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• Google Maps Can Soon Scan Your Screenshots To Plan Your Vacation

  27-03-2025 22:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google is rolling out new AI-powered features across Maps, Search, and Hotels to simplify travel planning, including a screenshot-detection tool in Maps that identifies and saves locations mentioned in image text. The Verge reports: Once the new screenshot list is enabled in Maps, the Gemini-powered feature will detect places that are mentioned in text within screenshots on the device, show users the locations on the map, and allow them to review and save locations to a sharable list. The screen
  
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• Coreboot 25.03 Released With Support For 22 More Motherboards

  04-04-2025 12:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Coreboot 25.03 has been released with support for 22 new motherboards and several other significant updates, including enhanced display handling, USB debugging, RISC-V support, and RAM initialization for older Intel platforms. Phoronix reports: Coreboot 25.03 delivers display handling improvements, a better USB debugging experience, CPU topology updates, various improvements to the open-source RAM initialization for aging Intel Haswell platforms, improved USB Type-C and Thunderbolt handling, var
  
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• The Retro Subway Map That Design Nerds Love Makes a Comeback

  04-04-2025 09:12 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The M.T.A. has unveiled on Wednesday a revamped New York City subway map -- the first major redesign in nearly 50 years. As reported by the New York Times, the map draws inspiration from the modernist but controversial 1972 Unimark version, prioritizing clarity over geographic precision. It's also a part of a broader effort to refresh the system's image amid calls for infrastructure upgrades and political tensions over transit funding and congestion pricing. From the report: The updated version
  
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• Wealthy Americans Have Death Rates On Par With Poor Europeans

  04-04-2025 05:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: [...] The study, led by researchers at Brown University, found that the wealthiest Americans lived shorter lives than the wealthiest Europeans. In fact, wealthy Northern and Western Europeans had death rates 35 percent lower than the wealthiest Americans, whose lifespans were more like the poorest in Northern and Western Europe -- which includes countries such as France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. "The findings are a stark reminder th
  
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• Windows 11 Tests Taskbar Icons That Scale Up and Down Like On a Mac

  04-04-2025 04:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft is testing a new Windows 11 feature that resizes taskbar icons dynamically like on macOS, with options to shrink icons when the taskbar is full or keep them small at all times. The Verge reports: If you're on the beta, under Taskbar settings - Taskbar behaviors, you can now select options under Show smaller taskbar buttons: Always, Never, or When taskbar is full. The third option will scale down icons so that they all can fit and not get hidden away in a second menu. The behavior appea
  
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• Google's NotebookLM AI Can Now 'Discover Sources' For You

  04-04-2025 03:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Google's NotebookLM has added a new "Discover sources" feature that allows users to describe a topic and have the AI find and curate relevant sources from the web -- eliminating the need to upload documents manually. "When you tap the Discover button in NotebookLM, you can describe the topic you're interested in, and NotebookLM will bring back a curated collection of relevant sources from the web," says Google software engineer Adam Bignell. Click to add those sources to your notebook; "it's a f
  
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• Massive Expansion of Italy's Piracy Shield Underway

  04-04-2025 03:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: Walled Culture has been following closely Italy's poorly designed Piracy Shield system. Back in December we reported how copyright companies used their access to the Piracy Shield system to order Italian Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to all of Google Drive for the entire country, and how malicious actors could similarly use that unchecked power to shut down critical national infrastructure. Since then, the Computer & Comm
  
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• Louvre Museum In Paris to Discontinue Nintendo 3DS Audio Guides

  04-04-2025 02:20 via games.slashdot.org
  
  The Louvre Museum will discontinue its use of Nintendo 3DS XL consoles as audio guides by September 2025, replacing them with a new system. NintendoSoup reports: For several years the Louvre has been using specially dedicated New Nintendo 3DS XL consoles to give visitors an audio guided tour of the famous museum. According to the museum's official website however, it seems that the program will be discontinued in September 2025, to be replaced by a new system.Presumably, this is due to Nintendo
  
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• DeepMind Details All the Ways AGI Could Wreck the World

  04-04-2025 01:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica, written by Ryan Whitwam: Researchers at DeepMind have ... released a new technical paper (PDF) that explains how to develop AGI safely, which you can download at your convenience. It contains a huge amount of detail, clocking in at 108 pages before references. While some in the AI field believe AGI is a pipe dream, the authors of the DeepMind paper project that it could happen by 2030. With that in mind, they aimed to understand the risks of
  
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• Air Conditioning, Not Data Centers, Driving Global Energy Demand Growth

  04-04-2025 01:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Air conditioning will contribute more to rising global energy demand than data centers through 2030, according to an International Energy Agency. While attention has focused on computing power consumption, the IEA projects data centers will account for less than 10% of increased energy demand by 2030, significantly less than space cooling requirements. Global cooling degree days, a measure of air conditioning need, were 6% higher in 2024 than 2023 and 20% above the long-term average for the firs
  
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• US Stock Markets See Worst Day Since Covid Pandemic

  04-04-2025 00:42 via news.slashdot.org
  
  U.S. stock markets suffered their worst day since the Covid pandemic after Donald Trump announced sweeping new tariffs, triggering a global selloff and wiping out $470 billion in value from tech giants Apple and Nvidia. From a report: The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 6%, while the S&P 500 and the Dow dropped 4.8% and 3.9%, respectively. [...] Meanwhile, the US dollar hit a six-month low, going down at least 2.2% on Thursday morning compared with other major currencies and oil prices sank on fears
  
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• Intel, TSMC Tentatively Agree To Form Chipmaking Joint Venture

  04-04-2025 00:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. have reached a preliminary agreement to form a joint venture operating Intel's chipmaking facilities, with TSMC taking a 20% stake, The Information reports [non-paywalled source]. Intel and other U.S. semiconductor companies would hold the majority of shares in the proposed venture. Instead of capital investment, TSMC has discussed sharing chipmaking methods and training Intel personnel.
  The talks face internal opposition from some Intel executive
  
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• Microsoft's Miniature Windows 365 Link PC Goes On Sale

  03-04-2025 23:43 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft's business-oriented "Link" mini-desktop PC, which connects directly to the company's Windows 365 cloud service, is now available to buy for $349.99 in the US and in several other countries. Windows 365 Link, which was announced last November, is a device that is more easily manageable by IT departments than a typical computer while also reducing the needs of hands on support.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Oracle Tells Clients of Second Recent Hack, Log-In Data Stolen

  03-04-2025 21:08 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Oracle has told customers that a hacker broke into a computer system and stole old client log-in credentials, according to two people familiar with the matter. It's the second cybersecurity breach that the software company has acknowledged to clients in the last month.
  Oracle staff informed some clients this week that the attacker gained access to usernames, passkeys and encrypted passwords, according to the people, who spoke on condition that they not be ide
  
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• Climate Crisis On Track To Destroy Capitalism, Warns Top Insurer

  03-04-2025 20:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The climate crisis is on track to destroy capitalism, a top insurer has warned, with the vast cost of extreme weather impacts leaving the financial sector unable to operate. From a report: The world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks, said Günther Thallinger, on the board of Allianz SE, one of the world's biggest insurance companies. He said that without insurance, which is already being pulled in some
  
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• Climate Firm That Partnered With Meta, Microsoft Goes Bankrupt

  03-04-2025 18:53 via slashdot.org
  
  Climate startup Aspiration, which boasted a roster of celebrity backers and arranged carbon credits for Meta Platforms, Microsoft and other large companies, filed bankruptcy weeks after its co-founder was arrested on fraud charges. From a report: CTN Holdings, as the company is now known, has about $170 million in debt. The goal of the bankruptcy is to sell its assets as quickly as possible in order to repay creditors, chief restructuring officer Miles Staglik said in a court filing. The pool of
  
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• Intel Refreshes Iconic Brand

  03-04-2025 18:11 via slashdot.org
  
  Intel has unveiled a refresh of its iconic brand identity, introducing the slogan "That's the power of Intel Inside" to reconnect with consumers and highlight the chipmaker's role in modern computing. The new campaign resurrects the familiar "Intel Inside" theme that helped transform the company into a household name in the 1990s, when Intel's marketing strategy directly targeted consumers rather than system designers.
  Brett Hannath, Intel's chief marketing officer, said the message reflects the
  
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• AV1 is Supposed To Make Streaming Better, So Why Isn't Everyone Using It?

  03-04-2025 17:27 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Despite promises of more efficient streaming, the AV1 video codec hasn't achieved widespread adoption seven years after its 2018 debut, even with backing from tech giants Netflix, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta. The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) claims AV1 is 30% more efficient than standards like HEVC, delivering higher-quality video at lower bandwidth while remaining royalty-free.
  Major services including YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video have embraced the technology, with Netf
  
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• Schrodinger's Economics

  03-04-2025 16:47 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  databasecowgirl writes: Commenting in The Times on the absurdity of Meta's copyright infringement claims, Caitlin Moran defines Schrodinger's economics: where a company is both [one of] the most valuable on the planet yet also too poor to pay for the materials it profits from.
  Ultimately "move fast and break things" means breaking other people's things. Or, possibly worse, going full 'The Talented Mr Ripley': slowly feeling so entitled to the things you are enamored of that you end up clubbing o
  
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• Microsoft Pulls Back on Data Centers From Chicago To Jakarta

  03-04-2025 16:04 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has pulled back on data center projects around the world, suggesting the company is taking a harder look at its plans to build the server farms powering artificial intelligence and the cloud. From a report: The software company has recently halted talks for, or delayed development of, sites in Indonesia, the UK, Australia, Illinois, North Dakota and Wisconsin, according to people familiar with the situation. Microsoft is widely seen as a leader in commercializing AI services, largely t
  
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• Microsoft, Amazon Execs Call Out Washington's Low-Performing 9-Year-Olds In Tax Pushback

  03-04-2025 15:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: A coalition of Washington state business leaders -- which includes Microsoft President Brad Smith and Amazon Chief Legal Officer David Zapolsky -- released a letter Wednesday urging state lawmakers to reconsider recently proposed tax and budget measures. "I actually think it's an almost unprecedented outpouring of support from across the business community," said Microsoft's Smith in an interview. In their letter, which reads in part like it could have bee
  
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• NSA, CISA, FBI, and International Partners Release Cybersecurity Advisory on “Fast Flux,” a National Security Threat

  03-04-2025 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Today, CISA—in partnership with the National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC), Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), and New Zealand’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NZ)—released joint Cybersecurity Advisory Fast Flux: A National Security Threat (PDF, 841 KB). This advisory warns organizations, internet service providers (ISPs), and cybersecurity se
  
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• ESA's New Documentary Paints Worrying Picture of Earth's Orbital Junk Problem

  03-04-2025 12:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The European Space Agency's short film Space Debris: Is it a Crisis? highlights the growing danger of orbital clutter, warning that "70% of the 20,000 satellites ever launched remain in space today, orbiting alongside hundreds of millions of fragments left behind by collisions, explosions and intentional destruction." Inkl reports: The approximately eight-minute-long film "Space Debris: Is it a Crisis?" attempts to answer its conjecture with supportive statistics and orbital projections. [...] T
  
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• Amazon Set To Launch First Operational Satellites For Project Kuiper Network

  03-04-2025 09:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Amazon and United Launch Alliance will launch 27 full-scale satellites on April 9 as part of Amazon's Project Kuiper, marking the company's first major step toward building a global satellite internet network to rival SpaceX's Starlink. GeekWire reports: ULA said the three-hour window for the Atlas V rocket's liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 41 in Florida is scheduled to open at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) that day. ULA is planning a live stream of launch coverage v
  
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• Vibe Coded AI App Generates Recipes With Very Few Guardrails

  03-04-2025 05:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: A "vibe coded" AI app developed by entrepreneur and Y Combinator group partner Tom Blomfield has generated recipes that gave users instruction on how to make "Cyanide Ice Cream," "Thick White Cum Soup," and "Uranium Bomb," using those actual substances as ingredients. Vibe coding, in case you are unfamiliar, is the new practice where people, some with limited coding experience, rapidly develop software with AI assisted coding tools without over
  
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• Open-Source Tool Designed To Throttle PC and Server Performance Based On Electricity Pricing

  03-04-2025 03:45 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Robotics and machine learning engineer Naveen Kul developed WattWise, a lightweight open-source CLI tool that monitors power usage via smart plugs and throttles system performance based on electricity pricing and peak hours. Tom's Hardware reports: The simple program, called WattWise, came about when Naveen built a dual-socket EPYC workstation with plans to add four GPUs. It's a power-intensive setup, so he wanted a way to monitor its power consumption using a Kasa smart plug. The enthusiast has
  
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• NaNoWriMo To Close After 20 Years

  03-04-2025 03:07 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  NaNoWriMo, the nonprofit behind the annual novel-writing challenge, is shutting down after 20 years but will keep its websites online temporarily so users can retrieve their content. The Guardian reports: A 27-minute YouTube video posted the same day by the organization's interim executive director Kilby Blades explained that it had to close due to ongoing financial problems, which were compounded by reputational damage. In November 2023, several community members complained to the nonprofit's b
  
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• Five VPN Apps In the App Store Had Links To Chinese Military

  03-04-2025 02:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  A joint investigation found that at least five popular VPN apps on the App Store and Google Play have ties to Qihoo 360, a Chinese company with military links. Apple has since removed two of the apps but has not confirmed the status of the remaining three, which 9to5Mac notes have "racked up more than a million downloads." The five apps in question are Turbo VPN, VPN Proxy Master, Thunder VPN, Snap VPN, and Signal Secure VPN (not associated with the Signal messaging app). The Financial Times rep
  
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• Anthropic Launches an AI Chatbot Plan For Colleges and Universities

  03-04-2025 01:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Anthropic announced on Wednesday that it's launching a new Claude for Education tier, an answer to OpenAI's ChatGPT Edu plan. The new tier is aimed at higher education, and gives students, faculty, and other staff access to Anthropic's AI chatbot, Claude, with a few additional capabilities. One piece of Claude for Education is "Learning Mode," a new feature within Claude Projects to help students develop their own critical thinking skills, rat
  
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• India Set For $100 Billion Startup IPO Surge By 2027

  03-04-2025 01:00 via slashdot.org
  
  According to Bloomberg, India is set for a surge in tech startup IPOs valued at around $100 billion by 2027, with major players like Flipkart, PhonePe, and Oyo preparing to go public. From a report: A report from Indian investment bank The Rainmaker Group suggests that the new wave of IPO hopefuls is in a stronger financial position than their predecessors. Many of the startups that were listed during the 2021-2022 boom struggled post-IPO, with fintech firm Paytm losing roughly 63% of its value
  
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