ICT news

• 'Threads' Tests Posts That Disappear After 24 Hours

  25-08-2024 16:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  After announcing it had 200 million active users earlier this month, Threads is now "testing the option for users to put a 24-hour expiration timer on their posts," writes Engadget:
  A spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that the feature is being tested among a group of users after it was first spotted earlier this summer by developer Alessandro Paluzzi...It comes a few months after Instagram head Adam Mosseri shared that Threads was experimenting with auto-archiving. That optional feature would
  
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• Startup Wants To Launch a Space Mirror

  10-03-2026 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  A startup called Reflect Orbital wants to launch thousands of mirror-bearing satellites to reflect sunlight onto Earth at night and "power solar farms after sunset, provide lighting for rescue workers and illuminate city streets, among other things," reports the New York Times. From the report: It is an idea seemingly out of a sci-fi movie, but the company, Reflect Orbital of Hawthorne, Calif., could soon receive permission to launch its first prototype satellite with a 60-foot-wide mirror. The
  
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• European Consortium Wants Open-Source Alternative To Google Play Integrity

  10-03-2026 04:30 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Heise: Pay securely with an Android smartphone, completely without Google services: This is the plan being developed by the newly founded industry consortium led by the German Volla Systeme GmbH. It is an open-source alternative to Google Play Integrity. This proprietary interface decides on Android smartphones with Google Play services whether banking, government, or wallet apps are allowed to run on a smartphone.Obstacles and tips for paying with an And
  
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• Samsung Wants To Let You Vibe Code Your Galaxy Phone Experience

  10-03-2026 02:00 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Samsung says it's thinking about bringing "vibe coding" to future Galaxy phones, allowing users to describe apps or interface changes in plain language and have AI generate the code. TechRadar interviewed Won-Joon Choi, Samsung's head of mobile experience, to learn more about the plans. Here's an excerpt from their report: As noted by Won-Joon Choi, the usefulness of vibe coding on smartphones is that it opens up the "possibility of customizing your smartphone experience in new ways, not just yo
  
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• EA Lays Off Staff Across All Battlefield Studios Following Record-Breaking Battlefield 6 Launch

  10-03-2026 00:00 via games.slashdot.org
  Electronic Arts has laid off staff across multiple Battlefield studios despite Battlefield 6 being the best-selling game in the U.S. in 2025 and the "biggest launch in franchise history." According to IGN, the layoffs include workers at Criterion, Dice, Ripple Effect, and Motive Studios. From the report: Individuals are being informed that the layoffs are taking place as part of a "realignment" across the Battlefield studios, as the team continues its ongoing, live service support for Battlefiel
  
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• Live Nation Avoids Ticketmaster Breakup By 'Open Sourcing' Their Ticketing Model

  09-03-2026 23:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Live Nation reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice that avoids breaking up its dominant live events empire with Ticketmaster. Instead, the deal requires changes like "open sourcing" their ticketing model and divesting some venues. NBC News reports: The company and the Justice Department reached a settlement on Monday, following a week of testimony during an antitrust trial that threatened to potentially separate the world's largest live entertainment company. [...] On a backgro
  
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• How AI Assistants Are Moving the Security Goalposts

  09-03-2026 22:00 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from KrebsOnSecurity: AI-based assistants or "agents" -- autonomous programs that have access to the user's computer, files, online services and can automate virtually any task -- are growing in popularity with developers and IT workers. But as so many eyebrow-raising headlines over the past few weeks have shown, these powerful and assertive new tools are rapidly shifting the security priorities for organizations, while blurring the lines between data and code
  
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• Bluesky CEO Jay Graber Is Stepping Down

  09-03-2026 21:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down after overseeing the platform's growth from a Twitter research project into a 40-million-user alternative to X. "As Bluesky matures, the company needs a seasoned operator focused on scaling and execution, while I return to what I do best: building new things," Graber wrote in a statement.She will be transitioning to a new Chief Innovation Officer role while Venture capitalist Toni Schneider will serve as interim CEO until the board searches for a permanent
  
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• Qualcomm's New Arduino Ventuno Q Is an AI-Focused Computer Designed For Robotics

  09-03-2026 20:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Qualcomm and Arduino have unveiled the Arduino Ventuno Q, a new AI-focused single-board computer built for robotics and edge systems. Engadget reports: Called the Arduino Ventuno Q, it uses Qualcomm's Dragonwing IQ8 processor along with a dedicated STM32H5 low-latency microcontroller (MCU). "Ventuno Q is engineered specifically for systems that move, manipulate and respond to the physical world with precision and reliability," the company wrote on the product page. The Ventuno Q is more sophisti
  
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• Anthropic Sues the Pentagon After Being Labeled a Threat To National Security

  09-03-2026 19:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Anthropic is suing the Department of Defense after the Trump administration labeled the company a "supply chain risk" and canceled its government contracts when Anthropic refused to allow its AI model Claude to be used for domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons. Fortune reports: The lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, calls the administration's actions "unprecedented and unlawful" and claims they threaten to harm "Anthropic irreparably."
  
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• 'If Lockheed Martin Made a Game Boy, Would You Buy One?'

  09-03-2026 18:00 via mobile.slashdot.org
  "If Lockheed Martin made a Game Boy, would you buy one?" That was the [rhetorical] question The Verge's Sean Hollister asked when he reviewed ModRetro's Game Boy-style handheld device back in 2024. He said it "might be the best version of the Game Boy ever made," though the connection to Palmer Luckey and his defense tech startup Anduril left him conflicted. "I don't remember my childhood nostalgia coming with a side of possible guilt and fear about putting money into the pocket of a weapons con
  
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• AI Allows Hackers To Identify Anonymous Social Media Accounts, Study Finds

  09-03-2026 17:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: AI has made it vastly easier for malicious hackers to identify anonymous social media accounts, a new study has warned. In most test scenarios, large language models (LLMs) -- the technology behind platforms such as ChatGPT -- successfully matched anonymous online users with their actual identities on other platforms, based on the information they posted. The AI researchers Simon Lermen and Daniel Paleka said LLMs make it cost effective to p
  
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• Swiss Vote Places Right To Use Cash In Country's Constitution

  09-03-2026 16:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to use physical cash. "The vote means Switzerland will join the likes of Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, which have already written the right to cold, hard cash in their constitutions," reports Politico. From the report: Official results revealed that 73.4 percent of voters backed the legal amendment, which the government proposed as a counter to a similar initiative by a group called the Swiss Freedom Movemen
  
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• US Military Tested Device That May Be Tied To Havana Syndrome On Rats, Sheep

  09-03-2026 15:00 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: Tonight, we have details of a classified U.S. intelligence mission that has obtained a previously unknown weapon that may finally unlock a mystery. Since at least 2016, U.S. diplomats, spies and military officers have suffered crippling brain injuries. They've told of being hit by an overwhelming force, damaging their vision, hearing, sense of balance and cognition. but the government has doubted their stories. They've been called delusional. We
  
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• New SETI Study: Why We Might Have Been Missing Alien Signals

  09-03-2026 12:34 via science.slashdot.org
  After decades of searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, the nonprofit SETI Foundation has an announcement. "A new study by researchers at the SETI Institute suggests stellar 'space weather' could make radio signals from extraterrestrial intelligence harder to detect."
  Stellar activity and plasma turbulence near a transmitting planet can broaden an otherwise ultra-narrow signal, spreading its power across more frequencies and making it more difficult to detect in traditional narrowband sear
  
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• EFF, Ubuntu and Other Distros Discuss How to Respond to Age-Verification Laws

  09-03-2026 08:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  System76 isn't the only one criticizing new age-verification laws. The blog 9to5Linux published an "informal" look at other discussions in various Linux communities.Earlier this week, Ubuntu developer Aaron Rainbolt proposed on the Ubuntu mailing list an optional D-Bus interface (org.freedesktop.AgeVerification1) that can be implemented by arbitrary applications as a distro sees fit, but Canonical responded that the company does not yet have a solution to announce for age declaration in Ubuntu.
  
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• Scientists Just Doubled Our Catalog of Black Hole and Neutron Star Collisions

  09-03-2026 05:34 via science.slashdot.org
  Colliding black holes were detected through spacetime ripples for the first time in 2015 by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), notes Space.com:
  Since then, LIGO and its partner gravitational wave detectors Virgo in Italy and KAGRA (Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector) in Japan have detected a multitude of gravitational waves from colliding black holes, merging neutron stars, and even the odd "mixed merger" between a black hole and a neutron star... During the first t
  
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• Judges Find AI Doesn't Have Human Intelligence in Two New Court Cases

  09-03-2026 02:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  Within the last month two U.S> judges have effectively declared AI bots are not human, writes Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik:
  On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to take up a lawsuit in which artist and computer scientist Stephen Thaler tried to copyright an artwork that he acknowledged had been created by an AI bot of his own invention. That left in place a ruling last year by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, which held that art created by non-humans can't be copyrig
  
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• Could Home-Building Robots Help Fix the Housing Crisis?

  09-03-2026 00:49 via hardware.slashdot.org
  CNN reports on a company called Automated Architecture (AUAR) which makes "portable" micro-factories that use a robotic arm to produce wooden framing for houses (the walls, floors and roofs):
  Co-founder Mollie Claypool says the micro-factories will be able to produce the panels quicker, cheaper and more precisely than a timber framing crew, freeing up carpenters to focus on the construction of the building... The micro-factory fits into a shipping container which is sent to the building site alo
  
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• A Security Researcher Went 'Undercover' on Moltbook - and Found Security Risks

  08-03-2026 23:39 via it.slashdot.org
  A long-time information security professional "went undercover" on Moltbook, the Reddit-like social media site for AI agents — and shares the risks they saw while posing as another AI bot:I successfully masqueraded around Moltbook, as the agents didn't seem to notice a human among them. When I attempted a genuine connection with other bots on submolts (subreddits or forums), I was met with crickets or a deluge of spam. One bot tried to recruit me into a digital church, while others request
  
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• Robotic Surgery Performed Remotely on Patient 1,500 Miles Away

  08-03-2026 22:21 via science.slashdot.org
  "A surgeon in London says he has performed the UK's first long-distance robotic operation," reports the BBC, "on a patient located 1,500 miles (2,400km) away..."
  Leading robotic urological surgeon Professor Prokar Dasgupta said it felt "almost as if I was there" as he carried out a prostate removal on [62-year-old] Paul Buxton... It is hoped that remote robotic surgery could spare future patients the "vast expense and inconvenience" of travelling for treatment, and help deliver better healthcare
  
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• Steam on Linux Numbers Dropped to 2.23% in February

  08-03-2026 20:51 via linux.slashdot.org
  "In November Steam on Linux use hit an all-time high of 3.2%," reports Phoronix. And then in December Steam on Linux jumped even higher, to 3.58%.
  But January's numbers settled a little lower, at 3.38%. And last Monday the February numbers were released, showing Steam on Linux at... 2.23%?Like with prior times where there are wild drops in Linux use, the Steam Survey shows Simplified Chinese use running up by 30% month over month. Whenever there is such significant differences in language use te
  
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• OpenAI's Former Research Chief Raises $70M to Automate Manufacturing With AI

  08-03-2026 19:34 via it.slashdot.org
  "OpenAI's former chief research officer is raising $70 million for a new startup building an AI and software platform to automate manufacturing," reports the Wall Street Journal, citing "people familiar with the matter.
  "Arda, the new startup co-founded by Bob McGrew, is raising at a valuation of $700 million, according to people familiar with the matter...."Arda is developing an AI and software platform, including a video model that can analyze footage from factory floors and use it to train ro
  
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• 2/3 of Node.Js Users Run an Outdated Version. So OpenJS Announces Program Offering Upgrade Providers

  08-03-2026 18:34 via it.slashdot.org
  How many Node.js users are running unsupported or outdated versions. Roughly two thirds, according to data from Node's nonprofit steward, OpenJS.
  So they've announced "the Node.js LTS Upgrade and Modernization program" to help enterprises move safely off legacy/end-of-life Node.js. "This program gives enterprises a clear, trusted path to modernize," said the executive director of the OpenJS Foundation, "while staying aligned with the Node.js project and community."
  The Node.js LTS Upgrade and Mo
  
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• Jack Dorsey's Block Accused of 'AI-Washing' to Excuse Laying Off Nearly Half Its Workforce

  08-03-2026 17:34 via it.slashdot.org
  When Block cut 4,000 jobs — nearly half its workforce — co-founder Jack Dorsey "pointed to AI as the culprit," writes Entrepreneur magazine. "Dorsey claimed that AI tools now allow fewer employees to accomplish the same work."
  "But analysts see a different explanation: poor management."Block more than tripled its employee base between 2019 and 2022, growing from 3,835 to 12,430 workers. The company's stock had fallen 40% since early 2025, creating pressure to cut costs. "This is more
  
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• Workers Who Love 'Synergizing Paradigms' Might Be Bad at Their Jobs

  08-03-2026 16:34 via it.slashdot.org
  Cornell University makes an announcement. "Employees who are impressed by vague corporate-speak like 'synergistic leadership,' or 'growth-hacking paradigms' may struggle with practical decision-making, a new Cornell study reveals."Published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, research by cognitive psychologist Shane Littrell introduces the Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale (CBSR), a tool designed to measure susceptibility to impressive-but-empty organizational rhetoric... C
  
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• AI CEOs Worry the Government Will Nationalize AI

  08-03-2026 12:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  Palantir's CEO was blunt. "If Silicon Valley believes we are going to take away everyone's white-collar job... and you're going to screw the military — if you don't think that's going to lead to the nationalization of our technology, you're retarded..."
  And OpenAI's Sam Altman is thinking about the same thing, writes long-time Slashdot reader destinyland:"It has seemed to me for a long time it might be better if building AGI were a government project," Sam Altman publicly mused last week..
  
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• Daylight Saving Time Ritual Continues. But Are There Alternatives?

  08-03-2026 09:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  Would you move sunrise to 9 a.m. in Detroit? Or to 4:11 a.m. in Seattle...Though both options have problems, "There's no law we can pass to move the sun to our will," argues the president of the nonprofit "Save Standard Time". The Associated Press explains why America remains stuck in that annual ritual making clocks "spring forward, fall backward..."The U.S. has tinkered with the clock intermittently since railroads standardized the time zones in 1883. So has a lot of the world. About 140 count
  
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• As US Tariffs Hit EVs, Hyundai Discontinues Its Cheapest IONIQ 6, While Kia Delays EV6 adn EV9 GT

  08-03-2026 05:44 via tech.slashdot.org
  First, Hyundai "is discontinuing its most affordable electric sedan after just three years on the market," reports USA Today. After being introduced in 2022, the Hyundai Ioniq 6 "quickly gained the admiration of automotive critics because of its affordable pricing and capable performance specs." But now, Hyundai "is axing the most affordable versions of the EV, leaving consumers with only one Ioniq 6 option."
  Hyundai will continue to produce the Ioniq 6 N performance trim, which is the quickest
  
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• Steven Spielberg + Dinosaurs + Netflix = Mixed Reviews

  08-03-2026 03:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Steven Spielberg directed his last Jurassic Park movie nearly 30 years ago, notes ScreenRant. But the 79-year-old filmmaker now brings us The Dinosaurs, a four-part documentary on Netflix where he's executive producer:The first few reviews are in, and the results lead to a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. It's worth noting that the rating will likely fluctuate since there are only six reviews. So far, critics all agree that the new Netflix docuseries is a breathtaking visual of history's m
  
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