ICT news

• America's Farmers Are Bogged Down by Data

  22-08-2023 20:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A decade after data analytics promised to revolutionize agriculture, most farmers still aren't using data tools or specialized software, and of those who do, many are swamped in a deluge of data. From a report: In 2013, seed and pesticide giant Monsanto acquired agriculture-data firm Climate Corporation for $1 billion, helping spur the industry's mania for data-driven farming. The hope was that by outfitting farmers with software and tools capable of ingesting and analyzing troves of data on thi
  
  Read more

• Pinterest Cuts Up To 15% Jobs To Redirect Resources To AI

  27-01-2026 16:22 via slashdot.org
  Pinterest said on Tuesday it would trim its workforce by less than 15% and reduce office space, as the social media company looks to reallocate resources to AI-focused roles and initiatives. From a report: The announcement comes as the company competes with TikTok and Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram for digital advertising budgets, as these platforms continue to draw marketers with their extensive user base.
  Pinterest had 5,205 full-time employees as of September 2025. The latest job cut would
  
  Read more

• Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold Will Cost $2,900 in the US

  27-01-2026 15:45 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Samsung said today that its Galaxy Z TriFold, the first tri-fold smartphone to ship in the U.S., will be available starting January 30 at a price point of $2,899 -- substantially more expensive than any other phone on the U.S. market, including Samsung's own $2,000 Galaxy Z Fold 7 and a fully loaded 2TB iPhone 17 Pro Max.
  The company will only sell the device through its website and Samsung Experience Stores; mobile carrier partners including Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T won't be offering it
  
  Read more

• How Anthropic Built Claude: Buy Books, Slice Spines, Scan Pages, Recycle the Remains

  27-01-2026 15:06 via news.slashdot.org
  Court documents unsealed last week in a copyright lawsuit against Anthropic reveal that the AI company ran an operation called "Project Panama" to buy millions of physical books, slice off their spines, scan the pages to train its Claude chatbot, and then send the remains to recycling companies.
  The company spent tens of millions of dollars on the effort and hired Tom Turvey, a Google executive who had worked on the legally contested Google Books project two decades earlier. Anthropic bought boo
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Microsoft Is Refreshing the Xbox Cloud Gaming Web Experience

  27-01-2026 14:00 via games.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Thurrott: Microsoft is testing a refresh of the Xbox Cloud Gaming web experience in public preview. "This preview is a first look at our new web interface on your browser and lets you try the updated design and product flow before it is rolled out broadly," Microsoft's Patrick Siu explains. "Players who opt in to this preview will see some changes to their experience including updated navigation features and a refreshed look and feel. As this is a preview
  
  Read more

• ReactOS Celebrates 30 Years

  27-01-2026 11:00 via news.slashdot.org
  jeditobe writes: ReactOS, the open-source operating system aimed at binary compatibility with Windows, recently marked its 30th anniversary. Launched in 1996, ReactOS has focused on providing a free alternative to Windows, with compatibility for Windows applications and drivers. Though still in development, it has made significant progress in recent years, including improvements to USB support, better hardware compatibility, and enhanced performance with the release of version 0.4.15. The upcomi
  
  Read more

• Lawsuit Alleges That WhatsApp Has No End-to-End Encryption

  27-01-2026 08:00 via it.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from PCMag: A lawsuit claims that WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption is a sham, and is demanding damages, but the app's parent company, Meta, calls the claims "false and absurd." The lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco US district court on Friday and comes from a group of users based in countries such as Australia, Mexico, and South Africa, according to Bloomberg.As evidence, the lawsuit cites unnamed "courageous whistleblowers" who allege that Wha
  
  Read more

• China Hacked Downing Street Phones For Years

  27-01-2026 04:30 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Telegraph: China hacked the mobile phones of senior officials in Downing Street for several years, The Telegraph can disclose. The spying operation is understood to have compromised senior members of the government, exposing their private communications to Beijing. State-sponsored hackers are known to have targeted the phones of some of the closest aides to Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak between 2021 and 2024. It is unclear whether the hack
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Reddit Lawyers Force Founder to Redact 'WallStreetBets' From Miami Event

  27-01-2026 02:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  Reddit has forced Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of infamous r/WallStreetBets, to strip the WallStreetBets name from an upcoming Miami conference after legal threats citing trademark rights. According to a press release, it's the "first known case of a social media company enforcing trademark control over a user-created community." From the report: After years of litigation, courts ultimately sided with Reddit in a decision now referred to as the "Rogozinski Ruling," a precedent that grants platf
  
  Read more

• Apple Launches AirTag 2 With Improved Range, Louder Speaker

  27-01-2026 02:20 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple has launched a new AirTag 2 that features improved range, a speaker that's 50% louder, and expanded Apple Watch-based tracking. Pricing stays the same at $29 (or $99 for four). 9to5Mac reports: The new AirTag comes with an upgraded second-generation Ultra Wideband chip for improved range, including when using Precision Finding. From Apple Newsroom: "Apple's second-generation Ultra Wideband chip -- the same chip found in the iPhone 17 lineup, iPhone Air, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple Watch
  
  Read more

• TikTok Alternative 'Skylight' Soars To 380K+ Users After TikTok US Deal Finalized

  27-01-2026 02:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Skylight, an open-source, TikTok-style video app built on the AT Protocol, surged past 380,000 users after last week's shake-up around TikTok's U.S. ownership and privacy concerns. TechCrunch reports: Launched last year and backed by Mark Cuban and other investors, Skylight's mobile app is built on the AT Protocol, the technology that also powers the decentralized X rival Bluesky, which now has north of 42 million users. Skylight, co-founded by CEO Tori White and CTO Reed Harmeyer, offers a buil
  
  Read more

• Microsoft's Latest AI Chip Claims Performance Edge Over Amazon and Google

  27-01-2026 01:20 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from GeekWire: Microsoft on Monday announced Maia 200, the second generation of its custom AI chip, claiming it's the most powerful first-party silicon from any major cloud provider. The company says Maia 200 delivers three times the performance of Amazon's latest Trainium chip on certain benchmarks, and exceeds Google's most recent tensor processing unit (TPU) on others. The chip is already running workloads at Microsoft's data center near Des Moines, Iowa. M
  
  Read more

• California Tech CEO and EV Pioneer Arrested, Accused of Murder

  27-01-2026 00:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  California tech executive Gordon Abas Goodarzi has been arrested and charged with murder in the death of his estranged wife, Aryan Papoli, whose body was found last November down an embankment off Highway 138 in San Bernardino County. Authorities initially believed the injuries were consistent with a fall, but the case was later ruled a homicide following a months-long investigation by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. "Arrest records show that Goodarzi is currently in custody with
  
  Read more

• Gemini In Google Calendar Now Helps You Find the Best Meeting Time For All Attendees

  27-01-2026 00:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Google is adding Gemini-powered "Suggested times" to Google Calendar, automatically scanning attendees' calendars to surface the best meeting slots based on availability, work hours, and conflicts. The feature also streamlines rescheduling with one-click alternatives when invitees decline. Digital Trends reports: According to a recent post on the Workspace Updates blog, Gemini in Google Calendar can now help you quickly identify optimal meeting times when creating an event, as long as you have a
  
  Read more

• Google Settles $68 Million Lawsuit Claiming It Recorded Private Conversations

  26-01-2026 23:25 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly listened to people's private conversations through their phones. [...] the lawsuit claimed Google Assistant would sometimes turn on by mistake -- the phone thinking someone had said its activation phrase when they had not -- and recorded conversations intended to be private. They alleged the recordings were then sent to advertisers for the purpose of creating targeted a
  
  Read more

• DOT Plans To Use Google Gemini AI To Write Regulations

  26-01-2026 22:22 via news.slashdot.org
  The Trump administration is planning to use AI to write federal transportation regulations, ProPublica reported on Monday, citing the U.S. Department of Transportation records and interviews with six agency staffers. From the report: The plan was presented to DOT staff last month at a demonstration of AI's "potential to revolutionize the way we draft rulemakings," agency attorney Daniel Cohen wrote to colleagues. The demonstration, Cohen wrote, would showcase "exciting new AI tools available to
  
  Read more

• Valve Facing UK Lawsuit Over Pricing and Commissions

  26-01-2026 21:45 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Video game developer and distributor Valve must face a 656 million-pound ($897.7 million) lawsuit in Britain, which alleges it charged publishers excessive commissions for its Steam online store, after a tribunal ruled on Monday the case could continue. Valve was sued in 2024 on behalf of up to 14 million people in the United Kingdom who bought games or additional content through Steam or other platforms since 2018.
  Lawyers representing children's welfare adv
  
  Read more

• New California Law Means Big Changes For Photos of Homes in Real Estate Listings

  26-01-2026 21:05 via news.slashdot.org
  California house hunters now have legal protection against the kind of real estate photo trickery that has long plagued the home-buying process, as a new state law requiring disclosure of digitally altered listing images took effect on January 1.
  Assembly Bill 723 mandates that real estate agents and brokers include a "reasonably conspicuous" statement whenever photos have been altered using editing software or AI to add, remove, or change elements like furniture, appliances, flooring, views or
  
  Read more

• GTA 6's Physical Release Could Be Delayed To 2027 Because of Leaks

  26-01-2026 20:28 via games.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: An insider who correctly leaked information about Oblivion: Remastered and other titles is warning that GTA 6's physical release could be pushed back. GTA 6 is set to finally launch on November 19, 2026, but fans hoping to get their hands on a physical copy could be stuck waiting even longer.
  According to a report from Polish site PPE, insider Graczdari says Rockstar's parent company, Take-Two, isn't planning to release a physical edition of GTA 6 at launch.
  
  Read more

• Nike Says It's Investigating Possible Data Breach

  26-01-2026 19:53 via it.slashdot.org
  Nike says it is investigating a potential data breach, after a group known for cyber attacks reportedly claimed to have leaked a trove of data related to its business operations. From a report: "We always take consumer privacy and data security very seriously," Nike said in a statement. "We are investigating a potential cyber security incident and are actively assessing the situation."
  The ransomware group World Leaks said on its website that it had published 1.4 terabytes of data from Nike.Read
  
  Read more

• Television Turns 100

  26-01-2026 19:10 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Television marks its centenary today, exactly 100 years after Scottish inventor John Logie Baird first demonstrated his electro-mechanical system to journalists and members of the Royal Institution in a cramped attic workshop above what is now Bar Italia in London's Soho.
  On January 26, 1926, small groups of visitors climbed to 22 Frith Street and watched fuzzy images of a ventriloquist's dummy called Stooky Bill appear on screen, followed by each other's faces transmitted from a separate room.
  
  Read more

• How a 15,000-Person Island Stumbled Into a $70 Million AI Windfall

  26-01-2026 18:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: From Sandisk shareholders to vibe coders, AI is making -- and breaking -- fortunes at a rapid pace. One unlikely beneficiary has been the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla, which lucked into a future fortune when ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, gave the island the ".ai" top-level domain in the mid-1990s. Indeed, since ChatGPT's launch at the end of 2022, the gold rush for websites to associate themselves with the burgeonin
  
  Read more

• Fixing Retail With Land Value Capture

  26-01-2026 17:50 via slashdot.org
  The independent coffee shops and quirky boutiques that make neighborhoods like Hayes Valley in San Francisco or Williamsburg in Brooklyn desirable are caught in a frustrating economic trap: they create value that ends up in the pockets of nearby homeowners rather than their own cash registers.
  An essay in Works in Progress magazine argues that when an interesting new store or restaurant opens, commercial and residential property values rise in the surrounding area, but the retailer itself captur
  
  Read more

• World Not Ready For Rise In Extreme Heat, Scientists Say

  26-01-2026 17:12 via news.slashdot.org
  Nearly 3.8 billion people could face extreme heat by 2050 and while tropical countries will bear the brunt cooler regions will also need to adapt, scientists said Monday. From a report: Demand for cooling will "drastically" increase in giant countries like Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria, where hundreds of millions of people lack air conditioning or other means of beating the heat. But even a moderate increase in hotter days could have a "severe impact" in nations not used to such conditions like
  
  Read more

• Saudi Arabia To Scale Back Neom Megaproject

  26-01-2026 16:28 via news.slashdot.org
  Saudi Arabia is preparing to significantly scale back Neom, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's flagship development that sprawls across a Belgium-sized stretch of Red Sea coastline and was once billed as the world's largest construction site. Financial Times is reporting that Prince Mohammed, who chairs the project, now envisions something "far smaller" as a year-long review nears completion. The Line, a futuristic 170-kilometer linear city that served as Neom's centerpiece, will be radically re
  
  Read more

• AI is Hitting UK Harder Than Other Big Economies, Study Finds

  26-01-2026 15:40 via news.slashdot.org
  The UK is losing more jobs than it is creating because of AI and is being hit harder than rival large economies, new research suggests. From a report: British companies reported that AI had resulted in net job losses over the past 12 months, down 8% -- the highest rate among other leading economies including the US, Japan, Germany and Australia, according to a study by the investment bank Morgan Stanley. The research surveyed companies using AI for at least a year across five industries: consume
  
  Read more

• Angry Gamers Are Forcing Studios To Scrap or Rethink New Releases

  26-01-2026 15:00 via games.slashdot.org
  The video game industry is experiencing something that most consumer-facing businesses would consider remarkable: organized online campaigns from players are actually forcing studios to cancel projects or publicly walk back any association with AI-generated content.
  Running With Scissors, the publisher behind the Postal shooter franchise, recently scrapped a title after players accused its trailer of containing AI-generated graphics. Goonswarm Games, the developer behind the canceled project, su
  
  Read more

• Richard Stallman Was Asked: Is Software Piracy Wrong?

  26-01-2026 13:34 via news.slashdot.org
  Friday 72-year-old Richard Stallman made a two-hour-and-20-minutes appearance at the Georgia Institute of Technology, talking about everything from AI and connected cars to smartphones, age verfication laws, and his favorite Linux distro. But early on, Stallman also told the audience how "I despise DRM...I don't want any copy of anything with DRM. Whatever it is, I never want it so badly that I would bow down to DRM." (So he doesn't use Spotify or Netflix...)
  This led to an interesting moment wh
  
  Read more

• Is Google Prioritizing YouTube and X Over News Publishers on Discover?

  26-01-2026 09:34 via news.slashdot.org
  Earlier this month, the media site Press Gazette reported that now Google "is increasingly prioritising AI summaries, X posts and Youtube videos" on its "Discover" feed (which appears on the leftmost homescreen page of many Android phones and the Google app's homepage).
  "The changes could be devastating for publishers who rely heavily on Discover for referral traffic. And it looks set to accelerate a global trend of declining traffic to publishers from both Google search and Discover."Xavi Beuma
  
  Read more

• Startup Uses SpaceX Tech to Cool Data Centers With Less Power and No Water

  26-01-2026 06:44 via hardware.slashdot.org
  California-based Karman Industries "says it has developed a cooling system that uses SpaceX rocket engine technology to rein in the environmental impact of data centers," reports the Los Angeles Times, "chilling them with less space, less power and no water."
  Karman has developed a cooling system similar to the heat pumps in the average home, except its pumps use liquid carbon dioxide as refrigerant, which is circulated using rocket engine technology rather than fans. The company's efficient pum
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!