ICT news

• Kernel Community Drafts a Plan For Replacing Linus Torvalds

  29-01-2026 02:25 via linux.slashdot.org
  The Linux kernel community has formalized a continuity plan for the day Linus Torvalds eventually steps aside, defining how the process would work to replace him as the top-level maintainer. ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols reports: The new "plan for a plan," drafted by longtime kernel contributor Dan Williams, was discussed at the latest Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit in Tokyo, where he introduced it as "an uplifting subject tied to our eventual march toward death." Torvalds added, in our convers
  
  Read more

• '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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• '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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• Nobel Hacking Likely Leaked Peace Prize Winner Name, Probe Finds

  30-01-2026 19:05 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A hacking of the Nobel organization's computer systems is the most likely cause of last year's leak of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado's name, according to the results of an investigation [non-paywalled source]. An individual or a state actor may have illegally gained access in a cyber breach, the Norwegian Nobel Institute said on Friday after concluding an internal investigation assisted by security authorities.
  The leak had triggered an unus
  
  Read more

• Do Markets Make Us Moral?

  30-01-2026 18:20 via slashdot.org
  A new study [PDF] examining the United States between 1850 and 1920 found that expanded market access -- driven largely by railroad expansion -- made Americans more trusting of strangers and more outward-looking, but weakened family-based care for the vulnerable.
  Researchers Max Posch of the University of Exeter and Itzchak Tzachi Raz of Hebrew University compared places and people gaining different levels of commercial connectivity. In better-connected regions, Americans became more likely to m
  
  Read more

• 'Call Screening is Aggravating the Rich and Powerful'

  30-01-2026 17:41 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Apple's call-screening feature, introduced in iOS 26 last year, was designed to combat the more than 2 billion robocalls placed to Americans every month, but as WSJ is reporting, it is now creating friction for the rich and powerful who find themselves subjected to automated interrogation when dialing from unrecognized numbers.
  The feature uses an automated voice to ask unknown callers for their names and reasons for calling, transcribes the responses, and lets recipients decide whether to answe
  
  Read more

• The UK Paid $5.65 Million For a Bookmarks Site

  30-01-2026 17:01 via news.slashdot.org
  The UK government paid consulting firm PwC $5.65 million to build its new AI Skills Hub, a site meant to help 10 million workers gain AI skills by 2030 that functions largely as a bookmarking service, directing users to external training courses that already existed before the contract was awarded.
  The hub links to platforms like Salesforce's free Trailhead learning system rather than offering original educational content. PwC has acknowledged the site does not fully meet accessibility standards
  
  Read more

• Amazon in Talks To Invest Up To $50 Billion in OpenAI

  30-01-2026 16:20 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be a giant bet on the hot AI startup. The ChatGPT maker is seeking up to $100 billion in new capital from investors, a round that could value it at as much as $830 billion, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
  Andy Jassy, Amazon's chief executive, is leading the negotiations with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to some of the people.
  
  Read more

• Microsoft is Experimenting With a Top Menu Bar for Windows 11

  30-01-2026 15:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft's PowerToys team is contemplating building a top menu bar for Windows 11, much like Linux, macOS, or older versions of Windows. The menu bar, or Command Palette Dock as Microsoft calls it, would be a new optional UI that provides quick access to tools, monitoring of system resources, and much more.
  Microsoft has provided concept images of what it's looking to build, and is soliciting feedback on whether Windows users would use a PowerToy like this.
  
  Read more

• Backseat Software

  30-01-2026 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Mike Swanson: What if your car worked like so many apps? You're driving somewhere important...maybe running a little bit late. A few minutes into the drive, your car pulls over to the side of the road and asks:
  "How are you enjoying your drive so far?"
  Annoyed by the interruption, and even more behind schedule, you dismiss the prompt and merge back into traffic.
  A minute later it does it again.
  "Did you know I have a new feature? Tap here to learn more."
  It blocks your speedometer with an overla
  
  Read more

• Unable To Stop AI, SAG-AFTRA Mulls a Studio Tax On Digital Performers

  30-01-2026 14:00 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Variety: In the future, studios that use synthetic actors in place of humans might have to pay a royalty into a union fund. That's one of the ideas kicking around as SAG-AFTRA prepares to sit down with the studios on Feb. 9. Artificial intelligence was central to the 2023 actors strike, and it's only gotten more urgent since. Social media is awash in slop, while user-made videos of Leia and Elsa are soon to debut on Disney+. And then there's Tilly Norwood
  
  Read more

• Former Google Engineer Found Guilty of Stealing AI Secrets For Chinese Firms

  30-01-2026 11:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from CBS News: A former Google engineer has been found guilty on multiple federal charges for stealing the tech giant's trade secrets on artificial intelligence to benefit Chinese companies he secretly worked for, federal prosecutors said. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, a jury on Thursday convicted Linwei Ding on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets, followi
  
  Read more

• Radiologists Catch More Aggressive Breast Cancers By Using AI To Help Read Mammograms, Study Finds

  30-01-2026 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  A large Swedish study of 100,000 women found that using AI to assist radiologists reading mammograms reduced the rate of aggressive "interval" breast cancers by 12%. CBC News reports: For the study -- published in Thursday's issue of the medical journal The Lancet -- more than 100,000 women had mammography screenings. Half were supported by AI and the rest had their mammograms reviewed by two different radiologists, a standard practice in much of Europe known as double reading. It is not typical
  
  Read more

• Universal Basic Income Could Be Used To Soften Hit From AI Job Losses In UK, Minister Says

  30-01-2026 04:30 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The UK could introduce a universal basic income (UBI) to protect workers in industries that are being disrupted by AI, the investment minister Jason Stockwood has said. "Bumpy" changes to society caused by the introduction of the technology would mean there would have to be "some sort of concessionary arrangement with jobs that go immediately", Lord Stockwood said. The Labour peer told the Financial Times: "Undoubtedly we're going to have to
  
  Read more

• Comcast Keeps Losing Customers Despite Price Guarantee, Unlimited Data

  30-01-2026 03:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  Comcast's attempt to slow broadband customer losses still isn't stopping the bleeding as fiber and fixed wireless competition intensifies. In Q4 2025 alone, Comcast lost 181,000 broadband subscribers, even as it leans harder into wireless bundling and other business lines like Peacock and theme parks. Ars Technica reports: The Q4 net loss is more than the 176,000 loss predicted by analysts, although not as bad as the 199,000-customer loss that spurred [Comcast President Mike Cavanagh's] comment
  
  Read more

• Cory Doctorow On Tariffs and the DMCA In Canada

  30-01-2026 02:25 via news.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader devnulljapan writes: In 2012, Canada passed anti-circumvention law Bill C-11, cut-and-pasted from the U.S. DMCA, in return for access to U.S. markets without tariffs. Trump has tariffed Canada anyway, so Cory Doctorow suggests it sounds like like a good idea to ditch Bill C-11 and turn Canada into a "Disenshittification Nation" and go into the business of "disenshittify[ing] America's defective tech exports." Some of the specific ways Canada could respond include legaliz
  
  Read more

• Linux Gaming Developers Join Forces To Form the Open Gaming Collective

  30-01-2026 01:45 via games.slashdot.org
  A group of Linux gaming-focused distros and developers have formed the Open Gaming Collective to pool work on shared components like kernels, input systems, and Valve tooling. The Verge reports: Universal Blue, developer of the gaming-focused Linux distribution Bazzite, announced on Wednesday that its helping to form the OGC with several other groups, which will collaborate on improvements to the Linux gaming ecosystem and âoecentralize efforts around critical components like kernel patche
  
  Read more

• An AI Toy Exposed 50K Logs of Its Chats With Kids To Anyone With a Gmail Account

  30-01-2026 01:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Earlier this month, Joseph Thacker's neighbor mentioned to him that she'd preordered a couple of stuffed dinosaur toys for her children. She'd chosen the toys, called Bondus, because they offered an AI chat feature that lets children talk to the toy like a kind of machine-learning-enabled imaginary friend. But she knew Thacker, a security researcher, had done work on AI risks for kids, and she was curious about his thoughts.So Thacker looked into i
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!