ICT news

• Chrome 113 To Ship WebGPU By Default

  06-04-2023 19:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  While Chrome 112 just shipped this week and Chrome 113 only in beta, there is already a big reason to look forward to that next Chrome web browser release: Google is finally ready to ship WebGPU support. From a report: WebGPU provides the next-generation high performance 3D graphics API for the web. With next month's Chrome 113 stable release, the plan is to have WebGPU available out-of-the-box for this new web graphics API. Though in that version Google is limiting it to ChromeOS, macOS, and Wi
  
  Read more

• AMD Hints the Next-Gen Xbox Console Could Launch Next Year

  04-02-2026 12:00 via games.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Speaking during an earnings call on Tuesday, CEO Lisa Su stated that its development of Microsoft's next-gen Xbox SoC is "progressing well to support a launch in 2027."
  While the comment doesn't outright confirm the next Xbox will release next year, it indicates that the Microsoft could be ready to launch soon.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  Read more

• Say Hello To GoogleSQL

  04-02-2026 09:01 via developers.slashdot.org
  BrianFagioli writes: Google has quietly retired the ZetaSQL name and rebranded its open source SQL analysis and parsing project as GoogleSQL. This is not a technical change but a naming cleanup meant to align the open source code with the SQL dialect already used across Google products like BigQuery and Spanner. Internally, Google has long called the dialect GoogleSQL, even while the open source project lived under a different name.
  By unifying everything under GoogleSQL, Google says it wants to
  
  Read more

• OpenAI's Lead Is Contracting as AI Competition Intensifies

  04-02-2026 06:01 via slashdot.org
  OpenAI's rivals are cutting into ChatGPT's lead. From a report: The top chatbot's market share fell from 69.1% to 45.3% between January 2025 and January 2026 among daily U.S. users of its mobile app. Gemini, in the same time period, rose from 14.7% to 25.1% and Grok rose from 1.6% to 15.2%.
  The data, obtained by Big Technology from mobile insights firm Apptopia, indicates the chatbot race has tightened meaningfully over the past year with Google's surge showing up in the numbers. Overall, the ch
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Walmart Joins $1 Trillion Club

  04-02-2026 03:01 via slashdot.org
  Walmart's market cap surpassed $1 trillion on Tuesday, putting the largest U.S. retail chain in an exclusive club dominated by tech groups. Bloomberg adds: The Bentonville, Arkansas-based chain -- a longtime favorite of bargain-hunting consumers -- has flexed its massive scale and supplier network to keep prices low and grab market share across the income spectrum. While Walmart has maintained its appeal to households looking for value, its online offerings are drawing new, wealthier shoppers se
  
  Read more

• Google Home Finally Adds Support For Buttons

  04-02-2026 00:31 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Google Home users, your long nightmare is over. The platform has finally added support for buttons. The release notes for a February 2 update state that several new starter conditions for automations are now available, including "Switch or button pressed."
  Smart buttons are physical, programmable switches that you can press to trigger automations or control devices in your smart home, such as turning lights on or off, opening and closing shades, running a Goo
  
  Read more

• Ultra-Processed Foods Should Be Treated More Like Cigarettes Than Food, Study Says

  03-02-2026 22:30 via science.slashdot.org
  Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have more in common with cigarettes than with fruit or vegetables, and require far tighter regulation, according to a new report. The Guardian: UPFs and cigarettes are engineered to encourage addiction and consumption, researchers from three US universities said, pointing to the parallels in widespread health harms that link both.
  UPFs, which are widely available worldwide, are food products that have been industrially manufactured, often using emulsifiers or artific
  
  Read more

• NASA Delays Artemis II To March

  03-02-2026 21:00 via science.slashdot.org
  ClickOnThis writes: NASA has delayed the Artemis II launch to March of this year, after a wet dress-rehearsal uncovered a hydrogen leak. From the NASA article: During tanking, engineers spent several hours troubleshooting a liquid hydrogen leak in an interface used to route the cryogenic propellant into the rocket's core stage, putting them behind in the countdown. Attempts to resolve the issue involved stopping the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage, allowing the interface to warm up f
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Google Plots Big Expansion in India as US Restricts Visas

  03-02-2026 20:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  Alphabet is plotting to dramatically expand its presence in India [non-paywalled source], with the possibility of taking millions of square feet in new office space in Bangalore, India's tech hub. From a report: Google's parent company has leased one office tower and purchased options on two others in Alembic City, a development in the Whitefield tech corridor, totaling 2.4 million square feet, according to people familiar with the deal. The first tower is expected to open to employees in the co
  
  Read more

• 'Vibe Coding Kills Open Source'

  03-02-2026 19:01 via news.slashdot.org
  Four economists across Central European University, Bielefeld University and the Kiel Institute have built a general equilibrium model of the open-source software ecosystem and concluded that vibe coding -- the increasingly common practice of letting AI agents select, assemble and modify packages on a developer's behalf -- erodes the very funding mechanism that keeps open-source projects alive.
  The core problem is a decoupling of usage from engagement. Tailwind CSS's npm downloads have climbed s
  
  Read more

• YouTube Kills Background Playback on Third-Party Mobile Browsers

  03-02-2026 18:00 via news.slashdot.org
  YouTube has confirmed that it is blocking background playback -- the ability to keep a video's audio running after minimizing the browser or locking the screen -- for non-Premium users across third-party mobile browsers including Samsung Internet, Brave, Vivaldi and Microsoft Edge.
  Users began reporting the issue last week, noting that audio would cut out the moment they left the browser, sometimes after a brief "MediaOngoingActivity" notification flashed before media controls disappeared. A Goo
  
  Read more

• PayPal's CEO Change Blindsided HP's Board

  03-02-2026 17:00 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: PayPal said on Tuesday it was booting its CEO and replacing him with its board chair Enrique Lores, sparing no ambiguity as to why: "The pace of change and execution was not in line with the Board's expectations," it said in a statement. One group that was blindsided was HP, where Lores was until Tuesday serving as CEO, according to people familiar with the matter.
  Lores' switchup sent them rushing to launch a search process, those people said. HP's board doe
  
  Read more

• Adobe Is Killing A Popular Animation And Game Development Program

  03-02-2026 16:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Adobe has emailed users of Adobe Animate to let them know the popular animation and game development program will be discontinued on March 1, an abrupt decision that has angered animators and game developers who say the tool remains an industry standard in television and game production.
  Animate, the successor to the once-popular Flash, is widely used for graphic creation, animation and building games in HTML5. The company has not offered a reason for the shutdown. On BlueSky, artist and animato
  
  Read more

• Fintech CEO and Forbes 30 Under 30 Alum Charged for Alleged Fraud

  03-02-2026 15:00 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: By now, the Forbes 30 Under 30 list has become more than a little notorious for the amount of entrants who go on to be charged with fraud.[...] Gokce Guven, a 26-year-old Turkish national and the founder and CEO of fintech startup Kalder, was charged last week with alleged securities fraud, wire fraud, visa fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The New York-based fintech startup -- which uses the "Turn Your Rewards into [a] Revenue Engine" tagline -- says it
  
  Read more

• The Switch is Now Nintendo's Best-Selling Console of All Time

  03-02-2026 12:30 via games.slashdot.org
  The original Switch is officially Nintendo's best-selling console of all time after surpassing the DS handheld in lifetime sales. From a report: In its latest earnings release, Nintendo reports that the Nintendo Switch has, as of December 31, 2025, sold 155.37 million units since its launch in 2017, compared to 154.02 million units for the 2004 Nintendo DS.
  In November, Nintendo reported that the Switch and DS were neck and neck. We expected the holiday sales period would see the Switch surpass
  
  Read more

• Hidden Car Door Handles Are Officially Being Banned In China

  03-02-2026 08:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  sinij writes: Automakers have increasingly implemented door handles that retract into the bodywork for aerodynamic reasons, but they are now off limits in China.
  My issue is with electronic-only door latch mechanism. It should be possible to open the door from both inside and outside the car in case of complete power loss.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  Read more

• SpaceX Acquires xAI in $1.25 Trillion All-Stock Deal

  03-02-2026 04:46 via slashdot.org
  Elon Musk's SpaceX has acquired his AI startup xAI in an all-stock deal that values the combined entity at $1.25 trillion, ahead of what would be the largest initial public offering in history. SpaceX pegged its own valuation at $1 trillion -- a markup from the $800 billion it commanded in a December secondary stock sale -- and priced xAI at $250 billion based on a recent $20 billion funding round that valued the two-year-old AI company at $230 billion.
  SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen told investors on
  
  Read more

• A Century of Hair Samples Proves Leaded Gas Ban Worked

  03-02-2026 03:30 via science.slashdot.org
  Scientists at the University of Utah have analyzed nearly a century's worth of human hair samples and found that lead concentrations dropped 100-fold after the EPA began cracking down on leaded gasoline and other lead-based products in the 1970s.
  The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, drew on hair collected from Utah residents -- some preserved in family scrapbooks going back generations. Lead levels peaked between 1916 and 1969 at around 100 parts per mi
  
  Read more

• Leica Camera's Owners Weigh $1.2 Billion Sale of Controlling Stake

  03-02-2026 01:01 via slashdot.org
  The owners of Leica Camera AG -- Austrian billionaire Andreas Kaufmann and private equity giant Blackstone -- are considering a sale of a controlling stake in the German camera maker in a deal that could value the company at about $1.2 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
  HSG, formerly known as Sequoia Capital China, and Altor Equity Partners are among a handful of bidders. The Kaufmann family could re-invest following a transaction. Leica traces its roots roughly
  
  Read more

• Feds Skipping Infosec Industry's Biggest Conference This Year

  02-02-2026 23:33 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency won't attend the annual RSA Conference in March, an agency spokesperson confirmed to The Register. Sessions involving speakers from the FBI and National Security Agency (NSA) have also disappeared from the agenda.
  "Since the beginning of this administration, CISA has made significant progress in returning to our statutory, core mission and focusing on President Trump's policies for maximum security for a
  
  Read more

• Finland To Introduce 'Green Wave' Automated System For Emergency Vehicles

  02-02-2026 22:01 via news.slashdot.org
  alternative_right writes: Fintraffic's national traffic priority system, which is set to be introduced this summer, will recognize the location of an emergency vehicle and automatically change the lights to green to facilitate its passage. (Why isn't everyone doing this already?)Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  Read more

• Microsoft Weighs Retreat From Windows 11 AI Push, Reviews Copilot Integrations and Recall

  02-02-2026 21:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  Microsoft is reevaluating its AI strategy on Windows 11 and plans to scale back or remove Copilot integrations across built-in apps after months of sustained user backlash, according to a Windows Central report citing people familiar with the company's plans.
  Copilot features in apps like Notepad and Paint are under review and could be pulled entirely or stripped of their Copilot branding in favor of a more streamlined experience. The company has paused work on adding new Copilot buttons to any
  
  Read more

• The AI Boom Is Coming for Apple's Profit Margins

  02-02-2026 20:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple's long-standing dominance over its electronics supply chain is eroding as AI companies outbid the iPhone maker for critical components like chips, memory and specialized glass fiber, giving suppliers the leverage to demand that Apple pay more. CEO Tim Cook acknowledged the pressure during a Thursday earnings call, noting constraints in chip supplies and significant increases in memory prices.
  Nvidia has overtaken Apple as TSMC's largest customer, CEO Jensen Huang said on a podcast; Apple h
  
  Read more

• Vibe-coded Social Network for AI Bots Exposed Data on Thousands of Humans

  02-02-2026 19:01 via it.slashdot.org
  Moltbook, a Reddit-like social network that launched last week and bills itself as a platform "built exclusively for AI agents," had a security vulnerability that exposed private messages shared between agents, the email addresses of more than 6,000 human owners, and over a million credentials, according to research published Monday by cybersecurity firm Wiz.
  The flaw has since been fixed after Wiz contacted Moltbook. Wiz cofounder Ami Luttwak called it a classic byproduct of "vibe coding." Molt
  
  Read more

• Notepad++ Compromised By State Actor

  02-02-2026 18:00 via it.slashdot.org
  Luthair writes: Notepad++ claims to have been targeted by a state actor, given their previous stance on Uyghurs one can speculate about a candidate. Notepad++, in a blog post: According to the analysis provided by the security experts, the attack involved infrastructure-level compromise that allowed malicious actors to intercept and redirect update traffic destined for notepad-plus-plus.org. The exact technical mechanism remains under investigation, though the compromise occurred at the hosting
  
  Read more

• High-Speed Internet Boom Hits Low-Tech Snag: a Labor Shortage

  02-02-2026 17:01 via news.slashdot.org
  The U.S. laid fiber-optic cables to a record number of homes last year as billions of dollars in federal broadband grants and a surge in data-center construction fueled an enormous buildout, but the industry does not have enough workers to sustain the pace.
  A 2024 report by the Fiber Broadband Association and the Power & Communication Contractors Association projects 58,000 new fiber jobs between 2025 and 2032 and estimates 120,000 workers will leave the field in that period, mostly through
  
  Read more

• Starbucks Bets on Robots To Brew a Turnaround in Customers

  02-02-2026 15:43 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Starbucks has been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into AI and automation -- testing robots that take drive-through orders, virtual assistants that help baristas recall recipes and manage schedules, and scanning tools that count inventory -- as the 55-year-old coffee chain tries to reverse several years of struggling sales.
  The company last week reported its first same-store sales increase in two years in the U.S., where it earns roughly 70% of its revenue. Shares still slid 5% on concer
  
  Read more

• China's Decades-Old 'Genius Class' Pipeline Is Quietly Fueling Its AI Challenge To the US

  02-02-2026 15:00 via news.slashdot.org
  China's decades-old network of elite high-school "genius classes" -- ultra-competitive talent streams that pull an estimated 100,000 gifted teenagers out of regular schooling every year and run them through college-level science curricula -- has produced the core technical talent now building the country's leading AI and technology companies, the Financial Times reported Saturday.
  Graduates of these programs include the founder of ByteDance, the leaders of e-commerce giants Taobao and PDD, the b
  
  Read more

• Is AI Really Taking Jobs? Or Are Employers Just 'AI-Washing' Normal Layoffs?

  02-02-2026 13:34 via it.slashdot.org
  The New York Times lists other reasons a company lays off people. ("It didn't meet financial targets. It overhired. Tariffs, or the loss of a big client, rocked it...")
  "But lately, many companies are highlighting a new factor: artificial intelligence. Executives, saying they anticipate huge changes from the technology, are making cuts now."A.I. was cited in the announcements of more than 50,000 layoffs in 2025, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a research firm... Investors may appl
  
  Read more

• Linux Kernel Developer Chris Mason's New Initiative: AI Prompts for Code Reviews

  02-02-2026 10:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  Phoronix reports:
  Chris Mason, the longtime Linux kernel developer most known for being the creator of Btrfs, has been working on a Git repository with AI review prompts he has been working on for LLM-assisted code review of Linux kernel patches. This initiative has been happening for some weeks now while the latest work was posted today for comments... The Meta engineer has been investing a lot of effort into making this AI/LLM-assisted code review accurate and useful to upstream Linux kernel s
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!