ICT news

• FFmpeg Developer Files DMCA Against Rockchip After Two-Year Wait for License Fix

  26-12-2025 21:00 via it.slashdot.org
  GitHub has disabled Rockchip's Media Process Platform repository after an FFmpeg developer filed a DMCA takedown notice, nearly two years after the open-source project first publicly accused the Chinese chipmaker of license violations. The notice, filed December 18, claims Rockchip copied thousands of lines of code from FFmpeg's libavcodec library -- including decoders for H.265, AV1, and VP9 formats -- stripped the original copyright notices, falsely claimed authorship and redistributed the cod
  
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• Indian IT Was Supposed To Die From AI. Instead It's Billing for the Cleanup.

  26-12-2025 19:40 via it.slashdot.org
  Two years after generative AI was supposed to render India's $250 billion IT services industry obsolete, the sector is finding that enterprises still need someone to handle the unglamorous plumbing work that large-scale AI deployment demands. Less than 15% of organizations are meaningfully deploying the new technology, according to investment bank UBS, and Indian IT firms are positioning themselves to capture the preparatory work -- data cleanup, cloud migration, system integration -- that chann
  
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• As AI Companies Borrow Billions, Debt Investors Grow Wary

  26-12-2025 18:37 via news.slashdot.org
  While stock investors have pushed AI-related shares to repeated highs this year, debt markets are telling a more cautious story as newer AI infrastructure companies find themselves paying significantly elevated interest rates to borrow money. Applied Digital, a data center builder, sold $2.35 billion of debt in November at a 9.25% coupon -- roughly 3.75% above similarly rated companies, or about 70% more in interest costs. The pattern has repeated across several deals.
  Wulf Compute, a subsidiary
  
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• The Economic Divide Between Big and Small Companies Is Growing

  26-12-2025 17:24 via news.slashdot.org
  While America's largest corporations are riding a wave of surging profits and AI-fueled stock market enthusiasm to record highs, small businesses across the country are cutting staff and scaling back operations as years of high inflation, cautious consumers and tariff confusion take their toll.
  Private firms with fewer than 50 workers have steadily shed jobs over the past six months, according to payroll processor ADP, cutting 120,000 positions in November alone. Midsize and large firms continue
  
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• Retreating From EVs Could Be Hazardous For Western Carmakers

  26-12-2025 16:08 via tech.slashdot.org
  Western carmakers retreating from electric vehicles amid softening government mandates could find themselves in a precarious position as Chinese rivals continue gaining ground in the EV market they're choosing to de-prioritize. The EU on December 16th dropped its earlier plan to ban petrol car sales outright from 2035, instead requiring carmakers to cut emissions from new vehicles by 90% from 2021 levels. The day before, Ford announced a $19.5 billion asset writedown as it rethinks its EV strate
  
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• AI's Hunger For Memory Chips Could Shrink Smartphone and PC Sales in 2026, IDC Says

  26-12-2025 15:05 via it.slashdot.org
  The global smartphone and PC markets face potential contractions of up to 5.2% and 8.9% respectively in 2026, according to downside risk scenarios from IDC that trace the problem to memory chip manufacturers shifting production capacity away from consumer electronics toward AI data centers. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology have pivoted their limited cleanroom space toward high-bandwidth memory for AI servers, restricting supply of the conventional DRAM and NAND used in phones
  
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• China Launches $21 Billion Venture Capital Funds To Invest in 'Hard Technology'

  26-12-2025 13:31 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: China on Friday launched three venture capital funds to invest in "hard technology" areas, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The capital contribution plans for the funds have been finalised, each with more than 50 billion yuan ($7.14 billion), according to the report. The funds will primarily invest in early-stage startups and the targets should be valued at less than 500 million yuan, an official said on Friday, adding that no single investment would amount t
  
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• 'Memory is Running Out, and So Are Excuses For Software Bloat'

  26-12-2025 11:01 via developers.slashdot.org
  The relentless climb in memory prices driven by the AI boom's insatiable demand for datacenter hardware has renewed an old debate about whether modern software has grown inexcusably fat, a column by the Register argues. The piece points to Windows Task Manager as a case study: the current executable occupies 6MB on disk and demands nearly 70MB of RAM just to display system information, compared to the original's 85KB footprint.
  "Its successor is not orders of magnitude more functional," the colu
  
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• Cursor CEO Warns Vibe Coding Builds 'Shaky Foundations' That Eventually Crumble

  26-12-2025 08:00 via developers.slashdot.org
  Michael Truell, the 25-year-old CEO and cofounder of Cursor, is drawing a sharp distinction between careful AI-assisted development and the more hands-off approach commonly known as "vibe coding." Speaking at a conference, Truell described vibe coding as a method where users "close your eyes and you don't look at the code at all and you just ask the AI to go build the thing for you." He compared it to constructing a house by putting up four walls and a roof without understanding the underlying w
  
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• Gmail Users May Soon Be Able To Change Their Email Address and Keep the Old One

  26-12-2025 02:55 via it.slashdot.org
  Google appears to be testing a feature that would let users change their @gmail.com address for the first time, according to an official support document. The support page exists only in Hindi, suggesting an India-first rollout, and Google notes that users will "gradually begin to see this option."
  The feature would let users switch to a new @gmail address while retaining full access to their old one, effectively giving a single account two working email addresses. Emails sent to either address
  
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• Apple Settles Brazilian Antitrust Case, Must Allow Third-Party App Stores and External Payment Links

  26-12-2025 01:39 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple has agreed to a settlement with Brazil's antitrust regulator that will require the company to allow third-party app stores on iPhones and permit developers to direct users to external payment options, marking another country where Apple's tightly controlled App Store model is being pried open by government action.
  Brazil's Administrative Council of Economic Defense approved the settlement this week, resolving an investigation that began in 2022 into whether Apple's restrictions on app dist
  
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