ICT news

Follow @newslocke_ict

• Why a Lost Cellphone Forced an Airplane to Turn Around in Mid-Flight

  29-03-2025 20:34 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  Last week an Air France flight to the Caribbean had to turn around and return to Paris, reports the Washington Post, "after a passenger could not locate their cellphone."
  Because of fears that an unattended cellphone could overheat — and because the passenger and crew couldn't find the phone — the Boeing 777 turned around off the coast of France "and returned to the airport, according to the flight-tracking service FlightAware. It landed back where it started a little more than two h
  
  Read more

• Substack Says It'll Legally Defend Writers 'Targeted By the Government'

  02-04-2025 02:50 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Substack has announced it will legally support foreign writers lawfully residing in the U.S. who face government targeting over their published work, partnering with the nonprofit FIRE to expand its existing Defender program. The Verge reports: In their announcement, Substack and FIRE mention the international Tufts University student who was arrested by federal agents last week. Her legal team links her arrest to an opinion piece she co-wrote for the school's newspaper last year, which criticiz
  
  Read more

• Stablecoin Issuer Circle Files For IPO

  02-04-2025 02:10 via slashdot.org
  
  Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has filed for an IPO aiming for a $5 billion valuation. It marks the company's second attempt at going public amid renewed momentum in the crypto sector and signs of recovery in tech IPO markets. CNBC reports: A prior merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) collapsed in late 2022 amid regulatory challenges. Since then, Circle has made strategic moves to position itself closer to the heart of global finance, including the announcement la
  
  Read more

• YouTube Could Be Worth $550 Billion as Analyst Crowns Platform 'New King of All Media'

  02-04-2025 01:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  MoffettNathanson has crowned YouTube the "New King of All Media" as the Alphabet-owned video platform has become a major force in Hollywood, dominating time spent watching TV. From a report: The firm estimates that YouTube as a standalone business could be worth as much as $550 billion -- or nearly 30% of the tech giant's current valuation. The figure is based on the firm's analysis of enterprise value as a multiple of revenue in 2024 for Netflix (10.5x revenue), Meta (8.8x), Roku (2.4x), Warner
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Mozilla To Launch 'Thunderbird Pro' Paid Services

  02-04-2025 00:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Mozilla plans to introduce a suite of paid professional services for its open-source Thunderbird email client, transforming the application into a comprehensive communication platform. Dubbed "Thunderbird Pro," the package aims to compete with established ecosystems like Gmail and Office 365 while maintaining Mozilla's commitment to open-source software.
  The Pro tier will include four core services: Thunderbird Appointment for streamlined scheduling, Thunderbird Send for file sharing (reviving t
  
  Read more

• Donkey Kong Champion Wins Defamation Case Against Australian YouTuber Karl Jobst

  02-04-2025 00:10 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A professional YouTuber in Queensland has been ordered to pay $350,000 plus interest and costs to the former world record score holder for Donkey Kong, after the Brisbane district court found the YouTuber had defamed him "recklessly" with false claims of a link between a lawsuit and another YouTuber's suicide. William "Billy" Mitchell, an American gamer who had held world records in Donkey Kong and Pac-Man going back to 1982, as recognized b
  
  Read more

• FTC Says 23andMe Purchaser Must Uphold Existing Privacy Policy For Data Handling

  01-04-2025 23:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The FTC has warned that any buyer of 23andMe must honor the company's current privacy policy, which ensures consumers retain control over their genetic data and can delete it at will. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson emphasized that such promises must be upheld, given the uniquely sensitive and immutable nature of genetic information. The Record reports: The letter, sent to the DOJ's United States Trustee Program, highlights several assurances 23andMe makes in its privacy policy, including that users a
  
  Read more

• Arkansas Social Media Age Verification Law Blocked By Federal Judge

  01-04-2025 22:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  A federal judge struck down Arkansas' Social Media Safety Act, ruling it unconstitutional for broadly restricting both adult and minor speech and imposing vague requirements on platforms. Engadget reports: In a ruling (PDF), Judge Timothy Brooks said that the law, known as Act 689 (PDF), was overly broad. "Act 689 is a content-based restriction on speech, and it is not targeted to address the harms the State has identified," Brooks wrote in his decision. "Arkansas takes a hatchet to adults' and
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• MCP: the New 'USB-C For AI' That's Bringing Fierce Rivals Together

  01-04-2025 22:10 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: What does it take to get OpenAI and Anthropic -- two competitors in the AI assistant market -- to get along? Despite a fundamental difference in direction that led Anthropic's founders to quit OpenAI in 2020 and later create the Claude AI assistant, a shared technical hurdle has now brought them together: How to easily connect their AI models to external data sources. The solution comes from Anthropic, which developed and released an open sp
  
  Read more

• Larry Fink Says Bitcoin Could Replace the Dollar as the World's Reserve Currency Because of National Debt

  01-04-2025 20:40 via slashdot.org
  
  With America's national debt sitting comfortably over the $36.2 trillion mark, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is warning the burden could one day be the reason the dollar is dethroned as the reserve currency of the world.
  From a report: He argues that decentralized currencies like Bitcoin could replace the dollar as worldwide organizations lose faith in national currencies and seek an independent solution. Fink explained his theory in his 2025 letter to shareholders, writing: "The U.S. has benefited f
  
  Read more

• DeepMind is Holding Back Release of AI Research To Give Google an Edge

  01-04-2025 18:48 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google's AI arm DeepMind has been holding back the release of its world-renowned research, as it seeks to retain a competitive edge in the race to dominate the burgeoning AI industry. From a report: The group, led by Nobel Prize-winner Sir Demis Hassabis, has introduced a tougher vetting process and more bureaucracy that made it harder to publish studies about its work on AI, according to seven current and former research scientists at Google DeepMind. Three former researchers said the group was
  
  Read more

• Study Reveals Why Credit Card Interest Rates Remain Stubbornly High

  01-04-2025 18:05 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Credit card interest rates, which averaged 23% in 2023, are significantly higher than any other major loan product primarily due to non-diversifiable default risk and banks' market power, according to research published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
  The comprehensive study, which analyzed 330 million monthly credit card accounts, found that while high default losses contribute to elevated rates, they explain only part of the picture. Even high-FICO borrowers pay spreads exceeding 7% a
  
  Read more

• London Mayor Axes Cyber Crime Victim Support Line

  01-04-2025 17:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  London's mayor has axed a cyber crime helpline for the victims of online abuse, triggering a backlash from campaigners who argue that women and girls will be left struggling to access vital support. From a report: The service, which was shut down on Tuesday, assisted victims of fraud, revenge porn and cyberstalking to protect their digital identity. During its 18-months of operation it led to 2,060 cases being opened. The helpline was launched in 2023 as a one-year pilot scheme with $220,000 in
  
  Read more

• Gmail is Making It Easier For Businesses To Send Encrypted Emails To Anyone

  01-04-2025 16:40 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Google is rolling out a new encryption model for Gmail that allows enterprise users to send encrypted messages without requiring recipients to use custom software or exchange encryption certificates. The feature, launching in beta today, initially supports encrypted emails within the same organization, with plans to expand to all Gmail inboxes "in the coming weeks" and third-party email providers "later this year."
  Unlike Gmail's current S/MIME-based encryption, the new system lets users simply
  
  Read more

• Average Person Will Be 40% Poorer If World Warms By 4C, New Research Shows

  01-04-2025 16:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Economic models have systematically underestimated how global heating will affect people's wealth, according to a new study that finds 4C warming will make the average person 40% poorer -- an almost four-fold increase on some estimates. The Guardian: The study by Australian scientists suggests average per person GDP across the globe will be reduced by 16% even if warming is kept to 2C above pre-industrial levels. This is a much greater reduction than previous estimates, which found the reduction
  
  Read more

• Xiaomi EV Involved in First Fatal Autopilot Crash

  01-04-2025 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: China's Xiaomi said on Tuesday that it was actively cooperating with police after a fatal accident involving a SU7 electric vehicle on March 29 and that it had handed over driving and system data. The incident marks the first major accident involving the SU7 sedan, which Xiaomi launched in March last year and since December has outsold Tesla's Model 3 on a monthly basis. Xiaomi's shares, which had risen by 34.8% year to date, closed down 5.5% on
  
  Read more

• Alan Turing Institute Plans Revamp in Face of Criticism and Technological Change

  01-04-2025 12:35 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Britain's flagship AI agency will slash the number of projects it backs and prioritize work on defense, environment and health as it seeks to respond to technological advances and criticism of its record. From a report: The Alan Turing Institute -- named after the pioneering British computer scientist -- will shut or offload almost a quarter of its 101 current initiatives and is considering job cuts as part of a change programme that led scores of staff to write a letter expressing their loss of
  
  Read more

• Anthropic Will Begin Sweeping Offices For Hidden Devices

  01-04-2025 07:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Anthropic said it will start sweeping physical offices for hidden devices as part of a ramped-up security effort as the AI race intensifies. From a report: The company, backed by Amazon and Google, published safety and security updates in a blog post on Monday, and said it also plans to establish an executive risk council and build an in-house security team. Anthropic closed its latest funding round earlier this month at a $61.5 billion valuation, which makes it one of the highest-valued AI star
  
  Read more

• First Flight of Isar Aerospace's Spectrum Rocket Lasted Just 40 Seconds

  01-04-2025 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The first flight of Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket didn't last long on Sunday. The booster's nine engines switched off as the rocket cartwheeled upside-down and fell a short distance from its Arctic launch pad in Norway, punctuating the abbreviated test flight with a spectacular fiery crash into the sea. If officials at Isar Aerospace were able to pick the outcome of their first test flight, it wouldn't be this. However, the result has pre
  
  Read more

• 'There is No Vibe Engineering'

  01-04-2025 03:30 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Software engineer Sergey Tselovalnikov weighs in on the new hype: The term caught on and Twitter quickly flooded with posts about how AI has radically transformed coding and will soon replace all software engineers. While AI undeniably impacts the way we write code, it hasn't fundamentally changed our role as engineers. Allow me to explain.
  [...] Vibe coding is interacting with the codebase via prompts. As the implementation is hidden from the "vibe coder", all the engineering concerns will inev
  
  Read more

• Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan Says Company Will Spin Off Non-Core Units

  01-04-2025 02:36 via slashdot.org
  
  Intel Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan said the chipmaker will spin off assets that aren't central to its mission and create new products including custom semiconductors to try to better align itself with customers. From a report: Intel needs to replace the engineering talent it has lost, improve its balance sheet and better attune manufacturing processes to meet the needs of potential customers, Tan said. Speaking at his first public appearance as CEO, at the Intel Vision conference Monday in
  
  Read more

• UK's GCHQ Intern Transferred Top Secret Files To His Phone

  01-04-2025 01:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Bruce66423 shares a report from the BBC: A former GCHQ intern has admitted risking national security by taking top secret data home with him on his mobile phone. Hasaan Arshad, 25, pleaded guilty to an offence under the Computer Misuse Act on what would have been the first day of his trial at the Old Bailey in London. The charge related to committing an unauthorised act which risked damaging national security.Arshad, from Rochdale in Greater Manchester, is said to have transferred sensitive data
  
  Read more

• Intel and Microsoft Staff Allegedly Lured To Work For Fake Chinese Company In Taiwan

  01-04-2025 00:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Taiwanese authorities have accused 11 Chinese companies, including SMIC, of secretly setting up disguised entities in Taiwan to illegally recruit tech talent from firms like Intel and Microsoft. The Register reports: One of those companies is apparently called Yunhe Zhiwang (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd and develops high-end network chips. The Bureau claims its chips are used in China's "Data East, Compute West" strategy that, as we reported when it was announced in 2022, calls for five million
  
  Read more

• OpenAI Plans To Release a New 'Open' AI Language Model In the Coming Months

  31-03-2025 23:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  OpenAI plans to release a new open-weight language model -- its first since GPT-2 -- in the coming months and is seeking community feedback to shape its development. "That's according to a feedback form the company published on its website Monday," reports TechCrunch. "The form, which OpenAI is inviting 'developers, researchers, and [members of] the broader community' to fill out, includes questions like 'What would you like to see in an open-weight model from OpenAI?' and 'What open models have
  
  Read more

• Google To Pay $100 Million To Settle 14-Year-Old Advertising Lawsuit

  31-03-2025 23:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Google has agreed to pay $100 million in cash to settle a long-running lawsuit claiming it overcharged advertisers by failing to provide promised discounts and charged for clicks on ads outside the geographic areas the advertisers targeted. A preliminary settlement of the 14-year-old class action, which began in March 2011, was filed late Thursday in the San Jose, California, federal court, and requires a judge's approval.Advertisers who particip
  
  Read more

• Honey Lost 4 Million Chrome Users After Shady Tactics Were Revealed

  31-03-2025 22:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The Chrome extension Honey has lost over 4 million users after a viral video exposed it for hijacking affiliate codes and misleading users about finding the best coupon deals. 9to5Google reports: As we reported in early January, Honey had lost around 3 million users immediately after the video went viral, but ended up gaining back around 1 million later on. Now, as of March 2025, Honey is down to 16 million users on Chrome, down from its peak of 20 million.This drop comes after new Chrome policy
  
  Read more

• ChatGPT 'Added One Million Users In the Last Hour'

  31-03-2025 22:00 via slashdot.org
  
  OpenAI is having another viral moment after releasing Images for ChatGPT last week, with millions of people creating Studio Ghibli-inspired AI art. In a post on X today, CEO Sam Altman said the company has "added one million users in the last hour" alone. A few days prior he begged users to stop generating images because he said "our GPUs are melting."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  Read more

• Open Source Genetic Database Shuts Down To Protect Users From 'Authoritarian Governments'

  31-03-2025 21:40 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: The creator of an open source genetic database is shutting it down and deleting all of its data because he has come to believe that its existence is dangerous with "a rise in far-right and other authoritarian governments" in the United States and elsewhere. "The largest use case for DTC genetic data was not biomedical research or research in big pharma," Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, the founder of OpenSNP, wrote in a blog post. "Instead, the tran
  
  Read more

• Netflix CEO Says Movie Theaters Are Dead

  31-03-2025 20:56 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The post-Covid rebound of live events is all the more evidence that movie theaters are never coming back, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told Semafor in an interview at the Paley Center for Media Friday.
  "Nearly every live thing has come back screaming," Sarandos said. "Broadway's breaking records right now, sporting events, concerts, all those things that we couldn't do during COVID are all back and bigger than ever. The theatrical box office is down 40 to 50%
  
  Read more

• Micron Hikes Memory Prices Amid Surging AI Demand

  31-03-2025 20:12 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Micron will raise prices for DRAM and NAND flash memory chips through 2026 as AI and data center demand strains supply chains, the U.S. chipmaker confirmed Monday. The move follows a market rebound from previous oversupply, with memory prices steadily climbing as producers cut output while AI and high-performance computing workloads grow.
  Rivals Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are expected to implement similar increases. Micron cited "un-forecasted demand across various business segments" in co
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!