ICT news

• Bay Area City Orders Scientists To Stop Controversial Cloud Brightening Experiment

  16-05-2024 04:02 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Last month, researchers from the University of Washington started conducting an experiment on a decommissioned naval ship in Alameda to test if spraying salt water into the air could brighten clouds and cool the planet. However, their project was forced to stop this month after the city got word of what was going on. SFGate reports: According to a city press release, scientists were ordered to halt the experiment because it violated Alameda's lease with the USS Hornet, the aircraft carrier from
  
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• The Rise and Fall of BNN Breaking, an AI-Generated News Outlet

  12-06-2024 05:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: The news was featured on MSN.com: "Prominent Irish broadcaster faces trial over alleged sexual misconduct." At the top of the story was a photo of Dave Fanning. But Mr. Fanning, an Irish D.J. and talk-show host famed for his discovery of the rock band U2, was not the broadcaster in question. "You wouldn't believe the amount of people who got in touch," said Mr. Fanning, who called the error "outrageous." The falsehood, visible for hour
  
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• Best Buy Is Laying Off More Employees As It Reckons With Falling Sales

  12-06-2024 02:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  According to The Verge, Best Buy conducted another round of layoffs and job restructurings to "right size" the business in response to declining sales post-pandemic. Further layoffs and changes are expected throughout the year. From the report: The layoffs appeared to have mostly targeted in-home sales roles called designers, who would go to customers' homes to help identify products that would work in their space. It's not clear how many were let go, but designers who weren't laid off have been
  
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• Brazil Hires OpenAI To Cut Costs of Court Battles

  12-06-2024 02:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Brazil's government is partnering with OpenAI to use AI for expediting the screening and analysis of thousands of lawsuits to reduce costly court losses impacting the federal budget. Reuters reports: The AI service will flag to government the need to act on lawsuits before final decisions, mapping trends and potential action areas for the solicitor general's office (AGU). AGU told Reuters that Microsoft would provide the artificial intelligence services from ChatGPT creator OpenAI through its Az
  
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• New York Launches Mobile Driver's Licenses

  12-06-2024 01:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  New York has launched its mobile ID program, "giving residents the option to digitize their driver's license or non-driver ID," reports The Verge. From the report: Beginning today, the New York Mobile ID app is available from Apple's App Store and Google Play. The app can be used for identity verification at airports. A physical license, permit, or non-driver ID is required to activate a mobile ID; you'll need to take a photo of the front and back with your phone during the enrollment process. T
  
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• Silicon Valley Salaries Are Shrinking, Leaving Workers In the Lurch

  12-06-2024 00:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Mercury News: Krista DeWeese has been laid off four times in the last eight years. She wakes up every morning feeling anxious. Will I lose my job today -- again? Will I have enough to pay the rent? Even though she's an educated, experienced marketing professional, worrisome thoughts trail the 47-year-old Fremont native's every waking moment. Currently a contract worker at a health science company, she has been struggling to find secure work that pays
  
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• Craig Federighi Says Apple Hopes TO Add Google Gemini, Other AI Models To iOS 18

  12-06-2024 00:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Yesterday, Apple made waves in the media when it revealed a partnership with OpenAI during its annual WWDC keynote. That announcement centered on Apple's decision to bring ChatGPT natively to iOS 18, including Siri and other first-party apps. During a followup interview on Monday, Apple executives Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea hinted at a possible agreement with Google Gemini and other AI chatbots in the future. 9to5Mac reports: Moderated by iJustine, the interview was held in Steve Jobs
  
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• British Duo Arrested For SMS Phishing Via Homemade Cell Tower

  11-06-2024 23:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  British police have arrested two individuals involved in an SMS-based phishing campaign using a unique device police described as a "homemade mobile antenna," "an illegitimate telephone mast," and a "text message blaster." This first-of-its-kind device in the UK was designed to send fraudulent texts impersonating banks and other official organizations, "all while allegedly bypassing network operators' anti-SMS-based phishing, or smishing, defenses," reports The Register. From the report: Thousan
  
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• Finnish Startup 'Flow' Claims It Can 100x Any CPU's Power With Its Companion Chip

  11-06-2024 22:42 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: A Finnish startup called Flow Computing is making one of the wildest claims ever heard in silicon engineering: by adding its proprietary companion chip, any CPU can instantly double its performance, increasing to as much as 100x with software tweaks. If it works, it could help the industry keep up with the insatiable compute demand of AI makers. Flow is a spinout of VTT, a Finland state-backed research organization that's a bit like a national
  
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• Four More States Join US Monopoly Lawsuit Against Apple

  11-06-2024 21:20 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Four more U.S. states on Tuesday joined the Justice Department's lawsuit against Apple alleging the iPhone maker is monopolizing smartphone markets, the department said in a statement. From a report: The four states are Indiana, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington, the Justice Department said. The original lawsuit was filed in March, and 15 states and the District of Columbia joined the lawsuit at the time.The lawsuit alleges that Apple uses its market power to get more money from consumers, de
  
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• The Mystery of an Alleged Data Broker's Data Breach

  11-06-2024 20:40 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Since April, a hacker with a history of selling stolen data has claimed a data breach of billions of records -- impacting at least 300 million people -- from a U.S. data broker, which would make it one of the largest alleged data breaches of the year. The data, seen by TechCrunch, on its own appears partly legitimate -- if imperfect.
  The stolen data, which was advertised on a known cybercrime forum, allegedly dates back years and includes U.S. citizens' full
  
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• Bill Gates Moves Ahead With Nuclear Project Aimed At Revolutionizing Power Generation

  11-06-2024 20:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  schwit1 shares a report: Bill Gates and his energy company are starting construction at their Wyoming site for a next-generation nuclear power plant he believes will "revolutionize" how power is generated. Gates was in the tiny community of Kemmerer Monday to break ground on the project. The co-founder of Microsoft is chairman of TerraPower. The company applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March for a construction permit for an advanced nuclear reactor that uses sodium, not water, for
  
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• PC Makers Hopeful That Chromebook Refresh Cycles About To Kick In

  11-06-2024 19:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  A Chromebook refresh looms despite Google trying to extend the life of laptops by offering a decade of service updates for models sold since 2021. From a report: Sales of the hardware, which flew off the shelves during the pandemic, ran out of steam in 2022 after buyers had their fill. The US education market generally accounts for 70 to 80 percent of annual orders. The sharp downturn left some vendors holding excess inventory. Yet the refresh cycle may be starting again, according to HP boss En
  
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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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• Microsoft Releases June 2024 Security Updates

  11-06-2024 14:00 via cisa.gov
   Microsoft has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in multiple products. A cyber threat actor could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.  
  Users and administrators are encouraged to review the following advisory and apply the necessary updates:  Microsoft Security Update Guide for June
  
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• Fortinet Releases Security Updates for FortiOS 

  11-06-2024 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Fortinet has released security updates to address a vulnerability in FortiOS. A cyber threat actor could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system.   
  Users and administrators are encouraged to review the following Fortinet Security Bulletin and apply the necessary updates:  FG-IR-23-460: Multiple Buffer Overflows in Diag Npu Command
  
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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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