ICT news

• Android 17 Drops For Pixel Phones and Watch

  18-06-2026 20:00 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Google has begun rolling out Android 17, the June Pixel Feature Drop, and Wear OS 7 simultaneously across supported Pixel phones and watches. Highlights include floating app bubbles, improved foldable multitasking and gaming, tighter location and contact permissions, stronger lost-device protections, new Pixel AI tools, and up to 10% better Pixel Watch battery life. PhoneArena reports: Pixel owners are the clear winners, since everything here reaches Pixel first and a lot of it goes back to the
  
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• California 'Billionaire Tax' Makes Ballot Despite Opposition From Tech Moguls

  19-06-2026 00:00 via news.slashdot.org
  California's proposed "billionaire tax" has gathered enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot, setting up a major fight between labor unions and some of Silicon Valley's richest figures. From the report: The California Billionaire Tax Act, colloquially known as the billionaire tax, would levy a one-time 5% tax on any California resident worth more than $1bn. The proposal is backed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West as a means of funding Califo
  
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• Midjourney Pivots From AI Image Generation To Body Scanning Medical Spa

  18-06-2026 23:00 via science.slashdot.org
  Midjourney is expanding beyond AI image generation with plans for a medical-imaging business built around a water-based, full-body ultrasound scanner that uses hundreds of thousands of sensors and AI to reconstruct MRI-like images. "As you descend into the water, hundreds of thousands of tiny elements take turns, sending out waves, listening together, compressing and then streaming data to a massive cluster where thousands of computers split the task," Midjourney explained in the announcement. "
  
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• Bernie Sanders Unveils $7 Trillion Plan To Give Americans Control of AI Industry

  18-06-2026 22:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: As artificial intelligence companies reshape the economy and race toward trillion-dollar valuations, Sen. Bernie Sanders is proposing a sweeping transfer of wealth and power from the industry to the American public. The legislation, shown first to The Associated Press, would create a sovereign wealth fund overseen by an independent commission and financed through a one-time 50% tax on the stock of the largest AI companies. Sanders es
  
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• Apple Announces Major App Store Changes on iOS in Brazil

  18-06-2026 21:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple is allowing iPhone developers in Brazil to distribute apps through authorized alternative marketplaces and use third-party payment systems following action by the country's competition regulator. "In other words, developers in Brazil will be able to circumvent the App Store and Apple's in-app purchase system, but there are still fees," reports MacRumors. Apple will collect commissions ranging from 5% on externally distributed apps to as much as 26% for some App Store transactions using its
  
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• Google Told Researcher 'Nice Catch!' Then Denied Bug Bounty For Flaw It Still Hasn't Fixed

  18-06-2026 19:00 via it.slashdot.org
  Security researcher Justin O'Leary says Google initially accepted his Config Connector privilege-escalation report as a high-priority, high-severity bug, then denied a bounty by declaring the behavior "working as intended." According to The Register, a Google rep initially praised O'Leary's report with a "Nice catch!" before the cloud giant reversed course, declaring that no vulnerability existed and therefore no fix or reward was warranted. "The bug report, however, is still marked high-priorit
  
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• Tim Cook Says Apple Price Increases Are 'Unavoidable' Due To Memory Costs

  18-06-2026 18:00 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: Apple is raising its prices to offset the high cost of memory and storage, CEO Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal. Apple is no longer able to absorb the increased prices and will need to pass some of the cost on to consumers. "Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable," said Cook. "We're doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we've been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the si
  
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• You Can No Longer Fly Or Purchase a Drone In Beijing

  18-06-2026 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from PetaPixel: China dominates the consumer drone market, so it is perhaps surprising that it is no longer possible to fly or even purchase a drone in Beijing. The new law that passed last month makes it illegal to buy, rent, or fly a drone without prior approval from the authorities. Users must also complete an online training session and pass a test on drone regulations. Under the new rules, drone users are also not allowed to repair or replace
  
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• CISA Urges Hardening Fortinet Devices After Reports of Credential Exposure

  18-06-2026 14:00 via cisa.gov
  CISA is aware of global reports that malicious cyber actors have targeted internet-accessible Fortinet devices across government and private sector organizations using compromised credentials. This activity, referred to as FortiBleed, involves the exposure of leaked credentials associated with approximately 74,000 Fortinet devices, including firewalls and virtual private network (VPN) gateways.  
  To defend against this malicious cyber activity, CISA urges impacted Fortinet customers with Fo
  
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• Brian Johnson, Special Effects Artist Behind 'Space: 1999,' Dies At 86

  18-06-2026 13:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Special-effects designer Brian Johnson, known for his groundbreaking work on Space: 1999, The Empire Strikes Back, Alien, and Aliens, has died at the age of 86. Johnson began his career creating models and explosions for Gerry and Sylvia Anderson productions, later designed the iconic Eagle Transporter, and became one of science fiction cinema's most influential behind-the-scenes artists. Longtime Slashdot reader sandbagger remembers the SFX legend, writing: "The Space: 1999 Eagle is one of the
  
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• China's EV Price War Was Built On Cars Sold At a Loss

  18-06-2026 09:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Autoblog: For years, the Chinese auto industry has employed a hostile price war to kneecap global competitors. Armed with massive state subsidies, cheap raw materials, and an aggressive "scale-first" business model, Chinese automakers flooded the market with electric vehicles priced so low that legacy manufacturers stood no chance to compete. How did they do it? Simple, they couldn't. They did it anyway. Reports from CarNewsChina show that Ch
  
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• Tesco Moving 40,000 Server Workloads Off VMware Amid Broadcom's 'Abusive Conduct'

  18-06-2026 05:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Tesco, a retail conglomerate headquartered in the United Kingdom, is moving 40,000 server workloads off of VMware amid "abusive conduct" from Broadcom, recent legal filings claim. Tesco filed a lawsuit in the UK's High Court against Broadcom alleging breach of contract last year. According to a September report from The Register, the lawsuit claimed that in January 2021, Tesco bought perpetual licenses for VMware's vSphere Foundation and Clo
  
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• Microsoft Working To Patch 'RoguePlanet' Zero-Day

  18-06-2026 01:00 via it.slashdot.org
  wiredmikey shares a report from SecurityWeek: Microsoft on Wednesday published an advisory acknowledging the public disclosure of a vulnerability in Defender that could lead to privilege escalation. The security defect, tracked as CVE-2026-50656 (CVSS score of 7.8), was dropped last week by security researcher Nightmare Eclipse (also known as Chaotic Eclipse). "We are working to provide a high-quality security update that addresses this vulnerability. We will provide information in this CVE when
  
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• Smartphone Market To Shrink 15% This Year Due To Memory Crisis

  18-06-2026 00:00 via mobile.slashdot.org
  CCS Insight expects global smartphone shipments to fall 15% this year as AI-driven demand pushes memory manufacturers toward higher-margin server chips. "[S]ome entry-level devices have already seen their sticker prices go up by more than 50 percent since last year," reports The Register. From the report: The firm found that the primary smartphone market (meaning new devices) contracted 4.4 percent in the first quarter of this year, despite sales channels front-loading (meaning stockpiling) prod
  
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• Carvana Is Turning Dealerships Into 'Playgrounds,' Test-Drive Centers With Sales All Online

  17-06-2026 23:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Carvana is testing a radically different new-car dealership model in Dallas, turning the location into a test-drive center and themed "playground" while requiring every purchase to be completed through its online platform. "Every single car that we sell, whether it's used or new, is online," said Tom Taira, Carvana president of special projects who's leading the new vehicle operations. "That's a very inherent difference. Even coming into the store, you're buying it online, and that's a big diffe
  
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• Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI Back Linux Foundation's Appia AI Standards Initiative

  17-06-2026 22:03 via linux.slashdot.org
  BrianFagioli writes: Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Arm, Mastercard, Siemens, and other companies have joined the newly launched Appia Foundation under the Linux Foundation. The project aims to create common specifications and assessment frameworks that organizations can use to demonstrate AI systems meet emerging safety, trust, and compliance requirements. According to the Linux Foundation, the framework is designed to allow conformity evidence to be reused across the AI supply chain, potentially r
  
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• Anthropic Employees Accuse Trump Administration of Targeting Them

  17-06-2026 21:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Anthropic employees say they remain confused and increasingly convinced that the Trump administration is singling out the company after officials gave it less than 90 minutes to disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 over alleged national security concerns. Cybersecurity experts, however, argue that the cited behavior of helping to identify vulnerabilities in software is also available in rival models and is more valuable to defenders than attackers. The New York Times reports: Inside the company, employe
  
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• AI Will Lead To Labor Shortages, Bezos Says In Optimistic Talk

  17-06-2026 20:00 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Artificial Intelligence will lead to labour shortages, not the replacement of humans, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted in a highly optimistic appearance at the VivaTech technology conference in Paris on Wednesday. Bezos put forward a rosy vision of how technology will help humanity, speaking about projects including his space venture Blue Origin and his new AI startup Prometheus, which is aimed at speeding up physical manufacturing. "I know th
  
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• Epic Games Announces Lore Open-Source Version Control System

  17-06-2026 19:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Epic Games has released Lore, an MIT-licensed version control system written in Rust and designed specifically for "games and entertainment purposes with large file sizes," reports Phoronix. From the report: While there is Git LFS for large file storage with Git, Epic Games has crated Lore as a version control system designed entirely around the large file needs of modern game development as well as multimedia/entertainment purposes. Lore is designed to be fast and efficient for large files incl
  
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• Hacking Group Claims Major Hack of Novo Nordisk, Attempted $25 Million Extortion

  17-06-2026 18:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Reuters reports a cyber extortion group has claimed responsibility for breaching Novo Nordisk's network, stealing roughly 1.3 terabytes of data, including source code, drug research, clinical-trial records, employee and physician information, production-system details, and internal AI model data. The group says it's exploring selling parts of the data after unsuccessfully demanding $25 million from the company. From the report: FulcrumSec, a cyber extortion group that emerged in October 2025, sa
  
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• OpenAI Losses Increased Nearly 8X In 2025, With Spending Hitting $34 Billion

  17-06-2026 17:00 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from independent journalist Ed Zitron: Today, I can exclusively report, based on audited financial documents viewed by this publication that have been independently verified by the Financial Times, that OpenAI lost around $38.5 billion in 2025, as well as other crucial details about the financial condition of the company. [...] At the end of the year, OpenAI had just over $50 billion in assets, with almost half of that in cash. [...] The financial condition of
  
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• Stop Killing Games Fails To Secure EU Law Despite 1.3 Million Signatures

  17-06-2026 13:00 via games.slashdot.org
  The European Commission has declined (PDF) to propose a law requiring publishers to keep discontinued video games playable, despite the Stop Killing Games initiative collecting nearly 1.3 million verified signatures. Instead, it plans to develop a voluntary industry code covering end-of-life transparency and preservation. Dextero reports: The Commission's full communication said a legal obligation to keep games playable, as requested by the initiative, "would not be proportionate." It cited conc
  
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• AI and Brain-Computer Interface Allow Speechless ALS Patient To Work a Full-Time Job

  17-06-2026 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  UC Davis researchers say an implanted brain-computer interface has allowed Casey Harrell, an ALS patient who cannot speak, to synthesize sentences from brain activity with 99% accuracy in controlled tests and about 92% accuracy in everyday use. The Register reports that the system has remained usable at home since 2023, helping Harrell communicate naturally, control a computer, and return to full-time work without researchers needing to supervise each session. The Register reports: A team of sci
  
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• HPE Tempts VMware Users, Partners With Year of Free Virtualization Software

  17-06-2026 05:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE) new virtualization software promotion will likely pique the interest of end users and resellers who are unhappy with Broadcom's pricing of VMware. During its HPE Discover event in Las Vegas this week, HPE announced that customers could use its "HPE Morpheus Software -- VM Essentials" offering for free for "up to one year," per a press release. HPE's website describes its virtualization platform as a "VMware
  
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• Commodore's Callback 8020 Is a $499 Flip Phone That Blocks Social Media and Browsers

  17-06-2026 01:00 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Commodore has unveiled the Callback 8020, a $499 Sailfish OS flip phone that runs most Android apps but deliberately blocks social media, browsers, email, and workplace apps to discourage doomscrolling. The "not dumb dumbphone" still supports messaging, music, maps, ridesharing, hotspots, a removable battery, and plenty of Commodore nostalgia. "The phone uses T9-style texting with predictive input, includes Commodore SID ringtones, ships with a selection of Commodore and Sailfish games, and even
  
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• Binance Set To Lose Permission To Operate In EU

  17-06-2026 00:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Binance is expected to lose permission to serve EU customers in July after Greek regulators reportedly decided to reject its MiCA license application. Reuters reports: Under new EU rules, called MiCA, crypto firms have until the end of June to obtain a licence to allow them to keep servicing clients across the bloc. Binance's application, made to Greece's market regulator, is set to be turned down, the people said. European regulators have been attempting to rein in crypto exchanges, which allow
  
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• France To Stop Certifying Products Without Quantum-Safe Encryption

  16-06-2026 23:00 via it.slashdot.org
  Starting in 2027, France's cybersecurity agency ANSSI will stop certifying security products that lack quantum-resistant encryption, effectively forcing government agencies and critical infrastructure operators to phase out older cryptographic systems. Reuters reports: Samih Souissi, ANSSI's chief of staff, said at the France Quantum conference that the agency would halt such certifications from 2027, and that businesses should be buying only quantum-safe products by 2030. ANSSI approval is requ
  
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• Mobileye Is Entering the US Robotaxi Market With Standalone Service

  16-06-2026 22:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The driving technology company Mobileye plans to launch a robotaxi service in an as-yet-unnamed US city in 2027, it said earlier today. The service will be vertically integrated, using Mobileye's Moovit mobility platform to interact with customers booking rides, coordinate drivers, and so on. The Israeli company, which was bought by Intel in 2017 before going public again in 2022, says it will start with around 100 robotaxis early next year.
  
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• Snap's First Consumer AI Glasses Are Coming This Fall For $2,195

  16-06-2026 21:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Snap is launching its first consumer augmented-reality glasses this fall for $2,195. "You can preorder a pair of Specs now at specs.com with a $200 refundable deposit, and Snap says they're expected to ship 'this fall' in the US, UK, and France," reports The Verge. From the report: This is a big moment for Snap: The company made a big entry into smart glasses with its original Spectacles in 2016, and the company has been toiling away on nonpublic AR versions of Spectacles over the past few years
  
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• SpaceX To Acquire AI Coding Startup Cursor For $60 Billion

  16-06-2026 20:00 via science.slashdot.org
  SpaceX has agreed to acquire Cursor for $60 billion in stock, adding the popular AI coding assistant to Elon Musk's newly public aerospace-and-AI conglomerate. CNBC reports: Cursor built a popular AI coding tool that helps software developers generate, edit and review code, and the company has experienced explosive growth since its founding in 2022. In November, Cursor said it crossed $1 billion in annualized revenue, according to a release at the time. Cursor was also ranked at No. 37 on the an
  
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