ICT news

• Adventures on Mars: 'Ingenuity' Helicopter Survives a Communications Blackout

  29-05-2023 09:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The Mars helicopter 'Ingenuity' recently completed its 47th, 48th, and 49th flight, NASA reports on the blog for its Mars rover 'Perseverance'. That rover is making a "long ascent" up the delta in Mars' Jezero crater, "an area where scientists surmise that, billions of years ago, a river once flowed into a lake.On its 47th flight, Ingenuity attempted "tactical and scientific scouting" for the rover, but "just narrowly missing the main area of interest." But then...Ingenuity's 48th flight produce
  
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• Rescue Mission Is Called Off For NASA's Aging Swift Space Telescope

  20-08-2026 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  NASA has called off a $30 million mission to rescue its aging Swift space telescope after Katalyst Space's Link spacecraft developed persistent control and positioning problems. The Associated Press reports: Katalyst said Link will not attempt to capture Swift and boost it to a higher orbit because of problems with controlling the spacecraft. NASA said this means the telescope will plunge through the atmosphere after more than 20 years of tracking some of the biggest explosions in the universe l
  
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• Whistleblower Arturo Bejar Leads Testimony In Landmark Trial Against Meta

  20-08-2026 05:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Meta was infused with a culture in which employees obsessed over user numbers and consistently pushed safety to the side, according to Arturo Bejar, a former employee turned whistleblower, who testified today in the landmark child safety trial against the social media company. Only one man had the ability to change that, Bejar said: CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But he didn't. "At the end of the day, it was the company culture that Mark had created that made
  
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• PINE64 Halts Linux Device Production Amid DRAM and EMMC Shortages

  20-08-2026 01:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  BrianFagioli writes: PINE64 has some very bad news for Linux hardware fans. PINE64 says it has no plans to produce additional Linux devices in the near future because of the ongoing DRAM and eMMC shortage. Future production will depend on component pricing after mid 2027, while existing PineNote and PineTab2 inventory could run out in roughly three months. The company says PineTime, PineVoice, and Pinecil production will continue as usual, but the outlook for its Linux hardware is much less cert
  
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• Stripe Buys AI Startup OpenRouter For $7.5 Billion

  20-08-2026 00:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Stripe is acquiring AI model marketplace OpenRouter as it pushes beyond payments into the infrastructure behind AI applications. According to The New York Times, the deal is reportedly valued at about $7.5 billion, with $1.5 billion allocated to OpenRouter's founders. Less than three months ago the company was valued at about $1.3 billion. CNBC reports: OpenRouter has become popular with developers seeking to use AI models, particularly those considered non-proprietary and available for free. Ma
  
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• Amazon's Drones Will Soon Deliver to Nearly 500 US Cities and Towns

  19-08-2026 23:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Amazon says its Prime Air drone delivery service will expand sixfold to nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of 2026, including metro areas around Chicago, Syracuse, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Boise. According to Amazon Prime Air vice president David Carbon, the service has already delivered "hundreds of thousands of packages to customers" this year, typically within about an hour. The Verge reports: These will join 11 locations across the US where Amazon already offers drone deliveries, wit
  
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• Music Publisher Round Hill Files $1 Billion Copyright Infringement Suits Against Suno, Anthropic

  19-08-2026 22:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Independent music publisher Round Hill is suing Suno and Anthropic for allegedly using hundreds of copyrighted songs without permission to train their AI systems. The company says potential damages could exceed $1 billion, arguing there is "nothing fair" about building multibillion-dollar AI businesses on copyrighted material while rights holders receive nothing. From The Hollywood Reporter: Round Hill is a prominent music publisher whose copyrights include the Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris," Bonnie Tyle
  
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• CISA: Medusa Ransomware Hit Over 500 Critical Infrastructure Orgs

  19-08-2026 21:00 via it.slashdot.org
  CISA says the Medusa ransomware operation has breached more than 500 U.S. critical infrastructure organizations since 2021, up from more than 300 reported last year. The group has targeted healthcare, government, defense, manufacturing, IT and financial organizations, evolving into a ransomware-as-a-service operation that recruits initial-access brokers and uses stolen data to pressure victims into paying. BleepingComputer reports: The three federal agencies recommended that network defenders se
  
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• Moderna, Merck Say mRNA Vaccine Prevents Melanoma From Returning

  19-08-2026 20:00 via science.slashdot.org
  Moderna and Merck say their personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine significantly reduced both cancer recurrence and spread in a late-stage trial. The treatment could reach patients as soon as next year if regulators approve it. Reuters reports: Moderna developed the vaccine with Merck and tested it together with immunotherapy drug Keytruda, a widely used treatment for melanoma. [...] This is the first positive late-stage trial result for an mRNA cancer vaccine, which trains a patient's immune system
  
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• X's Algorithm Feeds Off Ragebait and Impacts Democrats More, Study Finds

  19-08-2026 19:00 via politics.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: X's algorithm learns what you hate and shows you more of it, according to a new study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The paper, titled Value misalignment of X's feed algorithm is a reflection of value tensions in engagement, found that the site's algorithm prioritized engagement above all else when it generated a user's For You Page. It also showed that X serves more ragebait to people who say they
  
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• Army Unit Offers 4-Day Pass to Play GTA VI As Reenlistment Incentive

  19-08-2026 18:12 via tech.slashdot.org
  A U.S. Army battalion at Fort Stewart is offering soldiers a four-day pass timed to the release of Grand Theft Auto VI if they reenlist for at least two years. The program is limited to one unit for now, but it fits the Army's broader effort to appeal to gamers as a recruiting and retention pool. CBS News reports: Twenty soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia in the Army's 9th Brigade Engineering Battalion, part of the 3rd Infantry Division, have already chosen this incentive as part of their reenl
  
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• Chinese Robotics Giant Unitree Soars In Stock Market Debut

  19-08-2026 17:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Chinese robotics giant Unitree surged more than 600% in its Shanghai stock market debut, marking the first mainland Chinese listing by a humanoid robot maker and a major milestone for Beijing's robotics ambitions. The BBC reports: Unitree, officially known as Yushu Technology Co Ltd, was founded in 2016 and now plays a key role in Beijing's ambitions to develop advanced technology. It has become a robotics industry leader, selling devices from sensors and automated arms to four-legged and human-
  
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• Babies Born Under Sugar Rationing Grew Into Adults With Lower Cancer Risk

  19-08-2026 13:00 via science.slashdot.org
  A study of more than 64,000 people born around the end of Britain's postwar sugar rationing found that those exposed to less sugar during their first 1,000 days had lower rates of five cancers decades later, including roughly 69% lower liver cancer risk and 36% lower breast cancer risk. They also "showed signs of slower biological aging" and "continued to consume less sugar and had healthier diets overall," according to the authors of a new study published in The Conversation. From the report: A
  
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• Physicists Entangle Quantum Memories Across a Record-Breaking 420 Kilometers

  19-08-2026 09:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: Optical fibers are already the backbone of global communication systems. Recently, however, physicists have started to explore how their functionality could be boosted further by conveying information via entangled quantum particles -- potentially enabling instantaneous exchanges of information across vast distances. Such a system could eventually be the basis of a future 'quantum internet,' offering a level of security and computing power beyond
  
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• Top Album Releases Linked To Rise In Fatal Crashes

  19-08-2026 05:30 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The release of a new album by Taylor Swift might be a cause for celebration among her fans, but such events have also been linked to a more sombre phenomenon: an increase in fatal car crashes. The team behind a new study say it sheds light on the impact of distracted driving. Writing in the journal Jama Network Open, [Vishal Patel, first author of the study based at Harvard Medical School] and colleagues report how they focused on the releas
  
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• Cursor Launches 'Origin' Code Hosting Platform As GitHub Alternative

  19-08-2026 01:00 via developers.slashdot.org
  Cursor has launched Origin, a GitHub-style code hosting platform built directly into its AI coding environment. The company is initially positioning Origin as a low-risk layer on top of GitHub, keeping GitHub as the "source of truth," but the launch landed just as a major GitHub outage highlighted growing concerns about reliability in the age of AI-generated code. VentureBeat reports: Cursor began rolling out Origin, its own code hosting platform, to paid users on Monday morning. Roughly three a
  
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• Comcast Is Turning Millions of Its Routers Into Motion Detectors

  19-08-2026 00:00 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Comcast is activating Wi-Fi motion sensing on millions of compatible Xfinity gateways, allowing the routers to detect movement by measuring disruptions in signals between the gateway and connected devices. The free feature, part of Xfinity Shield, can send activity alerts through the Xfinity app and offers Home, Away, and nighttime monitoring modes without requiring separate motion sensors. The Verge reports: Wi-Fi motion sensing is a technology that has been around for a while, but it's only re
  
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• Disney, ABC Sue FCC Over Threats to Broadcast Licenses

  18-08-2026 23:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Disney and ABC are suing the FCC to block an early review of eight station licenses, arguing the Trump administration is using the agency's regulatory power to punish the network over programming and editorial decisions it dislikes. Reuters reports: In a lawsuit (PDF) filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Disney said the FCC was seeking to coerce and retaliate against "a network that refuses to bow to the administration's demands," calling the agency's actions an "extraordinary assault on
  
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• Memory Prices Climb 500% In 12 Months

  18-08-2026 22:03 via hardware.slashdot.org
  RAM prices have exploded over the past year, with some DDR5 kits approaching 500% year-over-year increases and a 128GB kit now selling for $3,399, which is more than 10 times its previous low. Tom's Hardware reports: Things improve as you step down the memory capacities and speed tiers, but not as much as we'd like. You're still looking at $392 for a memory kit that was just $72 last year. To reinforce the point, I pulled the latest average price data from PCPartPicker, comparing where we are to
  
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• You Can Finally Buy a Fairphone In the US

  18-08-2026 21:00 via mobile.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Your iPhone, SamsungGalaxy, andGoogle Pixel have a 1-year warranty. Unless you cough up extra dough for an extended service plan, you'll pay a hefty fee if you damage the screen and need a replacement (around $329 for aniPhone 17done directly fromApple). But it doesn't have to be this way. What if you could order the part from the manufacturer and do the repair yourself? That dream is finally being realized for American consumers, thanks to Fairpho
  
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• Google Buys All of Spirit Airlines' Data to Feed Its AI Models

  18-08-2026 20:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Google has agreed to pay $10 million for a massive trove of anonymized Spirit Airlines data following the carrier's shutdown, including internal communications, spreadsheets, booking and frequent-flyer records, transactions, and employee information. CNN reports: Did you ever fly on Spirit Airlines? Or work there? Or send an email to someone who worked there? Then your information will soon be feeding Google's artificial intelligence model. The discount airline halted all operations in May, and
  
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• Apple Lowers App Store Fees In Europe to Settle Dispute With EU

  18-08-2026 19:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple is overhauling its EU App Store fees to settle its Digital Markets Act dispute, simplifying the fee structure and "[resolving] Apple's disagreements with the Commission over business terms and alternative distribution." MacRumors reports: The initial acquisition fee and store services fee are being removed for apps distributed outside of the App Store, and Apple will now charge a 5% Core Technology Commission on digital purchases that replaces the prior per-install Core Technology Fee. Com
  
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• Microsoft MVP Creates Site to Remind You of All the Brands Redmond Replaced

  18-08-2026 18:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Microsoft MVP Loryan Strant has created the Microsoft Rebrand Registry, cataloging 72 Microsoft products and the 158 names they've had over the years. His analysis finds that Microsoft product names survive an average of two years and eleven months. The site even predicts which products are most likely to get renamed next, "by considering the amount of time the current name has applied, prior names, and the frequency with which Microsoft changes names of products in the same family," reports The
  
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• India Paves the Way For Charging Merchants a Fee On UPI Transactions

  18-08-2026 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: For most Indians, paying by Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become almost absurdly routine. Scan a QR code, tap a few buttons and the money moves instantly. There is no card machine, no cash, and -- most importantly -- for the user, no visible fee. That may be about to change. India has paved the way for banks and payment companies to charge merchants a fee on UPI transactions, potentially ending a decade-long experiment in free digital paym
  
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• Sainsbury's Store Pauses Facial Recognition After False Shoplifting Claim

  18-08-2026 13:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Bruce66423 shares a report from The Guardian: Sainsbury's has paused the use of AI face scanning in one of its stores after a customer was wrongly identified as a shoplifter and ejected from the shop. "I was embarrassed, mortified even, and felt quite humiliated and powerless," Matt Arnold, 46, said of his ordeal. The comedy promoter was buying supplies in the store in East Dulwich, in south-east London, for a standup event at Dulwich Hamlet football club when, after scanning his items and a Nec
  
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• Solar Power and Batteries Have Been Keeping Europe's Grid Stable

  18-08-2026 09:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  AleRunner writes: Solar has been doing the "heavy lifting" to help Europe meet its energy needs amid a string of blistering heatwaves." Euronews tells us as Europe's energy demands in the meantime, heat and Jellyfish have been causing shutdowns and reduced power output at multiple reactors at French nuclear plants as we already discussed From the report: A new analysis from energy think-tank Ember found that solar output in European countries rose by up to 17 percent on heatwave days in June and
  
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• 'Buy Now, Pay Later' Lenders Pitch Loans For Needs Like Electricity and Rent

  18-08-2026 05:30 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Buy now, pay later" loans took off during the pandemic as a way for online shoppers to go on retail splurges without using a credit card. Now, lenders are offering the loans as a means for people to finance basic households needs. The lending apps Flex and Zip allow customers to take out loans to pay for their broadband, electricity, health insurance, mobile phone service, mortgage and water bills. Affirm, one of the most popular pay-l
  
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• Supreme Court Rejects Verizon Bid For $47 Million Refund of FCC Fine

  18-08-2026 01:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Supreme Court today rejected Verizon's attempt to get a $47 million refund from the Federal Communications Commission. In a list of orders (PDF) issued by the court, Verizon's petition was denied without explanation. The denial apparently ends any possibility of Verizon asking a lower court to review the fine and order the FCC to issue a refund. However, AT&T and T-Mobile are continuing to challenge similar fines on grounds that sell
  
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• Apple Wallet Driver's License Feature to Launch in Four More US States

  18-08-2026 00:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple Wallet's driver's license and state ID feature is set to expand to North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, and Virginia, bringing the total to 18 states plus Puerto Rico. The digital IDs can be used at participating TSA checkpoints and businesses without handing over or unlocking an iPhone, though users are still generally advised to carry a physical ID because acceptance remains limited. MacRumors reports: A few days ago, North Carolina's DMV announced that it plans to launch a mobile ID program
  
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• Judge Sets Framework For Nine PBS to Retrieve 70 Years of Archival TV Data

  17-08-2026 23:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  District Court Judge Eric Elliff has ordered Iron Mountain to cooperate with Nine PBS in recovering roughly 50TB of archival material stored through now-defunct vendor OSS. "He found that the station is the rightful owner of the materials and entitled to recover them from OSS' storage systems," reports Current.org. Nine PBS must identify a third party to help retrieve the files, pay outstanding storage fees, and ensure that data belonging to other OSS customers isn't disturbed or accidentally re
  
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