Author: Robin Edgar
-
‘Super Melanin’ Speeds Healing, Stops Sunburn, and More
A team of scientists at Northwestern University has developed a synthetic version of melanin that could have a million and one uses. In new research, they showed that their melanin can prevent blistering and accelerate the healing process in tissue samples of freshly injured human skin. The team now plans to further develop their “super…
Written by
-
World’s First Commercial Spaceplane Faces Crucial Test at NASA
Dream Chaser, built by Sierra Space, is being prepped for transport to a NASA facility in Ohio, where it will undergo a series of tests to make sure the spaceplane can survive its heated reentry through Earth’s atmosphere. Starting these tests is crucial, demonstrating Dream Chaser’s readiness for flights and potentially transforming commercial space travel.…
Written by
-
Brave rivals Bing and ChatGPT with new privacy-focused AI chatbot
Brave, the privacy-focused browser that automatically blocks unwanted ads and trackers, is rolling out Leo — a native AI assistant that the company claims provides “unparalleled privacy” compared to some other AI chatbot services. Following several months of testing, Leo is now available to use for free by all Brave desktop users running version 1.60…
Written by
-
Latest Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch Nerfs Sex Speedruns because… Americans?
For being a role-playing game based on 5e Dungeons & Dragons, Baldur’s Gate 3 is notoriously horny. Regardless of mythical race, gender, or social station, many of the game’s alluring party members are willing to at least spank you, and because of this, BG3 has a thriving and official sex speedrun category. For a time,…
Written by
-
YouTube’s Crackdown Spurs Record Uninstalls And Reinstalls in new Browser of Ad Blockers… Time to Change Video Site?
[…] Previously unreported figures from ad blocking companies indicate that YouTube’s crackdown is working, with hundreds of thousands of people uninstalling ad blockers in October. The available data suggests that last month saw a record number of ad blockers uninstalled—and also a record for new ad blocker installs as people sought alternatives that wouldn’t trigger…
Written by
-
EU Parliament Fails To Understand That The Right To Read Is The Right To Train. Understands the copyright lobby has money though.
Walled Culture recently wrote about an unrealistic French legislative proposal that would require the listing of all the authors of material used for training generative AI systems. Unfortunately, the European Parliament has inserted a similarly impossible idea in its text for the upcoming Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act. The DisCo blog explains that MEPs added new copyright requirements to the Commission’s…
Written by
-
EU Trys to Implement Client-Side Scanning, death to encryption By Personalised Targeting of EU Residents With Misleading Ads
The EU Commission has been pushing client-side scanning for well over a year. This new intrusion into private communications has been pitched as perhaps the only way to prevent the sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Mandates proposed by the EU government would have forced communication services to engage in client-side scanning of content.…
Written by
-
YouTube is cracking down on ad blockers globally. Time to go to the next video site. Vimeo, are you listening?
YouTube is no longer preventing just a small subset of its userbase from accessing its videos if they have an ad blocker. The platform has gone all out in its fight against the use of add-ons, extensions and programs that prevent it from serving ads to viewers around the world, it confirmed to Engadget. “The…
Written by
-
Mass lawsuit against Apple over throttled and broken iPhone batteries can go ahead, London tribunal rules
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on Wednesday lost a bid to block a mass London lawsuit worth up to $2 billion which accuses the tech giant of hiding defective batteries in millions of iPhones. The lawsuit was brought by British consumer champion Justin Gutmann on behalf of around 24 million iPhone users in the United Kingdom. Gutmann…
Written by
-
Black 4.0 Is The New Ultrablack paint
Vantablack is a special coating material, moreso than a paint. It’s well-known as one of the blackest possible coatings around, capable of absorbing almost all visible light in its nanotube complex structure. However, it’s complicated to apply, delicate, and not readily available, especially to those in the art world. It was these drawbacks that led…
Written by
-
Researchers devise method using mirrors to monitor nuclear stockpiles offsite
Researchers say they have developed a method to remotely track the movement of objects in a room using mirrors and radio waves, in the hope it could one day help monitor nuclear weapons stockpiles. According to the non-profit org International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, nine countries, including Russia, the United States, China, France, the…
Written by
-
Judge dismisses most of artists’ AI copyright lawsuits against Midjourney, Stability AI
judge in California federal court on Monday trimmed a lawsuit by visual artists who accuse Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantArt of misusing their copyrighted work in connection with the companies’ generative artificial intelligence systems. U.S. District Judge William Orrick dismissed some claims from the proposed class action brought by Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan and Karla…
Written by
-
Drugmakers Are Set To Pay 23andMe Millions To Access Your DNA – which is also your families DNA
GSK will pay 23andMe $20 million for access to the genetic-testing company’s vast trove of consumer DNA data, extending a five-year collaboration that’s allowed the drugmaker to mine genetic data as it researches new medications. Under the new agreement, 23andMe will provide GSK with one year of access to anonymized DNA data from the approximately…
Written by
-
Particle Accelerator can now be built on a Chip
Particle accelerators range in size from a room to a city. However, now scientists are looking closer at chip-sized electron accelerators, a new study finds. Potential near-term applications for the technology include radiation therapy for zapping skin cancer and, longer-term, new kinds of laser and light sources. Particle accelerators generally propel particles within metal tubes…
Written by
-
Google CEO Defends Paying $26b in 2021 to Remain Top Search Engine
Google CEO Sundar Pichai upheld the company’s decision to pay out billions of dollars to remain the top global search engine at the U.S. anti-trust trial on Monday, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Pichai claimed he tried to give users a “seamless and easy” experience, even if it meant paying Apple…
Written by
-
Apple says BMW wireless chargers really are messing with iPhone 15s
Users have been reporting that their iPhone 15’s NFC chips were failing after using BMW’s in-car wireless charging, but until now, Apple hasn’t addressed the complaints. That seems to have changed as MacRumors reported this week that an Apple internal memo to third-party repair providers says a software update later this year should prevent a…
Written by
-
IoT standard Matter 1.2 released
[…] Matter, version 1.2, is now available for device makers and platforms to build into their products. It is packed with nine new device types, revisions, and additions to existing categories, core improvements to the specification and SDK, and certification and testing tools. The Matter 1.2 certification program is now open and members expect to…
Written by
-
iLeakage hack can force iOS and macOS browsers to divulge passwords and much more
Researchers have devised an attack that forces Apple’s Safari browser to divulge passwords, Gmail message content, and other secrets by exploiting a side channel vulnerability in the A- and M-series CPUs running modern iOS and macOS devices. Further Reading Intel SGX is vulnerable to an unfixable flaw that can steal crypto keys and more…
Written by
-
Hackers Target European Government With Roundcube Webmail Bug
Winter Vivern, believed to be a Belarus-aligned hacker, attacked European government entities and a think tank starting on Oct. 11, according to an Ars Technica report Wednesday. ESET Research discovered the hack that exploited a zero-day vulnerability in Roundcube, a webmail server with millions of users, and allowed the pro-Russian group to exfiltrate sensitive emails.…
Written by
-
Privacy advocate challenges YouTube’s ad blocking detection (which isn’t spyware)
Last week, privacy advocate (and very occasional Reg columnist) Alexander Hanff filed a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) decrying YouTube’s deployment of JavaScript code to detect the use of ad blocking extensions by website visitors. On October 16, according to the Internet Archives’ Wayback Machine, Google published a support page declaring that…
Written by
-
Airbus commissions three wind-powered ships
The plane-maker on Thursday revealed it has “commissioned shipowner Louis Dreyfus Armateurs to build, own and operate these new, highly efficient vessels that will enter into service from 2026.” The ships will have conventional engines that run on maritime diesel oil and e-methanol, the latter fuel made with a process that produces less CO2 than…
Written by
-
Apple’s MAC Address Privacy Feature Has Never Worked
Ever since Apple re-branded as the “Privacy” company several years back, it’s been rolling out features designed to show its commitment to protecting users. Yet while customers might feel safer using an iPhone, there’s already plenty of evidence that Apple’s branding efforts don’t always match the reality of its products. In fact, a lot of…
Written by
-
Android 14 Storage Bug: Users with multiple profiles Locked Out of Devices
Android 14, the latest operating system from Google, is facing a major storage bug that is causing users to be locked out of their devices. This issue is particularly affecting users who utilize the “multiple profiles” feature. Reports suggest that the bug is comparable to being hit with “ransomware,” as users are unable to access…
Written by
-
Google turned ANC earbuds into heart rate sensor
Google today detailed its research into audioplethysmography (APG) that adds heart rate sensing capabilities to active noise canceling (ANC) headphones and earbuds “with a simple software upgrade.” Google says the “ear canal [is] an ideal location for health sensing” given that the deep ear artery “forms an intricate network of smaller vessels that extensively permeate…
Written by
-
AI Risks – doomsayers, warriors, reformers
There is no shortage of researchers and industry titans willing to warn us about the potential destructive power of artificial intelligence. Reading the headlines, one would hope that the rapid gains in AI technology have also brought forth a unifying realization of the risks—and the steps we need to take to mitigate them. The reality,…
Written by