ICT news

• Wearable AI Startup Humane Explores Potential Sale

  22-05-2024 16:44 via slashdot.org
  
  AI startup Humane has been seeking a buyer for its business, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter, just weeks after the company's closely watched wearable AI device had a rocky public launch. From the report: The company is working with a financial adviser to assist it, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Humane is seeking a price of between $750 million and $1 billion in a sale [non-paywalled link], one person said. The proce
  
  Read more

• Mozilla Acquires Ad Metrics Firm Anonym

  19-06-2024 00:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Mozilla has acquired ad metrics firm Anonym in a move to "support user privacy" while delivering effective online advertising. Anonym, founded by former Meta executives in 2022, helps advertisers and ad networks measure the performance of online ads while preserving user privacy. The acquisition comes amid growing consumer concerns and regulatory scrutiny over current data practices in the advertising industry.
  Mozilla CEO Laura Chambers sees this as a pivotal shift in the coexistence of privacy
  
  Read more

• Zelda is Finally Getting Her Own Game

  19-06-2024 00:00 via games.slashdot.org
  
  After years of playing second fiddle to Link in her own franchise, Princess Zelda is finally getting a video game of her own this fall. From a report: During today's Direct presentation, Nintendo revealed The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the franchise's first game to follow as Princess Zelda herself embarks on an adventure to save the world from destruction. After Ganon bests Link in battle, Zelda is left to her own devices to battle hordes of monsters that descend upon the game's take on
  
  Read more

• KDE Plasma 6.1 Released

  18-06-2024 23:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  "The KDE community announced the latest release of their popular desktop environment: Plasma 6.1," writes longtime Slashdot reader jrepin. From the announcement: While Plasma 6.0 was all about getting the migration to the underlying Qt 6 frameworks correct, Plasma 6.1 is where developers start implementing the features that will take you desktop to a new level. In this release, you will find features that go far beyond subtle changes to themes and tweaks to animations (although there is plenty o
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• A Social Network Where AIs and Humans Coexist

  18-06-2024 22:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Butterflies is a social network where humans and AIs interact with each other through posts, comments and DMs. After five months in beta, the app is launching Tuesday to the public on iOS and Android. Anyone can create an AI persona, called a Butterfly, in minutes on the app. After that, the Butterfly automatically creates posts on the social network that other AIs and humans can then interact with. Each Butterfly has backstories, opinions and
  
  Read more

• Texas A&M University Tops Nation in Engineering Research Expenditures

  18-06-2024 21:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Texas A&M University held the largest engineering research portfolio of any academic institution in the country last year, nearing half a billion dollars and surpassing Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the top spot, according to U.S. News & World Report. The state flagship's College of Engineering recorded $444.7 million in research expenditures in the 2023 fiscal year, university officials said.
  A mix of federal, state and private grants fun
  
  Read more

• Apple Mocks Microsoft's Spectacular Windows Recall AI Failure

  18-06-2024 20:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  At a panel discussion, Apple's global marketing SVP Greg "Joz" Joswiak mocked Microsoft's recent recall of its Windows Recall feature. When asked by commentator John Gruber if Apple was frustrated by Microsoft's inability to build trust in such features, Joswiak quipped, "are we frustrated by the failings of our competitors? The answer's no," eliciting laughter from the panel and audience.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  Read more

• 87% in New Poll Say Cost an Important Reason For Halting Studies

  18-06-2024 20:07 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A new Gallup survey released Tuesday found cost and work conflicts are the top reasons Americans choose to discontinue their higher education. From a report: In the poll, 87 percent said cost was a "very" or "moderately" important reason for pursuing further institutional study, while 81 percent pointed to work conflicts. The other two leading reasons were the time it takes to complete a degree at 73 percent and lack of remote options at 70 percent. Cost tops the list among all demographic group
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Nvidia Vaults Past Apple and Microsoft To Become World's Most Valuable Company

  18-06-2024 19:14 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Nvidia has leapfrogged Microsoft and Apple to become the most valuable company in the world, following months of explosive share price growth driven by demand for its chips and an investor frenzy over artificial intelligence. From a report: The company's shares climbed 3.2 per cent to $135.18 on Tuesday, bringing its market capitalisation to $3.332tn and surpassing the two tech giants that have long jostled for pole position on US stock markets.
  Nvidia has been the chief beneficiary of a boom in
  
  Read more

• AI Images in Google Search Results Have Opened a Portal To Hell

  18-06-2024 18:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Google image search is serving users AI-generated images of celebrities in swimsuits and not indicating that the images are AI-generated. In a few instances, even when the search terms do not explicitly ask for it, Google image search is serving AI-generated images of celebrities in swimsuits, but the celebrities are made to look like underage children. If users click on these images, they are taken to AI image generation sites, and in a couple of cases the r
  
  Read more

• Los Angeles Schools To Consider Ban on Smartphones

  18-06-2024 18:04 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Los Angeles Unified School District on Tuesday will consider banning smartphones for its 429,000 students in an attempt to insulate a generation of kids from distractions and social media that undermine learning and hurt mental health. From a report: The proposal was being formulated before U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Monday called for a warning label on social media platforms, akin to those on cigarette packages, due to what he considers a mental health emergency. The board of the
  
  Read more

• Apple Suspends Work on Next High-End Headset

  18-06-2024 17:29 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  The Information: Apple has told at least one supplier that it has suspended work on its next high-end Vision headset, an employee at a manufacturer that makes key components for the Vision Pro said. The pullback comes as analysts and supply chain partners have flagged slowing sales of the $3,500 device. The company is still working on releasing a more affordable Vision product with fewer features before the end of 2025, the person involved in its supply chain and a person involved in the manufac
  
  Read more

• EV Maker Fisker Files for Bankruptcy

  18-06-2024 16:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Fisker filed for bankruptcy on Monday, months after the electric-vehicle startup stopped production of its only model, the oft-malfunctioning Ocean SUV. From a report: Fisker is the second plug-in car company started by Henrik Fisker -- a famed designer of BMW and Aston Martin sports cars -- to end up in bankruptcy. An earlier venture, Fisker Automotive, filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2013 after a series of recalls spelled the downfall of its battery supplier, a fellow recipient of US Energy
  
  Read more

• SUSE Wants a Piece of the AI Cake, Too

  18-06-2024 16:02 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  SUSE, a Luxembourg-based open-source company, is launching a new vendor- and LLM-agnostic generative AI platform called SUSE AI solutions. The company aims to leverage the potential of AI to gain a stronger foothold in the U.S. market, where it has struggled to establish brand recognition compared to competitors like Red Hat and Canonical. SUSE CEO Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen believes that the open-source model provides infinite potential for enterprise customers, offering support, security, and long
  
  Read more

• London Underground Hosts Tests For 'Quantum Compass' That Could Replace GPS

  18-06-2024 15:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Dr Joseph Cotter takes some unusual pieces of luggage on his trips on the London underground. They include a stainless steel vacuum chamber, a few billion atoms of rubidium and an array of lasers that are used to cool his equipment to a temperature just above absolute zero. While not the average kit you would expect to find being dragged into carriages on the District Line, this is the gear that Cotter -- who works at Imperial College London
  
  Read more

• CISA and Partners Release Guidance for Modern Approaches to Network Access Security

  18-06-2024 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Today, CISA, in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), released guidance, Modern Approaches to Network Access Security, along with the following organizations: New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB); 
  New Zealand’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-NZ); and 
  The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS).The guidance urges business owners of all sizes to move toward more robust security solutions—such as Zero Trus
  
  Read more

• Apple's Battery Supplier TDK Says It Made a Big Breakthrough

  18-06-2024 12:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Rocio Fabbro reports via Quartz: TDK, the largest maker of smartphone batteries in the world, said Monday that it has successfully developed a material that could be used in a new battery with "significantly higher energy density" than its existing cells. Energy density refers to how much energy a battery can store relative to its size or weight. The material will be used in TDK's CeraCharge solid-state battery, which it says has an energy density of 1,000 watt-hours per liter -- approximately 1
  
  Read more

• Chinese Producer of Netflix's 'The Three-Body Problem' Is Poisoned in Suspected Murder Attempt

  18-06-2024 09:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Lin Qi, chairman of China's Yoozoo Group and executive producer on Netflix's "The Three-Body Problem," is currently hospitalized in Shanghai following a suspected deliberate poisoning by colleague Xu Yao, who has been detained by police. Despite internal strife, Yoozoo reassured stakeholders that operations have returned to normal, with Lin in stable condition. Variety reports: Netflix announced in September that it will adapt all three books in the critically acclaimed "Three-Body Problem" sci-
  
  Read more

• Nearly 20% of Running Microsoft SQL Servers Have Passed End of Support

  18-06-2024 07:20 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: IT asset management platform Lansweeper has dispensed a warning for enterprise administrators everywhere. Exactly how old is that Microsoft SQL Server on which your business depends? According to chief strategy officer Roel Decneut, the biz scanned just over a million instances of SQL Server and found that 19.8 percent were now unsupported by Microsoft. Twelve percent were running SQL Server 2014, which is due to drop out of extended support on July 9 -- mean
  
  Read more

• Kenya's First Nuclear Plant Faces Fierce Opposition

  18-06-2024 05:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Kilifi County's white sandy beaches have made it one of Kenya's most popular tourist destinations. Hotels and beach bars line the 165 mile-long (265km) coast; fishers supply the district's restaurants with fresh seafood; and visitors spend their days boating, snorkelling around coral reefs or bird watching in dense mangrove forests. Soon, this idyllic coastline will host Kenya's first nuclear plant, as the country, like its east African neig
  
  Read more

• The Short, Happy Reign of CD-ROM

  18-06-2024 03:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  "Over at Fast Company, where we're celebrating 1994 Week, I wrote about the year of Peak CD-ROM, when excitement over the medium's potential was sky-high and the World Wide Web's audience still numbered in the extremely low millions," writes Slashdot reader and Fast Company technology editor Harry McCracken (harrymcc). "I cover once-famous products such as Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia, the curse of shovelware, the rise of a San Francisco neighborhood known as 'Multimedia Gulch,' and why the
  
  Read more

• Meta Accused of Trying To Discredit Ad Researchers

  18-06-2024 01:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Thomas Claburn reports via The Register: Meta allegedly tried to discredit university researchers in Brazil who had flagged fraudulent adverts on the social network's ad platform. Nucleo, a Brazil-based news organization, said it has obtained government documents showing that attorneys representing Meta questioned the credibility of researchers from NetLab, which is part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). NetLab's research into Meta's ads contributed to Brazil's National Consume
  
  Read more

• $2.4 Million Texas Home Listing Boasts Built-In 5,786 sq ft Data Center

  18-06-2024 00:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  A Zillow listing for a $2.4 million house in a Dallas suburb is grabbing attention for its 5,786-square-foot data center with immersion cooling tanks, massive server racks, and two separate power grids. Tom's Hardware reports: With a brick exterior, cute paving, and mini-McMansion arch stylings, the building certainly looks to be a residential home for the archetypal Texas family. Prospective home-buyers will thus be disappointed by the 0 bedroom, 1 bathroom setup, which becomes a warehouse-feel
  
  Read more

• French Court Orders Google, Cloudflare, Cisco To Poison DNS To Stop Piracy

  18-06-2024 00:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: A French court has ordered Google, Cloudflare, and Cisco to poison their DNS resolvers to prevent circumvention of blocking measures, targeting around 117 pirate sports streaming domains. The move is another anti-piracy escalation for broadcaster Canal+, which also has permission to completely deindex the sites from search engine results. [...] Two decisions were handed down by the Paris judicial court last month; one concerning Premier Leag
  
  Read more

• Apple Developing Thinner MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, and iPhone

  17-06-2024 23:20 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple appears ready to embrace a thinner design language with the upcoming MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, and iPhone. MacRumors reports: When the M4 iPad Pro was unveiled last month, Apple touted it as the company's thinnest product ever, and even compared it to the 2012 iPod nano to emphasize its slim dimensions. Writing in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman says that like the iPad Pro, Apple is now focused on delivering the thinnest possible
  
  Read more

• McDonald's Pauses AI-Powered Drive-Thru Voice Orders

  17-06-2024 22:40 via slashdot.org
  
  After two years of testing, McDonald's has ended its use of AI-powered drive-thru ordering. "The company was trialing IBM tech at more than 100 of its restaurants but it will remove those systems from all locations by the end of July, meaning that customers will once again be placing orders with a human instead of a computer," reports Engadget. From the report: As part of that decision, McDonald's is ending its automated order taking (AOT) partnership with IBM. However, McDonald's may be conside
  
  Read more

• Surgeon General Wants Tobacco-Style Warning Applied To Social Media Platforms

  17-06-2024 22:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Monday called on Congress to require a tobacco-style warning for visitors to social media platforms. In an op-ed published in The New York Times, Murthy said the mental health crisis among young people is an urgent problem, with social media "an important contributor." He said his vision of the warning includes language that would alert users to the potential mental health harms of the websites and apps. "A s
  
  Read more

• Hackers Demand as Much as $5 Million From Snowflake Clients

  17-06-2024 21:20 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Cybercriminals are demanding payments of between $300,000 and $5 million apiece from as many as 10 companies breached in a campaign that targeted Snowflake customers, according to a security firm helping with the investigation. From a report: The hacking scheme has entered a "new stage" as the gang looks to profit from the most valuable information it has stolen, said Austin Larsen, a senior threat analyst at Google's Mandiant security business, which helped lead Snowflake's inquiry. That includ
  
  Read more

• Apple Discontinues 'Buy Now, Pay Later' Service

  17-06-2024 20:42 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple said on Monday it will no longer offer its "buy now, pay later" service, Apple Pay Later, in the United States, and will instead focus on bringing installment loan offerings to Apple Pay users globally later this year. The company told 9to5Mac that the new feature will allow users to access installment loans from eligible credit and debit cards, as well as lenders, when checking out with Apple Pay.
  Existing Apple Pay Later users in the U.S. will still be able to manage their loans through
  
  Read more

• Proton Seeks To Secure Its Privacy-Focused Future With a Nonprofit Model

  17-06-2024 20:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Proton, the secure-minded email and productivity suite, is becoming a nonprofit foundation, but it doesn't want you to think about it in the way you think about other notable privacy and web foundations. From a report: "We believe that if we want to bring about large-scale change, Proton can't be billionaire-subsidized (like Signal), Google-subsidized (like Mozilla), government-subsidized (like Tor), donation-subsidized (like Wikipedia), or even speculation-subsidized (like the plethora of crypt
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!