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Belgium Bans Internet Archive's 'Open Library'
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-08-02 00:22:01


A Brussels court has issued an unusually broad site-blocking order targeting Internet Archive's Open Library alongside shadow libraries including Anna's Archive, Libgen, and Z-Library. The order, requested by publishing and author organizations, directs an unprecedented range of intermediaries to take action beyond traditional ISP blocks. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Google Backpedals On Goo.gl Shutdown To Preserve Active Links
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2025-08-01 23:22:01


BrianFagioli writes: Google is changing its mind about killing off all goo.gl short links. The company had originally planned to shut them down entirely by August 25, 2025. That decision sparked concern among developers, educators, journalists, and everyday users who rely on these links across the web. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Verizon is Upping Its Fees Again
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2025-08-01 22:22:01


Verizon has confirmed it will raise customer fees despite announcing a three-year price lock in April. The carrier said the "vast majority" of customers will see increases of "less than 30 cents." A Reddit thread cited by The Verge suggests the Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge will rise 28 cents to $3.78 per voice line, while data-only plan charges could increase $2.37 to $3.97 per line. The changes may take effect September 1.... [ Read it >> ]

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The Industry's Rush To $80 Video Games Has Stalled - For Now
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2025-08-01 22:22:01


Major video game publishers have abandoned plans to sell new releases at $80 after initially signaling support for the elevated price point earlier this year, according to Bloomberg. Microsoft reversed course in late July, announcing The Outer Worlds 2 and other holiday titles including Call of Duty will sell for $70 instead of the previously planned $80. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Microsoft Research Identifies 40 Jobs Most Vulnerable To AI
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2025-08-01 21:22:02


Microsoft researchers have identified 40 occupations [PDF] with the highest exposure to AI, ranking jobs by how closely their tasks align with AI's current capabilities. The study analyzed 200,000 real-world conversations from Copilot users and compared AI performance against occupational data. ... [ Read it >> ]

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UK Supreme Court Gives Banks Partial Win on Car Finance Commissions
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2025-08-01 20:22:01


Financial Times: The UK's highest court has partially overturned a landmark motor finance judgment that threatened to leave banks on the hook for tens of billions of pounds in compensation for allegedly deceiving consumers with hidden commissions on car loans.

The Supreme Court's decision has been keenly awaited by investors as well as millions of consumers who were poised to claim redress from the banks. The government has been considering legislation to limit the fallout. The controversy over car finance shot to prominence after a bombshell Court of Appeal judgment in October that awarded compensation to three people who claimed they were misled by banks concealing the payment of commissions to dealerships. The $58.3 billion car finance scandal centers on hidden commissions paid by lenders to car dealers who arranged loans without disclosing the payment amounts and terms to borrowers. Under discretionary commission arrangements, dealers received larger payments when they persuaded car buyers to accept higher interest rates on loans. The practice affected roughly 90% of new car purchases and many secondhand vehicles, potentially exposing millions of motorists to mis-selling.... [ Read it >> ]

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IRS Chief Says Agency Plans To End Free Filing Program
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2025-08-01 20:22:01


Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Bill Long said the agency will end its Direct File program after a limited pilot and one full filing season. From a report: President Donald Trump's massive spending and policy bill includes funding to research and "replace any direct e-file programs run by the Internal Revenue Service." ... [ Read it >> ]

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Microsoft Is Killing Windows 11 SE, Its Chrome OS Rival
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2025-08-01 19:22:01


Microsoft has discontinued Windows 11 SE, its education-focused operating system designed for low-cost school PCs. The company confirmed that Windows 11 SE will not receive the upcoming version 25H2 update and support will end in October 2026, including security updates and technical assistance. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Australia's Spy Boss Asks Defense Workers To Stop Oversharing on LinkedIn
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2025-08-01 19:22:01


Australia's spy chief has warned that defense workers are exposing themselves to foreign intelligence services through LinkedIn profiles that detail classified projects and security clearances. Director-General Mike Burgess said over 35,000 Australians on the platform indicate access to sensitive information, with 7,000 mentioning defense work and 400 listing involvement in the AUKUS nuclear submarine program. Foreign spies routinely scour professional networking sites posing as consultants and recruiters, Burgess said.... [ Read it >> ]

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Public ChatGPT Queries Are Getting Indexed By Google and Other Search Engines
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2025-08-01 19:22:01


An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: It's a strange glimpse into the human mind: If you filter search results on Google, Bing, and other search engines to only include URLs from the domain "https://chatgpt.com/share," you can find strangers' conversations with ChatGPT. Sometimes, these shared conversation links are pretty dull — people ask for help renovating their bathroom, understanding astrophysics, and finding recipe ideas. In another case, one user asks ChatGPT to rewrite their resume for a particular job application (judging by this person's LinkedIn, which was easy to find based on the details in the chat log, they did not get the job). Someone else is asking questions that sound like they came out of an incel forum. Another person asks the snarky, hostile AI assistant if they can microwave a metal fork (for the record: no), but they continue to ask the AI increasingly absurd and trollish questions, eventually leading it to create a guide called "How to Use a Microwave Without Summoning Satan: A Beginner's Guide."... [ Read it >> ]

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Reddit Wants To Be a Search Engine Now
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2025-08-01 14:22:01


Reddit wants to become a full-fledged search engine, leveraging its vast repository of human-generated content and expanding its AI-powered Reddit Answers tool. In its latest note (PDF) to investors, CEO Steve Huffman says the company is "concentrating our resources on the areas that will drive results for our most pressing needs," including "making Reddit a go-to search engine." The Verge reports: Huffman says that "every week, hundreds of millions of people come to Reddit looking for advice, and we're turning more of that intent into active users of Reddit's native search." Reddit's core search has more than 70 million weekly active unique users -- Reddit overall averages 416.4 million weekly active unique users -- and Reddit Answers, the platform's AI search tool that it launched in December, has 6 million weekly users, up from 1 million weekly users in the first quarter of this year. To continue to build out search, Reddit is "expanding Reddit Answers globally, integrating it more deeply into the core search experience, and making search a central feature across Reddit," Huffman says.... [ Read it >> ]

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Researchers Develop a Low-Cost Visual Microphone
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2025-08-01 11:22:01


alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: Researchers have created a microphone that listens with light instead of sound. Unlike traditional microphones, this visual microphone captures tiny vibrations on the surfaces of objects caused by sound waves and turns them into audible signals. In the journal Optics Express, the researchers describe the new approach, which applies single-pixel imaging to sound detection for the first time. Using an optical setup without any expensive components, they demonstrate that the technique can recover sound by using the vibrations on the surfaces of everyday objects such as leaves and pieces of paper. [...]... [ Read it >> ]

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US Lightning Flash Was Longest On Record At 515 Miles
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2025-08-01 08:22:01


An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A 515-mile (829km) lightning flash has set a new record as the longest ever identified. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed the new world record for the flash registered on October 22, 2017, over the Great Plains in the US. It stretched from east Texas to near Kansas City, Missouri, roughly the distance between Paris and Venice. The previous record of 768km was also recorded in the Great Plains, a hotspot for severe thunderstorms, on April 29, 2020.... [ Read it >> ]

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In Search of Riches, Hackers Plant 4G-Enabled Raspberry Pi In Bank Network
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2025-08-01 05:22:01


Hackers from the group UNC2891 attempted a high-tech bank heist by physically planting a 4G-enabled Raspberry Pi inside a bank's ATM network, using advanced malware hidden with a never-before-seen Linux bind mount technique to evade detection. "The trick allowed the malware to operate similarly to a rootkit, which uses advanced techniques to hide itself from the operating system it runs on," reports Ars Technica. Although the plot was uncovered before the hackers could hijack the ATM switching server, the tactic showcased a new level of sophistication in cyber-physical attacks on financial institutions. The security firm Group-IB, which detailed the attack in a report on Wednesday, didn't say where the compromised switching equipment was located or how attackers managed to plant the Raspberry Pi. Ars Technica reports: To maintain persistence, UNC2891 also compromised a mail server because it had constant Internet connectivity. The Raspberry Pi and the mail server backdoor would then communicate by using the bank's monitoring server as an intermediary. The monitoring server was chosen because it had access to almost every server within the data center. As Group-IB was initially investigating the bank's network, researchers noticed some unusual behaviors on the monitoring server, including an outbound beaconing signal every 10 minutes and repeated connection attempts to an unknown device. The researchers then used a forensic tool to analyze the communications. The tool identified the endpoints as a Raspberry Pi and the mail server but was unable to identify the process names responsible for the beaconing.... [ Read it >> ]

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Trump Launching a New Private Health Tracking System With Big Tech's Help
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2025-08-01 04:22:01


fjo3 shares a report from the Associated Press: The Trump administration announced it is launching a new program that will allow Americans to share personal health data and medical records across health systems and apps run by private tech companies, promising that will make it easier to access health records and monitor wellness. More than 60 companies, including major tech companies like Google, Amazon and Apple as well as health care giants like UnitedHealth Group and CVS Health, have agreed to share patient data in the system. The initiative will focus on diabetes and weight management, conversational artificial intelligence that helps patients, and digital tools such as QR codes and apps that register patients for check-ins or track medications.... [ Read it >> ]

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SEC Debuts 'Project Crypto' To Bring US Financial Markets 'On Chain'
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2025-08-01 04:22:01


The SEC has launched "Project Crypto" to overhaul outdated securities regulations for a blockchain-based future, aiming to support tokenized assets, crypto trading, and "super apps."

"To achieve President Trump's vision of making America the crypto capital of the world, the SEC must holistically consider the potential benefits and risks of moving our markets from an off-chain environment to an on-chain one," SEC chair Paul Atkins said at the "American Leadership in the Digital Finance Revolution" conference on Thursday. "I have directed the Commission staff to update antiquated agency rules and regulations to unleash the potential of on-chain software systems in our securities markets ... Federal securities laws have always assumed the involvement of intermediaries that require regulation, but this does not mean that we should interpose intermediaries for the sake of forcing intermediation where the markets can function without them." CNBC reports: Atkins, the SEC chair, highlighted "super apps" (such as one Coinbase introduced two weeks ago) as a priority of his chairmanship, noting the need to allow the apps to thrive with an "efficient licensing structure," rather than subject to multiple regulatory authorities.... [ Read it >> ]

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US Senators Introduce New Pirate Site Blocking Bill: Block BEARD
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-08-01 03:22:01


An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Efforts to introduce pirate site blocking to the United States continue with the introduction of the "Block BEARD" bill (PDF) in the Senate. The bipartisan proposal, backed by Senators Tillis, Coons, Blackburn, and Schiff, aims to create a new legal mechanism to combat foreign piracy websites. Block BEARD is similar to the previously introduced House bill "FADPA", but doesn't directly mention DNS resolvers. [...] The site-blocking proposal seeks to amend U.S. copyright law, enabling rightsholders to request federal courts to designate online locations as a "foreign digital piracy site". If that succeeds, courts can subsequently order U.S. service providers to block access to these sites.... [ Read it >> ]

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Brazil Deploys Millions of Lab-bred Mosquitoes To Combat Dengue Epidemic
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2025-08-01 02:22:02


Brazil has launched a massive program to release millions of laboratory-bred mosquitoes engineered to carry Wolbachia bacteria, which prevents them from transmitting dengue virus. The initiative aims to protect 140 million Brazilians across 40 municipalities over the next decade. ... [ Read it >> ]

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CISA Open-Sources Thorium Platform For Malware, Forensic Analysis
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2025-08-01 02:22:02


CISA has publicly released Thorium, a powerful open-source platform developed with Sandia National Labs that automates malware and forensic analysis at massive scale. According to BleepingComputer, the platform can "schedule over 1,700 jobs per second and ingest over 10 million files per hour per permission group." From the report: Security teams can use Thorium for automating and speeding up various file analysis workflows, including but not limited to: ... [ Read it >> ]

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Apple Reports Biggest Revenue Growth Since December 2021
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2025-08-01 01:22:02


Apple reported its strongest quarterly revenue growth since 2021, with iPhone sales jumping 13% and total revenue up 10%. CEO Tim Cook also announced increased AI investments and hinted at future acquisitions to accelerate Apple's AI roadmap. CNBC reports: "It was an exceptional quarter by any measure," Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC's Steve Kovach. Cook said that about 1% of the company's 10 percentage points of revenue growth could be attributed to customers buying more products to get ahead of potential tariffs. The company's most important business remains the iPhone, which saw 13% growth on an annual basis during the quarter to $44.58 billion in sales. Cook said that iPhone revenue was strong because the iPhone 16 is more popular compared to the iPhone 15 devices on sale last year at the same time. Cook said iPhone 16 sales were up "strong double digits" versus its predecessor. Cook specifically highlighted popularity among current iPhone users upgrading to a new one.... [ Read it >> ]

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Trump Suspends Trade Loophole For Cheap Online Retailers Globally
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2025-08-01 01:22:02


An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: E-commerce giants everywhere felt the sting Wednesday when President Donald Trump announced that the US will be "suspending duty-free de minimis treatment for low-value shipments" worth $800 or less from anywhere in the world. Americans will likely soon feel the crunch, with one recent study estimating that the cost of eliminating the trade loophole overall to US consumers could fall between $10.9 billion and $13 billion while "disproportionately" hurting "lower-income and minority consumers" who buy a higher percentage of cheap imports.... [ Read it >> ]

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Apple Is Selling iPad Repair Parts for Astronomical Prices
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-08-01 00:22:02


Apple began selling iPad repair parts to the public in late May following new right-to-repair legislation, but independent repair professionals say the pricing makes most repairs economically unviable. A charge port for an iPad Pro 11 costs $250 from Apple compared to less than $20 for aftermarket parts, Brian Clark of iGuys Tech Shop told 404 Media. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Google Loses Epic Games Appeal, Must Open App Store To Rivals
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-08-01 00:22:02


Google lost its appeal Thursday of a judge's order that will force the tech giant to open up its app store to competitors. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling requiring Google Play to allow rival marketplaces and billing systems, ending a legal battle that began when Epic Games sued over anticompetitive practices. ... [ Read it >> ]

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World's 'Oldest Baby' Born From Embryo Frozen in 1994
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 23:22:01


The world's "oldest baby" has been born in the US from an embryo that was frozen in 1994, it has been reported. The Guardian: Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was born on 26 July in Ohio to Lindsey and Tim Pierce, using an "adopted" embryo from Linda Archerd, 62, from more than 30 years ago. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Microsoft Ends Tradition of Naming Competitors in Regulatory Filings
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 22:22:01


Microsoft has abandoned a decades-long tradition of calling out the names of its rivals in regulatory documents. From a report: When the 50-year-old technology company released its annual report Wednesday, the 101-page document contained zero references to longtime foes Apple and IBM. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Internal Microsoft Documents Detail Pay Scales
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2025-07-31 22:22:01


Microsoft's internal pay guidelines show exactly how much the company will pay new engineering hires, according to documents obtained by Business Insider. The guidelines, updated in May, break down salary ranges, stock awards, and bonuses for every level from entry-level engineers to the company's most senior technical talent. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Sony Is Suing Tencent Over Shameless Horizon Knock-off Game
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 21:22:01


Sony has filed a lawsuit in California court against Tencent, alleging the Chinese company's upcoming game Light of Motiram constitutes a "slavish clone" of Sony's Horizon series.

The complaint details extensive similarities between the games, from post-apocalyptic robot dinosaur settings to red-haired female protagonists. Tencent had approached Sony for licensing deals in 2024, which Sony rejected twice.... [ Read it >> ]

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UK Competition Authority Rains on Microsoft and Amazon Cloud Parade
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 20:22:01


Britain's Competition and Markets Authority concluded that Microsoft and Amazon hold "significant unilateral market power" in cloud services and recommended investigating both companies under new competition rules. The regulator said it had concerns about practices creating customer "lock-in" effects through egress fees and unfavorable licensing terms that trap businesses in difficult-to-exit contracts. ... [ Read it >> ]

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China Claims Nvidia Built Backdoor Into H20 Chip Designed For Chinese Market
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 20:22:01


Beijing has summoned Nvidia over alleged security issues with its chips, in a blow to the US company's push to revive sales in the country after Washington granted approval for the export of a made-for-China chip. From a report: China's cyber regulator on Thursday said it had held a meeting with Nvidia over what it called "serious security issues" with the company's artificial intelligence chips. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Microsoft Joins $4 Trillion Club
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2025-07-31 19:22:01


Microsoft has reached a $4 trillion market cap, becoming only the second company to achieve this milestone. Investors drove the stock up 4.62% following the company's fourth-quarter earnings report, which showed strong growth in cloud-computing services fueled by artificial intelligence demand. Microsoft's Azure cloud business generated $75 billion in annual revenue, representing a 34% increase from the previous fiscal year. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Physicists Disagree Wildly on What Quantum Mechanics Says About Reality
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 18:22:02


A Nature survey of more than 1,100 physicists reveals fundamental disagreements about quantum mechanics' relationship to reality, despite the theory's century-long track record as one of science's most successful frameworks. The survey, conducted to mark quantum mechanics' 100th anniversary, found 36% of researchers favor the Copenhagen interpretation while 17% prefer epistemic approaches that treat quantum states as information rather than physical reality. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Stack Overflow Data Reveals the Hidden Productivity Tax of 'Almost Right' AI Code
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 18:22:02


Developers are growing increasingly frustrated with AI coding tools that produce deceptively flawed solutions, according to Stack Overflow's latest survey of over 49,000 programmers worldwide. The 2025 survey exposes a widening gap between AI adoption and satisfaction: while 84% of developers now use or plan to use AI tools, their trust has cratered. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Australia Widens Teen Social Media Ban To YouTube, Scraps Exemption
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 14:22:01


An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Australia said on Wednesday it will add YouTube to sites covered by its world-first ban on social media for teenagers, reversing an earlier decision to exempt the Alphabet-owned video-sharing site and potentially setting up a legal challenge. The decision came after the internet regulator urged the government last month to overturn the YouTube carve-out, citing a survey that found 37% of minors reported harmful content on the site, the worst showing for a social media platform.... [ Read it >> ]

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Peacock Feathers Can Be Lasers
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 11:22:01


sciencehabit shares a report from Science.org: Peacocks have a secret hidden in their brightly colored tail feathers: tiny reflective structures that can amplify light into a laser beam. After dyeing the feathers and energizing them with an external light source, researchers discovered they emitted narrow beams of yellow-green laser light. They say the study, published this month in Scientific Reports, offers the first example of a laser cavity in the animal kingdom. [...]... [ Read it >> ]

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Google Tool Misused To Scrub Tech CEO's Shady Past From Search
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 08:22:01


An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google is fond of saying its mission is to "organize the world's information," but who gets to decide what information is worthy of organization? A San Francisco tech CEO has spent the past several years attempting to remove unflattering information about himself from Google's search index, and the nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation says he's still at it. Most recently, an unknown bad actor used a bug in one of Google's search tools to scrub the offending articles.... [ Read it >> ]

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Voice Actors Push Back As AI Threatens Dubbing Industry
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2025-07-31 06:22:01


Voice actors and industry associations are sounding the alarm over the growing use of AI in dubbing, calling for increased regulations to protect quality, jobs and artists' back catalogues from being used to create future dubbed work. "We need legislation: Just as after the car, which replaced the horse-drawn carriage, we need a highway code," said Boris Rehlinger, a voice actor known as the French voice of Ben Affleck, Joaquin Phoenix, and Puss in Boots. "I feel threatened even though my voice hasn't been replaced by AI yet," he said. Reuters reports: In Germany, 12 well-known dubbing actors went viral on TikTok in March, garnering 8.7 million views, for their campaign saying "Let's protect artistic, not artificial, intelligence." A petition from the VDS voice actors' association calling on German and EU lawmakers to push AI companies to obtain explicit consent when training the technology on artists' voices and fairly compensate them, as well as transparently label AI-generated content, gained more than 75,500 signatures.... [ Read it >> ]

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Google's AlphaEarth AI Maps Any 10-Meter Area on Earth Using Satellite Data
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 05:22:01


Google today announced AlphaEarth Foundations, a new AI model that processes terabytes of daily satellite data to track environmental changes across the planet. The system, part of Google's broader Earth AI initiative, uses machine learning to compress satellite imagery into color-coded maps showing material properties, vegetation types, groundwater sources, and human constructions down to 10-meter resolution. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Boring Company To Build Tesla Tunnels Under Nashville
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 04:22:01


Elon Musk's Boring Company plans to build a 10-mile underground transportation loop in Nashville connecting the airport to downtown, with private funding and a projected launch as early as fall 2026. "If that happens, Nashville would become the second city where The Boring Company has opened such a system, with the first being Las Vegas," notes TechCrunch. "The company has spent the last few years in Sin City digging and opening tunnels around the Las Vegas Convention Center, and claims to have given 3 million rides in Teslas to date." From the report: The project will be privately funded by The Boring Company "and its private partners," according to the Governor's press release, though those partners are not named. The Boring Company and local officials will now begin a "public process to evaluate potential routes, engage community stakeholders, and finalize plans for the project's initial 10-mile phase." Construction won't begin until the project clears the approvals process. But the governor's office said the first segment of the loop could be operational as "early as fall of 2026."... [ Read it >> ]

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Scammers Unleash Flood of Slick Online Gaming Sites
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 04:22:01


Brian Krebs writes via KrebsOnSecurity: Fraudsters are flooding Discord and other social media platforms with ads for hundreds of polished online gaming and wagering websites that lure people with free credits and eventually abscond with any cryptocurrency funds deposited by players. Here's a closer look at the social engineering tactics and remarkable traits of this sprawling network of more than 1,200 scam sites. The scam begins with deceptive ads posted on social media that claim the wagering sites are working in partnership with popular social media personalities, such as Mr. Beast, who recently launched a gaming business called Beast Games. The ads invariably state that by using a supplied "promo code," interested players can claim a $2,500 credit on the advertised gaming website.... [ Read it >> ]

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'The Future is Not Self-Hosted'
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 03:22:01


A software developer who built his own home server in response to Amazon's removal of Kindle book downloads now argues that self-hosting "is NOT the future we should be fighting for." Drew Lyton constructed a home server running open-source alternatives to Google Drive, Google Photos, Audible, Kindle, and Netflix after Amazon announced that "Kindle users would no longer be able to download and back up their book libraries to their computers." ... [ Read it >> ]

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Amazon Invests In 'Netflix of AI' Start-Up Fable, Which Lets You Make Your Own TV Shows
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 02:22:02


An anonymous reader quotes a report from Variety: Edward Saatchi isn't totally sure people will flock to Showrunner, the new AI-generated TV show service his company is launching publicly this week. But he has a vote of confidence from Amazon, which has invested in Fable, Saatchi's San Francisco-based start-up. The amount of Amazon's funding in Fable isn't being disclosed. The money is going toward building out Showrunner, which Fable has hyped as the "Netflix of AI": a service that lets you type in a few words to create scenes -- or entire episodes -- of a TV show, either from scratch or based on an existing story-world someone else has created.... [ Read it >> ]

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First Australian-Made Rocket Crashes After 14 Seconds of Flight
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 02:22:02


Australia's first domestically built rocket to attempt orbital launch crashed just 14 seconds after liftoff, though the company still declared the mission a success for igniting all engines and leaving the launch pad. The Associated Press reports: The rocket Eris, launched by Gilmour Space Technologies, was the first Australian-designed and manufactured orbital launch vehicle to lift off from the country and was designed to carry small satellites to orbit. It launched Wednesday morning local time in a test flight from a spaceport near the small town of Bowen in the north of Queensland state. In videos published by Australian news outlets, the 23-meter (75-foot) rocket appeared to clear the launch tower and hovered in the air before falling out of sight. Plumes of smoke were seen rising above the site. No injuries were reported. The company hailed the launch as a success in a statement posted to Facebook. A spokesperson said all four hybrid-propelled engines ignited and the maiden flight included 23 seconds of engine burn time and 14 seconds of flight. "Of course I would have liked more flight time but happy with this," wrote CEO Adam Gilmour on LinkedIn. Gilmour said in February that it was "almost unheard of" for a private rocket company to successfully launch to orbit on its first attempt.... [ Read it >> ]

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US Intelligence Intervened With DOJ To Push HPE-Juniper Merger
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 01:22:01


Earlier this month, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise settled its antitrust case with the U.S. Justice Department, "paving the way for its acquisition of rival kit maker Juniper Networks" for $14 billion. According to Axios, the deal was heavily influenced by national security concerns and a desire to bolster American competition against China's Huawei. The outlet reports that the U.S. intelligence community "intervened to persuade the Justice Department that allowing the merger to proceed was essential to helping U.S. business compete with China's Huawei Technologies, among other national-security issues." From the report: "In light of significant national security concerns, a settlement ... serves the interests of the United States by strengthening domestic capabilities and is critical to countering Huawei and China." The official said blocking the deal would have "hindered American companies and empowered" Chinese competitors. A Justice Department spokesman added that DOJ "works very closely with our partners in the IC [intelligence community] and always considers their views when deciding how best to proceed with a case."... [ Read it >> ]

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Google Confirms It Will Sign the EU AI Code of Practice
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2025-07-31 00:22:02


An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In a rare move, Google has confirmed it will sign the European Union's AI Code of Practice, a framework it initially opposed for being too harsh. However, Google isn't totally on board with Europe's efforts to rein in the AI explosion. The company's head of global affairs, Kent Walker, noted that the code could stifle innovation if it's not applied carefully, and that's something Google hopes to prevent. While Google was initially opposed to the Code of Practice, Walker says the input it has provided to the European Commission has been well-received, and the result is a legal framework it believes can provide Europe with access to "secure, first-rate AI tools." The company claims that the expansion of such tools on the continent could boost the economy by 8 percent (about 1.8 trillion euros) annually by 2034.... [ Read it >> ]

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Nothing's Phone 3 Is Stymied By Contentious Design and Price
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-31 00:22:02


Smartphone maker Nothing's $799 Phone 3 has been "mired in controversy among the same customers who rallied behind the company's past products" since its July launch, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Tech enthusiasts have "lambasted the company for the phone's peculiar industrial design and what they perceive to be an unreasonable price." ... [ Read it >> ]

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India Launches NASA-ISRO Satellite To Track Climate Threats From Space
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-30 23:22:01


India launched the $1.5 billion NISAR radar imaging satellite on Wednesday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, marking the first joint mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation. The satellite uses dual radar frequencies -- NASA's L-band and ISRO's S-band -- to detect Earth surface changes as small as one centimeter from its 747-kilometer orbit. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Dropbox Pulls the Plug on Password Manager
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-30 22:22:02


Dropbox will shut down its password manager service by October 28, giving users until then to extract their data before permanent deletion. The discontinuation occurs in phases: Dropbox Passwords becomes view-only on August 28, the mobile app stops working September 11, and complete shutdown follows October 28. The company cited focusing on core product features as the reason for dropping the service, which launched in 2020 for paid users and expanded to all users in 2021.... [ Read it >> ]

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Google is Using AI Age Checks To Lock Down User Accounts
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-30 22:22:02


Google will soon cast an even wider net with its AI age estimation technology. From a report: After announcing plans to find and restrict underage users on YouTube, the company now says it will start detecting whether Google users based in the US are under 18.

Age estimation is rolling out over the next few weeks and will only impact a "small set" of users to start, though Google plans on expanding it more widely. The company says it will use the information a user has searched for or the types of YouTube videos they watch to determine their age. Google first announced this initiative in February. If Google believes that a user is under 18, it will apply the same restrictions it places on users who proactively identify as underage.... [ Read it >> ]

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Tech CEO's Negative Coverage Vanished from Google via Security Flaw
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-30 21:22:01


Journalist Jack Poulson accidentally discovered that Google had completely removed two of his articles from search results after someone exploited a vulnerability in the company's Refresh Outdated Content tool.

The security flaw allowed malicious actors to de-list specific web pages by submitting URLs with altered capitalization to Google's recrawling system. When Google attempted to index these modified URLs, the system received 404 errors and subsequently removed all variations of the page from search results, including the original legitimate articles. ... [ Read it >> ]

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AI Code Generators Are Writing Vulnerable Software Nearly Half the Time, Analysis Finds
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-07-30 20:22:01


BrianFagioli writes: AI might be the future of software development, but a new report suggests we're not quite ready to take our hands off the wheel. Veracode has released its 2025 GenAI Code Security Report, and the findings are pretty alarming. Out of 80 carefully designed coding tasks completed by over 100 large language models, nearly 45 percent of the AI-generated code contained security flaws. ... [ Read it >> ]

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