unveils Plan To Cut Animal Testing Through Greater Use of AI

  11-11-2025 19:54 via news.slashdot.org
  Animal testing in science would be phased out faster under a new plan to increase the use of artificial intelligence and 3D bioprinted human tissues, a UK minister has said. The Guardian: The roadmap unveiled by the science minister, Patrick Vallance, backs replacing certain animal tests that are still used where necessary to determine the safety of products such as life-saving vaccines and the impact pesticides have on living beings and the environment. The strategy says phasing out the use of
  
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• Firefox 145 Drops Support For 32-bit Linux

  11-11-2025 19:10 via news.slashdot.org
  BrianFagioli writes: Mozilla has released Firefox 145.0, and the standout change in this version is the official end of support for 32-bit Linux systems. Users on 32-bit distributions will no longer receive updates and are being encouraged to switch to the 64-bit build to continue getting security patches and new features. While most major Linux distributions have already moved past 32-bit support, this shift will still impact older hardware users and lightweight community projects that have hel
  
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• AI's $5 Trillion Cost Needs Every Debt Market, JPMorgan Says

  11-11-2025 18:30 via slashdot.org
  The furious push by AI hyperscalers to build out data centers will need about $1.5 trillion of investment-grade bonds over the next five years and extensive funding from every other corner of the market, according to an analysis by JPMorgan. From a report: "The question is not 'which market will finance the AI-boom?' Rather, the question is 'how will financings be structured to access every capital market?'" according to strategists led by Tarek Hamid.
  Leveraged finance is primed to provide arou
  
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• The iPad Pro at 10: a Decade of Unrealized Potential

  11-11-2025 17:42 via apple.slashdot.org
  The iPad Pro went on sale ten years ago, launching with a 12.9-inch screen that Apple believed would redefine computing through size alone. The company initially resisted making the device a laptop replacement and maintained strict limitations on multitasking, browser capabilities, and app installation. Over the past decade, Apple reversed course. The iPad Pro gained USB-C ports, external drive support, keyboard and trackpad accessories, and an improved Files app.
  The current M5 model includes O
  
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• Apple's $230 iPhone Sock

  11-11-2025 17:02 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple has launched the iPhone Pocket, a knitted bag designed to hold iPhones. The limited edition collaboration with Japanese designer Issey Miyake costs $229.95 for the crossbody version. A shorter version is priced at $149.95. Apple said the 3D-knitted design was inspired by "a piece of cloth" and was born from the idea of creating an additional pocket for any iPhone and small everyday items. Yoshiyuki Miyamae, design director at Miyake Design Studio, said the product "speaks to the bond betwe
  
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• Sam Altman's Worldcoin Project Struggles Toward Billion-User Ambition With 17.5 Million Sign-Ups

  11-11-2025 16:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  Sam Altman's Tools for Humanity has verified around 17.5 million people through its iris-scanning Orb device. The company has set a goal of reaching 1 billion users, so it is less than 2% of the way there. The startup has raised $240 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital and Khosla Ventures. PitchBook estimates its valuation at $2.5 billion.
  The Orb is a volleyball-sized metal sphere that scans irises to generate a World ID. Users can claim tokens of the cryptocurren
  
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• Samsung Brings Generative AI-Powered Bixby To Its TVs

  11-11-2025 15:45 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Samsung is rolling out new conversational AI across its 2025 TVs that lets users ask questions about what's on the screen and beyond it. From a report: First announced in September, the generative AI update is rolling out now with support for several languages. Vision AI Companion is based on an upgraded, generative AI-based version of Samsung's virtual assistant Bixby. Samsung suggests you can use it to ask questions about on-screen content -- what that actor is famous for, who painted that art
  
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• UK Signs Scaled-Back Scientific Collaboration With China

  11-11-2025 15:01 via science.slashdot.org
  The UK and China today signed a new bilateral agreement on scientific collaboration [non-paywalled source], narrowing the scope of their partnership to exclude sensitive technologies. Lord Patrick Vallance, Britain's science and technology minister, met his Chinese counterpart Chen Jiachang in Beijing and agreed to focus cooperation on health, climate, planetary sciences, and agriculture.
  The previous agreement from 2017 had included satellites, remote sensing technology and robotics. Those fiel
  
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• UK Secondary Schools Pivoting From Narrowly Focused CS Curriculum To AI Literacy

  11-11-2025 11:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: The UK Department for Education is "replacing its narrowly focused computer science GCSE with a broader, future-facing computing GCSE [General Certificate of Secondary Education] and exploring a new qualification in data science and AI for 16-18-year-olds." The move aims to correct unintended consequences of a shift made more than a decade ago from the existing ICT (Information and Communications Technology) curriculum, which focused on basic digital skill
  
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• China's CO2 Emissions Have Been Flat Or Falling For Past 18 Months, Analysis Finds

  11-11-2025 08:00 via news.slashdot.org
  China's CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for 18 months, "adding evidence to the hope that the world's biggest polluter has managed to hit its target of peak CO2 emissions well ahead of schedule," reports the Guardian. From the report: Rapid increases in the deployment of solar and wind power generation -- which grew by 46% and 11% respectively in the third quarter of this year -- meant the country's energy sector emissions remained flat, even as the demand for electricity increased. China
  
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• Saudi Arabia's Dystopian Futuristic City Project Is Crashing and Burning

  11-11-2025 04:30 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: It appears that Neom -- Saudi Arabia's hugely expensive, architecturally bizarre urban development project -- is floundering and close to collapse. A new report from the Financial Times cites high-level sources within the project to paint a picture of dysfunction and failure at the heart of the quixotic effort. Neom was envisioned as a vast series of fantastical urban developments spread across the coast of the Red Sea. At the center of the proje
  
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• A Jailed Hacking Kingpin Reveals All About Cybercrime Gang

  11-11-2025 03:20 via it.slashdot.org
  Slashdot reader alternative_right shares an exclusive BBC interview with Vyacheslav "Tank" Penchukov, once a top-tier cyber-crime boss behind Jabber Zeus, IcedID, and major ransomware campaigns. His story traces the evolution of modern cybercrime from early bank-theft malware to today's lucrative ransomware ecosystem, marked by shifting alliances, Russian security-service ties, and the paranoia that ultimately consumes career hackers. Here's an excerpt from the report: In the late 2000s, he and
  
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• EU Eyes Banning Huawei, ZTE Corp From Mobile Networks of Member Countries

  11-11-2025 02:40 via mobile.slashdot.org
  The European Commission is considering turning its non-binding 2020 guidance on "high-risk vendors" into a legal requirement that would effectively force EU member states to phase out Huawei and ZTE from mobile and fixed-line networks. Bloomberg reports: Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen wants to convert the European Commission's 2020 recommendation to stop using high-risk vendors in mobile networks into a legal requirement, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because
  
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• The Linux Kernel Looks To 'Bite the Bullet' In Enabling Microsoft C Extensions

  11-11-2025 02:00 via developers.slashdot.org
  Linux kernel developers are moving toward enabling Microsoft C Extensions (-fms-extensions) by default in Linux 6.19, with Linus Torvalds signaling no objection. While some dislike relying on Microsoft-style behavior, the patches in kbuild-next suggest the project is ready to "bite the bullet" and adopt the extensions system-wide. Phoronix reports: Rasmus Villemoes argued with Kbuild: enable -fms-extensions that would allow for "prettier code" and others have noted in the past the potential for
  
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• Critics Call Proposed Changes To Landmark EU Privacy Law 'Death By a Thousand Cuts'

  11-11-2025 01:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Privacy activists say proposed changes to Europe's landmark privacy law, including making it easier for Big Tech to harvest Europeans' personal data for AI training, would flout EU case law and gut the legislation. The changes proposed by the European Commission are part of a drive to simplify a slew of laws adopted in recent years on technology, environmental and financial issues which have in turn faced pushback from companies and the U.S. gove
  
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• PDF Will Support JPEG XL Format As 'Preferred Solution'

  11-11-2025 00:40 via news.slashdot.org
  The PDF Association is adding JPEG XL (JXL) support to the PDF specification, giving the advanced image format a new path to relevance despite Google's decision to declare it obsolete and remove it from Chromium. The Register reports: Peter Wyatt, CTO of the PDF Association, said: "We need to adopt a new image [format] that can support HDR [High Dynamic Range] content ... we have picked JPEG XL as our preferred solution." Wyatt also praised other benefits of JXL including wide gamut images, ultr
  
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• Meta Is Killing Off the External Facebook Like Button

  11-11-2025 00:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Meta is retiring Facebook's external Like and Share buttons for third-party websites on February 10, 2026, officially closing the book on a once-dominant traffic driver as usage declines and Facebook's role within Meta continues to shrink.Engadget reports: The blog post from Meta explains that site admins shouldn't have to take any additional steps as a result of the change, although they can choose to remove the plugins before the discontinue date. Any remaining plugins will "gracefully degrade
  
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