ICT news

• LibreOffice Once Again Slams Microsoft For Using 'Lock-In' With Office Files

  20-07-2026 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from XDA Developers: One of the founding members of The Document Foundation and handler of LibreOffice's PR and media relations, Italo Vignoli, took to the LibreOffice blog to call out Microsoft's practices with its Office application. The last time we saw Vignoli take to the stage, we saw him accusing Euro-Office of being just as bad as Microsoft with its practices. Vignoli's new post focuses entirely on Microsoft's strategy. He says that "the dominant format
  
  Read more

• Canonical Launches Enterprise Store For Ubuntu Pro

  21-07-2026 21:00 via news.slashdot.org
  BrianFagioli writes: Canonical has launched the Enterprise Store as part of Ubuntu Pro, giving organizations a way to manage Ubuntu software distribution in restricted networks, behind firewalls, and in air gapped environments. The on premises proxy sits between devices and Canonical software stores, allowing companies to cache downloads, control software revisions, and manage snaps and charms without requiring every system to connect directly to the internet. The Enterprise Store is designed fo
  
  Read more

• Judge Approves $1.5 Billion Anthropic Settlement Over Pirated Books Used To Train Claude

  21-07-2026 20:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  A federal judge has approved Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement over pirated books used to train its Claude chatbot, with authors and publishers set to receive about $3,000 per book. The case produced a mixed ruling for the AI industry: training on copyrighted books was found not to be illegal, but Anthropic's use of pirated copies from shadow libraries was. The Associated Press reports: District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin said in a Monday ruling that the class-action settlement pr
  
  Read more

• AT&T Loses Key Ruling In Bid To Stop Offering Basic Phone Service In California

  21-07-2026 19:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  A federal judge rejected AT&T's request to temporarily block California rules requiring it to offer basic phone service to new customers in its wireline territory. AT&T wants to retire its copper-based phone network and stop service for nearly 200,000 California customers in 2027, but the state argues the company can meet its obligations with modern alternatives like fiber rather than abandoning Carrier of Last Resort requirements altogether. Ars Technica reports: To win a preliminary in
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Judge Pauses Paramount-Warner Bros Merger

  21-07-2026 18:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  A federal judge has temporarily paused the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger after a 12-state coalition led by California argued the deal would violate antitrust law. The 14-day restraining order (PDF) preserves the status quo while the court considers a preliminary injunction, which could effectively determine whether the merger survives. Variety reports: "Plaintiff States' showing at least demonstrates that serious questions going to the merits remain, weighing in favor of preliminary injunctive r
  
  Read more

• The Galaxy Card Is Samsung's Answer To the Apple Card

  21-07-2026 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Nearly seven years after Apple debuted the Apple Card, Samsung is following the iPhone maker's footsteps with the Galaxy Card, aiming for its own slice of the credit card market. The announcement comes two days before Samsung's second Galaxy Unpacked event of the year, where it's expected to showcase new smartwatches and folding smartphones. The Galaxy Card is issued by Barclays on the Visa network; the Apple Card, originally issued by Goldman Sach
  
  Read more

• US Police Now Armed With Israeli Spy Vans Simulating Mobile Phone Towers

  21-07-2026 13:00 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 quotes an X post by Josh Walkos, author of the Substack We the Free: If you thought Flock was bad check out Falconet. Falconet from Israeli company Cognyte serves as a cell tower simulator that intercepts cell phone data from all devices within range. Police mount these systems in Tahoes so the vehicles can collect information while driving through areas without any direct interaction with targets. This mobile approach generates ongoing records of phone locations
  
  Read more

• Drinking 5 Cups of Coffee a Day Could Reduce Heart Risk

  21-07-2026 09:00 via developers.slashdot.org
  A new American Heart Association scientific statement concludes that up to about 400 milligrams a day, or roughly three to five cups of plain coffee, is safe for most adults and may be linked to lower risks of cardiovascular disease. The benefits appear to depend heavily on the source and preparation, with coffee and tea looking more favorable than energy drinks, and added sugar, cream, syrups, or sweeteners potentially canceling out the upside. ScienceAlert reports: "Caffeine consumed in coffee
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Hackers Are Exploiting Recently Patched WordPress Bugs, Putting Millions of Websites at Risk

  21-07-2026 05:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Hackers are breaking into websites that run vulnerable versions of the popular blogging software WordPress, according to several cybersecurity firms. One estimate puts the number of vulnerable WordPress websites at tens of millions as of Monday. Last week, WordPress patched two critical security flaws, urging people who run its software on their websites to update it "immediately." The vulnerabilities are so severe that WordPress enabled force
  
  Read more

• New Orleans Cops Published Policy Document Allowing Weaponized Drones

  21-07-2026 01:00 via news.slashdot.org
  A draft New Orleans Police Department drone manual briefly published online would have allowed police drones to carry weapons with written approval from the superintendent, according to 404 Media. NOPD says the document was only an early draft and that its current policy (PDF) bans drones from carrying weapons or hazardous materials. 404 Media reports: The current version, live as of July 1, has different language: "The sUAS shall not be equipped with weapons or hazardous materials of any kind,"
  
  Read more

• Longtime Web-Weirdness Site Fark Faces Ad Pinch

  21-07-2026 00:40 via news.slashdot.org
  sandbagger writes: Fark.com is ancient in internet terms. It's not social media. It's not quite a news site. It's a holdover from the dot-com era and is invisible to Google, which makes its community great but has necessitated begging. "[W]e won't survive this year without more TF subscribers," wrote founder Drew Curtis in a post on Bluesky. "Spread the word."For the unfamiliar, Fark is one of the web's OG community news sites that features a wonderfully weird mix of user-submitted links, absurd
  
  Read more

• China's New AI Model Halts New Subscriptions As Demand Swamps Capacity

  20-07-2026 23:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Moonshot AI has temporarily paused new subscriptions for its Kimi K3 model after demand surged beyond the company's current capacity within days of the launch. The open-source Chinese AI model, described as one of the largest of its kind at 2.8 trillion parameters, has rattled U.S. rivals by beating Anthropic's Fable 5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol in front-end coding tests. The Associated Press reports: "Kimi K3 has received far more love than we expected," Moonshot AI, which is Beijing-based, wrote
  
  Read more

• Head of US Safety Agency Resigns

  20-07-2026 22:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Chris Fall has resigned as director of the U.S. Center for AI Standards and Innovation just three months after being appointed to lead the Commerce Department's federal AI testing institute. Arvind Raman, who oversees the Commerce office responsible for the institute, will serve temporarily in the role. "The Commerce Department did not provide a reason for Fall's departure," reports Reuters. From the report: Fall's exit marks the latest change in direction for Trump's approach to AI. The preside
  
  Read more

• AliExpress Hit With Record $625 Million Fine After Failing To Make EU-Ordered Fixes

  20-07-2026 21:00 via news.slashdot.org
  The European Commission has fined AliExpress more than $625 million, the largest penalty yet under the Digital Services Act, after finding that the marketplace failed to "diligently assess and mitigate risks relating to the sale of illegal, unsafe, or counterfeit products on its e-commerce platform." EU officials said flagged products repeatedly reappeared, sellers could evade safeguards, and AliExpress's recommendation and ad systems helped amplify dangerous goods. Ars Technica reports: For sha
  
  Read more

• LG Monitors Silently Install Adware-Like App On Windows PCs

  20-07-2026 20:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  VideoCardz reports that connecting certain LG monitors to Windows PCs can trigger Windows Update to automatically install the LG Monitor App Installer, which runs at startup and repeatedly displays McAfee trial promotions. From the report: Gamers Nexus reproduced the behavior with an LG UltraGear 34GX900A-B after receiving reports from monitor owners. Windows Update first installed LG extension and software component packages. Windows Reliability Monitor showed that LG Monitor App Installer appe
  
  Read more

• Hacker Wipes Romania's Entire Land Registry Database

  20-07-2026 19:05 via it.slashdot.org
  A hacker reportedly wiped Romania's entire land registry database after a failed extortion attempt, halting property transactions across the country and preventing notaries from issuing land extracts, authenticating sales, or registering mortgages. "On the dark web, the hacker also boasted to have begun backup copies of stolen data in an attempt to prevent it from being restored," reports Cybernews. "However, Romanian officials have managed to at least restore the ANCPI's website and post a mess
  
  Read more

• LSU Physicists Create First Room-Temperature Quantum Material

  20-07-2026 18:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Researchers at Louisiana State University have created a room-temperature quantum material made from a thin gold film on glass, patterned with microscopic slits that act like artificial atoms. "We call this robust transport. These quantum states carry information," says physicist Omar Magana-Loaiza. "Our crystal can distinguish them and move them from one point to another in a robust way without requiring cryogenic cooling. That's what opens the door to practical quantum technologies." ScienceAl
  
  Read more

• Hollywood Sci-fi Studio Lot Now Pitched As Site To Make Real Space-age Weapons

  20-07-2026 13:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  James Cameron filmed his Avatar sequels there. Marvel filmed Thor, Iron Man 2, and The Avengers. Manhattan Beach Studios in Los Angeles even handled Star Wars' series like Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Mandalorian, which Bloomberg points out is about "a heavily armed bounty hunter in a galaxy far, far away."
  "Now lenders who are selling the property's $240 million mortgage are promoting the site to potential buyers as a hub for making real space-age weapons.""The project is strategically positioned wit
  
  Read more

• New Free Speech Concern: When AI Chatbots Won't Criticize Leaders from Repressive Regimes

  20-07-2026 09:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  Ask Claude to make a pamphlet critical of China's leader, Thailand's king, or Saudi Arabia's crown prince — and it will decline, reports the Associated Press.
  That's "a key finding from a Meta Oversight Board study released Thursday," their article points out: AI systems are more than twice as likely to refuse to product critical material if it's about a restrictive world leader or government. And it raises concerns that the LLMs powering chatbots "could be regurgitating and spreading gove
  
  Read more

• Rust Will Help Linux Succeed and Makes Coding Fun, Says Greg Kroah-Hartman

  20-07-2026 06:20 via developers.slashdot.org
  ZDNet reports on June's Open Source Summit India 2026 in Mumbai, where Linux stable kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman gave a talk titled "Rust and Linux: How the Rust Language is Going to Help Linux Succeed."
  Kroah-Hartman said in his keynote that "the [Linux] kernel is moving toward Rust. Git is moving toward Rust. Lots of projects are starting to move toward Rust."
  He didn't always feel that way. Kroah-Hartman added, "A number of years ago, when a friend of mine said, 'Ah, you got to try th
  
  Read more

• As AI Transforms Silicon Valley, Some Tech Workers Face Evaporating Financial Security

  20-07-2026 04:15 via it.slashdot.org
  The Washington Post describes a mid-tier executive at Meta as one of Silicon Valley's "winners" whose financial security suddenly "evaporated" as their workforce "pushed headlong into AI and heavy job cuts," creating a transformed job market. "Her ex-husband, a designer at Meta who was laid off in 2020, eventually gave up looking for jobs in his profession. He now lifts boxes at a warehouse."
  Layoffs.fyi, which tracks announced job cuts, counts more than 800,000 tech workers laid off since 2022,
  
  Read more

• Zilog Z80 8-Bit CPU Turns 50, Open-source Replacement Heads To Drop-in DIP40 Silicon

  20-07-2026 02:50 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shared this report from Tom's Hardware:
  The Zilog Z80 has just turned 50 years old. This iconic 8-bit processor first went on sale in July 1976 and stayed in production for 48 years until Zilog, now a Littelfuse subsidiary, stopped accepting orders in June 2024. However, there's an open-source replacement closer than ever to shipping in the chip's original 40-pin DIP package thanks to community-funded fabrication...
  The chip powered the ZX Spectrum, TRS-80, MSX machines, Nint
  
  Read more

• Dozens of Robotaxi Riders Are Falling Asleep, Sparking Frantic Calls For Emergency Services

  20-07-2026 01:09 via tech.slashdot.org
  "If tired or wasted passengers fall asleep in a traditional taxi or rideshare, the driver can shout or shake them awake," reports Bloomberg. "Not so in a robotaxi..."Ditto Kasendar remembers soft music drifting from the robotaxi's speakers as he rode home late at night from a friend's birthday party in 2025. The next moment, Los Angeles firefighters were opening the door and asking if he was OK. His six-minute trip had ended nearly an hour before. A remote Waymo assistant, dialling in through th
  
  Read more

• California's 'Truth in Recycling' Law Blocked by Judge

  19-07-2026 23:04 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shared this report from the Los Angeles Times:A federal judge has halted California's groundbreaking "Truth in Recycling" law, which aims to reduce consumer confusion about which packaging can be recycled. [Originally planned to take effect October 4th], California's recyclable packaging law prohibits manufacturers from using a "chasing arrows" recycling symbol on products or materials unless they are actually being recycled in a meaningful way, which the law quantifies...
  A
  
  Read more

• James Webb Space Telescope Discovers How Black Holes Feed Themselves

  19-07-2026 21:05 via science.slashdot.org
  "Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have been given a glimpse of the mechanisms that supermassive black holes use to feed themselves," reports Space.com:The powerful cosmic titans get really puzzling when astronomers using the JWST spot them before the universe was even 1 billion years old. That's because the mechanisms by which black holes devour matter to grow and then merge to create even more massive black holes should take at least 1 billion years to achieve supermassive
  
  Read more

• Robot 'Decapitated' in World's First-Ever Humanoid UFC Fight

  19-07-2026 19:49 via hardware.slashdot.org
  "A humanoid robot lost its head," reports Newsweek, "during the world's first free-combat tournament for full-sized humanoid robots."
  The Ultimate Robot Knock-out Legend competition began Thursday in Shenzhen, China, according to the article, with local robotics company EngineAI providing $40,000 of their "T800" robots (yes, named after The Terminator) to 32 participating teams from around the world:A video shared of the combat on YouTube by local news outlet Shenzhen Story, showed that even aft
  
  Read more

• Windows 10 Still Being Used, Often Unpatched and Insecure

  19-07-2026 18:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  Windows 10 still runs on 16.9% of the Windows devices monitored by asset-tracking service Lansweeper. That's more than one in six, The Register points out.
  A year ago, the operating system accounted for about half of the machines in its dataset, falling to the low-to-mid 40% range by the time Microsoft ended standard support. The decline continued after that, reaching 18.6% in June, but Lansweeper says migration has now slowed to a crawl... Small and medium-sized businesses are particularly expo
  
  Read more

• Aptera Announces US-Wide Repair Network for Its Upcoming Solar Electric Car

  19-07-2026 17:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  Solar car maker Aptera has "officially announced a repair network partnership which will give owners of its upcoming solar electric car access to thousands of repair shops nationwide," reports Electrek:We recently got a chance to drive the Aptera solar EV and tour the company's factory, and came away both impressed at the progress that has been made, but cognizant of the long road ahead for the company. One question that often gets raised in reference to EV startups is how owners get service on
  
  Read more

• Aptera Announces Nationwide Repair Network For Its Upcoming Solar Electric Car

  19-07-2026 17:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  Solar car maker Aptera has "officially announced a repair network partnership which will give owners of its upcoming solar electric car access to thousands of repair shops nationwide," reports Electrek:We recently got a chance to drive the Aptera solar EV and tour the company's factory, and came away both impressed at the progress that has been made, but cognizant of the long road ahead for the company. One question that often gets raised in reference to EV startups is how owners get service on
  
  Read more

• Former Richard Stallman Colleague Now Argues for Open AI Models Too

  19-07-2026 16:34 via news.slashdot.org
  Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes:
  Recalling his initial resistance to free and open software, billionaire computer scientist David Siegel argues vigorously in FORTUNE that the stakes are too high to let AI become increasingly closed. "In the 1980s, I had the chance to spend several years arguing about free and open software, what we now call open source, with the founder of the movement, Richard Stallman. My office at the MIT AI Lab was next door to his. Stallman's position was that the s
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!