ICT news

• Could Netflix's Deal for Warner Bros. Fall Apart?

  06-12-2025 17:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  While Netflix hopes to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for $72 billion, CNBC reports a senior official in America's federal government said the administration was viewing the deal with "heavy skepticism. And that's not the only hurdle:On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount, in a letter to lawyers for Warner Bros. Discovery [WBD], had warned that a sale to Netflix likely would "never close" because of regulatory challenges in the United States and overseas. "Acquiring Warner's st
  
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• OpenAI Insists Target Links in ChatGPT Responses Weren't Ads But 'Suggestions' - But Turns Them Off

  07-12-2025 21:59 via slashdot.org
  A hardware security response from ChatGPT ended with "Shop for home and groceries. Connect Target."
  But "There are no live tests for ads" on ChatGPT, insists Nick Turley, OpenAI's head of ChatGPT. Posting on X.com, he said "any screenshots you've seen are either not real or not ads." Engadget reports
  The OpenAI exec's explanation comes after another post from former xAI employee Benjamin De Kraker on X that has gained traction, which featured a screenshot showing an option to shop at Target with
  
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• How Home Assistant Leads a 'Local-First Rebellion'

  07-12-2025 20:59 via news.slashdot.org
  It runs locally, a free/open source home automation platform connecting all your devices together, regardless of brand. And GitHub's senior developer calls it "one of the most active, culturally important, and technically demanding open source ecosystems on the planet," with tens of thousands of contributors and millions of installations.
  That's confirmed by this year's "Octoverse" developer survey...Home Assistant was one of the fastest-growing open source projects by contributors, ranking alon
  
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• Why Gen Z is Using Retro Tech

  07-12-2025 19:45 via games.slashdot.org
  "People in their teens and early 20s are increasingly turning to old school tech," reports the BBC, "in a bid to unplug from the online world."Amazon UK told BBC Scotland News that retro-themed products surged in popularity during its Black Friday event, with portable vinyl turntables, Tamagotchis and disposable cameras among their best sellers. Retailers Currys and John Lewis also said they had seen retro gadgets making a comeback with sales of radios, instant cameras and alarm clocks showing b
  
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• Is Netflix Trying to Buy Warner Bros. or Kill It?

  07-12-2025 18:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Why does Netflix want to buy Warner Bros, asks the chief film critic at the long-running motion-picture magazine Variety. "It is hard, at this moment, to resist the suspicion that the ultimate reason... is to eliminate the competition."[Warner Bros. is] one of the only companies that's keeping movies as we've known them alive... Some people think movies are going the way of the horse-and-buggy. A company like Warner Bros. has been the tangible proof that they're not. Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of
  
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• New FreeBSD 15 Retires 32-Bit Ports and Modernizes Builds

  07-12-2025 17:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE arrived this week, notes this report from The Register, which calls it the latest release "of the Unix world's leading alternative to Linux."As well as numerous bug fixes and upgrades to many of its components, the major changes in this version are reductions in the number of platforms the OS supports, and in how it's built and how its component software is packaged.FreeBSD 15 has significantly reduced support for 32-bit platforms. Compared to FreeBSD 14 in 2023, there are n
  
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• Homebrew Can Now Help You Install Flatpaks Too

  07-12-2025 16:34 via news.slashdot.org
  "Homebrew, the package manager for macOS and Linux, just got a handy new feature in the latest v5.0.4 update," reports How-To Geek.Brewfile install scripts "are now more like a one-stop shop for installing software, as Flatpaks are now supported alongside Brew packages, Mac App Store Apps, and other packages."
  For those times when you need to install many software packages at once, like when setting up a new PC or virtual machine, you can create a Brewfile with a list of packages and run it with
  
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• Many Privileged Students at US Universities are Getting Extra Time on Tests After 'Disability' Diagnoses

  07-12-2025 13:34 via news.slashdot.org
  Today America's college professors "struggle to accommodate the many students with an official disability designation," reports the Atlantic, "which may entitle them to extra time, a distraction-free environment, or the use of otherwise-prohibited technology."Their staff writer argues these accommodations "have become another way for the most privileged students to press their advantage."
  [Over the past decade and a half] the share of students at selective universities who qualify for accommodat
  
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• Is Ruby Still a 'Serious' Programming Language?

  07-12-2025 09:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  Wired published an article by California-based writer/programmer Sheon Han arguing that Ruby "is not a serious programming language."
  Han believes that the world of programming has "moved on", and "everything Ruby does, another language now does better, leaving it without a distinct niche.
  Ruby is easy on the eyes. Its syntax is simple, free of semicolons or brackets. More so even thanPython — a language known for its readability — Ruby reads almost like plain English... Ruby, you mi
  
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• New Jolla Phone Now Available for Pre-Order as an Independent Linux Phone

  07-12-2025 06:34 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Jolla is "trying again with a new crowd-funded smartphone," reports Phoronix:Finnish company Jolla started out 14 years ago where Nokia left off with MeeGo and developed Sailfish OS as a new Linux smartphone platform. Jolla released their first smartphone in 2013 after crowdfunding but ultimately the Sailfish OS focus the past number of years now has been offering their software stack for use on other smartphone devices [including some Sony Xperia smartphones and OnePlus/Samsung/ Google/ Xiaomi
  
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• The Anxieties of Full-Body MRI Scans (Not Covered by Insurance)

  07-12-2025 03:34 via science.slashdot.org
  Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank calls himself "a highly creative hypochondriac" — who just paid for an expensive MRI scan to locate abnormal spots as tiny as 2 millimeters.
  He discusses the pros and cons of its "diffusion-weighted imaging" technology combined with the pattern recognition of AI, which theoretically "has the potential to save our lives by revealing budding cancers, silent aneurysms and other hidden would-be killers before they become deadly. "
  But the scans cost $2,50
  
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• Could America's Paper Checks Be On the Way Out, Like the Penny?

  07-12-2025 01:21 via news.slashdot.org
  "First the penny. Next, paper checks?" asks CNN:When the U.S. Mint stopped making pennies last month for the first time in 238 years, it drew a lot of attention. But there have been quiet moves to stop using paper checks as well. The government stopped sending out most paper checks to recipients as of the end of September, part of an effort to fully modernize federal benefits payments. And on Thursday the Federal Reserve put out a notice that suggested it is considering — but only consider
  
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• Google Must Limit Its 'Default Search' Contracts to One Year, Judge Rules

  07-12-2025 00:21 via yro.slashdot.org
  Bloomberg reports that Google "must renegotiate any contract to make its search engine or artificial intelligence app the default for smartphones and other devices every year, a federal judge ruled."
  Judge Amit Mehta in Washington sided with the US Justice Department on the one year limitation in his final ruling on what changes the search giant must make in the wake of a landmark ruling that the company illegally monopolized online search. The yearly renegotiation will give rivals — parti
  
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• Woman Hailed As a Hero For Smashing Man's Meta Smart Glasses On Subway

  06-12-2025 22:59 via yro.slashdot.org
  "Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man's Meta Smart Glasses on Subway," reads the headline at Futurism:
  As Daily Dot reports, a New York subway rider has accused a woman of breaking his Meta smart glasses. "She just broke my Meta glasses," said the TikTok user, who goes by eth8n, in a video that has since garnered millions of views.
  "You're going to be famous on the internet!" he shouted at her through the window after getting off the train. The accused woman, however, peered back at him complet
  
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• A 1950s Material Just Set a Modern Record For Lightning-fast Chips

  06-12-2025 21:49 via hardware.slashdot.org
  "Researchers engineered a strained germanium layer on silicon that allows charge to move faster than in any silicon-compatible material to date," reports Science Daily. "This record mobility could lead to chips that run cooler, faster, and with dramatically lower energy consumption.
  "The discovery also enhances the prospects for silicon-based quantum devices..."
  Scientists from the University of Warwick and the National Research Council of Canada have reported the highest "hole mobility" ever me
  
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• Chernobyl's Protective Shield Can No Longer Confine Radiation, UN Nuclear Watchdog Says

  06-12-2025 20:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  "A structure designed to prevent radioactive leakage at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine is no longer operational," reports Politico, "after Russian drones targeted it earlier this year, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog has found."[T]he large steel structure "lost its primary safety functions, including the confinement capability" when its outer cladding was set ablaze after being struck by Russian drones, according to a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Beyond that,
  
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• Aptera's Solar-Powered EVs Take Another Step Toward Production

  06-12-2025 19:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  To build three-wheeled, solar electric vehicles, Aptera has now launched its "validation" vehicle assembly line, reports the San Diego Business Journal."The validation line will set a technical foundation for the company's eventual low-volume assembly line, ensuring that manufacturing processes are optimized and refined, particularly for the company's composite body structure."To date, Aptera has produced three validation vehicles, two of which are in use driving around the San Diego region, wit
  
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• Why These Parents Want Schools to Stop Issuing iPads to Their Children

  06-12-2025 18:34 via mobile.slashdot.org
  What happened when a school in Los Angeles gave a sixth grader an iPad for use throughout the school day? "He used the iPad during school to watch YouTube and participate in Fortnite video game battles," reports NBC News.
  His mother has now launched a coalition of parents called Schools Beyond Screens "organizing in WhatsApp groups, petition drives and actions at school board meetings and demanding meetings with district administrators, pressuring them to pull back on the school-mandated screen
  
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• Why These Parents Want Schools to Stop Issuing iPads to the Their Children

  06-12-2025 18:34 via mobile.slashdot.org
  What happened when a school in Los Angeles gave a sixth grader an iPad for use throughout the school day? "He used the iPad during school to watch YouTube and participate in Fortnite video game battles," reports NBC News.
  His mother has now launched a coalition of parents called Schools Beyond Screens "organizing in WhatsApp groups, petition drives and actions at school board meetings and demanding meetings with district administrators, pressuring them to pull back on the school-mandated screen
  
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• The AI Boom Could Increase Prices for Phones and Tablets Next Year

  06-12-2025 16:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  CNN's prediction for 2026? "Any device that uses memory, from phones to tablets and smartwatches, could get pricier." But will it be a little or a lot?
  The article cites an analysis from multinational strategy/management consulting firm McKinsey & Company which found America's data center demand could continue growing by 20 to 25 percent per year" through 2030. "That's prompted memory manufacturers like Micron and Samsung to shift their focus to data centers, which use a different type of me
  
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• Linus Torvalds Defends Windows' Blue Screen of Death

  06-12-2025 14:13 via linux.slashdot.org
  Linus Torvalds recently defended Windows' infamous Blue Screen of Death during a video with Linus Sebastian of Linus Tech Tips, where the two built a PC together. It's FOSS reports: In that video, Sebastian discussed Torvalds' fondness for ECC (Error Correction Code). I am using their last name because Linus will be confused with Linus. This is where Torvalds says this: "I am convinced that all the jokes about how unstable Windows is and blue screening, I guess it's not a blue screen anymore, a
  
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• 'Rage Bait' Named Oxford Word of the Year 2025

  06-12-2025 11:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader sinij shares a report from the BBC: Do you find yourself getting increasingly irate while scrolling through your social media feed? If so, you may be falling victim to rage bait, which Oxford University Press has named its word or phrase of the year. It is a term that describes manipulative tactics used to drive engagement online, with usage of it increasing threefold in the last 12 months, according to the dictionary publisher.Rage bait beat two other shortlisted terms
  
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• Meta Confirms 'Shifting Some' Funding 'From Metaverse Toward AI Glasses'

  06-12-2025 08:07 via news.slashdot.org
  Meta has officially confirmed it is shifting investment away from the metaverse and VR toward AI-powered smart glasses, following a Bloomberg report of an up to 30% budget cut for Reality Labs. "Within our overall Reality Labs portfolio we are shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables given the momentum there," a statement from Meta reads. "We aren't planning any broader changes than that." From the report: Following Bloomberg's report, other mainstream news
  
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• OpenAI Has Trained Its LLM To Confess To Bad Behavior

  06-12-2025 04:03 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: OpenAI is testing another new way to expose the complicated processes at work inside large language models. Researchers at the company can make an LLM produce what they call a confession, in which the model explains how it carried out a task and (most of the time) owns up to any bad behavior. Figuring out why large language models do what they do -- and in particular why they sometimes appear to lie, cheat, and deceive -- is one of
  
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• Blackest Fabric Ever Made Absorbs 99.87% of All Light That Hits It

  06-12-2025 03:02 via science.slashdot.org
  alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: Engineers at Cornell University have created the blackest fabric on record, finding it absorbs 99.87 percent of all light that dares to illuminate its surface. [...] In this case, the Cornell researchers dyed a white merino wool knit fabric with a synthetic melanin polymer called polydopamine. Then, they placed the material in a plasma chamber, and etched structures called nanofibrils -- essentially, tiny fibers that trap light. "The light bas
  
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• AI Led To an Increase In Radiologists, Not a Decrease

  06-12-2025 02:01 via science.slashdot.org
  Despite predictions that AI would replace radiologists, healthcare systems worldwide are hiring more of them because AI tools enhance their work, create new oversight tasks, and increase imaging volumes rather than reducing workloads. "Put all that together with the context of an aging population and growing demand for imaging of all kinds, and you can see why Offiah and the Royal College of Radiologists are concerned about a shortage of radiologists, not their displacement," writes Financial Ti
  
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• Trump Wants Asia's 'Cute' Kei Cars To Be Made and Sold In US

  06-12-2025 01:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  sinij shares news of the Trump administration surprising the auto industry by granting approval for "tiny cars" to be built in the United States. Bloomberg reports: President Donald Trump, apparently enamored by the pint-sized Kei cars he saw during his recent trip to Japan, has paved the way for them to be made and sold in the U.S., despite concerns that they're too small and slow to be driven safely on American roads.
  "They're very small, they're really cute, and I said "How would that do in t
  
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• Chinese-Linked Hackers Use Backdoor For Potential 'Sabotage,' US and Canada Say

  06-12-2025 00:23 via it.slashdot.org
  U.S. and Canadian cybersecurity agencies say Chinese-linked actors deployed "Brickstorm" malware to infiltrate critical infrastructure and maintain long-term access for potential sabotage. Reuters reports: The Chinese-linked hacking operations are the latest example of Chinese hackers targeting critical infrastructure, infiltrating sensitive networks and "embedding themselves to enable long-term access, disruption, and potential sabotage," Madhu Gottumukkala, the acting director of the Cybersecu
  
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• Meta Acquires AI Wearable Company Limitless

  05-12-2025 23:22 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Meta is acquiring AI wearable startup Limitless, maker of a pendant that records conversations and generates summaries. "We're excited that Limitless will be joining Meta to help accelerate our work to build AI-enabled wearables," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. CNBC reports: Limitless CEO Dan Siroker revealed the deal on Friday via a corporate blog post but did not disclose the financial terms. "Meta recently announced a new vision to bring personal superintelligence to everyone and a
  
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• India Reviews Telecom Industry Proposal For Always-On Satellite Location Tracking

  05-12-2025 22:21 via yro.slashdot.org
  India is weighing a proposal to mandate always-on satellite tracking in smartphones for precise government surveillance -- an idea strongly opposed by Apple, Google, Samsung, and industry groups. Reuters reports: For years, the [Prime Minister Narendra Modi's] administration has been concerned its agencies do not get precise locations when legal requests are made to telecom firms during investigations. Under the current system, the firms are limited to using cellular tower data that can only pro
  
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