ICT news

• What's New in Linux 6.5?

  28-08-2023 01:19 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from 9to5Linux:Just a couple of days after celebrating its 32nd anniversary , Linus Torvalds announced today the final release of the Linux 6.5 kernel series as a major update that introduces several new features, updated and new drivers for better hardware support, and other changes.
  After seven weeks of RCs, Linux kernel 6.5 is here with new features like MIDI 2.0 support in ALSA, ACPI support for the RISC-V architecture, Landlock support for UML (User-Mo
  
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• Canada Unveils Auto Industry Plan in Latest Pivot Away From US

  06-02-2026 13:30 via news.slashdot.org
  Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced a sweeping plan to shore up the country's auto industry and accelerate its electric vehicle transition, the latest in a series of moves to reduce Canada's deep economic dependence on the United States as American tariffs continue to batter the sector.
  The plan includes financial incentives for carmakers to invest in Canada, a new tariff credit scheme for manufacturers like General Motors and Toyota, and the reintroduction of EV buyer rebates. Can
  
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• Why This Is the Worst Crypto Winter Ever

  06-02-2026 11:30 via slashdot.org
  Bitcoin has fallen roughly 44% from its October peak, and while the drawdown isn't crypto's deepest ever on a percentage basis, Bloomberg's Odd Lots newsletter lays out a case that this is the industry's worst winter yet. The macro backdrop was supposed to favor Bitcoin: public confidence in the dollar is shaky, the Trump administration has been crypto-friendly, and fiat currencies are under perceived stress globally. Yet gold, not Bitcoin, has been the safe haven of choice.
  The "we're so early"
  
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• CIA Has Killed Off The World Factbook After Six Decades

  06-02-2026 09:01 via news.slashdot.org
  The CIA has shut down The World Factbook, one of its oldest and most recognizable public-facing intelligence publications, ending a run that began as a classified reference document in 1962 and evolved into a freely accessible digital resource that drew millions of views each year.
  The agency offered no explanation for the decision. Originally titled The National Basic Intelligence Factbook, the publication first went unclassified in 1971, was renamed a decade later, and moved online at CIA.gov
  
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• Google Confirms AirDrop Sharing is Coming To Android Phones Beyond Pixels

  06-02-2026 06:01 via it.slashdot.org
  Google's Quick Share-AirDrop interoperability, which has been exclusive to the Pixel 10 series since its surprise launch last year, is headed to a much broader set of Android devices in 2026.
  Eric Kay, Google's Vice President of Engineering for the Android platform, confirmed the expansion during a press briefing at the company's Taipei office, saying Google is "working with our partners to expand it into the rest of the ecosystem" and that announcements are coming "very soon." Nothing is the on
  
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• The European Commission Is Testing an Open Source Alternative To Microsoft Teams

  06-02-2026 03:00 via slashdot.org
  The European Commission is preparing to trial a communications platform built on Matrix, the open source messaging protocol already used by the French government, German healthcare providers and European armed forces, as a sovereign backup to Microsoft Teams.
  Signal currently serves as the backup tool but has proven too inflexible for an organization the Commission's size, it said. The Matrix-based solution could also eventually connect the Commission to other EU bodies like the Parliament.Read
  
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• Court Rules That Ripping YouTube Clips Can Violate the DMCA

  06-02-2026 00:30 via news.slashdot.org
  A federal court in California has ruled that YouTube creators who use stream-ripping tools to download clips for reaction and commentary videos may face liability under the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions -- a decision that could reshape how one of the platform's most popular content genres operates.
  U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi of the Northern District of California denied a motion to dismiss in Cordova v. Huneault, a creator-versus-creator dispute, finding that YouTube's "ro
  
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• NASA Will Finally Let Its Astronauts Bring iPhones To the Moon

  05-02-2026 22:30 via science.slashdot.org
  NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has announced that astronauts on the upcoming Crew-12 and Artemis II missions will be allowed to carry iPhones and other modern smartphones into orbit and to the Moon -- a reversal of long-standing agency rules that had left crews relying on a 2016 Nikon DSLR and decade-old GoPros for the historic lunar flyby.
  Isaacman framed the move as part of a broader push to challenge what he called bloated qualification requirements, where hardware approvals get mired in r
  
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• Musk Predicts SpaceX Will Launch More AI Compute Per Year Than the Cumulative Total on Earth

  05-02-2026 21:00 via science.slashdot.org
  Elon Musk told podcast host Dwarkesh Patel and Stripe co-founder John Collison that space will become the most economically compelling location for AI data centers in less than 36 months, a prediction rooted not in some exotic technical breakthrough but in the basic math of electricity supply: chip output is growing exponentially, and electrical output outside China is essentially flat.
  Solar panels in orbit generate roughly five times the power they do on the ground because there is no day-nigh
  
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• Automattic and the Internet Archive Team Up To Fight Link Rot

  05-02-2026 20:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Automattic and the Internet Archive have released a free, open-source WordPress plugin that automatically detects broken outbound links on a site and redirects visitors to archived Wayback Machine copies instead of serving them a 404 error.
  The Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer, which launched last fall and is available on WordPress.org, runs in the background scanning posts for dead links, checking for existing archived versions, and requesting new snapshots when none exist. It also a
  
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• Anthropic Launches Claude Opus 4.6 as Its AI Tools Rattle Software Markets

  05-02-2026 19:00 via slashdot.org
  Anthropic on Thursday released Claude Opus 4.6, its most capable model yet, at a moment when the company's AI tools have already spooked markets over fears that they are disrupting traditional software development and other sectors.
  The new model improves on Opus 4.5's coding abilities, the company said -- it plans more carefully, sustains longer agentic tasks, handles larger codebases more reliably, and catches its own mistakes through better debugging. It is also the first Opus-class model to
  
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• Western Digital Plots a Path To 140 TB Hard Drives Using Vertical Lasers and 14-Platter Designs

  05-02-2026 17:45 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Western Digital this week laid out a roadmap that stretches its 3.5-inch hard drive platform to 14 platters and pairs it with a new vertical-emitting laser for heat-assisted magnetic recording, a combination the company says will push individual drive capacities beyond 140 TB in the 2030s.
  The vertical laser, developed over six years and already working in WD's labs, emits light straight down onto the disk rather than from the edge, delivering more thermal energy while occupying less vertical sp
  
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• Amazon Plans To Use AI To Speed Up TV and Film Production

  05-02-2026 17:01 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Amazon plans to use AI to speed up the process for making movies and TV shows even as Hollywood fears that AI will cut jobs and permanently reshape the industry. From a report: At the Amazon MGM Studio, veteran entertainment executive Albert Cheng is leading a team charged with developing new AI tools that he said will cut costs and streamline the creative process. Amazon plans to launch a closed beta program in March, inviting industry partners to test its AI tools. The company expects to have
  
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• Spotify Plans To Sell Physical Books

  05-02-2026 16:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Spotify is planning to let premium subscribers in the U.S. and U.K. buy hardcovers and paperbacks directly through its app starting this spring, partnering with Bookshop.org to handle pricing, inventory and fulfillment.
  The Swedish streaming company, which entered the audiobook market in 2022, will also introduce a feature called Page Match that lets users scan a page from a physical book or e-reader and jump to the exact spot in the audiobook edition. Spotify will earn an undisclosed affiliate
  
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• FBI Couldn't Get Into Reporter's iPhone Because It Had Lockdown Mode Enabled

  05-02-2026 15:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  The FBI has been unable to access a Washington Post reporter's seized iPhone because it was in Lockdown Mode, a sometimes overlooked feature that makes iPhones broadly more secure, according to recently filed court records. 404Media: The court record shows what devices and data the FBI was able to ultimately access, and which devices it could not, after raiding the home of the reporter, Hannah Natanson, in January as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information. It also provides
  
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• Kalshi Claims 'Extortion,' Then Recants in Feud Over User Losses

  05-02-2026 13:30 via slashdot.org
  Kalshi, the largest U.S. prediction market, accused a small data startup called Juice Reel of "extortion" after a stock analyst used the company's transaction-level data to argue that prediction market users lose money faster than gamblers on traditional betting apps -- then walked the allegation back hours later.
  The equity research analyst Jordan Bender at Citizens found that the bottom quarter of prediction market users lost about 28 cents of every dollar wagered in their first three months,
  
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• China Has Seized Sony's Television Halo

  05-02-2026 11:30 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Sony announced last month that it plans to pass control of its home entertainment division -- including the two-decade-old Bravia television brand -- to Chinese electronics group TCL through a joint venture in which TCL would hold a 51% stake. The Japanese company was long ago overtaken in sales by South Korea's Samsung and LG and now holds just 2% of the global television market. Sony stopped making its own LCD screens in 2011.
  Chinese companies supplied 71% of television panels made in Asia la
  
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• Munich Makes Digital Sovereignty Measurable With Its Own Score

  05-02-2026 09:00 via it.slashdot.org
  alternative_right writes: The city of Munich has developed its own measurement instrument to assess the digital sovereignty of its IT infrastructure. The so-called Digital Sovereignty Score (SDS) visually resembles the Nutri-Score and identifies IT systems based on their independence from individual providers and 'foreign' legal spheres. The Technical University of Munich was involved in the development.
  In September and October 2025, the IT Department already conducted a first comprehensive tes
  
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• Valve's Steam Machine Has Been Delayed, and the RAM Crisis Will Impact Pricing

  05-02-2026 06:00 via it.slashdot.org
  Valve has pushed back the launch of its Steam Machine, Steam Frame and Steam Controller hardware from its original Q1 2026 window to a vaguer "first half of the year" target, blaming the ongoing memory and storage shortage that has been squeezing the tech industry.
  The company said in a post today that rising component prices and limited availability forced it to revisit both its shipping schedule and pricing plans. Valve had previously indicated the Steam Machine would be priced at the entry le
  
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• BMW Commits To Subscriptions Even After Heated Seat Debacle

  05-02-2026 03:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  BMW may have retreated from its controversial plan to charge monthly fees for heated seats, but the German automaker is pressing ahead with subscription-based vehicle features through its ConnectedDrive platform.
  A company spokesperson told The Drive that BMW "remains fully committed" to ConnectedDrive as part of its global aftersales strategy. Features requiring data connectivity will likely carry recurring fees.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Microsoft Adds Sysmon To Windows

  05-02-2026 01:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  Microsoft has finally delivered on its promise to integrate Sysmon -- the long-standing system monitoring tool from its Sysinternals suite -- directly into Windows, a move that should make life considerably easier for enterprise administrators who have struggled with deploying and managing the utility across thousands of endpoints.
  The functionality landed this week in Windows Insider builds 26300.7733 (Dev channel) and 26220.7752 (Beta channel). Sysmon allows administrators to capture system ev
  
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• Russian Spy Satellites Have Intercepted EU Communications Satellites

  04-02-2026 21:46 via science.slashdot.org
  European security officials believe two Russian space vehicles have intercepted the communications of at least a dozen key satellites over the continent. From a report: Officials believe that the likely interceptions, which have not previously been reported, risk not only compromising sensitive information transmitted by the satellites but could also allow Moscow to manipulate their trajectories or even crash them.
  Russian space vehicles have shadowed European satellites more intensively over th
  
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• 'Everyone is Stealing TV'

  04-02-2026 20:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  A sprawling informal economy of rogue streaming devices has taken hold across the U.S., as consumers fed up with rising TV subscription costs turn to cheap Android-based boxes that promise free access to thousands of live channels, sports events, and on-demand movies for a one-time $200 to $400 purchase.
  The two dominant players -- SuperBox and vSeeBox -- are manufactured by opaque Chinese companies and distributed through hundreds of American resellers at farmers markets, church festivals and F
  
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• As Software Stocks Slump, Investors Debate AI's Existential Threat

  04-02-2026 19:09 via slashdot.org
  Investors were assessing on Wednesday whether a selloff in global software stocks this week had gone too far, as they weighed if businesses could survive an existential threat posed by AI. The answer: It's unclear and will lead to volatility. From a report: After a broad selloff on Tuesday that saw the S&P 500 software and services index fall nearly 4%, the sector slipped another 1% on Wednesday. While software stocks have been under pressure in recent months as AI has gone from being a tail
  
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• Anthropic Pledges To Keep Claude Ad-free, Calls AI Conversations a 'Space To Think'

  04-02-2026 17:00 via slashdot.org
  Anthropic said today that its AI assistant Claude will not carry advertising of any kind -- no sponsored links next to conversations, no advertiser influence on the model's responses, and no unsolicited third-party product placements -- calling Claude a "space to think" that should remain free of commercial interruption. The announcement comes days after Anthropic's chief rival, OpenAI, announced plans to bring ads to some of its ChatGPT offerings.
  Anthropic said its internal analysis of Claude
  
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• Pinterest Sacks Workers For Creating Tool To Track Layoffs

  04-02-2026 16:01 via slashdot.org
  Pinterest has sacked two engineers for tracking which workers lost their jobs in a recent round of layoffs. BBC: The company recently announced job cuts, with chief executive Bill Ready stating in an email he was "doubling down on an AI-forward approach," according to an employee who posted some of the memo on LinkedIn.
  Pinterest told investors the move would impact about 15% of the workforce, or roughly 700 roles, without saying which teams or workers were affected. But then "two engineers wrot
  
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• Why Google's Android for PC Launch May Be Messy and Controversial

  04-02-2026 15:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  Google's much-anticipated plan to merge Android and ChromeOS into a single operating system called Aluminium is shaping up to be a drawn-out, complicated transition that could leave existing Chromebook users behind, according to previously unreported court documents in the Google search antitrust case.
  The new OS won't be compatible with all existing Chromebook hardware, and Google will be forced to maintain ChromeOS through at least 2033 to honor its 10-year support commitment to current users
  
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• Adobe Actually Won't Discontinue Animate

  04-02-2026 14:00 via it.slashdot.org
  Adobe is no longer planning to discontinue Adobe Animate on March 1st. From a report: In an FAQ, the company now says that Animate will now be in maintenance mode and that it has "no plans toâdiscontinue or remove access" to the app.
  Animate will still receive "ongoing security and bug fixes" and will still be available for "both new and existing users," but it won't get new features. Many creators expressed frustration after Adobe's original discontinuation announcement from earlier this
  
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• AMD Hints the Next-Gen Xbox Console Could Launch Next Year

  04-02-2026 12:00 via games.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Speaking during an earnings call on Tuesday, CEO Lisa Su stated that its development of Microsoft's next-gen Xbox SoC is "progressing well to support a launch in 2027."
  While the comment doesn't outright confirm the next Xbox will release next year, it indicates that the Microsoft could be ready to launch soon.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Say Hello To GoogleSQL

  04-02-2026 09:01 via developers.slashdot.org
  BrianFagioli writes: Google has quietly retired the ZetaSQL name and rebranded its open source SQL analysis and parsing project as GoogleSQL. This is not a technical change but a naming cleanup meant to align the open source code with the SQL dialect already used across Google products like BigQuery and Spanner. Internally, Google has long called the dialect GoogleSQL, even while the open source project lived under a different name.
  By unifying everything under GoogleSQL, Google says it wants to
  
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