ICT news

• Firefox's New Tab Page Will Get Widgets - Including an AI-Powered Daily Crossword

  26-07-2026 03:34 via news.slashdot.org
  In a sign of the times, Firefox's New Tab page could soon include a crossword puzzle from AI-powered news platform Particle. The blog OMG Ubuntu reports:The mini crossword game is updated daily, with puzzles based around recent content Particle's AI has ingested and summarised that day. [After solving the crossword, links appear to related news articles...] If you just want to try the crossword, you access it in any browser via a direct link.
  While it may look like Mozilla is trying to capitalis
  
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• Nvidia In Talks With OpenAI To Guarantee $250 Billion Financing For Data Center

  27-07-2026 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Nvidia is in talks to provide roughly $250 billion in financing guarantees for OpenAI as part of a massive data center project, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The backstop from Nvidia would help the ChatGPT maker lease a 10-gigawatt project that SoftBank's energy subsidiary is developing in southern Ohio, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter. For OpenAI, a deal would be the first step toward controlling its own
  
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• 'KVM Chainsaw' Expected to Hit Linux 7.3 For Dealing with 'God Data Structure'

  27-07-2026 13:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shared this report from Phoronix:
  A patch series that appears destined for the upcoming Linux 7.3 merge window is what's dubbed the "KVM Chainsaw" as a major code clean-up in dealing with the kvm_mmu "god data structure". Red Hat engineer and KVM maintainer Paolo Bonzini has merged the kvm-chainsaw branch to KVM's "next" Git branch. With this KVM Chainsaw work now in the next branch, it should be submitted for the upcoming Linux 7.3 cycle.
  The KVM Chainsaw work deals with the
  
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• A New Middle Class of Content Creators Is Quietly Quitting the 9-to-5

  27-07-2026 09:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  "The rise of TikTok, Instagram Reels and Amazon storefronts has created a new kind of white-collar exit strategy," reports Bloomberg. Workers ditch office jobs not to become celebrities, necessarily, "but to piece together an income online through brand deals, affiliate links and highly personal videos documenting everyday life."In many cases, the followers necessary to sustain a living are smaller (and more attainable) than people might assume. A small but loyal audience can now generate enough
  
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• 2.1 Million People View Leaked 'Odyssey' Bootleg on X

  27-07-2026 06:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Variety reports:"The Odyssey" leaks have begun, as a high-quality bootleg of the film reached millions of people on X thanks to a viral tweet on July 25. At 2:25 p.m. PT, a post on X reading "Someone uploaded 'The Odyssey' full movie on X. Can you believe it?" amplified a message from a now-suspended account. The message included a high-quality version of the film, as confirmed by Variety, and climbed to over 2.1 million views within two and a half hours. By that time, the streaming film was rep
  
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• 'Inside the Dystopian World of Germany's Free Speech Crackdown'

  27-07-2026 03:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  Thousands of Germans have been threatened with fines or prison sentences for social media posts, reports The Telegraph, calling the country's political speech laws "unusually stringent for an EU member state."
  One German had his home raided for calling a minister a "Schwachkopf [dummy]" while another was fined €2,000 (£1,700) for calling Friedrich Merz a "lying Fritz" under a law that, critics claim, makes it effectively illegal to make fun of politicians. The number of investigations
  
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• NASA Replaces ULA's Vulcan Centaur With SpaceX Falcon Heavy For Solar Storm Research

  26-07-2026 23:46 via science.slashdot.org
  There's been a change to NASA's launch of six satellites for solar storms research. Space.com reports that those satellites "were originally slated to lift off on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket but have now been assigned a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, according to a NASA mission update."
  [NASA's Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment mision — or SunRISE] will fly to space as part of a rideshare mission sponsored by the U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command. Though it's not st
  
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• Apple's Smart Glasses Delayed, As Engineers Consider Privacy Concerns

  26-07-2026 22:41 via apple.slashdot.org
  Digital Trends reports:Apple could unveil its first smart glasses at WWDC in June 2027, followed by a consumer release toward the end of the year, according to Bloomberg... Part of the delay reportedly stems from Apple's engineering and marketing teams spending more time refining the product and deciding how to address the privacy concerns...
  Apple has reportedly considered glasses without cameras, as well as a version where the cameras can analyse the surroundings but cannot record photos or vi
  
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• Google's Anti-search-scraping Lawsuit Dismissed

  26-07-2026 21:41 via yro.slashdot.org
  A U.S. district court "has dismissed Google's case against SerpApi over that company's scraping of search results to train AI models," reports Computerworld. Google had claimed that it was protecting copyright holders — and that SerpApi's actions breached America's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA):
  [Google] made two claims: first, that no person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title, and second that no person s
  
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• Wildfires, Evacuations, and Smoke Hit Europe and North America

  26-07-2026 20:39 via news.slashdot.org
  270,000 people have been displaced by wildfires in France and Spain, reports the Guardian. A wildfire even forced evacuations in Scotland.
  And wildfires "have now scorched four million acres of land in the U.S.," reports NPR, as tens of millions of people in North America "are continuing to endure hazardous smoke from out of control wildfires burning across Canada and the Western U.S."
  At America's National Interagency Fire Center, NPR's wildfire correspondent says all of America's firefighting
  
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• AI-Equipped Garbage Trucks Could Soon Start Spying On People in the US

  26-07-2026 19:39 via news.slashdot.org
  America's garbage trucks can do more than just collect trash, reports Newsweek. They may also help identify code violations using AI.Officials in Cape Coral, Florida, recently considered equipping sanitation trucks with AI-powered cameras that would photograph properties as crews complete their normal collection routes. The system would have been designed to identify potential issues such as overgrown lawns, peeling paint, and illegal dumping, and to flag violations so the city staff can review
  
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• Is Huawei Building Its Own DRAM Fab?

  26-07-2026 18:39 via hardware.slashdot.org
  From the site tech-news site XDA Developers:
  The consumer tech economy needs more DRAM manufacturers, and it needs them more urgently than perhaps at any point in its history. Anyone keeping track of the pricing trends will know that memory prices have climbed into the stratosphere on the back of AI infrastructure's relentless demand, and every consumer device that depends on RAM has traveled from inflated to unaffordable, quarter after quarter, with almost no relief in sight. Which is exactly w
  
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• Three Astronauts Safely Return from Space Station, Landing in Kazakhstan Steppe

  26-07-2026 17:39 via science.slashdot.org
  "Welcome home!" NASA posted on X.com, sharing footage of a successful "parachute-assisted" landing on a Kazakhstan steppe for the Soyuz MS-28, carrying three astronauts who'd spent 241 days on the International Space Station. (And YouTube has a full two-hour video with NASA's coverage of the landing.)
  A NASA web page notes they orbited Earth 3,856 times and traveling more than 102 million miles after docking with the Space Station on November 27. It was the first mission for NASA astronaut Chris
  
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• Typo-Squatting Scammers Con South Carolina Town Out of $545K

  26-07-2026 16:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  It started with some underground utility work for the South Carolina town of Surfside Beach (population: 4,155). "Public records confirm that a payment of $545,598.30 was issued," according to a local news station — but the CEO of Wildcat Contractors "stated that the account that received the money is a scammer account and that his company has an overdue invoice for underground utility work completed in Surfside Beach."
  Yahoo picks up the story:After the payment issue surfaced, Wildcat sai
  
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• A Promising Process For Nuclear Fuel Re-use and Disposal?

  26-07-2026 13:34 via news.slashdot.org
  A Canadian lab has run a chemical process on real spent nuclear fuel "and pulled out 90% of the long-lived danger in 24 hours, the part that forces a burial site to last 100,000 years," notes the blog Autonocio, "with the leftovers meant to fuel a reactor."
  The standard plan for spent nuclear fuel is to wait it out. You pull the used bundles from a reactor, sit them in a pool of water for seven to ten years while the heat and radiation come down, seal them in concrete casks, and look for somewhe
  
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• Comic-Con 2026 Debuts Trailers for 'Coyote vs Acme' Movie, Plus 'Neuromancer' and 'Blade Runner 2099' Series

  26-07-2026 09:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Big news from Comic-Con 2026:"Coyote vs. ACME" debuted its long-awaited final trailer. CNET calls it "an animation-meets-live-action story," with the Coyote catapulting into theaters this August 28. (The film began development back in 2018, but was shelved for a tax write-off in 2023 by Warner Bros. until a backlash led to its sale to Ketchup Entertainment.) "Fed up with Acme's unreliable products, Wile E. Coyote decides to hire a lawyer and sue the company..." writes CNET. "The movie also featu
  
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• 32 of 35 Students Caught Using Hilariously Wrong AI-Generated Answers for Professor's Midterm

  26-07-2026 05:34 via news.slashdot.org
  "32 of my 35 students between two classes failed a portion of their midterm because they all used AI to generate their entire response," history professor Jason Gibson says in a viral video shared over 10 million times. "And apparently, they didn't proofread it."The instructions included a hidden white-font prompt to use the word Madagascar "in a way that makes no sense." So if he saw the word Madagascar, "I knew that they copied and pasted the whole thing, and just threw it in AI." Futurism rep
  
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• Firefox' New Tab Page Will Get Widgets - Including an AI-Powered Daily Crossword

  26-07-2026 03:34 via news.slashdot.org
  In a sign of the times, Firefox's New Tab page could soon include a crossword puzzle from AI-powered news platform Particle. The blog OMG Ubuntu reports:The mini crossword game is updated daily, with puzzles based around recent content Particle's AI has ingested and summarised that day. [After solving the crossword, links appear to related news articles...] If you just want to try the crossword, you access it in any browser via a direct link.
  While it may look like Mozilla is trying to capitalis
  
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• Did Virginia Regulators Downplay Data Center Health Concerns?

  26-07-2026 01:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Politico reports that in the Virginia area alone there's dozens of data center projects "that altogether need 70 gigawatts of power — equivalent to 70 nuclear plants" — currently seeking connection to their grid. But there's also concerns about a Virginia data center powered with natural gas and backup diesel generators:
  When Virginia's top environmental regulator received an analysis warning of data center pollution, it took him less than five minutes to forward it to seven people o
  
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• Drying Lakebeds Are Releasing Massive Amounts of Carbon, Study Finds

  26-07-2026 00:00 via news.slashdot.org
  "In many parts of the world, lakes are drying out at a scale so massive that scientists are warning they may be emitting enough greenhouse gases to rival our fossil fuel habit," reports ScienceAlert:In a new study published in Science, scientists say the Aral Sea — the world's largest desiccated lake — has emitted a whopping 204 megatons (~225 million US tons) of carbon dioxide since it was drained in the 1960s... The study estimates that between 1960 and 2022, the evaporating sea ha
  
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• Hyundai Claims Humanoid Robot Plan Is Not Part of Talks With Striking Workers

  25-07-2026 23:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Ars Technica reports:Hyundai Motor Company's plan to put humanoid robots to work by 2028 is not part of current negotiations with striking South Korean autoworkers, according to the company.
  The automaker is disputing news reports that partial labor strikes by the Hyundai Motor union at the world's largest automotive plant in South Korea were spurred by concerns about the company's planned deployment of humanoid robots in the United States starting in 2028. [The planned robots are built by Bosto
  
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• Amazon Cracks Down On Use of AI Images By Sellers

  25-07-2026 22:00 via slashdot.org
  CNBC reports:
  Amazon is requiring that third-party sellers label any product images or videos that contain "AI-generated people" after New York recently passed a law mandating greater transparency around "synthetic performers" in ads... The policy directs sellers to tag images [and videos or other graphics on listing pages] with specific metadata keywords before they're uploaded. "Recent legislation requires disclosure when images or videos in advertisements contain photorealistic AI-generated p
  
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• Top Online Sites Debate Cutting Off Google's Crawlers

  25-07-2026 21:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Futurism reports:
  [Some online publications] are now debating whether to cut Google off entirely, as the Wall Street Journal reports, illustrating an increasingly fraught relationship between the tech giant and the publishers that are creating content its AI models are regurgitating. According to the newspaper, prominent outlets including USA Today, Politico, the Economist, People, and Reuters are all reexamining their relationship with Google. Some are debating whether to continue to work with
  
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• China is Creating a Herd of 100 Elite Yak Clones

  25-07-2026 20:00 via science.slashdot.org
  CNN reports on yaks "designed and cloned" in secretive, high-altitude labs in Tibet — 2.4 miles (4,000 meters) above sea level. They're a critical part of the local economy, and researchers "hope to create an 'elite' herd of super-yaks, healthier and more fertile than their predecessors."Both domestic yaks and their wild cousins have been facing threats for years, with some rare subspecies at risk of disappearing entirely. Authorities in the southwestern Chinese region have poured tens of
  
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• Facebook Offers a Verification System Certifying to Other Users That You're a Real Human

  25-07-2026 19:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Facebook announced Friday they're launching a badge "that verifies there's a real person behind a profile"."You record a short video selfie, which we check against your existing profile photos to confirm a match. The process is free and typically takes just a few minutes. Accounts must meet our trust and safety standards to qualify for verification...." Once verified, your badge will appear across the places on Facebook where it matters most: Marketplace, Dating, Groups, and Profile to start. Ov
  
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• Risks of Parkinson's Disease May Increase With Prolonged Exposure to Road Traffic Noise

  25-07-2026 18:00 via science.slashdot.org
  A large Danish study found a modest but consistent association between long-term road traffic noise exposure and higher Parkinson's disease risk, with a 3% increase for every 11.5 dB rise in noise at the most exposed side of a home. The Guardian reports: The researchers modeled noise exposure at the most and least exposed exterior of the residence of each participant and calculated the difference in noise levels. The magnitude of the effect was modest but consistent; at the most exposed facade,
  
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• Trump Threatens New Tariffs Against EU Over Google Fine

  25-07-2026 17:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  President Trump threatened a "substantial" new tariff on the European Union after Brussels fined Google more than $1 billion over alleged illegal trade practices. "The European Union will pay a very big price for this illegal and highly unethical conduct, which I have consistently warned them about," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "The penalties will be entirely reversed and, we anticipate, a substantial TARIFF to be placed on them at the earliest possible moment." Politico reports: The president'
  
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• Wine 11.14 Released

  25-07-2026 13:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Wine 11.14 is out with initial WoW64 mode support on FreeBSD, allowing 32-bit Windows applications to run on a 64-bit system without relying on 32-bit multilib support. The release also adds Start Menu icon support in Wine Explorer, 7.1 format conversions in DirectSound, AES-GMAC support in BCrypt, and 21 bug fixes affecting apps and games including Adobe Reader, Heroes of the Storm, and Age of Empires I and II. Additional details can be found at WineHQ.org.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• SpaceX's Starship Megarocket Hits Key Milestones in 'Lucky 13' Test Flight

  25-07-2026 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  SpaceX's Friday launch of its massive Starship rocket "went quite smoothly," reports CNN, with a SpaceX spokesperson calling this mission "Lucky Number 13" (as the 13th integrated flight test for a Starship spacecraft with a Super Heavy rocket booster):
  During Starship V3's inaugural test, there were numerous engine issues as several on the booster failed to relight and the Starship spacecraft experienced a nail-biting engine outage. SpaceX also was forced to replace six engines on this vehicle
  
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• SpaceX's Starship Megarocket Hits Key Milestones In Its 'Lucky 13' Test Flight

  25-07-2026 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  SpaceX's Friday launch of its massive Starship rocket "went quite smoothly," reports CNN, with a SpaceX spokesperson calling this mission "Lucky Number 13" (as the 13th integrated flight test for a Starship spacecraft with a Super Heavy rocket booster):
  During Starship V3's inaugural test, there were numerous engine issues as several on the booster failed to relight and the Starship spacecraft experienced a nail-biting engine outage. SpaceX also was forced to replace six engines on this vehicle
  
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