ICT news

• Big Tech's $1.1 Trillion Cloud Computing Backlog

  06-02-2026 18:50 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft each reported hundreds of billions in RPO (remaining performance obligations) -- signed contracts for cloud computing services that can't yet be filled and haven't yet hit the books. Collectively, the big three cloud providers reported a $1.1 trillion backlog of revenue.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• New Bill in New York Would Require Disclaimers on AI-Generated News Content

  07-02-2026 11:01 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A new bill in the New York state legislature would require news organizations to label AI-generated material and mandate that humans review any such content before publication. On Monday, Senator Patricia Fahy (D-Albany) and Assemblymember Nily Rozic (D-NYC) introduced the bill, called The New York Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Requirements in News Act -- The NY FAIR News Act for short.
  "At the center of the news industry, New York has a strong interest
  
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• Neocities Founder Stuck in Chatbot Hell After Bing Blocked 1.5 Million Sites

  07-02-2026 08:30 via it.slashdot.org
  Neocities founder Kyle Drake has spent weeks trapped in Microsoft's automated support loop after discovering that Bing quietly blocked all 1.5 million websites hosted on his platform, a free web-hosting service that has kept the spirit of 1990s GeoCities alive since 2013.
  Drake first noticed the issue last summer and thought it was resolved, but a second complete block went into effect in January, cratering Bing traffic from roughly half a million daily visitors to zero. He submitted nearly a do
  
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• Waymo is Having a Hard Time Stopping For School Buses

  07-02-2026 06:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Waymo's robotaxis have racked up at least 24 safety violations involving school buses in Austin since the start of the 2025 school year, and a voluntary software recall the company issued in December after a federal investigation has not fixed the problem.
  Austin Independent School District initially reported at least 19 incidents of Waymo vehicles failing to stop for buses during loading and unloading -- illegal in all 50 states -- prompting NHTSA to open a probe. At least four more violations
  
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• Hollywood's AI Bet Isn't Paying Off

  07-02-2026 03:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Hollywood's recent attempts to build entertainment around AI have consistently underperformed or outright flopped, whether the AI in question is a plot device or a production tool. The horror sequel M3GAN 2.0, Mission: Impossible -- The Final Reckoning, and Disney's Tron: Ares all disappointed at the box office in 2025 despite centering their narratives on AI.
  The latest casualty is Mercy, a January 2026 crime thriller in which Chris Pratt faces an AI judge bot played by Rebecca Ferguson; one re
  
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• Amazon's Tax Bill Plunges 87% After Tax Cuts

  07-02-2026 01:01 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Republicans' tax cuts shaved billions off Amazon's tax bill, new government filings show. The company says it ran a $1.2 billion tax bill last year, down from $9 billion the previous year, and even as its profits jumped by 45% to nearly $90 billion.
  That's largely because of the generous new depreciation breaks GOP lawmakers included in their One Big Beautiful Bill, something that's particularly important to Amazon which -- in addition to maintaining a vast i
  
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• Memory Prices Have Nearly Doubled Since Last Quarter

  06-02-2026 23:00 via it.slashdot.org
  Memory prices across DRAM, NAND and HBM have surged 80 to 90% quarter-over-quarter in Q1 2026, according to Counterpoint Research's latest Memory Price Tracker. The price of a 64GB RDIMM has jumped from a Q4 2025 contract price of $450 to over $900, and Counterpoint expects it to cross $1,000 in Q2.
  NAND, relatively stable last quarter, is tracking a parallel increase. Device makers are cutting DRAM content per device, swapping TLC SSDs for cheaper QLC alternatives, and shifting orders from the
  
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• Salesforce Shelves Heroku

  06-02-2026 21:40 via it.slashdot.org
  Salesforce is essentially shutting down Heroku as an evolving product, moving the cloud platform that helped define modern app deployment to a "sustaining engineering model" focused entirely on stability, security and support.
  Existing customers on credit card billing see no changes to pricing or service, but enterprise contracts are no longer available to new buyers. Salesforce said it is redirecting engineering investment toward enterprise AI.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Hidden Cameras in Chinese Hotels Are Livestreaming Guests To Thousands of Telegram Subscribers

  06-02-2026 20:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  An investigation has uncovered a sprawling network of hidden cameras in Chinese hotel rooms that livestream guests -- including couples having sex -- to paying subscribers on Telegram. Over 18 months, the BBC identified six websites and apps on the messaging platform that claimed to operate more than 180 spy cams across Chinese hotels, not just recording but broadcasting live.
  One site, monitored for seven months, cycled through 54 different cameras, roughly half active at any given time. Subscr
  
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• AI.com Sells for $70 Million, the Highest Price Ever Disclosed for a Domain Name

  06-02-2026 19:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  Kris Marszalek, the co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, has paid $70 million for the domain AI.com -- the highest price ever publicly disclosed for a website name, according to the deal's broker Larry Fischer of GetYourDomain.com.
  The entire sum was paid in cryptocurrency to an undisclosed seller. Marszalek plans to debut the site during a Super Bowl ad this weekend, offering a personal "AI agent" that lets consumers send messages, use apps and trade stocks. The previous do
  
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• KPMG Pressed Its Auditor To Pass on AI Cost Savings

  06-02-2026 17:31 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: KPMG, one of the world's largest auditors of public and private companies, negotiated lower fees from its own accountant by arguing that AI will make it cheaper to do the work, according to people familiar with the matter. The Big Four firm told its auditor, Grant Thornton UK, it should pass on cost savings from the rollout of AI and threatened to find a new accountant if it did not agree to a significant fee reduction, the people said.
  The discussions last y
  
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• The Bizarre Enhancement Claims Rocking Ski Jumping

  06-02-2026 16:34 via science.slashdot.org
  German newspaper Bild reported in January that some ski jumpers have been injecting their penises with hyaluronic acid ahead of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics -- the theory being that temporarily enlarged genitalia would yield looser-fitting suits when measured by 3D scanners, and those looser suits could act like sails to produce longer jumps.
  A study published last October in the scientific journal Frontiers found that a 2cm suit change translated to an extra 5.8 metres in jump distance. No
  
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• Europe Accuses TikTok of 'Addictive Design' and Pushes for Change

  06-02-2026 15:31 via tech.slashdot.org
  TikTok's endless scroll of irresistible content, tailored for each person's tastes by a well-honed algorithm, has helped the service become one of the world's most popular apps. Now European Union regulators say those same features that made TikTok so successful are likely illegal. From a report: On Friday, the regulators released a preliminary decision that TikTok's infinite scroll, auto-play features and recommendation algorithm amount to an "addictive design" that violated European Union laws
  
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• Canada Unveils Auto Industry Plan in Latest Pivot Away From US

  06-02-2026 13:30 via news.slashdot.org
  Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced a sweeping plan to shore up the country's auto industry and accelerate its electric vehicle transition, the latest in a series of moves to reduce Canada's deep economic dependence on the United States as American tariffs continue to batter the sector.
  The plan includes financial incentives for carmakers to invest in Canada, a new tariff credit scheme for manufacturers like General Motors and Toyota, and the reintroduction of EV buyer rebates. Can
  
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• Why This Is the Worst Crypto Winter Ever

  06-02-2026 11:30 via slashdot.org
  Bitcoin has fallen roughly 44% from its October peak, and while the drawdown isn't crypto's deepest ever on a percentage basis, Bloomberg's Odd Lots newsletter lays out a case that this is the industry's worst winter yet. The macro backdrop was supposed to favor Bitcoin: public confidence in the dollar is shaky, the Trump administration has been crypto-friendly, and fiat currencies are under perceived stress globally. Yet gold, not Bitcoin, has been the safe haven of choice.
  The "we're so early"
  
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• CIA Has Killed Off The World Factbook After Six Decades

  06-02-2026 09:01 via news.slashdot.org
  The CIA has shut down The World Factbook, one of its oldest and most recognizable public-facing intelligence publications, ending a run that began as a classified reference document in 1962 and evolved into a freely accessible digital resource that drew millions of views each year.
  The agency offered no explanation for the decision. Originally titled The National Basic Intelligence Factbook, the publication first went unclassified in 1971, was renamed a decade later, and moved online at CIA.gov
  
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• Google Confirms AirDrop Sharing is Coming To Android Phones Beyond Pixels

  06-02-2026 06:01 via it.slashdot.org
  Google's Quick Share-AirDrop interoperability, which has been exclusive to the Pixel 10 series since its surprise launch last year, is headed to a much broader set of Android devices in 2026.
  Eric Kay, Google's Vice President of Engineering for the Android platform, confirmed the expansion during a press briefing at the company's Taipei office, saying Google is "working with our partners to expand it into the rest of the ecosystem" and that announcements are coming "very soon." Nothing is the on
  
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• The European Commission Is Testing an Open Source Alternative To Microsoft Teams

  06-02-2026 03:00 via slashdot.org
  The European Commission is preparing to trial a communications platform built on Matrix, the open source messaging protocol already used by the French government, German healthcare providers and European armed forces, as a sovereign backup to Microsoft Teams.
  Signal currently serves as the backup tool but has proven too inflexible for an organization the Commission's size, it said. The Matrix-based solution could also eventually connect the Commission to other EU bodies like the Parliament.Read
  
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• Court Rules That Ripping YouTube Clips Can Violate the DMCA

  06-02-2026 00:30 via news.slashdot.org
  A federal court in California has ruled that YouTube creators who use stream-ripping tools to download clips for reaction and commentary videos may face liability under the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions -- a decision that could reshape how one of the platform's most popular content genres operates.
  U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi of the Northern District of California denied a motion to dismiss in Cordova v. Huneault, a creator-versus-creator dispute, finding that YouTube's "ro
  
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• NASA Will Finally Let Its Astronauts Bring iPhones To the Moon

  05-02-2026 22:30 via science.slashdot.org
  NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has announced that astronauts on the upcoming Crew-12 and Artemis II missions will be allowed to carry iPhones and other modern smartphones into orbit and to the Moon -- a reversal of long-standing agency rules that had left crews relying on a 2016 Nikon DSLR and decade-old GoPros for the historic lunar flyby.
  Isaacman framed the move as part of a broader push to challenge what he called bloated qualification requirements, where hardware approvals get mired in r
  
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• Musk Predicts SpaceX Will Launch More AI Compute Per Year Than the Cumulative Total on Earth

  05-02-2026 21:00 via science.slashdot.org
  Elon Musk told podcast host Dwarkesh Patel and Stripe co-founder John Collison that space will become the most economically compelling location for AI data centers in less than 36 months, a prediction rooted not in some exotic technical breakthrough but in the basic math of electricity supply: chip output is growing exponentially, and electrical output outside China is essentially flat.
  Solar panels in orbit generate roughly five times the power they do on the ground because there is no day-nigh
  
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• Automattic and the Internet Archive Team Up To Fight Link Rot

  05-02-2026 20:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Automattic and the Internet Archive have released a free, open-source WordPress plugin that automatically detects broken outbound links on a site and redirects visitors to archived Wayback Machine copies instead of serving them a 404 error.
  The Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer, which launched last fall and is available on WordPress.org, runs in the background scanning posts for dead links, checking for existing archived versions, and requesting new snapshots when none exist. It also a
  
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• Anthropic Launches Claude Opus 4.6 as Its AI Tools Rattle Software Markets

  05-02-2026 19:00 via slashdot.org
  Anthropic on Thursday released Claude Opus 4.6, its most capable model yet, at a moment when the company's AI tools have already spooked markets over fears that they are disrupting traditional software development and other sectors.
  The new model improves on Opus 4.5's coding abilities, the company said -- it plans more carefully, sustains longer agentic tasks, handles larger codebases more reliably, and catches its own mistakes through better debugging. It is also the first Opus-class model to
  
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• Western Digital Plots a Path To 140 TB Hard Drives Using Vertical Lasers and 14-Platter Designs

  05-02-2026 17:45 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Western Digital this week laid out a roadmap that stretches its 3.5-inch hard drive platform to 14 platters and pairs it with a new vertical-emitting laser for heat-assisted magnetic recording, a combination the company says will push individual drive capacities beyond 140 TB in the 2030s.
  The vertical laser, developed over six years and already working in WD's labs, emits light straight down onto the disk rather than from the edge, delivering more thermal energy while occupying less vertical sp
  
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• Amazon Plans To Use AI To Speed Up TV and Film Production

  05-02-2026 17:01 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Amazon plans to use AI to speed up the process for making movies and TV shows even as Hollywood fears that AI will cut jobs and permanently reshape the industry. From a report: At the Amazon MGM Studio, veteran entertainment executive Albert Cheng is leading a team charged with developing new AI tools that he said will cut costs and streamline the creative process. Amazon plans to launch a closed beta program in March, inviting industry partners to test its AI tools. The company expects to have
  
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• Spotify Plans To Sell Physical Books

  05-02-2026 16:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Spotify is planning to let premium subscribers in the U.S. and U.K. buy hardcovers and paperbacks directly through its app starting this spring, partnering with Bookshop.org to handle pricing, inventory and fulfillment.
  The Swedish streaming company, which entered the audiobook market in 2022, will also introduce a feature called Page Match that lets users scan a page from a physical book or e-reader and jump to the exact spot in the audiobook edition. Spotify will earn an undisclosed affiliate
  
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• FBI Couldn't Get Into Reporter's iPhone Because It Had Lockdown Mode Enabled

  05-02-2026 15:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  The FBI has been unable to access a Washington Post reporter's seized iPhone because it was in Lockdown Mode, a sometimes overlooked feature that makes iPhones broadly more secure, according to recently filed court records. 404Media: The court record shows what devices and data the FBI was able to ultimately access, and which devices it could not, after raiding the home of the reporter, Hannah Natanson, in January as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information. It also provides
  
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• Kalshi Claims 'Extortion,' Then Recants in Feud Over User Losses

  05-02-2026 13:30 via slashdot.org
  Kalshi, the largest U.S. prediction market, accused a small data startup called Juice Reel of "extortion" after a stock analyst used the company's transaction-level data to argue that prediction market users lose money faster than gamblers on traditional betting apps -- then walked the allegation back hours later.
  The equity research analyst Jordan Bender at Citizens found that the bottom quarter of prediction market users lost about 28 cents of every dollar wagered in their first three months,
  
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• China Has Seized Sony's Television Halo

  05-02-2026 11:30 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Sony announced last month that it plans to pass control of its home entertainment division -- including the two-decade-old Bravia television brand -- to Chinese electronics group TCL through a joint venture in which TCL would hold a 51% stake. The Japanese company was long ago overtaken in sales by South Korea's Samsung and LG and now holds just 2% of the global television market. Sony stopped making its own LCD screens in 2011.
  Chinese companies supplied 71% of television panels made in Asia la
  
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• Munich Makes Digital Sovereignty Measurable With Its Own Score

  05-02-2026 09:00 via it.slashdot.org
  alternative_right writes: The city of Munich has developed its own measurement instrument to assess the digital sovereignty of its IT infrastructure. The so-called Digital Sovereignty Score (SDS) visually resembles the Nutri-Score and identifies IT systems based on their independence from individual providers and 'foreign' legal spheres. The Technical University of Munich was involved in the development.
  In September and October 2025, the IT Department already conducted a first comprehensive tes
  
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