Speaking of Australia, its government has introduced content quotas on global streamers. From a report: The rules require Netflix, Prime Video and the other global streamers with more than one million Australian subscribers to spend 10% of their total Australian expenditure -- or 7.5% of their revenues -- on local originals, whether they are dramas, children's shows, docs, or arts and educational programs.

Following the announcement, the legislation will be introduced into the Australian parliament. Australia's Labor government has long planned to being in the quotas as part of its Revive cultural policy, but months and months of delays had left the local industry wondering how committed their political leaders were to the plan. Global streamers have broadly rejected the necessity of quotas, claiming their local investment in content and jobs offsets them.

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Apple is preparing to enter the low-cost laptop market for the first time, developing a budget Mac aimed at luring away customers from Chromebooks and entry-level Windows PCs. Bloomberg News: The new device -- designed for students, businesses and casual users -- will target people who primarily browse the web, work on documents or conduct light media editing, according to people familiar with the matter.

[...] Apple plans to sell the new machine for well under $1,000 by using less-advanced components. The laptop will rely on an iPhone processor and a lower-end LCD display. The screen will also be the smallest of any current Mac, coming in at slightly below the 13.6-inch one used in the MacBook Air. This would mark the first time that Apple has used an iPhone processor in a Mac, rather than a chip designed specifically for a computer. But internal tests have shown that the smartphone chip can perform better than the Mac-optimized M1 used in laptops as recently as a few years ago.

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Amazon has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity AI demanding that the AI search startup stop allowing its AI browser agent, Comet, to make purchases online for users. From a report: The e-commerce giant is accusing Perplexity of committing computer fraud by failing to disclose when its AI agent is shopping on a user's behalf, in violation of Amazon's terms of service, according to people familiar with the letter sent on Friday. The document also said Perplexity's tool degraded the Amazon shopping experience and introduced privacy vulnerabilities, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

In response, Perplexity said Amazon is bullying a smaller competitor with a rival AI agent shopping product. The clash between Amazon and Perplexity offers an early glimpse into a looming debate over how to handle the proliferation of so-called AI agents that field more complex tasks online for users, including shopping. Like OpenAI and Alphabet's Google, Perplexity has pushed to rethink the traditional web browser around AI, with the goal of having it streamline more actions for users, such as drafting emails and conducting research.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/04/1839231/amazon-accuses-perplexity-of-computer-fraud-demands-it-stop-ai-agent-from-buying-on-its-site?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Three employees at cybersecurity companies spent years moonlighting as criminal hackers, launching their own ransomware attacks in a plot to extort millions of dollars from victims around the country, US prosecutors alleged in court filings. From a report: Ryan Clifford Goldberg, a former incident response supervisor at Sygnia Consulting, and Kevin Tyler Martin, who was a ransomware negotiator for DigitalMint, were charged with working together to hack five businesses starting in May 2023. In one instance, they, along with a third person, received a ransom payment of nearly $1.3 million worth of cryptocurrency from a medical device company based in Tampa, Florida, according to prosecutors.

The trio worked in a part of the cybersecurity industry that has sprung up to help companies negotiate with hackers to unfreeze their computer networks -- sometimes by paying ransom. They are also accused of sharing their illicit profits with the developers of the type of ransomware they allegedly used on their victims. DigitalMint informed some customers about the charges last week, according to a document seen by Bloomberg News.

The other person who was allegedly involved in the scheme was also a ransomware negotiator at the same firm as Martin but wasn't charged, according to court records. The person wasn't identified in court records, nor were the companies that were the defendants' former employers. Sygnia confirmed Goldberg had worked there. Martin last year gave a talk at a law school, which listed him as an employee of DigitalMint.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/11/04/1911217/ex-cybersecurity-staff-charged-with-moonlighting-as-hackers?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

IBM will cut thousands of roles this quarter while it continues to shift focus to higher-growth software and services, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday. From a report: "We routinely review our workforce through this lens and at times rebalance accordingly," Bloomberg quoted a company spokesperson saying. "In the fourth quarter we are executing an action that will impact a low single-digit percentage of our global workforce."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/04/1932232/ibm-to-cut-thousands-of-roles-in-focus-on-software-growth?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Ferrari is tapping into crypto markets and tech-rich youngsters with a planned new digital token that its wealthiest fans will be able to use in an auction for a Ferrari 499P, the endurance car that won three straight Le Mans titles. From a report: The plan for now is limited in scope and is an effort by the Italian sports car maker to tap into a trend among luxury brands seeking access to the growing wealth of younger tech entrepreneurs, as AI and data centres drive investment and markets around the world.

It comes after Ferrari, which is also developing its first electric car, began accepting Bitcoin, ethereum and USDC for car purchases in the United States in 2023 and extended the service to Europe last year. Ferrari is working with Italian fintech Conio to launch the 'Token Ferrari 499P' for members of its Hyperclub -- which groups 100 of its most exclusive clients, with a passion for endurance races -- to trade amongst themselves and bid on the racing model.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/04/1935209/ferrari-aims-at-ai-generation-with-crypto-auction-for-le-mans-car?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft officially ended mainstream support for Windows 10 last month, nudging users to upgrade to Windows 11. While that led to almost an overnight technological revolution in Japan, elsewhere, it has caused a lot of confusion. Certain versions of Windows 10, like Enterprise LTSC -- and those enrolled in the ESU program -- are still scheduled to receive security updates through at least 2027, but they're starting to see out-of-support messages in Settings.

Various users over the past few days reported that they're being subjected to end-of-life warnings in Windows, despite already qualifying for extended security updates through the ESU program. Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 and âIoT Enterprise are business-oriented editions of the OS, so they're already supported up to 2032, but even they saw these incorrect messages. This widespread bug started to occur after the KB5066791 updates were pushed on October 14, 2025.

Microsoft has already acknowledged this mishap and said, "The message, 'Your version of Windows has reached the end of support, might incorrectly display in the Windows Update Settings page," confirming it as a mistake. The company has already released a cloud config fix that should remove the message, but you need to be connected to the internet for that, and a restart is also required.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/04/1942258/windows-10-update-incorrectly-tells-some-users-theyve-reached-end-of-life-despite-having-extended-support?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Today, Samsung provided details about the next version of the HDR10 format, which introduces six new features. Among HDR10+ Advanced's most interesting features is HDR10+ Intelligent FRC (frame rate conversion), which is supposed to improve motion smoothing.

A TV using motion smoothing analyzes each video frame and tries to determine what additional frames would look like if the video were playing at a frame rate that matched the TV's refresh rate. The TV then inserts those frames into the video. A 60Hz TV with motion smoothing on, for example, would attempt to remove judder from a 24p film by inserting frames so that the video plays as if it were shot at 60p. For some, this appears normal and can make motion, especially camera panning or zooming, look smoother. However, others will report movies and shows that look more like soap operas, or as if they were shot on higher-speed video cameras instead of film cameras. Critics, including some big names in Hollywood, argue that motion smoothing looks unnatural and deviates from the creator's intended vision.

Intelligent FRC takes a more nuanced approach to motion smoothing by letting content creators dictate the level of motion smoothing used in each scene, Forbes reported. The feature is also designed to adjust the strength of motion interpolation based on ambient lighting.

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Google's new "Project Suncatcher" aims to launch Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) into space, creating a solar-powered, satellite-based AI network
capable of scaling machine learning beyond Earth's limits. Google says a "solar panel can be up to 8 times more productive than on earth" for near-continuous power using a "dawn-dusk sun-synchronous low earth orbit" that reduces the need for batteries and other power generation. 9to5Google reports: These satellites would connect via free-space optical links, with large-scale ML workloads "distributing tasks across numerous accelerators with high-bandwidth, low-latency connections." To match data centers on Earth, the connection between satellites would have to be tens of terabits per second, and they'd have to fly in "very close formation (kilometers or less)."

Google has already conducted radiation testing on TPUs (Trillium, v6e), with "promising" results: "While the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) subsystems were the most sensitive component, they only began showing irregularities after a cumulative dose of 2 krad(Si) -- nearly three times the expected (shielded) five year mission dose of 750 rad(Si). No hard failures were attributable to TID up to the maximum tested dose of 15 krad(Si) on a single chip, indicating that Trillium TPUs are surprisingly radiation-hard for space applications."

Finally, Google believes that launch costs will "fall to less than $200/kg by the mid-2030s." At that point, the "cost of launching and operating a space-based data center could become roughly comparable to the reported energy costs of an equivalent terrestrial data center on a per-kilowatt/year basis."

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Apple will officially discontinue support for its original Home architecture (formerly HomeKit) on February 10, 2026. As MacRumors points out, Apple has informed users that they need to "update now to avoid interruptions." AppleInsider reports: The underlying HomeKit architecture was revamped in March 2023 alongside iOS 16.4, so Apple has been supporting both the new and old architecture for the last two years. There were initial problems with stability that may have discouraged some users from upgrading, but those problems have now been addressed.

When Apple stops supporting the original HomeKit architecture, it will break support for the Home app on devices running older versions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, macOS 13.1, tvOS 16.2, and watchOS 9.2 are the minimum versions of Apple's platforms that work with the updated Apple Home app, and older devices will lose access.

The update includes support for features like guest access, support for robot vacuum cleaners, and Activity History. Apple says it also provides faster, more reliable performance, especially for smart homes with a lot of HomeKit and Matter accessories installed.

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Longtime Slashdot reader dbialac shares a report from EL PAIS: For decades, the progress of electronics has followed a simple rule: smaller is better. Since the 1960s, each new generation of chips has packed more transistors into less space, fulfilling the famous Moore's Law. Formulated by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965, this law predicted that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit approximately doubles each year. But this race to the minuscule is reaching its physical limits. Now, an international team of scientists is proposing a solution as obvious as it is revolutionary: if we can't keep reducing the size of chips, let's build them up.

Xiaohang Li, a researcher at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, and his team have designed a chip with 41 vertical layers of semiconductors and insulating materials, approximately ten times higher than any previously manufactured chip. The work, recently published in the journal Nature Electronics, not only represents a technical milestone but also opens the door to a new generation of flexible, efficient, and sustainable electronic devices. "Having six or more layers of transistors stacked vertically allows us to increase circuit density without making the devices smaller laterally," Li explains. "With six layers, we can integrate 600% more logic functions in the same area than with a single layer, achieving higher performance and lower power consumption."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/04/235241/the-worlds-tallest-chip-defies-the-limits-of-computing-goodbye-to-moores-law?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A massive cyberattack on Swedish IT supplier Miljodata exposed personal data from up to 1.5 million citizens, prompting a national privacy investigation and scrutiny into security failures across multiple municipalities. BleepingComputer reports: MiljÃdata is an IT systems supplier for roughly 80% of Sweden's municipalities. The company disclosed the incident on August 25, saying that the attackers stole data and demanded 1.5 Bitcoin to not leak it. The attack caused operational disruptions that affected citizens in multiple regions in the country, including Halland, Gotland, Skelleftea, Kalmar, Karlstad, and Monsteras.

Because of the large impact, the state monitored the situation from the time of disclosure, with CERT-SE and the police starting to investigate immediately. According to IMY, the attacker exposed on the dark web data that corresponds to 1.5 million people in the country, creating the basis for investigating potential General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) violations. [...] Although no ransomware groups had claimed the attack when Miljodata disclosed the incident, BleepingComputer found that the threat group Datacarry posted the stolen data on its dark web portal on September 13. The leaked database has been added to Have I Been Pwned, which contains information such as names, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, government IDs, and dates of birth.

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