Top Justice Department antitrust officials have decided to ask a judge to force Alphabet Inc.’s Google to sell off its Chrome browser in what would be a historic crackdown on one of the world’s biggest tech companies. The department will ask the judge, who ruled in August that Google illegally monopolized the search market, to Read more about DOJ Will Push Google to Sell Chrome to help Break Search Monopoly[…]
the scientists who taught rats how to drive are back, and their latest research suggests rats enjoy the open road as much as we do, with a new video showing one revving motor of its little car in anticipation of a joyride. Kelly Lambert, the University of Richmond neuroscientist who developed the initial experiment, conducted Read more about Scientists Who Taught Rats To Drive Little Cars Say They Absolutely Love It[…]
For years, car safety experts and everyday drivers have bemoaned the loss of the humble button. Modern cars have almost unilaterally replaced dashboards full of tactile knobs with sleek, iPad-like digital displays, despite concerns these alluring devices might be making distracted driving worse. But there are signs the tide might be shifting. After going all Read more about Goodbye, annoying car touchscreens. Welcome back, buttons?[…]
Satirical news publication The Onion has bought Infowars, the media organisation headed by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, for an undisclosed price at a court-ordered auction. The Onion said that the bid was secured with the backing of families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who won a $1.5bn (£1.18bn) defamation lawsuit Read more about The Onion buys Alex Jones’s Infowars at auction[…]
What’s claimed to be more than 183 million records of people’s contact details and employment info has been stolen or otherwise obtained from a data broker and put up for sale by a miscreant. The underworld merchant, using the handle KryptonZambie, has put a $6,000 price tag on the information in a cybercrime forum posting. Read more about Data broker gathers records on 100M+ people, gets stolen, put up for sale[…]
Meta Platforms Inc. was hit with a €798 million ($841 million) fine by European Union regulators by tying its Facebook Marketplace service to the social network, the US tech giant’s first ever penalty for EU antitrust violations. In a groundbreaking decision, the European Commission ordered Meta to stop tying its classified-ads service to Facebook’s sprawling Read more about Meta Fined €798 Million by EU Over Classified Ads Dominance in Facebook[…]
U.K. consumer rights group ‘Which?’ is filing a legal claim against Apple under competition law on behalf of some 40 million users of iCloud, its cloud storage service. The collective proceeding lawsuit, which is seeking £3 billion in compensation damages (around $3.8 billion at current exchange rates), alleges that Apple has broken competition rules by Read more about Apple faces UK iCloud monopoly compensation claim worth $3.8B[…]
[…] “Right now we’re at a point as generation AI is coming along and it’s a really exciting time. We’re experimenting with ways to use new tools across the entire test process, from test planning to test execution, from test analysis to test reporting. With investments from the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office [CDAO] Read more about USAF Flight Test Boss on use of AI at Edwards[…]
A central theme of Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available) and this blog is that the copyright industry is never satisfied. Now matter how long the term of copyright, publishers and recording companies want more. No matter how harsh the punishments for infringement, the copyright intermediaries want them to be even more severe. Read more about Now the copyright industry wants to apply deep, automated blocking to the Internet’s core routers[…]
I get that a lot of people don’t like the big AI companies and how they scrape the web. But these copyright lawsuits being filed against them are absolute garbage. And you want that to be the case, because if it goes the other way, it will do real damage to the open web by Read more about Judge: Just Because AI Trains On Your Publication, Doesn’t Mean It Infringes On Your Copyright. Another case thrown out.[…]
The ionosphere is a layer of weakly ionized plasma bathed in Earth’s geomagnetic field extending about 50–1,500 kilometres above Earth1. The ionospheric total electron content varies in response to Earth’s space environment, interfering with Global Satellite Navigation System (GNSS) signals, resulting in one of the largest sources of error for position, navigation and timing services2. Networks Read more about Mapping the ionosphere with millions of phones[…]
In 2014, Ubisoft launched The Crew as an open-world, always-online racing game with a campaign and multiplayer mode. It was a fairly successful game for Ubisoft, spawning two sequels—The Crew 2 and Crew: Motorfest. But in December 2023, Ubisoft suddenly delisted the racing game from digital stores and, in April 2024, completely shut off its Read more about Ubisoft Facing Lawsuit Over Shutting Down Online Game[…]
Imagine a display as flexible as plastic wrap—so malleable you could stretch it over your face in a futuristic impression of expert Saran-wrapping serial killer Dexter. LG is supposing the future will be full of such flexible displays, and its latest rendition of the concept screen is capable of stretching up to 50% of its Read more about LG’s New Stretchable Screen Can Morph like a Piece of Laffy Taffy[…]
Pakistan’s Punjab province banned most outdoor activities and ordered shops, markets and malls in some areas to close early from Monday to curb illnesses caused by intense air pollution. The province has closed educational institutions and public spaces like parks and zoos until Nov. 17 in places including Lahore, the world’s most polluted city in Read more about Pakistan limits outdoor activities, market hours to curb air pollution-related illness – attacks symptom but not cause[…]
[…] small Spanish technology company, Myruns, and telecommunications operator Telefónica SA about the possible application of a system based on an anti-theft alarm product so thin it’s imperceptible to the naked eye […] The technology from Myruns, in San Sebastian, Spain, may be just one of the efforts to curb thefts that have been studied Read more about Retailers Eye Radio emitting ink on fibres to Stop Shoplifting[…]
[…] Flock is one of the largest vendors of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) in the country. The company markets itself as having the goal to fully “eliminate crime” with the use of ALPRs and other connected surveillance cameras, a target experts say is impossible. In Huntsville, Freeman noticed that license plate reader cameras were Read more about The Open Source Project DeFlock Is Mapping License Plate Surveillance Cameras All Over the World[…]
If you have Spotify’s soon-to-be-bricked Car Thing, there are a few ways you can give it a new lease on life. YouTuber Dammit Jeff has showcased modifications to Car Thing that makes the device useful as a desktop music controller, customizable shortcut tool, or a simple digital clock. Ars Technica’s Kevin Purdy reports: Spotify had Read more about Spotify’s Car Thing, Due For Bricking, Is Getting an Open Source Second Life[…]
Formula 1 drivers have urged the sport’s governing body to treat them like adults after Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc were punished for swearing. The Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) has also criticised FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem for his “tone and language” when addressing the topic. An open letter from the GPDA said: “There Read more about Formula 1 drivers ask FIA to treat them like adults after swearing punishments[…]
The world’s first wood-panelled satellite has been launched into space to test the suitability of timber as a renewable building material in future exploration of destinations like the Moon and Mars. Made by researchers in Japan, the tiny satellite weighing just 900g is heading for the International Space Station […]. It will then be released Read more about LignoSat: First wood-panelled satellite launched into space[…]
Corning’s Gorilla Glass is found in countless tech products, from smartphones and wearables to automobile windshields, and the European Commission has an inkling its success is due in part to the US-based business cutting anticompetitive deals. The EC announced a formal antitrust investigation into Corning yesterday, accusing the company of abusing its dominant position as Read more about Corning facing EU antitrust suit over Gorilla Glass seals[…]
[…] In 2022 at least 506m tonnes of plastics were produced worldwide, but only 9% gets recycled globally. The rest is burned, landfilled or dumped where it can leach into the environment. Microplastics are now everywhere, from the top of Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on earth. The new study of Read more about Plastic pollution is changing entire Earth system, scientists find[…]
Windows Insiders will soon get firsthand experience of Microsoft’s AI ambitions for Paint and Notepad: the image editor is getting Generative Fill and Erase and the text editor is getting a Rewrite function. We’d been hearing since January that Microsoft Notepad would get an AI makeover – and yesterday it was confirmed Microsoft will roll Read more about Things no one wants: Microsoft rolls out bloated AI-enabled Notepad[…]
In October, video game giant Activision said it had fixed a bug in its anti-cheat system that affected “a small number of legitimate player accounts,” who were getting banned because of the bug. In reality, according to the hacker who found the bug and was exploiting it, they were able to ban “thousands upon thousands” Read more about Hacker bans thousands of Call of Duty gamers through anti-cheat software, shows how dangerous this poorly written kernel acces junk is.[…]
Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) estimated last week that by tracking all vehicles with GPS it will be able to increase road capacity by 20,000 over the next few years. The densely populated island state is moving from what it calls Electric Road Pricing (ERP) 1.0 to ERP 2.0. The first version used gantries – Read more about Singapore to increase road capacity by GPS tracking all vehicles. Because location data is not sensitive and will never be hacked *cough*[…]
S Synology, a Taiwanese network-attached storage (NAS) appliance maker, patched two critical zero-days exploited during last week’s Pwn2Own hacking competition within days. Midnight Blue security researcher Rick de Jager found the critical zero-click vulnerabilities (tracked together as CVE-2024-10443 and dubbed RISK:STATION) in the company’s Synology Photos and BeePhotos for BeeStation software. As Synology explains in security Read more about Synology and QNAP hurry out patches for zero-days exploited at Pwn2Own[…]