ICT news

• Gboard Testing Circle, Pill-Shaped Keys On Android

  07-03-2025 01:50 via slashdot.org
  
  Google Gboard for Android is introducing circle or pill-shaped keys for some beta testers today. "Instead of the key borders being rounded rectangles, Gboard is switching to circles and pills for letters, while the space bar and other keys are now pill-shaped," reports 9to5Google. "While there should be no functional change to touch targets, these new shapes really shift the look of Gboard for Android." From the report: On paper, it's a bit more modern (and rounded) compared to what came before.
  
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• 99% of New US Will Be Green in 2026

  01-02-2026 13:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  This year in America, renewables and battery storage "will account for 99.2% of net new capacity — and even higher if small-scale solar were included," reports Electrek, citing EIA data reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign:EIA's latest monthly "Electric Power Monthly" report (with data through November 30, 2025), once again confirms that solar is the fastest-growing among the major sources of US electricity... [U]tility-scale solar thermal and photovoltaic expanded by 34.5% while that from sma
  
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• China Executes 11 Members of Myanmar Scam Mafia

  01-02-2026 09:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  The BBC reports:
  China has executed 11 members of a notorious mafia family that ran scam centres in Myanmar along its north-eastern border, state media report.The Ming family members were sentenced in September for various crimes including homicide, illegal detention, fraud and operating gambling dens by a court in China's Zhejiang province. The Mings were one of many clans that ran the town of Laukkaing, transforming an impoverished backwater town into a flashy hub of casinos and red-light dist
  
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• Five French Ubisoft Unions Call For Massive International Strike Over 'Cost-Cutting' and Ending of Remote Work

  01-02-2026 06:34 via it.slashdot.org
  Five French unions representing Ubisoft workers "have called for a 'massive international strike'," reports the gaming news site Aftermath.
  The move follows a "series of layoffs and cancellations" at Ubisoft, the article points out, plus what the company calls a "major organizational, operational and portfolio reset" that will lead to more layoffs and cancellations announced last week. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot even sent an end-of-day message warning that management continues to "make difficult
  
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• US Government Also Received a Whistleblower Complaint That WhatsApp Chats Aren't Private

  01-02-2026 04:11 via yro.slashdot.org
  Remember that lawsuit questioning WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption? Thursday Bloomberg reported those allegations had been investigated by special agents with America's Commerce Department, "according to the law enforcement records, as well as a person familiar with the matter and one of the contractors."Similar claims were also the subject of a 2024 whistleblower complaint to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the records and the person, who spoke on the condition that they
  
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• AI Use at Work Has Increased, Gallup Poll Finds

  01-02-2026 00:46 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shared this report from the Associated Press:
  American workers adopted artificial intelligence into their work lives at a remarkable pace over the past few years, according to a new poll. Some 12% of employed adults say they use AI daily in their job, according to a Gallup Workforce survey conducted this fall of more than 22,000 U.S. workers.
  The survey found roughly one-quarter say they use AI at least frequently, which is defined as at least a few times a week, and nearly h
  
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• Electric Flying Cars Now for Sale by California Company Pivotal

  31-01-2026 23:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  "A future with flying cars is no longer science fiction," writes the Los Angeles Times.
  "All you need to order your own is about $200,000 and some hope and patience."
  The Palo Alto-based company Pivotal has been developing the technology since 2009 and is nearly ready to bring it to market... [Company founder Marcus] Leng engineered an ultralight, electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing aircraft known as an eVTOL. Other VTOL aircraft, such as helicopters, had existed for decades, but Leng'
  
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• Apple Switches to Build-to-Order Systems on Its Web Site

  31-01-2026 22:34 via apple.slashdot.org
  "Apple has gone for a choose-your-own-adventure when shopping for a new Mac," writes long-time Slashdot reader esarjeant.
  Macworld explains:Apple has shifted from selling pre-configured Mac models to a fully customizable build-to-order system on its website, allowing customers to select display size, chip, memory, and storage options... This change emphasizes building a machine within budget rather than choosing from set configurations, potentially preparing for future CPU/GPU core selection wit
  
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• Nvidia CEO Denies OpenAI's $100B Investment from Nvidia is 'Stalled'

  31-01-2026 21:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Saturday Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said they still planned a "huge" investment in OpenAI, according to CNBC.
  Friday the Wall Street Journal had reported that Nvidia's plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI "has stalled after some inside the chip giant expressed doubts about the deal, people familiar with the matter said..."[T]he talks haven't progressed beyond the early stages, some of the people said. Now, the two sides are rethinking the future of their partnership, some of the people said.
  
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• Blue Origin Announces Two-Year Pause in Space Tourism - to Focus on the Moon

  31-01-2026 20:34 via science.slashdot.org
  TechCrunch reports:
  Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin is pausing its space tourism flights for "no less than two years" in order to focus all of its resources on upcoming missions to the moon, the company announced Friday. The decision puts a temporary halt on a program that Blue Origin has been using to fly humans past the Kármán line, the recognized boundary of space, for the last five years. Blue Origin made the announcement just a few weeks ahead of the expected third launc
  
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• Can We Slow Global Warming By Phasing Out Super-Pollutant HFCs?

  31-01-2026 19:34 via news.slashdot.org
  "There's one big bright spot in the fight against climate change that most people never think about," reports the Washington Post."It could prevent nearly half a degree of global warming this century, a huge margin for a planet that has warmed almost 1.5 degrees Celsius and is struggling to keep that number below 2 degrees..."
  [M]ore than 170 countries — including the U.S. — have agreed to act on this one solution. That solution: phasing out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a group of gase
  
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• Scientists Found a Way To Cool Quantum Computers Using Noise

  31-01-2026 18:34 via science.slashdot.org
  Slashdot reader alternative_right writes: Quantum computers need extreme cold to work, but the very systems that keep them cold also create noise that can destroy fragile quantum information. Scientists in Sweden have now flipped that problem on its head by building a tiny quantum refrigerator that actually uses noise to drive cooling instead of fighting it. By carefully steering heat at unimaginably small scales, the device can act as a refrigerator, heat engine, or energy amplifier inside quan
  
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• WhatsApp End-to-End Encryption Allegations Questioned By Some Security Experts, Lawyers

  31-01-2026 17:34 via it.slashdot.org
  Several security experts have "questioned the lack of technical detail" in that lawsuit alleging WhatsApp has no end-to-end encryption, reports the Washington Post:"It's pretty long on accusations and thin on any sort of evidence," Matthew Green, a cryptography professor at Johns Hopkins University, said over Signal. "WhatsApp has been very consistent about using end-to-end encryption. This lawsuit seems to be a nothingburger." Nicholas Weaver, a security researcher at the International Computer
  
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• The Bill Gates-Epstein Bombshell - and What Most People Get Wrong

  31-01-2026 16:34 via news.slashdot.org
  The Daily Beast:"Salacious claims from Jeffrey Epstein that Bill Gates contracted an STD following 'sex with Russian girls,' and colluded with the disgraced financier on a plot to secretly slip his wife antibiotics, were revealed in the latest Epstein files release."The New York Times. (Alternate URL)
  "A representative of the Gates Foundation said, 'These claims — from a proven, disgruntled liar — are absolutely absurd and completely false. The only thing these documents demonstrate
  
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• Microdosing For Depression Appears To Work About As Well As Drinking Coffee

  31-01-2026 14:00 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: About a decade ago, many media outlets -- including WIRED -- zeroed in on a weird trend at the intersection of mental health, drug science, and Silicon Valley biohacking: microdosing, or the practice of taking a small amount of a psychedelic drug seeking not full-blown hallucinatory revels but gentler, more stable effects. Typically using psilocybin mushrooms or LSD, the archetypal microdoser sought less melting walls and open-eye kaleidoscopic vis
  
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• Author of Systemd Quits Microsoft To Prove Linux Can Be Trusted

  31-01-2026 11:00 via linux.slashdot.org
  Lennart Poettering has left Microsoft to co-found Amutable, a new Berlin-based company aiming to bring cryptographically verifiable integrity and deterministic trust guarantees to Linux systems. He said in a post on Mastodon that his "role in upstream maintenance for the Linux kernel will continue as it always has." Poettering will also continue to remain deeply involved in the systemd ecosystem. The Register reports: Linux celeb Lennart Poettering has left Microsoft and co-founded a new company
  
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• 'Reverse Solar Panel' Generates Electricity at Night

  31-01-2026 08:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Researchers at the University of New South Wales are developing a "reverse solar panel" that generates small amounts of electricity at night by harvesting infrared heat radiated from Earth. "In the past, scientists have demonstrated that a 'thermoradiative diode' can convert infrared radiation directly into electricity; when used to convert heat from Earth, they exploit the temperature difference between Earth and the night sky, generating a current directly from heat," notes ExtremeTech. "This
  
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• UK's First Rapid-Charging Battery Train Ready For Boarding

  31-01-2026 04:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The UK's first superfast-charging train running only on battery power will come into passenger service this weekend -- operating a five-mile return route in west London. Great Western Railway (GWR) will send the converted London Underground train out from 5.30am to cover the full Saturday timetable on the West Ealing to Greenford branch line, four stops and 12 minutes each way, and now carrying up to 273 passengers, should its celebrity stok
  
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• Apple Reports Best-Ever Quarter For iPhone Sales

  31-01-2026 02:25 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Apple posted its biggest quarter ever, with iPhone revenue hitting a record ~$85.3 billion and Services climbing 14% to ~$30 billion. Total revenue reached nearly $143.76 billion."The demand for iPhone was simply staggering," CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call discussing the results. "This is the strongest iPhone lineup we've ever had and by far the most popular."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Belkin's Wemo Smart Devices Will Go Offline On Saturday

  31-01-2026 01:45 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Belkin is shutting down cloud support for most Wemo smart home devices on January 31, leaving only Thread-based models and devices already set up in Apple HomeKit functional. Everything else will lose remote access, voice assistant integrations, and future app updates. The Verge reports: The shut down was first announced in July and impacts most Wemo devices, ranging from smart plugs to a coffee maker, with the exception of a handful of Thread-based devices: the 3-way smart light switch (WLS0503
  
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• GNU gettext Reaches Version 1.0 After 30 Years

  31-01-2026 01:22 via news.slashdot.org
  After more than 30 years of development, GNU gettext finally "crossed the symbolic 'v1.0' milestone," according to Phoronix's Michael Larabel. "GNU gettext 1.0 brings PO file handling improvements, a new 'po-fetch' program to fetch translated PO files from a translation project's site on the Internet, new 'msgpre' and 'spit' pre-translation programs, and Ocaml and Rust programming language improvements." From the report: With this v1.0 release in 2026, the "msgpre" and "spit" programs do involve
  
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• White House Scraps 'Burdensome' Software Security Rules

  31-01-2026 01:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from SecurityWeek: The White House has announced that software security guidance issued during the Biden administration has been rescinded due to "unproven and burdensome" requirements that prioritized administrative compliance over meaningful security investments. The US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued Memorandum M-26-05 (PDF), officially revoking the previous administration's 2022 policy, 'Enhancing the Security of the Software Supply Chain
  
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• Oracle May Slash Up To 30,000 Jobs

  31-01-2026 00:20 via developers.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Oracle could cut up to 30,000 jobs and sell health tech unit Cerner to ease its AI datacenter financing challenges, investment banker TD Cowen has claimed, amid changing sentiment on Big Red's massive build-out plans.
  A research note from TD Cowen states that finding equity and debt investors are increasingly questioning how Oracle will finance its datacenter building program to support its $300 billion, five-year contract with OpenAI.
  The bank estimates the
  
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• Los Angeles Aims To Ban Single-Use Printer Cartridges

  30-01-2026 23:40 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Los Angeles is moving to ban single-use printer cartridges that can't be refilled or taken back for recycling. Tom's Hardware reports: Printer cartridges are usually built with a combination of plastic, metal, and chemicals that makes them hard to easily dispose. They can be treated as hazardous waste by the city, but even then it would take them hundreds of years to actually disintegrate at a waste site. Since they're designed to be thrown away in the first place, the real solution is to target
  
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• Videogame Stocks Slide On Google's AI Model That Turns Prompts Into Playable Worlds

  30-01-2026 23:00 via games.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Shares of videogame companies fell sharply in afternoon trading on Friday after Alphabet's Google rolled out its artificial intelligence model capable of creating interactive digital worlds with simple prompts. Shares of "Grand Theft Auto" maker Take-Two Interactive fell 10%, online gaming platform Roblox was down over 12%, while videogame engine maker Unity Software dropped 21%.The AI model, dubbed "Project Genie," allows users to simulate a rea
  
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• Wall Street's Top Bankers Are Giving Coinbase's Brian Armstrong the Cold Shoulder

  30-01-2026 22:22 via news.slashdot.org
  JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon interrupted a conversation between Coinbase chief Brian Armstrong and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair at Davos last week to tell Armstrong "You are full of s---," his index finger pointed squarely at Armstrong's face. Dimon told Armstrong to stop lying on TV, according to WSJ.
  Armstrong had appeared on business programs earlier that week accusing banks of trying to sabotage the Clarity Act, legislation that would create a new regulatory framework for digital
  
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• 'Moltbook Is the Most Interesting Place On the Internet Right Now'

  30-01-2026 21:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  Moltbook is essentially Reddit for AI agents and it's the "most interesting place on the internet right now," says open-source developer and writer Simon Willison in a blog post. The fast-growing social network offers a place where AI agents built on the OpenClaw personal assistant framework can share their skills, experiments, and discoveries. Humans are welcome, but only to observe. From the post: Browsing around Moltbook is so much fun. A lot of it is the expected science fiction slop, with a
  
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• Apple 'Runs on Anthropic,' Says Bloomberg's Mark Gurman

  30-01-2026 21:01 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple "runs on Anthropic at this point" and that the AI company is powering much of what Apple does internally for product development and internal tools, according to Mark Gurman, the most influential reporter on the Apple beat.
  Apple had initially pursued an AI deal with Anthropic before the Google partnership came together, but negotiations fell apart over pricing -- Anthropic reportedly wanted several billion dollars per year and a doubling of fees over time. Apple's deal with Google is cost
  
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• One-Third of US Video Game Industry Workers Were Laid Off Over the Last Two Years, GDC Study Reveals

  30-01-2026 20:21 via games.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: One-third of U.S. video game industry workers say they were laid off over the past two years, according to a new survey conducted by the organizers behind the newly revamped Game Developers Conference (GDC). Based on responses from more than 2,300 gaming industry professionals, with surveys "customized for each participant group, ensuring that developers, marketers, executives, investors and others answered questions most relevant to them," the 2026 State of
  
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• DuckDuckGo Users Vote Overwhelmingly Against AI Features

  30-01-2026 19:45 via search.slashdot.org
  DuckDuckGo recently asked its users how they felt about AI in search. The answer has come back loud and clear: more than 90% of the 175,354 people who voted said they don't want it.
  The privacy-focused search engine has since set up two versions of its tool: noai.duckduckgo.com for the AI-averse and yesai.duckduckgo.com for the curious. Users can also tweak settings on the main site to disable AI summaries, AI-generated images, and the Duck.ai chatbot individually.Read more of this story at Slas
  
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