ICT news

• Arizona Accuses Amazon of Unfair, Deceptive Business Practices

  16-05-2024 01:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed two lawsuits Wednesday against the international online retail giant Amazon.com, accusing it of deceptive and unfair business practices. Courthouse News Service: The two lawsuits, filed in state court, say Amazon's Prime cancellation process and the algorithm that decides whether a product is offered through a "buy now" or "add to cart" option violate the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act and the Arizona Uniform State Antitrust Act. Mayes, a Democrat, accuses A
  
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• Solar-Powered Planes Take Flight

  11-06-2024 18:40 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The dream of perpetual, emissionless flight is getting closer to reality. Aviation giants, telecoms, investors, and military agencies are pouring millions into developing these prototypes, which could revolutionize aerial surveillance, emergency communications, and more.
  Solar planes absorb energy via panels covering their wings and bodies, allowing them to fly indefinitely as long as the sun shines. Advances in battery technology now enable longer flights and overnight operation, albeit with le
  
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• Microsoft's New Outlook Security Changes Impact 3rd-Party Apps and Gmail Integration

  11-06-2024 18:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft is making changes to Outlook for consumers to enhance account security as part of its Secure Future Initiative. Starting September 16th, the company will end support for Basic Authentication for Outlook personal accounts, requiring users to access their email through apps using Modern Authentication.
  Microsoft will also remove the light version of the Outlook web application on August 19th and discontinue support for Gmail accounts in Outlook.com on June 30th. Users of affected email a
  
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• Mastercard To Phase Out Manual Card Entry For Online Payments In Europe By 2030

  11-06-2024 17:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  storkus shares a report: Starting from 2030, Mastercard will no longer require Europeans to enter their card numbers manually when checking out online -- no matter what platform or device they're using. Mastercard will announce Tuesday in a fireside chat with CNBC that, by 2030, all cards it issues on its network in Europe will be tokenized. In other words, instead of the 16-digit card number we're all accustomed to using for transactions, this will be replaced with a randomly generated "token."
  
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• African Elephants Address One Another With Individually Specific Name-Like Calls

  11-06-2024 16:46 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Abstract of a paper published on Nature: Personal names are a universal feature of human language, yet few analogues exist in other species. While dolphins and parrots address conspecifics by imitating the calls of the addressee, human names are not imitations of the sounds typically made by the named individual. Labelling objects or individuals without relying on imitation of the sounds made by the referent radically expands the expressive power of language. Thus, if non-imitative name analogue
  
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• Raspberry Pi is Now a Public Company

  11-06-2024 16:05 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Who would have thought that Raspberry Pi, the maker of the tiny, cheap, single-board computers, would become a public company? Yet, this is exactly what's happening: Raspberry Pi priced its IPO on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning at $3.56 per share, valuing it at $689 million. Shortly after that, the company's shares jumped a nice 32% to $4.70. It means that Raspberry Pi could end up raising more than $200 million during its IPO process.
  Raspberry
  
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• Advisory Panel of Experts Endorses FDA Approval of New Alzheimer's Drug

  11-06-2024 15:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: A committee of independent advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Monday that the benefits outweigh the risks of the newest experimental drug for Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's afflicts more than six million Americans. It has no cure, and there is no treatment or lifestyle modification that can restore memory loss or reverse cognitive decline. The drug, made by Eli Lilly, is donanemab. It modestly slowed co
  
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• Google Shuts Down GPay App, P2P Payments In the US

  11-06-2024 12:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  After announcing a shut down date in February, Google's "GPay" app has officially stopped working for users in the U.S. "Starting on June 4, GPay -- as was the name of the app on Android homescreens -- automatically signed US users out," reports 9to5Google. "Attempting to login again explains how: 'The Google Pay US app is no longer available. You can still tap to pay using the Google Wallet app.'" From the report: Additionally, Google no longer offers peer-to-peer payments in the US. You can us
  
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• Early Morning Frost Spotted On Some of Mars' Huge Mountains

  11-06-2024 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Scientists have discovered early morning frost on the summits of Martian volcanoes near the planet's equator, indicating that water ice forms overnight in colder months and evaporates after sunrise. "While the frosty layer is exceptionally thin, it covers an enormous area," reports The Guardian. "Scientists calculate that in the more frigid Martian seasons, 150,000 tons of water, equivalent to 60 Olympic swimming pools, condense daily on the tops of the towering mountains." From the report: "It'
  
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• Study Finds a Quarter of Bosses Hoped RTO Would Make Employees Quit

  11-06-2024 05:30 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: A study claims to have proof of what some have suspected: return to office mandates are just back-channel layoffs and post-COVID work culture is making everyone miserable. HR software biz BambooHR surveyed more than 1,500 employees, a third of whom work in HR. The findings suggest the return to office movement has been a poorly-executed failure, but one particular figure stands out -- a quarter of executives and a fifth of HR professionals h
  
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• New York Times Source Code Stolen Using Exposed GitHub Token

  11-06-2024 02:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The New York Times has confirmed that its internal source code was leaked on 4chan after being stolen from the company's GitHub repositories in January 2024. BleepingComputer reports: As first seen by VX-Underground, the internal data was leaked on Thursday by an anonymous user who posted a torrent to a 273GB archive containing the stolen data. "Basically all source code belonging to The New York Times Company, 270GB," reads the 4chan forum post. "There are around 5 thousand repos (out of them l
  
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• Apple Made an iPad Calculator App After 14 Years

  11-06-2024 02:02 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Jay Peters reports via The Verge: The iPad is finally getting a Calculator app as part of iPadOS 18. The long-requested app was just announced by Apple at WWDC 2024. On its face, the app looks a lot like the calculator you might be familiar with from iOS. But it also supports Apple Pencil, meaning that you can write down math problems and the app will solve them thanks to a feature Apple calls Math Notes. Other features included in iPadOS 18 include a new, customizable floating tab bar; enhanced
  
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• The Word 'Bot' Is Increasingly Being Used As an Insult On Social Media

  11-06-2024 01:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The definition of the word "bot" is shifting to become an insult to someone you know is human, according to researchers who analyzed more than 22 million tweets. Researchers found this shift began around 2017, with left-leaning users more likely to accuse right-leaning users of being bots. "A potential explanation might be that media frequently reported about right-wing bot networks influencing major events like the [2016] US election," says Dennis Assenmacher at Leibniz Institute for Social Sci
  
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• Apple Introduces Standalone 'Passwords' App

  11-06-2024 00:40 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia feature a new, dedicated Passwords app for faster access to important credentials. The Passwords app replaces iCloud Keychain, which is currently only accessible via a menu in Settings. Now, passwords are available directly via a standalone app for markedly quicker access, bringing it more in line with rival services. The Passwords app consolidates various credentials, including passwords, passkeys, and Wi-F
  
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• Scammers' New Way of Targeting Small Businesses: Impersonating Them

  11-06-2024 00:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Copycats are stepping up their attacks on small businesses. Sellers of products including merino socks and hummingbird feeders say they have lost customers to online scammers who use the legitimate business owners' videos, logos and social-media posts to assume their identities and steer customers to cheap knockoffs or simply take their money. WSJ: "We used to think you'd be targeted because you have a brand everywhere," said Alastair Gray, director of anticounterfeiting for the International Tr
  
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• Apple Announces visionOS 2 With 3D Photo Transformations and An Ultrawide Mac Display

  10-06-2024 23:20 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple has announced visionOS 2 for its Vision Pro spatial computing headset, bringing mouse support, an ultrawide virtual Mac display option, and new Photo features. The company says it's expected to launch "later this year." The Verge reports: The most significant update, for all the productivity heads out there, is a new ultrawide virtual display feature. Apple says that in visionOS 2, you'll be able to connect a Vision Pro to a Mac to generate a dual 4K-equivalent curved ultrawide display. Ri
  
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• One-Line Patch For Intel Meteor Lake Yields Up To 72% Better Performance

  10-06-2024 22:40 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Michael Larabel reports via Phoronix: Covered last week on Phoronix was a new patch from Intel that with tuning to the P-State CPU frequency scaling driver was showing big wins for Intel Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" performance and power efficiency. I was curious with the Intel claims posted for a couple benchmarks and thus over the weekend set out to run many Intel Meteor Lake benchmarks on this one-line kernel patch... The results are great for boosting the Linux performance of Intel Core ultra la
  
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• Apple Brings ChatGPT To Its Apps, Including Siri

  10-06-2024 22:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple is bringing ChatGPT, OpenAI's AI-powered chatbot experience, to Siri and other first-party apps and capabilities across its operating systems. From a report: "We're excited to partner with Apple to bring ChatGPT to their users in a new way," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement. "Apple shares our commitment to safety and innovation, and this partnership aligns with OpenAI's mission to make advanced AI accessible to everyone." Soon, Siri will be able to tap ChatGPT for "expertise" wher
  
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• ISPs Ask FCC For Tax On Big Tech To Fund Broadband Networks and Discounts

  10-06-2024 21:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Internet service providers are again urging the Federal Communications Commission to impose new fees on Big Tech firms and use the money to subsidize broadband network deployment and affordability programs. If approved, the request would force Big Tech firms to pay into the FCC's Universal Service Fund (USF), which in turn distributes money to broadband providers. The request was made on June 6 by USTelecom, a lobby group for AT&T, Veriz
  
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• Apple is Bringing RCS To the iPhone in iOS 18

  10-06-2024 20:44 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple has announced that its Messages app will support RCS in iOS 18. From a report: The new standard will replace SMS as the default communication protocol between Android and iOS devices. The move comes after years of taunting, cajoling, and finally, some regulatory scrutiny from the EU. Right now, when people on iOS and Android message each other, the service falls back to SMS -- photos and videos are sent at a lower quality, messages are shortened, and importantly, conversations are not end-
  
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• Apple Unveils Apple Intelligence

  10-06-2024 20:33 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  As rumored, Apple today unveiled Apple Intelligence, its long-awaited push into generative artificial intelligence (AI), promising highly personalized experiences built with safety and privacy at its core. The feature, referred to as "A.I.", will be integrated into Apple's various operating systems, including iOS, macOS, and the latest, VisionOS. CEO Tim Cook said that Apple Intelligence goes beyond artificial intelligence, calling it "personal intelligence" and "the next big step for Apple."
  Ap
  
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• Apple Unveils macOS 15 'Sequoia' at WWDC, Introduces Window Tiling and iPhone Mirroring

  10-06-2024 20:10 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  At its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple formally introduced macOS 15, codenamed "Sequoia." The new release combines features from iOS 18 with Mac-specific improvements. One notable addition is automated window tiling, allowing users to arrange windows on their screen without manual resizing or switching to full-screen mode. Another feature, iPhone Mirroring, streams the iPhone's screen to the Mac, enabling app use with the Mac's keyboard and trackpad while keeping the phone locked for priv
  
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• Malicious VSCode Extensions With Millions of Installs Discovered

  10-06-2024 19:23 via it.slashdot.org
  
  A group of Israeli researchers explored the security of the Visual Studio Code marketplace and managed to "infect" over 100 organizations by trojanizing a copy of the popular 'Dracula Official theme to include risky code. Further research into the VSCode Marketplace found thousands of extensions with millions of installs. From a report: Visual Studio Code (VSCode) is a source code editor published by Microsoft and used by many professional software developers worldwide. Microsoft also operates a
  
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• Mandiant Says Hackers Stole a 'Significant Volume of Data' From Snowflake Customers

  10-06-2024 18:44 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Security researchers say they believe financially motivated cybercriminals have stolen a "significant volume of data" from hundreds of customers hosting their vast banks of data with cloud storage giant Snowflake. TechCrunch: Incident response firm Mandiant, which is working with Snowflake to investigate the recent spate of data thefts, said in a blog post Monday that the two firms have notified around 165 customers that their data may have been stolen. It's the first time that the number of aff
  
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• Microplastics Found in Every Human Semen Sample Tested in Study

  10-06-2024 18:02 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Microplastic pollution has been found in all human semen samples tested in a study, and researchers say further research on the potential harm to reproduction is "imperative." From a report: Sperm counts in men have been falling for decades and 40% of low counts remain unexplained, although chemical pollution has been implicated by many studies. The 40 semen samples were from healthy men undergoing premarital health assessments in Jinan, China. Another recent study found microplastics in the sem
  
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• Study Finds a Quarter of Bosses Hoped Return-To-Office Would Make Employees Quit

  10-06-2024 17:21 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A study claims to have proof of what some have suspected: return to office mandates are just back-channel layoffs and post-COVID work culture is making everyone miserable. HR software biz BambooHR surveyed more than 1,500 employees, a third of whom work in HR. The findings suggest the return to office movement has been a poorly-executed failure, but one particular figure stands out - a quarter of executives and a fifth of HR professionals hoped RTO mandates w
  
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• Micrsoft Confirms Cheaper All-Digital Xbox Series X As It Marches Beyond Physical Games

  10-06-2024 16:46 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has announced a new lineup of Xbox consoles, including an all-digital white Xbox Series X with a 1TB SSD, priced at $450. The company is also retiring the Carbon Black Series S, replacing it with a white version featuring a 1TB SSD and a $350 price point. Additionally, a new Xbox Series X with a disc drive and 2TB of storage will launch for $600.
  The move comes as Microsoft continues to focus on digital gaming and subscription services like Game Pass, with reports suggesting that the P
  
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• Nokia Unveils 'Future of Voice Calls'

  10-06-2024 16:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark made the world's first phone call using "immersive audio and video" technology, which improves call quality with "three-dimensional" sound. The technology, part of the upcoming 5G Advanced standard, makes interactions more lifelike and is the biggest leap forward in voice calling since monophonic telephony. Nokia aims to license the technology, but widespread availability may take a few years.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• SpaceX Hopes to Eventually Build One Starship Per Day at Its Texas 'Starfactory'

  10-06-2024 13:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  SpaceX's successful launch (and reentry) of Starship was just the beginning, reports Space.com:SpaceX now aims to build on the progress with its Starship program as continues work on Starfactory, a new manufacturing facility under construction at the company's Starbase site in South Texas... "When you step into this factory, it is truly inspirational. My heart jumps out of my chest," Kate Tice, manager of SpaceX Quality Systems Engineering, said [during SpaceX's livestream of the Starship flight
  
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• When Paying in Cash Costs Extra: America's Reverse ATMs Convert Money into Debit Cards

  10-06-2024 09:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  At a New York Yankees baseball game, one fan discovered its concession stand doesn't accept cash. "An employee directed him to a kiosk that could convert his greenbacks into plastic," reports the Wall Street Journal, where the fan, "fed $200 into the reverse ATM, which subtracted a $3.50 fee and spat out a debit card with a balance of $196.50."
  Paying with cash used to be a way to get a discount. These days it can often cost an extra $1 to $6 — the sort of transaction fees once limited to
  
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